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what we should be wearing: a horrific mashup of victorian gothic and 80s clothes

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another yaesara headcanon: miko is unusually fond of dad jokes and only tells them to sara, who pretends to be annoyed but genuinely loves them

#yae miko #yaesara #kujou sara #genshin headcanons

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yaesara headcanon: miko is unusually fond of sad jokes and only tells them to sara, who pretends to be annoyed but genuinely loves them

#yaesara #kujou sara #yae miko #i need a place to start keeping track of my inconsequential headcanons

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Reblog if you write fanfic and would be totally down with your followers coming into you askbox and talking to you about your fic

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hey folks, I’m gonna introduce you to two very important fandom terms and they are watsonian and doylist 

they come (obviously) from the sherlock holmes fandom, and they are two different ways of explaining something in a story. say I’m a fan and I notice that, in the original books, watson’s war wound is sometimes in his leg and sometimes in his shoulder. the watsonian explanation is how watson (that is, a person within the story) might explain it; the doylist explanation is how sir arthur conan doyle (a person in real life) would have explained it. 

sherlock explains the migrating war wound by making the shoulder wound real and the limp psychosomatic. the guy ritchie films explain it by having the leg wound sustained in battle before the events of the film and the shoulder wound happen onscreen. the doylist explanation, of course, is that acd forgot where the wound was.

this is very important when we’re discussing stuff like headcanons and word-of-god. I see this when people offer watsonian explanations for something, and then a doylist will say something like “it’s just because the author wrote it that way,” and I see it when a person is criticizing bad writing/storytelling (for example, the fact that quiet in metal gear solid v is running around the whole game in a bikini and ripped tights) and someone comes back with “but there’s an in-story reason why that happens!” (that reason being she breathes through her skin).

there’s nothing wrong with either explanation, and really I think you need both to understand and analyze a text. a person coming up with a watsonian explanation has likely not forgotten that the author had real-life reasons for writing something that way, and a person with a doylist interpretation is likely not ignoring the in-universe justification for that thing. 

but it’s very difficult (and imo often useless, though there are exceptions) to try to argue one kind of explanation with the other kind. wetblanketing someone’s headcanon with “or it could just be bad writing” is obnoxious; dismissing someone’s criticism with “but have you considered this in-universe explanation” is ignoring the point of the criticism. understanding where someone is coming from is important when making an argument; acting like your argument is better because you’re being doylist when they’re being watsonian or vice versa is not.

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Hi! I've realized (damn) that I use the terms "realize" and "notice" a lot. <-Just like in this sentence. Really, a lot. In my last fic, with less than 5k words, there are 13 variants of realize and 3 of notice. Please, help.

Ah, you've got me at a good time, I just went through this with my own work. These are words that aren't actually necessary, but feel like they are. Here's a list of words you should be on the look out for:

think

realize

notice

know

hear

see

felt

Do a search for these words in your current work or manuscript, and nuke them from orbit. Now, there are some exceptions, such as:

Keep them if they're essential parts of dialogue.

Keep them if they're essential parts of the paragraph (reflecting on seeing a Bigfoot, trying to decide how one is feeling, etc)

Keep them if you really think they're justified in staying. (But nine times out of ten, they're not.)

Why get rid of them? Because they're almost always stating the obvious, something the reader can infer based on the POV, and only make your sentences more clumsy. If we know who's POV we're following, be it in first or third person, we don't need these add-on words to make that clear. It should already be clear that we're following the perspective of one person. Consider the following:

He wouldn't look at her, eyes fixed firmly on a point over her shoulder. She realized he was lying to her.

Versus

He wouldn't look at her, eyes fixed firmly on a point over her shoulder. He was lying to her.

Same sentence, same meaning, but in cutting that one part, it becomes snappier and more intense. Now, this is from the woman's perspective - what if we write it from the guy's?

He wouldn't look at her, eyes fixed firmly on a point over her shoulder. He knew she realized he was lying to her.

Even clunkier, right?

He wouldn't look at her, eyes fixed firmly on a point over her shoulder. He was lying to her, and she knew it.

Now, in this case I'm going to justify the use of the word "knew," because we're not talking about what the POV character knows, but what the secondary character is discovering. It's his perspective on what's going on in her head, which may or may not be correct. This works with most POVs - you might find it more challenging with Third Person Omniscient, but it's still worth doing (and if you're having trouble juggling Third Person Omniscient, just switch to Third Person Limited).

Editing these out takes work, but they'll make your sentences snappier, and your words flow better. Remember, there are always exceptions to the rule - if you can't bring yourself to cut a "he noticed" from a single sentence, it's fine, but if there are five of those to every page, get to snipping.

#this is a great tip #i ...realized... i do this pretty recently and how it's not effective language

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i might elaborate later but fanfic replies literally develop writer’s metacognition and make them better writers

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#lynarc your anatomy is SO SATISFYING #love her #shamir nevrand

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Santa Shamir

#she #😍 #shamir nevrand

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to be honest there has never been a fictional character i’ve actually wanted to date. like. i want them to date each other. i don’t want myself as a person to be involved in this scenario whatsoever. what would i add to this narratively? what’s my thematic purpose in the narrative? immersion breaking. 

#all of my fictional types are the same #buff martial artists that are stoic or emotionally constipated in some way #guess who i dated once: that exact type #oops it didn't go well because i need someone emotionally available and expressive #so! two different tastes for different purposes

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typing out my thoughts on my journey of experiencing this because it would be too long for tags:

This feeling has stopped me from doing so many things I had such an interest in, that maybe could have blossomed into something more in the time it took for time to reach the present. I’m glad I moved past the feelings of inadequacy about writing long enough (I’ve written before about how this was a hobby actively discouraged by ‘friends’ in the past) to actually start. For the fear of comparing myself to others, I was scared to seek out works to read, lest I feel that same sort of discouragement... but internally. When I was younger, I was very jealous of certain friends and peers for the amazing cool things they’d create. That I couldn’t. I operated differently and had different tastes altogether, but it didn’t matter! I wanted to be liked and seen, like most everyone wants in some form, and I wanted to create the things that people liked and feel that validation. But, as with writing, I halted myself out of the fear of my own inadequacy - the fear of trying and getting rejection that drowned out any self-gratification I got. Years went by and I barely created at all. Things resurfaced and I spent even more years trying to learn to love myself and process things I’d been through. I was in therapy for so long! I worked through some traumatic events like you would work through a web of knots on your back, slowly but surely, even as it brought back tons of pain. I don’t know when it happened, and it certainly wasn’t overnight or one big fantastical event, but now when I happen upon some work (art, writing, music, dance, skating, whatever!) that’s amazing or something I couldn’t do, it now inspires me. I feel excited and get ideas from it! My normal state is very depressed and unmotivated, no ideas - seeing someone else’s skills makes my brain wake up and go “oh NICE, ooH I WONDER IF--” and suddenly: ideas!  And now it’s like the opposite has happened from when I was younger: seeing a cool thing inspires me now instead of invoking feelings of envy. And, oddly, seeing something with mistakes I can see (meaning I was once at that level and had made those same mistakes, since you usually can’t edit a work that’s above your skill level since your eye hasn’t been trained for it yet) makes me feel inadequate! The same thing goes with unhealthy behaviors I see in other people that I’ve personally worked through in my journey. It’s like a reminder of what I or my work used to be like, but instead of relief, it brings up those feelings of inadequacy. There’s no real point or lesson, just an interesting observation I’ve made about how I’ve changed over time. No idea what caused the 180 -- age? therapy? self-acceptance? support? validation from other creators? -- but I just noticed that it’s there.

Thoughts from an inadequate fanfiction author

I just read a Reddit post about feelings of inadequacy and jealousy in relation to other’s writing, that clawing in your stomach when you read something that is so gripping, so incredibly paced, or simply so wildly popular (dripping with kudos, comments, what have you) that you just want to quit, because you can’t write like that, you will never be as talented, as popular, etc, etc.

It’s such a ugly emotion that I hate to even admit to it, but I just feel like so many writers need to hear this and need to know they are not alone when they’re overcome with this feeling.

The thing that has really helped me is remembering that I’m the only person on earth who can tell the stories I tell.

Every person has a history and background that makes them uniquely capable of creating what they do.

I try to equate it to music. There are indie artists whose music I adore (Bright Eyes is a band that specifically comes to mind). What if your favorite band listened to Mozart or Beyoncé and thought, I will never be as talented at composing as Mozart or as famous as Beyonce, and therefore, I will never write another song.

How sad would you be, how bereft, if the artists you love gave up because they weren’t “the best?”

You are that perfect writer, not to everyone, but to someone.

That means something. It is so difficult to remember, but it all comes back to self-esteem. You are worthwhile and your writing is worthwhile NOT because it’s the best, but because there’s only one person in the world who could write it, and there is someone out there who needs to read it. Maybe you can make a stranger smile or feel or laugh, if only for a minute, and what an incredible gift that is.

So I urge you not to dim your shine for any reason. Keep going, find your audience, get better, KEEP AT IT. The worst thing you can do is give up, because that’s the only sure way you will never be that kind of amazing writer you wish to emulate.

If you’re curious, I wrote in college, then took a 10 year break due to feelings of inadequacy after having writer’s block and receiving a lukewarm response to some chapters I posted. I decided 2020 was my year and have written 42 works (some short stories, some long ones) since January. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t let anything stop me from enjoying my hobby again, and that’s why I want to encourage myself and others to feed their passions. 

#personal #mental health journey

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now, more than ever, people need to show their support for trans women. JK Rowling is back on her terf shit on twitter and that means self-proclaimed 'radblr' is going to be having a fucking field day celebrating and harrassing trans women calling us rapists.

seriously, drop harry potter. i don't care what your excuse is for reading the books, creating content for it whether it just be dumb tumblr posts or writing fanfiction. take it from a trans girl in the uk - your engagement does have a tangible effect on our lives, and JKR has openly stated that most people who engage with that series agree with her view.

#i am not cis #it is not good for my mental health to go on a website for fandom escapism and see people openly debating my right to exist

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Friend requested Bernadetta with the light prompt on priv,,, :0c

originally intended this for patreon but they won’t let me upload videos directly

#excuse me as i stare in awe at that hair #WOW

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Reposting my entries for HubernieWeek2020, from last May!

Day 3: Present A rushed comic that I had thrown together last minute, about presents and gift-giving :) my comics are definitely better now(!!!), but I’m still pretty happy with this one!

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so i heard raiden shogun can't cook

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The only ones left by wildliime

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maybe it’s a curse