#this is technically a wip because it's part of a larger piece | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zaidirfan-ocadu-graphicdesign4 · 7 months

Text

84 | February 19th, 2024

Writing Initiative #5 1. Which piece did you present to the class today? How does it relate to the other pieces previously presented? I had not attended, but I would have presented a WIP experimental work in the form of a proposed typeface (posts 77-80). I had used the same ink medium for the letterforms, but I really like the plastic garbage bag idea because I hadn't thought to work with it before. It's one of those objects I pulled out of the vernacular, away from its most common, technical use, and used for the sake of a design project. With this outcome, I was trying to put less (not complete) emphasis on research, because I had observed that the eventual outcome (2D) of all the research I had done was something that only represents it in part. I only really ended up representing the main idea (which I suppose is the core part of a designer's role). There is also less emphasis on the kind of memory (collective memory) that I had been in conversation with, and more emphasis on my own interpretations (not necessarily stemming from nowhere, but based on observations) of memory. A big part of this is the belief that memory is a "temporal anomaly" (recall the 2D outcome), a being itself capable of undergoing change, but also unifying the past, present, and future as one thing. 2. Describe 2–3 specific strengths your classmates found in your work and their reasons for identifying them. The plastic bag idea is another technique that is largely out of my hands, apart from the brushing of the ink in a certain way. After that point, though, droplets of ink would scatter around and join together via surface tension and the like. For the other technique (posts 79-80), I like how easily it lends itself to the creation of different type "weights," as well as how it is also a technique out of my control past the initial weight. 3. Describe 1–2 specific ways your classmates thought you could improve this work going forward. I think I could go beyond the usually sans-serif structure for the letterforms, perhaps using stencils in place of free handing them all the time. Or rather, if I am going the free hand route, exploring more calligraphic styles. I also think the letterforms could be larger, as a greater surface area will allow for more motion with the ink droplets, which could make the outcomes more interesting (and perhaps more legible). Since I also plan to make different weights, the edges of the letterforms should ideally be more defined (a quality that the technique from posts 79-80 lacks). 4. Consider the outcomes you still need to present in the remaining classes; why have you put them off till now? My biggest concern is by far the reflective piece, which is strange because I feel I've experienced quite a bit since the onset of this semester to allow for such an outcome to at least be initiated. At the same time, however, I believe if I work away at the other outcomes, there will be something I find that could inform the reflective piece. One example that I came up with was a collection of all the research that I was not able to really apply to my outcomes. While I did apply the most crucial aspects of collective memory to my 2D outcome, there was a lot that was left out. In terms of form, I also don't know what I'd do for the reflective piece, although I do want to do something ink-based. I was actually thinking of making my OWN ink for it using soot and oil, to truly create the most analogue of analogue techniques. I also know I want it to be more so based on a more "subjective" kind of development; that is, more so based on how my feelings and mindset on the project changed over time, rather than how the research developed.

0 notes

autumn-foxfire · 1 year

Note

Ah, that. The artist-writer disparity. It’s technically something that exists on both sides, which does kind of end up being partially due to skill issue, which is understandable, I sure don’t expect people to give me compliments over a scribble, but one person is nice enough to say something anyways. High-detail art gets everyone !!! Me too, and well-known writers can post or say anything and get the whole server giving them the eyes emoji. Which I think explains this whole problem in two parts.

Firstly, you’re in the wrong audience, the wrong time. I’ve found people who could want more of something yet not give it a passing glance, and then I’ve found people who’ll passionately read anything because they’re ~ actually ~ really into what you’re putting out there. And they can appreciate the process. It comes down to “wanting it exactly the way I want/write my work for me/if it matches, I like” being distracted by “the more interesting conversation in the server” there can sometimes be hierarchies in servers, where the more popular/consistent poster gets all the attention, everyone crowds around them and the quiet/smaller presence gets the pity replies.

That is by no means an actual indication of what your work is worth, as the whole point of this is basically screaming in the chat and going 👀 about content together. Whoever you can do that with, that’s your target audience. Not a “pity reply.” Ultimately, you’re working with a “niche” audience within a niche itself. People get bored easily. They want instant gratification, they might simply not be in the mood at the time. Or they just don’t really know what to say. Sometimes I’ve gotten late replies, sometimes I would repost something during a different time days or weeks later and then get responses. This goes into the second point: it’s hard to read.

Writing is a completely different medium to art. Art is formed in stacked layers, writing is a circuit board. There are so many incredible writers who hardly get reblogs when their actual blogs are insanely popular and demanding. That kind of eliminates the idea of a skill issue doesn’t it? Unless if you’re working with really bad grammar and lack of space between text, which I’ve seen your writing Foxy, you aren’t. With art, you can get that instant gratification over and over again, in one quick visual, and people like visuals, that’s the whole reason anyone writes or draws. Same goal, different pens, you’re working with colors or words. Writing takes more effort to consume. More effort to “visualize.” It’s dependent on the emotional impact you leave behind, whereas art can get by on beauty. There are people who will look at both, and drop it and move on. And people who return to stare longingly at art and re-read fics to cry over during long travel. They rarely say so. So with this common ground between them, or rather the audience, what’s the difference in reception? Layers, circuit board.

Art wips give you the full base frame, the full story contained right there on the canvas without the shading, colors, etc. Writing wips are just a single wire on a larger circuit board, you don’t know where the “electric signal” is going, what “image” is going to light-up when it’s finished. You have simple wires, and main focal points to run through. It’s glaringly obvious to me whenever I try to share wips that “I didn’t pour enough passion into this” short pieces of exposition doesn’t get anyone excited, neither does dialogue unless if it’s really interesting. Someone posts one or two sentences of their work or a detail about their fic and I find myself forcing a reply so I’m verbally somewhat engaged with them instead of just nodding to what someone tells me, because they can’t see that. That’s the effect writing wips have, all you can do is say “okay” as if just listening to someone talk, you hear, you acknowledge and process the information, you move on. It’s often not as dynamic as visual art. The folks who like writing are the ones who “see the art” in the structure of phrasing, characterization, plot. Who can meet the writer at any point on the circuit board; the beginning, the end, the middle, that AU of your main story. So I always try to write enough to “show” a bit of the story or character dynamic before sharing. Sometimes that still goes nowhere, what can you do? Some things are better appreciated in full, sometimes that also goes nowhere, not many comments. We end up circling right back up to that “target audience” issue.

Two different servers of the same fandom give differing levels of engagement. It goes down to the size, the age demographic, and personalities. Sometimes the server itself, if there’s many different topics and subcategories around, lots of diverse opinions. No fault of theirs, you’re just in the wrong environment. Ever noticed different atmospheres between the attitudes of different servers you’re in? Basically that. Some feel like “the popular kids club in a public space mushed together” while others are, “chill lounge with mature people who can be respectful and kind to each other.” It’s a roll of the dice to see if you’ll get any engagement and in what form. The same person over and over, or a small community chat session? I personally like small servers where you can just chill with people who aren’t ~ all about content ~ because they strike a balance between both, chilling with you, encouraging and creating new ideas together and talking about them, and celebrating each others work. Some are more inclined to emoji react and move on, while others will be using the capslock. It’s absolutely no fault of yours, just the usual social behavior of humans. Similar minded people end up drawn to each other, maybe the server you’re in isn’t for you, and you were attracted there more for the niche being “available” rather than the suitability of the environment/you matching their personality/conversational wavelength? If I’m wrong about all this, then I guess folks are just cheapstakes who can’t see the effort writing takes, but small-scale artists have the same complaint, so, alas. And big name artists often get petty comments too, so alas again. People will be people eh? The best thing I can say, is find a person on your wavelength whose excitable and passionate. Sometimes you have to engage with others before they engage with you.

My fic is such an extreme niche between characters who have never met, and are underrated in their own fandom. On ao3, I probably wouldn’t have gotten a single comment, just empty kudos, yet I found someone on tumblr adoring my work because I poked around, saw they were open-minded and energetically receptive to new ideas, and asked to strike a conversation about my work. I can’t guarantee you’ll have the same luck, or that it’ll be easy, but I can say that often times, it’s not the quality of your writing, your target audience just hasn’t been found, and sometimes it takes being a little more active and asking the leading questions yourself for someone to answer. Like a, “what did you think/anything I could change?” otherwise, it’s just a “gallery effect” a collection of pretty things hung up on the wall to admire and walk from one exhibit to another. Sorry, I kinda talked a lot huh? I wanted to comfort you, but T^T this feels like a principal lecturing a student, I am so sorry.

Thank you, I needed to hear this!!

I was disappointed because someone had asked me to continue the piece with my ideas and then just didn't respond to what I had to say at all. I'm trying to think positively and believe that they just didn't have the time to either read or react to what I put but I'm also okay now with them not enjoying how I continued it because ultimately I made the piece for myself and how I wanted the direction of what I wrote to go, not what people were expecting.

I do wish people in fandom would offer more support to writers as we make up the backbone of fandom spaces just as much as artists do but I also agree writing takes more energy for people to consume and conceptualization unlike art which is saddening but just the facts of life.

I like my writing and I like my ideas. I'm ultimately writing for myself and if I do get engagement than that's great but I need to remember that it's not always a sigh of poor quality. Obviously I can always improve and I want to! However I shouldn't let myself get disheartend when a small piece of what I wrote doesn't get the reception I was hoping for.

#personal #thanks for the ask!!

0 notes

m0srael · 3 years

Text

By now you're probably aware that I love @corvuscrowned. I mean, we mod two fests together (with @jalesidor, natch). So, for their birthday today I thought I'd offer a little lesson about crows (general)* to educate the uninitiated about the glory that is Crow (specific).

👑 Crows are very clever. Not just "pretty intelligent as far as animals go" clever. I mean, some species of crows have proportionally larger brains than humans. Need some evidence? Look no further than Crow's wickedly smart stories:

The Other Cottage [6.5k | M] A mind-bending haunt of a multiverse fic, The Other Cottage will leave you with goosebumps and that 'eyes on the back of your neck' feeling long after you've finished reading. This is a bizarre, surrealist mystery dressed as mutual pining for Halloween--as the tags suggest, 'buckle in for a wild ride'! Twelve Moons [wip | 4.5K | M] Because they are spooky and brilliant and deeply intuitive, Crow is offering us a year-long look into the life of Harry James Potter, proprietor of the inn where potions!master Draco just has to stay once a month. So far, the story is luscious and atmospheric and the tension between these boys is crackling and incandescent, like the first strike of a match. Follow along to see what waxes and wanes. Zenith [20K | E] What's that? Intricate magical theory set in a powerful, ancient forest? Steamy, luxurious hot springs? Healing and connection and self-discovery? tender, passionate smut? YOU BET! This story feels like an easy solo hike through a cool, temperate forest on the first day of fall, but also maybe there’s an Eldritch horror lurking in the trees.

👑 Crows are incredibly loyal They remember individuals for a very long time, and they're the most family-oriented birds in the world. Anyone who's talked to Crow for more than ten seconds knows they're an incredible friend who gives enthusiastic support and advice. Crow's unconditional joy for everyone and everything they engage with is contagious! Learn more about Crow's friendship philosophy with:

Buds, Blooms, and Beards [27k | M] Harry and Ginny are each other's beards and best bros? Harry and Ginny run a flower shop together? Harry has a sexual awakening in the form of one Draco Malfoy? Honestly, what more could you possibly need in a story? Seeker's High [40K | M] In which Ginny Weasley pushes one down-and-out Harry Potter to get over himself, get in shape, and get his shit together. Incredible buddy fic with a heaping side of mystery and drarry getting together. This story made me think about considering what it would be like if, in another universe, I took up running, which is saying a lot.

👑 Crows mate for life, but... Technically they're monogamish, which is fitting for Crow bc 🤷‍♀️ .... v gay! Here's some love, lust, and romance, Crow style:

The Thousand Deaths [6K | M] It's impossible to blend raw, serrated, anguished love and irreverent humor, you say? Wrong! Crow has done it with this story! A classic tale of boy-meets-boy, boys become vampires, boys spend eternity loving each other, hating each other, trying to die for once, and resigning themselves to life. Vampires! [t4t] [2.6K | G] This story is like a balm for the soul. It's intimate, personal, and so very dreamy. It's an absolutely heart-clenching journey of self-love cloaked in a soft cloud of storybook romance. The pesudo meet-cute at the end? Top tier. The cheeky texting? Get out of town. Loverboys [84K | M] An absolute paragon of the fake dating/enemies-to-lovers tropes. Crow has such a knack for taking all the messy, uncomfortable parts of canon, ripping them apart, and piecing them back together in the most satisfying, heart-melting ways. Shades of Dawn [2.6K | E | Lavender/Ginny] A delicious, sticky, rare-pair masterpiece. Be warned: this one has an ambiguous ending and a whole boatload of angst. But it also has what Crow does best: real, relatable, messy, complex relationships that capture the best (and sometimes worst) of Other People. There's love, there's longing, and there's some incredibly hot smut.

👑 Crows have a taste for the...finer things. Not only do they use tools, but they make them all on their own, and I think we all know how they feel about shiny things 🤩.

Magpie [4K | E] An absolute dark, shiny stunner of a story. Once again Crow draws us in with the promise of a burgeoning relationship and hot, hot smut only to hit us with a twist that will give us whiplash and leave us reeling. It's weird, it's clever, it's fucked up. The ending may not be happy, but you will be so, so glad you read this. Mise en Place [5.4K | T] And for a dramatic 180-degree turn, tone-wise, an incredibly soft and fluffy ode to making food for the one we love (or the one we want to love). This story features tooth-rotting domestic sweetness and gorgeous cooking scenes. Feeding your crush delicious treats really is the number one luxury in life, isn't it?

There is so much more to a Crow than meets the eye. These are only a few of my favorite Crow stories--do yourself a favor and go explore the rest! *Source: my own brain, mostly.

#happy birthday Crow #I hate you #and hope you have a horrible day #mose recs #corvuscrowned

103 notes · View notes

andiinaraethtash · 2 years

Note

7, 21, 26, 36, 41, 45, 53, 69, 74, 79!

7. Post a snippet from a wip.

Okay, this technically isn't a wip in that I haven't actually worked on it at all, but it's living in my head rent free and I think you'll find it funny:

"The goblin-looking thing with fWhip's face looked up at Scott in askance, cocking his head to the side as if trying to play a spot-the-difference game. "Aren't you supposed to have heterochromia?"

The elf blinks, then answers, "I don't think I have hetero-anything.""

Hope you think this is as funny as I do, I was rolling on the floor laughing when I realised I could use that joke.

21. Do you prefer writing chaptered fics or one-shots?

I don't think I've written any one-shots--no wait, that's a lie. I haven't written any one-shots that aren't part of a multichaptered fic. So, yeah I much prefer chaptered fics. I love reading both, though!

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

The self-discipline involved. I am terrible about holding myself to schedules and deadlines, so making sure I'm meeting a word-count or finish a chapter on time is hard.

36. What fic are you proudest of?

Hmm. I'm really proud of my Star Wars fic, To Live Without a Lifeline (part of a larger series, but I'm not as proud of the first or third parts of that series) because I was writing it in the middle of the most difficult part of my life. But my favourite, the one I want people to read most, is my Empires s1 au that I'm working on currently (I Believe That There Is Courage (But It's Burning Like Ash in the Wind) is the full title of the series, which yes, is a mouthful).

41. Who’s your favorite character you’ve written?

Charger. Hands down, Charger.

So, context. Charger is a Star Wars clone trooper OC that basically saw what I was doing to the main character from my Young Enough to Try series, decided he wasn't happy with it, and became that character's emotional support friend for the rest of the series. I love him, he is sarcastic and kind and willing to let Ezra beat the crap out of him if it means he'll admit he's hurting. He's such a self-sacrificing little chaos-maker and I love him.

45. What genre/trope do you tend to write the most?

Um... so, actually probably fake character death. I have no less than three stories, two published, one sitting in my WIP folder, where at least one of the characters "dies" at least once. I love it for the angst and hurt/comfort potential. Time travel is also a good one.

53. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Angst, to absolutely no one's surprise, followed by Time-Travel Fix-it, to a few people's surprise.

69. What are your favorite fics at the moment?

Oof. I was almost hoping no one would ask this one, because I have so many favourites it's not even funny. I think the one I'm most invested in atm is Last Wishes by i_am_the_imposter_syndrome over on ao3. Y'know, if I have to pick one.

74. Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

From me or from readers? Because if it's from me, I have this one wip called All Eyes on You that I posted the first couple of chapters from and then abandoned, so I wish I'd given it more of a chance.

From my readers? Honestly, I wish I was getting more support for the current fic I'm working on, Can't Escape the Fallout. I love it, but the audience is relatively small, and I knew that going in, but it's still... I went from one of the biggest fandoms (Star Wars) to Empires, and while I'm happy with the switch, I know the number of hits on my works has gone down and thus so has my motivation.

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

I'm trying to think, but every bit of writing advice is either a) something I ignore, or 2) has fled my mind. So... Find the character's voice. Their vocabulary, their accent, their cadence. (it's real easy if your story is based on a piece of fiction that has an auditory component) But that helps with internal monologue and external dialogue. Trust me, it helps so much.

Whew! That was a long list (sorry for the long answers, I just have a lot to say when asked about my wips), but I'm glad you asked. Thank you!

#nix is probably dying seeing us interact #ask game #ask #ask answered #sorry for the long post

3 notes · View notes

wildjuniperjones · 2 years

Note

Weird Questions for Writers 5, 8, 17?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

I don't, actually! I suppose, if pressed, I have a general belief that I'm unlikely to actually finish a novel, but I consider that a self-fulfilling prophecy, and so do my best to ignore that impulse. (It hasn't worked yet, so we'll see?)

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

So, I've actually written several short stories with zero dialogue, so that would probably be my preferred mode. It'd probably be an introspective piece with a single, unreliable narrator, perhaps a wizard approaching the end of their life and "telling" their story. Is that cheating? If there's a framing device that makes it so the whole story is being told? Idk.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Oh goodness. Do you have a couple hours? So, the romance/erotica novella I'm writing is modern high fantasy, set in Vancouver, B.C., although it's called Maple Grove within the story because of History Reasons. It follows two oblivious idiots as they stumble around and figure out they love each other, and they're my blorbos and I love them dearly. It's very slice of life, although there are subplots about Sere (Blorbo 1, half-elf teifling alchemist) and her family, and about Leo (Blorbo 2, hurokin martial artist) and his career/family. (The hurokin species is a reskinning of half-orcs, without the gross racial baggage. They cannot reproduce with humans, and are their own genetic off-shoot. Also, elves are technically the same species as humans, since they can have offspring that are considered "viable" in a biological sense. ... I'm a nerd, whaddya want?)

Anyway, you came here for lore. This story is actually set in a world I've conceived of elsewhen, which is loosely based on a Mists of Avalon AU premise, where Christianity never really got traction and was just seen as another Jewish cult, and Magic(tm) never left the world. I've revised the deities heavily, since they'd been based on some pretty cringey Wicca interpretations. The general gist of the world is that conquest, holy wars, and expansionism just...didn't happen as much. Europe stayed pretty contained and didn't go doing a colonialism everywhere, it took a lot longer for North America to get settled by Europeans because they worked to do so in tandem with the people already living there, etc. Thus the name Maple Grove, a translation of "K'emk'emeláy̓" or "place of many maple trees" as named by the Suquamish people who originally lived there. The other city most frequently mentioned is Valle de Robles or "Oak Valley", which itself refers to "Yaanga" or "poison oak place" in the language of the Tongva people - and refers to our world's Los Angeles.

This novella will be, chronologically, the last in a series that spans across more than a millenia of alternate history. The two stories I immediately have in mind are one set in the 12th-ish century in Scandinavia, following a crew of monster hunters named the Silver Hand; and a roughly 1800s-ish one set around the Mediterranean following a disabled veteran on their quest to find healing called "Amongst the Goblins and the Fishes". There are others rattling around in my brain, but apparently I wanted to do the hard part first and do modern "out" fantasy.

I say "out" because there's no secret magical society hidden away from the world - the magical society is the world. There may be secretive societies within the larger one, but that's a different matter.

Oh, and as for things that will likely not make it into this novel(la?) at all? Leylines. All humanoid habitation is centered on the crossing of one or more leylines, and I really can't conceive of a reason to include them in this story.

#i hope you like long posts #because hoo boy #lore dump #writeblr #writing #bonds of trust #worldbuilding #blorbos #asked and answered #probably cringe

2 notes · View notes

kollapsar · 2 years

Note

artist asks: 3, 8, 9, 15, 16, 18, 24? Hope that isn't too many!! I'm v curious and I love your art <3

Aww, I'll try my best! Thank you for the kind words <3 <3

3. Least favourite things to draw?

Uhhh....... not really a hate, but as far as difficulty goes, feet. They're fascinating and strange. I don't particularly enjoy most fixtures of modernity like cyberpunk aesthetics, vehicles, airplanes etc. either, but that's more from lack of practice too.

8. What do you like most about your own work?

This is going to sound like me just really dragging myself so bear with me, but I don't really think about things I like about my work because I'm always going for the "what could I have done better" lenses and I just enjoy the process most of the time. Once it's finished, I review it again from a technical perspective as well as I can and then kind of leave it.

I guess I like my sense of color and what jives well color-wise for a picture?

9. What are you currently trying to improve?

Rendering [crying cat emoji] Not just rendering things to completion but also figuring out what could use less rendering and still look good in the background, how to do lost and hard edges, rolling back the contrast on less-important parts of the picture so all my crazy rendering on the important parts shines, etc.

15. Biggest artist pet peeve?

Oh god, I don't know. We're all just struggling through this ball pit of life and creativity. I don't know. Maybe use of the color burn/color dodge layer that's very identifiable, or same face syndrome, cuz I'm always struggling with avoiding that myself.

16. What's the most daunting part of your process? Ex, planning, sketching, lineart, rendering etc

18. Do you have any larger projects you'd like to pursue? Like comics, shortfilm, a series etc?

24. How do you deal with artblock?

Got these in this one! Tl;dr rendering and finishing is hard, I want to do the covers to a full book series or Magic flip cards, and I have a carousel of madness that include WIPs that I really personally enjoy that I can go back to when I'm struggling with other pieces, or I just break down a piece into technicals and address those bits individually.

#thank you for the ask!! <3 #replies #krownest

4 notes · View notes

whotaughtyougrammar · 3 years

Note

👀 and 🖊 (the WIP that wouldn’t see the light of day and the snippet of a current WIP) for the writing ask meme Or any question you want to do from that really

i like how i said i'd answer this when i got home, and then, upon tumblr eating up the entirety of my response, waited 3 whole days before opening up my inbox again 😎

👀 Do you have any WIPs that you would never let see the light of day? If yes, what are they about?

there's the single mom morgan au that i mentioned in the previous ask, though i'm not sure that one counts bc i haven't actually written/drawn anything for it.

i have a few bits and pieces of glenn dealing with the aftermath of morgan's passing that i wrote a few years ago. one was a pre-canon look at glenn dealing with life without morgan, basically chronicling his descent into the trash bag we're all so familiar with. another was post-canon after the whole forgotten realms thing, where nick and the other dads help glenn clean out the storage unit of morgan's belongings that glenn stuffed in there so he wouldn't have to throw anything out while also not having to look at her things every single day. i wrote both of these when i was way more concerned with canon than i am now, and on the assumption that glenn’s story would go a very different way then it actually did pfft.

i stopped working on the first one on the grounds of it being too sad and it bummed me out, and the second one simply because i lost interest in what was going on in canon and was more interested in writing in my own AU, although I still like the idea of it.

this one is technically not a WIP in that it’s a complete scene, but it is bc it could probably slot into a larger story, but it also might not see the light of day: the very first fic i wrote actually featured a very different version of morgan and glenn, especially morgan, who was glenn’s band manager, much more feminine/had stronger ‘will use her feminine wiles to get her way’ vibes, slightly more antagonistic towards glenn, and was also called michel—yes, this is how old this fic is, morgan didn’t even have a name yet.

i think this is a fun piece, and i liked this version of morgan enough to draw her one or two times, but if i do ever get around to posting it, jury’s out on whether it will go under my usual ‘musicverse’ tag hahah

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

here is a part of that “carol and morgan bonding thing that is supposed to lead into carol/mercedes” thing i mentioned a while back. maybe i’ll actually finish it this year 🥴:

Carol Wilson does not know Morgan Freeman very well. Her job at the museum takes up much more time than she would like, and on the few occasions she’s been able to make the time for any of Grant’s school events or upcoming PTA meetings, she’s been unlucky enough to encounter Morgan’s partner, Glenn, who, despite trying to act as aloof and unaffected as possible, seemed to regard the whole thing like his own personal reality show, subtly and not-so-subtly egging on any potential interpersonal drama between parents and faculty alike.

Carol did not care for Glenn very much, though even she had to admit feeling a certain satisfaction when Madison's affair with one of the janitors' had finally been pulled out in the open. But that would have been aired out eventually, with or without Glenn's slightly too gleeful, devil-may-care nosiness. That and the embezzlement. Probably. Of the handful of times she had seen Morgan at meetings and school events, she was taciturn and aloof (in a way that Glenn could only dream of being) with everyone except her son and a select few. Her husband had been one of those select few. Mercedes was another, but Mercedes was cool and fun and easy to get along with, so it shouldn't have been so surprising. Still, Carol did not know how to feel about the ease of Mercedes' smile whenever Morgan spoke to her, or the way Morgan seemed to relax, just ever-so-slightly, when she was around Mercedes' presence. Carol did not know how to feel about this, and so Carol simply tried not to dwell on it. Darryl had been, as expected, not as helpful as he could have been. "She's nice enough? Quiet. Polite. She's got a temper, though. You should've heard the tongue-lashing she gave Phil a few weeks back, he was fucking crying by the end of it. I mean, he wasn't but… you could tell. You could tell he wanted to. He deserved it but I wouldn't want to get on her bad side, is what I'm saying. Seems pretty strict with her kid, too. No idea how a ball-buster like her married a guy like Glenn. Nick's a good kid though. Gets along with Grant." Taciturn and aloof and polite, but strict with a temper. All this, plus a baffling friendship with one of the loveliest people Carol had the pleasure of knowing. If Carol had been nervous before, well, she was practically beside herself with anxiety now, as she rang the doorbell to Morgan's surprisingly small house and waited for a response with apprehension and bated breath. This was going to be interesting.

#dungeons and daddies #dungeons and daddies odyssey #dndads #dndads odyssey #morgan freeman #glenn close #carol wilson #musicverse #thanks for the ask!

5 notes · View notes

tsarisfanfiction · 3 years

Text

21 Asks: Fanfiction Q&A

Well I got tagged by @onereyofstarlight @gumnut-logic and @janetm74 for this, so here goes (answering on fic blog, because... fic!)

This is going to take a while, but it’s also going to be fun, so let’s get started :D

1. What fandoms have you written for?

Uhh... several. In alphabetical order because that makes my brain happy, we have:

Published: Bleach, Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia), D.Gray-Man, Detective Conan, Flight Rising, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Märchen Awakens Romance (MÄR), Mortal Instruments, Naruto, One Piece, Team Fortress 2, Thunderbirds, Twilight.

WIPs (Unpublished): Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dragon Orb, Flame of Recca, HunterXHunter, Inuyasha, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures (Part 7/Steel Ball Run), Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball), MI High, Yu-Gi-Oh (Duel Monsters, GX, 5Ds), Yuri On Ice

A couple of those are only because of crossovers... which we’ll get to later. Similarly, a bunch of the unpublished I have no plans to publish, but I’ve written them so they count in my head.

2. How many works do you have on AO3 &/or FFNet?

AO3: 150 FFN: 149 (the difference is due to a co-authored fic with @lenle-g on AO3, because FFN doesn’t support co-authorship)

(Tumblr has many more because so many of those fics are actually fic collections)

3. What are your top 3 fics by kudos on AO3 &/or favs on FFNet?

AO3 Kudos:

Tales From The Heart (1449)

The Combat School (524)

Succor (348)

FFN Favourites:

The Combat School (681)

Tales From The Heart (185)

Succor (136)

4. Which 3 fics have the least kudos & favs?

AO3 Kudos:

Wishes of the Dark (0)

4am Forever / Leave Out All The Rest (2)

FFN Favourites:

A Little Fall of Rain / He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, Leave Out All The Rest / See You In The Sky / Stolen Shadows all have 0

5. Which Fic has the most comments and which has the least?

AO3 Comments:

Tales From The Heart (618)

37 have 0

FFN Reviews:

The Combat School (608)

After Sundown / Heroes Made of Gas / Splatter / Stolen Shadows (0)

6. Which complete fic do you wish had gotten more attention?

I mean, I always like attention :P That’s a hard question because my fandoms vary wildly in size, so for example, while Tales is one of my most popular fics, it’s still pretty tiny in comparison to the big One Piece fics out there, but ones like Grounded numerically barely rate while actually getting the attention of a much larger proportion of the fandom.

Honestly the fic that’s getting less of a response than I’d hoped is still incomplete... but I think I’ll go with Vulnerabilities. It’s an older fic, and a drabble collection rather than a cohesive story, but it never really got any traction.

7. Have you written any crossovers?

Ah yes, crossovers. I’ve got three published at the moment:

The Combat School (Harry Potter/D.Gray-Man)

Vampire vs. Shinobi (Naruto/Twilight)

Stolen Shadows (Flight Rising/Thunderbirds)

As far as WIPs go, I have (who knows when or if I’ll actually finish or post these):

Alliance (Naruto/Team Fortress 2)

Black Phoenix (Harry Potter/D.Gray-Man)

Legend of the Exorcists (D.Gray-Man/Yu-Gi-Oh/GX/5Ds)

Untitled (Avatar: The Last Airbender/Thunderbirds)

Untitled (Inuyasha/Lord of the Rings)

8. What is the craziest fic you’ve written?

What even counts as crazy?

Okay, I say that, but Vampire vs. Shinobi is a stupid, Twilight-bashing, parody crossover thing so. Probably that.

9. What’s the fic you’ve written with the saddest ending?

Ahaha. There are a few. All of these have MCD warnings (two are canonical), two of which are suicide, so watch out if you’re poking around:

Deception (canon)

I Promised

The Fish and the Mermaid

The Light That Shines Twice As Bright... (suicide)

Torture (suicide)

Unwanted

Whirlwind (canon)

10. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Tsari likes positive endings. I’m not actually sure what the happiest is, though. I often write... hopeful, rather than happy? The happiest I can think of... is a WIP that I have the ending planned for but that’s spoilers~

I’ll go with Riding the Dragon, I think. But honestly just take your pick out of the family fluff.

11. What is your smuttiest fic?

Tsari does not post smut. She has written some, she has not posted it and will keep it that way.

Out of the posted stuff... there is kissing in Briefings?

12. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I think when you hit 100+ fics, you’re lucky if you don’t. I’ve had a few here and there, but they’re ignorable

13. What is the nicest comment you’ve received?

Oh boy. I have had many nice comments, but I am going to highlight this one in particular because it’s the one that forever and always springs to mind when I get asked this:

Wow. That was pretty great. You writing managed to keep everyone in character, and still kept the story from falling flat. It's almost as if you stole a page from Cassie's story, and stuck it here. I really want to see more from you.

On: A Tradition of Pride

It’s nowhere near the longest I’ve got, and long comments make me super happy, but this one? Being told it fits in with the original book? Makes me beam like an idiot every time.

14. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

[insert eyeroll here]

I have had fics reposted, yes. Tales From The Heart and Whirlwind have both found themselves posted on sites I don’t use - I managed to get Tales taken down, but the site hosting Whirlwind isn’t paying me any attention.

15. How many fics do you have marked as incomplete?

Nine, which is both too many and not as many as I thought. Although if you ignore the collection fics - Tales From The Heart and Behind The Scenes, which are basically eternal wips - it’s seven.

16. Which of the WIPS will most likely be finished first?

Just A Bruise, because it’s already just about finished, @lenle-g and I just need to tie up the final chapter and editing the rest of it before it’s posted.

17. Which WIP are you looking forward to finishing?

Long Way From Home, because it’s going to be huge and finishing that will feel amazing. But it’s going to take a long time.

18. Is there a WIP that you’re considering abandoning?

Nope. I will, one day, finish all of them. Yes, even Uchiha Itachi.

19. Which complete fic would you consider rewriting?

Complete? None. However, the above mentioned Uchiha Itachi is being (very slowly) rewritten - and is actually on its second rewrite - because it pains me in its current state.

20. Which complete fic is your favourite?

Asking the hard questions I see. I have a soft spot for In Your Shadow, I admit, although I have several fics that I love (mostly my Military Bros stuff...). Also Tales, although that’s technically not “Complete”.

21. What’s your total published word count?

AO3: 956,962 (I aim to break 1 million by the end of the year... just watch me!)

FFN: 1,102,070 (FFN counts author’s notes, AO3 does not)

If someone is brand new to your writing, what work would you want them to start with to get to know you, your style, what you’re all about?

This is not a numbered question, I see, but it was on the post I copied these from, so I guess this is 21+1 questions!

I’ve answered this before, and honestly I think I’d stick with the same answer - Black Widow. It’s not my biggest fandom. It’s not my most recent work. But it does contain a lot of playing around canon without breaking it.

Although, if someone has the time, Tales From The Heart does great for showcasing the range of things I write. But that’s also 250+ chapters, so probably not a good one to start with.

And this is where I tag people, yes? Not entirely sure who’s been tagged already, but let’s go with @lenle-g @ak47stylegirl @thetwelvecaesars @gaviiadastra @willow-salix @scribeofred

#thunderbirds are go #and various other fandoms i am not tagging them all #ask me #tag game #fanfiction

11 notes · View notes

sugarcomatosed · 3 years

Note

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

#sugar speaks #sugar writes #okay to reblog

19 notes · View notes

deiliamedlini · 3 years

Text

WIP Wednesday 1

I’m posting two WIPs today because they’re both currently being absorbed into another fic and will never again see the light of day in this form! So here is the first one!

This BOTW scene, but written in a modern fantasy way is: Link saves Zelda from a Guardian with a pot lid, which is a scene from Zelda’s diary.

Goes along with this other scene that happens a little later with this same Link and Zelda where Link gets assigned to guard Zelda personally.

~~~

“Hrmmm,” Robbie hummed to himself as he looked through Zelda’s notes. “This is interesting, I’ll admit that. But the way I read it, it’s too flawed. Tell me more. Let’s think this through.”

Robbie was the lead researcher on Project Guardian. His posture was perhaps the most telling part of his personality; his hands were always on his hips, straight backed, almost like a superhero. When others would cross their arms to think, Robbie would go straight into his superhero pose and hum loudly to himself.

His goggles held his white hair back from his face. The goggles were a staple of every one of his outfits. He worked more with the large machinery, building prototype after prototype until he was forced onto a break by anyone higher than him, or Purah, who technically matched his position.

Both were young, doctorates before they were even out of their twenties and neither yet nearing thirty. Both Sheikah, ensuring that the artifacts were treated with the respect and reverence that their culture demanded. Both the brightest minds in all of Hyrule.

Zelda felt intimidated near them, but she was learning from the best. So when the Robbie asks you to tell him more, one tells him more.

“Okay, my idea is that we come up with some kind of injectable serum that we place markers in. When the Guardians go to attack the threat, but they see, say, me rather than a Yiga for example, they’ll scan for the presence of that marker and cease to fire on me. Instead, they’ll attack the real enemy.”

“Hrmmmm,” Robbie said, though he’d just read all this in her notes. “Money and funding for such a task aside, how do you propose we go about injecting nearly 30 million people?”

“Mandate it, of course.”

Robbie scoffed, forgetting for a moment that he was speaking with the Princess of Hyrule. If she wanted to mandate the injection, of course she could.

“You will have those who refuse,” he said instead. “Or those too unhealthy or who reject the serum for whatever reason. Perhaps it’s toxic to our first trial participants. Perhaps it won’t work as well on a Sheikah or a Rito as it will on a Hylian. You must also think of some other, faster, more effective ways.”

Zelda sat at the desk, resting her hand on her cheek. “I suppose it could be a type of paint. Something that goes onto a person rather than into them.”

Robbie surpressed a laugh at the Princess’ expense. “Well, perhaps someone forgets their paint? Maybe the weather will wash it off. Or someone cannot afford it. Or runs out. Perhaps the Guardians attack them, and their children. What then?”

“Fine,” Zelda hissed, getting his point but feeling frustrated. It had been such a good idea, she thought. “I don’t know. If only we could set them to auto-pilot, then we could—”

Robbie smiled, knowing where her mind was going before she even got there.

She stopped, her mouth open. “We need pilots. We need a conscious mind to control them. The large ones we excavated… those would be too wild to use without a pilot, even if we theoretically could. A pilot would negate those fears. They’d see friend from foe.”

“How many pilots can we afford to train?”

That had Zelda stop immediately. “I… I don’t know.”

Robbie didn’t expect everything from her. “I don’t think we can have each Guardian with their own pilots. We start with four, one for each of the four larger ones. We take samples, record data, and see if we can synthesize a program for an autopilot. If we can, then I think we should work on incorporating that into the smaller Guardians. Perhaps we can have a lead Guardian each time, and those would have its own pilot, and a string of others will follow?”

“See,” Purah said, looking up from her phone where she’d been taking notes in the corner of the room. “Told you she had a good idea.”

“You did indeed, Princess,” Robbie said with a winning smile. “I’ll get straight to work on it. I’ll draft a proposal and send it to your father immediately so we might be able to recruit the first pilots who will champion this project. I’ll have it in to him by tomorrow.”

“Dr. Robbie,” a researcher said, coming in with a tablet. “You asked for a briefing on the latest trial run?”

Robbie hesitated, not wanting to ignore the presence of the Princess.

But she read the room. “Don’t worry,” Zelda said, standing up. “We should be going anyway. I look forward to hearing how the proposal goes.”

“I’m sure you’ll know before me, Princess. Good night.”

“Night, Robbie.”

Purah led Zelda out from Robbie’s office, taking the route past the prototype Guardians.

Researchers were mulling around, some in lab coats, some in street clothes, all of them looked busy. And most of them had their eyes on her as she passed by.

“Next time,” Zelda muttered, “we take the quieter route.”

“Understood and agreed. Come on, let’s go to my lab. I can show you the Slate I’ve been working on.”

But they didn’t get the chance.

A deep scream rang out, crying “look out!” to anyone within earshot. Perhaps it was instinct from being in the dangerous lab often, but Purah took a flying leap forward behind one of the pillars that held up the balcony of the second floor, unsure what she was looking out for.

But Zelda didn’t have that reflex.

Instead, her head shot around, looking for the threat so she could hide in the most appropriate location. Was it a Yiga attack? Should she find something to defend herself with? Was it a chemical spill? Did she need to take heed at all if it was simply a broken glass that someone nearly stepped on.

So she didn’t see the red laser aimed in her direction, and worse, she didn’t see the blue beam of energy that followed it.

When she was knocked backwards, she was surprised to find herself on the ground at all, let alone to find someone lying on her, covering her entirely from the blast.

The white sleeve of his lab coat was smoking, burned nearly clean off and exposing singed skin beneath it, fabric melted into his flesh, and hairs on his arm gone. His hand shook, and he dropped a large piece of Sheikah tech that looked far worse than his arm, a hole burned clean through the thick piece of metal that had taken the brunt of the impact off them both, though his arm appeared to have suffered regardless.

When Zelda noticed those two things, her eyes widened, and her heart sped up. “Oh Goddess!” she breathed, her head falling backwards with a harsh thud before she remembered the man on top of her. “Are you okay?”

Her hand went to his chest to help push him up, and she felt something hard under her hand. Something hard that she knew... something like the body armor her guards used. She let her fingers move. Solid, not human flesh; definitely the armor. Her eyes darted immediately to his ear next. And above his blue earring, she saw that her suspicions were confirmed. His ear wasn’t empty, but a very familiar earpiece with a wide hidden by his disheveled hair and low ponytail that had hidden it.

He was not a scientist. He was one of her undercover guards.

“How did you get to me so fast? Where even were you?” she asked, finally understanding why some strange scientist had risked his life to reach her. But she and Purah had been alone on this side of the room. Everyone kept their distance. Everyone stayed out of reach, and he’d been there in an instant.

He stood up, off her almost as quickly as he’d dove in front of her in the first place. “Are you alright, Princess Zelda?” he asked, oozing formality and professionalism, as if he hadn’t just nearly died. He offered her his hand before wincing and retracting it, offering her his other, non-singed one. As if nothing had happened. As if she’d simply tripped.

Now, she was stunned into confusion, trying to put the events in order, to relieve them and understand. She blindly accepted his hand and felt a shockwave of energy pass between them, sending a harsh shiver down her spine that had her attention immediately shift to the man who’d saved her.

He was slightly older than her, though it couldn’t be by much. She was almost surprised her father actually employed any of the younger agents to be her guards. She’d only ever really noticed the older ones. But this man was familiar somehow, though she was sure she’d never seen him in person before today. He could have been her guard in the past, expertly blending in as was his job. But she suspected something more.

His blue eyes were brilliant and captivating. Alert and on her, like he was thinking something about her rather than simply waiting for her to answer him, his eyes were straight out of a crayon box, like the lightest and purest of the blues had been picked for his eyes, one that a child would use for the daylight sky. But the color wasn’t all that was intense about them. It was in the way he looked at her, like she held the answers to the world. His gaze was that intense. It was unnerving.

“Yes,” she finally managed. “I’m fine, thank you.”

He managed a short nod and stepped backwards, allowing her to pass. Purah had grabbed onto Zelda, rambling about how she needed to get checked. But Zelda’s eyes drifted to the burned Sheikah tech on the ground. A hole had gone through the metal. His arm had been burned. And he’d gotten to her in time.

He was good, apparently. Good at his job. Too good. She’d have to be more alert to the locations of her guards.

“Was he near us?” was all Zelda could ask Purah as they headed out of the building, the other researchers proceeding to clean up the mess.

“I don’t know. Your guards are always near us. But Zelda, are you okay? That could have killed you! That was nearly the end of your life!”

Zelda chuckled nervously, rubbing at her hand, still feeling the agent’s in hers. But what she didn’t realize was that the attack from the Guardian hadn’t nearly been the end of her life, but it was the start of it.

#wip wednesday #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #botw #botw au #link #zelda #purah #robbie #writing

10 notes · View notes

lavalampelfchild · 4 years

Text

Lava’s Art Masterpost

Hey, all! Welcome to my art masterpost! I have no idea if this is a thing that is done typically for art, but oh well, I like organizing things, so here we are! What you’ll find here is mostly Dragon Age, with a few non-DA pieces in there, and there’s a range of styles I like to use, depending on my mood. But a lot of what you’ll see will most likely combine lineart with some other form of coloring/shading.

Feel free to browse at your leisure, and I hope anyone who stumbles upon this enjoys what they find! :D And thank you to anyone who sees this and likes, or reblogs, or even just stops by to peruse a bit!

All that said, away we go!

Digital Portraits:

1. Portrait of Nameless Woman, 2020 - This one is just an experiment with a watercolor brush that I did. It’s not anatomically perfect, but I enjoyed playing around with shading.

2. Sketch of Aja Amell, 2020 - This one is basically sketch practice with my Amell~ Not really the most expressive pictures, but it’s a start toward drawing her more expressively. Full disclosure: Aja is one of those OCs of mine that I have had trouble with deciding on a definitive appearance for several pictures, and I really want to work on upping my level of consistency when drawing her.

3. Long-Haired Fenris, 2020 - Exactly what it sounds like; this was for practice drawing Fenris’s features (I love how distinct they are), but with long hair because I am weak for it. This one was a fun piece to shade, and mixing the stylized lineart that I normally use with a greyscale shading spectrum was really enjoyable.

4. Portrait of Ilorin Lavellan, 2016 - This is an oldie. Basically practicing expressions, and it is technically a WIP, but I’m still very happy with how the shading turned out, especially because this is actually (aside from the unfinished hair) one of the more minimal pieces I’ve done in terms of lineart It’s still there, and it still shapes the flow of the picture in some ways, but it also ends up flowing with the shading instead of standing out next to it, which I like. (Both styles are good, though, and I love seeing other artists try both too.)

5. Old Portrait of Aja Amell, 2016 - Much older picture I did of Aja; she... honestly looks very little like the newer one, I think, and that consistency is something I’m still working on, but this one was the first picture of Aja with that particular hairstyle I drew. What I like about this picture is how young she looks; it fits with her image as a fresh and sheltered Circle mage who’s only about 20 years old at the time of DAO.

6. Old Portrait of Trilyn, 2016 - They very first piece of art I posted to tumblr~ It’s not exactly how I envision Trilyn anymore, but it was still very fun to draw, and helped me get a feel for drawing him in the future.

Dynamic Movement Pictures/”Moment’s in Time”:

1. Tabris in Arl’s Estate, 2020 - TW: blood. I am super proud of this one. My ultimate goal is to draw all of my Warden DAO OCs, and I could not believe I’ve never drawn my Tabris, and so here she is. This was, in large part, practicing expressions because I absolutely love art that depicts characters in motion, or capturing some kind of expression.

2. Velyn in the Rain, 2017 - This one was actually based on some art that I saw in a Teen Wolf fic! It was an experiment with a more expressive style (and one of the first pieces I did without lineart left in the finished version) and it was a huge step out of my comfort zone. But overall, I am extremely happy with how it turned out.

3. Jem Nocking an Arrow, 2016 - And here is the lineart version. This was entirely an excuse to draw my DAI baby, Jem, and to do a cool archer pose because archers are my fav, and I love characters in motion.

4. Solas Teaching Trilyn Fade Magic, 2016 - This one was a painterly picture that was also (like the Velyn picture) something which I tried to keep lineart out of. Overall, I am proud of a lot of parts of the pic, but I think I would definitely go back over it and change a few things now if I had the patience.

5. Trilyn Closeup WIP, 2016 - TW: injury, blood, mention of abuse in the author’s note. A lot of early pictures I have are of my OC, Trilyn, and this is one of my absolute favorites. His entire upper body is technically in the picture, but I hadn’t finished rendering it yet, so this was what I posted. And it was an experiment with a cross-hatching style with the pencil tool for some texture, with air brush shading and a blurring tool. It’s a style I had fun playing around with!

6. Trilyn Blood Ritual, 2016 - TW: blood, injury (the slight cut used to supply the ritual with blood). This one was definitely a sort of “captured moment” from a backstory I gave Trilyn, and I think what I was really going for was an atmospheric piece that could fit with any potential fic I wanted to write for Trilyn. And then it ended up being practice for extreme lighting/shading techniques, and drawing the blood and the gross mass of demon ichor (or whatever the heck that is) turned out to be highlights of making the piece for me.

Art + Text:

1. Freedom and Control, 2020 - TW: scars, but very difficult to see. This one was ambitious for me! It started originally just as Solas and my Tal-Vashoth OC, Saara, facing each other, because I love the dynamic I’ve built for them in my head, but then it turned into an attempt at a tarot-esque background, and just sorta grew from there... Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out, especially with how Solas and Saara themselves turned out. The version you can actually see a larger view is here.

2. Marianna and Delia Codex and Art, Pt. 1, 2020 - I love writing my own codex entries, first off, and I love combining art with text to create a (hopefully) seamless work. This work was an attempt to flesh out these OCs of mine with both art (because unique facial structures are hard for me to get down, but so important regardless) and text (because writing~). I think it turned out well overall, but there are elements of the portraits that I might at some point touch up a bit.

3. Marianna and Delia Codex and Art, Pt. 2, 2020 - Part 2, with what I refer to as a “DAI Outfit Change” because I have always loved seeing fans show their own OCs as they look in DAO, DA2, and then finally DAI. So I absolutely wanted to jump on that bandwagon myself. The skin tones are a little off (and I’m sorry about that!) because I was playing with the watercolor brush at that point, and it dilutes the colors I use. Still working to figure that out, but I was very happy with the overall lineart and structures of the faces.

4. Alistair/Aja Amell Picture with a Blurb, 2017 - Ooooold, old, old, old, OLD! I still love the art, and I’m soooo happy with how the interaction between Alistair and Aja turned out (drawing kisses is extremely difficult for me; I always end up creating a distorted weird lip-creature, instead of realistically puckered lips...). I’m not as happy with the blurb that went with it? At that point, I was still very much figuring out my own DAO worldstate, and the characterization for everyone, so, eh. Take it with a grain of salt!

Unfinished Costume Designs:

1. Ancient Elvhen Armor with Dwarven Influence, 2018 - People who do costume design work are amazing and mystical beings, and I wish I could do what they do. This was an attempt at merging the Keeper robes from DAI with a more dwarven armor aesthetic, solely because I created an ancient elvhen character, Ceda, who was taken in by the Cad’halash dwarves mentioned in the Witch Hunt dlc, and I wanted this character to have a mix of the elven style of armor and the dwarven style. I’m overall decently happy with it, but there’s still that persistent level of self-criticism present.

2. Herald of Andraste Outfit WIP, 2016 - This was a very old picture, not one I showed around a lot, but the idea for this was entirely born of my intense interest in how fashion and outfit designs could be used to create a symbolic image for the Herald of Andraste. In general, I love the combination of ceremonial armor with long and flowing cloth, so that was what I went for here. I’m still actually very proud of how this came out, and headcanon something similar for my Herald in my canon DAI worldstate.

Pencil Sketches:

1. Quick Saara Sketch, 2019 - TW: saarebas mouth scars. Exactly what it says; very quick sketch of Saara I did in a small notebook I carry around with me. This was basically a test for myself to see if I could manage to draw Saara with the features and facial structure I envisioned for her without needing to use a lot of references.

2. Mass Effect Character Sketch; Jesse, 2018 - Similar reason for drawing this one as the above Saara sketch! With these characters, I love sometimes the way they can turn out with the specific character creator used for them, and when I draw them, I enjoy trying to create a definitive look for them using what I get from the CC, and my own knowledge of Hooman Faces.

3. Saara Sketch, 2017 - TW: saarebas mouth scars. A more detailed sketch of Saara than the one above, and one I definitely put more time into overall. It’s currently the profile picture I’m using for ao3, and is the definitive go-to reference picture I use whenever imagining Saara in a fic, or for other Saara pics I make. I am extremely proud of this picture, and feel like I should work in graphite more often. It’s such fun, and the texture is so nice to look at.

4. Sketch of Nameless Alamarri Woman, 2017 - This was a sketch I did of what I envisioned some Alamarri tribes to look like; I used artistic depictions of Gaul tribes and hairstyles for inspiration, and have used this as a go-to reference for my version of Alamarri tribes. Nothing super notable about this one, but I really liked the way the shape of her face turned out.

Events and Gifts:

1. Another Scar, 2020 - TW: blood, injuries, gore. The most recent piece of art on the list, and a gift for @cartadwarfwithaheartofgold; featuring sisterly love between Rica and fem!Brosca, which was her requested prompt. This was a tough piece for me because of the difficulty with the lighting I dealt with. For some reason, that one particular element of it gave me so much trouble. Overall, I’m very happy with how it turned out, though, especially the skin tones of the sisters; Brosca I always sort of like as having this greyish, more gaunt look to her, while Rica I like seeing with a darker, richer, and warmer tone to her.

2. A Very Cousland Christmas!, 2019 - This was for a holiday exchange for a server, and I drew a friend’s Cousland (Elissa, the girl on the left) with my Cousland (Gazza, the girl on the right). I love kid-fic, and I love kid-art, and so I decided... baby Cousland art! Drawing kid proportions was the toughest part, I recall, and I thiiiink it turned out well, and I’m still quite proud of it overall. Elissa’s design came entirely from my friend, but I added the holly~

3. Exchange Gift with Dis Brosca and Mabari, 2018 - This was an exchange gift for @fanfoolishness, using her lovely Dis Brosca, and was my first real attempt at backgrounds... I struggled with the coherence of the foreground and background a bit, but I’m still very proud of how it turned out, especially with the colors I had to work with. What I also really enjoyed working with was the lighting and the expression on Dis’s face. Backlit subjects are always fun to play around with!

4. Inktober Picture, “Deep”, 2017 - TW: scars, injury, mentions of abuse in the author’s note/attached dialogue snippets. This was for an Inktober prompt (the only one I’ve ever done, sadly... because I am bad with deadlines...), and again features Trilyn. Trilyn’s backstory has him a former slave in Tevinter, and a lot of the early works I do for him are sort of deep-dives into his life there. It’s all meant to be an exploration of the things he endures, and then those moments when he overcomes it all and takes back his own autonomy and self. This art is definitely provocative, and I can understand if not everyone likes it, but to me, I just wanted to show just what he faces (without glorifying it) before showing the moment of his own triumph.

5. Christmas Holiday Picture with my Brosca and a Friend’s Amell, 2017 - This was a piece of art drawn first by a friend of mine, @nanahuatli~ She drew the Amell, the background, the mistletoe, etc. All I did was add my Brosca to the mix to finish the image. It was a lot of fun to do, 1) because it was fun trying to match her style so that the picture looked cohesive, 2) because I love doing collabs with friends, and 3) because it was just such a fun thing to imagine my surly short Brosca, looking at this weird plant/fungus/thing dangling over some puckering human! It was an absolute joy to do this collab with her!

6. OC Kiss Week Pic of Jem and Saara, 2017 - TW: saarebas mouth scars. A spur-of-the-moment thing meant to demonstrate just what kind of dynamic my OC, Jem, has with my other OC, Saara (both of whom are members of Leliana’s network in DAI). This was a very quick picture (deadlines...) and was mostly just to have fun drawing these two characters interacting, and to see if I could make them look like themselves. I think I did a decent job with it overall, especially with Jem’s kissy-face! (Again... drawing kisses are the bane of my existence, although hands and feet take a close second.)

#lavalampelfchild's art #masterpost #dragon age #some not DA stuff

11 notes · View notes

squirrelwrangler · 4 years

Text

@kazaera tagged me for this fic meme

Name:

heget in all online fandom spheres, what few places that is (with the sole exception that to my FC I am Deni but that too carries the Squirrel(wrangler) surname)

Fandoms:

There’s a serious divide between which fandom(s) I write for and which I read other people’s fics and collect fanart and read all the meta that I can find. The Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings to a lesser existent is my main fandom I write for, but I read (or read) Star Wars, Naruto, AltA, Final Fantasy (VII, X, XIV, and XV mostly), FMA, RuroKen, ASoIaF, Austen, WoT, DC (mostly Batfam-centric) to name a few. I write almost exclusively for the Silm but love fusions where I stealth crossover the other fandoms.

Where you post:

Tumblr first, especially the WIPs. Then to AO3. And cross-posted to Silmarillion’s Writer Guild but I rarely check in on that website because of lower interaction, inferior interface, and being off-put by the site culture. A few older fics are also on my mostly abandoned DW.