the-art-ofreading

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when you grew up as a lonely uncool girl it will never stop haunting you by the way. you will meet a cool person at a bar or the train station or at a friend's party and you can wear your most stylish outfit and striking eye makeup and you will swear that they can see through all of the facade and see the lonely terribly insecure teenage girl you used to be who desperately wanted to connect and you will swear that they know that there is like an insurmountable gap between you. this will happen forever

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hello! may i ask if you have any tips for aspiring writers? like how to find the style of writing you like?

Hi there!

Tips for aspiring writers, huh?

Not sure what would work for everyone, but I can tell you what worked for me. So I've always loved writing, but never knew when to start.

So I started small.

I wrote short stories. Took random prompts, wrote for 10-15 min, and then posted the result. By trying out so many different styles and genres, I learned more about myself and my writing style! Gradually I took longer and longer with my stories, and then I made part 2's, and then continuing on this I wrote a few couple full length novels and a handful of novellas!

I really feel posting it helped, even if the number of people reading them was very small, especially at first. Seeing if people caught my themes and intentions, seeing people love the characters I loved and talk about the worlds I made helped me to take the worlds and characters more seriously. I love interacting with people about my works, and nothing beats hearing from someone who loves the stories you wrote from your heart.

Of course, putting all your work on the internet for free is probably not the best route to get published (considering I am just starting to think about self-publishing now, and I know that some doors close when you share everything), but depending on your goals you can tailor this sort of strategy.

Overall, have fun with it. GIve yourself understanding for the days when you can't write at all. Allow yourself to write badly, to write silly things, to write cliches. But just keep writing.

Good luck!

I'm cheering for you!

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Janus in gold ✨💛✨

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Congratulations!!! That’s a really cool milestone to hit. I really enjoyed reading it, you definitely deserve it!

Wanted to share this...

I Can't Eat Love is one of my favorite stories I've written, and to celebrate it hitting 1M views on Wattpad (although that's doesn't count repeat readers and is split between chapters) I decided to print it out using B&N personal printing and made myself two hard copies to be able to hold. I based the cover off of one @capricornsiren sent me a while ago.

Anyways, it just arrived and I was really excited about this and wanted to share some pictures:

I wanted to thank you guys for being here and supporting me when I wrote this fun story. I might not be a traditional author, but this is my book and I'm so proud of it!

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head empty, just Myléne and Ivan 💞

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Remus: [putting honey in his tea] Hell yeah, get in that leaf juice, you sexy, sexy bee sauce

Roman: Do you take constructive criticism?

Remus: I absolutely fucking do not

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The creativitwins are gonna be the biggest Janus simps once he and Roman work out whatever this is. You can’t change my mind

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Janus: *calling for Virgil Roman and Remus from the other room*

Virgil: did you guys hear that?

Roman:

Remus:

Janus: *calling them again*

Remus, yeeting himself out of his seat: Ah shit we’re being summoned!

Roman sitting up suddenly: wait he’s what?

Virgil struggling out of his tangle of blankets in a panic: IT MEANS WE’RE BEING SUMMONED NOW GET GOING-

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This also went through my mind when I started listening to that song again.

But usually I like to imagine their dynamic as Remus: the “leader” who comes up with the ideas and Janus: the one who makes the ideas actually work

thinking about how Partners in Crime by Set It Off is such a dukeceit song

usually crime husbands has Janus as the mastermind and Remus as the sidekick but I think for this song it fits better with Remus as the demented “leader” of the operation, with Janus as the hot-piece-of-ass “sidekick”

just cause the male voice in the song sounds a little more crazed than the other, and I like the idea of Janus just being there to pose sexily in a catsuit and/or sparkly dress

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I love everything about this

Janus is a bastard snek boi so here are some ways I think he’d he’d fuck with the others:

Asking them to ‘come back with a warrant’ when they knock on his door

Making his password hint ‘favorite side’ (the password is ‘me’)

Telling the others he can magically sense when they’re lying because he’s Deceit (he can’t, but he gets away with it because he’s just really good at reading body language)

Disguising himself as one of the others and then pretending to be super offended when they mistake him for said side

Messing with the other sides’ outfits like he did in SVS

Saying a deadpan ‘tragic’ in response to him getting called out on something

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Remus as Harley Quinn and Janus as Poison Ivy

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re: your last ask about the time travel shenanigans—holy fuck yes please more of this. like, not only is it funny as hell, which i appreciate, but it's also a. more c!thomas and b. points to just how interestingly both the plot and characters of this series have grown over the years and i am ALL for it

"Janus!" is the first thing Thomas exclaims when he sees the Side Formerly Known Exclusively As Deceit rise up where Logan would usually stand. Which just might be a mistake, if Janus’s expression is anything to go by.

Okay, in Thomas's defence -

This is a really, really weird day, even by his standards. Because, like, Logan's currently standing in front of the stairs, and that's not where Logan's supposed to be, and his shirt and tie are all wrong. And had had been grinning. Openly. He had been openly grinning when Thomas had first woken up and looked in his wardrobe and realized that his favorite t-shirt apparently doesn't exist anymore and all his clothes are a half-size smaller than he's used to but also they still fit and - okay, no, back to Logan. He'd gone downstairs and tripped over a chair that wasn't supposed to be there and called out Logic. And he'd been about to ask him what's going on and why everything feels so off and also why Logan's standing in Virgil's usual spot instead of over to the right of the stairs. But then he'd noticed all the aforementioned Very Weird Clothing Things. And he'd stopped and said, "Uh, Logan?" and Logan's grin had dropped and he'd stared at Thomas for a full ten seconds then whispered, "what the fuck," with great emotion.

And then Patton had shown up with a ridiculous amount of pun-riddled cheerfulness that Thomas had been able to clock as sixty-percent fake within about half a second. And his clothes had been all wrong, too, and after a lot of confused, borderline-incomprehensible yelling at each other, Roman had showed up and added to the chaos.

"I am scared and confused and on the verge of completely losing it!" Thomas had declared at some point, which had been the cue for an ominous music sting somewhere to Thomas's right that made everybody jolt in terrified unison.

"Did somebody say scared and confused and on the verge of completely losing it?"

"Virgil, thank god!" Thomas had practically yelled, and just about thrown himself across the room to get to him - before pausing midway and allowing his brain to process... wrong hoodie. Wrong amount of eyeshadow. "Wait. No, hang on, is this - "

"FUCKING WHO," Virgil shrieked, leaping backwards half a flight of stairs, which had led to another round of confused yelling, with Thomas trying to assure them all that he's fine he hasn't had some sort of strange head injury or whatever, he's just really happy to see Virgil and no of course that's not weird, what do you mean who's Virgil, that's Virgil right over there, Roman please put down that sword things are already out of hand -

And at some point Thomas had got it into his head that the most reasonable course of events was to summon the one person who always seems to know everything that everybody else doesn't, which brings everything up to speed, more or less. Roman had gone, "Thomas, what are you doing," and Thomas, feeling slightly manic at this point, had said, "I'm trying to summon a demon, obviously," because the best way to get hold of a certain someone probably is blatant lying, and boom, instant Janus.

"Jeee-sus Christ on a cookie-shaped canoe, what is he doing here?!"

"Janus!"

So, Janus pops up, he looks literally the same as he always has (except maybe with shorter hair? Wait, they all have shorter hair, including Thomas, wait a second -) with his half-snake-face and his hat and gloves that cosy-looking capelet of his. And although his expression reflects faint bewilderment and that very particular 'wait, what' emotion that results in being pulled abruptly away from something you were busy with, he looks so normal that Thomas thinks for a moment he might be the only sane person left.

But then Janus makes a series of start-and-stop noises of incomprehension, and gestures wildly towards Virgil, who's crouched midway up on the stairs behind Logan, looking like a cornered wild animal, and snaps, "Why for the love of everything that's holy would you tell him my name?"

"You think this is me?" Virgil retorts, hands going up to grab desperately at the bars lining the side of the staircase. "I don't understand anything that's going on! He somehow knows my name! He's - he's being nice to me!"

It suddenly occurs to Thomas that this might just possibly be a time travel sort of thing. It would explain the clothes shift. And the altered layout of his house. And the fact that when he'd checked his phone this morning it had told him it was 2016, and also it hadn't been his phone, it had been the one he'd broken a few years ago in a tragic piano-moving-related accident.

...Okay, yeah, this is absolutely a time travel thing.

"Is somebody going to explain why Thomas ruined all of our heartfelt name reveal moments in one fell swoop?" Roman demands. "I thought we agreed we were going to do them gradually and draw them out as long as possible for dramatic effect!"

"I agreed to none of that," Virgil snaps from his position halfway up the stairs.

"Yes," says Logan, "yes, I think we all would like to know what's going on. Thomas? What's going on?"

"Uh - " Thomas, who has just come to a rather startling realization about time travel and also about how shitty his Sides' taste in costumes were pre-wardrobe change, doesn't really have a prepared answer for this. "I have... I am - I just - "

Thomas struggles for words. Really struggles. And everyone's just standing there, watching him with expressions that range from terror to confusion to suspicion, and they all look so weirdly young in a way that's hard to pin down. It's the clothes. It's probably the clothes, or maybe it's the way they hold themselves. Roman, carelessly confident, without a doubt in the world. Patton, still wearing a fixed dad-grin, politely baffled and looking back and forth. Logan, who hasn't been systematically beaten down and pushed back over the course of many, many years. Virgil, who's basically just a ball of grey-and-black anger and acerbic anger at this point. Janus, who's... Janus. Who's looking at him in a way that Janus has never looked at him before.

And Remus is probably lurking somewhere in the back of his mind, too, doing whatever Remus does, and - would Remus be any different now, four years prior? Thomas hadn't had any significant problems with intrusive thoughts, not back then... or, well, back now. Maybe he's calmer, maybe Thomas could actually talk with him. Try to work something out, try to understand.

But wait, he's still got to give the Sides right here and right now an answer.

Hm.

...Thomas has been through a lot in the past four years. Not, like, fantasy protagonist a lot, but more like a extended psychological journey of self-discovery and mental health crises. Now, he wouldn't trade any of this for the world, because he's learned a hell of a lot about himself in the process - but also? The Sides have put him through a lot of horrifying realization-type things.

Which is why he absolutely one hundred percent deserves to do what he's about to do next.

"I," says Thomas, with an extraordinary amount of confidence and self-assuredness, "am psychic."

And the dead silence holds. Now even Patton is staring at him in disbelief. Janus has graduated into outright horror, his face twisted up into a oh god no I am somehow responsible for letting him delude himself this far expression.

"Thomas!" Roman gasps, almost instantly lighting up with genuine enthusiasm. "Oh, Thomas, I'm so proud, we've been working on this for years. Tell me, does this extend to telekinesis, or just somehow knowing all our names and nothing else?"

"What?" Janus says. "What - no. No, you can't seriously be going along with this - what? That... what? That doesn't even make any sense?" He turns wildly from left to right, and - okay, it's very enjoyable to see him out of his depth, to be perfectly honest. Thomas likes Janus a lot, knows he has his best interests at heart, but the whole courtroom thing had been a major dick move. This is satisfying. "Are any of you getting this? Does anyone here understand what's going on?"

"I'm psychic," Thomas repeats doggedly. "I acquired magical psychic powers and now I know all of your names and tragic backstories. Surprise! I unlocked my full potential and the ninety-percent of my brain power that I wasn't using."

"That's - that's a widely-perpetuated and wildly incorrect myth," Logan says weakly.

"Nope. Turns out it's true, and I was only using ten percent of it, and now that I've gone full big-brain, I know that Patton's repressing all his bad feelings because he doesn't want to bother anyone with them, Virgil acts all scary and menacing because he thinks it's the only way that I'll ever listen to him, and Janus is secretly a huge dork with a heart of gold - uh, yellow, I guess."

"How dare you," Janus breathes, looking horrified.

"Wha - " Patton suddenly looks very pale indeed.

"Also, Roman, you're my hero; Logan, please never stop smiling like that ever again, it's literally my favorite thing in the world and if you ever stop being enthusiastic about teaching me things I will cry - and Virgil, I love you."

Virgil lets out a choked little noise like he's just been punched directly in the stomach.

"I love all of you," Thomas adds, an afterthought. "I never say that enough. Janus, that goes for you as well. You're right, I need to take care of myself more."

"I'm - " Janus is still looking around at everyone in complete disbelief, but now his gaze fixes onto Thomas, his eyes wide. "I'm what?"

Thomas is now on a roll. An extremely cathartic sort of roll. "And Remus -"

Everybody immediately panics. Virgil and Logan's hands both immediately leap up to clasp over their mouths, which seems to be a reflexive reaction on Janus's behalf. Patton lets out a deranged-sounding high pitched giggle that edges into genuine hysteria.

"Brother? What brother? I don't know what a brother is!" Roman says loudly. "I've never had a brother in my life! Thomas, your glorious psychic powers are malfunctioning. Have you tried turning them off and turning them on again?"

" - I'm not going to lie and say I love him, but -" Thomas stops abruptly, and staggers  backwards to catch himself on the couch as a thought strikes him out of literally nowhere. "Son of a bitch -"

"Does being psychic make you swear a lot?" Patton asks weakly. "Because, uh. Not sure I like this side of you, kiddo - "

"Logan," says Thomas. "Logan, what's the date today? This is so, so important, what's the date."

"It's... October," Logan says, very slowly. "October twentieth. 2016?"

"Holy shit," Thomas whispers, and then says it louder, "holy shit. Okay, listen. I was going to sort out all of our collective psychological issues in one impressive emotional speedrun, but I've realized we have something much more important to do." He pauses, and takes in a very deep, shuddering breath. "Guys. We can save Vine. Excuse me. I've just realized I’ve got to make a lot of calls."

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I love this

Bedtime stories

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Hot Take

What if instead of bottling it all up and becoming more self-destructive, Roman acknowledges it and tries to mention it in the next episode and the other sides listens to him and tries to comfort him and apologies are given and everyone’s happy and the only reason roman didn’t say anything before was because he did think he could handle it alone but eventually he realizes it’s becoming too much and decided to finally help himself and ask for help. Idk what if roman was happy

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I know we all say Patton’s the empath, but I would like to see Janus be an empath more often in fanfiction.

Empath Janus, who can feel when people are lying to him

Empath Janus, who knows exactly how people are feeling and makes them feel better without feeling like they’re being patronized

Empath Janus, who gets overwhelmed by other people’s emotions and lashes out without meaning to

Empath Janus, who prefers to be alone and could’ve revealed himself whenever he wanted to, but also knows how much energy is drained from him when four people (sometimes more) are squabbling in the same room

Empath Janus, who really doesn’t want people to know he’s an empath because he’s afraid people will use it against him

Empath Janus, who can feel when a side is hiding a stomach ache from them, because his stomach will also start to hurt, or worse, a more dangerous physical injury

Empath Janus, who can touch objects that belonged to someone else and feels their last emotions attached to it

Empath Janus, who has trouble watching any movie that has horror or tragic elements inflicting emotional or physical pain on a character, because he will feel physically ill and have to hide his tears

Just give me more empath Janus please :D

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he’s so pretty

a sense of self worth