#users should NOT need work around to avoid stuff

[darkwood-sleddog]

No offense tumblr, but even without ad-free users should be able to hide potentially triggering material from advertisements pushed to their dashboards.

[izicodes]

Hi Loa! You said you started off with HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and you post a lot about your website projects. So I wanted to ask if you have any advice for the process of designing a website and making various graphics. I enjoy coding a whole lot, but I've avoided front-end stuff until now because looking into design and tools for it made me feel a little overwhelmed. What would you do if you were to start learning anew web design for your coding job and hobby projects? Thank you a lot :)

Hiya! 💗

I'd be happy to share some advice on designing a website and creating graphics. It's great that you enjoy coding and want to explore front-end development and design, and don't worry, though I love frontend stuff a lot, I still find some things overwhelming e.g. I'm currently learning Django which I have put off from learning because it looked "hard" but now I love learning it. Just give yourself a little push and you'll enjoy it! 😉🙌🏾

Web Design Inspiration

Two key places I get inspiration for my website designs are Pinterest and Behance!

For instance, when I was, and still am, researching Old Web GUI designs, I made a Pinterest board of images relating to what I wanted to design and I used that as a reference when building the design in HTML and CSS. So, I would look at the picture and think "Okay in terms of HTML elements and CSS styling, how can I replicate this? 😉👍🏾". You can check out these boards: board 1 | board 2

Pinterest is the main inspiration place, and Behance is for more in-depth web design components. What I mean is if I need inspiration for a navbar design or a certain card design, I would use Behance.

Now I don't particularly do this, which is bad, but I do recommend making a wireframe for your web designs. I talked about wireframes in a previous post, but to sum it up; wireframes are good because they allow you to stick to your design plans and not go off on a tangent. These are especially good when working in a team at work, for example.

The reason why I don't particularly do them as often as I should is because I see things in my head vividly enough that I won't forget where everything should be - no super power but that's the main reason I don't make wireframes. As well, I change ideas halfway through so there's no real need for me to keep making wireframes if I will change the design 2 minutes later! 😭💔

But that's just me, but you should totally start designing wireframes. Practising drawing up some wireframes will definitely help with being creative in your designs. Take everything around you as an inspiration. The way I think of it is to think like an artist who is capable of painting anything - all you have to do is look around and paint. You can do the same with web development - everything is an inspiration. I saw a person make a whole webpage with amazing graphics... just about water. You can do the same.

If you need help on that part, definitely look into graphic design. I took extra classes in Graphics (which was just graphic design) when in school which involved looking at graphic artists and studying their work, then replicating something with our own twist. You can do the same with web design - study websites online, some you like or random ones. Look at a piece of the website and try and replicate it. That's why I like projects which are like "make a Google clone" or "make a Netflix clone" because it gives you the chance to study other people's codes and you can keep that knowledge for any future projects!

And lastly, study web design principles. There are some principles that good websites all put into their design that make the user's experience good. Read this article about it and this should even give hints to how you could design your next website! Learn about fundamental design principles such as colour theory, typography, layout, and composition. Understanding these principles will help you create aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly designs.

Web Design Tools I Use

Now, what do I use every time I start a new "project", what online tools do I use? I literally have these on my browser's bookmarks, ready to go!

Pinterest (inspiration) - LINK

Behance (inspiration) - LINK

Coolors (colour palette generator) - LINK

CSS Gradient Generator (because I'm lazy) - LINK

Google Fonts (main source for fonts) - LINK

Font Palace (fonts I want but not on Google Fonts) - LINK

Font Awesome (for the little icons) - LINK

Image Colour Picker (if I have an image and I want to pick the colour from it) - LINK

Optional tools:

Bootstrap 4/5 (sometimes I use this for personal projects, definitely use it at work) - LINK

Pattern.css (creates a patterned background for you, again I'm lazy) - LINK

Storyset on Freepik (people graphic images) - LINK

Pexels (stock background and even fake product images) - LINK

Unsplash (same as Pexel) - LINK

LottieFiles (set animations) - LINK

TinyPNG (makes image sizes smaller so less space) - LINK

CSSmatic (4 cool CSS generators) - LINK

That's all I have to say, if I didn't help with your question, message me to help you further but I do hope this helps you!! Good luck! 🥰🙌🏾💗

[seraph-of-sizes]

Broken Homes of Different Sizes pt8

Borrower Lyney and Lynette, Human Freminet (Slight au with borrowers existing, everything else is the same as canon)

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So. Who exactly was that?” Lyney broke the tense silence that had descended over the table after everyone had finished eating.

“No one really knows her name, but most call her the Traveler. She’s going around Teyvat looking for her twin brother.” Freminet explained softly as he carefully put his covers back onto his teeth. “I don’t- I didn’t mean to attack her, but she kept staring at Nette.”

“When Fremi walked in, I was speaking with her and she was showing me a photo of her brother. From his perspective, it likely looked as if she was trying to grab me.” Lynette explained to Lyney. “I had already told Rosseland to stand down since she was invited by Fremi, and was amiable enough.”

“I thought you were in danger.” Fremi lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I’ll have to make it up to the Traveler too.”

“Well at least we know the Traveler is someone we can probably trust if we see her again.” Lyney hummed, standing up and stretching. “Anyhow, I think we should find time to go on an outside borrowing trip soon, dear sister. We’re getting low on our dried stores.”

Lynette nodded, also standing up and stretching. “I’ll have to take a quick power nap first. My energy levels are low.”

“Wait, outside borrowing?” The twins turned to look up at Freminet. “How often do you do that?”

“Not very, usually once every two months.” The pyro user sighed. “But it’s starting to get further from Spring and into Summer, so most flowers will turn into fruit soon. And we need the flowers for medicines.”

A soft thud echoed in the silence as Freminet sat a notebook on the table, pushing away his breakfast plates. “What kind of plants?”

Lynette’s ear folded back and she glanced at Lyney who also looked a little perturbed. “Is there a reason you want to know? It’s not like it would work on you, the amount of flowers you would need would be way more than you could reasonably gather.”

Freminet paused, before glancing down at his notebook shyly. “S-sorry, I wasn’t thinking. You probably wouldn’t want to share that kind of stuff with a human.”

“That’s not what we said.” Lyney sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Borrowing habits are routines we keep to avoid the humans we live around, yes, but it's also our entire lives.”

“We understand you want to help, but breaking those habits would be rough on us. If we just asked you to get everything for us…we would probably end up irrationally irritable.” Lynette explained. “One trip change and months of work could be wasted.”

“So what if I don’t do it for you, but keep watch for you?” Freminet asked slowly. “I’m afraid to see you two get hurt at all, hence my fight with the Traveler. But I don’t want to encroach on your individuality and independence.”

Lyney turned to Lynette. “We could give a rough timeline of our borrowing trips, so that we aren’t in his way, and he can make sure we’re safe for his peace of mind.”

“That could work.” Lynette nodded, her tail slowing from its lashing state.

The twins and Freminet sat at the table for a while, going over routine borrowing trips and the seasonal trips. A rough schedule formed as they worked, and they all began to relax from the stressful morning’s events.

“Okay, that’s all of it.” Freminet nodded as he carefully put away the notebook. 

“I’m going to clean up breakfast.” The human warned as he collected the dishes, the twins nodded and made their ways off of the table and back into the walls. A sigh of relief echoed between them, and they glanced at each other.

“What was that?” Lyney asked slowly, pressing a hand to his chest. “It was unsettling.”

“Someone was listening in on us the whole time.” Lynette hissed, her tail lashing, and ears folded back. “It felt disturbing but not malicious.”

“Like an ice bath, but no intent to harm, exactly.” Lyney nodded, glancing in the direction where he could hear Freminet shuffling around. “He didn’t react at all.”

“So either he knew and faked it…” 

Lyney nodded. “Or he’s completely unaware.”

The twins began to walk through the walls, each passage familiar, yet darker than usual. An oppressive air settled in the quiet of the space.

“If he knew, he would’ve told us, he’s Oath Bound.” Lynette said softly. 

“That’s if he thought they would harm us, but if they only intend to watch, or capture us…that’s technically not harming us.” Lyney argued, his chest tight and a bitter taste in his mouth at the thought of this human that he had put so much trust into potentially betraying them.

“He defended me, he caught me and let me go, remember?” Lynette whispered, hugging herself as they reached their home in the walls, hidden behind the bookshelf. “He- we’re supposed to trust him, right?”

“Yes, we are.” There was a beat of silence. “Hopefully, that trust isn’t being taken for granted.”

[imflyingfish]

Hi fish hi fish!! :] hope you're doing swell- wanted to ask for some advice

I've been trying to learn how to draw wheelchairs for a while now, hardest part has been finding refs with people in em, do you know what terms to search up to find stuff like that? All good if not, just know you're pretty well acquainted with drawing em so figured I'd ask

First off I'm going to state that I'm not a wheelchair user. I have researched them in the past and have asked a family member who uses one for advice, but still don't take my word as absoultely reliable. The majority of my knowlege/observations comes from watching family members with chairs so it may be biased. I'm going to be mostly talking about manual chairs but the same suggestions should apply to powered.

Searching up "wheelchair drawing reference" can help, but I discourage using google images. Often the images will be unrealistic due to them being stock images, or of the wrong type of wheelchair for what youre drawing. (One that comes up a lot are foldable wheelchairs which are more associated with hospitals than practical life).

Instead, try to use reference collections made by wheelchair users. This is a really good collection by Criptid Cosplayer in both manual and powered wheelchairs. They also have a small guide to designing fantasy wheelchairs which was interesting.

I also reccomend learning what the different parts of a wheelchair are and do. This will make it easier to understand how the user uses the chair, the shape of the chair and make it easier to remember the different parts while drawing. I don't have a specific source for this using photo reference since I looked at real wheelchairs for this. However @/calvin-arium has a good guide to drawing chracters with wheelchairs with drawn diagrams here.

Also ensure you observe how real people use wheelchairs. I find that tutorials for using wheelchairs are a good source for this since they break down how each movement works. This will make it easier to draw Wheelchairs in montion/natural posing. Wheels2walking has a good video explaining rolling and one here for wheelies.

Other tips:

Give your characters wheelchair gloves, especially if they're going to be going longer distances than just being inside. Not all users use gloves but they do help protect the hands.

Consider if the character needs additional support/what type of chair they're needing. E.G. Seatbelts, cushions, cupholders, additional storage space, hight of handles/if they have handles, back height ect.

Check what type of wheelchair your character needs. One of my OC's needed to always hold a megaphone as her main weapon, so I gave her a powered wheelchair with a headrest to ensure that I could still have her move around the battlefield without taking away her disability. Other times you will need to consider the type of chair around their disability rather than design/character function. Make sure you research the type of chair for the disability and adjust if needed.

Wheelchairs have different functions. Sports wheelchairs and off-road wheelchairs look very different to regular wheelchairs so keep that in mind. Always research the right wheelchair

Also consider if your character can move their legs or not while posing.

To draw the wheelchair start with a circle with the figure to get an idea of the pose. Treat the chair as an extension of the character while drawing. Don't worry about the anatomical accuracy of the chair before you have a good idea of the pose/a basic sketch or thumbnail

Remember to draw the wheelchair using perspective. or dont.

Wheelchairs are even cooler decorated. Some people use stickers, covers, lights, fabrics, spikes.

It's okay to draw wheelchairs badly. I see a lot of people avoid drawing them for fear of getting them wrong but thats just. counterintuative. Make sure you research (even further than this post links to) and stop avoiding them.

Okay yeah, thats all I can think of for now. Keep in mind that I'm not disabled and so not everything I say is guarenteed to be accurate. But this should be enough to help you out I think.

If anybody else wants to add on to this feel free

[moonflower-rose]

I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, I’m just wondering. I noticed that you only seem to rec your friends. Also you ignore some of the fics from fests that you participate in when it’s courtesy to read and comment on everything.

This one has been sitting around for ages, possibly since last years Erised. I don’t normally feel the need to justify any of my decisions as a fan, I don’t feel I NEED to this time either but it is actually something I’ve seen pop up over many years and I’ve decided to answer it this one time only. I’ll probably ignore or delete any other asks on the same topic.

So, everyone participating in a fest reading and commenting on everyone else’s work seems like the ideal, right? In reality, some people want to write about things that you as a participant absolutely cannot handle - for me that’s usually MCD, terminal illness, infidelity, domestic violence, severe depression, and lots of other things. That’s what the tags and warnings are for, of course, and I’m using them appropriately. Have I read and enjoyed stories with any/all of those themes before? Yep. That doesn’t change that generally these themes affect me negatively so generally I avoid them. If and when I feel like I can handle them, I might try them out. Only I can know when I might be ready to do that. It might not be during the course of Wireless or Suds or whatever the fest I’m part of is. That doesn’t mean others shouldn’t write that content. It doesn’t mean I should harden up and just read it for the sake of etiquette.

Sometimes I simply cannot handle the size of the fic. I don’t feel the need to describe my whole life, but I work full time, I have family commitments, I need to do regular life things like washing and shopping and cooking and the dishes. Fics under probably 20K feel more manageable, I can read that on my lunch break or maybe before work, but more likely before bed. Longer stuff requires more time (obviously) and I’m not good at putting something down when I start it and pulling an all nighter mid-week is way harder when you’re 40.

Some of my closest fandom friends have big and popular fics that I haven’t got around to reading yet. Some of them have short ones that are heavy on topics that I can’t cope with right now. Not to put words in your mouth, but its unfair to assume the reason for my lack of attention is that I don’t care about them or I’m not appropriately prioritising my fandom time. I’ll get there eventually, or maybe I won’t. My friendships are hopefully strong enough to endure me not reading their stuff and them not reading mine. My friendships are not based on what those people can create for me or how they can promote my work.

As far as reccing goes, I’m a very inconsistent reccer. My goal for 2022 was to do more reccing and I did none. None recs with left beef. I’m not generally trawling for fic (the way I did as a 22 year old approximately one thousand years ago) and so I mainly see fic from authors I have already encountered and loved, via AO3 user subscriptions. My next gateway is via recs from friends (the magnificent @sitp-recs for example). I’ve been very lucky to have had people I deeply admire and enjoy become off-stage pals, but I’m not reccing them on a friendship basis. If I had to guess I would say my most consistent recs are of authors who I have had lovely, delightful interactions with but who I don’t have established friendships with. No stats but I reckon @lqtraintracks @writcraft and @letteredlettered would be people who pretty much always write things that make me lose my fuckin mind but we’re not part of a DM frenzy that involves graphic discussion of our latest health dramas, what we ate for dinner, what shenanigans our pets and siblings have got up to (that’s @shiftylinguini whether she likes it or not). I rec the BABY CHEESES out of them despite this.

What it boils down to is that I will engage the way I feel comfortable engaging, when I feel like it. I definitely have people I avoid (generally those who express terfy sentiments) and people I’m dragged towards like a magnet. It is what it is. I’m sorry if you have been a person who I haven’t engaged with and if you feel badly about that. It’s probably for benign reasons (see above), unless it’s because of one of the bad reasons.

[ranidspace]

"I cant switch to firefox because..."

"It's too much effort to switch"

If you install firefox, it will ask if you want to import your browsing history, bookmarks, saved passwords*, and in a as of october of this year your extensions as well.

*dont use your browsers built in password manager. they're very much not as secure, even firefox's. read about passwords here

You can't import cookies for security reasons, but external tools can do that for you (try to avoid this. if you do have some data you need moved over, usually websites have their own "export data as file" option)

Everything else that you may need to fully complete the switch will come up naturally over time, the initial setup can be half an hour, or if you're happy with how it is at the start, less than 5 minutes.

"They don't support [website]"

Firefox is entirely up to date on current HTML, CSS, and Javascript standards. Theres a bunch of websites that compare all the features that firefox supports compared to chrome and stuff and they're often just, wrong? I've used some MANY of the features that firefox supposedly doesn't support. Plus they're constantly updating it for added support of new and old features. anything they refuse to add is due to security reasons, and nobody uses those features anyway.

In my experience i've never had to switch to chrome to avoid a website breaking. Sometimes it was because of an extension* but thats a very easy fix. Firefox has profiles built in and really good troubleshooting features.

*(stop using privacy badger/possum, please, it's built into firefox now, most of all privacy addons are completely useless because firefox already does it for you!!! ublock is safe tho i love u bbg)

If a site tells you "switch to chrome to see this site as intended" they're lying, and you can use a user agent switcher to trick them into thinking you're on chrome

"i need chrome for work or school"

i'd say 4 times out of 5 you don't, they say you have to use it but in reality it's just that they have better control over what you can do with it.

My high school had a shit ton of extensions automatically installed on chrome, including some shit that was literally spyware, it reported to teachers and staff all of your tabs you have open at any given time, and they could force shutoff tabs and force things open. They had absolutely no control or ability to monitor me when i switched to firefox, and there werent any problems that arose from it.

You can also just use chrome for school/work and use firefox for your personal web browser. separate your work life and personal life, you can do this with two different firefox profiles as well.

"I don't like change"

The only thing that's different about firefox in a day to day usage is the bar at the top, which is entirely customizable. Right click, customize toolbar, and you can mess around with it to make it the same layout as chrome. you can also get rid of those weird empty spaces to the left of the search bar they add by default for some reason. mozilla pls fix. You can further use themes to make it even look even more similar to chrome, I did that with my school profile to differentiate them.

When I switched, there wasn't anything I missed, I didn't have any of the "ugh i dont like how [blank] is in a different spot", or "ugh they dont have [this]". it just worked. It's a web browser, it works and does everything it needs to be. I didn't miss chrome at all, nothing felt different and the adjustment period to the new browser was LESS than what i felt when chrome updated the design in 2018.

"I have no reason to switch"

If you care about privacy at all (which you should), i could list hundreds of reasons why you should switch. Google removed "don't be evil" from their code of conduct for god sake lmao. Every new change they do is a ploy to get as much data from you and feed you as many ads as possible.

The dumping of Manifest V2/dynamic filtering not only makes most adblockers useless, it makes any sort of content blocking worse. Blocking trackers, malware, intrusive and annoying website features, these are things ublock does for you which chrome is doing its best to get you to stop doing. They want you to be exposed to predatory ads and malware so they can get more money.

If you have issues with ram usage and performance issues, firefox includes a lot of (lesser known) features to monitor RAM and CPU usage. While it seems as it may use more RAM, it automatically releases it when more ram is needed by other programs, effectively using less. It also uses much less ram in total in cases where there's 10+ tabs open.

Firefox can automatically block sites from auto-playing videos whenever you go on them

As mentioned firefox has so many more customization features than chrome, allowing you theme and move around everything to your hearts content

While on desktop, Chrome and Firefox are very close in functionality, on mobile, Firefox is working to add full extension support to mobile, it already has a small catalogue of extensions you can use, such as uBlock Origin. It has all of the desktop privacy features as well.

Firefox, only has about 3% of the market share. Other than that, chromium controls over 70% of all browsers, with apple controlling over 20%. The less people use firefox, the more control TWO companies have on the very act of using the internet. The Mozilla Foundation is a fully non-profit organization, with full ownership over the mozilla corporation, they don't have shareholders, and prioritize an open, safe, and private internet. Don't let them die.

"but what about..."

there's probably other reasons but the last of my advice:

you can have multiple browsers at once, install firefox and don't get rid of chrome. try firefox, see if there's anything you don't like, and try to fix it, and whenever you feel the need to, you can go back to the browser you already had.

[greenerteacups]

Hello! I wanted to let you know how amazing your fic is, it seems my life now revolves around Friday mornings. I think it may be one of my favorite series ever, not just fics, your stuff is better than most published works I have read. I really could go on and on. Suffice to say, thank you x1 million for just putting this out there for us.

I had a couple curiosities! Is it ever hard to restrain yourself and just post 1 time per week? Or is that necessary for your creative process?

Also, your fic is rapidly growing in popularity, do you ever get worried about how that might change your audience?

Thank you again for the amazing thing you've written, I feel super lucky to be reading it in real time because I know this is going to be one of those legendary classics.

Thank you so much! You're wonderfully kind, I really appreciate it, and I hope I can live up to your expectations!

Weekly posting: Posting once a week is actually something I started for my own sanity — posting it regularly/serially is better for audience response, so there's a natural incentive to do it, but it also gives me more time to write ahead. And having all of a book prewritten in advance is really important for me creatively, not only so as to avoid the possibility of cliffhangers, but also to feel immune from the pressure to change the story based on what audiences want.

Growing audiences: Oof, it's been wild. I've been sort of boggled by the response to my little fic; it was entirely unexpected and the most I can do is work hard to deserve it. For the most part, an increasing audience has been a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I've been so grateful for everyone who's been offering support and praise. I'm seriously insanely lucky. My only point of frustration is that, in general, as a fic grows, readers seem to perceive increasing distance between themselves and the author. For instance, people in my comments have increasingly started to address each other instead of me, or have left comments seemingly without the expectation that I'll read them. But when someone comments on the fic, they're still sending that message directly to the author, and I think that some people might... well, they either don't know that, or they don't care. Like, the audience/author distance might be greater than it is for a fic with only 300 hits, but it's not like I'm a showrunner, or some other media production bigwig who'll probably never see 99% of the feedback generated by fans; it's still my pet project that I read basically every scrap of feedback for.

And sometimes (rarely — most of my comments are just so wonderful, and I don't want to sound ungrateful, but) people do say weird or unnecessary things. One comment for the last chapter read, "if krum dies im gonna drop this fic ngl," and that just irritated the hell out of me. Like, if that's your opinion, cool. Your reading habits are none of my business, and I sincerely encourage everyone who needs to take a break from Lionheart — or, hell, even loses interest — to go find something that sparks joy instead. Reading fic should bring you pleasure. No hard feelings, swear to God.

But my frustration with that comment, in particular, was: you do realize that you've sent that message directly to my inbox, right? You realize that was the first thing I read when I opened my comments section after a long afternoon of writing? Someone directly informing me, the author, that a narrative decision (which, either way, I already made about 4-5 months ago) will lose me a reader? And how does this person expect me to react? "Oh, no! I have to go back and rewrite 90,000 words of the story — God forbid I lose you, Single AO3 User Who Left No Other Comments! How can I live with myself if you're not here??"

It's just a bit frustrating. And, to the point — I say this politely, with respect — but if you seriously can't handle seeing characters die, then maybe don't read the fanfiction that's rewriting a series where very many characters die. Just a thought.

[abbythewritor]

"Janitor" Fnaf Security Breach x Female reader. *1.*

Description: What happens when Y/n L/n lands a cleaning Job at the mega pizza plex? How will she handle all the Animatronics falling for her?

Warnings: Slight drama, blood, and jealousy, but other than that, none.

Rated: PG-13.

Other things:

-Bonnie and Foxie aren't dismantled, thanks to Gregory.

-Cassie and Gregory are in High School, working as security guards to keep Freddy and everyone else safe.

-I added a new Daycare attendant named Jester, who will be introduced later, and of course, the attendees got new Upgrades, thanks to Gregory.

-The OCs I will be using aren't mind, and the User names will be linked at the end of the chapter; the credits go to them :)

-Finally, no adult content will be included in this story.

Enjoy the first chapter, everyone :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And that's about it for this room-You ok Y/n?"

It's been a long day, and let me tell you, Cyrus wasn't joking when he said this job was overwhelming.

You were just shadowing him today, and all the stuff he taught, quizzed and even showed didn't comprehend into your brain because it was just too much for even a fucking robot to handle.

So now, here you were, on the floor, your pad of paper and pen beside your head, as you were basically brain-dead from all the stuff he had been giving you.

Letting out a sigh, he towered over you as the man came into your view, a blank look on his face. "Get up." You shook your head. "No, can't; I'm dead."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"No, you're not."

"Yes. I. am."

"If your 'dead,' then why are you talking?"

"Because Ghost exists."

"Well, if you’re a Ghost, then I guess the ghost can't eat Pizza as a reward? Damn, what a shame; I would even add extra garlic, , but now she's dead, so I guess no extra garlic for her.” You shot up from the ground instantly. "Who says that I'm dead-" You paused when he crossed his arms, a slight smirk forming his lips.

"Bastard." You commented while his eyes rolled. "You weren't even dead; come on, Chica's Pizza should be open still, so let's grab a bite." Helping you back to your feet, you smiled while adjusting your hat. "I like the sound of that; I'm sorry if I was being stubborn back there, I tend to be dramatic when overwhelmed." He waved your comment off. "No worries; besides, I had fun playing around, that's the vibe you have to keep her at the pizza plex, or things will go sideways. Keep that in mind, Kay Newbie?" Giving you a wink, your face flushed slightly as he walked ahead, leaving you slightly confused. Shaking your thoughts away, you began catching up with him, standing on the right side. "What do you mean things will go sideways?" He chuckled, patting your head. "You still have much to learn about being an employee here, but that's a lesson for later; besides, I think our stomachs and feet need a break, so come on, or do I have to race ya?" Watching him smirk, you smirked as well before he suddenly bolted. "Oh, your on!" you spoke, bolting after him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You hate racing, especially the kind where you have to run.

Both of you tried your best to avoid people and kids, as he knew his way around, but you, sadly, didn't win as you kept bumping into things, getting lost, and somehow ended up not even on the same planet.

Overall, the race ended with him going back to find you, and you paying for his lunch.

Tough luck, huh?

He still laughing about it now, as you both were sitting in a booth, a half eaten pizza still in his mouth. "I can't believe, *cough*, you ended up in pirates cove. *cough.* Your eyes rolled. "How was I supposed to know my way around? It's my first-day dickhead." Setting his Pizza down, he leaned back against the booth, his hands going behind his head. "Yeah, that was my fault, sorry Newbie, I should have known you were prone to get lost, but hey, don't worry, we will have many re-matches to come. Did ya enjoy the pizza at least?" "Could have been better if I hadn't paid for it." He snorted as one of your eyebrows went up. "What?" "Ah, newbie, you're just a sore loser, but seriously how's the pizza? If we meet Chica today, she will ask you the rating; and won’t leave you alone about it. But…if you don't like it, just pull out a simple lie so she can be on your good side, ok?" Even more confused, you finished the crust before whipping your hands together. "Why would I have to lie? It's pretty freaking good. Better than the pizza I get, anyway." One of his eyebrows rose, putting his drink straw into his mouth. "and what pizza is that?" Hesitant, you glanced away for a second. "Pizza Hut-" "PFFFT!" He spat out his drink as you jumped a little. He coughed multiple times, hitting his chest while trying to bring himself back together, as you grabbed a hand ass full of napkins for him. "Damn, I know it's shitty pizza, but it's nothing to choke up about." Getting his breath, he took the napkins before sitting up. "N-No, not that, it's just, that place is for...." "Poor people?" He paused. "No, I was about to say-wait, your poor?" Chuckling, you plopped some ice into your mouth. "Why else would I get this Job? Crappy parents don't care for lost children like me." Feeling bad, he frowned a bit. "Sorry, can I ask what happened?" Shaking your head, you adjusted yourself again. "Another time, but hate to ask, isn't lunch break over?"

......

......

.......

His Faz watch was way past the lunch break hours, and his eyes went out of his socket. "SHIT!" Jumping out of the booth, Cyrus grabbed your wrist unexpectedly, and you let out a scared squeal while getting yanked off your side of the booth. "TIME FOR MUSIC MAN NEWBIE!!" Holding onto your hat, you tried to keep up with him, but he was moving too fast, and you felt like you were on a speed boat with how much motion was going on. "Cryus, please slow down....we just ate p-pizza-" Ignoring your plea, he just continued pulling you fast as you headed towards the music man's area, as it was just down the hall. "No time, Newbie, cleaning doesn't happen itself; now, if we keep this pace, we might just be able to see music, Man, try to keep up!"

Face turning green, you didn't even know what to say because all you could think about was where the nearest trash can was. Let's just say even though it's already past lunch, the rest of the day...

Well, it can only get worse from here; what's worse than puking in front of your mentor?

.....

.....

Oh boy, there is a lot more worse things that could happen, a lot more.

Well, let’s just hope music man’s place has a trash can, because..

Your defiantly going to need one.

....................

"Ah, made it just in time-hey, Newbie; stop puking, we are here!" Yeah, you both made it alright, with you ending up puking at the entrance's trash can.

You wanted to beat that happy little smug on his face as you were still hunched over, the pizza you just ate spilling out of your mouth.

But, before you could puke more, however, Cyrus, the rude mother f-er, grabbed your collar, and he dragged you along inside. "Cyrus, I need to puke more-"

"Nope! Dj is waiting, and his room needs a cleanin'!"

"Please, if you don't let me finish, Dj's room will be filled with my vomit-"

"You can puke inside; we have no time for shenanigans-HEY DJ!"

Not knowing you were already inside, you hopped up from the ground, forcing your puke to go back down to your stomach.

Your eyes widened with the unfamiliar scenery, as somehow, you both teleported to some wild nightclub that your friends would never invite you to.

A giant hole, tunnel-thing, was in the middle, with a unique, large-looking DJ booth sitting perfectly, towering over the dance floor, which had different colorful blocks made out of glass. It probably changes color when the DJ is active, but even if they aren’t on, it still looks pretty cool.

Man, if this room is for kids, then it’s really large, top notch, and kind of huge now that you think about it.

“This is Mr. Dj's room; his Job is to help the glam rocks with their performance, he has another hole leading to the stage, but this area is like a dance/music room for kids, adults, and even teens, so it's for all ages. But, sometimes, when Adults book it for a night, that wall there will reveal a mysterious bar for alcohol for them to drink from.” Your eyes widened with surprise. "That's allowed here?" He smiled at you. "It was banned once, for kid's safety, but once my good friend Gregory had a pretty genius Idea of hiding it from them and using it as an 'adult booking only thing,' then alcohol was available here at night, but only for adults, no one gets any if they're under age." "Ah, I see; if this room is used for partying, where is the DJ?" Cryus shrugged. "Probably talking to Little Dj, but don't worry, I'll call him again. It's important to let him know we clean, so he doesn't get the wrong idea of us being intruders or kids who want to party with him...HEY DJ, IT'S ME!!"

"IS THAT YOU, CYRUS? I'LL BE OUT IN A SEC" The deepness of his voice and its volume made you stiff, your heart not working anymore as it sent chills down your spine.

You could have sworn the room shook when this 'DJ' spoke, wondering how giant this DJ robot was...but once he started to come out of the tunnel, you couldn't believe your eyes.

Cryus smiled as a giant but very tall, half-spider-human thing came out, who went in front of his DJ mixing table.

He was the size of King Kong, and his height was as tall as the empire state building.

Not realizing he had some human features, his lips matched the color of his hair, which was a soft pink, while his 'skin' was pale blue paint complimenting his cheeks, chin, eyebrows, and the markings on his forehead.

He had multiple eyes since he looked like a spider, but, giant...really giant...Shit...

You felt like you were sweating balls as he looked a little intimidating. But, Cryus wasn't nervous at all as the robot spider smiled at the sight of him. "Hey, now I thought I heard your voice back there, Cyrus; what brought you to my place early today?" Smiling back, the boy adjusted his hat before he slapped your back ard, which made you stumble forward. "I gotta newbie with me today! Since your kids left early, we cleaned this place before the adults arrived!" Feeling nervous, your face looked to the floor as DJ looked at you, then back to him. "Ah, so that's the girl Deans been talking about, say, he wasn't kidding about her being Timid; guess that's my fault huh?" Cyrus threw an arm over your shoulder. "Timid?! You should have seen her an hour ago; she was talking up a storm! Come on, Y/n, introduce yourself!" He pushed you forward again, and you stumbled, of course, as you couldn't keep your balance as you accidentally tripped on a cord.

The Dj noticed as one of his giant fingers went in front of you just in time, preventing you from falling. Confused, the Dj picked you up by your clothes, bringing you higher in the air. Eyes widened, and your feet and arms scrambled as Heights scared the living shit out of you. 'Shit, is this how my tiny objects feel when I pick them up?!' you thought, feeling like this guy could just squish you like a pea, but he had no intentions of that, as he gently laid you down on his left hand, giving him a chance to get a better look at you.

Standing up, you could feel your legs tremble as you looked around, seeing no sign of Cyrus anywhere.

But, you paused when your face met with DJ's, as his eyes through his glasses pierced through your soul, which you most likely felt. "Little lady, my sensors read that you are nervous; I'm intimidating you ain't I?" Not sure how to answer, you gulped a bit. "U-Uhm, I don't mean to be rude, D-DJ, but it's just that you're so freaking big...like" He chuckled, which rumbled a lot as you struggled to stand, your but landing onto his palm. "I get it, lil one, you never seen a robot the size of me, but don't worry, I ain't that mean. Say, what is your name?"

Pointing to yourself with surprise, you got to your feet again. "M-My name?" He nodded. "Y-Y/n." He hummed with your response. "Well, Hello there, Y/n, my name Is DJ, I'm sure Cyrus has told you the details about me, but I'll tell you one thing, even though I'm big and intimidating, I'm easy to get along with." One of his fingers went to your head, moving it slightly to pat it, which caused a giggle to escape your mouth. Hearing that loud and clear, the Dj smiled while inching closer."Ya laughed! See? I ain't a bad guy, now; I say your style is pretty fresh, but don't tell Roxy that because she'll have my head for telling that to a stranger compared to her style, ok?" Head tilting, you sat down on his palm again. "Roxy?" DJ was now confused. "So you haven't taken her to them yet?" He was looking to Cyrus, who shook his head. "They were doing meet and greets; they are next!" The Dj nodded. "Ah, noted, but I am still honored for you two to see me, especially you, Y/n; I know you and Cryus gotta Job to do, so I will put Ya down." You felt sad as the Dj was warming up to you. Yeah, you didn't even talk the whole time, but you could tell from all the scary, tell exterior, inside, he was such a huge softie. Which is weird to notice since you just met the robot. He noticed a pout as he smiled, leaning closer to you. "Awh, it's alright, Y/n, we'll see each other again; I'll say bye when you head to the others, but for now..." Bringing you back to the ground, you hopped off his hand before turning as he formed a fist with the hand you just got off.

Looking up, you chuckled as you attached your fist to his. "This is a partial goodbye." Winking at you, your heart fluttered as he turned, leaving you to look at your hand.

He was so cool, and your fangirling emotions couldn't keep in.

Cyrus looked at you with a smirk before you looked back at the Dj, who was getting into his tunnel again.

Gripping your fist, you decided to say something you won't regret. "HEY, DJ!" Pausing, he turned to you, who had a wonderful smile on your face. "I LIKE YOUR SUNGLASSES, DUDE!" Holding up Piece signs, his eyes widened as you winked, his initial core heating up for some reason before he let out a deep chuckle, turning back towards the tunnel. "Keep this in mind, Cyrus." Confused, he still was smirking as he looked at Dj. "Keep what in mind, Dj?!"

Turning again, we could see a smirk forming the Dj's lips, as he couldn't get you winking at him out of his mind. He doesn't know what is happening or why his core is heating up like crazy, but he knows this.

Better than the last Newbie he encountered months ago, you were very different from that person, which makes you unique and fantastic. Hearing from Deans's's perspective that you were 'shy and timid' made him curious. But when you showed up, you proved him wrong. You weren't shy and timid but bright and brave, just like a lightbulb, which a Janitor should be.

..........

.........

"She's a keeper."

......

....

"For sure."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Dj Music man.

Age: Unknown

Height: Tall.

Status: Dj

Extra info: A giant, soft spider bot who just wants friends to talk to. Gotta give this giant fella attention, or he will gloom in his tunnel for weeks, maybe months.

Relationship status: Acquaintances or maybe more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[quinloki]

Regarding your help for my fic, I have decided Reader will not have a devil fruit because I think it'd be more fun to work out why Reader got captured in the first place and how Reader has managed to hold their own AND catch the elusive rodents with no powers of any sort. This means I'm also ruling out haki as a possibility for Reader. We're going to be an ordinary person in the fic.

However, I am going to throw a new devil fruit into the mix, just not where anyone would expect. The question then arises, does this new devil fruit user pose itself as a friend or a foe to Reader? I get to play around with that too and that's exciting. So, devil fruit dilemma has been resolved.

I broke the ship dilemma up into three categories: mandatory features which can be solved by looking at photos, necessary features which pretty much every Kid fic features but I get to describe it my way, and then optional features which I could drop into the fic as needed. Necessary features would be kitchen/galley, infrimary, Kid's quarters, Killer's quarters, etc. Optional features would be more like Kid's workshop, interrogation room, game room, etc.

The timeline itself is now boiled down to two very strong contenders: Pre-time skip all the way Post-time skip/Post-Wano/Post Shanks Encounter 2.0

Now, with the pre-time skip, the way I see it, I could play around with the four years that Kid was a pirate pre-debut at Sabaody. Or I could write it within the actual time skip itself but that still requires me to adhere to canon events, so if I want to avoid canon events (because I haven't read or watched them yet) I should steer clear of the time skip. The nice part about pre-time skip is we get Kid with two fleshy arms.

However, if I were to go the equally fun and non-canonically driven post-time skip way that is also post-Wano AND post-Shanks encounter 2.0, then I get to imagine the whole story as taking place after Shanks whoops ass. Last we saw Kid, he was sinking into the ocean, so I could determine what happens next because none of us currently knows. It's unknown and therefore untouched territory.

The third option is to begin the story pre-time skip within those four years and then separate Kid from Reader for the entire time skip and post-time skip arcs. Then reunite the two after Kid loses to Shanks. This option gives me two timelines that have very little canon material to worry about and if I wanted to, I could put the story into two parts.

I'm glad I could be of help ^_^

I like this too, all good stuff. I like how you broke down the pieces parts for the ship.

I, personally, say go for Pre time-skip. The Kid pirates embarking from their home island and what they did four years leading up to Shabody is just ripe with potential and use. There's a lot of freedom in there, and a lot of fun to be had too.

But I like the other options too, so certainly go with whatever pulls you the most.

the new devil fruit and effectively chucking it into the story without it going to the Reader is an interesting twist too - I like it.

Additional mousetrap items: chopsticks, sieve, Kid's boxer shorts, very small rabbit snares.

[altraviolet]

Writing Advice & Resources

[This post was originally posted to my pillowfort April 29, 2022. It is being cross-posted here for ease of access for tumblr users. It is very long.]

I've had folks approach me privately asking for advice on writing. I asked twitter if people would like to see a post about it and they said yes. So! I present to you my advice and some resources =)

A couple of caveats:

1) I'm not a professional writer. I've written for a long time, but I write for fun. My advice is neither exhaustive nor perfect for every situation.

2) You can break the rules if you understand what the rules are and how to break them in a way that serves your story rather than detracts from it.

3) I'm honestly not sure whether to write this out as advice for people who want to write fiction, or fanfiction, because I think advice for one does not necessarily apply to both. For that reason, I'll make a separate fanfiction advice section.

3b) Implied in the fanfiction-specific advice section is “I know you're writing for fun.” No, you don't need to do any of these things. Yes, I do still advise them. If you don't like the advice or don't think it applies to you, that's okay. Learn what you can from it, add it to your toolbox, and keep writing.

MY ADVICE:

General advice for beginners:

-read a lot, with your eyes or your ears. Absorbing properly edited written work will familiarize you with grammar and punctuation, flow, dialog, pacing, characterization, etc. 

-as you're reading, jot down phrases or words you like. Why do you like them? Is there something about their construction you can identify and use in your own writing?

-if you read something and you don't like it, why? Once you identify why, you can be sure not to do it in your own writing.

-write. A lot. The first bunch of stuff you write will probably not be good. That's okay. Keep going.

Common writing issues for beginners:

-tense switching. “I sit down to write my story. I thought about what to do. I ran to the store to get a drink. I'm drinking it.” Besides the fact that that is an atrocious story, lol, the verb tenses keep changing. If you're writing in present tense, make sure all the verbs are in present tense. If you're writing in past tense, make sure all the verbs are in past tense.

-mixing up homophones. Their/there/they're, pouring/poring, reign/rein, etc. English is a silly language.

-“definitely” and “defiantly” are different words. The second one is definitely not the first one. Once you see this, you will never unsee it.

-“a lot” is two words

-use strong verbs instead of weak verbs + adverbs. If someone argues with you that it's a stylistic choice, ask them if they'd rather “walk quickly” or “run” from a tsunami. English is a silly language, but it has a lot of verbs. Use the strong ones. Your prose deserves them.

-look up filter words. Eliminate as many of them as possible.

-avoid run on sentences. If a sentence is really long or awkward or just doesn't feel right, rework it. Having a hard time telling if a sentence is awkward? Read it out loud.

-point of view switches/“head swapping”/”head hopping.” Generally, you should stick to one character's point of view per writing chunk (chapter, book, whatever). Jumping around from character to character is disorienting for the reader. If the scene is being written from Rodimus's point of view, he should not know what another character is thinking. He can intuit it from their stance, their expression, their words. But unless he has a direct line into their brain, he does not know their thoughts.

General advice for intermediate:

-I like to visualize the scene in my mind to help keep track of everything that's going on. I let it play out like a movie, then try to transcribe it. However, movies are restricted to images and sound. We are not! Make your scenes come alive by including sensory information. We often get visual details, and sometimes audial details, in a scene. But touch? Smell? Taste? If any of these are applicable, they will help ground your reader into the scene. 

-if you put a tiny but very specific detail amongst general statements, it will stick out.

-know where your characters are in relation to other characters/objects in the scene. If your character is in front of a window in one paragraph, then teleports to the door on the other side of the room in the next (and doesn't have teleportation powers), that will be disorienting. Note- you don't have to write every mundane detail of movement, but make sure that as characters move and interact, their movements and interactions make sense. This is especially important for action scenes/fight scenes.

-body language and reactions can be powerful ways to have a character state something without saying it. 

-I don't know what the word for this is, but I try to make sure that actions flow across paragraphs and sentences. I write out a paragraph which contains all the action/information I want it to contain. Then I reread all the sentences to make sure they're in the order that makes the most sense. Don't be afraid to switch sentences around

-Also regarding flow: if you think of a movie or comic page, there is often an establishing shot of the setting. Then you zoom in on characters and the specific part of the setting the scene takes place in. I do the same thing in writing. Either start zoomed in and pull out, or start zoomed out and go in.

-if you need to set a scene or describe a building or something quickly, take a listen to how Matt Mercer of Critical Role sets his scenes. You don't need to go on and on about the glistening columns of blah blah blah. “A short, squat building with columns,” is enough if what the building looks like is not very important but you still need to establish that it exists.

-if you find you're writing characters meeting up in the same places over and over, try putting the scene in a new location.

-bedrooms/personal spaces are really easy and fun ways to show what a character values and who they are. Imagine a bedroom crammed full of musical instruments and succulents with poster-covered walls. Imagine a bedroom with alphabetized bookshelves and curios kept under polished glass. Which bedroom's occupant do you think makes their bed every morning? Why? What gave you that clue? Whatever that thought process you just used was, use it all the time.

-use present tense to give your writing a more immediate, fast, or dire feel. I like to use present tense for horror or action.

Fanfiction-specific advice:

-the easier your story is to read, the more likely you are to attract an audience and get those sweet, validating comments. Check for grammar/spelling mistakes. Every time a new character speaks, make a new paragraph. Do not put dialog from more than one character in the same paragraph. Make sure everything is spaced correctly. Walls of text will turn away readers really fast. Use the Preview function before posting so you can check your formatting.

-if there's something about canon or fanon you don't understand, ask about it! I've asked people to explain why they like a certain pairing, or what they think Character X's character arc is. If there's a character I'm not familiar with, but that a friend of mine loves, I'll ask them, “Tell me about your fav!” and take notes. Always be respectful when asking! Especially about ships.

-write what you love and/or what you want to see. Fanfiction is limitless. You don't need to appeal to the market, or find an agent or a publisher. You don't need to get anyone's permission to write what you want to write. The only onus on you is tagging the fic correctly.

-tag your fic correctly. Save yourself and the community from having to deal with the issues that arise when things are not tagged correctly.

-if you're not sure how a character will react, or even how to quantify their characterization, go back and reread/rewatch the source material. Don't be afraid to reference! (advice for artists and writers)

Personal rules I write by:

These rules are absolutely style-related. These are NOT hard and fast rules.

-if the characters are not speaking English in-universe, but the story is written in English, it is understood that that's because English is the language the author knows. Therefore, culturally English-specific puns, idioms, etc are avoided because the characters would not know them. Rodimus will never say he's “mad as a wet hen” in my fics because he does not know what a hen is, let alone a wet one.

-I personally dislike overly flowery/purple prose. I try to find a balance between functional description and abstract wordage. Clarity is the most important thing.

-for TF fic, I prefer using hand, eye, hour instead of servo, optic, breem (or whatever the hell the temporal unit is xD). Again, this is a stylistic choice. Some people find the “human” terms pull them out of the fic. I find the breem terms pull me out of the fic. Do what keeps you in the fic!

RESOURCES

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

A list of youtube channels I like to listen to for writing-related topics. I usually listen at work, when I'm doing things that keep hands and eyes busy, but ears free. At home I'll take notes, either on paper or in a word processor, and then put them in a binder I'm slowly filling. Taking notes helps me to both focus on what's happening and to remember it. I can pause the video as needed, take screenshots of stuff. I always enjoyed lectures in school (if I enjoyed the topic xD) so this is the funnest way for me to learn. This list is absolutely not exhaustive. There are MANY channels out there.

Give the following youtubers' channels a glance and see if their videos interest you. Listen casually or take notes. Either way you'll probably absorb something. I'll put a video or two under each one. In alphabetical order:

Abbie Emmons

Gives advice on writing. Uses very structured techniques to build stories. If you like having character worksheets and in depth explanations of story construction, you'll like these videos. Kind of a relaxed but informative vibe.

“How to Find Your Character's Misbelief (or Fatal Flaw)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij39HSbLCXo

Alexa Donne

Gives advice on writing and traditional publishing (note though that since Covid, the landscape has changed quite a bit). Very accessible and friendly and strives to be upbeat and encouraging. Came from fanfic and doesn't disparage it. Encourages people who want to write professionally to learn and grow from fanfic.

“Worst Amateur Writing Mistakes” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQqxHKO-0w

“Bad Fanfic Writing Habits You Need To Break” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmbUAKi-ovY

Diane Callahan

Gives advice on writing. More focused than conversational, pulling from experience in pro writer world. Really interesting and thoughtful examples and topic choices.

“Writing Subtext in Dialogue” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMMpmlraoDo

“Writing Fiction with Emotional Honesty” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psL8BEqEm-M

Hello Future Me

Gives advice on writing and critiques/dissects pop media, mostly fantasy-based. Approaches difficult topics with empathy and respect. Check out “On Writing” and “On Worldbuilding” videos for topics specific to writing.

On Writing: Redemption Arcs! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB_3LF7uoNc

On Writing: Killing Characters! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=treB4kuyMHk

SINGLE VIDEOS/OTHER TIDBITS

Margaret Atwood's Top 5 Writing Tips

Here's the list, but watch the video for elaboration:

1 get a notebook

2 read a lot and read critically

3 pay attention to your posture

4 if writer's blocked: go for a walk or go to sleep

5 don't be afraid to throw things out

Ia-Con Online: Exploring Writing, Race & More in Transformers with Brandon Easton

Ia-Con's interview with writer Brandon Easton.

Brandon's advice:

1 read Stephen King's “On Writing”

2 finish what you start

Watch interviews of authors you like... or don't like but don't mind? Or maybe are not familiar with at all, you just know their name?

I once spent a month listening to every Stephen King interview I could find on youtube. Why? I don't know. I'm not a particular fan of his. I've only read a few of his books and overall they weren't my thing. But! He's well-known, well-loved, and an entertaining speaker. I didn't know much about him, so it was very interesting to listen to interviews from different decades. Overall, I guess I'd advise you listen to interviews of authors you like, lol. There's usually a “What advice would you give your fans/aspiring writers?” question at the end of the interview. See what your favs say. Jot down some notes and quotes to look at later.

I wrote out this quote from George RR Martin, whose books I've never read and whose show I never watched, because I liked it. I never would've heard it if I hadn't been listening to Stephen King interviews.

From: “George RR Martin with Stephen King at the Kiva Auditorium, Albuquerque, NM June 2016”

“Good and evil is a great subject for fiction but in my view the battle between good and evil is waged in the individual human heart. And it's our decisions. We're all partly good and partly evil. And we make decisions every day and we may do a good thing on Wednesday and an evil thing on Thursday or a selfish thing. It's all very complicated.”

This quote does not seem to be about writing- it's not explaining functions like character arcs or foreshadowing. It's about the fundamental nature of humanity, however, which is a handy thing to understand and apply to your characters.

Follow writers you like on social media.

Avoid developing weird parasocial relationships. Absorb the advice/anecdotes they give out for free. If they have a patreon and you like them a lot, consider joining. There's probably helpful writing advice/bonus material there.

The library is your friend.

Free books! Free knowledge! You can get books on writing and language, or books in your target genre.

Beta readers/critique/asking for advice.

If you want someone to look critically at your work (especially if it's fanfiction), ask yourself, what is it you really want? Do you want someone to check for grammar? Characterization? Or are you feeling uncertain and only want positive feedback? Explaining exactly what you'd like feedback on will help the reader focus their efforts.

I don't know how to advise finding beta readers. Just make sure the people you approach have the time and energy to read your work. If they decline to assist, respect that and move on.

ETA: Guide to Beta Reading for Authors and Betas (reddit post)

Fanfiction subreddit

Recently found this. I side eye a couple of the rules but overall it's a fun place. Vent, find resources, celebrate your milestones.

There's a ton of other places, too.

Podcasts, textbooks, fellow fans. The interweb gives us access to unlimited resources. Take advantage of our modern marvel.

Okay to be honest there was more I wanted to do but I'm tired and I saw this quote on r/fanfiction: (post has been deleted possibly? but I had screencapped it)

“Read it with a gentle eye.”

And you know what? That's true. Or can be true. My advice is aimed towards people looking to write their love but also improve on it, I guess, xD And don't worry, I very much count myself in that group.

If you have any specific questions or would like to see anything in particular explained further, please let me know. Hope this helped =)

[leclerced]

okay i have a bit of a dilemma because im writing something and i don’t know how to go about it. if someone was to write about a gaslighter/user love interest, how would one go about it while also making it seem like they only admit it at the very end of the relationship, which is when the (very in love) main character realises the love interest’s gaslighting tendencies?

honestly this is a meas i may not be the best person to ask for this advice tbh i avoid writing abusive relationships for the most part bc they’re complicated. i stick to smut bc its easy for me lmao. i rambled a lot. sorry. idk if any of this will help or not

i would recommend reading some psych articles on gaslighting tactics and stuff bc i feel like i can’t speak on that specifically bc idk well enough about it. it could vary in sm ways tbh, from like rearranging things and saying that’s the way it’s always been, to agreeing on plans for a date then saying the conversation never happened. laughing and saying they must have dreamed it up and are misremembering. i would try and read published articles bc they’ll give u more insight, so research gaslighting and the cycle of abuse.

what i can say on abusive relationships in general, the victim usually doesn’t realize they’re in an abusive relationship. when you think you’re doing everything wrong, you expect people to get upset about it, so you don’t hold it against your partner when they yell at you and verbally abuse you because you loaded the cups in the dishwasher wrong. then they apologize for yelling and hold you and tell you they love you despite the atrocious way you load the dish washer and everything is okay again. then you forget to put the clothes in the dryer and they don’t have pants to wear to work and have to go in late, they treat you like shit before they leave but they come home with your favorite takeout and dessert.

it would never occur to you to ask them to load the dish washer because you cooked dinner, or for them to do their own laundry. you don’t even remember when you started doing their laundry for them, and doing all the other chores around the house, but their mom never made them clean up so it’s no big deal, right?

the abuser can be an asshole 90% of the time and nice 10% of the time, and the victim will take that 10% and ignore the bad 90% because the 10% feels so good the bad doesn’t matter. it starts slowly, at first they’re always nice, then nice like 95% of the time, then 85% of the time. and no matter how low that percentage gets, they’ll cling to it bc thats the way the reward center of the brain works. they get addicted to the feeling of them being nice so they stick out the bad parts waiting for the good parts to come back. they tell themselves that the abuser will be nice again, that it wasn’t always like this so it won’t always be like this.

there has to be something that makes them realize they are being abused, whether it’s a friend or family member or a stranger who overhears a conversation in a store and offers to get them help. and they have to want help, they have to want to leave. don’t make them go back because they think they’ll change, they never changed any time before, why would they now?

if at any point you’re thinking, why would they stay in this relationship? you need to answer that question. find the answer and make it obvious in the writing, so that your reader isn’t sitting there going, “but why are they staying? they should just walk out the door.”

[claire-starsword]

Breakdown of Deviantart’s new AI policies

if anyone still thinks the deviantart thing is just miscommunication, i took the time to read carefully all their infuriating word salad, and here’s the important thing about their new AI:

“While DreamUp is based on third-party technologies (like Stable Diffusion) which have trained their models with the open web, DeviantArt does NOT and WILL NOT add images submitted on DeviantArt to these training sets, on or off the platform.”

Translation: of course we wouldn’t ever steal you art! We’ll just use the thing that has already stolen your art. The thing we said we disagree with. We doing it. Yeah.

Also, about that opt out form going around:

“Artists should be able to choose whether or not AI-images can be generated in your style. Artists who meet the criteria in our manual human review of applicants will be able to request an opt out of their username along with several desired pseudonyms linked to them be unavailable for use in DreamUp prompts.”

Translation: artists should be able to choose if their art style can be used by AI or not. But screw them, we’re choosing. Meet our criteria if you want to opt out. We’re not telling you what the criteria is. Except we kinda do, in the form, and it’s beautiful:

“Currently, we'll be approving this ability for free to artists who are most likely to have been sourced by Stable Diffusion. In this first version of the opt-out process, we will only be considering accounts that follow best practices, including but not limited to:

An up-to-date email (must be the same one associated with your DeviantArt profile)

Any social accounts linked in your DeviantArt profile’s about section”

Currently = this criteria may change at any time I guess! They will protect your art! They love artists! They’re just keeping their options open in case they wake up tomorrow loving them less. Reliable business model!

including but not limited to = they legit don’t wanna tell the whole criteria lmao. I know people are already filling out this form and I hate to say it, be ready for disappointment, because they clearly are paving the way to be able to deny it for literally any reason. This should be a case study of obfuscation via stupid vague legal wordy stuff.

The “for free” part is also terrifying as it implies they have considered and are still considering paywalling this. You’ve heard of $8 for blue checkmark, now get ready for $8 for basic art rights! Except for that part I covered early where your art is already stolen, of course.

The up-to-date email thing again means that people locked out of old accounts are being opted in against their will, and they know, and they’re deliberately enforcing it. Note that this form isn’t about your art being used in datasets though, it’s about your style being used as a prompt for the AI. Nevertheless both things should be opt out by default, as that how consent works.

I legit don’t know what to say about the social accounts linked in your profile. They are likely gonna say it’s to help verify the person’s identify, and it makes no sense at all as social media isn’t for that, as recent events have taught us more than ever. The email tied to your account should be all a service like this needs. As I said, they clearly wanna keep their options open to deny people through whatever criteria they pop out of a hat that day.

TL;DR everything DA says about avoiding art theft in their AI is word salad to confuse their users, their AI is based of one that has trained on stolen art anyway, and their opt out processes are way too convoluted to not be intentional.

[quirkwizard]

Hi!! Could you review this quirk please? Quirk Idea: EmoGun. This Transformation type Quirk allows the user to form a cannon on their dominant arm. The user may fire out heart shaped energy bullet that are made from the sugar in the users body. Although they don't act like real bullets and cant hurt anyone, their true power is when these bullets come into contact with a target's head. Then the user may choose to completely override the targets brain with an emotion. (1/2)

The user could also make this emotion more specific, like making the target really hate somebody. But the user needs to eat more sugar than an average person to make the bullets and the bullet needs to come in contact with the targets head which may be difficult. Also, the user is not really protected against the inflicted emotions of the target and they can’t change the emotion once they decided on one. The effect will disappear after a while. I feel like this may be too much but I think you once made a quirk with a pink mist that makes people madly in love and obey the users every order so I think that may work. (2/2)

I don't recall ever making a Quirk like that, nor does that sound like a Quirk I'd make without a lot of caveats, but that's besides the point.

I think there is something in the concept, but issues in the execution. Emotional manipulation is a strong power, as is directing it at specific targets, but hitting the target in the head is a good specific spot to make it hard to apply. But without specifics of the gun, like it's range and speed of the projectile, it's hard to gauge it's power and how to balance it. Like is it is a fast, accurate shot? Is it slow and easy to avoid? Stuff like that should be factors in how you balance a Quirk like this. The sugar seems like an odd drawback as well. Like maybe if it was focused on happiness it could work, but feels out of place here. I think it's work better if it was based around the user's emotions, needing to control them, or that the various issues related to the gun that make it hard to pull off, such as factors like poor range. Otherwise, maybe downplay some of the controlling aspects of the power, like not being able to direct the emotion like you are suggesting.

[onewomancitadel]

And I have said it before and I'll say it again, Tumblr has to turn to algorithmically driven content for new users joining the website because these new users don't know how to find stuff (go through a blog and find another blog, go to a public tag and find things there, find recommended blogs through them, and so on) and because Tumblr's original algorithm - the reblog - doesn't work with passive consumption styles, so they need to supplement that with a different algorithm instead.

Like on Twitter, quote retweets take away engagement from the original post, so especially for art or commentary media, people will avoid engagement. On Tumblr, this doesn't happen. You can add comments and tags and it won't detract from the original person's post. Most other websites have moved toward Likes, which yes, is why they're making Likes public now.

Likes are great and I really like them (lol), but I am just talking mechanically here: reblogs move posts around, likes previously did not. For someone with a sideblog like this, there's not necessarily impetus to reblog because this is where you come if you want enthusiastic posts about Knightfall and it's not the sort of thing you might be interested in sharing around. But for artists or general bloggers or people who write joke posts or anything else, a dearth of reblogs do create problems.

It's not a nice feeling for the threat of Tumblr going the way of most barren social media, not least when Tumblr itself is a microblogging website before it is social media, but I would suggest not to be alarmist and yes, you should totally send (polite! and kind!) messages to Tumblr Support with feedback about what you like and dislike.

I suggested gifting ad-free subscriptions to Tumblr in addition to badges, and badges of achievement-type varieties, and maybe a year later this was actually implemented. I don't even know if that influenced their decision, but it seems like a somewhat unusual step for a microblogging website to implement that type of thing (compared to something like Twitter). But the Support staff are generally very helpful.

I have done this type of thing before IRL and you would be surprised how often it can make a difference.

Anyway, like, it's probably good to keep in mind that a self-aggrandising billionaire buying out a mainstream social media website moonlighting as the social news hub of the world is a pretty extreme scenario, and certainly not a positive one (I don't enjoy the idea of social media/hubs in general being just randomly bought out, I don't enjoy the monopoly of social media, I don't enjoy the dickmeasuring of Z/uckerberg and his Twitter counterpart, it's all a circus). And Tumblr has seen worse before. And it might get worse. But you're also still here.

[memes-saved-me]

Some time ago I shared an incident that hurt me a lot. By now I have deleted that blog and created a new one to avoid attacks and I remain anonymous. I am a girl born and raised in a small country in Europe but of Indian descent, so I am a poc. I have suffered racism and I have also been a racist myself for personal reasons that I do not want to share due to my personal upbringing and enviroment. I'm working on myself everyday to be a better person. I relate to Billy for various reasons. Without attacking anyone or expressing opinions, but simply by sharing some gifs of Billy, I attracted a person that contacted me via dm. He asked me directly how I was able to ignore the blatant racism and if I was not "a black person" I had no right to speak. Now, I don't think there is any need to explain how humiliating it is as a message. I took a look at his profile and found he was white. I don't want to discriminate against anyone, but a white young man, without knowing me or probably others he may have contacted, goes around saying "you can only talk about it if black" is horrifying. It's humiliating and it hurt me deeply. Should I have written to a complete stranger "oh yes I'm black" to be able to express my opinion on a fictional character? It all seems so absurd to me what is going on in this fandom, for which I have decided to retire for now. I have a "low profile" blog where I just share stuff, but I turned off askbox and I don't reply to messages. Zero engagement. I thought a fandom that should be fun, not terrifying and forcing users into hiding. I apologize for the long rant but considering the current situation, I wanted to share my two cents

I think you've sent an ask in before about your situation but the white guy messaging you is not only weird but fucked up. Its giving white savour complex.

I'm sorry fandom has been ruined for you by pricks like that. They claim to be defending poc but in reality they're just doing damage and acting like they saved the world. Its best to just block these people, they're not worth your time

[fractoluminescence]

Self-Intro

Hi! I'm Fract (it/they), I'm a 22-y-o Bleach fan. I struggle getting stuff done in general so updates (on anything, really) may not be regular and if I go missing for months it's probably normal, I just have periods like that. That aside, I make art and write, although right now I'm working on a series and it's taking ages so don't expect chapters for that to come out any time soon. I may occasionally post shorter pieces of writing though, or discuss my worldbuilding and stuff like that. I reblog whatever I like, but have a couple of tags that have my name in them, so you can follow just those instead of following my blog if they interest you.

Tag and Pages Guide

Featured Reblogs (#featured) -> Posts I particularly like if you don't want to wade through all my reblogs

Bleach (#bleach) -> Anything Bleach-related should be here

My Art (#fract art) -> Art made by me

Thoughts (#fract thoughts) -> Reflective posts that tend to be on the longer side. May be reblogs or original posts

Writing-Related Stuff (#fract writing) -> General tag for anything related to writing fiction (and sometimes reading)

Writing Thoughts (#writing thoughts) -> Me sharing moments of my writing journey

Fic Thoughts (#fic thoughts) -> Me sharing thoughts about fanfics I'm reading or reblogs about fanfiction in general

My Fics (#fract fics) -> Find my writing here

Lydia (OC) (#makitova lydia) -> Posts about my OC Lydia. Dw if you don't know who that is, I haven't written enough of her story yet

Personal Stuff (#fract personal) -> Me reblogging things I relate to or rambling about my life

Body Horror (#gore) -> Started tagging this so as to make it easier to avoid, but if you're looking for it, here it is. May be very, or be downright realistic mutilation or actual photos at times - I don't tag them differently because I didn't want to have to wonder whether every single post was disturbing enough to deserve it (just blood on its own isn't included though)

Resources (#fract resources) -> Things that are useful - writing tips, masterposts, tutorials, external links such as the online shops of artists, links to places to donate to charities or people in need of monetary help, useful information to know, etc.

Writing Resources (#writing resources) -> Writing tips etc.

Reading List (#my reading list) -> More for me than anyone. Works or longer posts I'd like to read or have read. Exists in part because I'd rather not put something I haven't read in 'featured', but also don't want to lose them, and they likely deserve attention too, so. Go there if you're looking for fics to read or longer things in general that aren't mine

Flight Rising Stuff (#fract flight rising) -> Mostly contains buttons I make for fluffmoth's Free Tiny Identity Buttons thread, which I currently host on here, and occasionally some other stuff too (Note: I changed this tag recently from 'flight rising' to 'fract flight rising' to reflect the fact that most of what I use this tag for is to host images I make for myself and other users on the site - i.e., I don't make these posts with the intention of spreading them around. Just wanted to clarify that this was my own idea so people wouldn't think FR staff forced me to take the posts down or something, I dunno)

I also tend to tag fandom stuff with tags such as bleach, jjk, one piece, good omens, marvel (those are the main ones currently). And Bleach characters can have their own tags, so you can type in their first name for any fanart and the like that I've reblogged that feature them (except Harribel - she'll probably be under 'Harribel', not 'Tier' or 'Tia' - and Chad, who's under 'Chad').