#one of my fave pieces of writing advice

[clementine-kesh]

Of course you have writer’s block. What you call your memoir—a chronicle of the kind of feelings you think you should be having in your cabin in the woods—is actually a first-person novel with a main character whose soul looks like a photoshopped version of your own. But you’re a writer, not an actor; it’s not your role to perform on the page. Even if you did—if you wrote gorgeously about the trees you don’t care about, the sunsets you’re tired of watching, and the swirling tea that isn’t that good anyway—it would be a shell of a book and it would not touch readers in the way you want to touch them. It would not move them, and it would not surprise them, because in the process of writing you would have faced nothing real about yourself.

[fandomfits]

mini 70s fashion resource masterlist

I'm working on bigger projects (that might never see the light of day because I can't figure out formatting, links and other stuff) but I wanted to provide some sources for those interested in fashion, specifically for writing 70s fashion in fics and books.

I love 70s fashion and it hurts my heart to see so many characters in bell bottoms, bright colors, converse and leather when those weren’t even the biggest parts! I like to use pictures from real people and their lives, as well as magazines. I like to stay away from the costume style that’s often portrayed in movies. 

these are sorted from my favorite to least favorite

Reddit- Yeah yeah I know it’s reddit, but there are so many good resources!

r/TheWayWeWere is MY FAVE!!!! It’s literally random people’s pictures from any era! Their focus is on people in everyday life, so it’s perfect. Go to this subreddit, type your desired era or use the flair and you have hundreds of real life pictures from real life people in your desired era. 

r/70s is a lot, it’s everything 70s so you get some good stuff and some bad stuff, but it’s authentic for sure

r/vintagefashion and r/vintage a lot of this is really good, but some can get gimmicky, overall they are good resources

r/TheGoodOldDays hit or miss but it’s okay

r/fashion and r/mensfashion hard to sort through, a lot of the advice tends to be a little gimmicky

Sewing Patterns- A lot of people sewed their own clothes in the 70s

Readily available, easy to find, with the variety you can find super popular stuff and less popular stuff

Simplicity Sewing Pattern, Vintage Sewing Pattern Company, Vintage Sewing Patterns Wiki, there’s SO MANY websites out there

Magazine articles from the 70s- this is the advice a lot of people followed so it’s good for me! 

A big big reason for this being second is that it’s a bit inaccessible, I haven’t had much luck but I am not the most technologically advanced individual

The best way to view these is at a library that has them archived on microfilm, if you have a good, large library near you then you might be in luck

There are some archived and digitized online, but they are mostly behind a paywall or incomplete pieces.

Large magazines have vaults, like TIME and Vogue, but some they can be a representation of the upper class and the very rich which isn’t the target of most authors

Movies/shows from the 70s- ehhh pretty hit or miss. movies from the 70s tend to be a pretty idealistic representation of what people were wearing. it HEAVILY depends of what kind of show

Movies set in the 70s- this is a super broad one so some are great! some are bad! i would suggest looking at other sources, at least for a while, once you notice the trends then you can notice what’s realistic and what isn’t.

[kingofthe-egirls]

Writing Masterlist

haikyu:

HINATA SHOYO: text me

one piece:

GEAR 5: gear 5 luffy (nsfw) gear 5: silly (nsfw) dirty dishes (nsfw) slower (nsfw) better than saké (nsfw)

GEAR 4: snakeman (stripper part 3, nsfw)

FOXY AU: skittish (sfw) sugar (sfw) syrup (sfw)

NEWEST: stowaway (hiyori) nsfw luffy skittish (sfw) satisfied (sanji, nsfw)

MISC: writing tag thoughts tag luffy simp my art kitty's writing advice me

KITSUNE: misc tag part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 (nsfw) part 5 part 6 (zoro/luffy/oc, nsfw)

SUN GOD AU (LUFFY): request (sfw) part 2 (sfw) part 3 (sfw)

MODERN AU (LUFFY): part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 1.5 part 5 misc tag phone sex (part 1) phone sex (part 2) training session part 6 part 7 part 8 (nsfw)

STRIPPER AU (LUFFY): part 1 part 2 (nsfw) part 3 (snakeman, nsfw)

HIYORI: stowaway saké (nsfw)

LUFFY: strap-on (nsfw) starball love confession (nsfw) summer sex (nsfw) beach house when "it" appears (nsfw) sleepy (nsfw) comfort + angst (sorta nsfw) after 1071 (nsfw) sketch (first time eating you out) jealous luffy (nsfw) seagulls (sfw) steam (sfw) stripper (part 1) udon (nsfw) sitting pretty (part 1) special (part 2, nsfw) love (angst) somno (nsfw) sprained ankle (nsfw) skittish (sfw) princess (nsfw) sugar (sfw) stowaway (hiyori)

ZORO: daddy zoro (nsfw) sparring room heat (zoro/luffy/you, nsfw)

SANJI: subby sanji (nsfw) soup (nsfw) satisfied (nsfw)

EUSTASS: stranded (sunflower supernovas, nsfw)

SHANKS: sweet lavender/shanks

LAW: arctic (nsfw, brothel au) sweet spots (nsfw) speak (nsfw) when ur sick (sfw)

MONSTER TRIO: foursome (nsfw) brothel au part 1 (nsfw) brothel au part 2 (nsfw)

BROTHEL AU (nsfw): posts monster trio (part 1) monster trio (part 2 + epilogue) part 3 part 4 stripper!luffy lavender/shanks part 5 arctic (law)

CROCODILE: thirsty (nsfw)

FAVES TAG

side blog: @the-butterflyhouse

ao3

socials

[magerywrites]

magery hello,,!! i hope this isnt too forward but i discovered you via _maiqo on twitter a long while ago and have been absolutely enamored by your works ever since — your writing is an enormous inspiration to me and i sincerely hope that my works can one day match the same level of excellence.

you absolutely dont have to indulge me at all, but is there any advice you can give in terms of writing character studies? :’D if not its totally ok !! and anything works !! i just figured it’s worth a shot haha

Thank you very much! It's always lovely to learn that what I've written has meant something to someone. I appreciate it.

In an attempt to answer your question, I'll talk about how I think about and approach character studies. It may be that much of what I say fails to be useful to you, but I hope to be of some small aid regardless!

To begin, I think the most fundamental element of writing a character study—as a piece of fanfiction, though much of this can be applied without significant difficulty to orginal works—is to have a firm vision of who the character is to you.

This is separate from having a firm vision of who the character "really" is. Nobody can have that—every way we engage with media is coloured by our own values and perspectives, and that bleeds into the way we think about and write characters. This is sometimes a difficult dichotomy to balance against the principle of "they would not fucking say that", but to borrow some old and too-simplified physics, I think it can be useful to consider that a character is in many ways like an electron in an electron cloud. Their precise and perfect characterisation is not something that we can ever truly locate, but we can identify the area of narrative space it is most likely to be in.

The task of the character study, I feel, is to hammer down on the part of that narrative space that you find most compelling. To take the meat of their character and cook it the way you would want it served to you. A character study is not to please anyone else. A character study—or, at least, the kind of character study I write—exists for you to get your feelings out about the character you have been rotating in your brain onto the page. It also exists, of course, so that you can try to show those feelings to other people and hope they feel them too, but you will never succeed in actually capturing those feelings in the first place if you don't allow yourself to write your authentic vision of the character.

They don't have to be your blorbo, or your problematic fave, or your three corners of the OC design triangle, or whatever, but when you write them, for that space and time they do have to be yours. Otherwise, what's the point?

Once you have that vision, you can put them in practically any situation you like and as long as there's something in it for them to bounce off, you're going to be able to tell a story that reveals something about the character. If you look at the "plots" of a selection of my character studies, we have "one guy folds sheets, another guy asks him questions" as a plot, we have "a pair of exes talk across a tabletop after a party", we have "oh LAWD they FAWKING" like four and a half times, we have "retelling the plot of something else" twice, and we even have "two people on a helicopter flight for an hour". It's not really complicated stuff. It doesn't need to be. The character, or characters, just need to be in a situation where they're going to have some reason to think about, and maybe even talk about, whatever conflict or idea or relationship you find most compelling about them.

With that said, it should be noted that it's... well, for me, with the way I do things, it's very very difficult to conceive of writing a character study in any situation without a clear and central conflict the character or characters are grappling with. All of my character studies revolve around a problem a character has and how they react to it. And yes, "having a conflict" is, like, the quiddity of a story, the most basic plot diagram there is. But what I'm trying to say here is that even in the story I mentioned where two people sit in a helicopter and talk to each other, the story is intensely focused on the internal struggle one of those characters is having with the choices that led to her sitting in that helicopter and how much they do, or don't, make her like the person she's sitting opposite (both more and less than she knows). And that's the sort of thing that I think is key. The conflict, in my eyes, needs to be philosophically central to the way you view the character and what you want to say about them. It needs to be tightly intertwined into what you find most compelling about them—the thing that you just want to sink your hands into and squeeze, for good or ill. That's how you get to really show the world who they are and why you care about that.

After that, I really think that in a lot of ways it just comes down to the prose. How deeply can you write into your character's head? Are you colouring even your description of the world around them with the way they would see it—or are you taking the opposite path and presenting the character entirely through someone else's eyes, so that you can characterise them through the distance between what the other person thinks about them and how they present themselves? You don't need frame-perfect metaphors or the Inanna-Ishtar LGBTQIA+ sharingan-coloured prose to do that, but you do need to focus on writing in a way that expresses the character.

This does take focus. How much focus depends on how specialised you are into that style of prose, but it is focus nonetheless: you need to think of your sentences, each and every one, as tools to communicate something about your understanding of the character that you want the audience to know. Some of them will inevitably instead become vehicles to reach a point where you can communicate that understanding, but something as simple as what a character notices first when they walk into a room tells you something about them. Lean on that. Lean into that. After all, if you're writing a character study, the writing should study your character.

(Colour this advice with the fact that I am, as you've probably realised from reading my writing, very much a prose-focused writer. I have spent near on fifteen years, since before I even graduated high school, honing my prose for poetry of language and interiority so that I can write in the way I most enjoy reading. That affects what I value in writing, and it affects my opinion on the way people should write. I believe what I am saying is true and good and useful, because I have faith in the way I engage with my art, but my advice does not chart the sole and singular course to the ever-distant utopia.)

To tl;dr myself, my advice for writing character studies fundamentally boils down to to the idea that I think a character study is most potent when it presents a vision of a character that the writer has clearly obsessed over. That they have layered with their thoughts, their perspective, and their heart to the degree that it drips even from their prose. A character study with the confidence to say this is what I think is compelling about this character, and I want you to see it too.

I may not agree with it, I may think "They Would Not Have Fucking Said That", I may even think the writer has just invented an unsustainable interpretation of the character that demonstrates startling reading incomprehension and I can't believe I have to share the same fandom as these people.

But at the same time, I know people have thought and said that about my own works—and I'm still happy that I wrote them.

I have far more respect for someone who's written an entirely committed and deranged interpretation of a character that I think is Flatly Fucking Wrong than I do someone who presents me with the most milquetoast interpretation I can't disagree with. If I choose to read a character study, it's because I want to see you study the character. That's, as the meme goes, why I'm here.

So, really: focus on determining who you think the character is, write them the way you want to see them written, keep your prose tight to who you think the character is (not just "would they say that?" or "would they think that?" but "how would they describe that?" and "what would they see in that?"), and commit to the bit.

(If you've managed to read to the bottom—thank you for entertaining my rambling, and I hope it helped!)

[pyrotechnicarus]

what's your experience re: the difference between writing prose and scripts 😭 i have to write plays for the first time for school and i miss my wife Purple Prose

Congrats on writing your first play! And I definitely empathize -- switching from one form to the other was hard for me, and something I still struggle with. Musical theater is arguably the novelist's crutch into scriptwriting because we have access to songs -- the kind of access to the characters' thoughts and intentions you get throughout a novel, you can inject into a song, whereas straight playwrights (especially realist playwrights) don't always have that built-in genre convention for theatricalizing their character's minds.

Unless you're working at a level of heightened text in your play that allows interior monologues to be spoken aloud or narrators to describe things (which, hey, you might want to consider!) then you'll have to really work on externalizing both beauty (your beautiful descriptions of things in your short stories? now someone has to say them out loud. Who would? What sort of person would speak this way? Would anyone?) and character development (often my playwriting teacher says that every shift in a piece has to be signaled through an action. A character can't just change their mind. That change doesn't exist to the audience until they do something with that new perspective -- hurt another character, avoid a situation, indulge in something they've opposed before, etc.) Writing for theater really forces you to make your character arcs visible in a way that prose doesn't.

On the other hand, you now have access to a ton of other tools that you didn't have as a prose writer! These usually fall under the broad umbrella of "theatricalization," but really just mean everything you can do in the theater that you can't do in any other medium. The intercut scene before Me, Myself, and I in Adamandi -- the casual, silent cohabitation of the past couple and the present couple at the start of Ghost Story -- the use of the edge of the stage to represent suicide in Adamandi -- all only work because the theatrical audience is willing to accept thematic intersections of space, time, and character because of the boundaries of the stage. When can two things happen simultaneously? When can your character make eye contact with an audience member? When can they leave the stage? What does having collective physical bodies perceiving your art allow you to do - when are they crying together, laughing together, when does their pulse race? Can you make them feel scared? Try out writing scenes that take place in the dark, in a spotlight, with a silent actor onstage, or with significant costume changes that can carry an equal amount of the story to your stage directions and spoken text.

Finally, I guess my overall advice would be to study plays you admire (my benchmarks are currently Is God Is, Escaped Alone, Streetcar Named Desire, M. Butterfly, and various Paula Vogel plays -- And Baby Makes Seven is my fave but The Baltimore Waltz is probably a gentler introduction to her) for their conventions and copy the shit out of them. Imitate their formatting, for a bit. Steal a staging that works in your context. Cut your dialogue down viciously -- words and exchanges that take a few seconds to read on the page take precious minutes to say out loud. Watch out for conversational cul-de-sacs -- ideally each line should advance the scene, advance the characters, and advance the plot. If your character is saying stuff like "What's your name?" then maybe the scene needs to start later -- you want every line to be one that only that character would be able to say.

Relatedly, and I think a failing of mine when I made the switch that is now getting better: don't rely on tone indicators to do the work of adaptation. Your actors and directors will ignore them, first of all, but also each line should contain its proper reading -- it should be clear from the context of the scene whether your character is saying "Hello." (angrily) or "Hello." (haughtily). I try to limit myself to 10-20 tone lines per 90-page musical script, if that's a helpful benchmark for you (this is different from stage directions, but you should also not be using stage directions to take the place of good dialogue. Anything inconsequential -- he paces or chewing his lip or with a sly grin -- ought to be cut.)

Anyway, overall, have fun and do whatever it takes (including disobeying all the advice above) to FINISH IT! You'll only know once you have a full draft A. whether you want to keep going with this medium and B. what your storytelling is Like; how you can improve it. Good luck!

[stitchwraith-stingers]

Saw you're family tree post and i love how fleshed how they are! Though i saw you say that that Angela had her own godparent, could you perhaps elaborate on that?

HIIII IM SO GLAD U ASKED... this is one of my fave hcs and im happy i could talk abt it

when she was younger, angela was not in a good headspace mentally, she was extremely depressed to put it lightly, she was also really anxious and when she was 10 she recieved cirrus swiftsky as a godparent, the best i could describe him was like a grandfather to her and looked sort-of fancy, he had a mustache and everything, this wasnt his first rodeo with a kid, hes been doing this for a good few fairy years

angela, altough she used escapism often by reading kids books, she wasnt very "imaginitive" as she describes herself, so her wishes werent anything extreme, and if anything just mostly talked to cirrus about things that were bothering to her, and he wasnt expecting to become a defacto therapist to this kid, he gave her life advice he vaugely remembered while studying to be a godparent (they take mandatory childrens psychology lessons) and gestured her over to try journaling for her thoughts

he often disguised himself as a orange butterfly when outdoors with her (to school, to the park etc), and at home would usually be their pet ferret, who was called tom by her parents

they lasted longer then the usual godparent-godkid duo, 2 years infact, however she was expected to leave him when she was 14 as she was still concidered not yet fully happy, she had accidently blurted it out when her brother walked in on her and she panicked, thus wiping their memories

godparents, if taken away before their kid has been properly reverted to being happy, arent allowed to visit them again, and godkids wont be given another one unless they are in desperate need of them, like if something else drastic happened, even if they are still miserable, this is a big countroversy in the godparenting industry (which i could go on about tbh)

angela, who used cirrus as an anchor, was EXTREMELY distraught, and if anything made her feel worse by the fact she couldnt remember why (codependancy problems, where have i heard that before!) and after afew weeks of refusing to leave her room she decided to go to the library as a way to slowly start getting back to it and she had picked up a psychology book, and thats where she started her psychology interest, along with vaugely remembering her doing jounraling, so she continued and it spiraled into how she is today

though she had picked up psychology books for older people, so she convinced herself she was more "mature" for her age, and even today she hasnt gotten the hang of how 10 year olds should actually work ("lets leave her untill shes ready to come to us" go talk to ur daughter?)

her parents - heather and felix campbell - werent horrible at all, just in the dark about what her kid was doing since she didnt like to share anything she liked with them at all, if anything they were slightly more "loose" if that makes sense, but because she was just anxious she worried that theyd get mad which they often didnt, if that makes sense

she never really had any friends in her life, as she decided she'd focus on that after shes done with her studies, she wasnt really a social outcast, if anything a little socially awkward, shes only had 1 friend during high school and her social life kicked off more in collage, everyone had respected her but she was more of a "i wont talk unless you talk" type of deal, on top of her grades because it gave her something to do in her free time (and she just enjoyed writing essays in general), and she had gotten much much better where she was now! only problem was that she was still anxious about presenting projects

when she was with postpartum depression after hazel was born she couldnt help but feel like she was missing a puzzle piece, yknow how it feels when you know youve forgotten something, but you dont know what? thats how she felt, thankfully she had gotten treatment quickly

hazel does get her more anxious side from her, angela is a good parent and has taught her children to communicate with eachother unlike how she did with hiding it, though she (unknowingly) struggles with properly understanding her 10 year old and being so focused on her work she cant sit down and 'think outside the box' as shes said

[dognonsense]

hey do you have any advice for actually getting into local punk scenes? i know the city near mine (i live in a small country town so no scene of our own) has regular punk shows at a local skate shop and it looks super cool but i dont have any punk friends and im unsure about going there alone as a fem looking person, esp since im newer to punk shit in general

shuld try going to some shows! even i go to shows alone sometimes with no friends at them at all and just have to try talk to some new people or chill on my own and observe ppl.

I like to do photography at shows and post em on instagram, its a good way to get to know people as they get your contact to see the photos of themself after the show. Archiving the scene of all those little bands that never made an album before breaking up, the fashion and the clothing, the people and the relationships, what silly activities fucking happen outside, pit photorgaphy, theres so much to capture and share. Do ask permission when photographing people especially with minors!

ohh and if you make any zines, lil paper magazine u can diy make with just a piece of paper, u can carry some on you if its small. Its a fun convo starter and showcase your personality and skills. Like if your an artist you can show some lil illustration, if u like writing share that, politics or any topics, u can make a zine on anything! Its a good way to kinda showcase ur personality to someone to warm u up to them. My fave one to share is my cat zine which is full of pink kitties. Also if you make patches you can just sell them to people out your bag or do a patch trade right there!

For the first bunch of shows i went to i more just focused on the musix instead of the people and then once ppl got to know me slowly in the break between bands, i started staying outside more. Now i spend the whole time outside taking dabs lmao. I just prefer to chat and smoke weed smtms. I may have had some dabs before this too hence my rambliness.

Thnks for reading

[wetcatspellcaster]

Do you have any writing tips for newbie fic writers? Your descriptions are gorgeous. Thank you for pieces BTW, it's my favorite 'piece' of writing ❤️

hi anon, thank you for the kind words!💞💞 I'm flattered that I'm someone that you'd think to ask this question, so I'll do my best to answer! I've put my response beneath a keep reading cut to prevent it being a long post :)

I wasn't sure how to interpret this question, so I'll focus on 'technical' (?) tips mostly. Hope any of them help, in some small way!

my main tip to new fic writers is: write, first and foremost, for yourself, and to feed yourself. I've seen this perspective get put through the disk-horse ringer of late, so take it or leave it, or take it with as much of a pinch of salt as you need. But truly, from the bottom of my heart and from my position of sudden newfound popularity, this is the most important lesson I was ever given and so I have to say it. Popularity is not guaranteed. Even a popular fic will have haters and people who think it objectively sucks, and the readers who like you will never be fully pleased with what you've delivered. This could all be very depressing and cause an author to lose motivation.... if you make it the criteria for success in the first place. If you make the criteria for success your own happiness (or perhaps the happiness of you and a few close pals), providing yourself with what you, specifically, want to see, you will probably want to keep writing regardless of all other factors. Produce fics that you want to reread when you need comfort, when you are sick, and when you want to see your blorbos exactly the way you want them. This will make any fic worthwhile to you, regardless of stats, and prevent you from writing things that will suffer if your heart isn't in it! (this doesn't preclude gift fics/prompts! sometimes your heart can be 100% in providing food for others. find your key motivators, and feed that - a healthy amount - if you're trying to get into writing as a hobby!)

Now, onto my writing tips! I don't consider myself an expert and these are more lessons that have helped me, specifically, to improve my writing. But maybe something in here will be of use!

Bc you say you like descriptions... I tend to go into detail only when it's an essential thing that needs to be described. Leave wider details for readers to fill in with their own beautiful mind-palaces, and this gives you permission to go ham on what matters. What is it that matters? maybe it's a piece of the environment (say, a soul jar) or maybe it's just how hot one part of your ship is, in their hot clothes or out of them. If you focus on the important stuff but leave the rest to background, this not only creates a good balance of action to description, but it also shows the reader what they should prioritise in the scene.

I also google '[WORD] synonyms' a lot, for descriptions specifically. Which seems like it might be condescending advice, but it both helps you find different words if you're worried you're repeating yourself, and sometimes confirms that yes. You are using the best word actually, as you were.

Get a good balance of complex/simplistic words, as well as a good balance of complex/simplistic sentences. Sometimes you need a flowery description, sometimes you just need to state explicitly what is happening or the way things are. Tone will shift depending on your balance of these two things, so test the waters and see what works for you!

If you feel like you've written too much dialogue, the answer is probably no, you haven't written too much dialogue - for fic specifically. Most people are reading fic bc they want their faves to interact more. You are giving them more interaction and they will probably love it.

If you find phrases you like in the books/fic you read, it isn't plagiarism to use them so long as you recontextualise them. I'm certain I've used other people's words multiple times, particularly for my descriptions/imagery, and this is totally ok so long as the context is original. If you're worried, or its a whole sentence/interaction you like, examine the sentence/interaction and work out why you like it so much. Is it the sentence structure? Is the character dynamic? Is it the way the kiss plays out? Take the things you find sexiest in other people's writing and find ways to incorporate it into your own work!

I proofread by reading aloud. Yes, I sound mental and unhinged. My cats are worried about me. But this not only helps you catch mistakes, it helps to test the flow of a sentence! If you're ever worried a sentence is too long/a line of dialogue doesn't sound in character, read it aloud! This will help you work out if it's flowing or not, and if it isn't then you'll get some clues as to why!

Don't be afraid to take risks, if you want to take risks! This can apply to anything: being brave enough to put in a joke you're not sure people will find funny, describing something in a way you're worried people will find weird, tackling something from a perspective or POV that you find challenging. This may be a more intermediate tip, but you can start with small risks, and experimenting helps you find your writing voice! Taking risks makes your writing unique :) and I can't explain how much better my writing has gotten since I gave myself specific challenges. You will not get it perfectly write 100% of the time (there are some parts of Pieces that are weak compared to other parts) but it will always help you improve.

[jolapeno]

Hi Jo!

'Arepas' has its Fan Fiction Birthday on 23rd April 🎂

Happy birthday!

Tell us something about that fic, anything you like, and we'll help blow out the candles and wish it many happy returns!

You can save this ask until the actual date or reply whenever you like.

happy birthday to arepas (I am doing this a few days early cause it’s on Tuesday and we know what day that is 👀)

but you’ll be proud, I took my own advice AND I’ve got some cake for it. raspberry ripple, if you wish to know.

warnings below: jo rambling, jo talking far too much, because if you ask me about a story I’m gonna talk and talk and talk and—

there’s so much I could say about this piece. I could bore you all by saying that it was the first jo-romance-thing I’d done in a long time (after a period of not being well and that I never thought I could), I could tell you that without it late night texts would never have been born or I could tell you that to this day it is one of my fave things I’ve written. but they’re all things I say a lot, to various people, even if not publicly.

so, thought I could share why I wrote it? and why I love it, maybe?

arepas was written because I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact javi cared about people. it was there, etched into my first viewing and confirmed in my second. and so, she was born. this woman that he’d notice (and want to flirt with) but eventually found something nicer. a piece of home away from his real home—a person who he could tell things to, like why he doesn’t like funerals and what his mom’s dishes taste like. things that aren’t romantic, but very much are. and that because of that, the two would have to find ways to not fall for one another more than they secretly already did.

because respect.

one of the main challenges I had with it is the edit. it was the biggest one shot I think I’d written and it was a monster to edit. some of the snippet convos between the scenes were actually scenes I condensed down into this format because even for me it was just so much. but, that felt like such a risk for me? would these little snippet of convos carry? but they did! and without that, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to try and do a text fic for LNT or DMY now.

one of my favourite things (outside of Steve, he was amazing in this) was the scene where javi realises she’s late and goes to find her. god I can picture it even now. him banging on her door fuelled with jealousy, and then this sheer amazement at her—an image that actually shifts him and renders him a bit useless for the briefing? because it’s not romantic, but it is. it’s the fact he’s gotten this piece of her he’s never asked for, but she felt so comfortable being like that around him, plus, the fact he already has feelings. it isn’t to do with what had been under her clothes, but the person he’s slowly become more comfortable with.

and then Steve being Steve is a highlight for me with the scene. him being so shocked that the two of them haven’t danced over the line continues to kill me.

god I love them.

in my head, they’re living their best life. likely gone back to Laredo, visit her folks too. maybe they’ve settled down somewhere. but I know in my heart they’re so happy.

also, for anyone wondering why I chose food as the code word—that’s a nod to my best friend, the man I married. a man who used to put up with me making up code words when we was friends to escape awkward parties or gatherings, and create code words in our early dating days and we was a secret. I believe in romance because of him, I believe in myself because of him and none of my writing, both what I’ve achieved and what I’m going to, would be without him.

thank you for allowing me to ramble and talk about things. I’m sorry it got so long.

[osarina]

hi carina !! havent been in ur inbox for a while, hru :)) i hope ur well >^< !!

i'm mainly here to ask if u have any writing tips/advice bc ur lit one of my fave bsd writers ever i adore all ur works sm and recently i've hated everything im writing ajkrnjekncvej SO IM WONDERING IF U HAVE ANY ADVICE CEJFCNJ (hopefully this isnt strange eabfihri)

you dont hafta answer this is u dont wanna btw !!! have a great day mwah <333

REDDDDDD MY SWEET LOVE BUG i've been doing okay!! work hasn't been as awful as i expected it to be, i rlly got lucky with my boss HAHAH - how are you doing?? you had exams right?? i hope they all went well!! sorry it took me so long to answer this one, but i wanted to actually be able to give u a good response so it had to wait until i had time i fear

IT'S NOT STRANGE, ur so sweet im giving u the softest forehead smooch. i'm sorry to hear you've been feeling that way about your writing though - i get it, trust me i do LOL, i go through days and weeks where i literally am revulsed by every word i put down in a doc. actually, i just went thru it like 2 days ago while writing the first chapter of civilian dazai so it's all fresh in the head LOL

honestly, i think the most important tip i have is really basic but u should never force yourself to write just for the sake of getting something out. like, i've done it before and whenever i do, i'm soooo unhappy with the results that it usually makes me go through a huge writing slump -> this happened with uu6 actually, i was so busy but i was trying to force the chapter out on time that i ended up rewriting it like 3 times because i hated it so much. finally i decided to move on to write some pmzai drabbles to clear my head & then came back to uu6 when i started feeling it again and behold, it came with ease. sometimes when i want to write but none of my wips are doing it for me, i'll literally conjure up a huge list of tropes and just read through it until one pops out to me LOL and then ill work on that

another i think basic piece of advice is reading. whether its fanfics, or novels, or whatever. whenever i have trouble liking what i write, i find something to read. reading is actually how i taught myself to write HAHAH my go tos are fantasy/scifi- tolkein, martin, herbert, rf kuang, i've been meaning to read sanderson but haven't had the time yet. honestly, in general, if i have free time and i'm not writing something, 9/10 i'm reading something.

i think plotting is also really important!! even for like one-shots, sometimes i get so lost in the writing that i lose focus of what the fic was originally supposed to be about and that frustrates me into deleting everything i've written. so something i do is i list out all of the scenes i want to see in a chapter or a one-shot before i start writing it so that i don't lose focus.

dialogue is a huge hurdle for me - sometimes i struggle to figure out whether or not my dialogue is realistic, so LOL sometimes i just sit there and speak it out loud, acting out a conversation with myself to see if it flows properly and then adjust accordingly. sometimes i do it for like descriptions/narration too if i think the narration isn't flowing or is too clunky. reading things out loud is a go-to way for me to figure out what's wrong with my writing.

and then lastly, this is more of a mental thing than anything else, but i've just slowly had to teach myself not to be too hard on myself. like i'll get so mad if something doesn't come out exactly how i envisioned it, and it used to genuinely make me so disappointed that i couldn't bring myself to write for days. so i've just slowly been working myself into a mentality telling myself that it doesn't have to be perfect to be great, yknow. and ten times out ten, you're seeing faults in your writing that no one else will take notice of.

so the whole tldr:

only write what you WANT to write, dont force urself to finish/write something

read when you can, whether its fanfic or novels or whatever u can get ur hands on

plot things out so you don't get lost

read things out loud that aren't making sense

work on not being so hard on yourself

[rollercoasterwords]

Hey, you’ve done a lot of great world building with ATWMD. I know some of it is taking from canon and expanding, but it really feels like your own original work. As someone who’s working on an original story of their own what tips do you have for world building, politics, etc to make the story feel more real? I know I’m being vague and it depends on a lot of other factors, but I hope you understand what I’m saying.

hello! a bit late getting back 2 this but gonna do my best 2 answer. first of all ty 4 the kind words etc appreciate that ur enjoying the world building <3

honestly one of my biggest pieces of advice would be 2 not spend too much time worrying abt creating something 100% "original"--as in, don't agonize over "oh i have to make something completely new that doesn't resemble any other story!!" all storytelling is derivative--even ur fave authors who publish original work are drawing inspiration from other stories, historical events, things happening in the world around them, etc. and that's a good thing! a lot of "originality" in stories is just remixing beloved tropes or character archetypes or plot beats by putting them into new contexts of combinations.

bearing that in mind i'd say what makes strong world building is embracing that quality and purposely looking to other stories or the world around u 4 inspiration. if there's an aspect of a made-up world u love in a story, think abt why u love it & how u could apply that aspect 2 ur own story, etc. pretty much every plot point i'm writing in atwmd is just me thinking of another story/trope i liked & going "hey i wanna do a spin on that" (werewolf fighting ring! heist! only one bed!). & for world-building i'd say what's helped me most specifically is honestly just like. studying history lol. my world-building is very much informed by both historical & current events & my own politics related to those things; the more you learn about the world around u, the more realistically ur able 2 create worlds in stories...like it helps 2 create fictional political institutions if you have knowledge about existing & past political institutions, etc.

[crows-home]

hey! i hope you don’t mind me asking, but do u have any fics you recommend reading? (specifically sonic fandom ones)

im so sorry anon but im probably the worst when it comes to fic recs. I just started using the bookmark function on ao3 like last month. There's probably tons of fics that i've read and absolutely loved, but never saved and are just collecting dust in my history ToT

i'm going to shout out a few of my favorite authors whose works i absolutely adore and some fics under the cut!

There's definitely more authors and fics i missed, but this is what i was able to come up with!! in general, the sonic community is full of so much talent and i'm just really happy to be here :)

@cozyqueerchaos - I love every single piece they put out honestly and these fics are the reason i dipped my toes more into the sonic fandom years ago. they're THAT good. love them all.

@phantomruby - another wonderful fic writer that everyone should check out. "Slipping Away" makes me cry fr, although i haven't caught up on the latest updates. everything just makes my heart go oshfdsfhd

@chaoxfix - sonic fics are wonderful sonic takes are top notch i dig everything. the understanding of the characters and archie is just phenomenal.

@teamxdark - fell in love with the Tales of Avalon series and fell harder in love with the team dark Boomtober fics and dynamics and aaaaaa, wonderful writing and style.

@rubyiiiusions - every fic is a joy to read and every story really just gets your attention and keeps it till the end. i've bookmarked a few of them since last week :)

I went digging through my history and here are some of my personal favorite Sonic fics!

radio silence under a yellow sky by chaox Summary: Sonic finds out Tails is missing. And more importantly, that no one's been looking for him.

A gen fic about Sonic finding out Tails was MIA during Forces it's so so good i think about it a lot

falling by sonosuke Summary: Shadow likes a boy

sonadow during SA2 I'll cry. so angsty but it makes me :')

Birds of a Feather by SonicaSpeed123 Summary: Sonic has been trapped in Camelot for three years, but he's started to make a place for himself that he can finally be comfortable in with his beloved Lancelot Something has been bothering him, though: If all the people of this world look like the people back home, where is Sonic's lookalike?

Lansoni. Part of a series of SatBK mini fics that i really love, but this one especially because it answers the question of 'what about the Sonic doppleganger?'

you can hardly swallow your fears and pain by chaox and sketchjii Summary: Shadow is usually better at putting up that cold, unfeeling front, isn't he? Or maybe that's him. (or: sonic doesn't need to be in touch with his feelings if he pretends they don't exist in the first place)

One of my all time faves i love it so much i dont think i have the right words. shadow tries to give sonic mental health advice. it does not go well. takes place some time after Forces.

the time has come again for stars by rubyillusions Summary: (five times someone notices sonic and shadow are in love and one time they do something about it)

sonadow, Teen. obsessed with how the characters are written here and the way all of their friends interpret their relationship it's just so cute and sweet and shit and i love it a lot.

against every odd by eggskie Summary: "We're friends?" Nine asks, small and timid, and oh, doesn't that break Sonic's heart. "Of course we are. We always have been. Or we always should have been." Or: Nine isn't used to being cared about

wanna see how hard i can cry? Gen, Sonic Prime fic about sonic and tails and what they should have been.

Dreams Don't Come True by Skyblaze Summary: Short, mildly humorous fic with sonadow flavouring. It also takes the mickey extensively out of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 Next Gen game. Warning: not to be taken seriously.

This fic is just really silly i like it a lot :)

A largely platonic cave by mousewritings Summary: "You know I uh, love hanging out with you and all, but do you think we could go somewhere that's not a cave for once?" Shadow stares at him. "What do you mean, go somewhere that's not a cave? Think you're too good for caves?"

Sonic Boom Sonic and Shadow (pre-slash sonadow) my beloveds <3<3 this fic is so funny they're so insufferable

Also, uh. I know you said only Sonic fics but i'm going to add a few more fics that i really really love from different fandoms because i reread them a lot, i hope you don't mind! ^^

Our way by shpeeper Summary: Overall, the mission was pretty simple. Sniper was instructed to track the spy for a week, figure out his daily patterns, then put a bullet in his brain when no one is around. No one told him there would be a kid. An AU in which Spy raises Scout alone, and Sniper is hired to kill Spy.

Oh my fucking god i could go on about this fic. Sniperspy, Teen, TF2. filled with action and danger. Every time a new character would get introduced, i would have fun piecing together who they were in my mind. the first chapter already had me emotional, it's been in my brain for YEARS. And don't even get me STARTED with the twist at the end. holy shit.

Desmodontinae by Romiress Summary: Kirk wakes up in a Gotham that is not his own. A what-if, where Gods and Monsters Batman winds up in the DCU. Originally intended as a short oneshot, and expanded out into a small story, exploring the differences, struggles, and conclusions. Focuses primarily on Kirk Langstrom (G&M Batman), with a side or Hernan Guerra (G&M Superman), Damian Wayne, and Bruce Wayne. Guest appearances by various other Robins, Clark and Jon Kent, and several others.

The Gods and Monsters DC team means so much to me and oh my god this fic was made with so much love and care for the characters. It's been a while since i read it, but i remember this fic had me staying up literally all night, eagerly going through all the chapters, one at a time. i was in bed kicking my sheets quietly irl lmao.

[twst-hanaya]

Rook Hunt: Apathy Wrapped In Kindness

Okay so this is just going to be me ranting about Rook Hunt (finally - despite him being my fave most special little boy, I haven't written one post about him since starting this blog). It's basically just my personal interpretation of his character and how I imagine he would act, specifically with regards to love and romance. Basically just some personal head-canons, so don't get mad at me if we have different views of him.

I do love a man that can give me emotional damage in ways I never thought possible. Let's get started.

My impression of the fandom consensus - at least, the part of the fandom that writes Reader/Character and MC/Character fics - is that Rook is either an obsessive Yandere or a very gushy and romantic that likes to make grand gestures and dramatic declarations of his love for his significant other in French, with maybe a touch of danger, but it's sexy so we're good.

Realistically - (bad word here I know, I like fantasizing just as much as the next girl but this is for the sake of my deep love of his character okay) - I think Rook would make a terrible lover.

He himself says that he's too obsessed with beauty to be tied down, that his eyes will always chase what shines. He won't give up the opportunity to experience the other beauties of the world. He's so caught up in the expansiveness, the endless novelty, that dopamine hit from finding that shiny new thing, that the idea of limiting himself deliberately is foreign to him. He doesn't commit, not because he's afraid, but because he is greedy. Commitment is a choice to sacrifice, and he wants to experience everything this world has to offer.

As he is now, he is overwhelmed with the abundance of experiences available to him, and he doesn't quite understand the beauty that can only be found in that sacrifice and deep connection with another human being. His intake is just that - taking. Receiving. He eats beauty and enjoys his meals, the delicacy of human existence. He enjoys observing and even helping grow what he finds, making precise comments with his sharp, observant eye. He gives quite a bit in that sense - wisdom, encouragement, and most importantly, the truth.

See, my favorite thing about him is that despite his affable and friendly nature, he always keeps people at a distance. And even worse, he's a hypocrite. If he finds you interesting, he has no qualms about ripping apart your barriers and peering into your soul without you even knowing, while simultaneously disliking any attempts by others to probe into his own life in any significant way.

So this is what I think loving Rook Hunt would look like.

He'll shower you with praise and attention and understanding and advice. He will carve you open and lay bear your every fear and hope and dream, and he will consume that beauty, of a person's most secret, vulnerable part of their being - a risk you have taken, a gift you have given him - with shining eyes and even something like affection and gratitude.

He will do all of this, and when you ask him to please - please give me a piece of yourself too? Something precious, the same as I have given you? He will turn away. His curiosity satisfied, his interest sated, he will move onto the next shiny thing that catches his eye.

He will make you love him, and he will take that love in his hands and hold it up to the light to see how it catches it. He will admire how it sparkles so brightly and how it is malformed and dark in certain spots, and then he will put it down. It will have no place in his life, the collection of things he is willing to keep.

And what are you left with? A love that has nowhere to go and is too unwieldy and overgrown to fit back inside of you the way it used to. There's a big hole, and you have in your hands a love with nowhere to go.

So what were you? Just an experience? His kindness wasn't untrue - he meant every word he said. But his detachment, how he cuts himself out of the equation of life and places himself as a spectator who watches a play, is a type of apathy the inevitable cruelty of which will hurt you when you are standing alone under those bright stage lights looking for his silhouette in the shadows of the audience.

His heart will never belong to anyone but himself. Some might catch a glimpse, on accident. Maybe a sliver he's willing to expose in order to protect the whole. What a cold man.

But maybe, just maybe, someone can show him one day that that emptiness isn't just something he only leaves behind in others but grows in himself as well. Like I said, I don't think he quite understands the value of sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice that binds a person to something greater than themselves - the kind of sacrifice that binds oneself. But maybe when he breaks that person open and they inevitably reject him, unable to bear that feeling of loneliness despite standing beside him, he will feel even a hint of what he has let go, of what he has unwittingly lost with his careless consumption of others' hearts.

Anyways I need someone to write me a 100k+ slowburn Rook/OC fic with this in mind otherwise I have to do it myself and that shits fucking hard man, lol.

[mionakt]

Hi Moni, I’m turning to one of my fave people here during my time of crisis. My heart has been absolutely shattered to pieces by a guy who turned out not to be who I thought he was. I’m in my 20s and experiencing this for the first time ever, it’s so painful. Have you been through this before? How do you do it?

That means a lot, always happy to give advice! It really is painful, a past relationship really ruined me in ways which only a year ago I’ve properly healed from it all - from experience I would recommend remembering that in the grand scheme of things he is just a guy, he probably isn’t saving lives nor contributing to society in any heroic way so just remembering that he’s just a man and humbling them in your mind a little helps just a bit. I would personally recommend blocking and just removing them completely from your life because having them in contact/access isn’t going to do any good I promise, and also just treat yourself to time with friends, quality alone time, writing down your thoughts and remembering that it isn’t linear is super important and to just let yourself feel what you’re feeling, I hope you feel better soon 🫂🩷

[esta-elavaris]

Just wondering if you’d be able to share some tips on writing? Your fics are legitimately some of my all time faves, and when I was a teen a dabbled in fanfic writing but I’ve never been a strong writer if I’m being honest. But I have a fic idea that I really wanna try and write since I can’t find anything else with this specific trope 😅 would be amazing if you could give some advice on how to improve!

Thank you so much!! 💜 A lot of this is just off the top of my head but I hope some of it is useful -- good luck with your fic!

Okay so first of all one of my favourite pieces of advice is something you're literally already following by taking on an idea without being totally sure how to go about it. That's when a project always ends up being a good one, and that's what makes you improve ten times faster than like, "easy" ideas that don't have any intimidation factor to them. I'm always happiest with the fics I didn't know I'd be able to pull off in the beginning, and my crap ones are always the ones where I go in confident.

Read a lot and read broadly - books, not just fanfic. You'll end up reading a lot of stuff you didn't like, but you'll know WHY you didn't like it and it'll inform the kind of decisions you make with your own writing. And, better than that, you'll also find a lot of stuff that you didn't expect to like but actually did. Plus it opens up so many avenues for ideas to flow in from unexpected sources, even from stuff like autobiographies. And like, I think a lot of people underestimate that kind of thing because they'd go "well I'm writing romantasy, why would I need to read horror books?" but then they have no idea how to handle tense, spooky, or even angsty scenes when they do crop up - and those little moments of genre-hopping make a story feel real, anyway, because it's more true to life. Real life isn't permanently fluffy, or comedic, or even depressing all of the time without any let up, and like? That's why the best pieces of media are so good? LOTR has strong elements of fantasy (duh) but also comedy, romance, action, drama, and even bits of horror all at once and that's why it's so vivid because so does life (although in a far less dramatic way, for me at least 💀 idk what other folk get up to).

If you read consciously (critically?), too, you can go and seek out how your favourite writers handle things like exposition, or the bits that serve just to get the characters from point A to point B, or even more minor details like dialogue tags. I find that really helpful because it reminds you that not every sentence has to be like? Groundbreaking or even particularly good? "She walked over to the chair and sat down" is fine, it's golden, it serves a purpose, but when you get too in your head about wanting something to be great, it's easy to forget that and get too hung up on little throwaway lines.

Also people are gonna be sick of me saying this but the best thing I've ever done for my writing is writing every day, as a rule. If I could only ever give one piece of writing advice ever again, it'd be that. I do think folk lean too much towards the "any time the vibe is slightly off don't write a word! self care!!!" thing and uhhh not writing every single time you can find a minor excuse not to is going to be way worse for you than forcing a page down when you don't particularly want to and the real self care is the fic we forced ourselves to write along the way. I started Little By Little juuuuust before I started daily writing, I think, and comparing that to stuff I was even writing just one year later shows how quickly it forced me to improve. It's like a muscle, the more you work it, the stronger it gets - and if you show up every day, the ideas will too.

I know there's not much like? Technical advice here but honestly I don't have any of that to give? I don't approach chapters like "ah, yes, this one shall begin with dialogue because that provides an element of (literary term that I'm too tired to use as an example) which sets things up nicely for (other literary term I don't have enough brain cells to conjure)", I'm not that technical or that smart about it, if I do try to approach things that way it doesn't feel organic, I'm just out here vibing and feeling my way through it. But like I said, if you read enough and write enough, you get used to that and your gut will tell you which way to take things.

[devildom-drabbles]

Hey... so, kind of a sensitive topic here, so I totally het it if you dont want to write it!

So I just got body shamed for hours on end... it really hurt... and I kinda just wanted to imagine what the brothers would say to that, because I'm lonely and have no friends that can relate and I'm just a depressing person in general lol😅(sorry)

But anyways, after that was over, my first reaction was to look at my OM! Blanket with the brothers on it, and I looked at Mams, because I love him and he's my fave. But then, it hit me, I'm like: No, (my name)... You need fucking Asmo rn. He's gonna tell you your beautiful, not be a tsundere about it, and absolutely roast the shit out of that body shaming asshole because... it's Asmo.

So... could you do how Asmo would react to MC being fat shamed or just body shamed in general?

Tysm if you write this, but I totally understand if not!

So... Could you write what

I’m so sorry that you had to go through that, Anon.  No one deserves to be body shamed, and rest assured that all the demon brothers love MC/you just as you are and would not tolerate anyone treating you like that.  And yes, Asmo certainly is the best choice when you’re in need of support and straightforward compliments, especially regarding physical appearance.  So, get cozy in your Obey Me! blanket, Anon, because for you and for any other MCs who experience body shaming, here comes Asmo to the rescue! 💕  Enjoy!

How would Asmodeus react to MC being body shamed?

Asmodeus would gasp dramatically upon overhearing the cruel words directed at MC’s body.  The sound immediately catches the attention of not just MC and the rude individual but also those around them.  Is he about to cause a scene?  Absolutely.  Does he care?  No, because this is important, and he wants everyone to hear what he has to say.

“Excuse me?!” Asmo would declare to the rude individual, his hand poised on his chest in offense.  “I did not just hear you insult the most stunning human in all the three realms!  I know that my radiance alone can be blinding in anyone’s presence, but there’s no way it can ruin your ability to see the beauty in each and every part of my dear MC here.  From their head down to their toes, they are positively perfect.  Not at all ‘shameful’ or ‘disgusting’ or any of the other horrible things you said.  If I had to use those words to describe anyone, it’d be you.  Now rub your crusty eyes and look at them again!”

Asmo would gesture to the human beside him and present a counterargument for everything that the offender criticized.  For example:  “What’s wrong with the size of MC’s body?  It’s the best size for the best hugs and cuddles ever!  And any piece of clothing looks incredible on them!  Other models ought to be jealous of how they can’t wear any style as well as MC can.  Or, perhaps, you’re the one who’s jealous?  Judging by your outfit, the better choice would’ve been to ask MC for fashion advice rather than be upset about something you clearly don’t understand.”

Another example:  “I can’t even believe you would dare insult the [freckles/scars/stretch marks/etc.] on MC’s skin!  They make my darling human oh-so-wonderfully unique, and they don’t ever need to be covered up!  Why, I love seeing them!  If there’s any problem with them, it’s that they’re so kissable and make it hard to refrain myself from peppering them with my love all of the time.”

Basically, whatever physical aspect of MC that the rude individual shamed, Asmo would be worshiping in front of a growing crowd of onlookers.  He’d even go further on to praise physical attributes that the individual never even mentioned, along with personality traits and other things that he just loves about MC in general.  But it wouldn’t end there, either.  He’d find it necessary to verbally knock the offender down a few more pegs, embarrassing them for their disrespectful behavior while others are recording this exchange that’ll likely get posted to various social media platforms.  Finally, before the individual can retreat, Asmo would ensure that they apologize for what they said to MC.

“Are you all right, hon?” Asmo would check with MC afterward.  “I hope you don’t think I went overboard with my response.  You really are the most beautiful being I’ve ever laid eyes on—aside from myself—so of course I wasn’t going to let that dummy get away with saying such awful things about you.  Don’t ever listen to someone who talks to you that way, okay?  If anyone does it again, then remind them just how wrong they are.  Or, if I’m there, then I’ll do it for you.  I could compliment you all day, so I don’t mind at all!”