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^^^The reason the Baltimore vamps are sex workers. It's just easier~

why don't most vampires just find ppl who are into getting pinned down and bitten and drained. this shit is easyyyy

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I mean it's better than the opposite bc that means you're running out of story to write...

Is this a problem?

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more characters should be 30+ years old

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I've already said that my number one piece of writing advice is to read.

But my number two piece of advice is this: be deliberate.

Honestly this would fix so many pieces of bad writing advice. Don't forbid people from doing something, tell them to be conscious and deliberate about it. This could help stop people from falling into common mistakes without limiting their creativity. Black and white imperatives may stop a few annoying beginner habits, but ultimately they will restrict artistic expression.

Instead of "don't use epithets": "Know the effect epithets have and be deliberate about using them." Because yes, beginners often misuse them, but they can be useful when a character's name isn't known or when you want to reduce them to a particular trait they have.

Instead of "don't use 'said'" or "just use 'said'": "Be deliberate about your use of dialogue tags." Because sometimes you'll want "said" which fades into the background nicely, but sometimes you will need a more descriptive alternative to convey what a character is doing.

Instead of "don't use passive voice": "Be deliberate about when you use passive voice." Because using it when it's not needed can detract from your writing, but sometimes it can be useful to change the emphasis of a sentence or to portray a particular state of mind.

Instead of blindly following or ignorantly neglecting the rules of writing, familiarize yourself with them and their consequences so you can choose when and if breaking them would serve what you're trying to get across.

Your writing is yours. Take control of it.

It probably sounds like I'm preaching to the choir here because most of my mutuals are already great writers. But I'm hoping this will make it to the right people.

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id fuck a 1000yo vampire idgaf about the age gap shit. tell me about the monastic schools in central italy you have witnessed first-hand old man.

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people are always like "Oh a vampire wouldn't get horny while drinking someone's blood, that's like getting horny while eating a sandwich" and like man have you never had a really good fucking sandwich?

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Vintage fashion plate, August 3, 1889.

Edited and cleaned by me. This is one of my favorite scenes.

Supplement: Latest Paris fashions, presented to the subscribers to The Queen

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am I into 'rope and rigging'?🤨 uh yeah I guess you could say so

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I use dummy names that are just random words to keep flowing, but a lot of the time those dummy names become the character's name.

I can't really give any examples of how I write being less polished bc I basically don't do drafts. I'm actually trying to do a second draft for the first time and it's really hard and the story is all different now and I'm actually not sure I like it.

My biggest advisement at this time is that the thing that is preventing you from coming up with plot is the fact that you're making up a world and characters separate from one another and not focusing on how the characters connect to one another. Make characters and focus on how they interact with and have relationships with one another. Stories are about people, and so people is who you have to focus on. The world will build itself if you put enough interconnected people in it. The stories will show up.

Don't focus on BACKstory, focus on how that character behaves NOW and WHO they interact with, and HOW.

Backstories are not important to that character's present. That character is not separate or independent of the world they were born into, nor the people in it. You can't just create a world and THEN jam some characters in there like this isn't a D&D game. Make a bunch of people first and the people will suggest the world they live in based on, for example, what they do, what they like, what they know.

I always start a story because I'm mad about something that I feel is missing or done badly in a genre + a "what if" butterfly effect question.

favourite things about first drafts:

square brackets with notes to self mid-line like [does this make sense with worldbuilding?]

ah yes, Main Character and their closest friends, Unnamed Character A and Unnamed Character B.

bullshitting your way through something that you probably definitely need to research later

also square brackets to link up scenes. [scene transition idk] my beloved

the total freedom of word vomits

"I'll fix that later"

the moment when the world and characters start to gain a life of their own

pieces falling into place as you write that you were uncertain about before you started

the accomplishment of Made A Thing

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Some of Maria Feodorovna’s most devastating dresses of your gothic vampiress/villainess dreams, ca. 1880′s-1890′s

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....but.... why?

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Ok so the thing is.

Backstory and appearance are NOT IMPORTANT. Do you hear me? Look at me, look at me. Listen. You are a writer. It does not matter what they look like. It does not matter what their past is, it matters what they are like presently and who they know and what they presently do with their time. You need to figure out their name, what decade of their life they are in, their hobbies, how they serve the community, and two people that are important to them.

Edit: And their name isn't even that important!--use a random word for now, whatever. I use all kinds of dummy names and sometimes that turns into the character's name because I get to liking it.

If you make enough people that are connected up enough, you end up with a community, and a community has stories in it, has conflict in it, whether within itself or between itself and the outside world.

Stop worldbuilding and THEN making characters. Flip it around. Make the people that live in the world first, and build the world with the people. Your problem is you're focussing on the parts of the character that have no story in them, because stories are about people and their relations with one another.

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sea ducks!

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You know what animals are underrated? Ducks!

I feel like when most people think of ducks they think of either mallards or generic farmyard ducks that you throw bread to. But there's so many interesting and beautiful duck species! Just look at these guys:

Idk I just really like ducks 🦆

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WHO ELSE REMEMBERS:

The Western Interior Seaway

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Dracula and Jonathan’s Tango - from The Polish National Opera production of ‘Dracula’.

With Choreography by Krzysztof Pastor and Music by Wojciech Kilar.

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DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE NEANDERTHAL CHILD WITH DOWN'S SYNDROME? Because they're all I've been thinking about when I'm sad for the past few days. Their existence makes me less sad.