ghostofnoir

[ghostofnoir]

That post that's like "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy" really blew the door wide open for me about how common it's become for a character's emotional intelligence to not be taken into consideration when writing conflict. I remember the first time I went to therapy I had such a hard time even identifying what I was feeling, let alone had the language to explain it to someone else. Of course there are plenty of people who've never been to therapy a day in their life who are in tune to their emotions. But even they would have some trouble expressing themselves sometimes. You have to take into account there are plenty of people who are uncomfortable expressing themselves and people who think they're not allowed to feel certain ways. It also makes for more interesting conflict to have characters with different levels of understanding.

[ghostofnoir]

[ghostofnoir]

Types Of Writer’s Block (And How To Fix Them)

1. High inspiration, low motivation. You have so many ideas to write, but you just don’t have the motivation to actually get them down, and even if you can make yourself start writing it you’ll often find yourself getting distracted or disengaged in favour of imagining everything playing out

Try just bullet pointing the ideas you have instead of writing them properly, especially if you won’t remember it afterwards if you don’t. At least you’ll have the ideas ready to use when you have the motivation later on

2. Low inspiration, high motivation. You’re all prepared, you’re so pumped to write, you open your document aaaaand… three hours later, that cursor is still blinking at the top of a blank page

RIP pantsers but this is where plotting wins out; refer back to your plans and figure out where to go from here. You can also use your bullet points from the last point if this is applicable

3. No inspiration, no motivation. You don’t have any ideas, you don’t feel like writing, all in all everything is just sucky when you think about it

Make a deal with yourself; usually when I’m feeling this way I can tell myself “Okay, just write anyway for ten minutes and after that, if you really want to stop, you can stop” and then once my ten minutes is up I’ve often found my flow. Just remember that, if you still don’t want to keep writing after your ten minutes is up, don’t keep writing anyway and break your deal - it’ll be harder to make deals with yourself in future if your brain knows you don’t honour them

4. Can’t bridge the gap. When you’re stuck on this one sentence/paragraph that you just don’t know how to progress through. Until you figure it out, productivity has slowed to a halt

Mark it up, bullet point what you want to happen here, then move on. A lot of people don’t know how to keep writing after skipping a part because they don’t know exactly what happened to lead up to this moment - but you have a general idea just like you do for everything else you’re writing, and that’s enough. Just keep it generic and know you can go back to edit later, at the same time as when you’re filling in the blank. It’ll give editing you a clear purpose, if nothing else

5. Perfectionism and self-doubt. You don’t think your writing is perfect first time, so you struggle to accept that it’s anything better than a total failure. Whether or not you’re aware of the fact that this is an unrealistic standard makes no difference

Perfection is stagnant. If you write the perfect story, which would require you to turn a good story into something objective rather than subjective, then after that you’d never write again, because nothing will ever meet that standard again. That or you would only ever write the same kind of stories over and over, never growing or developing as a writer. If you’re looking back on your writing and saying “This is so bad, I hate it”, that’s generally a good thing; it means you’ve grown and improved. Maybe your current writing isn’t bad, if just matched your skill level at the time, and since then you’re able to maintain a higher standard since you’ve learned more about your craft as time went on

[ghostofnoir]

Rethinking pacing

Pacing isn’t all about action. It’s about making sure that everything you write advances the story, even the quiet moments.

Instead of asking whether a scene is exciting, ask whether a scene is important.

Does it develop the plot?

Does it develop your characters?

If it does one of the above, then it's important and will fit into the pacing of your story. If it's important, that makes it interesting. If it's not important, it will be boring — and that's what pacing is all about.

[ghostofnoir]

Draco tops Harry 2024 recs

Here are some of my favorite fics from @dracotops-harry 2024. Listed in alphabetical order.

All We Want Is Danger by @cassiaratheslytherpuff [9k]

Something weird was happening to Draco. It wasn’t something Harry was used to being concerned about. He’d spent most of sixth year sure that Draco was up to something, yes, but this was different. This was – something was off. Wrong. Harry had never in his life been scared of Draco. And yet, something about him had changed enough to make the hair rise on the back of Harry’s neck every time he entered a room. The feeling was only made stranger by the rush of arousal that usually came along with it.

As Per Request by @thecouchsofa [17k]

Harry’s eyes landed again on the burn mark on Malfoy’s arm, his mouth going dry in response. “I, uh, I have something to ask you.” “Yes, I gathered that. I also thought that, by your own admission, you were fucking it up, so I’d best leave you to it.” “It’s … certainly something to do with fucking,” Harry said, rather weakly. Malfoy’s eyes widened, then quickly narrowed. “Are you trying to solicit me for sex, Potter?” “Um … I won’t pay you?” “What the fuck.” Harry decides that it’s high time to lose his virginity, and figures that asking Malfoy is his best option. He’s fit, he won’t go to the papers, and he’ll be fine with Harry’s ‘no emotional attachment’ plan. Surely nothing could go wrong there.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did!

[ghostofnoir]

I know adverbs are controversial, but "said softly" means something different than "whispered" and this is the hill I will die on.

[ghostofnoir]

Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy

[ghostofnoir]

Time doesn’t matter for the most powerful magic. Harry had a choice - to return to life or to die. And Draco reached out to him from the future and called him from the other side to give him a reason for live. And all was well.

[ghostofnoir]

⭐ commissions pricelist ⭐

🔞 nsfw _ +100%

🫂 +1 character _+100%

I wont draw: mecha, sa, copro/zoo/pedophilia, any type of assault

payment: paypal or карта монобанку 🇺🇦

COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN

to see more of my art it's under the #my art tag 🩵

links:

[ghostofnoir]

The majority of people are horny. People are always going to be horny. You cannot stop people from being horny. Throughout history there have been extensive attempts to suppress horniness and they haven’t worked. You can be mad about it all you want but horniness will prevail against any adversity. There will always be an aspect of horniness within society. Sexuality cannot be contained by having missionary sex with your spouse alone in the privacy of a dark bedroom.

#preach

[ghostofnoir]

#👀 #body body body #quench my thirst #harry potter art

[ghostofnoir]

the problem with reading and writing leading to a strong vocabulary is that you tend to know the vibe of words instead of their meanings.

if I used this word in a sentence, would it make sense? absolutely. if you asked me what it meant, could I tell you? absolutely not.

[ghostofnoir]

the other day a doctor told me that "the best way to make [something i should do but never want to do] routine is to put it on your calendar!" and i found myself completely buh-- hhuh?-- about how to respond. i was stupefied by the gulf between our worlds. i looked into her kind eyes and i thought "put it on my what?" shoot it into space? i did not know how to explain to this extremely functional woman that an obligation to myself, with no stronger enforcer than my own words on a calendar, is to me a tattered codex from a lost religion. like this text is maybe historically interesting but not useful as a structure around which to build a life. what am i now going to write that will (or indeed should!) have any authority over me later? WALK? i don't know her life! and in what world would i respect directives left to me by a complete stranger (me from two days ago) whomst i have every reason to distrust (ate all the entemann's and put our keys in the laundry)? put it on my calendar. ok, dr goodbrain. but in the moment i nodded like a grinning toy monkey and dutifully thumbed WALK! into my phone at 4 p.m. Repeat: Every Day like that would have any effect on my actual behavior. sometimes it takes an enormous amount of optimism to be a person and frankly i admire us all for trying to do it

[ghostofnoir]

i don’t trust people who hate ron weasley

[ghostofnoir]

The Auror Partners AU I’ve been wanting to draw for way too long

[ghostofnoir]

The Black Sisters 🖤

[ghostofnoir]

This is a(n unnecessary) continuation of my Dark!Drarry drawing so pls enjoy

Ref by Matthew Brooks