#it's been a while since I've done a lot of completed drawings in a short amount of time

[krys-loves-otome]

Different Universe, Same Love: Final Day

Free Day (Creator's Choice)

For Vincent and Abby's day, since it was a free space day, I looked around for ideas since nothing was specifically coming to mind. AU generator suggested a 'Worst Ending AU' and I just NOPE'd the hell out of that. Another suggestion was 'Homeless AU' (this generator might have some issues it needs to resolve) and, while I technically didn't go with that idea, it did remind me of a fic I wrote for Fictober 2021, (I've Waited for This) about Theo finding Vincent and Abby again in the future. Towards the middle, I gave a little bit of Abby telling Theo about their lives up until that point in the fic.

With the mention of Homeless AU, it reminded me about Abby mentioned how hard it was for her and Vincent living on their own, before they started living with her auntie. So, I decided to depict a scene from that time before the fic takes place, where Abby is frustrated and upset about everything while Vincent tries to calm her down.

I think this one is my favorite of drawings I did this week, with everything being super soft, a semi-complicated background (Vincent's motif being sunflowers? Stick sunflowers EVERYWHERE!!), the unintentional story-telling with the grayer outside the window while inside is warm and colorful, the emotions on Vincent and Abby's faces, I'm just super proud of this one.

Unsure of what to call this AU tho, because it's just a mix of a whole lot of things. After Happily Ever After? Extended Universe (since it is taking an implied scene from my own fic)? Domestic/Family AU again? Real Life Sucks™ But We Got Each Other So Things Aren't So Bad AU? The Before Times?

Whatever we want to call it, I'm glad that I could participate in this event as much as I did. Thanks again to @xxsycamore and @queengiuliettafirstlady for hosting this event and I'm glad that I got to see so many fun and wonderful entries.

This one is the last entry for me, but I hope that I'll participate in more events more often. Thanks for stopping by everyone! Hope you had fun on this artistic journey with me.

[cottoncandytomu]

Y’all can fight me on this but Modern!Ellie isn’t a player, she’s the gamer nerd who plays D&D, trolls online and is definitely a perv. 

18+ Content Below! MINORS AND AGELESS BLOGS DO NOT INTERACT!! (Age in bio or pinned pls!!)

Tomu Notes~

NEW NERDY! PERVY! ELLIE X F!READER!!

Thought I'd do a little gremlin perv Ellie headcannon. !!Definitely some perv themes (ofc) mentions of sex and masturbation. Slight cursing, very minor references to depression/sadness!!

I'm close to (just about hehe) 50 followers y'all so THANK YOU OMFKDKJ. I've been enjoying writing for these two divine women and I'm thankful that you beauties are taking the time to read what I write. It means a lot hehe~ okay I'm done with the sappy shit, enjoy~

She absolutely has zero play when it comes to you. Always turning into a stuttering mess, then goes on to rant about her mistakes in her journal she keeps. Which is ALL about you, of course. 

You got yourself a fan, Ellie gives faaaaan behavior~ she stalks your socials and even follows you to class or around town. 

She grew up being your neighbor so she had unlimited access to seeing into your room across from hers, which is one of her favorite past times. Her hands would maybe kind of most certainly slip past her shorts while she watched you get undressed. Could you blame her though? You’re so irresistible. 

She basically creamed herself when you gave her a kiss on the cheek, as a thank you for helping you out on one of your assignments. 

Dina and Jesse made fun of her for weeks for it. 

She couldn’t help it, she’s had a crush on you ever since you were both little. The two of you were best playmates until you grew up and drifted apart. Belonging to very different social circles. You being the pretty popular socialite and her being the nerdy unseen introvert. 

You both grew apart, but you never treated her differently. Something Ellie was extremely grateful for, your friends would make fun of you for it. You didn’t care though, you two grew up together and you weren’t gonna let something as silly as a social status ruin that. 

It’s just unfortunate that when college rolled around you had to get with the most arrogant son of a bitch to ever walk the face of the earth (As Ellie tells her friends). 

Abby Anderson 

Ellie never liked Abby, never thought she was good enough for you. Yeah she may be captain of the hockey team, insanely attractive with a beautifully sculpted body and is extremely talented at just about anything she did but she was a piece of shit. 

Ellie had to endure the torture of Abby for years now. Abby knew how Ellie felt about you, Ellie thought she was good at hiding it, apparently not. 

Abby took a wicked enjoyment in making sure to shove your relationship down Ellie’s throat. Upping the PDA when she was around or showing up to your house where she’d make sure you’re obnoxiously loud in your bedroom, the window being wide open of course. Ellie never liked Abby and Abby never liked Ellie, finding her to be weird and gross. It definitely had nothing to do with their fathers being rivals.

But as much as Abby tortured Ellie it didn’t stop her from finding any means to be around you, watch you or think about you late at night. 

You never knew Ellie’s true feelings for you, seeing her as your childhood best friend was the farthest your relationship would ever come to be. 

It pained Ellie that that was all she was destined to be. 

She would be forever obsessed with the thought of you, dangling on a string and you’d be living your best life. Completely oblivious of what’s going on behind the scenes. 

So Ellie will just continue to click through your socials, saving each photo to her computer. Journal and draw you in her private time, keep an eye on you from afar. Watch as you enjoyed your life while she was stuck in her sorrow and daydreams of you. Stuffing her hand down her pants at the thought of you, alone and frustrated that you’re not there with her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hope you enjoyed it!! Don't think I'm gonna write any fics based off of this,, unless y'all want more!

Thank you for reading and as always I welcome any feedback!! Have a beautiful day/night loves!!

=^.^=~

[cat--comic]

blog 1. happy birthday

welcome to the new cat comic blog! if you're reading this on tumblr, hello! if you're reading this on neocities, i love you more. page looks pretty snazzy, right? check out the very pretty melankorin.net, this page looked a lot more plain before i ate that page's design aesthetic.

ok.

it just so happens that yesterday, the 13th of april, 2024, was cat comic's first birthday. this comic is officially one year old! goo goo ga ga! it makes me glad and more than little scared that i've been working on this for so long. it's my longest-lived project to date and still going strong, which means a lot coming from my bloody trail of abandoned projects.

what the hell is cat comic about?

cat comic is a story born out of a lot of my fears vis-a-vis my creative projects. it's a story about creation, whether that deals with art, identity, or culture, and about the history that doggedly stamps itself on any creation, and about the problems of indie projects. it's a story about a cat and a dog and some other various animals who get into lots of trouble, and it's mainly a story about the end of the world.

i think you can tell that there's a lot of throughlines to my other work (unfinished or otherwise), which is pretty thematically appropriate. actually, cat comic was originally reusing far too much of eyrie, an old comic idea of mine. eyrie followed an aspiring paladin and their little buddy as they made their way to the shining capital of a theocratic nation, delving into a mirror world that reflected public perception of things along the way. it was a pretty fun concept.

anyway, it informed a lot of cat comic's original premise—it began with an ascent from belowcloud to a shining city in the sky. huh... sounds familiar. like eyrie, it also dealt a lot with divinity, mirrors, and perfection (as in: perfection in the eyes of society, not cat comic's current sense of it). it's fun looking back at these early drafts of cat comic because you can clearly see all the influences i was pulling on, big or small. i was pretty fine with doing this because, as it pains me to remember, cat comic was to be a "fun" and "short" project where i could "do whatever". haha.

cat comic's changed a lot since then and it's also hardly changed at all. a lot of the original ideas are still there in the batter, but it's also evolved into something pretty different and much closer to my heart. and it will continue to change and evolve! although perhaps not quite so drastically as it has over the last year.

what's the plan with this thing?

i had a conversation with a friend a while ago (hiii ardenna i know you're reading this. love you) about our respective story projects and our problems working on them as single creators. i don't have a team for art or writing—it's all me, babey—and that means everything about this project is going to take what we in the industry call a "long time".

this time next year, i want to have a comprehensive plot. that might sound like a lot of time for not a lot of work but believe me i need it—i'm doing a bit of a unique format for this story and i want to put the time in to make sure i stick the landing with it. my secondary goals for the next year also include finalizing designs for all of the main cast and making sure they're all fleshed out... basically, by next year, i want to be able to start actually drawing the comic. i don't want to start drawing it then but, just, you know, be able to.

as of last week, i've handed in my senior project (and passed with flying colors, thank you), which means i can start turning my attention to things other than that. i've already talked a bit in my 2024 blog post about my plans for the year and how i would like to devote the rest of the spring to exercising my comic muscles. i would like to stick to this plan, despite the fact that school is trying to murder me.

right now, i only have vague ideas of what those exercises will be. once i'm completely done with my senior project (report handed in at the end of this month) i'll start workshopping them. again, my priority with them is not telling a story so much as working on coloring, panelling and figuring out my workflow.

and, apart from my year-long goals and season-long goals, i just want to flesh out these pages a little more. i kind of rushed getting these up because i wanted to hit the birthday (and i didn't even manage that LOL). i want to get some more of my brain bits out on canvas! but they never tell you how hard it is to figure out how much you want to share and how much you want to keep to yourself for now. i'm making little lists and i think i'm doing a pretty good job.

final notes (SAPPY WARNING!!!)

thanks to my friends (hi again) who are very excited about my comic. it means an immeasurable amount. friendship forever

and to everyone else... remember: birds can't fly with wet wings. goodbye for now!

[polarisbibliotheque]

So like, less of a suggestion and more of a question - I recently found your works and have just been blown away by the details (like, seriously, you're on the top of my favorite writers list) and just how... perfect you craft everything? I genuinely inspire to be like you, but the problem is that I've hit a rut - I'm super unsatisfied with my writing, and whenever I try to get back into the writing zone, I just fall flat. Is there any advice you could give on how to improve one's writing? What would be your tips and tricks at getting into that writing zone?

(Do apologize me taking SO LONG to answer, but I had some health emergencies the last couple of weeks and ended up in the hospital – I’m doing better now, chilling at home and trying to recover. My doctor is 90% sure I have Crohn’s Disease and I’m having many ups and downs trying to find a proper treatment that I seem to respond to. BUT…)

…I hope you are aware of how much you made me smile, blush and almost indulge into my teary eyes upon reading this. Hahahaha seriously, thank you SO much!! I can’t even thank you enough, I’m just in pure awe that another being in this big ol’ world we live in thinks so highly of my writing!!

I mean, not even I think that highly of my writing. Notice a pattern? ;)

One thing I learned being an artist – not only writing, I also draw, play the piano, write music on my free time/when inspiration hits, everything creative, I’m there, doing it – is that we’re never really satisfied with our work. We will always think we could’ve done something better, and we’re definitely going to be pretty “meh” about a lot of things we do – even when other people think it’s a masterpiece.

And that is good! We’ll always strive to perfect our skills! You just have to remember to appreciate the work you do even when you’re not completely satisfied with it. You will get to where you want to – but then, you’ll wish to improve even more! And that is awesome!

But hey, I do have some tips and tricks on improving and getting into that writing vibe!

For the people getting to the party now, my main tip on improving is here, in the first part of the answer for this ask! Now, now…

(long post below, as expected YEE BEEN WARNED!)

Regarding improving:

Read. A. Lot. Hahaha I know that’s quite an obvious one, but it’s really important. Personally, I think reading mindlessly just to fill a quota of “I read 25 books a month” doesn’t work. It works when you absorb it – when you allow yourself to plunge into the world of the book you’re reading, feeling the characters, the emotions, the settings… That helps you build your “mental library” so to speak! And sometimes you’ll find things and expressions you like that you might use both on your daily speech and while writing – for instance, I have this awful thing of saying “there’s a lack of wings to my words” whenever I’m speechless, because of Homer’s Odyssey. I freaking LOVE that book, I loved that expression, I use it all the time, and it has definitely bled into my writing.

WRITE! A LOT! Write bad stuff, good stuff, short 2 pages thing-ys that you go “hey that’s a good idea!” but you’ll never actually turn into a full story, random scenes, fanfiction, stupid fanfiction, serious fanfiction, self-indulgent stories, stories for your family, stories for yourself, stories for whoever wants to read or not, dreams that could be great stories… The point is to write. It’s much like drawing or playing the piano: if you don’t practice, you won’t get better and you won’t develop your style. The more you practice, the better you get! So don’t be afraid to write bad stuff, cringy stuff, or ridiculous stuff – or even stuff you thought would be awesome and turns out bad, or stuff you think will never turn into anything that turn amazing! One way or another, you’ll be refining your craft!

Identify what you like on writers you admire. I started noticing that while reading The Silmarillion. The Lord of the Rings is my favorite book since I read it for the first time when I was 15, but I didn’t pick up The Silmarillion until I was around 22 – and by then, I started underlining with a light pencil all the phrases I liked most, something my mom did on her old books when she was around my age. I then started taking a look at what I liked about Tolkien’s writing so much – and in other books too: what kind of phrases seemed to resonate more with my soul. Which ones brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face. And then I notice I tend more to the unconventional ways of describing things.

For instance, instead of going like “she was beautiful, with pale skin under raven dark hair, blue eyes shining on her fair face” I tend to go for the unconventional, sort of eerie, not so much taken for granted kind of describing “her beauty glowed like the first pale star to glisten in the evening sky, under a deep sea of dark, velvety hair, making her eyes twinkle like sapphires with a smart look while carrying the light she kept in her soul”. If I had to, the second one would be how I’d describe Arwen or Lúthien, giving them that ethereal otherworldly beauty they have. It's also the one that evokes more feelings inside of me rather than just a mental image.

That’s why I try to describe some things in a different light. When I’m writing, I want people to feel something – but how can you describe that feeling of joy when you hug someone you love and the whole world fades for a minute? That’s when I go for the “his heart bled with gold while his hands never wanted to let them go. For a minute, time seemed to stop and there was nothing else but his heartbeat intertwining with theirs, beating as the same song – even if theirs was more melodic while his was more melancholic. It was that kind of tune that made his lungs not remember how to breathe and his eyes pour – while his lips reflected all the gold that cascaded from his heart.” It’s a quick (rather ridiculous) example, but I do think about some things: how when I feel like that, I tend to have a hard time breathing and I do cry, but it’s because I want to smile so much I cannot contain it. Then I try to describe those feelings with metaphors and poetic stuff because I’m a melodramatic bitch.

Jokes aside, it’s because I like that sort of writing that has that beauty behind it – or more of a melancholic approach. It’s what resonates the most with me and I adopted it, even if sometimes it feels too… Abstract. I like that ability of people piecing the abstractness together and having their own interpretation – and that’s what makes people have different feelings while reading the same thing.

Is this for everyone? Absolutely not. I bet some people despise all that poeticness I like to put on words to lace them like a painting, you know? So, the more you re-read the things you like, you’ll start identifying what resonates with you and you can apply that to your own writing!

And that doesn’t mean you’ll have to be locked on that writing style as well. I’m currently trying to finish a book (I hope someday I can publish it) which is a cyberpunk style story, with lots of inspiration from Cyberpunk 2077, Blade Runner, John Wick (yes, Keanu Reeves sends his regards) and all that poetic writing doesn’t quite fit there. I’m using more of a direct approach, but there’s a lot of existentialism and reflecting on overcoming grief, trauma, owning your own life and contemplating one’s own mortality – and that’s where that poetic, metaphoric, melancholic, bittersweet characteristic of my writing style comes into play. And then everyone starts cursing and shooting each other again :)

Having a style doesn’t mean getting stuck in it – it means knowing when and where to use it!

Now regarding getting into the writing zone:

I freaking ADORE music and it helps me A TON while I’m writing. It’s like setting the mood. I’m trying to be sexy, or mysterious, or having that vampire-y vibe? Depeche Mode playlist it is. Fight scenes? Metal and Electronic. I need to freaking focus and get to work without thinking too much about the music (or start dancing like crazy whenever a song I love comes in and there I am, dancing and singing in my room at 3 a.m)? Piano playlists – classic, modern, everything and anything, as long as it is piano.

Playing music that goes with what I’m writing also helps. For my cyberpunk book, for instance, I put on the Cyberpunk 2077 OST playlist/radio on, or I search for “Cyberpunk Ambience/Playlist” on Youtube and let it roll while I write. For my King Arthur stories (yes, still working on them), I put on Celtic music compilations, Enya, Loreena McKennitt or the piano playlists. For my vampire stories, be the medieval or the near-future one, dark piano, Dark Wave, etc. Perhaps searching for that one playlist that has to do with your story setting and listening to it for some time might get you in the zone!

I also usually write deep in the night. Because I’m a spawn of Dracula. After everyone at home has gone to sleep, I make myself some hot tea, sit on my computer, start listening to music and write. That’s because I know I won’t be interrupted, and I can do just that. Sometimes, I start writing at 1 a.m, other times earlier, other times later. Try to notice when your ideas seem to flow better and when you get more into the zone – but please, don’t be unhealthy as I am and go to sleep at a decent hour. I’m not an example here with my sleeping schedule hahahaha

Cringy moment: when I’m stuck, I act the last scene I wrote as one of my characters in the shower and, usually, ideas start to come in (and I have to get off the shower). Hahahaha now that’s just a weird one, but I have NO idea why, my best ideas arise in the shower. Water has a weird effect on me, so sometimes I just stand there with warm water pouring over my head and, lo and behold, I’m exiting the shower in a hurry because I just got my writer mood back HAHAHA so maybe some very mundane activity – like cooking, taking the trash out, cleaning the room – might be where your writer brain will come to life. You never know.

Needless to say, I talk to myself a lot, sometimes as if I’m talking to the characters. That is a very bad coping mechanism I developed when I was being bullied at school – I used to pretend Dante was with me when I was alone or something had happened and I needed someone by my side, so nowadays I have a very easy time writing this man. I started doing that with some of my characters, and that goes for repeating lines or part of the stories I’m writing to see if I can get un-stuck. It’s not the greatest of things, but it works. My neighbors might think I’m crazy, though xD

When I’m completely unmotivated or I keep staring at the blank page without being able to write, I try to immerse myself in what I’m writing about. So, if I’m stuck on my cyberpunk book, I watch some Cyberpunk 2077 let’s plays, I re-watch the Edgerunners anime, I re-watch Blade Runner, I re-read some parts of Do Androids Dream of Electrical Sheep? or I, Robot, I listen to Blade Runner’s soundtrack, I even try to play Cyberpunk 2077 (while praying not to get motion sickness or not having my pc exploding from overworking). If I’m stuck on my King Arthur works, then I re-watch the 2004 movie (may the gods bless Ioan Gruffudd and his wonderful Lancelot and Mads Mikkelsen as my beloved Tristan), re-read the 3 books on the Chronicles of Arthur series, listen to some Celtic music, research Arthurian stories for hours on the internet, search for my encyclopedias at home to see if they have something on King Arthur, read obscure translated manuscripts from ancient times on it … So, immersing yourself on reading, researching, listening to music, watching movies, playing videogames, listening to stories, watching series, reading mangas, watching anime, documentaries, going to the movies, basically doing anything that has to do with the theme you’re writing, may get you in the mood. Next time you sit down to write, it might flow wonderfully!

I don’t force myself to write, though. If I do, I usually can’t write a single decent word and I’ll hate it. If things aren’t flowing – and this I learned with my mom, who also draws – I leave it for a while and go do something else. Maybe I’ll have some warm tea, or watch a completely unrelated movie, or read my current book, or talk to my parrot in the kitchen, play some piano, draw a little, or just take a good nap. My mom says it refreshes the head and the eyes, and when you come back to it, you’ll be a lot more inclined to find things that weren’t working and let those creative juices flow.

I also have a very weird search history and I’m not ashamed of it. All writers do, and it’s better to have a weird search history than not knowing what you’re talking about, honestly. And sometimes, researching takes a lot more time than writing and might get you motivated – time spent learning is never wasted. Even if you’re learning what kind of dates grow in Greece and are offered to Apollo (bless his heart).

Sometimes, I write something completely unrelated, with a very different theme, and stupidly goofy – and that gets me back to the writing vibes. Sometimes there’s just this need of writing something for the sake of writing, and you just want something foolish to make you smile like a goof. It’s valid and it might be your ticket out of writing-rut-land.

Now some little uncalled for advices:

I spent too long being self-conscious and too serious about it. If it’s not your style, don’t force it. Some people need structure, other people thrive in chaos – know what’s your style and go for it. I hate planning novels, for example. But I will outline the main points of the story and the ending – the rest, well, the characters have to show me whatever else they’re doing, and I have to go with it. Sometimes there are huge arcs I didn’t plan as a main point of the story, but they pop up in the middle of it and they are important – I like leaving that room for impromptu writing/creating. So, find out how it works for you, not how it works for everyone else.

You don’t have to create masterpieces right at the first time you’re writing. Take my King Arthur thing-y for example. I wrote the full story when I was 15. When I was in college, I decided to re-write it. And then, when I was at work, I decided to re-write the re-write. And now, I just took all my files, read them, thought about it all, outlined a whole new story and decided to write anew. Not re-write, but take all that work and write as if I had never written anything before – in the original file, the main characters were 15 years old and in school, now they have their jobs at Universities and work on the secret society that is now a lot more fleshed out and built with loads of new characters around (including a new one I created yesterday after months not thinking about it).

If I hadn’t written the Twilight-sort of embarrassing thing when I was 15, I wouldn’t have this whole universe, characters and story to build upon nowadays. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was a good idea – and I’ll keep working on it until I’m happy with it. It’s been 13 years I’m working on it now, maybe when it reaches its 15th anniversary, I’ll be able to finally let it see the light of day!

Don’t listen to the “NEVER DO THIS!!” advices. Seriously. Writing is a form of art – and, as in all art, there isn’t a right or wrong. By all means, see what people are saying it’s bad and you should never do – I watch and read those advices so I can learn to be better too! – but don’t take it to heart. As Captain Barbossa would say, it’s more of a guideline than rules set in stone. Sometimes, something people say you should NEVER EVER do is something that works perfectly fine for you and your style of writing. Learn to make up your own mind: learn new things, listen to advices, but absorb those that resonate with you and leave those that don’t. That’s how you create your own opinion about things and how you find your writing style!

One fun thing to point out on this as an example: me, my mom, my sister and my dad ADORE reading. My sister loves Jane Austen, my mom is a super fan of Dostoyevsky and Russian literature, while my dad lives for Isaac Asimov and all things sci-fi. I love sci-fi, my mom can’t stand it. I read Dante’s Inferno in a week and my mom couldn’t get past the first verses. My sister can’t read poetry at all and is terribly bored by Lord of the Rings. My dad read my Chronicles of Arthur books and even told me to buy the complete the series. Me and my sister enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s books a lot, but my mom never felt like reading them.

All of this to say: it’s not a matter of who’s more intellectual than the other, it’s a matter of who likes which kind of literature and writing styles. Some people are more comfortable with one way of writing or a certain kind of literature and can’t stand others – and that’s ok. Writing is pretty much the same. THERE ARE NO FIXED RULES! BE A REBEL!

If it helps you: character sheets. Around 8 years ago – or more – I searched and searched online for the character sheet that could help me the best. I had never done it before and thought it was quite useless, until I downloaded one and started filling the infos on my main characters of my Arthurian sort of story. Lo and behold, they became SO MUCH BETTER and that’s when I started rewriting everything: I understood all characters a LOT better and made better decisions when writing them. It doesn’t work for everyone, though, but it’s a lot of fun for me. Currently, I don’t use it much because I now know what are the main things I need for my characters to seem alive, but it’s always nice to have a reference when you’re writing.

My cyberpunk story, for instance, it has A BUNCH of characters with scars, different hair colours, different eye colours, the way they dress, birthmarks, cyber-implants, cyber-prothesis, dressing styles… And sometimes I get lost in it. So it’s nice keeping a character sheet when I go like “wait, she has burn marks on the left arm or the right arm…?”

And keeping a file on worldbuilding might be helpful as well. I noticed that writing my cyberpunk thing. The first thing I wrote was a huge file explaining the city, the factions, the districts, people’s styles, who are the viruses, the sub-types of viruses, the political parties, the police and secret police, the difference between artificials and organics, how does access to the world works, what is the Ocularis system, the most important corporations, their names, their owners… And all those things will probably never appear on this story.

But I felt a HUGE difference. Instead of info-dumping right at the beginning to make the reader understand how the world is built and how it works, I started it right at an important point in the story. No one knows anything about how things work, but, as the characters speak to each other, they talk about so many things that the reader catches things and pieces together how all things are organized.

Don’t try to explain everything. Tying with I said before, if you have a very good idea of how things work, how the characters relate to each other, how they react and how they think, you won’t need to info-dump. I usually think I’m seeing my characters going about their day and that is ALL I’m describing: what they are saying, feeling, thinking and doing. If I feel something is missing for people to fully understand, then I add something quite minimal to help. But I don’t overexplain: people are intelligent and they can piece things together.

Don’t go full Marvel movies and explain everything as if no one can understand unless you say it. Go Nolan and try to make people understand with images, feelings, glances, metaphors and such. It’s very effective in writing! (Don’t get me wrong, I do like Marvel movies, but they have become those kinds of movies that require little mental effort because literally everything will be explained in a huge monologue or through dialogue. You don’t always need dialogues – and if you say “oh that’s too ambiguous and people won’t be certain about it” that’s the beauty of art: it’s always up to interpretation)

Having someone to read and give you feedback might be very helpful too. I have a few friends every now and then I send some of my stories so they’ll read and give me an honest feedback. I try to listen to their opinions and refine my work – but if I think they critique doesn’t make sense, I thank them anyway and keep on doing my thing. Like I said, know when to take what makes sense and when let go of something that doesn’t. Also: feedback is NOT a personal attack. DON’T TAKE IT TO HEART. See it always as something you may need to improve – and you’ll improve quicker.

At the end of the day, writing is art. And all art is relative.

Your art will be great to some and horrible to others – and that’s ok! Again, learn to NOT make it personal (the critiques, I mean, because art is always personal and that’s wonderful, I think).

And repeat after me: you will not please everyone. The point is to make yourself proud. You’ll find your people along the way.

Do it because you love. Do it because it comes from your heart, from your soul. The world has become so filled with content, mindlessly created by artificial intelligence so we will keep consuming, that things have lost so much of their soul.

To make art, to write, is to have soul. If you have that heart, that passion in your work, it will show – and people will follow. When you sit to write, don’t make it a chore, don’t make it an aesthetic tiktok post, don’t follow the routine of this or that famous artist – do what you have to do and let your heart flow. Do it for you.

I think that’s the main advice I can give. Don’t do content to post on social media and look good, do your art. Push your boundaries, test new things, write in ways you never did before, but do your thing.

When everyone is doing the same thing over and over again, you’ll realize your words will stand out by doing what you want to do.

Again thanks for attending my TED Talk xD

[ennaku-sirri-da]

I wanna be just like you; made of felt and flesh and FREE( no strings on me !)

[ ID: Traditional fanart of me standing with an AU version of Puppet Habit or Pabit from Smile For Me the game. The AU is called AskPabit. Traditional materials used are pencil, black and blue pens, sketchpens, color pencils. The coloring is vivid and mostly done in many different shades on an individual scale, even for the same color.

Pabit's more anthromorphised form, from the askblog, is drawn in my interpretation as skinny and muppet-like with bigger proportions for the facial features and hands, high-heeled feet. He is made of felt and this is shown through the messy textured strokes.

Stitches run through the sides of his body and face. On his chest at the side is stitched a trans flag-colored heart with the letters " We love U!" -- the word love is just represented by a heart. His hair is brunette, curly and very long. His eyes too are a brown shade-- his eyes are big and lashed like those found on some children's dolls, the sclera are yellow. Below his eyes, fur-patches of pink blush are there. In his grin, his taken teeth are seen, one of them bleeding still at the side. Not all the teeth are there yet. He only wears pants in dark shades that seem to smoothly become heels in one piece-- stitches run along the sides of these too.

I am by Pabit's side. I am a shorter, light brown skinned person of average size with longer black hair and a round sparsely acne-marked face. I wear square pink glasses. My dress is a bright teal chudidar with multicolored flower designs in outline, and a sandy gold dupatta with pants of the same color to complete it.

Pabit grins and leans with one arm unsteadily on my head, I am clasping my hands in closed-eye delight, clearly excited. I lean to him. His face tilts slightly and he looks amused, one eye squinted while the other crinkles.

Beside me the text is written in a pink and black outlined box -" I'd love to be just, just like you"-- words in blue pen. Then in black--" I'll be made of felt and flesh and" -- then an arrow leads to a lavendar cloud saying " Free!" in bigger words.

Half the top background is covered by big outlines of flowers in sketch pen, lightly filled in with overlapping color pencil shades. It gives a soft look. Finally, from out of the very top a little bit of a book with a dragonfly wing design on it is seen in the drawing's photo. End ID]

--

My fanart for @askpabit ...!! I was trying for SO MANY DAYS and I FINALLY did it woooo..!!! I'm so tired after my flight so I'm short on words but I've been following this blog since like the beginning I think. The artist obviously has a lot of talent and he's really sweet too. Askpabit has been a happy influence on my life and here's my expression of that! I wish the artist all the best in his future endeavours. :) (smiley emote)

I really enjoyed coloring this by the way. Hehe all my faves become FLUFFY. I know Pabit's different here from your version but I hope you still like him...!! This is kind of just how I roll in my style.

And here's a small concept below...plus the uncoloured version of this drawing!..

[ ID: uncoloured concept sketch of Pabit from AskPabit. He is front facing and it's a bust. Here he's like he's made of felt, has big eyes like a doll, stitches like a felt toy and has long curly hair. Overall he looks a bit muppet-like. He has blush-patches of fur as well. End ID]

--

The very first concept art( Not this one) had him more like a potato sack LOL. But anyway I tried to make him look like he's made of felt..!!! As blog lore dictates, hehe. And I remember saying I really liked how Pabit's movements worked all cutesy and kind of, like he's really stuffed, like a toy. It was really neat to see coming through in just non-animated images So I tried to imitate that a bit.

Here's the Uncoloured version..!

[ID: Uncoloured version of the first drawing. It's all outlined in pencil. It's in warm filter. End ID]

[lemonisntreal]

heyo! Just found your blog and I was scrolling through your stuff and noticed your AU tone deaf. And I haven't found anything about what it is or what your idea is behind it. So I wanted to ask if you could give me an introduction to your AU!

Oh! And I absolutely love your artstyle and how you draw Buster! Anyway, hope you drink enough water and have a good day/night! ;)

Dear god this has been in my drafts for a while-

Hiya! Sorry for that lack of info lol, I'd been inactive for a long time, and the time that I actually WAS posting consistently was back when things were still being sorta fleshed out. But I've got a pretty good idea of how every single part moves at this point, so sure :D I'll give a not-so-brief summary lol [under a cut because I couldn't not dump multiple paragraphs teehee ~_~]

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

Tone Deaf is like a dystopian version of Sing, if I were to put it super duper simply. One where Buster's issues get more emotional focus, and we get actual bonds with the cast because the movie forgot to do that.

Buster is, also, a lot more unhinged, fair warning. This fic's gonna contain violence and tackle some darker subjects [adjacent to grief and denial more specifically] so if it feels like I jumped a lot of sharks, it's because I 100% did.

It kinda started with me noticing how, in the actual movies btw, smaller characters like Buster and Mike had more difficulty getting around places. This led me to ask myself about how species differences could lead to struggles for certain animals since the city just isn't built for everyone [this is NOT Zootopia]. Ash's quills, and Meena's towering size were things I noticed too that would be massive problems, realistically. So after a lot of pondering, now we're here.

The world of Tone Deaf in present day is in a post-war period that's lasted about 50 years now [Crawly is actually a veteran from this war- which was more like complete and total anarchy if I'm being real, since there weren't really any sides until near the end...]

Long story short, the wealthy capitalized off of the war and taking people prisoner- so they purposefully kept it going. A resistance ended up forming to stand against this [Miss Crawly being one of the generals, with that classic missing eye] and after their army stormed the unsuspecting stronghold, the war finally began to conclude. It still took around a year after that to release all of the prisoners of war, and by the end of it all, the damage that had been done to some races was permanent. Even extinction-level in some cases- some animals just straight up don't exist anymore because of it.

Back to Calatonia. Laws that are in place to protect animals from tearing eachother apart are still relatively new, and the criminal underbelly of Calatonia is kinda out of control. Animals get kidnapped/poached, smaller animals are at a huge disadvantage and have basically no power [politically or otherwise], endangered species are a very real thing, poverty is a huge issue for most of the population- and in the middle of all this is Buster Moon.

He's gonna be the main perspective. And the story will also serve as a slight character study on him, mixed with my own grittier and batshit insane changes/headcanons/alternate universe ideas on his backstory. He's a ray of sunshine with a lot of bottled-up feelings that will kinda really take control of the story.

Buster has been arrested multiple times. He's been put in unsuccessful therapy. He's still grieving his dad. He's committing crime and compulsively lying about those illegal actions too. He has emotional difficulties that he hasn't dared try touching on in years, and he has issues with letting go- which, is kinda how all of his new problems come to be.

The threat of his theater being repossessed if his show isn't a success gets a LOT more emphasis too.

But on top of that is the added threat of Buster getting sent out of the city if he can't get his business up and running. Remember how I mentioned endangered animals?? Well Koalas are one of them. One of the big ones, actually. He's the only Koala in a city of almost five hundred thousand, and it's been that way for almost half a decade now. It's been causing issues for the people in charge for half a decade now. Koalas have government-protected settlements far away from here due to their numbers being so few, so if Buster loses the theater? That's the next step for him.

But, to help this poor dude through all the stress of life is the found-family he develops with the cast he hired. He helps them for a lot of the first act, and then they give back his kindness in the second. They connect through their similar experiences, as well as their shared passion for music and performance. And by the end, maybe Buster's okay. Or maybe he's had a complete downward spiral [not gonna speak of act three 🥰]

Other characters have also had a shift in their dynamics. Things in the story have changed. Like for instance- Gunter already knew Buster and was a close friend of him and Eddie before the show, Judith is now the mayor and a main character, Pete has been put in place of the banker in charge of Buster's accounts, Buster unfortunately gets involved in politics, Mike actually gets to bond with the cast- actually the cast gets to bond with the cast point blank period [idc what you say, this just straight up doesn't happen in the canon movies], and to top it all of is a generous helping of angst with a few acts of violence sprinkled in 🤭

The actual Act I summary is this right now:

Buster had been in tight situations before-- suffocating situations, even. He’d been in every kind of trouble imaginable, he thought. With family, friends, local businesses, the law. But he'd always wormed his way out, either through loopholes or by charm. Or usually just by stacking another lie on top of his already crumbling facade. But this time it's gonna take more than a cover-up to fix this. ‏‏‎ Buster’s dishonesty takes him too far once again, a simple typo causing him to unintentionally land himself in a wager that could cost his very life. He has two months to fix this- to ACTUALLY fix this. And the worst part is that he hadn't even meant to lie this time. ‏‏‎ The First Act of Tone Deaf.

TLDR; Buster learns to love again after experiencing the horrors of animalkind firsthand and being healed by theater kids LMFAO

[linaket]

Monthly Update (Feb 6, 2024)

It has definitely been... a January. This year, I had a lot of plans and goals relating to my writing, but a lot of them are already not going through. One was to do weekly or monthly updates, kind of like when I did weekly updates while working on TS. But, it's still early in the year, so I figure its better late than never. Also still early in the month even if I didn't manage to get this out there at the end of January...

My personal life has been a bit hectic. First thing was that some major projects in the house I planned to have completed last year were finally finished this month--I have all new windows installed in my house now, and a new door, and while I didn't personally do the windows (I did install the door, though) it takes a lot of time to prep before and clean up after reno projects and get the house back in order, so I've spent the last two weeks on this. Additionally, I'd applied for a promotion at work, and then was coated in stress waiting for the results... (which I received a few days ago... and I got it! Been a long time coming, really.)

So this is the first one of these... just gonna throw things out here and decide on a format as they go.

Books Read

Finally completed The Fifth Season trilogy by N. K. Jemison. I wanted to finish this one last year, but the last book lingered into the new year.

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

The Dead Take The A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Important Posts

I shared a summary of my 2024 writing goals/wips on instagram. I meant to bring this over to tumblr and do a bit more on it but... didn't. Maybe this month?

Shadow's Prey: Act 1 wip intro here on tumblr

Writing

30k on Mortal Teeth. 15 chapters done of.. ?? a lot probably. 40 something, at least, if not 50-60 range. This completed the second major arc/goalpost (there are about 5 of these at the moment)

Shadow's Prey: Act 1 formatting is moving along well, and so it's still on time for a March release. I may aim more for mid March, depends on how quickly I'm able to finish up the extras and get some promo in. I really wish I could figure out exactly what size image it takes to make a full-page image in ebooks, but I think I'm going to have to settle for the title page not being... perfect. Which. Does not make me happy. But there really isn't a way to appease every e-reader, as they are all different sizes, so I am finding there is only so much I can control here.

Favorite Excerpt

I wrote a lot of things in Mortal Teeth that I was proud of this past month, but one of my favorite things I ran across when writing was realizing that my writing has improved... massively. It's been a while since I've had a leap of growth that I can easily pinpoint, but the extra I planned for SP Act 1 was partially written, and I needed to work on it. I kept getting stuck on continuing because something about it felt off/forced when I tried, so I did the classic open a new doc and retype/rework as I go... and quickly realized why I was having trouble working on it. My style had shifted dramatically....

This isn't a major point in the short, but I wrote the beginning of this around the middle of last year and it went from this:

Whereas Kanna actively ignored Masao’s approach, Ira glared at him in challenge. “Here,” Kanna said, drawing Ira’s attention by offering Amon’s reins as a lead. “Find someone to tend him, and get me a count of the survivors.” Masao’s voice at her back carried a smirk she could feel between her shoulder blades. “What about the casualties?”

to this:

While Ira glared at Masao in challenge, Kanna actively ignored him. Though she was coated with the blood of those she’d killed, her hands to her wrists to her elbows with it, Masao delighted in his stain. Even here, with the smell of death in the air and the unholy silence that followed battle, he smiled. The joy he radiated amidst destruction unsettled her, something deep inside of her flinching from it. Kanna gathered Amon’s reins, drawing Ira’s attention by offering them. “Find someone to tend him, and get me a count of the survivors.” Masao’s voice at her back carried a smirk she could feel between her shoulder blades. “What about the casualties?”

Final Thoughts

I was excited to get through another phase of MT in writing, but I don't think the time I've allotted to finish the draft is going to be enough. This stresses me out a bit, because I gave myself a pretty tight schedule for the year with all the releases (there are 4 ebooks, and I was considering restarting Act 4 in the serial which would be 5 releases total....)

I'm actually... thinking once again that I won't go back to serial posting for SP. Tapas was/is my primary platform for it, and I am simply... no longer a fan of the platform, and not really interested in others, either. So that might be one of the things in the "coming this year" that ends up pushed to next year or later this year, depending, as it will likely be an ebook release instead of serial and... I'm still working on drafting the teeth wip and I don't see it taking a backseat for a while, until I'm truly stuck.

I've been trying not to beat myself up about not doing the things I said I'd do at the start of the year (daily journaling, more updates here and other platforms, etc) because it's simply... not great for me. And really, I'm not sure I would have had the aforementioned improvement in my writing if I'd continued to stress myself out about writing itself, on top of doing all these other things that I'm supposed to do. I took it pretty easy last year after a massive disappointment, shutting down a lot of my online presence and focusing on reading and writing for myself, and I think that's what allowed me to become comfortable again and led to growth. I don't want to feel as defeated as I had that time, because its the kind of thing that would have led to me completely giving up in my younger years, and I also don't want to get stagnant because I'm trying to do too much that isn't... the actual writing. So... I guess we'll see how this goes?

[thelostrainbowthenovel]

Finally got around to making an official/colored ref of Apollo! :3 He has been on my mind a lot lately(mainly thanks to this one idea I've been thinking about, of him and Mini knowing about Nate's sexuality/supporting him there), and since I had a little time for art I wanted to finally make an official ref for him! :D

He is still not a character that I will be focusing on too much, but I do have some other ideas I want to get to with him sometime. These mainly being drawing him with Damini(since they are dating, and I just imagine they would be so cute together), writing something with him and Damini(again to showcase their relationship, but also to explore some of the backstory changes I made to Mini), and writing something with him/Mini and Nate, since like mentioned above I have been thinking about the idea of them being a mini friend group, plus also giving Nate some Feorian LGBTQ+ friends since he doesn't currently have any. But yeah, I hope you enjoy! ^w^

Here is a mini bio for him!

================================================

- Apollo Lumen . Age: 27 . Gender: demiboy(he/they) . Sexuality: bisexual . Relationships: Lady Damini Koeler(together for two years) . Abilities: hand-to-hand combat, bow-and-arrows, solar/sun-based magic(natural)

Citizen of Feor, boyfriend to Lady Damini Koeler. Growing up in a poor family, he at first joined the army as soon as he could, as he was following on the footsteps of the other men in his family and he wanted to help out with earning more money. His time as a soldier was short-lived however, as he was only in the army for a couple of years before he gained a serious injury that gave him a large and rather nasty scar on his back, as well as an early retirement. While it took him sometime to recover physically and mentally from his injury, he was not that sad about retiring from the army as he always had dreams of becoming a traveling musician and finally had a chance to pursue that dream. At first he started out as a backup guitar player for this smaller band, working on his own music on the side, before it eventually picked up some interest and he was able to start his solo career. He first met Damini at one of his earliest solo concerts, and they bonded after she came up to him after his show and complemented him on his work. They clicked enough that they kept up communication afterwards, mainly through letters as he was out traveling for a while. When he returned to Feor was when he asked her out for the first time, not wanting to lose anymore time with her. Their dating has been a little more low-key since they have different occupations and are not seen in public together often, but they haven't been keeping it a complete secret either, and are currently making plans to move in together as they are hopeful for their future together. So far in his musician career he has become famous enough to both live comfortably and have many fans, even in other countries outside of Feor. Aside from Mini, another fan of his music is Princess Hestia, as they both play the guitar and she finds some of the things he has done with it very cool. Through Mini he has also become good friends with Prince Ignatius, with them only hanging out occasionally but they have become close enough, to the point Nate felt comfortable enough to open up about his sexuality and lover with him and Mini. Considered strong, warm, and bright, he is a very charming and friendly person that is able to get anyone to loosen up and have fun with his carefree and happy disposition. He is also incredibly open-minded and accepting of everyone who is not appreciated by general society, but he is also very critical of said prejudiced societies as he proudly stands up and advocates for what he believes in, even if this has not always been appreciated by close-minded people. In terms of more negative traits of his, he is a perfectionist to the point he will forget to take care of himself in order to get something done the way he wants it to be(causing him to feel pretty awful afterwards), he is easily distracted and forgetful so he always has to write things down, he bottles his stress too much to the point he either gets sick or lashes out, and while not necessarily a negative trait, as he is always out traveling he often forgets to make time for his loved ones, but he always makes it up to them when he returns home.

[ninawolv3rina]

I've only drawn Laz with long hair so far but the truth is, they've had a lot of surgeries done that involve their skull and brain so they have to have had short, if not completely shaved, hair in those times. It's been a while since he's had to deal with that but we do have some flashbacks to times where that was the case so maybe I'll draw him with short hair soon...

[emagios]

hello hello :3 love your r1999 art, and I was curious about your painter au! Can I ask what Sonetto would be like in this world? She seems just as sheltered, but no longer indoctrinated with the foundation’s ‘order over opinion’ stuff. Does that make her more openly curious? Less professional and aloof? and I imagined her magic would not be as controlled or powerful but used in far more imaginative ways..

i also envisioned she’d being *even more* socially awkward around others and especially Vertin, since she has had basically no one else around and no diplomatic training of any kind ahsbskf

and then there’s her family who basically extort her abilities..

(Sorry if i’m rambling jdndjdn i’m just really curious, you don’t have to answer everything)

Yo!!! I'm glad a lot of you guys enjoy the au, it makes me happy that yall vibe with it ^w^ I've also gotten to discuss this with someone too and it's been great! Most of the time whenever I draw AUs it's kind of a one - and - done thing and I don't think too much about the details. But I'm particular towards this so I wanted to try to keep them similar to canon to try to get a feel of their characters, and then practice navigating them in this AU That said, while she hasn't been indoctrinated into the Foundation's teachings, she'll still have a similar mindset to canon because of her parents controlling her upbringing. She's sheltered, but she also isn't encouraged to act on her curiosity, to engage with the world too much because she's been taught to hide herself and her abilities because "the outside world is dangerous to arcanists" . There was someone who reblogged and tagged how the AU was giving Rapunzel vibes and they're not wrong!! I was actually thinking about Rapunzel when coming up with this too. The painting, and the controlling and restrictive parents... However, unlike Gothel, I wanted to make her parents a bit more complicated. They cared for her once, but now they've lost that and are more concerned with utilizing her abilities for their gain. It's this complicated relationship that also keeps Sonetto from acting against her parents wishes. In the hopes, that maybe they'll show that same love they gave to her before. Another reason would be because she's never had someone Vertin to show her another perspective outside of it. She's aloof and withdrawn but despite that still has a yearning for the world. A yearning she refuses to indulge in because of the reasons above. Her magic would indeed be not made for combat or powerful. She wouldn't be allowed to hone it further than what she's asked to do. She's not completely locked away from the world though, just that she'll have minimal interactions. So she's awkward and hopelessly inept in socializing LMAOOO But yeah!! So far that's what I've had in mind for the direction this AU is gonna take. Of course, feel free to put your own spin on it too! :DD I want to elaborate more but that'll be a spoiler alert HAHAHAHA jkjk I'm also just making it as I go and hopefully winging it I still haven't gotten the chance to expand on these ideas yet because pre-finals are kicking my ass but maybe after When I have time, I'll get the chance to do so For now, thank you plenty for the ask and for taking the time to read this! I... am not good with keeping conversations short aksjdgajhs So thank you, for listening :D I hope you have a good one!!!

[b-courageous1010]

Day 5: Workplace, Mental Health, and Prioritizing Yourself  

Wellness in the workplace should be talked about more. With how fast pace things can get, it's easy to get off your routine, and your mental health can slip. I had my monthly session with my mentor, and it was surprising that we touched on mental health and how it should be discussed more. It's the elephant in the room, especially since COVID and the shift to remote working. Although everyone knows that corporate culture can be very unhealthy, we also know that the work needs to get done. Realizing this is what pushed me to take my mental health seriously.

In my last position, I suffered from burnout and promised never to let it happen again. To prevent it, I need to find ways to stay grounded at work and in my personal life. It's essential that I set boundaries and limit my work hours. 

I do this by taking my lunch break daily unless I have something urgent. Taking that hour lets me catch my breath in a sense.    

I log in at 8 and am finished by 5, especially when working from home.   

On the weekends, I avoid opening my laptop so I don't get sucked into work. Instead, I keep track of important dates in my planner.  

I also neglected my personal life in my last position because I was also in school. Since that's no longer an issue, I've been focusing on myself and doing a lot of inner work. I learned that not prioritizing my personal life was affecting my professional life. Such as:   

Not working on my anxiety made me paranoid that I would make a costly mistake that overtook my entire being, and I would be so hard on myself.    

Not checking my depression caused my lack of self-confidence to ooze from my pores, and people could see it a mile away.    

Neglecting my spirituality and not being present in my own life.   

At one point, I reached a breaking point and finally asked for help. Since then, I've taken the advice of giving myself grace and taking time to relax. My focus has been improving my mental health to achieve my full potential.   

I started a journalling routine to reflect on my experiences and think through any issues.  

I introduced yoga as a form of meditation to keep me grounded and present. 

Each morning, I read an entry from a meditation book that helps me confront my codependency.  

I'm working on my inner self and confronting the parts I used to run away from.  

I've realized that it is okay to make mistakes and that growth is more important than perfection. As a result, I'm allowing myself to feel confident and happy in my abilities.   

Since making myself a priority and working on my inner self, I experienced a significant improvement in a short period, Situations that used to overwhelm me no longer affect me. I have gained control over my anxiety and improved my confidence. 

Completing assignments is easier 

I am confident in building relationships with my coworkers   

I can step out of my comfort zone and communicate through emails with ease 

I have also established a routine I can stick to at work and in my personal life.  

While I am still determining where I aspire to be, I am light-years away from where I started. During the conversation with my mentor, we discussed the importance of pursuing interests outside of work. She shared how she spent 3 hours drawing out plans for her backyard renovation project and how fulfilling it was to create something with her hands. This inspired me to think about how I can bring more sweetness into my life. I am considering the following activities: 

Enrolling in an acro yoga class  

Learning a new instrument or reviving my old skills.  

Spending more time in nature and capturing moments through photography  

Reconnecting with spiritual practices, I may have drifted away from. 

I'm grateful for the desire to improve and the willingness to never give up. I plan on having a long career in corporate, and while prioritizing my mental health is half the battle, I know I can handle whatever comes my way.  

Music Challenge Day 5: A song by an artist you’ve love for awhile.

Mine: I love me some Jon B 💜💜

My Aunt: She absolutely loves her and as it turns out we are both huge Tamia fans 🤗

[hazbean-hotel-imagines]

Okay okay, its been a while since I requested a matchup so sorry if i forget something! I dont mind both helluva and hazbin, i like both <3

Online I go by Dead or just D, I am not comfortable with my irl name and am still trying to figure it out

My pronouns are they/she, I'm still trying to find the right label for what I'm into though. I like everybody to sum it up tho!

I'm an INFP-t

I really like cats (I've got six), the colors blue and black, skeletons, cards/dice (i have some cool jewelry with card symbols n stuff) drawing, reading/writing and watching cartoons.

I've got diagnosed with ADD/ADHD though I'm more tired than hyper, but if you get me talking about something im interested in I could talk your ear off

I try really hard to be consious of how other people feel so I tend to back up if I can tell someone isn't enjoying the conversation/what we're doing. I also really try hard to include others in what I'm currently blabbing about by asking them questions 'cause I know what it's like to not have a say in a convo.

In terms of my appearence, I'm afab, and I'm sadly well endowed, it causes me some back issues. But on the bright side they make good pillows for friends!!

I've got short blonde hair that i dye black and i tend to wear loose clothes that are a few sizes too big. I usually tend to wear all black non gendered clothes (I'm goth) and if i feel like getting dolled up I'll wear a dress and accessories!

I need glasses cause my long distance sight is shit 💀💀💀

In terms of humor? I like making dirty jokes or dark jokes. Like, my fave dark joke is "my grandfather told me i was too reliant on technology. So i called him a hypocrite and unplugged his life support"

But yeah!! Thanks for taking the time to read this <3

Matchup

I pair you with…

~ Hi Dead! Omg so I had these done two days ago, then I looked up what a charcuterie board was out of curiosity… bro it was completely finished, I didn’t save it as a draft, and lost my progress because I. Wanted to look. At pictures of charcuterie boards. Anyway I like charcuterie boards 🤭

~ Okay! So Blitzo was first that came to mind when I read about you. Firstly, y’all give off the extrovert adopts introvert trope. Except, it’s more like vague kidnapping than adopting. One meeting and you’re friends for life, no exceptions.

~ Blitzo’s favourite quality in a partner is someone who enjoys his sense of humour. This is a little bit because of his past in the circus. He not only loved that you understand and laugh at his jokes, but when you add on to them!

~He’s awful at communicating. The way you listen and genuinely show an effort in gaging his mood and engagement really means a lot to him, he notices. Blitzo works really well with someone who is patient and good at communication, because he’s lacking in that department, and you help him learn.

I pair you with…

~ This is another extrovert adopts introvert, but much less extreme. Asmodeus is interested in you, and he finds excuses and ways to see you again. If he notices the same interest is reciprocated, he’ll slowly integrate himself into your life and become a constant.

~ Loves listening to people talk. Will let you talk his ear off about your interests, and will never lose focus. Is completely invested from start to finish. Will literally sit there smiling with his heads in his hands kicking his feet.

~ Additionally, he digs that you’re so attentive in conversations. Asmodeus has a tendency to let himself become a listener when he’s in romantic relationships, mostly because he just genuinely enjoys listening to his partners speak and is such an invested listener. It’s a welcome change of pace that you’re constantly ensuring it’s a back and forth conversation, and how conscious you are of his feelings and attention. He reciprocates these efforts tenfold.

~ Super domestic. Will watch cartoons with you in a blanket pile on the couch for hours. Favourite thing is to make unique charcuterie boards and start a show together. This prompted me to go and look at pictures of fucking cheese last time.

~ Can be content with just admiring you while you draw.

~ Loves your sense of humour. Especially loves when he says something dirty to flirt, and you clap back with something super dark. It always catches him off guard, and it takes a lot to leave him speechless. He adores it.

I pair you with…

~ Loves your aesthetic.

~ “Omg I have a goth partner” type beat.

~ Unsure the trope of you guys meeting, but I had ideas for your relationship dynamic. Cherri uses you to recharge her social battery. After a long day, all she wants to do is come home to you and just rest. She’ll definitely text often throughout the day, but when she comes home she always beelines to the couch to make a next of pillows and blankets so you can watch cartoons together.

~ The ultimate cat sitter. Immediately once she hears you have cats she’s at your place. Is she with you for you or the cats? No one knows. It’s you. Don’t be surprised if you come home one day, and she’s just… there, with your cats.

~ If she finds cool jewelry that reminds her of you she’ll send you a selfie holding it next to her head, with a “?” text following to see if you want it. Sometimes it’ll be from cool little shops, but sometimes you can see the wreckage of a turf war in the background and you know she’s just looting people.

~ You both have the same sense of humour, it’s like you guys mesh so well. I imagine conversations between you go so well, you’re super excitable and somehow always find something to talk about. Every day is exciting.

Alternate pairing…

Charlie

[heckosart]

Heya

Fellow (albeit novice) fantasy cartographer here

How'd you get into making maps for people?

Hi!

I've liked drawing and making maps for a long time, and I used to make up maps for fun as a kid. The things that inspired me originally were mostly books, I read fantasy extensively and I've always loved following the characters around by referring to the map as I read. From that I started to draw maps of places in books as well ones I made up. I drew a lot of magical islands for a while.

I also got really inspired by the natural forces of geology/plate tectonics/weather/etc and how they impact the land. I use all of that interest to try and create fantasy maps that have a sense of grounded believability to them. I'm by no means an expert, but I'm always learning and trying to improve.

Obviously for most maps I do professionally there's already a general shape and layout my clients have in mind, but even then I often include small additional islands, give borders and coastlines extra wiggle and variation, and look for ways to incorporate natural and geographic barriers that would help inform political ones.

As art of my thesis at art school, I made a map for a personal fantasy project. I also made a simpler map for a friend, and with those examples I put maps into my commission info. Since that time (2020) I've probably only done about five maps for clients, so I don't usually get as many as these last two jobs back to back might imply. It is always fun to work on though, and I'm thinking about doing some new personal pieces soon since it's been almost four years from the last time I did one for me.

My best recommendation for getting into map commissions would be to get a couple nice samples completed (at least one of a budget option and one big fancy one) and to decide on a clear plan for base pricing. Currently, I have maps broken down into two categories of price.

Simple: $90 - Includes lines, one flat color for land and one for water, mountains and rivers, and typed labels.

Complex: $180 - Includes lines, terrain color variation, symbols/terrain textures/landmark drawings/mountains/rivers, and handwritten labels.

I can also add on sea creatures and monsters and custom compass roses for an extra charge.

My pricing is based on knowing how long it takes me to do the work, how much effort it takes, and the expectation that short deadlines not be imposed. Extra complex requests and tight deadlines (for maps I'd consider anything less than three weeks to be tight) are fully welcome, but will come with an added price to account for those requirements. I would also charge far more for a commercial client, all of my prices here and in my commission info are for personal use jobs only.

You probably know this already, but I always have to say it! Make sure, whatever you're charging, you're making above minimum wage. Ideally, you should make more than minimum because custom art is luxury service. Your skills are valuable, so treat them like it!

I also can't recommend making a TOS to protect both you and your clients' safety enough. Mine are very much not perfect, but I'm always happy to offer them as something for other artists to reference or even just copy when making their own.

Personal Use | Commercial Use

On top of all of that, I'm very persistent with my self-promotion. I used to only use Twitter for art, but post-Elon I've branched back out to Tumblr and made a Bluesky because suddenly it was really scary to notice that all my eggs (clients and followers) were in that one volatile basket. I'm not famous or wildly successful, but my followings on here and Bluesky are still a tiny fraction of on Twitter and that's scary. I try to reblog/retweet/etc my promotional posts once a day to keep eyes on them (but I forget pretty often too lol) and whenever I have a little drawing or something I post it. I'm not the most prolific artist, but I try not to worry about that too much.

Hopefully this isn't too much stuff you already know and hopefully some of it was helpful!

[narukoibito]

Wrapped 2022

Thank you @nuatthebeach for the tag! 💛 I was tagged in 2023, so...

Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular)

Well, considering I only posted 2 (3 if you count each chapter) things, this will be short!

Unravel Me, Chapter 6: I am sincerely floored all the time by the readers who have continued to read (and reread apparently) this story, especially considering this was my first foray into smut and how long it is taking. Your support means everything to me. 💛

since feeling is first who pays any attention: Me?! Writing canon-compliant?! I have surprised myself in what I've written, wanting to choose the most underrated missed moments and make Ginny her own person. It's stretching my abilities as a writer, and I am excited where the next chapters and Ginny take me.

i'm sure of it by @takearisk-ao3: to be clear I DID NOT WRITE THIS, but since Hannah decided to make me a co-creator, so I wanted to take a moment to thank Hannah for this incredibly thoughtful gift of a missed moment within the Unravel Me universe. It and everyone's warm birthday wishes (@wackus-bonkus-maximus @nuatthebeach @fairsquare16 to highlight a few) led to the best birthday I've had since covid started. 🥹

your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year

As always no promises on actually releasing but...

Unravel Me: I have a clear vision of what happens in chapters 7-9, and over 5k words for chapter 7 (they are ROUGH) and some words for chapters 8 and 9. I know I'll release chapter 7 in 2023, but I really hope I get to all three.

since feeling is first who pays any attention: Hopefully I'll be able to release the rest of this missed moments series in the new year.

unnamed Muggle AU FWB story: Another FWB, Naru? Why, yes. But a very different vibe from Unravel Me - this is college au, slow burn, learning how to smut sloooooowly, Harry trying to teach Ginny how to feel good and, maybe, hopefully, dare to love too.

cat!Harry: Thanks to @annerbhp's encouragement during Nanowrimo to write my most self-indulgent idea ever, I got 12k words of the most ridiculous thing ever. I have no idea how to string it into something coherent, haha but maybe one day I will!

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year

Changing Unravel Me's original outline from one that would match a more conventional romance story to one that requires the characters to dig deeper than if they only communicated (but yes, if only they would). While it's deterred my completing new chapters, I do believe it will make the finished product better than originally imagined.

Writing Ginny as her own person during missed moments in canon has been a real stretch for me, the AU writer who likes the safety of not having to get things "just right." Ginny has surprised me with her tenacity, and I have surprised myself with writing reader dramatic irony and creepy scenes.

Writing words. Nanowrimo was awful, but I did get 50k words out. That took a lot of pushing forward even when I didn't like the words instead of letting myself get stuck on a scene. For that reason, I have (bad) drafts of multiple wips, but editing will (hopefully) be much less painful.

your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year

To take my writing seriously

To continue to learn and practice the craft

and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year

From since feeling is first who pays any attention, the Dementor on the train:

But as a darkly hooded figure appears at the door, the smell of decay intensifies. It draws a long, slow, and rattling breath, as if to suck in more than air from the environment.

An intense cold overtakes her. It penetrates deeper than her skin, straight to her core. It’s so cold, it radiates from within her. To her horror, she recognizes this feeling.

It’s the painful drawing of a soul from her body.

It's no longer 2022, and I don't know who has or hasn't done this, but tagging @fightfortherightsofhouseelves @twentysevensummers @wackus-bonkus-maximus @gryffindorhealer and anyone else who hasn't done it and wants to play!

[coffeedrgn87]

Blurbs On Writing (2022 Edition)

I had this idea for a little thought compilation about my writing a while back, but I held back, unsure whether I wanted to write it all down. If I am honest, the thought of sharing something personal scared me, and still does. Today, I decided that I do want to look back on my writing exploits over the past year and add my observations. These will be at random, and I'll note them down as they come into my head. You can find the list after the break.

I enjoy writing for someone (I like the challenge), and teasing the recipient with excerpts or talking about their idea with them makes me so happy. There's something special about sharing a piece of my writing with someone or dedicating it to a particular person. Unfortunately, I don't get to do this nearly enough, and my anxiety makes it difficult to reach out to people. Occasionally, I'll jump over my shadow and ask, but it takes a lot of effort, and most of the time, I do not have the energy.

I guess not many people like reading unfinished or WIP multi-chapter things, and I understand why it doesn't work for some folx, but I've discovered that I love writing this way. It's hard for me to withdraw into a corner, quietly work on something long, and only share it once it's completely done. I don't know how other writers feel about creating their work and/or sharing it as they go, but my personal perception is that even if an author posts a chapter a week or every other day, the work is usually already finished. I may be entirely mistaken, so don't consider this opinion etched in stone. For me, writing a chapter and sharing it is thrilling. The anticipation of being able to share an update, the readers' excitement, and potential interaction via comments/messages. I thrive on that. It often lets me incorporate ideas, tweak future chapters slightly, or sometimes change course entirely.

I absolutely adore one-word prompts. There's something magical about building a short story around a prompt. Sometimes the story is centred around the prompt; other times, it's just a support, an aid. Whichever it is, it's always exciting. I particularly enjoy noun prompts, though I don't limit myself in that regard. The way these tiny prompts spark an idea is magical, but it's also frustrating when you stare at a prompt and draw a complete blank. Especially when that uninspiring prompt is part of a challenge.

Describing scenes, particularly outdoor scenes such as a forest, a meadow, a cave, or a beach (to name but a few), is such fun. I like painting a pretty picture, going into detail about what's happening, what can be seen, how things smell, what they look like... It's not been a big focus for me before, but in 2022 I really made it my priority, and I feel it's elevated my writing. I've had a few lovely comments from readers who enjoyed it, so I guess I'm on the right track.

Smells and tastes are a delight to describe, and I first dipped my toes into making that a priority when I took part in a fest in 2020, but it took time for me to turn it into a habit. My Google search has since learnt that I like to research these things. Thrilling. Thank you, Google, my trusted research partner.

If I can make it happen, I like it when my characters spent time in the kitchen. Growing up, a lot of life happened in our kitchen (mainly because my dad was a kitchen person, but it's also my inner cat, associating the kitchen with warmth, chatter, and coffee, which awakens the dragon in me), and that shows in my writing. I think I did it unconsciously until I, at one point, added the tag "life happens in the kitchen" to one of my fics on AO3, and now writing scenes in the kitchen has become a staple of mine.

I never thought I might enjoy writing sprints with other people, but for a brief period, I got to try this and found it delightful. It tickled my competitive side. Perhaps I'll dip my toes into that again at some point...we'll see.

I've gotten much better at showing rather than telling how a character feels, and it's become such a joy to add in all those little descriptors that my readers can hopefully identify with when they read my works.

Eyes seem to be something I focus a lot on when describing a person. Eyes are stunning, and I truly enjoy describing them, especially the colour and how it makes the other person feel. Knowing that one of my characters is smiling or laughing or just genuinely happy makes me happy, and I always quietly hope that the same applies to my readers.

I'm no longer all that fussed about writing super-detailed sex scenes. I go there, but in recent months I've found that stripping away some of the details of the actual "this goes there in this way" and replacing it with feelings or a character's reaction gives me much more joy. Perhaps it's loosely related to a recent discovery I made about myself, or perhaps it's just my writing evolving, but I find this interesting. We'll see where this goes. One thing that I'm very sure about, though, is that my love for smut will always burn brightly.

Pets or animals in general. I love including a pet or an animal as a character, especially when I can give them an attitude, a quirk, or something that makes the pet or animal a delight to read. I've invented a few furry/feathery/scaly companions over the past year, and it's something I want to focus on even more. I'd be happy to have 50K of one character + a menagerie of animals, and while I don't know how my readers would feel about that, a writer can dream, can they not?

I don't especially feel like I'm part of my favourite fandoms. This might be a sad revelation, but it's true. While I thrive on making new connections and responding to messages/comments (after all, I am a chatterbug), I sadly am not the kind of person to reach out to people. It takes me forever to decide to take the plunge, and my anxiety always wreaks havoc on every attempt. I no longer feel confident enough to make the first move. I overthink, worry, and convince myself that there isn't a space for me. On a few occasions, it's made me want to stop writing, but I have since learnt not to give in to that impulse. My writing is all mine. It's something I would never give up, not for anyone. Still, not having that sense of belonging makes it hard to connect. I tried for a while, but I just don't have that much strength (for personal reasons, I won't elaborate any further).

Lastly, (and to end this on a positive note) I have learnt not to compare myself to other writers, whether they've been published or whether they're fanfic writers whose works I gobble up like coffee. Occasionally, the feeling still creeps in, but for the most part, I manage to ignore it. To continue to grow as a writer, I need to be able to appreciate without feeling like reading a gorgeous piece of writing makes me want to give up on my own writing. Instead, I allow other works to push me towards doing better.

[sugareey-makes-stuff]

For Fanfic for the New Year! Feel free to answer either as an artist or writer or both!

Very curious about #8 and #23.

Hiya, Romaine! Oh, yes! I think it'll be fun to mix up for fic and art, so I'll run with that. 8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it? I've answered this for one fic idea here, but I am more than happy to go into another idea from my filing cabinet of chaos. So...I think about a decade ago, I used to run a multi-media community for a Drarry series (inspired by the Shoebox project, WTF Drarry, etc.). Back in the LJ days, I had about 200+ followers who tuned in for 8th year shenanigans, and lord how many letters and fics I even wrote for that. There were lots of letters between a lot of people, and the ficlets together made up about 12k. Obviously, RL gets busy, I had to put it on indefinite hiatus and yeah. It’s still up for archival reasons. The writing does make me cringe now, but the concept is still intriguing and a fun one. I’d love to doing something more on a smaller scale for that. Maybe for a bunch of different HP characters so they each have a short story. I do have an outline already to see if I can work this out for Perciver. I haven’t gotten too far into this yet, but there’s sooo much potential. Since my writing style has changed, I think it’s doable but it’s more on the how. And making sure I can reign it in before it gets big (writer problems, of course). Multi-media is definitely a huge commitment though, especially when it comes to letters, now that we have screen readers. So there would definitely need to be some alt text or AO3 skins/coding needed for this. Since I’m already writing a Teen Wolf fic that uses the latter, that’s going to be my test run to see how multi-media goes for me! If we’re talking about art stuff...goshhhh, if I had time to make more comics I would. For any ship. Comics are soooo hard though and since my style has matured, it definitely takes more time to complete. Besides last year’s Career Fair Drarry piece, my last comic was a spicy Perciver one for Kinkfest in 2020 (I did this while sick and buying a house at the same time lol, insane, yes). So yeah, when an idea and the timing lines up, maybe that’s when I’ll poke at making more comics again. The key is being invested and having enough uninterrupted time to draw up all the panels! Easier said than done, I know. 23. Would you like to go on a writing retreat? HELL YES. 100000%. Meeting folks and talking with them about fic and writing in the past has been so cool. I’d love to see more of this workshoppy/discussion vibe and learn how others write and apply some of that to my own writing, for sure. Even sprinting together or whatnot could be really fun. I’ve talked about this option with a few friends, and maybeeee for 2023, that could be a thing. Even if it’s a small get-together where we just work on writing stuff. Though, I might have to longhand it since there’s no way I can bring my big ass desktop PC with me, and I kind of hate writing on tablets. Thanks for the ask! ___ Previously asked: 8, 11, and 12 Have a question? Send a q for fanfic asks for the new year!