#weekly author

[rs-hawk]

My Brother’s Hot Friend: Week One

FtM Reader x Dragon

Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four

Your brother got a new best friend when he was in high school. You always had a bit of a crush on him, but he was older and cold. When your friends were over at the same time as him, you’d all joke about him being reptilian. As the years went on, your brother and him stayed close. Even after they both went off to different colleges. Even after you ended up going to college.

One summer, your brother and you had come back to visit your parents. Staying in your old childhood rooms reminded you of what high school was like. Especially when he came back to visit his parents as well, so your brother and him ended up hanging out a lot. You couldn’t help but notice how tall he was-had he always been so tall? Had he always been towering man with eyes that cut through you?

Your brother was invited to a party, and to your surprise, he invited you along too.

“You’re too uptight. Every time we talk, you’re always studying. Do you even have any friends on campus? I mean, come on Y/N. You have a single dorm and you don’t even have a boyfriend to have over. It’s kind of a waste,” he teased you right after he invited you.

“You don’t have to try to pressure me. I was going to say yes anyways,” you muttered. “I’m gonna to get ready.”

“Good! You’ll have a lot of fun, and I’m bringing Drake,” he announced before running off like a little kid to his room.

You don’t know why the idea of Drake being there made you so nervous. It took you longer than you thought to get ready because of the way your hand was trembling. By the time you’re done, your brother was impatiently in the car, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel.

“Finally dude. Come on. We’re already late. All the hot girls are gonna be taken and all the good punch is gonna be drank. I’m going to be pissed if I’m stuck drinking beer all night,” he told you, speeding out of the driveway before you were even buckled up.

When you got to the party, you recognized the house as one of your brother’s old friend’s house. You’d gone for a birthday party a couple times when you were younger. So, you slipped to the bathroom to double check your appearance before you ran into Drake.

Your hair was slicked back and pulled into a tight braid that snaked down your back. The black button up you’d gone with was fully buttoned, so you took a second to unbutton the first two. It wasn’t a job interview. You knew you shouldn’t look like such a prude. Your plain jeans and boots you knew were fine, so after hyping yourself up for a moment in the mirror, you rejoined the party.

Drinks were pushed into your hand, and you got pulled into random conversations. You didn’t see Drake, but the more you drank, the less you cared. It wasn’t until some guy was chatting to you about how hard his Computer Science degree was to get that you finally spotted Drake, glaring at you from across the living room.

A laugh escaped your lips. Even when everyone else was having fun, he was cold and unmoving. The guy you’d been chatting with you acted offended, but you didn’t care all that much. Your body was warm from the alcohol, and you had a confidence you’d never had before. You apologized and slipped away from him so you could make your way to Drake.

“Hey loner,” you said with a smirk as you plopped next to him.

“What do you want?” he muttered, folding his arms over his chest and turning away.

His annoyance only made you more insistent on talking to him. You touched his arm at one point, making him reel back as if you burned him. It hurt a little bit, but you swallowed it down. Eventually, your brother came to find you, and was surprised to find you red faced and slurring drunk.

“Man, I really wanted to run Y/N home real quick so I could go home with this girl, but getting him anywhere is going to take forever,” he groaned.

“I’ll take him home,” Drake offered, though you could tell from his tone of voice he was still annoyed.

You yawned, resting your head on Drake’s shoulder. “I’m good. Seriously. Drake’s such a buzz kill that it’s not like I’m putting a damper on his night. You should go have fun though.”

Your brother laughed, ruffling your hair and fist bumping Drake. Drake muttered something you didn’t catch through the blood pounding in your ears. A few minutes after your brother left, Drake pushed you off of him.

“Come on Y/N. You can stay over with me for tonight. I don’t want to wake your folks up this late and there’s no getting you to bed quietly,” he said as he grabbed your hand, tugging you to your feet.

“Okay,” you said in a tight voice, your skin tingling where he was touching you. Your entire body was on fire.

He led you through the party, his fingers interlocked with yours to make sure you didn’t get lost. Once outside, he tugged you closer to him, wrapping his arm around your waist to keep you pressed against his side. You took the opportunity to nuzzle against his arm, almost burrowing there. You felt like you were on cloud nine.

Drake groaned and you were worried he was going to push you away, but he didn’t. Instead, he clung tighter to you, his nails feeling almost like… claws.

[tolbyccia]

hell of a woowoo wednesday we’re having

[demifiendrsa]

Weekly Shonen Jump 2023 issue #21/22 cover

[sugar-grigri]

I'd like to take this opportunity to rant a bit, but I'm a bit fed up with seeing my favorite mangas sometimes summed up as being haphazard or too complicated to follow (a criticism we see a lot of whether it's for JJK or the second part of CSM). I mean, I can understand, having weekly chapters prevents you from having an overall vision (which is crucial for CSM) or sometimes no longer allows you to have certain key information in mind (crucial for JJK).

But while most shonen can be published on a weekly basis, it's an exhausting rhythm for both the author and the reader. Because a work isn't meant to be thought of in this way; it's written from a global point of view and reading it follows the same principle.

The fact remains... that manga, which can be a despised medium, is made by people who don't despise you. In fact, as readers, you're the first to defend the depth of what you read. So don't be afraid of depth, of rereading, of searching, of loving second reads.

Don't despise something you love.

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes.

ATLA

Perfection is Overrated by JaggedCliffs (+ podfic) (NOTE: I've recced this fic before and I'll rec it again. When I die, I want to be buried with this fic)

For his first thirteen years, Zuko was raised in a palace. And yet somehow, it's the three years outside the Fire Nation that seem to count more – at least to the palace staff, who act like he's been raised by fox-wolves.

At first, this only annoys Zuko.

Until he begins to think that the Fire Nation needs more than a formerly-banished prince.

a brush of fingers, a kick of shins by lesmiserablol (+ podfic)

"Okay, I’ve been thinking all day, and here’s my idea,” Toph tells Zuko on their way to dinner. “You’re so sure he’s not into you, so I’m going to help you out and give you a gentle nudge every time he flirts so that you notice it.”

“Okay,” Zuko says slowly. He doubts it will be necessary, he and Sokka have been best friends for over five years now and that is probably all that Sokka thinks of him as. A good friend. “I don’t know if it’ll come up, but if it does...just don’t make it obvious, yeah?”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Toph smiles. Zuko knows her fairly well, he knows he should be worried at that, but he just follows her into the dining hall.

Stranger Things

who wants to live forever? by starbeyy

In which Steve Harrington has two nightmares: The one he has about the fire at the Starcourt Mall every time he falls asleep, and the one where Eddie Munson visits him at Family Video to ask him for a favor.

shape it up (get it straight) by fivecenturiesverse (+ podfic)

Mike doesn't know when he started caring why Steve and Eddie are friends now, but Dustin has made him curious. Eddie and Steve were enemies before, sort of. So why are they now best friends? They've just got to do a bit of surveillance to work this puzzle out. If Mike accidentally finds out he has feelings for his best friend along the way then... well, shit.

-

“At least I’m not using binoculars.” Mike shoots a derisive look over at Dustin. “Like we’re not in the middle of the high street, if they spot us how are you going to explain away those, huh?”

“Bird watching,” says Dustin. “My new hobby.”

Lucas punches him on the arm. “God you’re so fucking stupid.”

“You gave them to me!”

Shadowhunters

Portable Magic by smilebackwards

Magnus may go slightly overboard helping Alec set up for the book club gathering.

Technically, perhaps, he didn’t need to create a signature cocktail or barter a favor to Raphael for O neg blood for the vampires or source the biscotti directly from Italy. But hospitality is important and these are Alec’s friends. He wants to make a good impression.

Or: Alec is in a Downworld book club and Magnus finds this unaccountably fascinating.

count the ways by smilebackwards

"I know the nephilim have some truly skewed perspectives on our history and culture but have you ever seen anything like this before?” Magnus holds out the book, open to Warlock Courting Traditions. The text only takes up half a page, a mystifying run-on list of odd and impossible tasks. It’s formatted almost like poetry and his dear, pedantic Alexander has turned it into a checklist, penciled lightly down the margin.

Ragnor snorts into his tea.

“Oh,” Catarina says, looking at the book. “That."

In somno veritas (In sleep lies the truth) by lawsofchaos (+podfic)

Jace blinks, peering at the loft in vague stupefaction. “This,” and Alec’s parabatai’s voice sounds like he’s dragging each noise out from his exhausted mind and forcing it out before he can forget what word he just discovered. “Isn’t the Institute?” The final phrase comes out as a question.

Alec tilts his head in puzzlement, glancing at his brother as if wondering how he could possibly consider that Alec had taken them there instead of here. “No?”

Alec’s head moves back to level and he narrows his eyes instead. “We said we were going home after patrol.”

The ‘ergo, we are home now’ wasn’t said, but it was obvious in implication.

bloom by smilebackwards

Alec loves watching Izzy get flowers but he thinks he would have liked, just once, to know what it felt like for someone to send him something so bright and sweet, frivolous, just because they cared.

[problemswithbooks]

BNHA 423

So, I can't say I feel much of anything reading this weeks leaks.

I'm not shocked that Shigaraki died, nor would I be surprised if his death is taken back next chapter and he gets brought back to life in some way.

The thing is despite people saying Shigaraki dying messes with the themes of the story the themes have always been more then a little shaky. IDK if it's just a difference in culture, but Hori has a way of setting something up as being a big deal/theme and then doing something that completely contradicts it.

It's really no surprise he might have killed off most of the villains including Shigaraki despite setting the story up in a way where saving villains seemed to be a theme. He did the same thing with self-sacrifice being portrayed as bad, but later showing it as good.

I will say I don't necessarily agree with how some people are framing Shigaraki's death as throwing abuse victims under the bus. I do get the frustration because Hori did focus a lot of how Shigaraki was used by AfO and in a lot of stories that would be used to absolve him of guilt for all the destruction he caused. But Hori never had Shigaraki change his mind. His last words are him continuing to wish he could have destroyed more and wanting Izuku to relay to Spinner he never stopped fighting for destruction.

I think if this had been a more thought out and focused story you really could make it a great tragedy. It feels unfair that he couldn't be saved, that despite Izuku's effort, at the end of the day Shigaraki wasn't able to break away from the destruction he was manipulated and groomed into believing.

In that way I can understand the anger of some fans, because the story is essentially a tragedy framed as a simply triumphant narrative. It always felt like it wanted to have some deep meaning, and always seemed on the verge of it, but never stuck the landing. The one thing I've always been left wondering is: what is Hori trying to say with this story?, and IDK if the ending, given what's on the page right now will really give me an answer.

If anything I think perhaps Hori was trying to say to much at once. I'm sure a lot of it gets lost in translation and cultural differences, still part of me thinks he bit off more then he could reasonably flesh out. Thinking back many writing choices feel like he had an idea or passing thought and added it because it was cool or thought he'd have time to do more with it latter but due to shitty writing conditions couldn't implement properly.

[immediatebreakfast]

It's incredible how Frankenstein immediately presented the difference between two styles of knowledge approach when Victor met his two professors.

With professor Krempe, Victor repeats the same mistake of ignoring his words, just like he did with his father's words. Even if Krempe is in the right as a professor to call out that Victor had spent his childhood studying already disproved knowledge, he forgot an important part of being a teacher. To make your students seek the knowledge themselves after you gave them the basics. Of course it's not professor Krempe's fault that Victor spent three days in his room doing nothing, but I do think that he could have worded his suggestions a little bit better. Just a little bit.

Yet, with professor Waldman Victor finally found the thing that he was yearning for. The validation that even if all of the authors and the knowledge that he spent studying in his little youth could not be applied to modern science, they were still important in this pillar of discovery, and their knowledge was not forgotten.

It was really delightful to read how professor Waldman made Victor fall in love with science again. From what it is described to be an amazing lecture of the history of chemistry, to the suggestions that he gives Victor at the end of the chapter. This professor managed to turn around Victor's disgust of modern science to new curiosity with a stern lecture and a few kind words, a feat that only a good professor can do.

It's remarkable to see what directions can do regarding in how to apply knowledge. And it is also very welcome to hear how we simply can't ignore ancient knowledge just because in the present their discoveries are now obsolete. Yes, all of the authors that Victor read were pseudo science who had no basis in real evidence, and at the same time they were the foundation of chemistry. Professor Waldman understands that without the small ambitions of knowledge of the past, we would not have the feats of the present.

Then he proceeds to give Victor an excellent practice of this knowledge in his laboratory, and gives him a list of books that he needs, while telling him that he can't neglect other branches of science if he wants to achieve his goals. No wonder Victor felt so happy at the end of this chapter, he finally found the direction that he needed so badly to dive into what he calls his future destiny.

[dathen]

(late to the party in the Dracula part of gothic lit but) Do you think if the novel was written before the Wilde trial it'd have been more explicit about the Dracula/Jonathan (albeit abusive) homoeroticism?

Short answer: Somewhat. I feel, for example, Stoker may have left the “Tonight is mine!” line in. Maybe even actually shown the scene of Dracula drinking his blood.

Long answer: I don’t know enough about the actual people to say for sure, but I feel the trials were far from the only sources of fear in Stoker’s life. If I remember correctly, he wrote his “I still have my shackles and have no wings” letter to Walt Whitman (and hid it in a drawer for years) well before writing Dracula. Plus, the actual laws that Wilde went on trial from were still in place before the trials happened. Between society and his own internalized issues, I don’t think he strikes me as the most daring on that front.

That said, learning that the absolutely deranged rollercoaster of The Beetle was very popular with Victorians has changed my opinion of how much homoeroticism they were willing to put up with by uhhhh a LOT. That said, the framing of it as horror is ten thousand times stronger than Dracula’s: instead of a spicy sexy kidnapping fantasy with a strong, tall, fascinating older gentleman, it’s paragraphs and paragraphs of repulsion so far.

Maybe Stoker could have gotten away with more blatant homoeroticism if he portrayed it as pure grotesque horror, but given the earliest inspiration for Dracula was not one but TWO homoerotic swooning rescue scenes (brides + dracula’s guest), I don’t think he would have wanted to.

[kentonanamisupremacy]

Jump Author Survey -- Gege Akutami

From "The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga"

What knowledge would have benefited you when starting your manga career?

I wish my managing editor had sat me down and said, "Make your word balloons bigger," and "Don't break up your word balloons so much."

What did you do first after deciding to become a manga author (e.g., practicing, strategizing, etc.)? And/or, did you have an efficient way to practice?

Get in the habit of finishing what you start. Work on your ability to explain, in words, what you find exciting or boring about a given series. I found myself unable to focus on the art, so I would just do lots of quick, sketchy figuring drawings (croquis). When I do a properly lit and shaded sketch (dessin) nowadays, I regret that I didn't adopt that habit sooner. I also regret having created so many rough storyboards, but basically no finished drafts.

What are you mindful of when revising your own storyboards (either when self-editing or taking advice from editorial)?

Since my work is published in a magazine for children, I'm always sure to listen when an editor tells me, "This part is hard to understand."

I try to plan out my storyboards with a strong sense of overall balance, and there've been many times when adjusting them based on the advice of others felt like removing pieces from a Jenga tower, which led to collapse and failure. Changing minor details is fine, but generally, I'd rather put in the work and start over from scratch instead of fixing up a bunch of things in my storyboards.

Is there any way you could have been better prepared before your serialization began?

I wish I'd had more experience doing proper drafts.

What do you bear in mind when creating manga (e.g., personal themes and throughlines)?

I'm not trying to get people from my own generation to come away thinking I have good taste.

What's your approach to creating strong, memorable characters?

Their mere appearance should elicit big laughs. Emphasis through repetition. Some sort of jarring discrepancy between expectations and reality.

How should one practice creating those strong characters?

It comes down to imagining how other people will feel about your characters. Which is hard.

How many works/pages did you create leading up to your first real submission? How many works/pages from that first submission until your magazine debut?

Around age twenty, I tried to get my first short work (that is, a completed draft) into a magazine called Aoharu. I called about bringing in my work, but they sort of blew me off in a noncommittal way, so I gave up.

After that, I got two different one-shots into a sister magazine, two more one-shots in Weekly Shonen Jump, a four-chapter serialization in the monthly magazine (That run would eventually become Jujutsu Kaisen volume 0), and then finally my serialization in WSJ.

Between my first one-shot in the sister magazine and my second one in the main magazine, I honed my skills working under Kano Sensei (Kiss x Death).

What's your approach to creating manga that's readable?

I let my art blast right past the safety and trim lines in order to guide the reader's eye. That said, I tend to sacrifice readability for what I find interesting, so don't treat me like some kind of role model.

How long does it take to create the storyboards for a single nineteen page chapter of manga?

It depends on the chapter, but usually around half a day. The weird thing is, even when I've got the story all thought out and I'm not unsure of anything, it can take me twelve hours or more just to get started on the storyboards (which only end up taking six or seven hours to finish). If, like me, you're the type of person who spends three hours psyching yourself up for a thirty-minute task, you might be in trouble if you're ever serialized in a manga magazine.

How long does it take you to finish the full draft for a single nineteen-page chapter of manga?

About five days. My focus is absolute garbage.

Beyond creating your storyboards, what do you do to come up with ideas and plot points for your work?

I recommend reading short stories (prose). Some of my best ideas come to me when I'm imagining how I would flesh out a short story into something longer.

Is there anything you referenced when creating your one-shots?

Collections of shorts from Haruko Ichikawa and Tomoko Yamashita Sensei. With one-shots, I'm thinking it might be better to make everything revolve around the intimate human drama, rather than the setup and the world.

[rs-hawk]

My Brother’s Hot Friend: Week Three

FtM Reader x Dragon

Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four

You stood there, confused by what you’d heard. Did Drake really say that? Or were you so drunk that you were just hearing what you wanted to? There was no way your brother’s best friend, the guy you’d been pining after for years, said he missed you. Even if he did, he wouldn’t have meant it like that, right?

“What?” you said softly, looking down at the darkness where you know where your feet are.

Drake just muttered something you couldn’t hear as he lead you to a room. “You can sleep in here tonight. I’ll sleep on the coach.” Your fingers were still interlocked with his as he tried to set you on the bed. “C’mon now kid. You gotta let go.”

“Why?” you asked as you tugged on his hand, as if trying to pull him into bed with you, but really you just wanted him closer to you.

He chuckled slightly, and in the little bit of moonlight that filtered in through the window, you saw him smirk. “Let me get you some water and something to eat. You’ll feel better if you’re not so drunk.”

You knew he was right, but something about the way his rough and calloused hand felt in yours was even more intoxicating. You didn’t want to let it go. “Can I at least come with you?”

He laughed, a full hearted, deep laugh. It made your stomach churn and twist. He was perfect, and you were here with him. “Sure. You can come with me.”

You shakily stood up, but he stopped you. “Are you still wearing your binder?”

You nodded, knitting your brows. “Yeah. So?”

“How many hours has it been?”

“I don’t know.”

He growled softly, nudging you back towards the bed. “Y/N, come on. You have to be careful! Take it off.”

“I don’t want to,” you said stubbornly, letting go of his hand to wrap your arms around your chest.

“I’m just trying to help take care of you,” he argued as he tried coaxing your arms away from your chest.

When you started wriggling away from him, he grabbed your forearms, yanking them roughly away from your chest. “I said, take the binder off, Y/N. You can’t sleep with that thing on.”

Don’t forget to vote on what happens next!

[lesbiansanemi]

I know people have always been weird with fic updates but I swear recently people have been even more impatient and weird about it. I get comments on fics that have been updated WITHIN A MONTH asking if it’s been abandoned or when it’s going to continue. Like…. My guy…. Idk where you’re from that fics are apparently getting updated like fucking daily but you need to chill

[demifiendrsa]

Official English translated author comments featured in Weekly Shonen Jump 2024 issue #24

Psych House chapter 1 - Omusuke Kobayashi

Mission: Yozakura Family chapter 225 - Hitsuji Gondaira

Kagurabachi chapter 32 - Takeru Hokazono

Kill Blue chapter 52 - Tadatoshi Fujimaki

Sakamoto Days chapter 164 - Yuto Suzuki

One Piece chapter 1114 - Eiichiro Oda

Astro Royale chapter 4 - Ken Wakui

My Hero Academia chapter 422 - Kohei Horikoshi

Kyokuto Necromance chapter 3 - Fusai Naba

Super Psychic Policeman Chojo chapter 13 - Shun Numa

Blue Box chapter 148 - Kouji Miura

Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 259 - Gege Akutami

Witch Watch chapter 154 - Kenta Shinohara

Me & Roboco chapter 184 - Shuhei Miyazaki

Akane-banashi chapter 109 - Yuki Suenaga

Undead Unluck chapter 206 - Yoshifumi Tozuka

The Elusive Samurai chapter 156 - Yusei Matsui

Nue’s Exorcist chapter 49 - Kota Kawae

Dear Anemone chapter 12 - Rin Matsui

Green Green Greens chapter 22 - Kento Terasaka

[duckprintspress]

Round Table: What Software Do You Find Helpful for Your Writing Process?

We asked our authors what software helps them write - and got a range of answers! 

Contributors: Adrian Harley, B. T. Fish, D. V. Morse, not-gwaenchanha, theirprofoundbond, Tris Lawrence, unforth

*

Discord 

Tris Lawrence: Lately Discord is becoming critical because that's how I'm making notes for my series bible with a combination of private folders and channels to split out information

(B. T. Fish +1, unforth +1)

Evernote

not-gwaenchanha: I use Evernote for all the ideas, makes them easy to sort. One notebook (or even a notebook stack) per WIP. It lets you interlink notes, use tags to sort stuff. It also has a webclipper browser extension which lets you copy websites or parts of them straight into the notebook which is super helpful for research. Free version can be used on two devices.

Image from the Evernote website...they didn't have anything writing-related, apologies.

Google Suite (G Docs, G Sheets, G Keep)

Hermit: Gdoc for me because my writing tends to happen on my couch/at the coffee shop and thus on my phone a lot (I am totally the person who brings a wireless mechanical keyboard to the coffee shop). I also make use of Google Keep for research notes. And a notebook with some frixion pens.

D. V. Morse: At the moment, I'm tracking things in Google Sheets, which is great (except there's a lot of functionality from Trello that I'm missing).

not-gwaenchanha: I use gDocs to write, mainly because I don't have to worry I'll lose everything if technology decides it hates me, but it also allows me to write from my phone and easily share with my beta. Google keep is where all the "darlings" go when I kill them a.k.a scraps of text that are good but don't fit. It's got a nice integration with google docs, you can send stuff there straight from the doc from the context menu and then move all the scraps into one "scraps" doc 

(unforth +1, theirprofoundbond +1, Adrian Harley +1)

Microsoft Word

Adrian Harley: I have been using the same laptop since 2012, and when the hard drive gave out in 2020, my independent computer repair shop was kind enough to reinstall the 2010 versions of Microsoft Office so I didn't have to pay a subscription for them. It's what I'm used to. The "styles" function lets me find chapters easily, and it's easy for me to leave comments for myself when I see an issue and don't want to resolve it right at that moment. I think the free Microsoft Word, whatever they're calling it, has those basic features too, though I'm not positive.

(unforth +1)

Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard) 

not-gwaenchanha: it’s an endless white board. Great for visual plotting. You can put in sticky notes, tables etc. I also like to upload images to it to make a private moodboard for the story.

Image is from the Miro website.

Notes App (IOS, Android)

Adrian Harley: I prefer to use the Notes app on the go. It's just as easy as Google Drive, it doesn't freak out if I'm not connected to the internet, and I have to copy and paste the text from any portable software to my document record of choice anyway. 

(B. T. Fish +1, unforth +1)

Notion

theirprofoundbond: There is a desktop version and an app, with syncing between both. You can use it for writing but I prefer Google Docs for that. Instead, I've built myself a wiki, basically. My "Writing HQ" contains: current editing projects; word count table to track my daily word counts; gallery of my WIPs, which is pretty and motivating, and each "card" contains metadata and promotional info for each project; calendar for my posting schedule; and a gallery of completed work. Notion is incredibly customizeable with great documentation to help you get your head around all the possibilities. It'd be a great home for a worldbuilding bible, too, I think!

(B. T. Fish +1)

Scrivener

unforth: I use Scrivener for organizing my notes and research, its flashcard system is great for that.

Tris Lawrence: I live and die by a combination of Scrivener and Sprinting. Scrivener was the first piece of software I found that works the way my brain works, from the scrap documents to writing in the margins to index cards, and being able to organize it roughly but have it export pretty when I need it.

D. V. Morse: The main software I use is Scrivener, right up until it's time for critique/beta reading. Then everything goes into GDocs. I've experimented with mind-mapping apps with variable results.

Adrian Harley: Scrivener was incredibly helpful for my novella when I decided to turn it into a novel. It let me keep track of different drafts by chapter, so I could note which versions my writing group had already looked at. It also was easy to add in the "flashback" narrative that I've interspersed throughout the book.

Image from the Scrivener website.

SmartEdit Writer (formerly Atomic Scribbler)

B. T. Fish: It's a free word processor that has all the functions of Scrivener that I need and none of the confusing extras, is default dark mode, tracks my word count by scene and by entire project, and allows me to document and organize my writing projects from one-shots to novel length works. I use Discord for collaboration and have occasionally used Notion to organize writing prompts and story bible information, but most of that I also keep in Smart Edit, so it ends up being a bit redundant.

Image from the SmartEdit Writer website.

Spotify and Pandora:

not-gwaenchanha: because music helps my brain switch into the writing mode

unforth: I definitely use Pandora, music helps a lot

(theirprofoundbond +1)

Sprinto

Tris Lawrence: I cannot survive without a timer somewhere, because that's how I can force myself to focus in 20-30 minute spaces. 

StayFocusd

unforth: it's an extension that shuts off internet access for a specified amount of time, and it helped me not get distracted by All The Social Media. (I don’t use Chrome anymore, but when I did…)

@/porcupine-girl chimed in from the comments to mention that Leechblock is a similar extension for Firefox!

Trello

D. V. Morse: I've always loved Trello for organizing workflow and really need to get on that again. 

Tris Lawrence’s Word Tracking Spreadsheet

Adrian Harley: I have also tried a bunch of different software to track word count, because Number Go Up makes my brain happy. Can I recommend Tris's spreadsheet? That got me through a few months.

Tris Lawrence: I am slightly laughing that I didn't call out my own tracking spreadsheet. Probably because I've been SO focused on notes lately that I haven't gotten new words in uhhhh months. But obviously, yes, when writing I live and die by that as well! I love my charts. I loved the charts on the old NaNo site and wanted them year round. I wanted to be able to set goals and see how I was doing. I wanted to do comparisons. I wanted to see writing across weeks, months, and years, and it helped me learn that zero days and fluctuation were OKAY.

Image from Tris's 2022 spreadsheet blog post

*

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[vhalesa]

After one year, here's now the final chapter of my roommates fic! Yay :D

[writers-weekly-words]

Terse

//adjective//

Definition:

sparing in the use of words; abrupt.

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Good morning shippers & readers!

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck!

The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week.

With our next round being a Creative Round and with Valentine's Day close on the horizon, we solicited for nominations from our members for a fic with a momentous love confession that they most wanted to read and interact with creatively. With a very close vote, our two runners-up are as follows

The Denial Twist - beethechange

“This is kind of surreal,” Shane says, taking a sip of his tea. It’s piping hot and delicious, except it tastes like hot chocolate and not like tea at all. “Sort of—Wonka-esque, right? Or Alice in Wonderland.” “If you’re aiming a shot over the bow about my height you can fucking forget about it,” Ryan says, watching with interest as Shane’s cup refills by itself. “But yeah, it’s surreal. Literally, because dreams aren’t real.” Shane’s unsettled by the comment. It sets alarm bells ringing in his head but he doesn’t know why. He just wasn’t expecting Dream Ryan to be so, well—so on the nose. * Or, the one where Shane and Ryan have some really weird dreams and perhaps, eventually, some sex.

Read To Me - ouijaboy (nbfutureboy)

When acclaimed children’s author Shane Madej meets a long-suffering parent at one of his signings, he decides on a whim that he’d like to torture this man some more. As it turns out, both Ryan Bergara and his son are two infinitely entertaining human beings.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!