#writing reflections

[pauli-scrawls]

Tectonic Shift in Cozy Witches

I'm going back to the beginning with Cozy Witches and questioning a lot of my initial impressions of the story, the characters, the world. Do both witches need to be struggling with burnout? What do I want the story to say? What does the magic represent? What does each witch teach and provide the other that they cannot see themselves?

And I'm basically starting all over again. The original outline? It's going to get ripped to pieces. And that's scary, throwing out all that work. But this is going to be a better story because of it. It's going to be deeper, more layered, more nuanced. The work wasn't wasted, but it is going to be reborn into something unrecognizable.

It's kind of exciting.

[thingswedontunbox]

[demigods-posts]

i'm one hundred percent certain that after percy and annabeth made out underwater. and he wanted to make their relationship official. the question was not "will you be my girlfriend?" but "can i be your boyfriend?" i don't care what the canon says. percy gave annabeth the space to take the lead in the relationship. because after a lifetime of being abandoned by everyone she dared to care for. and then watching her on the brink of a panic attack at the thought of losing him the last four years. he wanted to honor a new beginning between them by follow her lead and moving at her pace.

[echoesoftheinfinite]

I don't want much, I just want to learn how to enjoy life, even in the hardest moments.

[astearisms]

fionna and cake drawings before and after watching the episodes so far. it’s nostalgic and somehow cathartic and poignant and relatable and—it just started

[sl8tersstuff]

I live my life in a constant state of grief of what I did, what I didn’t do, and what I can never do.

[erraticreflections]

[scealaiscoite]

coworkers to lovers prompts ˗ˏˋ ꒰ 🍊 ꒱

¹⁾ “hey - in case no-one else’s said it, you’ve been doing some really great work lately. i really apprec- i mean, all of us really appreciate it.”

²⁾ “if you keep putting in nights this late, i think [boss] is gonna start charging you rent.”

³⁾ “stop jumping in whenever you think i need saving! i don’t need defending, and i don’t need you!”

⁴⁾ “you remember how i take my coffee?”

⁵⁾  “you don’t need to keep pushing yourself so hard, you know. we all know how hard you worked to get here - it’s okay to let yourself breathe now.”

⁶⁾ “if you don’t wanna spend the night in a empty house, you could always come over to mine.”

⁷⁾ “normally when you invite me to lunch, it’s with everyone else too. what’s so different about this time that you needed me alone?”

⁸⁾ “don’t tell anyone else, but i like working with you the best.”

⁹⁾ “hey, why are me and [name] being split up? you know we do our best work when we’re together.”

¹⁰⁾ “i figured you wouldn’t have the time, so i went and picked up lunch for you.”

¹¹⁾ “wow, someone’s looking good. who’re you trying to impress?”

¹²⁾ “[other coworker] told me you nearly lost it when they all tried blaming me for what happened. why did you care so much?”

¹³⁾ “do you make house calls to all of your coworkers when they call in sick, or am i just that special?”

¹⁴⁾ “why are you freezing me out all of a sudden? I thought you were happy I was dating again, and now you act like it pains you to hear about it.”

¹⁵⁾ “until such a time as the two of you can prove that you can work as well on your own as you do together, you’re going to be put on different schedules.”

¹⁶⁾ “why didn’t you tell me you were up for the promotion? did you seriously think i wouldn’t be happy for you?”

¹⁷⁾ “you do know you’ll be seeing me first thing in the morning, right? what’s so important that it couldn’t wait until then?”

¹⁸⁾ “one date, that’s all i’m asking for. one night to let me show you how good we could be together.”

¹⁹⁾ “i think people are starting to notice that you spend more time at my desk than you do at your own.”

²⁰⁾ “no, you don’t get to do this. you don’t get to make me fall in love with you, and then tell me there’s no way for this to work because of the job!”

[elysynn]

Architect of My Own Writer’s Block

There are some stories that just fight you.  I’ve had an idea rolling around my brain for a few months now.  I’ve made several attempts at getting it written, a 1500 word start here, a 2500 word start there and a handful of smaller attempts that have just been shunted right out the door. The bunnies morphed into beavers and instead of letting the river of words flow those industrious rodents of wrong beginnings just dammed up the whole works.

There’s copious notes and tabs, tabs of research open in multiple browsers.  Notes are scattered among several different mediums.  It’s chaos, but my brain somehow knows where to find all of it so when I need to reference some of that research I know right where to look. But because of that aforementioned dam, connecting all those pieces into something coherent that felt right just wasn’t happening.

Until today. I finally got the start right and it’s leading where I want the story to go. The dam is crumbling and the words are flowing again.

As I’ve journeyed this path created by words, I inevitably learn something not only about the act of writing, but myself as well.  This lesson has been one of letting go: Just because I wrote it doesn’t make it immutable.  I can change it.  The beginning I start with isn’t the beginning I have to stick with if it doesn’t suit the story.  I long ago accepted that it was OK to be wrong (that was a journey in itself that may be explored some other time) but that was generally in relation to other people. Work, relationships, youth - I’d learned it was important to admit when I was wrong (and apologize when warranted) and acknowledge what I’d learned from it.  

But, it’s weirdly tricky to admit to yourself that the path you’ve chosen is wrong. Giving up on the words you’ve labored over seems traitorous somehow, even though it’s the right thing to do.  It follows through in other aspects of life too, but today’s lesson was specifically about the creative aspect. It’s not failure, or betrayal to not use the thing that was started. It’s learning. It’s learning to adapt, approach a problem from a different angle. And it’s learning to accept that sometimes the barrier to creation is not external, but sometimes due to my own stubbornness sticking with the thing that’s well written but not right for the story.

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[pauli-scrawls]

TAT can be a tough project because sometimes I'm desperate to finish it, excited to complete this thing I really loved and poured a lot of effort into ... and sometimes it weighs me down.

Sometimes I feel *obligated* to finish it. It feels like work. It feels like a job in a way that it didn't before. That's partly because writing middles is challenging, but also it's partly because I used to *not know* whether people would read TAT or not. Now that I *know* they won't - and I know all of the effort to finish it is JUST for me - I find myself wondering whether it is worth the investment. I already know the plot, I know how it ends, I know how the character arcs go. So why write it?

Should all of that time and energy and effort go into a new project?

[vaguely-concerned]

you ever think about how the horrific thing dorian almost had done to him... is exactly the thing iron bull went to the reeducators to beg them to do to him. yeah. me either. for ten years straight now. what the fuck. wanna be my narrative foil dude. we could fuck about it if you're game and single

[echoesoftheinfinite]

I'm a pile of unfinished things, unsaid feelings, unthought thoughts, and unlived lives.

[officialspec]

ill be honest as much as i love to criticise the use of fatphobia for comedy ill never be able to hold the fatphobic jokes in kung fu panda against it

like yea those movies are guilty of dipping into The Usual Tropes for a cheap laugh but not only is the character writing for the fat characters the strongest and most sympathetic ive Ever seen literally just the character designs of the pandas in the 3rd movie get me choked up sometimes. theyre all so appealing and clearly treated with the same care and attention as everyone else without copping out and making them Barely Fat. po is already a size that doesnt exist in film protags and hes still the thinnest person in that whole village and that meant a lot to me

[grendel-menz]

My bitter little ghost