#writing blurb 8.a

[hoshiina]

SOUSHIROU. 01  “i wouldn’t marry myself either” hoshina soushirou

Perhaps he had misheard you.

"What did you say?" he asked, wanting to hear what you said again.

"I'd marry you with paper rings," you said, absolutely certain.

It was definitely not the response he expected when he expressed his worries— his understanding of how you may feel.

"But," he started to say when you cut him off.

"But I would," you said. "Perhaps you think of my love as something so... grand? Something you don't seem to deserve?"

Hoshina stayed silent. While he had never thought it through, that was exactly how he felt. He could have everything in the world and he'd still feel too little for your love.

"I don't know. I'd love to know what you see in me, Soushirou. But I love you. My love is for you and you alone," you said. "I fear that's all there is to it. It's probably not as valuable as you expect... but it's all yours."

Oh, how wrong you were. That was precisely why it was so valuable. It was your love. Love from you. And here you were, telling him it was all for him. He didn't know how to react— he didn't know how to express such a grand happiness that washed over him.

"I'd do anything for you," he said, avoiding eye contact, and you gasped a little, but it surprised him too. He wasn't one to say such a line.

"But you wouldn't have to," you said. "Just tell me you love me every once in a while and I'm yours forever."

He turned to look up at you, eyes wide in slight disbelief almost, but the look on your face washed his worries away. Finally, a chuckle.

"I love you so much, you don't even know."

i was thinking about it and this is most likely inspo this fic by @/kazumist. been on the back of my head since yesterday absolutely gorgeous fic.

[gendervapor14]

martyrdom was a rose-tinted white flag. his smiles were rose-tinted fangs, and his love was a rose-tinted lie. the truth was a bloodied, broken beast. the truth was pointing a gun without any lead, without any heart. he preached martyrdom but he didn’t save that boy. he lost the boy, lost his mind, bit the wrong hand, stabbed the wrong back. martyrdom. tonight, he’d learn true martyrdom.

~

frozen gales whipped against open wounds but nothing could sting anymore. no bullet could hurt, no chains could bind. tonight, they would be free. rose-tinted lenses shifted blood red. it was always going to end like this. it must be this way. there was never hope in his brother, but a light remained. the boy, saved by the lies that dug his grave. no more lead in his heart. tonight, he would be free.

artwork by @attyattlaw ♥ ~ prompt: martyr

previous prompt can be found here

thanks for hosting this event @corazon-week !

[stationary-cycle-in-motion]

@augusnippets day 8: reunion

tw: implied physical abuse, referenced amputation

Padmé is woken by a hand clamping down around her mouth. She jerks, heart stuttering, and for one terrible moment she thinks she’s in her own bed, and that the man she shares it with has finally snapped.

Then, Rex’s face comes into focus, illuminated by a brighter glow than the fire they’d scrounged together. Sunlight, she realizes. It’s then that she processes Obi-Wan’s head in her lap, and she forces herself to relax so as to not disturb his slumber.

Rex has one hand over her mouth and another up to his lips. He points to the cave entrance; faintly, there’s the crunch of snow underfoot. Dropping his hand, he draws a blaster, waits.

The pounding of her still-rapid heart sounds like a crescendo, like anticipation.

A familiar head pokes through the cave’s mouth. “You in here, Captain?”

Rex’s shoulders sag in relief. “Fives.”

Before he can climb to his feet, he’s tackled to the ground by two heavily armored bodies. Joyous laughter fills the cave, infectious, and Padmé doesn’t even realize she’s smiling until her cheeks begin to burn.

“I knew he survived!” Fives whoops as Rex attempts to fight his way out of the headlock he’s currently trapped in. “You owe me ten credits, Jesse.”

Rex sputters. “You bet that I died?”

“Well, not from the blizzard,” Jesse says, sly, and his gaze very pointedly pivots toward Padmé and Obi-Wan huddled in the corner. “From being in close quarters with–”

The rest of his sentence is cut off by a strangled yelp as the captain shoves his face into the snow, Rex’s face a mixture of panic and affectionate exasperation.

“Oh my!” a quiet voice exclaims.

Padmé blinks, startled. She hadn’t realized Obi-Wan was awake, but he is, and, like her, he’s watching Rex with a fond gleam in his eye, grinning from ear to ear.

“Who knew Rex could be so mischievous?” he whispers.

It’s not a criticism, Padmé’s sure; it’s just a bit surprising to see Rex drop his composure, act more like a playful brother than a levelheaded captain.

She wishes she had the opportunity to see this side of him more often. The years of wrinkles smoothing out on his face certainly suits him much better.

Slowly, Padmé and Obi-Wan make their way to their feet, Padmé supporting the brunt of Obi-Wan’s weight. As fun as this reunion is, she desperately would like to get out of this cave now.

“General!”

“Oh no,” Obi-Wan mumbles, half burying his face in Padmé’s shoulder.

Commander Cody strides into the cave, looking sternly relieved. “You’re alive.” His eyes scan his general’s form, assessing. “Thank the Force you’re still in one–”

Gaze stopping somewhere around Obi-Wan’s hands, the color drains from his face.

“Force help me,” Obi-Wan whispers.

“What the kriff happened to your fingers!”

And then Cody is fussing after his general like a mother hen, calling in medics and evac and shooing Rex’s brothers out of the cramped space.

It might be the result of the adrenaline crash, that and the overwhelming relief of safety, but Padmé feels a bit giddy watching it all. There’s so much love packed into this tiny little cave, she thinks, and it makes her heart swell.

A shadow falls, the sunlight barred by an imposing figure in the cave mouth. One look at the fury burning in Anakin’s gaze brings reality crashing back down.

[wreckedandpolemic]

omg will you drop some of the lore about the playground power dynamics i love that stuff

no its soo good its such like a fascinating social ecosystem to me...

like i said, you and matty have a bit of a hard time fitting in with the other parents. it's not so much an age thing individually as together - like, you're a lot younger than the wives of the dads matty's age and he's a lot older than the husbands of the mums your age, so you don't have like 'mum friends' really. and because of matty's job and the fact you're a housewife, people kind of assume there's some kind of moral bankruptcy going on; at first, the parents don't want to let their kids over and 'expose' them to whatever they think is going on at your house.

but it can't last too long, because the dynamic is controlled by the kids, and alanis is her mother’s daughter (matty got bullied in school lol). so even though the self-appointed ‘queens’ of the playground - the leaders of the pta - want you both shut out, it’s impossible when their kids come home begging to go round your house every week loool. when your kids have parties, it’s almost always a drop-and-run situation because the mums will shamelessly flirt with your husband and imply you’re too young and dumb for him (mind you you have an economics degree from lse) and it just pisses you both off.

so long story short, your daughter runs the playground like the navy loool

[lonelyassassin96]

Dannymay Day 8: Electric Core AU

            Danny could feel the static buzz just beneath his skin. It’s been ever present since the accident. Not long after, Sam stated every time he touched her, she got a slight shock, and Tucker stopped letting him even so much as look at his precious PDA. His parents gave up on getting his phone to work again, and straight up banned him from going into the lab. Jack and Maddie couldn’t figure it out, but Danny knew exactly what was happening. The buzz got more intense, making his hair stand on end. A slight crackling shock emitted from his hand, which he quickly raised, already getting up to leave before the sentence even left his mouth. “Mr. Lancer, can I use the bathroom? Thanks!” And he left the classroom to go transform and take care of the ghost.

[tvckerwash]

J.D felt horrible about it, but with everything that had happened the last few months—Hell, the last few years—He had admittedly somewhat forgotten that Terrence existed.

Looking through Connie’s data, dealing with corporate civilian bureaucracy, and being “demoted” into doing menial grunt work aboard the Staff of Charon has taken up the bulk of his time since returning from Longshore, so he hasn't gone to visit the guy and offer morale support during his grueling physical therapy sessions in quite a while.

Apparently, having a building collapse on top of you and needing surgical reconstruction of a large portion of the bones in your body really, really sucked.

J.D mentally grimaced at the prospect of speaking to the temperamental man. He had been waiting to tell him about their team until he was officially discharged from medical, and only after Sharky came to terms with the loss would he even think about introducing Connie into the mix. The man's hatred of the Freelancers was, understandably, incredibly intense.

He loved Sharky, he really did, and he wouldn't trade him for anyone else, but Terrance could be annoyingly stubborn and overly dramatic, and a lack of any semblance of a proper chain of command didn't make his job any easier. The guy just didn't respect his experience and skill as an ODST like the others did, which was beyond frustrating at times.

(God, what a mess). He sighed, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

[bbnibini]

Why do I keep getting hyperfixated on lore heavy series didn't I learn enough with fate

[daz4i]

i think my need to write is to make my emotions beautiful, somehow. to excuse their existence by making it something others can enjoy, and in turn distance myself from their rawness. but a good writer probably still feels their emotions as they come and go, and doesn't immediately think about how to turn them into a product, about how to make them useful for others. they just feel for the sake of feeling. but i don't feel (ha) like I'm allowed to do that

[missremember]

You know you haven't updated in too long when the spam bots start hitting your comments section

[hoshiina]

ISAO. 01

He had felt lost, to say the least, ever since Hikari had disappeared from this world. It was like there was a significant part of himself just gone, and nothing could fill in the gap. Not the mountain of work he took on or the harsh words he spoke to Kikoru from the fear that she'd go through the same one day.

And so he didn't even notice when Shinomiya Hikari had disappeared from his life as well. Only when you had shown up did the fog finally clear. He watched the way you'd treat Kikoru with so much love and the nostalgic way she smiled warmly back at you, and the view in front of him cleared for the first time in so many years.

How hadn't he seen it before? How long had he been in this state of mind? Why had you stuck around and waited for someone like him?

Yet, it wasn't some rocket science answer, there wasn't even a deep sensible reason— it was horribly simple. You just loved him, so genuinely. You loved someone like him.

But now he sees you, he's looking right at you, so please wait just a little longer. He'll be yours and yours alone in no time.

[thyme-in-a-bubble]

i really did just sit here all day writing some of the filthiest smut i’ve ever attempted to put into words. happy fucking sunday to me.

[souls-page]

Page 29

On the floor of his dimly lit room, there he sat hugging his knees to his chest photographs and letters surrounded him, he couldn’t help but stare, at the picture on his feet, the TV playing in the background

There in the picture, he and Artem when they were kids, Artem holding a basketball while Elio was holding him a smile on both their faces, and there he saw who he used to be, what he was when Artem was around, what he did when realizing he’d found him again

He reached out to touch the picture, but without realizing it tears had already started falling down his face, he didn't think that he’d lose Artem again

He never dwelled on those thoughts when they came to haunt him on those sleepless nights but, now Artem’s gone and all he’s left with are letters and pictures.

They’re not enough, they used to be enough but now, after experiencing life with Artem, a life where he wasn’t alone, a life where he was happy, a life where he wasn't suffocated

The night continued in tense silence before a choked sob escaped Elio and then as if the cracks that littered his facade finally broke him, there he was on the floor hunched forward holding their pictures, his letters to his chest shaking as choked sobs escaped him

Why had he been so blind, so stupid to see Artem was there, in front of him why had he realized so late, it’d been days since their last talk on that rainy day, and guilt in his stomach, eating him away

He’d wanted to reach out to apologize but every time he did he was reminded of the face Artem made that day, he looked so hurt, and all Elio did was stand there, watch as he walked away feeling helpless

By the time his sobs toned down, he’d been lying on the floor, the letter and photographs still in his arms, he breathes, or well tries to only to release yet another sob escapes his throat

He lay there tears still streaming down his face, his chest tight, his head dizzy from his position and from the amount of energy he’d released, all he wanted was for him to come back

The memories from that day resurface yet again and he curls into himself on the cold floor, refusing to let go of anything he was holding, he closes his eyes letting himself rest on the floor, not finding any energy to stand up to go to his bed

‘I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry I’m so sorry–’

as he started to fall asleep with his mind lulled with the repetition of the words before buzzing with the reminder that Artem left, his tears had slowly stopped, too tired to make more

He closed his eyes, letting the coldness of the floor and the sudden quiet that his mind had, ‘am I that tired?’ he asked himself as he felt himself falling deeper into unconsciousness before he heard his window being forced open, he opened his eyes to see Artem in front of his window, in his room, eyes wide

“Elio?” and oh his voice sounded so shaken, he looked Artem in the eyes, before the other immediately went beside him holding Elio’s face and brushing the tears away

“I’m sorry” he finds himself saying as he closes his eyes yet again, letting himself be held by Artem, he feels the other’s hand shake from where it was holding his face

“I’m so sorry Artem” he says again as he feels artem lift him and put him into his bed, he holds Artem’s hand that is holding his face, afraid that if he let go Artem would soon follow, then he feels the bed dip from the space next to him, he opens his eyes only to be met by Artems shirt, he felt Artems arms hold him

“Please let me hold you” he heard the other say

And he did, he let himself be held, warmth seeping back into his bones, he closed his eyes again inching closer to Artem, removing whatever space they had between them, inhaling Artem's scent, as he too wrapped his arms around Artem and they spent the rest of the night in each others hold, in each others presence, content to be in each other's arms

[beguilingcorpse]

rating ways to advertise the locked tomb

"lesbian necromancers in space": 5/10. technically true, except that gideon isn't a necromancer and for the most part they aren't in space. can also be tonally misleading; implies a fun space opera adventure and fails to mention the impending emotional devastation. that being said it is iconic and (mostly) effective

"murder mystery in a haunted gothic castle": 8/10. MUCH better at capturing the tone and plot of the first book, but still a little off. imagine picking up the book because of this blurb and then watching gideon nav make a mean girls reference in the first 20 pages. the whiplash could kill you

"a locked tomb mystery": 5/10. nondescriptive and a little misleading, but i can't give this any lower than a 5 because the pun is very good. gideon would love this one and that should count for something

"gay goth among us": 10/10. i'm not even going to pretend like this one doesn't nail it. try and argue against this. you can't. captures the murders, the space-y setting, the queer characters, the tone and aesthetic, AND the contemporary humor. chef's kiss

"enemies to lovers 'i hate everyone but you' slow burn": 1/10. true if you squint. the relationship between gideon and harrow would make booktok weep

"catholic homestuck": 9/10. this means nothing and explains everything

this tweet by tamsyn muir:

[Image ID: A tweet by "tamsyn should be writing" @tazmuir: "sure, I edited from 12 o'clock to 4.30, but how much of that time did I spend on the discovery that the basis of my novel is 'what if these two were... teenage girls'", followed by an image of Skeletor and He-Man. /end ID]

10/10. conveys the pop culture savvy of the series, the complex dynamic between the main characters, and the humor of the writing style all at once. also makes me laugh every time i think about it

[thef1diary]

Little Big Fan Series Masterlist

A Max Verstappen x SingleMother!Reader Story

Status: complete (still updating for blurbs)

Series Summary: Your daughter runs off while you were in the middle of grocery shopping because she spotted Max, her favourite driver. Meeting you, Max wants to know everything about you and your six year old. So of course he finds excuses to keep meeting you, starting with inviting you to the Dutch Grand Prix.

total wc: 33.1k

Note: feel free to request a drabble or chapter idea for this story.

#lbf fic talks -> writing process, answering asks about the story, and pretty much anything related to this fic series.

1. Little Big Fan (1.6k words)

2. Little Big Flight (1.7k words)

3. Little Big Race (2.4k words)

4. Little Big Celebration (1.6k words)

5. Little Big Surprise (3.3k words)

6. Little Big Gifts (1.9k words)

7. Little Big Movie Night (2.4k words)

8. Little Big Allergy (3.6k words)

9. Little Big Phone Calls (1.7k words)

10. Little Big Date Night (1.9k words)

11. Little Big Schooldays (2k words)

12. Little Big Relationships (2.1k words)

13. Little Big Sleepover (2k words)

14. Little Big Champion (1.9k words)

15. Little Big Aftermath (3k words)

Little Big Blurbs

Mr. Bear & Bearman

Braid Bonding

Mother’s Day Special

Hide & Flee

[creatingblackcharacters]

"Do Black People Blush?" Bringing brown complexions to life

Inspired by this ask

So, do Black people blush?

We are human beans 🤣! Blood rushes through our veins! This isn't just a nonblack misconception either; I know plenty of Black people who think we don't blush. Stop saying that shit. It's not true! If you thought this at any point, I'm glad you learned, TAKE THIS L IN SILENCE! I am sparing you the indignity of saying this out loud, ever! 🙏🏾

Jokes aside, the actual issue usually lies with the depiction or description. Depending on our skin tone, most of us aren’t going to turn ‘bright pink’ with a blush (if you write that in your y/n or roleplaying fics, that’s an easy way to negate a good amount of your potential Black audience). Think of a cherry coke- how you still see the tint of red in it, but it’s still brown? Like that.

One way to dodge this in writing is to say “flushed”, or “ears/cheeks became hot”. This is describing the physical action of blushing, without having to describe the color of someone’s face. If you’re really nervous about not writing us correctly via blushing… there you go!

Colorism

Okay. So this is something I’ll likely do its own lesson on, because there’s no way I could encapsulate it into one little blurb and I’m not going to try! After asking the internet an admittedly confusing question 😅, one thing I was able to reaffirm is that people have different opinions on what ‘dark’/’darker’ skin tones mean. People recognize that different cultural upbringings and contexts will change what that means! And that’s good- that an important part of the larger conversation!

However, I want everyone to understand that you don’t have to be Black to be dark/’darker’ skinned- you can be Black and very pale! We discussed that in the last lesson! There’s no ‘singular point of brown-ness’ that designates a Black person as ‘Black’- there’s an entire sociological conversation behind that!

My point is, this isn’t a ‘oh Black people OVERALL aren’t depicted blushing properly’- because there are ‘lighter’ skinned Black people that wouldn’t suffer as much from this particular issue.

Blushes and Undertones

Three Links for Tips on Medium to Deep Skintones

Different complexions are going to require different colors, there's not a 'one fits all' option. However! What we want to do for deeper brown complexions is to focus on BOLDER, not lighter! Putting light pink or a white person’s ‘nude’ on our skin will often make us look ashy and undercolored. And we don’t like looking ashy.

"It looks like they're ashy!"

What do we mean when we say this about a piece? Well, worse case scenario, it looks like this:

This was NOT one of KD’s better days, and he was thoroughly mocked for this. He got more than enough money for lotion! Anyway, when we say that your art looks ‘ashy’, it means that it feels like the skin of your Black character is gray, or dead. Like a corpse. We don’t look like that unless things are dire.

In fan and professional art, you can sometimes find people user a grey undertone for deeper shades of brown on Black people: NO! We are NOT grey! We are not pitch! Many skin shades of brown can be found based in the oranges and the reds. Based on lighting and depth of complexion, you might even have to go into the blues and purple to capture the brown you’re seeking.

I’m begging us to stop desaturating the browns we use. We can see the difference. It’s usually one of those ‘White Man Painted Brown’ techniques I discussed before; an attempt to ‘make a character Black’ without really committing to it because the brown skin tone ‘doesn’t look good’ to the artist. Brown is beautiful! Commit to brown! Commit to the full design!

Put in the work to create the brown you need!

While this is a traditional art piece (follow Ellie Mandy Art, a Black creator), I want you to notice how she incorporated many colors to create the deep brown for her piece.

-8:05 for the list of paints

-8:05-17:29 for the process

She used black, yes, but it was nowhere near the base color. She incorporated blues and reds and other browns to capture that depth. It wasn’t ‘toss in a bunch of black or grey to get the brown darker’. (SKIP TO THE END TO SEE HOW GOOD THIS PIECE IS, BTW. I felt like I was in the presence of a master watching her do this, fr. We gotta pay artists more.)

I want to use this model as an example to show that while we might get very dark, we're still not 'pitch black'. You can see the flat of the black of their clothes versus their deep complexion. They're not the same!

Even if your character's complexion is very deep brown into black, you still need to incorporate ‘life’ into them (if that makes sense). And you know what? Even if you want to describe your characters as having ‘black’ skin, that’s fine, but there are still other ways to do it- obsidian, the night sky, velvet. Find a way to romanticize our skin (there’s an entire conversation about how ‘black’ is used in a negative connotation in language and storytelling, and we’re ALSO going to have that conversation later!)

A Real Simple Way (i.e. how I do it)

I tried, but I cannot find my skin tones palette link anymore. I’m sorry! But, it’s been essential to my character design. If you don’t ever buy anything else, I would HIGHLY suggest investing in a skin tones palette for your art program.

Everyone say hello to Philia, my OC! I’m used to drawing her, so I’m going to use her as an example. Now remember, I am still an amateur! But this is how I do it!

Admittedly, I do the one on the left when I'm feeling lazy, but more often I'll take the time to do the one on the right. Now here’s the thing- I’m not actually blending the red into the brown. This is on a whole different layer. What I’m actually doing is adding to and fading the color until it’s at a color that I feel is natural. There's definitely an easier, smarter way to do this, but that’s what I like to do- I like to see the stages slowly until I’m comfortable.

You have to mess around and practice; see what looks good and what doesn't. Go into the reds, the oranges, the pinks and observe how it looks- I may go through multiple before I settle on one. It’s really just a matter of getting used to drawing Black skin tones and how they look in different lighting. This one's not perfect for sure.

Resources

Here are some really good posts and Youtube videos on how both to paint skin, and to add blush tones. And remember, as per my usual, the best way to learn how the draw and paint Black people is to follow and learn from Black artists! Another good idea might be looking into Black makeup and Black SFX makeup artists. As people that work with skin on a regular basis, they would be a good place to study what colors can and should be used on different skin colors as a whole.

ami0amii

Likelihood Art

Tiara Anderson

Proko

Sinix

Ross Draws

In summary, focus on bolder colors, be willing to test until you get what you need, and practice! All you can do to get better is to practice! And as always: it’s the thought that counts, but the action that delivers!

[stylessbean]

Harry Styles Fic Recs: One Shots

------------ ˗ˏˋ ꒰ 🍓🍒🍄 ꒱ ˎˊ˗ ------------

Last Updated: 8/02/2024

Friends to Lovers:

Best Friends My Ass by @theonewiththefanfics

the edge of all we've ever known by @stylesharrys

overprotective by @satanhalsey

The one where Y/N is terribly oblivious and Harry is in love with his best friend - H.S by (unknown)

Famous! Reader:

POUR IT OUT by @watchmegetobsessed

Never Have I Ever by @watchmegetobsessed

goodbye by @peleksstuff

this blurb by @anettesblogs

late late show by @let-me-write-shit

celebrity crush by @inkslingerharry

a talk show and a surprise by @gucciwins

the instagram poll by @ifancyharry

Assistant! Reader:

Tomato - Tomato by @theonewiththefanfics

in which you’re harry’s assistant and harry needs to open his eyes by @havethetimeofyourstyles

shy by @moonchildstyles

ever since new york by @ifancyharry

two for the show by @nationalharryleague

Fluff:

sweet nothings by @pancakes4two

Update (2 parts) by @watchmegetobsessed

love her stupid by @finelinevogue

love me like you do by @stylesharrys

vogue beauty secrets by @avatar-anna

Wishing you were here tonight is like holding on. (CEO!H)** by @guardarecheluna

look into his angel eyes by @thestoryofusstan

Angst:

can't be with you anymore by @lovebittenbyevans

Smut: (click here for my smut masterlist)

trust by @daisyblog

BMWB by @cinemastyles-backup