#maybe if I outline them more I'll get somewhere

[thechekhov]

Hello! I'm a big fan of your work. I wanted to ask for advice / thoughts about an art problem I've been struggling with that you seem to have at least some sort of solution for?

So basically I'm an animator and digital artist (hobbyist), and I'm constantly coming up with new ideas for things to make. Only problem is that most of these ideas would take up to or longer than 2 months to make because, yknow, animation isn't quick, especially if you want to take your time to make it good. But with so many ideas that all take so long to complete, I often find myself tied and frozen as I can't decide what's most worthwhile to start first. I passionately want to complete all these projects, but my inspiration for each one waxes and wanes in a way I can't control, and I've just been stuck for several months. You juggle a lot of projects- not all of them art, but it still seems applicable here. This is excluding other life responsibilities like work and stuff, I don't have problems with getting that stuff done. This is purely within my creative hobby.

If u can't say anything thats fine I'm just curious- You have a massive output with great quality. Thank you!

This is a very kind message, and one that humbles me a lot, because although I'd love to bestow upon you some sort of advice that might help, or give words of wisdom..............I feel like that would be fake of me because

I also suffer from this very same thing

That is to say, this part of your message:

my inspiration for each one waxes and wanes in a way I can't control

It rings true for me too! I think it might ring true for many others as well.

There are stories in my head all the time. There are stories, and concepts, and IDEAS and they are all so shiny and new in the beginning, and then they slowly peter out and, since I frequently don't have time to do anything about them, they fade into the background.

I have enough trouble with this in terms of COMICS (also a lengthy medium, though less so than animation, which, OOF, you have my condolences, you are stronger than I) that I have started to just come to terms with the fact that some things are not meant to be.

Which is, I think, one of the small bits of advice I can give.

1. Some things may just be ideas, and that's okay.

I think one of the best ways that I've learned to deal with Idea-Death is making it count towards something in the future. That is to say, using them as compost.

In order for this to work, you have to actively put your ideas into the compost pin instead of the trash. That means maybe investing in either a notebook, or a sketchbook, OR just a discord server for yourself where you organize ideas and dump them all into a channel to scroll back through later.

It may seem useless at first, but honestly, it can be satisfying to PUT them somewhere instead of letting them fade away.

Plus, you may one day scroll through them and rediscover an idea at just the right time. OR you may be inspired to take parts of an old idea and repurpose it for a new idea that you DO have motivation for.

However, there's also this part, right?

I've just been stuck for several months

I.......feel this. Sometimes I, too, feel stuck for several months. There are times when even if I WANT to work on something, I just don't have the time. It takes too long to finish!

.........which is why I recommend the following:

2. Don't finish. Just start.

Now, this is the toughie. I can't exactly say that it would work for everyone. But I have learned that I am WAY more likely to return to a project and work on it again sometime in the future if I actually DO something for it the first time I get inspired.

I have SO MANY things that I have not published in my folders. I have sketches of gifs that are 10 frames long. I have concept art sketches boldly labeled with project names that will likely never get off the ground. I have Googledoc files with summary and plot outlines for stories I'll probably never write. I have discord channels with random ass concepts and a few sketches for characters.

And what I have found is that if I just WORK on these ideas when I feel like it, they are more likely to survive, even if they don't thrive right away.

I'm also a huge proponent of Procrastination Rotation.

That is to say, I have so many projects I COULD be working on, that if I ever feel frustrated or stuck on one thing, I just shift myself slightly to the left and do another thing instead. I almost never force myself to work through a block (save for a few money-motivated deadlines) just to complete a thing.

Stuck on a comic? I'll go write a few lines of fic. Unsatisfied with where the fic is going?

I'll go sketch out an illustration. Incapable of finishing an illustration?

I'll go google some references for another comic project and slap them all into an image file for later, so that I have SOMETHING in place for when I want to do studies.

And so on and so forth.

I have comic ideas, and comic sketches, and 30+ pages of original comics sketched. I don't know if they'll make it. It would take a lot of work.

But it also takes very little work - just a few extra pages sketched while I'm bored for an hour. Or a bit of lineart while I listen to a podcast. Or just a doodle somewhere which I snap a pic of and add to my discord channel for that project.

Will it work for everyone? Probably not. But I think that our creative culture is sometimes too attached to a linear production style. The truth is that art, or illustrations, or animation, or comics - none of it has to be on an assembly line. It can be tinkered with and put aside. And then, maybe, picked apart for scraps.........or maybe made into something new!

I don't know if that helps you at all, but I hope it at least helps someone.

And good luck with your animating!

[alien-bluez]

raahhhh guh. another lineup, s2 kiddads. i love them so much they're rotating in my mind like a rotisserie chicken. god.

design notes for them under the cut if ur interested!

Grant

blue sweater bc blue is symbolic of titanic ep (something borrowed, something blue)

his tie color is the same color as Darryl's hat in my design

Wears Frank's watch that Darryl gave him, even if it's broken he doesn't take it off.

Green creeper socks because it's a Must. He wouldn't be Grant without them.

Sparrow

curly hair he got from mercedes' genes. he grew out his hair like lark

has a pink flower tucked in his hair like my henry's design

his jewelry and clothes are mostly borrowed from mercedes, he got really into crystals and other things like that growing up and got closer to his druid roots.

earrings are a feather and an oak leaf maybe i dunno i'll figure it out later lol

tattoos! there's supposed to be a bird outline there and other plant/nature related stuff on his arm. I'll draw it out better in the future mayhaps.

colors are brighter, more lifelike cuz he's closer to nature and all that jazz.

Lark

his hair has strands of white hair because of stress/trauma/Everything going on

hair is messier, unkempt because he cares less about appearances and doesn't have time anyways.

darker forest colors, less in tune with nature than sparrow.

his pants are the same color as my Henry's shorts :0) i needed a connection somewhere to his parents, and it just had to be henry.

Terry Jr.

purple shirt because his color is purple to me

fish motifs!! everywhere! i hc that when he and ron get closer bonding thru fishing they'd get each other fun fish printed shirts or something. This was Ron's gift to Terry. The colors of the fish are color picked from my Ron's design.

Fish tail tie and the shirt is also split like a fish tail maybe.

he's the tallest of the kiddads forever and always

Nicky

he wears glenn's sunglasses on his head

he grew out his hair long like morgan's because it's like the one thing he still really has of her. has her hair type and he takes very good care of his hair.

still has the ripped leather jacket from his time as nick and various patches of bands he likes (didn't want to draw them out yet.)

blue shirt because of his time as nicholas/reminder of jodie. blue holster belt and pants are also blue for jodie association

[tlbodine]

Stuck? Try junebugging.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but we're 5 days into nanowrimo so maybe this will be helpful.

Do you want the safety and surety of knowing what happens next in your story but can't stick to an outline? Does knowing in advance what will happen suck the joy out of discovery writing? Do you try to wing it through plots but get tangled in plot holes or have a story that runs out of steam because you can't figure out what went wrong? Are you at your most creative when you have a little bit of guidance? Do you tend to under-write? Do you get ideas in your head for random scenes and snippets that drop from the sky without context?

If any of these apply to you, junebugging a draft might be for you!

What Is Junebugging?

Since you're on Tumblr, you might already be familiar with the concept of junebugging as it relates to cleaning. If not -- I think the idea was first introduced to me by @jumpingjacktrash.

The basic idea is that you tackle cleaning by way of controlled chaos. You pick a specific area you want to focus on, like your kitchen sink, and then wander off to deal with other things as they occur to you, but always returning back to that area. You end up cleaning a little bit at a time in an order that may not make sense to an outsider but which keeps you from getting overwhelmed and discouraged.

How Does Junebugging Work in Writing?

OK, so that's great, but how does this work with writing? Well. In my case, the general idea is to jump between writing linearly, outlining, and writing out of order. It usually looks something like:

Start free-writing a scene, feeling my way through it and enjoying the discovery process.

Thinking, ok, now I have this scene, did anything need to happen to lead up to it? Do I need to go back and add some foreshadowing? Does this scene set anything up that needs to be paid off? And then jump forward/back to make those adjustments.

I'll usually have a bunch of disconnected ideas of ideas that have popped into my head, so I'll write those down in a list somewhere and then try to figure out what goes in between them and what order it goes in.

I'll write what I call "micro-scenes" which is where I'll just sketch out a few essential elements of what's going on without worrying too much about details, description, etc. -- just he did this, she said that, the setting was this, real bare-bones script. Then I can come back through and flesh out each of those microscenes into an actual scene later.

Got a story that has a complex structure? No problem. Write through each storyline one at a time and then chop them up and weave them together afterward. Write all the B plot scenes first then come back through to do A plot and C plot. Move the pieces around like legos. No one ever has to know.

This method works for me because I can't "decide" story elements in advance. I have never been able to just sit down and "figure out" what happens in a story beyond a couple steps ahead -- I have to discovery-write my way forward. But at the same time, that gets really daunting. So I zoom forward with micro-scenes, roughing out the beats in the most bare-bones way possible, then when I run out of clear vision for what happens next I backtrack, flesh out those scenes, build in connective tissue, etc. and by then I will probably find more inspiration to jump forward.

It's basically folding drafting, outlining, and revising all together into a single phase of writing, which is chaotic and goes against everything people teach you, but if it works? then it fuckin works.

Anyway, sorry for the jumbled-up post, I'm dashing this off quickly while I heat up a pizza and I'm about to dive back into my WIP -- but I hope this was a little helpful. If nothing else, take this as my blanket permission that it's 100% OK to jump around, write out of order, write messy, outline sometimes, pants sometimes, and do whatever else it takes just to get through the story. You've got this. Good luck.

[plutoswritingplanet]

Vicarious (Homelander x Female!Reader) pt.4

a/n: a short conclusion for the last chapter, before i finish a more story-heavy one, deeply inspired by "Two Against One" by Jack White

Warnings: Masturbation (again, wow), Explicit Language, Alcohol Use, Very Creepy Behavior, Plus Sized Reader, Inappropriate Relations With A Marble Wall, Suggestive Themes

Summary: Both you and Homelander get increasingly confused about what you truly are. None come out unscathed.

Pt. 1 Pt.2 Pt.3 Pt.5

The vulnerability of drunkenness looks good on you. 

At first, you're none the wiser. As your limbs uncurl from around Homelander, your feet hitting the polished floor of his penthouse. Stomach flipping around, you fight with all your strength not to fall to your knees, as the shock of being shot out through the air slowly subsides. Homelander starts pacing around the living area, an excitable spring in his steps, as he makes his way towards the rather well-stocked liquor cabinet. Were you more vigilant, perhaps you would've read this action for what it truly was, but as it stands, the realization is postponed for a few seconds more. 

Glasses clink somewhere behind you, but you're too focused on steadying your breathing to notice. Your vision is swimming, the blurred outline of a gigantic American flag, hanged on the wall in front of you, makes you want to jump out that stupid window. The repetitive pattern twists your brain around.

- Ugh... Jesus - you throw the offending piece of cloth a withering look.

- If you're going to be sick, do it in the bathroom - Homelander barks, keeping himself out of your field of vision. 

- I'll be fine, don't wo... - okay, you cut yourself off because maybe you're not fine after all. 

A second passes, as you try to identify, if the feeling inside your chest is an omen of oncoming vomit. 

No, it's good, you're okay. 

Your eyelids are so incredibly heavy, it almost feels like your lashes are tangling together every time you blink, trying to force your eyes to stay closed. There's this strange taste in your mouth, a ghost of drinks past, mixed with some other, much more worrying substances you've enthusiastically consumed, and you smack your tongue against your pallet, running it over your teeth, as if to test if they're all set in place. Adrenaline gathers at the tips of your fingertips, and you shake your hands with a frown, fighting to rid yourself of this energy. Instead of helping, it only serves to make your stomach churn harder.

Traumatic experiences, such as being flown through the air at ungodly speed, should technically sober you up, but right now you feel like you've been funneling alcohol through a tube the entire night. Not entirely untrue, but you've never been a lightweight, so this sudden change of pace surprises and worries you. And there's one more thing. As your hands flail at your sides, checking your bearings, a sudden wave of realization hits you like a truck. 

Your bag. You forgot your bag at the party, and as such, your phone is lost too. Which wouldn't be so bad, if you didn't have the combination for the door of your room in the Tower saved in the notes. Your head starts to hurt, eyes closing shut, as you try to will the numbers into your brain. They were funny, you made them into a joke, you just don't remember which one. 

- Fuck... - you sigh, scratching at the back of your neck, where your sweat is rapidly cooling in the conditioned air of the penthouse. 

Which was it? Four numbers, significant ones. You chuckled to yourself when you first typed them into the lock, but it's so hard to focus on anything other than staying upright.

- You okay there? - Homelander asks, and suddenly you're reminded that he's still here, with you.

Alone. 

It's not dread that climbs up your spine at the realization, not excitement either. What you feel, clawing its way through your insides like a feral beast, is a profound sense of acceptance. Blue and red invade your vision, as he moves to stand in front of you, pushing a chilled glass filled with amber liquid into your hand. On instinct, your fingers curl around it, but you can't seem to raise it to your lips, wondering, if this move will signal your defeat. His chest rises and falls evenly, as he stands so close to you, you can practically feel the heat coming off of him, along with that rich cologne, that surrounds you from every angle. 

There's a geometric pattern all over the blue parts of his costume, and your eyes fight against its movements in front of you. The padding on his chest and stomach is truly ridiculous, even in your sorry state you can realize the unnatural movements of his fake muscles over his skin. Really, you can't be the only person that's noticed this. 

- I forgot my phone from the party - your voice is so quiet, weak, and you can't seem to pinpoint, if it's Smirnoff's or Fireball's - I don't...

- I know - he interrupts you, inclining his head as if he's trying to entice you to look at him - You left it on a chair in the kitchen. 

You don't give yourself the luxury of confusion, because you should've known. You should've figured it out, the moment he fell from the sky, catching the vulnerability of the moment, and crushing it in his teeth. Of course, he was looking, listening in as well, most likely. Wouldn't be the first time, would it? Who else would've known to leak the contract information, mere hours after you've complained to your friend over the phone, by an open window no less? There's no allowance of betrayal for you, you knew from the start, and yet you've allowed yourself to be put in this situation. You placed your own hand into the maw of the lion, and now you're supposed to expect him not to snap his teeth?

 His hand comes up into your field of vision, those red, leather gloves creaking, as they wrap around your fingers holding the glass. You don't resist, when he guides your hand up, towards your lips, tips the glass against them, until the bitter liquid pours into your mouth, past your teeth. 

- Very good - he murmurs with a patronizing tone, watching your throat work, as you swallow around the burning sensation - Take it all in, champ.

And you do. You down the drink, until there's nothing left. His hand retreats, and your fingers relax, letting the glass fall onto the plush carpet. You need to lock Smirnoff, stuff her back into that box, hidden from sight, before anything progresses. But she just won't let go. She claws her way into your brain, screaming at you to do something, anything, before it's too late. 

This isn't you. You're not here. 

The familiar mantra falls short, as Homelander slowly starts to take off his gloves, one finger at a time. His hands are strong, pale, with slender fingers, that curl and uncurl around air, as if testing the tendons working under his skin. Your eyes glide over the movements, heart stopping for just a moment, when he holds out his right hand in front of your chest, just shy of touching. Wetting your lips with your tongue, you watch, as his fingers tremble with tension. He wants you to feel it, the anticipation of the inevitable. He wants you to break, he's only ever wanted a reaction out of you.

- Please, I don't... - your voice cracks like a window. 

You don't what? Want it? You're convinced there are no words in the world, that would stop him right now, and the muscles in your face twitch. The American flag behind his shoulder stares at you, the stripes suddenly becoming a flurry of motion, as he pushes his hand against your chest. You don't fight it, letting him guide you all the way across the room, until your back reaches the wall, slamming into it with a dull thud. Despite that, the unrelenting force behind his movements makes you acutely aware of his true strength, the sheer lack of humanity inside this man in front of you. 

As soon as you're pressed against the wall, Homelander lurches forwards, his arms encircling your form completely, his face diving into the juncture between your neck and shoulder. Your entire body sways in place, as he takes a long, shuddering breath, his palms mapping the softness of your flesh under the flimsy t-shirt. Cotton tears under his ministrations, and cold air hits your back, your sides. A deep, low hum reverberated through his chest, as he exhales, immediately sucking in another breath through gritted teeth. 

- You... - he huffs, his exposed hands fitting themselves under the tears in your shirt - I've never known something so cheap could smell so good.  

There's a jolt of something, running through his body, as his hips press into you with barely restrained force. He'd fit nicely between your pliable thighs, but not now, not ever. The hardness digging into your stomach finally solidifies, what you dreaded would come.

- We can't - you don't recognize your voice. 

This isn't you. You're not here. 

But Fireball is not here either, so what is this third, strange person, who raises their hands and pushes against his chest, against the metal eagles on his shoulders? The flag still watches you struggle, those impassive stars mocking you at every turn. Truly, the American Dream come true, being humped like a dog by the strongest, most Yankee Doodle Dandy superhero to ever exist. This is exactly, what your parents were chasing, when they moved to the States, searching for a better future for their soon-to-be-born little girl. Will he stick a flag pole in your cunt, and sing the fucking National Anthem, after he's done using you? The thought almost makes you laugh, makes you remember the combination to your room, but all dark amusement flies out the still open window, because suddenly, his arms straighten out. 

He pins you to the wall, pulling back all the way, so he can stare at you with those cold, dead eyes, full of freedom for his own, heinous actions, and none left for you. There's tension in his face, as his lips press together into a condescending, tight smile, and his fingers flex on your shoulders, testing the durability of the stitches of your t-shirt once again. 

- Can't? - there's a tilt to his voice, a barely contained sliver of anger seeping through his teeth - I'm the fucking Homelander. I can do whatever I want. 

Ah, so that's what you're dealing with.

 The box rattles, the lock you've so carefully placed upon it bursting open like a cracked egg. And as Smirnoff takes her rightful place, scraping both Fireball and that elusive third thing from the surface of your brain, you look up at Homelander with utter understanding. What stands in front of you, is not a symbol of hope and peace. You're looking at a spoiled, invincible brat, who's never had to work for anything in his life. 

This is you. You're here. And you're so fucking disappointed.

Once again, you shape-shift right in front of his eyes, and with a shuddered breath Homelander realizes, that finally, he's looking at the real you. Not the bored, wreck of a human being he's met weeks ago, not the corporate product Stillwell has carved out of you, but a secret, third thing. An intoxicating cocktail of your true, hidden feelings floats to the surface, from underneath layers upon layers of masks, and he wishes to tear every single one, if it means you'll keep looking at him like that. Like you know him, like you can see behind the curtain of his performance, just as he sees behind yours. It's been such a long time, since someone made this discovery, and remained impassive.

When he thinks about it, this is the first time, he's met with such levelled response. And, fuck, the thought is better than drugs. The ghost of your scent tickles his nostrils, and he wonders what would stick to his tongue, should he taste you right now. Not fear, not desire, definitely not admiration. The expression you're wearing is eerily familiar, but so strange at the same time. Stitches at your shoulders tear under his fingertips, when he squeezes harder, hoping to extract the answer from your skin, from the softness of your flesh, the caverns of your bones. 

You don't even give him the luxury of a flinch.

- Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Who said those words, you're both unsure, but they shoot through him like thousands of spikes, drilling themselves under his impenetrable skin with ease. He blinks, and finally realizes the familiarity of your gaze. He's seen it, back in that lab, back home. Disappointment. And with that realization comes a myriad of familiar feelings, of patterns he's been continuing over, and over again, like a compulsion he's unable to rid himself of. The need to be feared, respected, loved, it all mixes with one more, treacherous thing. Make it right, make it better. 

Slowly, his fingers uncurl from around your shoulders, the t-shirt hanging onto your frame on a couple of strings alone. Surely, he'll regret this sooner, rather than later, but for now, he lets you go. Homelander takes a step back, his eyes unfocused behind a dazed cloud, as he regards you with scrunched eyebrows. It's evident, by the way his breathing quickens, the way his movements are tense, still ready to pounce. The desire to tear, to get what he wants is strong as ever, and the darkness in his eyes should be terrifying. Would be terrifying, if you were anyone, but yourself. 

And still, there's nothing. Your hearbeat is steady, your breathing even, your blood lacks any familiar chemicals, which would indicate your dishevelled state. It's as if you're looking at his through the windows of a passing bus, like he's a fucking traffic sign stuck into concrete. Insignificant, a piece of the landscape no one thinks twice about. But then, before he has the chance to get offended, you shift again, knocking him off his rythm once more. 

When did your eyes start to sparkle like that, he's none the wiser, but he drinks up the sight like a man parched, his mouth opening just a little, tasting the air of you on his tongue. The ghost of a smile on your lips might as well be a trick of the light, but he wants to believe otherwise, and as you take a step closer to him, pushing yourself off the wall, his heart stops for a millisecond. 

- Thank you - you whisper, your breath hanging in the space between the two of you - For saving me.

He blinks. And then, you're gone, leaving his penthouse like nothing has happened, like this is exactly how the night was supposed to end. The click of the door behind you sounds so distant to his ears, as if he's being held under water, and he's left standing rigid, staring at the empty space on the wall, where your body pressed into just seconds ago. A myriad of emotions swirls within him, one darker than the other, and as if pushed by some invisible force, he approaches the wall, closing his eyes with a shudder. Images of you, your body, the softness underneath his fingertips, flood his mind, and one question still fights for an answer in his mind. He needs to know, needs to feel something, lest he follows right behind you and forces the solution right out of your lips. 

Your scent lingers long after you've left, and with the concentration of a mad scientist, he places his cheek against the cold marble, where your shoulder was mounted. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, and with a groan of unresolved tension, Homelander lets his tongue slip from between his teeth, laying flat on the polished surface. He licks a long stripe across, from one imaginary shoulder to the other, and can almost feel the ghost of you under each taste bud. 

Why did he let you go? What sort of a spell did you put on him, that he let you slip past his fingers, while he's still here, burning up with need? 

His hand tugs at the belt buckle, until it snaps off completely, clattering to the floor. Saliva smears down the surface of the wall, as he yanks down the lower part of his suit, immediately starting to hump his hand like a wild animal, mind clouded with what he wants, but can't seem to take. The marble wall steals the boiling heat right out of his body, and he presses harder against the unrelenting surface, fucking into his hand with reckless abandon. Words leave his lips in a messy jumble, nonsensical and broken. His eyes sting under his eyelids, and as he feels his peak come closer and closer, the heat inside his head becomes unbearable. 

With a frustrated, wanton growl, he comes hard all over the wall, his eyes snapping open, letting the deadly light out in full force. It collides with the marble, burning into it with ease for just a second, before he blinks it away, his body shaking from the intensity of his release. Pieces of rubble fall to the ground at his feet, dust covering the red leather of his boots. He's outgrown shame a long time ago, and with lips pursed in deep thought, he examines the demage he's done while lost in the moment. Placing his forehead right at the edge of the hole in the wall, he gathers his release on the tips of his fingers, pressing it further into the cracks in the marble.

This might be a bit harder to explain in the morning, he thinks to himslef with a huff of laughter. But, out of all the things he could've done, he guesses Stillwell would be happier to call for a renovation team, than have to explain to the higher-ups, and later the world, what happened to that bright-eyed Sidekick of his. 

A small mercy. A present, if you will, for both you and her. He shakes his head, finally stepping away from the destroyed wall. After all, it wasn't any spell, any sort of influence that made him let you flee back to the supposed safety of your room. It was his benevolence.

 Of course. He's the hero after all.  

[darqx]

Nope!

I like that I've had people say they can relate to my characs and/or that my characs feel real 🥰 That really makes my day cos it means I'm doing ok with my characteristation then haha. In terms of Rire in particular, one of my fave things is when people can't decide whether they like him or hate him and end up settling on a weird mixture of both and squaggling about it. I find this extremely gratifying.

Hello! Thanks I am doing good (now that I'm having a break from work ahah) :D I'm gonna be real and say I'm not sure if I'm the best person to ask considering I was only involved in like...one and a bit horrorporn projects |D - Gato would prob be the MVP at the moment - but I'll give you some gen advice that hopefully you can find useful :)

Plan your project. Most people are NOT good pantsers and it's not easy to get a cohesive plot/project if you don't have SOME idea of what you are doing. Whether you are doing a VN or a comic or whatever, make sure you have an outline of what is going to happen for your own reference.

Find an audience. If you're lucky then an audience who will enjoy your project will find you (which was the case with BTD and some throwing it out there.) Most of the time though you will need to advertise your project to like-minded people first. Put your characters, art, teasers out there! If you want people to care about your project you have to give them a reason to care about/get excited about it.

Be prepared to be disliked. This is true for any project because everyone doesn't like everything, but if you are going for horrorporn (or really, anything that could be considered weird i guess) there's a much higher chance of people looking at your stuff and going what the ever loving fuck. Anyway the point is you will need to just do your own thing and try not take certain things personally even if they seem aimed at you personally. Or just be like:

4. ✔️ Just do it. Self explanatory, dont let your dreams be dreams lol.

Thanks very much for asking first! I'm flattered that you want to create fangames like that with my BP characs, but I'm unfortunately going to have to say no at the moment. This is mainly because I haven't got my own project with them out yet and I don't want people to potentially get confused with the origins. Maybe after I start posting and establish the comic more, we can revisit this question :)

Thank you (and to all the other lovely asks like this)! Psh don't worry about being new to being an artist, everyone has to start somewhere!

[graciesstrap]

The Outfit

Gracie Abrams x Fem!reader ☆

Since Tumblr doesn’t own a pathetic, sapphic, toe’s curling, hot, steamy, needy and good Gracie Abrams OneShot…Here is one.

Summary: Gracie got ready for an photoshoot and reader seems to love Gracie’s outfit;)

Warnings!: pure smut, strap-on use (reader receiving), mommy kink, spanking, face fucking, degradation, pet names. (Please tell me if I forgot any!)

"Oh my god," y/n mumbled as Gracie walked into the bedroom of their shared hotel suite, having spent the last hour and a half getting ready in the sitting area of the hotel room. She'd demanded, like always, that y/n stays away so that she could reveal her outfits to y/n each time she had something to dress up for.

Y/n could hear the stylists getting their things together and leaving their suite to give Gracie some time before she had to go to the photoshoot, but y/n was too focused on her girlfriend standing before her to even comprehend anything else.

Gracie was standing tall in the doorway of the bedroom, dressed in white slacks and a white blazer with jewels emblazoned across the shoulders and chest, loosely buttoned with one single, hopefully dependable button right at her lower abdomen. Her thin heels made her appear even more towering, and y/n could feel herself melting under her gaze. Her long brown hair was slicked back, her lips tinted dark pink.

Her small smirk broke out into a grin. "Do you like it?" she asked with a tilt of her head, a knowing tone in her voice. She knew that y/n liked every outfit she chose, but she knew she would like that one especially.

Sitting up from where y/n was laying on the bed, y/n crawled her way down the mattress, watching as Gracie waltzed to the edge of the bed. Once they both met there, y/n sat on the edge and looked up at her, taking her by the hips and pulling Gracie closer to her. y/n’s legs hooked loosely around Gracie’s hips and pulled her even closer between hers.

Gracie chuckled and placed her hands over y/n’s legs, her palms gliding up and down to and from y/n’s thighs. Reaching up, y/n fiddled with one of the jewels on Gracie’s blazer. "You should fuck me before you go," y/n whispered innocently, watching a lustful look approach Gracie’s face. She smirked down at her and taking her outer thighs, pressed herself further against y/n. Y/n paused when she felt, through the soft silk of Gracie’s white slacks, something hard pressing itself into her.

Gracie was wearing the strap.

"Gracie," y/n nearly gasped out of desire, feeling herself start to throb at the mere fact that Gracie was going to wear her strap under her pants to the photoshoot.

Gracie smirked, reveling in tantalizing y/n. As much as she wanted to stay there between her thighs, she needed to be somewhere very soon. "I've gotta go, babe," Gracie told her, unwrapping y/n’s legs from around her like a ribbon and backing away.

"No!" Y/n exclaimed, instantly feeling frustrated when the outline of Gracie’s strap left her thighs. Y/n kneeled up on the very edge of the bed, nearly falling forwards as she grabbed Gracie by the hips again and tried to pull Gracie back to her, but the woman easily took y/n’s hands off her and held them tightly in her own.

"Now don't be a brat, y/n," Gracie commented, a rather pleased look on her face from seeing y/n so needy for her. "If you're a good girl, maybe I'll give you what you want whenever I get back."

Y/n’s jaw nearly popped off her skull. "That's gonna be hours from now!"

Taking y/n’s chin rather firmly, Gracie tilted it up and brought her face close to y/n’s, whispering against her lips, "Then you have plenty of time to make sure you look just like this when I get back—on your knees with your mouth wide open."

There was a small rasp that caught her voice and sent chills down y/n’s spine. Y/n tried her hardest to look into Gracie’s eyes, but with how close she was to her face, y/n resorted to staring at Gracie’s plump lips as she whispered, "Yes, Mommy." With how close Gracie was, y/n could smell her intoxicatingly masculine vanilla scent that drove her even more wild.

Y/n watched Gracie’s lips spread in satisfaction. "Mmm, good girl. And you'd better not touch yourself before I get back."

Y/n chewed her lip. How was she supposed to keep herself calm for several hours while knowing that Gracie was going to come back and hopefully fuck her? Especially with the way she looked and especially with how she'd pressed herself against y/n just moments before.

"I won't," y/n told her, knowing fully well that she would try her hardest to refrain, but would probably fail.

Giving y/n a lingering kiss on her lips, Gracie released her chin and walked away, already late to her photoshoot. Y/n stayed kneeling up on the bed as she listened to Gracie’s heels echo through the suite before the door opened and closed.

Once y/n was alone, she let out a groan and fell back onto the bed. She felt hot all over, and as hard as she tried to think about anything else, her mind was stuck on one thing—the feeling of Gracie’s strap against her leg and how much she wanted it inside her.

All y/n could see was Gracie’s slicked back hair and her toned lower abdomen and how tall she looked and how she had grabbed y/n’s chin and how her voice sounded when she called her a good girl and—

With a whine of defeat, y/n slipped her hand down her shorts.

__________________

Y/n wasn't sure how long it had been since Gracie left, mostly because she had fallen asleep after finishing herself off. All she knew was that the sound of heels clicking towards the room had never woken y/n up so fast as it did in that moment.

Y/n managed to sit upright right as Gracie appeared in the doorway, y/n’s eyes struggling to open. By the looks of her hair and her confused look, it was obvious she had just woken up.

Gracie’s cheeks indented with a smile as she came closer to y/n, but there was a strange gleam in her eye. "As cute as you are waking up from a nap, didn't I give you instructions to be on your knees when I came back?" She came to the edge of the bed again and looked y/n up and down as she struggled to come out of her nap-induced haze. "And with that pretty mouth of yours wide open?"

"Sorry," Y/n said with a sigh, rubbing her face to wake herself up. "I... I fell asleep." Gracie’s eyes flickered to y/n’s hand for a moment before she reached out and took it, bringing it to her face. "What are you—"

Before you/n could ask Gracie what she was doing with her hand, Gracie pressed her nose gently against y/n’s fingers and inhaled, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment. When they opened again, they were deeply disappointed. Y/n’s lips parted when she realized Gracie had smelled y/n’s arousal on her fingers from when she had touched herself after Gracie left.

"On top of that, you touched yourself when I told you not to," Gracie remarked, her tone flat and irritated, but her hand held y/n’s softly.

Y/n tilted her head and looked up at Gracie pleadingly, grabbing onto the inside edge of her blazer. ”You were teasing me, Gracie,” Y/n whined, trying her best to give Gracie those eyes she could never be mad at. “I just couldn’t help myself.”

Gracie’s eyebrow perked upwards, her lips forming into a pout. "Mmm, is that right? You were just too needy and slutty to help yourself, hm?"

Y/n’s cheeks flushed furiously at Gracie’s degrading choice of words. Gritting her teeth, y/n slowly nodded, accepting the degradation, which earned her an approving hum from Gracie.

"And just how do you think you could make it up to Mommy?" Gracie asked, her hand moving to caress the side of y/n’s face.

Y/n shrugged, feeling all her nerves start to alight at Gracie’s subtle touch. Y/n was, in fact, desperately needy for her, so much that it took everything in her to not fling herself at her.

Leaning closer, Gracie’s brown eyes shifted between y/n’s eyes and her lips as she moved towards her ear, pressing her lips right against the top of it and grunting, "On your knees."

Wanting to be as good as possible so that she would fuck her sooner, y/n quickly hopped off the bed and kneeled down onto the floor, sitting on her heels and looking patiently up at Gracie as she walked around the bed to stand in front of her. Never had y/n felt so small, nor had Gracie looked so tall as she stood before y/n and stared down at her with burning eyes that made y/n hot in their stare.

Y/n held her breath, waiting for Gracie to tell her what to do, to touch her, to do anything. Finally, y/n watched Gracie’s svelte fingers move to the button of her pants, the jewels of her blazer catching the light and glimmering. Instantly, y/n’s mouth started watering. Between Gracie’s smelting gaze and how slowly she was undoing her pants, y/n felt like she could just explode in excitement and desire.

"You have to make it up to Mommy for being such a bad girl," Gracie said as she unzipped her pants, reaching in them to pull out her strap. Y/n chewed her lip at the sight of it, trying to control herself as Gracie stepped closer to her. She stood with her hips jutting outwards towards y/n, a smirk playing at her lips. "Open your mouth, baby."

Doing exactly as she said, y/n opened her mouth wide for her. Gracie moved her strap to y/n’s lower lip, nudging it for a moment before sliding her length into y/n’s mouth. Once the tip hit the back of y/n’s throat, her gag reflexes kicked in for a brief moment until she got used to Gracie’s strap down her throat.

Placing her hands over Gracie’s thighs, y/n opened her eyes to see Gracie looking awfully turned on to have her cock in your/n’s mouth. Y/n could have sworn the woman had some kind of kink for putting her strap in her mouth with the way she enjoyed it and did it so often. Of course, y/n obliged, letting Gracie fuck her mouth any time she so pleased. And that's just what Gracie started to do then, as she pulled out before slowly thrusting back into y/n’s mouth, her hand holding the side of y/n’s head. Y/n tried her best to keep her mouth open as Gracie slow thrusts started to be more forceful, hitting the back of y/n’s throat and making her silently gag on impact. Gracie groaned and leaned her head back, continuing to fuck into y/n’s mouth until tears were slipping down her cheeks from her reflex being triggered so much.

Having closed her eyes, y/n froze when Gracie’s strap left her mouth and did not go back in. Opening her eyes, y/n was met with Gracie sitting on the edge of the bed and patting her lap. "Come here."

Wiping her mouth clean of her drool, y/n slowly stood up and walked towards Gracie, starting to straddle her until she stopped you.

"No," Gracie said, gently pushing y/n off her. "Lay across my lap... on your stomach." Y/n was confused at first, until she realized what Gracie was going to do. Y/n pouted in protest, and Gracie immediately tutted her tongue at y/n. "On my lap, darling."

Hesitantly, y/n crawled on the bed and laid herself over Gracie’s knees, propping herself up on her elbows on the mattress. Every inch of y/n’s skin seemed to buzz as she felt Gracie’s hand pulling her shorts and underwear down. The cold air hitting y/n’s exposed ass, she jumped slightly upon feeling Gracie’s hand caress the back of her thigh ever so softly.

When she felt a sharp and unexpected slap to her cheek, y/n yelped in surprise. Gracie chuckled darkly and rubbed the spot where she had slapped. "I have to teach you a lesson, my love," Gracie said calmly, running her hand firmly up the back of y/n’s thigh again. She grazed y/n’s core, running right past it just to deliver another slap.

As gentle as she was being, the unexpectedness of it made y/n yelp again. Gracie rubbed the area again, not giving y/n any time to recover before she spanked her again, this time delivering two hard slaps. Y/n’s knees were trembling from both desire and pain, y/n’s breath hitching in her throat when she felt Gracie’s fingers move through her folds.

The stinging pain on her ass started to fade when y/n felt Gracie’s fingers sliding up and down her slit. Y/n thighs parted for her, hips grinding against Gracie’s lap.

"Such a needy girl," Gracie commented as she ran her fingers through y/n’s wetness. "And so fucking wet."

"Gracie," y/n panted, feeling overwhelmingly turned on at the feeling of being bent over Gracie’s lap, utterly exposed and helpless as she touched her. Y/n couldn't help but lean her ass into Gracie’s hand, as much as it made Gracie laugh at y/n’s desperateness.

Gracie’s fingers, wettened by y/n’s juices, moved to her entrance and slid easily in. Y/n’s mouth fell open as Gracie’s fingers pushed into her until she was knuckle-deep, curling her fingers downward to touch y/n’s g-spot.

"Fuck," y/n breathed, pushing her face into the mattress and pushing her hips towards Gracie’s hand. Gracie groaned in delight at the sight of y/n, pumping her fingers into her pussy at a tantalizingly slow rate. Y/n ground her thighs together, desperate to feel more of Gracie.

"God, you're such a good girl," Gracie commented, her eyes catching the stains of red on y/n’s skin from where Gracie had spanked her. Y/n’s slick was coating Gracie’s knuckles at this point, and she couldn't dare keep herself from her any longer.

Moving y/n off her lap, Gracie stood up and bent her over the bed so that her upper body was flat against the mattress, y/n’s legs dangling over the side of the tall bed. Almost as soon as she felt Gracie bend her over, y/n felt Gracie spread her and shove herself inside y/n, her large cock stretching y/n’s hole. One hand held y/n’s hip while the other grabbed the back of y/n’s neck and pushed her firmly into the bed, hinging her body perfectly in Gracie’s hold so that y/n’s ass was arched to her.

Y/n moaned out as she felt Gracie fill her pussy up until her hips were flush against y/n’s. As expensive as her pants were, Gracie didn't mind it when y/n’s wetness rubbed off on the crotch of the fabric. In fact, it made her give a breathy, "Fuck," as she started to pound into y/n, not giving her enough time to adjust to her size.

"Gracie!" Y/n exclaimed, her voice muffled between the bed and her sprawled hair. Gracie’s thrusts shook y/n’s entire body, causing small rhythmic grunts to come from her throat.

"I've been waiting to fuck you all day," Gracie growled, the button of her blazer having come open sometime during her wrestle with y/n, the blazer opening to reveal the valley of her breasts and her abdomen.

The back of y/n’s neck was being bruised by Gracie’s hand, and so was y/n’s hip, but she was brainless as Gracie jackhammered into her, managing to hit y/n’s g-spot every single time, the sound of flesh slapping filling the room. Gracie’s strap rubbing her clit with every movement, Gracie’s mouth fell open in pleasure, her eyebrows creasing as she leaned her head back.

Y/n could feel the tingles of an orgasm approaching inside her, and when she heard Gracie’s moans coincide with her own, it sent y/n right over the edge. Y/n squeezed her eyes shut and moaned into the mattress, feeling Gracie press her down even harder, leaning forward to burrow her face against y/n’s back as she came, her hips slowing into smaller thrusts that helped the both of them to ride their orgasms out.

Gracie panted hard against y/n’s back, her weight keeping y/n pinned against the mattress. Gracie’s hand finally released the back of y/n’s neck which now ached, moving to hold her by the waist.

"Fuck." Gracie breathed as she finally moved off y/n, slowly pulling out as she rolled over, staring up at her dazedly. Gracie smirked at her, enjoying the sight of y/n having been fucked brainless. Biting her tongue, Gracie leaned down between y/n’s legs and kissed her softly, pulling away to whisper, "I knew you'd love this outfit."

[the-modern-typewriter]

How would I write enemies to lovers who work with each other? And they want to kill each other? But they realise they are in love...

Working together is a great starting point because it means they have a reason to interact and a common goal.

You start the story with them wanting to kill each other and being in opposition (for whatever reason fits your story).

On the lighter end of enemies to lovers it could be that they are competing for the same promotion or have different competing methods of tackling the same task (e.g. one is a maverick and the other is more traditional/by the rules.) This highlights two different reasons to be enemies. One is external (the competing) and one is internal (there is something they fundamentally don't like about each other at the start.) External is easier to romance up than internal, but both can work depending on execution.

On the more intense actually want to kill each other end, the scenario is more likely to be something like they have history but in this instance have to work together for X reason. Maybe one used to be on the opposing side but has no moved to be on the same team. Whatever. I say this because if the feelings are that strong there has to be something in their relationship/the story set up that would make them want to kill each other, so they are unlikely to be aligned on the same goal and the stakes are higher (so they are not likely to just be coworkers who don't get on!)

(Can you do a version of enemies to lovers where they want to kill each other and are in love at the same time? Yes. But that is more likely to be a situation of lovers who become enemies and end somewhere more complicated by the time the story starts. It's not a traditional enemies to lovers.)

Enemies to lovers is often slow burn for a reason. You generally have to allow time for the feelings to change. On the lighter end, there is less change needed so your plot points don't need to be as dramatic. On the rougher end, you really need to earn it.

The realising they are in love happens later in the story (maybe at the midpoint or 75% depending on your story) not at the same time as wanting to kill each other. Before then, you establish why they don't like each other and then (as they do their interactions) reasons why actually they would/do like each other and work well together. You highlight their positive traits or create scenarios to deepen the understanding between the two.

A lot of romances follow roughly the same structure. This is outlined here by Savannah Gilbo:

[marshthemarsh]

A pjo x dc crossover that takes place before the lighting thief.

Starting with Percy Jackson who was 11 at the time when he catches the attention of the teen titans, who have started to notice that Percy was the target for almost all the recent monster attacks, because Percy keeps getting caught up in all these monster attacks the titans do a background check on Percy.

Of course the background check leaves them more concerned (what do you mean Percy attended 6 schools and got expelled from all 6 schools?) so they decide the next time Percy gets caught up in a monster attack they'll interrogate him to try and find some answers as to why Percy is a target for these monsters.

When Percy gets caught up in another monster attack he does what he always do and that's running from the monsters and to somewhere safe but this time his paths of escaping are blocked, the monster cornered him and Percy does try fighting back and during the fight the teen titans do come to his rescue and Percy who never stuck around to see the fights is immediately star struck by Robin(the only one who doesn't have powers yet was able to take a monster down by himself?!). Percy not wanting to stick around but staying because his path was still blocked ends up being walked home by Robin and Percy asks robin how he's able to fight and if he could maybe please teach him how to fight because he keeps getting attacked and he's tired of running he wants to fight back. Robin, seeing this as an opportunity to investigate Percy more, agrees to teach Percy how to fight.

Percy usually trained with robin over the weekends during summer break and thinks Robin is the coolest person ever and Robin isn't any closer to figuring out why Percy keeps being attacked but he meets Sally who asks Robin if he could protect/keep an eye on Percy (he agrees but is suspicious of Sally because he knows that she knows more than she's letting on) he does grow fond of them and ends up giving them a device that'll alert him immediately if either Sally or Percy need his or the titans help.

When Percy is sent to Yancy Academy Robin reminds him to take the device with him to Yancy just in case he needs help. While the school year started Robin did keep tabs on Percy (the mini robin as the titans jokingly referred to Percy as) and there's really nothing note worthy about Percy's school year except one of his teachers being replaced in the middle of the school year but that was all that happened. At the end of the school year Sally does ask if robin could be the one to pick Percy up from the subway station( Sally and Robin stayed in touch during the summer just in case Sally needed a quick get away from Gabe) Robin agreed and picked up Percy from the train station and sees Percy was upset about something, Percy tells him it's because he isn't welcomed back the next school year but robin knew it had to be more than just that.

Now on to the events of the lighting thief

While Percy was on his quest Robin was freaking out because what do you mean Sally and Percy went missing and then Percy reappeared causing a 10 car pile up and then disappeared again only to reappear again and blow up the st Louis Arch?? The titans are all trying to find Percy, they don't know what's happening but whatever it is it's big and Robin won't stop stressing over trying to find Percy and Sally.

After the fight with Ares on the beach Percy calls Robin for help instead of flying home ( the titans were already on their way, they saw the news of Percy in a knife/gun fight with his captor) after returning to new York (and Percy returning the bolt) and seeing Sally also returned home Robin tries to get answers but before he could he had some problems in Gotham he needed to deal with.

This is currently a brain worm I have and I might actually turn it into a full on fic later, I have a vague outline for the sea of monsters and the titans curse that I'll post about later but here's this for now.

[robobarbie]

Sorry if this was mentioned before somewhere, but how do you go about writing the script & choice branches for your stories? Do you tend to get a premise first & then build characters around it, or the reverse? How was it like working with multiple writers for BP, and getting their different takes to become cohesive into the overall plot? (Asking more out of behind the scenes curiosity/fascination with different writers' processes so ignore this is you wanna)

How do you go about writing the script & choice branches for your stories?

For big projects (like BP + AAI), before I start the script, I always have a mildly detailed outline for each day -- but I don't feel married to it. I then take one day at a time and just write whatever comes to mind in a google doc, and I often do veer off within each day from what the outline had indicated. Sometimes the conversations just flow differently as I'm writing them out, and that often ends up being some of the most natural writing.

Choice branches are placed in areas where I feel like it would make sense to the player, like, an answer to an open-ended question. Or, maybe an option to learn one of two things about a LI. The important stuff though always stays out of either-or branches to make sure the player sees it.

We'll often plug-and-play different choice branches/lines as we implement the game though, because you really can't know how dialogue will feel until you see it with all the other assets. The pencil skirt line in toaster's route was on-the-fly add, for example.

Do you tend to get a premise first & then build characters around it, or the reverse?

I tend to go premise -> characters. OCs are not super important to me on their own honestly, and I can't name a single one I have that hasn't been created purposefully to fit a story. I'm notorious for not fleshing out my characters a lot in my head, despite trying to write them realistically and caring quite a bit about them being "right".

How was it like working with multiple writers for BP, and getting their different takes to become cohesive into the overall plot?

I'll give them one of those day-by-day outlines for a route and then let them do whatever they want with it -- so, the overarching plot is determined largely by myself (with brainstorming help from friends!) and that keeps it all pretty narratively cohesive. It also helps that each of the routes I outline has virtually nothing to do with each other, so it gives the writers more freedom to go crazy.

So, the writers are free to take that outline and veer off it if they wish like I do. All that I ask is that they generally hit specific plot beats and have a general similar writing style as everyone else so it isn't too jarring route to route. I find that letting people do whatever the hell they want with my stuff has led to some of the best parts of the project(s). My editing hand on other people's things is suuuuuuuuper light. Like, I really only cut lines for brevity as I'm adding them into the game. And that itself isn't frequent.

[pervydollfemme]

thinking about going on a casual date (a picnic, fruit picking, a coffee shop...) with him & wearing a white tanktop with no bra and high-waisted jeans. how cute and sweet it would be to eat sandwiches on a checkered blanket, or to pick flowers together, or to go to a strawberry field with wicker baskets, or to have a quiet conversation in a chatty coffee shop. how lovely and saccharine it would be, how wolf would look at me with softness in his eyes, from my big blue eyes to my lips glossed in pink strawberry lipgloss. how i would admire his dark, tired eyes and messy but smooth hair.

but also...them taking note of the fact that i'm not wearing a bra. of the way my jeans are hugging my ass and hips, creating tantalizing inward dips. ignoring these things pretty easily for most of the day, because having my face to focus on is distraction enough. except as the day wears on and we're going different places, moving around more, his attention starts waning.

wolf can't help but look at the way my tits are pushing against the white material, the outline of my pointy nipples that he wants to get his mouth on so bad. the way my thighs are making the seams of my jeans strain, how my ass is just - right there. they wouldn't be able to help themselves from pulling me somewhere more private. around a corner, into the bathroom.

before i could even get a word in edge-wise, he'd back me against a flat surface. they'd start groping my thighs, squeezing my ass, pinching and rubbing my nipples. i'd throw my head back, forcing myself to stay quiet as much as i want to whine and beg, squirming at his touches. "daddy's good fucking girl," he's whispering in my ear, biting my neck with the intent to leave marks, broadcasting that i already have someone - that i'm his, i'll always be his. people can look, but not for long, unless they want to get punched in the jaw. people can look, but they can't touch. only he can touch.

dipping down to mouth at my nipples through the shirt, leaving behind wet circles. slipping their hand into my jeans, rubbing against my clit and making my curvy hips bounce forward. making me cry out and grab at any part of him i can reach. wolf would string me out until i'm about to cum, until my shirt is soaked and my pink nipples are fully visible through it. part of wolf would want to make me leave the bathroom like that, a big mark in black writing that i'm theirs only. the other, stronger part is too possessive for that, so he throws his jacket over my shoulders and tugs it around until my tits are covered.

i'd pout at him, maybe stomp my foot a little. "why did you stop?"

he'd shrug back, a teasing glint in his eye. "i wanted to. come on, let's go home so i can finish what i started."

[darlingkirstein]

can I ask how you go about developing your stories/plot? I think coming up with an idea is (semi) easy because ✨vibes✨ but how to you actually turn that into a story? there's so much (character, backstory, plot, arcs, etc.)

I'm anxious to know how it is your going about developing home beckons the wanderer. Are you using any sort of method? I can't see you using a "point a to point b" method. It feels more complicated.

I know what I want to write but developing that is daunting. (In general and time wise)

Are you at all getting impatient with the development of your stories? Sometimes I forget a story can't just instantly be entirely plotted within the span of a week.

I apologize if this was too invasive, feel free not to answer, but if you do, I greatly appreciate it <3 take care love

it's not invasive at all!!!! these are all super great questions — and i hope my answers can be helpful and ease some fears!! and ofc, always feel free to ask more questions if you have them! :) i'll include some screenshots from my planning documents because i am a visual person so maybe you are too and that'll help :)

every story is different for me, and some are far more demanding and complicated than others. but, generally, it's outline, outline, outline. i have never been able to just write without having an outline backing up, unless it was for a one-shot or something more simple. another tool i have found extremely helpful and honestly essential for me is discussing my barebones ideas with others and watching them grow with the combined brain power behind it. if you have people in your corner supporting your ideas, let them help you!

so, for developing a story, start with your major idea. then, just start coming up with little ideas, anything, doesn't need to be in order. discuss with your friends, whatever helps! write those ideas down somewhere. i personally use a combination of my notes app, google docs, and the app notion to organize my thoughts.

notion tends to be where i start — i'll jot down little ideas i have, basic stuff needed to kickstart the rest. here's an example for the cult au:

google docs tends to be where i flesh whatever i did in notion out and have it more accessible. here's an example from thespian's coquetry:

for me personally, i have recently started spending a lot of energy into the development of the story/background before writing it. that also tends to be why i take forever to update/publish. let me get into the four things you specifically mentioned! characters, plot, backstory, arcs.

characters: stories depend on characters, and they need to feel real and have the capability to connect with the reader! i myself sometimes struggle with feeling like i don't do a well enough job with this. the main thing here is motivation — what drives this character, what is their goal/purpose, what makes them do whatever they are doing for the story? this goes hand in hand with their personality and their actions, so deciding what motivates them is important! this also ties into their backstory, so yeah it's important! their motivation will progress the story and explain their every action, so start there!

i can reference hbtw here actually, because it may be the story of mine where the character motivations are clearest — eren is motivated to go home to his family again, while mikasa is motivated to sustain herself financially by taking eren on their little quest. these motivations kickstart the plot and are essential to how it'll progress.

tldr; start with motivation, build from there, go to personality, hobbies, interests, quirks, etc.

backstory: this can be two things! either it's the actual world-building itself or its individual character backstories. since you're particularly interested in hbtw, I'll reference its development!

this story has been an absolute beast in terms of backstory/world-building development. this is why i say my process is dependent on the story, because this one is very involved and time-consuming. this is the place where you'll need to be the most patient if you're writing anything with a complicated world to develop. i am attempting to make hbtw as original as possible, so that involves a lot of building from scratch. right now, with the help of @strscrossed, i am working on the development of the eight regions in eldevane — this involves geography, economics, people, religion, history, and more. for example, i developed a history of eldevane's rulers and major historical events because, even though the story takes place decades later, i wanted to lay down a strong foundation to make the world feel real. this story is kinda stuck in world-building hell right now because i want most of that finished before proceeding because of how much eremika will be directly interacting with the world and its little intricacies. this is a daunting process, and its time-consuming! more on the frustration later.

basically, overall, my method for backstory development is to take it one step at a time and go slowly. there are also a lot of great resources for developing the world! http://arcadia.net/Cruinne/DnD/Articles/worldbuilding.html#language — this is an extremely (maybe overkill) detailed list of world-building things to consider in fantasy/sci-fi/etc. settings. the details matter, basically! also, consider your favorite medias and look at all the details there that feel small and inconsequential but develop the world and make it what it is. same with characters. what do you find interesting about this character's backstory? it is no danger to study fiction that you consider to be great? if you love it, you can learn from it :))

arcs: gonna do this first because it leads into the next bullet point. when you're starting to develop the plot, what helps me personally is putting a little shape to the plot, dividing it into crucial sections that are encompassed by one major plot point/resolution. if you divide your story into chunks, it may make development easier. for thespian's coquetry, i divided the story into three 'acts' and an epilogue to divide the plot more evenly in my head and make it less overwhelming.

this way, i'm able to break things down — when i think of a new plot point, i sift it between the three parts; where does it fit most? this makes placement of things less overwhelming, because it'll at least be confined to act i, ii, or iii. so decide these major headings and i find it'll help you compartmentalize things more accessibly.

plot: this is where its tricky for me. i have the exact same problem with every single multi-chapter story that i write; i know the beginning, and i know the ending, but it's everything in between that is muddled and less clear.

so, if you're me, you imagine the start, then (or oftentimes first) you imagine the ending — now, what has to happen between those two points for the ending to feel earned? what plot points will draw the characters closer to this pre-destined conclusion? most important in this is conflict. what conflicts happen to drive the plot? there will more than likely be multiple answers. there will be the overarching conflict/challenge (the dangerous journey of taking eren back home in hbtw is the overarching challenge) — but there will also be mini-challenges that serve the big one overhead. this can be inter-character conflict, quarrels, fights, disagreements, etc., but it can also be more external — challenges in their journey, little roadblocks that must be overcome to progress the story and maintain interest. there is only so long that a story can sustain itself without some degree of conflict; if things are smooth sailing forever, what's the point? if eren and mikasa's journey to eren's family happened without bumps along the way, sure it might be cute and wholesome, but it's not interesting, and the beautiful thing about stories is how they can interest and ensnare the reader's attention.

so, create little conflicts, big ones and important ones, and smaller ones more readily resolved. conflict drives the story. i think if there's one thing to take away from this total yap session of mine, it's that. seek conflict, and you'll find a plot.

please let me know if you have any questions or want me to clarify anything about everything i just said!!! i know it's a lot!! but i wanna be super helpful for your story!

now, you're absolutely right about hbtw being a very non-linear process. most, if not all, of my stories are developed like that. you develop as the inspiration takes you — i have been jumping between developing backstory/world-building which has bled into plot point development. it's one big system that works together — figuring out one thing often leads to another eureka moment in another aspect. me and stella developed the religious ceremony for eren's home region and that bled right into the story.

to answer your last question, ABSOLUTELY. i'm a very impatient person in all aspect of life, but i find it so frustrating when the ideas in my head cannot be immediately translated onto page. i was at first trying to rush through hbtw world-building before i was starting to burn myself out and realized that doing that was counterproductive and a total inspiration killer. this has been a very big challenge for me with all my stories. i'm rather meticulous, and i need to know the details and everything before starting, but sometimes i just want to be done with the planning and plotting so i can start. it's a perfectly normal feeling (or, i hope it is LOL)! you're eager to get your story somewhere, and you feel like there's an invisible wall that you keep banging your head against. i know that feeling well! writing can be an exhausting process, but it's the end result, finishing a story/chapter and sharing it with the world that feels very rewarding.

my overall tips for story development:

be patient and go slow — stories deserve nourishment, not ham-fisted neglect! your story deserves the time it needs to flourish!

jot down every idea you have. every single one. even if you're not sure you'll use it — better to have and not need then to need and not have. you really never know!

it's okay to go out of order! don't force yourself into a linear path if that doesn't feel right — it's never felt right to me! develop in whatever order you need to develop.

lean on your friends if they're willing! i probably would've given up on a lot of my stories already if not for my friends. (special shoutout to @random-millennial, @likesunsetorange, @strscrossed, @sinigangsta-ao3, @karizard-ao3, and others for always being willing to help me/listen.)

use online writing resources! there's so many articles and reddit posts (feels shameful to recommend reddit) and such with experienced writers happy to share their experiences and provide advice!

model after media you enjoy — can be books, movies, shows, manga, whatever!! figure out what you think the creators/authors/screenwriters did well and consider emulating it. you obviously like it for a reason! everyone gets inspired by someone else. don't feel like you're not a 'real writer/artist' because you reached out for resources or inspiration. you are real, and you're doing it!

HAVE FUN!!!! i'm a hypocrite because i often take all this way too seriously and get easily frustrated but promise, it's more fulfilling when you're really having fun doing it :))

i hope some of this was helpful!!!! apologies for the total yap session, i know this might be sorta overwhelming??? hope not! like i said, feel free to reach out with more questions, and i'd love to help you out individually if you'd be interested! all love and best wishes on the development of your story — manifesting nothing but success your way, and thank you for trusting me to help!

[hastyprovocateur]

Well-Suited To Your Taste- Sevika×Seamstress

1.6k words

Tl/dr: Sevika gets begrudgingly fitted for a suit upon Silco's instruction, taking a shine to the seamstress

Tw: bondage, fingering, spanking

Sevika rasped cigar smoke from her lips, the streets barely thrumming. She stood waiting for it to die before she entered the swish boutique. It was late evening and a little past closing. The neon board above the awning glowed; in fancy letters it read: "The Vestiarium~ For the Well-Heeled"

Sevika stared at the glass display, mannequins sporting sharp, expertly stitched outfits. Some of the best you could acquire in Zaun. Or so Silco attested about his choice of dressmakers. He instructed, rather requested, her to consult them for a new outfit for an upcoming caucus.

Silco's deputy wasn't one to indulge appearances or care for expensive attire. If anything, her simple clothes helped divert attention away from herself. An edge in a fist fight or ambush. But the gathering was more for formal talk. An arena her strongest suits lay far outside of.

She flicked the butt of the cigarette in the ground, swinging into the shop as a bell tinkled above. Immediately, she felt out of place. There was a time, she could only peer inside into places like these, shooed away eventually with sticks, her grimy fingerprints being promptly wiped.

But not tonight

"Ah, hi! We're closed- OW" Sevika heard a crashing sound from somewhere inside the dimly lit shopfront. She stood her ground, rolling her neck and waiting for the store owner. Instead, out popped a woman. Small, bespectacled and frazzled as she massaged the knee she banged on her way out.

"I'm sorry, ma'am... we're-" her words cut off her eyes travelled up Sevika's tall, burly frame, gulping "Oh... Lieutenant..." she adjusted her glasses "How can I be of assistance?" she asked timidly. Sevika gave her a once over.

Her wavy hair were loosely knotted at the base of her neck, frizzy strands framing her face. Her simple shirt and skirt were trimmed by green ribbon, feet strapped in cuffed, rounded flats. She couldn't be beyond a mere tailor or sales clerk.

"I'm looking for the owner"

"He-he left the store to me. Said his wife has the chills so he's taking care of her. I was in the back clearing up after closing time. But it's no biggie! I just live upstairs, actually... pretty sweet gig if you ask me. You need not fret, I'm his assistant so I'm sure I can get you sorted-"

"I'll come by later"

Sevika turned to leave but felt an audacious grip on her elbow, yanking her back swiftly. Eyes bewildered, she stared down at the seamstress in shock. The lady seemed to belatedly catch onto what she's done. She released her immediately, scooting back with her hands melded.

"I'm so terribly sorry... its just... I can't let such a... high-value customer like you just leave..." she tucked some loose hair behind her ear "I'm new and I really want to do right by this job... if you tell me what you need... I will do my best to deliver" she proferred.

Sevika eyed her warily, sighing "I need a suit... someone said this is the place for it"

"Yes, of course... the Vestiarium. The one stop shop for the well-heeled" she smiled, cocking her head "A suit you say... do you have a colour and design in mind? An outline or... maybe you've taken a shine to one of our client's garb?" she asked.

Sevika shrugged "I don't know... I've never taken note of such things before"

"That's perfectly fine... I'll work it out for you. Let me take a look..." she moved with sprightly grace, touching her shoulder and tracing her fingers down to her elbow, taking in her muscular waist and the dip of her spine. She lifted Sevika's cybernetic arm slightly, glancing past her shoulders.

"Broad shoulders... beautiful neck... strong arms... long legs... fitted... lots of curves... would you prefer a dramatic, voguish look or simple and old school?" she asked and Sevika raised a brow "Your pick, love. As long as it's not a lot, it matters zilch to me"

"Oh, dear... what an exciting journey for me" the dressmaker blushed, readjusting her glasses and muttering "Short-sleeved shirt... cotton-linen... stitched into a... waistcoat... low... three buttons across... a cape blazer... high waisted pants with a boot cut... pockets, pockets, pockets"

She stood on her tippy toes, fingers barely grazing over Sevika's choker "a tie... with a clip on jewel?" she whispered "Unless you don't like being tied down..." Sevika gazed down at the seamstress' face "Long as its not too tight" she smiled jauntily.

The woman jerked back, late to realize what she was doing once again. "Ah... let me fetch the fabrics I have in mind. I'll be right back" she rushed off to one of the backrooms, fetching some rolls of cloth. She propped them against a chair and wheeled in a mirror "So... I envisioned you in..."

Unrolling a metre from each roll one by one, "This cotton with vicuña" she draped it across Sevika's shoulder "Dark... smooth... chocolate... with cream stripes... it's breathable... stretchy... easy to work in... and it looks lovely with your skin tone" she gulped as Sevika stared at her.

"I'll pair this with a cotton-linen blend white shirt... There's midnight plum and pure black in this suit fabric too. I-if you don't like this I can do more navies and greys too... perhaps a claret..." she turned to step away but felt Sevika's arm wrap hold her by the waist, pulling her back in.

"Are you purposely being this sweet with me or is it just part of your hospitality?" she asked and the seamstress turned pink, holding the fabric across her face to hide it "I'm just... doing my job... ma'am." Sevika released her promptly, composing herself in front of the mirror.

"The brown'll do" she finally said and the assistant nodded "Good choice! Great choice! Now time for accessories..." she wrung her hands, bringing over a choice selection of ties, buttons and tie clasps. She held up two ties "umber or navy?" she asked and Sevika pointed to umber.

"Hmm..." she studied the display trays "I'm going to pick the brass buttons with the Zaunite sigil and the guilded tiger tie clasp with amber eyes... is that okay?" she proposed, holding up her choices and Sevika smiled a little "Playing mind reader... are we?"

The tailor separated all of Sevika's selections, looking up at her "I think I... now know what you like..." she simply said, carting all the stuff away except the mirror. She brought a wooden stool in, setting it down before Sevika and fetching a measuring tape, notepad and pencil.

"Forgive me if I struggle a bit... I usually have someone to help..." she tucked the pencil behind her ear and held the notepad between her teeth, standing up on the stool. She gestured with a hand for Sevika to straighten up and look in the mirror as she began measuring her.

She stretched the tape across her chest, almost tripping from the edge of the stool but felt Sevika's hands hold her waist, steadying her. Her ears turned red but she lowered her head, powering through.

The circumference of her neck, arm, bicep... she cast the tape behind Sevika, noting the width of her back and shoulders, sizing her waist and stomach. The smoke from her cigar... boozy notes on her shirt and the scent of sandalwood and leather enveloped her, their faces inches apart.

The assistant struggled to focus, pulling the pencil and jotting down the numbers in her notebook. She felt Sevika's gaze burning through her skin, watching her leisurely yet intensely. Hopping off the stool, the seamstress kneeled, fingers slightly shaky as she measured from her hip to ankle, knee to ankle.

She took a deep breath, doing the inseam and brushing Sevika's crotch. "S-sorry" her voice broke and she feared looking up as she circled her knee, thigh and hip, measuring from near her hem across the taint and up her butt. She felt Sevika's groin muscles flex and quickly set the tape down, scribbling in her notepad.

She felt her heartbeat quicken, the page blurring before her eyes.

"You okay down there...?" Sevika asked in her husky voice and the seamstress froze, nodding microscopically. She felt Sevika's rough, warm fingers curl under her chin and lift her face "Can't say you're the first woman to kneel breathlessly before me..." she whispered.

"I'm just... doing my job..." the assistant uttered as Sevika snaked behind her head, loosening her hair, hand resting heavily on her shoulder, staring at her heaving chest. Sevika gently slipped her glasses down her nose "How about we take the hospitality upstairs...? In that nice, little bedroom of yours..." she proposed.

*

*

*

"Aaaah!" the seamstress screamed, eyes rolling back as she gripping the bedpost from where her hands were tied to it with her own panties. She saw Sevika's hand curling around her wrists, pounding her between the legs with her knee, her big body weighing down on her.

"Damn your clothes" she sat up, ripping up her underskirt completely and shoving it inside her as she whimpered, soaking through it all. Sevika stared at her spread legs, dress bunched up under her with her blouse and sleeves ripped to expose her breasts, body undulating, butt squeezing and begging for her.

She smiled wickedly, smacking her cheeks hard till they turned red with finger marks, tears sprouted from the woman's eyes. Sevika curled her arm under her belly, rubbing her sensitive bud and forcing her fingers inside her, pushing the mess of cloth deeper as she returned to pounding.

The seamstress' moans grew louder, face pressing into the sheets as she picked the pace up, thrusts steady and hard. "Is this too much for you?" Sevika asked, pinching her clitoris and forcing another finger inside her. The tailor shook her head, arching her back more. Sevika seemed impressed despite herself, tilting the woman's face "You'll go far..." she kissed her drooling lips.

"I'll make sure your business...

never dries up"

***

[the-missann]

Ideas I'm never going to make

So, I have a lot of ideas I am never going to write because they're not my style. So, instead of never talking about them, I'll leave them here to maybe give some inspiration to others. Most of these ideas are 1-5 years old with a handful being over ten years old and I would love to see them written, I just have no drive to write them.

Don't know how often I'll do this, but don't worry I get a ton of ideas that never go anywhere, so I'm sure there will be more!

Onto the ideas:

A dystopia where only two people actually exist, like actually. The planet and everything on it is destroyed and by the end, it's revealed the other party caused this to happen so they could be alone with the other survivor (romantic or platonic).

A passionate romance where the two parties are dangerously obsessed with each other. It starts where only one party seems dangerous, but is revealed later on they both are. Knowing this is bad, they decide to embrace those feelings for a short time to hopefully get it out of their system.

Two enemies end up stranded together. The injured party is cautious when the healthy is trying to help them. It's revealed later that their bosses were conspiring together to kill the pair.

A mature magical girl. It's still your normal Sailor Moon, but the MC is an adult with children. Specific to what I outlined, her husband was kidnapped because of his research and she gains magical powers to go and save him.

The origin story of a pirate girl. She starts off apart of a fairly kind crew, but she wants to make a name for herself and leaves only to find a mythical being of some kind and be cursed to travel with them. In my case, it was a grim reaper.

A vampire and a vampire hunter who end up on bad (putting it lightly) terms after the hunter assumes the vampire killed their newborn child. Plot twist for me was it was actually the hunter's father and the vampire had to find a way to prove it.

A detective agency that is the center of mysterious murders. Their agency is accused of killing their detainees as anyone who goes in never comes out. Is the killer one of the detectives or is the killer just trying to frame them? The setting for me ended up where the whole group was trapped in the police department like Resident Evil 2 almost.

This one is about to be ten years old and has more detail than the others. Two kids (in about the Gothic Era) go to a toy maker's shop. This is to pick up a toy before their families embark on a long trip somewhere. The toy maker is a mysterious man, but one of his toys end up cursing the children to age backwards. In this reality, objects hold memories so they're told by the toy maker to find objects that have sentimental value as that will maintain their age until they can rid of the curse.

The tale of a sun deity and moon deity creating the sun and moon cycle. The moon was a shy anxious child and the sun was a bright cheerful child for me.

An unassuming tale of a newly wed prince and princess where the story begins as "normal" until night falls and the prince is unable to stay awake. His princess then undergoes her own form of unconsciousness where her daytime "Princess Peach" version is switched for a warrior "Biscuit Krueger" version. Who is duty bound to protect her sleeping beauty. This transformation is similar to Greed and Ling from FMA:B where there's two souls inhabiting one body.

I actually had way more than I thought, so I'm gonna cap it at ten -_-;

Thanks for reading and here's to hoping one day I can read these ideas in their entirety~ 🍂

[the-inkwell-variable]

Writeblr Interview Tag!

Thanks so much for the tag, @sableglass!

Short stories, novels, or poems?

Novels all the way. I've tried my hand at short stories, and they always end up being novellas or straight up novels by the time I'm done with them. May as well stick with what my little brain clearly desires!

What genre do you prefer reading?

Mysteries (cozy or otherwise), horror (especially zombie fiction or apocalypse fiction, yes please), fantasy (especially cozy, I love cozy fantasy so much, have you read Legends and Lattes?), and romance.

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

I'm a little of both! I'll generally have a plan in my head at the very least, if not a brief outline written down somewhere, but when I actually sit down to write, my writing tends to veer off wherever it wants and do its own thing (for example, FUCKING CHUCK). As long as it makes sense, I tend to just let it go wherever it wants lol

What music do you listen to while writing?

Surprisingly, I don't listen to much music while writing. I'll daydream to it, absolutely, but I mostly just throw on some Markiplier or an old debate that I've heard ten thousand times and write to that. It's more about the background noise than the actual content, y'know?

But when I DO listen to music, I drift toward lofi or mood music compilations on youtube. The kind that DMs play during their DnD sessions. Love those so much, they really help keep me locked in a single mood, which I absolutely need when I'm writing a scene.

Favorite books/movies?

Oh god. Lord of the Rings (including the Hobbit don't @ me). Train to Busan (or any Korean zombie movies/shows, really). Some Disney and Pixar - Big Hero 6, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Emperor's New Groove, etc. The Strain is one of my favorite TV shows - I also love Cutthroat Kitchen above all else, a bunch of different anime, and Dance Moms (yes I know it's toxic and yes I am ashamed of myself for enjoying it. I pity the kids but I rage at the moms.)

As for books, my favorites are the Beechwood Harbor Mystery series, The Luminous Dead, Thief Liar Lady, All Systems Red, Legends and Lattes, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, anything Holly Black, Suffer the Children, Contagion, Luck in the Shadows, Assistant to the Villain, Dead of Night, and Surviving the Evacuation!

Any current WIPs?

Oh gosh. I'm bopping between From Carnival to Chamomile, a prequel to a cozy mystery series, and Dauntless, a zombie apocalypse trilogy, right now. Sometimes I'll work on Priestess Without Honor, a paranormal low-fantasy romance, and Chosen Against My Will, a dark mafia romance. I also have zer0 ALPHA, a lit-rpg isekai zombie apocalypse novel, but I haven't touched that in years and have only recently rediscovered my notes for it.

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you what would your standard outfit be?

I wear the same thing every day, surprisingly. That's the autism for ya. I love jeans and a T-shirt, especially if that T-shirt has a picture from an anime or show or something like that. Printed shirts, I think they're called. Oh, and mismatched socks. That's me.

Create a character description of yourself: 

Too tall for her own good and unwanted curves for days. Bobbed dark-blue hair with steel gray eyes. Too busy writing or gaming to really notice what's going on. Expect a text back within seconds of receiving it - she reads faster than most people expect and tends to read every text twice just to give it that safety buffer. If there isn't a snack and a drink nearby, call the police.

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

Hehehehe maybe. But not exactly in a good way. I'm very much the kind of person who will put someone I dislike into my book just so they can get the justice they won't get in the real world, even over something as minor as pronouncing my name wrong on purpose (I'm looking at you, Keiara).

Are you kill happy with your characters?

I want to say yes because I kill off characters constantly, but when it comes to my main OCs, no. I can't bring myself to kill them at all. I go out of my way to create characters for death (like FUCKING CHUCK) rather than put my favorites in the line of fire. I think that's a problem I need to work on.

Coffee or Tea while writing?

coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee

but I do love tea, especially in the fall. In the fall, I tend to drift toward tea and apple cider rather than coffee.

But otherwise? Coffeeeeeee

Slow or fast writer?

Fast writer when I actually sit down to write! Slow writer when I'm procrastinating. I've been working on Dauntless for...thirteen years? Twelve?

Where/who/what do you draw inspiration from?

I get inspiration from EVERYTHING. Dreams. Books. Movies. Something dumb my partner says offhandedly.

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

I absolutely want to be something cool, like a shadow mage. But I'm probably a little gremlin that hides in the edges of the woods and steals your socks. Mmmm socks.

Most fav book cliche:

Enemies to lovers! Especially when one person is smitten at firstt sight and doesn't realize it.

Least favorite cliche:

Friendship is magic. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with powerful friendships being front and center, but when the big bad is literally destroyed because fRiEnDsHiP I gag a little bit. I also hate undeserved happy endings - make the ending make sense. If it's a sad or horror book, sometimes the ending needs to be bad. And finally, forced romance. No. No thank you. Some stories don't need romance.

Favorite scene to write?

Descriptions! Am I good at them? No. Will I spend three pages describing a tree? Maybe.

Also conversations. I tend to do a lot of conversations and monologues in my writing. Need to work on that.

Reason for writing?

If I don't write down the ideas in my head, I will explode.

TAGLIST: @falconfate - @space-writes - @leahnardo-da-veggie - @i-can-even-burn-salad - anyone who wants to take part!

[salemsimsrender]

Blender Tutorial: Building a Scene Part 1: Importing Furniture from Sims 4

Building a scene from scratch is no mean feat, so this will likely be a multi-part tutorial.

In this tutorial I'll be going over the basics on building a scene. This will be the barebones necessities to get a room with a moose and some nice lighting to place your sims in for a render.

There are, of course, more in-depth and complicated ways of doing this, but these are the basics and the easiest (in my opinion!) way to get a nice little scene without too much work.

With that all said, let's get started!

Let's start by adding furniture into our scene. Usually I'd build a room first but I know many of your were asking how to do this so I'll cover this first!

Step 1: Exporting Meshes and Textures from S4S

Appending furniture and decor to a scene works the same way as appending jewelry to a sim. First we have to prepare it for blender in Sims 4 Studio. If you're using a piece of furniture from the game, select "Object" in Sims 4 Studio. It may load slowly so be patient!

Then you'll see the game's full catalogue:

Filter and sort as needed to find what you're looking for. For this tutorial I'm going to remake (and revamp) one of the first blender scenes I've ever made, which looked like this:

So I'll export the fireplace first. It's from Vintage Glamour, so I'll filter my S4S by Vintage Glamour, and here it is:

Highlight the fireplace then click "Next" Name the package anything, but make it easy to remember. If you need another swatch in the future you can always open the fireplace directly in S4S instead of searching for it each time. Save it somewhere easy to find! Once opened, you'll see this:

To render furniture, we need to export the Mesh and Texture files. I'm in the habit of exporting my mesh first, so we'll do it that way. Click the "mesh" tab and you'll see this:

Click "Export Mesh" and save the .blend file somewhere easy to find! I typically keep the .package, .mesh, and .png (texture) files all in the same place. I find it easier while working in blender. Do whatever makes sense to you just make sure to stay organized! After saving the mesh, navigate to the Texture tab and do the same thing:

Export the texture and save it somewhere easy to find. Repeat this process for all the furniture you'll need for your scene.

Step Two: Appending Furniture Items into Blender & Applying Textures

Now let's go into blender. As always, delete the default cube, lamp, and camera, then set up your workspace in whatever way is comfortable for you. I like to set mine up like this:

Now, just like with jewelry, let's append our fireplace in. Go to File -> Append and locate your fireplace .blend file. Open the file, then the Object folder, then select all "studio_mesh" files you see:

You should then have something like this:

Delete the bone_bone and rig as always, then also delete the footprint, which for me was the first studio_mesh in my Outliner list.

Then you'll have the fireplace by itself:

Navigate to the Shader Editor in your preferred workspace, then to the "Material Properties" tab.

Click the minus beside the diffuse texture to get rid of it. Then click the "New" button that appears once the diffuse is gone.

Nodes will appear in your shader tab!

Like we did with jewelry, add in an Image Texture node, a Mix Shader, and a Transparent BSDF. Connect and arrange them exactly like I have here:

Make sure you add in your texture file in the Image Texture node (click open, then navigate to your .png file we exported from S4S). Change the blend mode to Alpha Hashed in your properties window, like this:

And make sure you're in Material Preview mode (I wasn't) by pressing Z on your keyboard and selecting "Material preview"

Now you should have something like this!

In Part Two, we'll add in the walls of the room and maybe a window!

Some notes before I leave you:

Using CC works the same way, you can add it into the custom content folder in S4S OR you can double-click the package file and open it in S4S that way.

Some objects, like trees, have more than one texture. I'll do a separate mini tutorial on that if yall need but basically you'll export both texture files and then apply them to the proper parts of the object (for a tree, for example, the leaves and trunk are often separate texture files)

Please let me know if yall have any questions! And stay tuned for Part Two!

[hayanwulf]

WIP updates - IronStrange week

Heyyy mortals, sorry for the recent radio silence on here. I've been busy with real life, while also trying to push through my writers block to get stuff done for ironstrange week.

I will be answering all of those prompts waiting in my ask box, just.. not yet. I need to dedicate myself to IS week for now, if I want to get them done in time. But rest assured, I have not forgotten about all of you who've been sending me prompts in ask! I will get around to each one of you!

Coming back to the IS week, I have something planned for every day, though how much I'll be able to manage by the deadline is yet to be seen. I will, however, try my best to post all of them in their respective days.

Here's a sneak peek to some almost-completed works for IronStrange week!

---

Day 1 - Good/Evil

“No one invited me to the party? That’s rude.”

The zealots holding Stephen in place as well as their little puppet master — the guy in ugly green robes with a staff — all whipped their head around to Tony hovering in the air, and stared at him with varying degrees of gobsmacked expressions.

He smirked inside his helmet. He knew what they were thinking; how did Iron Man get inside the Mirror Dimension?

Short answer, magic does follow science. Long answer, you-have-kidnapped-my-wizard-and-now-you’ll-pay-for-it.

Of course, the second part was something no one would ever know. Iron Man was a villain, the greatest threat to Earth, the one who destroyed things and killed high-profile people, wielding more than enough firepower for world domination if he wanted. Stephen Strange, on the other hand, was Sorcerer Supreme, Earth’s greatest defender against mystical threats, a doctor. He was a preserver of life.

They had completely opposing worldviews.

By all accounts, they were rivals. Adversaries.

---

Day 3 - Love/Hatred

The aged eucalyptus tree still bore the carving on its bark, as concise as the day it had been created. The shape of a strange eye, decorated with four curved lines inside it. Like a rune that, perhaps, meant something in the world of the witches.

Stephen’s home was so close.

Tony swallowed around the tightness of his throat, starting a trek towards the path he knew would lead there.

This was possibly the worst idea ever in the history of all the worst ideas Tony has ever had. He shouldn’t be here. He didn’t even know how Stephen would react to him being here.

Too soon, he had arrived at a small clearing in the woods. A pond, next to which stood a warm, homey looking hut.

His steps halted.

This was bad. He should turn back. Maybe run after that wagon before it was completely out of his reach forever. He should go back to his town, figure something out there. He didn’t even know if Stephen would welcome him. God, what was he thinking? What if Stephen tried to hurt him—

No.. no. Stephen wouldn’t. He wasn’t that kind of a person. Tony knew he wouldn’t hurt him.

Or at least.. at least Tony liked to imagine that he wouldn’t.

---

Day 4 - Dark/Light

CW: Child abuse (okay i guess there isn't any in the excerpt itself)

He tried to look down at his hands, and could just barely make out their outline.

He wrapped the arms around himself, as if hugging. The arms felt just a little warm where they clung to his chest.

He hugged himself tighter, leaned his side against the door, and cried, letting himself feel the warmth trapping under his arms. This way, at least he could pretend that he wasn’t so alone.

It had only been a few minutes, when suddenly there was a loud crashing noise from somewhere in the basement. Anthony flinched.

He was not alone.

There were flickers of iridescent green in the air fading, and then was a grunting noise followed by shuffling of more objects kept in the basement. Anthony looked around where he had just seen green in the air, desperately trying to spot who — or what — was in here with him, but it was dark, so dark. His heart raced, feeling an entirely different kind of helplessness now.

He was not alone, and at that moment, that felt more terrifying than being alone.

---

Day 7 - Elegant/Grotesque

Soulmarks are the window to your soulmate’s soul, people say.

They represent a person in their rawest, truest form. As such, it is quite common for soulmarks to be an aminal, or a hybrid of many different animals, representing the person’s character at core. A lion’s bravery, a fox’s cunning, a dolphin’s intelligence, an eagle’s free spirit, and so on.

Tony’s soulmark is rather unique.

Right over his heart, sits a graceful little butterfly with large blue wings. It has pattens of gold more elegant and intricate than any embroidery he will ever see. A butterfly cannot be said to have a personality, so it doesn’t tell Tony anything about his soulmate. It does speak of beauty, though, and that Tony decides to believe.

-

Stephen’s soulmark is unique, in more ways than one.

The most common places to hold soulmarks are the chest, back, and neck regions. Sometimes people may have them at their hip, around their belly button. Even rarer, they might have them on one or both of the bicep muscles, or inner thighs. There is no way to determine what makes the marks appear symmetrically on both limbs for certain people, whereas only on one limb for certain others.

Stephen’s soulmark is on his hands, both of them. Specifically, the back of his palms.

And the patterns etched there are asymmetrical.

But the most bizarre fact is that, his soulmark is comprised entirely of floral designs.