taaroko

[taaroko]

What even is webnovel?

The only time I've ever been on Webnovel was when a reader informed me someone had (very ineptly) plagiarized a large chunk of "If I Could Start Again," but then I got this comment on the appendix I recently attached to that fic—not the fic itself, or I might've believed it for .5 seconds longer. Behold:

I'm really upset! Your writing in (x fanfiction) is way too out of character. Is it even logical for the story to develop this way?! Just so you know, the "MARVEL: GAME MAKER SYSTEM" on webn0vel is the real deal when it comes to fanfiction. It's absolutely amazing and worth reading. My life changed after diving into that fanfiction!

-e31ym776 (Guest)

I love the complete lack of specifics, even before you get to them forgetting to fill out their form and include a title, but what the heck is this supposed to achieve? Is this a sock puppet account hyping up the writer's own fic? Is it more plagiarism? Is anyone else getting this kind of comment on their MCU stuff? As far as I can tell, the story the commenter so prefers isn't even about Marvel characters, it just has Marvel in the title, and it has 15.5 MILLION views so why would it need to feebly attempt to redirect readers from completely different websites? I am confusion.

#marvel fanfiction #webnovel shenanigans #fake Ao3 comments

[taaroko]

Okay that first reviewer clearly doesn't understand how kryptonite works but sounds like Sephora accidentally created a product line using Spiders Georg's face cream.

#spiders georg #sephora #reddit

[taaroko]

With only 2 days to go before the marathon starts, how many of us are the cat right now?

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

that ‘pakige?’ post but me, a couple hours after posting a fic, like ‘comints?’

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

The easiest way for me to get more written in a chapter I've already started is to reread and edit what's there. It often flows into new paragraphs without much effort.

4 days!!!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

Writing Tip:

If you don’t feel like actually writing, prepare for writing:

Open your WIP Word doc

Read the last page again

Scribble notes on what happens next

Once you’ve done this, you might just find yourself wanting to continue after all. And if you don’t, no worries. You’ve made it easier to jump back into it later. 

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

A great way for me to actually get some writing done is to work on it at all kinds of strange little moments. I used to bang out entire fic chapters on receipt tape when I was a Walmart cashier. Somehow it feels harder to find opportunities to write when I have more free time and less oversight. So frustrating.

7 days until the first story!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

My weird yet effective writing routine

To me, writing is quite an intuitive process. I basically just follow my gut. Nevertheless, throughout the years, I’ve been able to develop a pretty effective routine, and I’m going to share it with you now!

Writing circuits. I don’t know about you, but I’m super lazy, and I also love to procrastinate. So, instead of writing for three hours straight, I split this time into little circuits and plan them throughout the day. Let’s say I’ll write for an hour in the morning, then an hour and a half in the afternoon and so on. It’s also incredibly beneficial for your health – both mental and physical.

Have a plan.  I’m a discovery writer, and I don’t really outline that much. But as I go about my day – eg. when working out, or running, or cooking, or eating, or sitting and doing nothing because of this procrastination right – I think about what I want to accomplish. And I usually ask myself the following questions. What is the purpose of this scene? Which characters should appear in this scene? Should it be more visual or more internally-focused? What actually happens? How should I describe it? Thanks to this, I have a general plan, and I’m much more motivated to actually write instead of visualizing that scene in my head (we all know this, don’t we?).

Write. Then I write. I write whatever pops into my head. I don’t care if it’s logical. I don’t care how many times I use abruptly, saw, felt, etc. I just allow my imagination to create this story.

Notes. When I end my final little session, I usually leave some comments for myself. What’s going to happen next, what’s the next big thing I want for my characters, etc. Having these notes makes everything easier; I immediately know what I’m supposed to do.

Having fun. I don’t care about the word count, deadlines, or anything like that. I enjoy the process, and I’m always very grateful for everything I write. I actually have this cute/weird habit: Whenever I end my writing session, I say ‘thank you’. Out loud. (Yeah, awkward, huh?) Thank you for my amazing imagination which allows me to create places and people in my mind! This kind of approach always makes me happy and even more motivated for my next writing session.

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

On dialogue tags

I think the only thing that pulls me out of a story faster than overuse of fancy alternatives to "said" is when the writer has an allergy to identifying characters by pronouns or even their names. "The tall one"/"the blond one"/"the firstborn"/etc. It's like a series of little unnecessary riddles getting in the way of what's going on in the scene. It doesn't help paint a picture of the characters involved and sometimes makes it harder to tell how many characters I'm supposed to be keeping track of. Please, I am begging you, just use their names. In most cases, that'll work best and won't feel repetitive to the reader. Besides, I have a hard enough time remembering characters' names when they appear the right amount in the story!

The main exceptions that come to mind are:

If the PoV character doesn't know names of other characters yet, it's a good opportunity to think about which physical trait would jump out at them most, but this is probably best as a short-term strategy and they should learn names quickly.

If the characters you aren't naming are too minor to bother giving names, such as a group of vampire goons Buffy has to fight, pronouns and one memorable descriptor each should be enough to get her to the end of combat. "Goatee Guy," "Bad Bangs," "Sewer Breath," etc. Sometimes it's funny to go even more basic and identify them as "Goons 1, 2, and 3."

If you're writing about a character who is particularly defined by their profession or a certain descriptor, using that one repeatedly to identify them can be very effective. For example, in the Witcher books, the omniscient narrator uses "the Witcher" more often than "Geralt," which works very well in a setting where the general public is highly suspicious of Witchers and questions their humanity, and sometimes Geralt himself isn't so sure about his capacity for human emotion.

The main point remains, though, that using a wide array of descriptors in all the places where a pronoun or name will suffice can be very ineffective and distracting.

Only 11 days left! I'm in trouble!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

For me what usually fixes it is to reexamine the PoV character I've picked (because I'm most often writing rotating third person limited). That nearly always works, but occasionally I reexamine the scene and realize I'm trying to force a character to behave in a way that doesn't make sense for them. Once I loosen my grip, it starts flowing better again.

14 days left! One fortnight! Holy crap!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

one of the best pieces of writing advice i’ve ever gotten:

if a scene isn’t working, change the weather.

it sounds stupid, but seriously, it works. thank u to my screenwriting professor for this wisdom

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

I like this because I definitely remember writing Willow and Giles stammering a lot more in my early Buffyverse fics. That's how the actors deliver their lines a lot of the time, but it doesn't translate perfectly into fic. I think I subconsciously realized over time that including so many stammers took the impact away in situations where Giles would be flustered or Willow would be nervous.

16 days left!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

Stop listening to this dialogue advice

Here’s my take on writing better dialogue for your novels. Think of it as art imitating life! A lot of thought goes into well-crafted dialogue, and the key to this is keeping consistent with your character voices.

You’ve heard this before right? - “Listen to real people’s conversations to write better dialogue.” Right?

WRONG.

Here’s why.

#1 People repeat themselves all the time

They end up sharing the same information several times in different ways, and repeating the same info in your book is quickly going to annoy your readers.

#2 Real conversations tend to be extremely incoherent

People meander from their original topic about 17 times within a single conversation. They start to make a point and interrupt themselves and go completely off subject. In writing, this can seem as if the author doesn’t actually know what they want their characters to say.

#3 People rarely finish sentences

You will rarely hear a full comprehensive sentence in a real conversation. People will interrupt themselves with examples, with different topics and ideas, or they will simply trail off. Real-sounding dialogue is an illusion of thought-out and well-crafted lines you wouldn’t often see in real life.

On paper - real conversations don’t sound real. They are messy and they rarely deliver the information they need to. Unless this kind of speech pattern is tied directly to a certain character voice, avoid implementing it to all your characters. Here’s what you should focus on instead.

Character voices Build each individual character’s voice and manner of speaking based on their background and their personality, and write it consistently.

Take inspiration from oscar-worthy film dialogues Why? Because screenplay writers’ jobs are to be straight to the point with their dialogue. No line is there for the sake of being there. Each piece of dialogue has its purpose in the story. Strive for the same in your writing.

Cut out all the fluff You can do this in the editing stage, but make sure your characters aren’t engaging in small talk, or repeating themselves, or sharing any information that’s irrelevant to the momentary situation, unless it’s there for a reason.

Did you know that I have a Youtube channel? Follow the [link here] or below to subscribe and watch my latest video!

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

"Write what you know" is the one that always bugged me because how would anyone ever write fantasy if we stuck to what we've experienced in our own lives? Or period fiction? Or sci-fi? This was clarifying in a way my professors never managed to be. (But a lot of them frowned on those genres anyway.)

18 days to go!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

I've noticed that people take writing advice way too literally and then get really mad about it, so here's a quick guide of what the typical "bad' writing advice is actually trying to tell you.

[Note: you don't have to take literally any piece of advice. It's just there for your consideration. If you hate it, leave it and do things the way you want. But the reason all of this advice is regurgitated so often is because it has helped a lot of people, so it's okay if it's not for you, but it may still be life changing for someone else.]

Write Every Day

"Write every day" is NOT supposed to be a prescriptivist, unbreakable rule that dictates anyone who doesn't write literally every day isn't a real writer. It's supposed to be a shorthand way of saying "establish a writing routine. Get used to writing at certain times or in certain places or in certain patterns, both so that you can trick yourself into writing even when you don't feel like it by recreating certain conditions, but also because if you only write "when you're in the mood", you may never get around to finishing a project and you likely won't be able to meet publishing deadlines if you decide to pursue publication."

The point of this advice is basically just to get used to seeing writing as part of your daily routine, something that you do regularly. But if you decide you can't write on Tuesdays or weekdays or any day when you have certain other activities, that's literally fine. Just try to make it a habit if you can.

2. Show Don't Tell

"Show don't tell" DOES NOT AND HAS NEVER meant "never state anything plainly and explicitly in the text". Again, "show don't tell" is a shorthand, and its intended message is "things tend to feel a lot more satisfying when your reader is able to come to that conclusion on their own rather than having the information given to them and being told they just have to accept it." It's about giving your reader the pieces to put the puzzle of your book together on their own rather than handing them a finished puzzle and saying "there. take it."

So if you have a character who's very short-tempered, it's typically more satisfying that you "show" them losing their cool a few times so that the reader can draw the conclusion on their own that this character is short-tempered rather than just saying "He was short-tempered". Oftentimes, readers don't want to take what you tell them at face value, so if you just state these sorts of details, readers will push back against that information. People are significantly more likely to believe literally any information they are able to draw conclusions on without being told what to believe, so that's where this advice comes in.

3. In Medias Res

This one is so often misunderstood. "In medias res" or "start in the middle", DOES NOT MEAN to literally start halfway through your plot. It also DOES NOT MEAN that you should start in the middle of an action packed scene. It just means that when you start your story, it should feel like the world and the characters already existed before we started following them. It shouldn't feel like everything was on pause and the world and characters only started acting the moment the story begins.

This is why starting with a character waking up or something similar can feel jarring and slow. We want to feel instantly compelled by your character, and the most efficient way to do that is [typically] to have them already doing something, but that something can be anything from taking a shower to commuting to school to chopping off a dragon head. We just want to feel like the story is already moving by the time we enter.

4. Shitty First Drafts

The idea that you should let your first draft suck and not revise it as you go is a tip presented to combat the struggle a lot of people have with not being able to finish a draft. If you find you've been working on the same first draft for five years and barely gotten anywhere, you might want to try this advice. The point is to just focus on getting to the ending because finishing a draft can give you renewed energy to work on the book and also makes it easier to get feedback from readers and friends.

That said, if your story is flowing fine even as you go back and make edits, then don't worry about this. This is advice specifically designed to target a problem. Likewise, this doesn't mean that you can't clean up typoes when you see them or even make minor edits if you want to. It just means not to let yourself get completely bogged down by making changes that you never move forward.

A "shitty first draft" also doesn't mean that your story has to be completely illegible. It just means that you shouldn't let perfectionism stop you yet. I see a lot of people say "well, I can't keep going until this first part makes sense", and that's totally reasonable! Again, the point of this advice is just to get you out of that rut that keeps you from making progress, but if you spend a couple weeks editing and then move on or you find the book is still making forward strides while you edit, then you're fine. You don't need this.

5. Adverbs

The idea that you "shouldn't use adverbs" DOES NOT MEAN that any time you use an adverb, you're ruining your story. It just means that you shouldn't *rely* on adverbs to carry your story, namely in places where stronger verbs or nouns would do a lot more heavy lifting.

For instance, you can write "she spoke quietly", but generally speaking, that "quietly" there is a lot weaker than just subbing out this clause for "she whispered". You probably have the word "spoke" all over your draft, so subbing out one instance of it here for a stronger verb in place of the same verb + an adverb makes for stronger prose. This doesn't mean that you'll never want to use the phrase "spoke quietly" over the word "whispered". For instance, if I write, "When she finally spoke, she spoke quietly, like that was all the volume her weakened lungs could muster." In this case, I'm using "spoke quietly" specifically *because* it echoes the previous spoke earlier in the sentence, and it evokes a certain level of emotion to have that repetition there. I also used it because she's not actually "whispering", but trying to speak at full volume only to come off sounding quiet.

So when people tell you to cut adverbs, they're saying this because people often use adverbs as a crutch to avoid having to seek out stronger verbs. If you're using your adverbs intentionally, having considered stronger verbs but ultimately deciding that this adverb is what does the job properly, then there's nothing wrong with using them. This is just a trick to help you spot one common weakness in prose that a lot of authors don't even realize they have.

6. Write What You Know

This is potentially the single worst-underestood piece of writing advice. "Write what you know" DOES NOT MEAN to write only what you know or that you have to put all of your life's knowledge on the page. It just means that drawing from your own experiences and already there knowledge will help you craft a better story.

So, for instance, being an eye doctor doesn't mean you have to write a story about an eye doctor. It doesn't even mean you need to write a story that directly deals with any eye knowledge. It just means that there are likely things you've experience as an eye doctor that can help inspire or inform your story. Maybe you remember a patient who always wore the same yellow shoes, and so you include a character who does exactly that. Maybe you spent a lot of hours dealing with insurance so you decide to write about insurance agents. Maybe your practice was located next to a grocery store so you decide to write a zombie apocalypse story that takes place in a location inspired by that shopping center.

The point is that, as people, our lived experiences allow us to relate to other people and craft more believable worlds. So don't limit yourself to your lived or experience or feel obligated to only write the things you've done, but when you find yourself wondering what to write about next or how to give a character more depth or how to describe this random location, pull things from your life and let what you already know bring a certain level of unique you-ness to your writing.

And the MOST important advice I can give you is to stop looking at writing advice as some holy, unbreakable rules passed down by the gods that you cannot ever deviate from. And if a piece of advice sounds totally bonkers, do some research on it. There's a good chance that whoever's passing it to you has no idea what they're talking about. But even if every other writer swears by a certain piece of advice, you absolutely do not need to take it. Try it on if you want, and throw it away if you don't, but stop making yourselves miserable by letting random internet people dictate your life. Most people giving advice on the internet aren't where you want to be anyway, so don't expect them to be able to guide you somewhere they've never been.

Everything's made up, and nothing matters. Write what you want.

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

I think this post came across my dash a while ago when I wasn't clear on the differences between 3-5 and it was super helpful. I specifically remember noticing the last one as a kid when I was voraciously consuming book after book, but my characters rarely speak for multiple paragraphs without interruption by someone else or action tags so I don't often get to use it.

21 days to go!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

This has definitely happened to me once or twice.

23 days left!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

Truly the all time funniest writer thing is when you're doing edits and you think to yourself "omg I've got the PERFeCT sentence to add right here!" and then you stick it in all excited, only to find that literally three lines down you have virtually that exact same sentence in the draft already.

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

I think I've reblogged something similar to this already, but I love that it's coming from established authors too. I could probably get better at doing this. I mostly use brackets when I'm outlining an entire chapter, and then I go back and turn each set of brackets into a scene, but using them on a more micro scale to leave smaller chunks for later sounds very useful.

25 days left!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

Some editing advice for those of you who are already at that stage. Couldn't be me...

And for a non-paywalled article on the same topic...

27 days left!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

I don't often struggle to title my fics or my chapters (in fact it's often one of my favorite parts of writing) but I know a lot of writers do. How do you come up with your titles? Sometimes I brainstorm them with someone but they often just occur to me while I'm writing scenes.

30 days until IWRY!

Heyoo! D'ya have tips on titling stories, specifically fanfic? Thanks!

Hi :)

Sure, here are some options and tips for titling fanfictions.

How to title fanfiction

Some options:

a part of a song text that fits the story or the mood*

a line from the story - if it has a few chapters, use a line later in the story, to give a foreshadowing effect

an aesthetic foreign word that describes the situation or the emotions you wrote about

a part of a popular saying

if it’s a crossover, you could mix the titles of both source materials with each other

if the source material has a special way of formatting their titles use that as well (e.g. Chuck: “Chuck vs. ...”, Friends: “The One ...”)

Tips:

don’t make it too long, so people can memorize it

don’t make it too short (one word etc.), or people won’t be able to search for it easily

be careful when your title has a complete sentence in a different language - it could confuse the reader about the language the story is in

if you want it to be unique, search the fandom to see if someone else used it before or it can be confused with another work

give the title to a friend and ask what they would expect from a story with that name

re-read your story with your chosen title in mind and check if it feels cohesive

*Always be careful when using copyrighted stuff.

Have fun writing!

- Jana

Lists of Fic Titles

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel

[taaroko]

Hey, is it okay if I ask you a question about Marvel's Agents of Shields? You mentioned on the fanfic website that you shipped Fitzsimmons, Deke/Daisy, Mack/Elena, and Tyrone/Elena, from what I hear only Fitzsimmons got a happy ending (I haven't watched much of the show yet other than in bits and scenes), I guess my main question is what were your thoughts on the final season, do you wish the series had ended a bit differently (and that those other couples/ships had been endgame)?

Oh boy, my memory is so bad that I'm not even sure what happened with Elena anymore. Deke/Daisy definitely wasn't endgame but I wasn't upset about the actual final Daisy ship. Fitzsimmons had an excellent payoff. I definitely think it's worth watching the rest of the show if you're somewhere in the middle. The last few seasons had increasingly crazy premises but they were fun to watch.

#thanks for the ask!

[taaroko]

YAY! I am SO LOOKING FORWARD to TWO new Buffy/Angel fics from you during this year's IWRY marathon (you have always been one of my favorite Buffyverse writers and I honestly can't think of a another author/writer (at least not a current one) who writes Angel as well as you do), will they be one-shots or multi-chapter stories (I hope you don't mind my asking, I'm just curious)?

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy my fics.

The one I'm maybe 2/3 done writing is another one-shot set in S1. I'm not 100% sure what the second one will be but the most likely option at the moment would probably end up being at least 10K words, so medium-length.

#thanks for the ask!

[taaroko]

Unfortunately for me, this phenomenon triggers best with approaching work deadlines.

34 days!

@iwillrememberyoumarathon

So there’s a reason for this.

It has a lot to do with how your brain processes information and right as you’re falling asleep (or standing in the shower) your mind is calmer and can process things more clearly without the stresses of the day.

I’ve been known to tell my co-author that I’m going to go take a nap and then come back later with a bunch of plotholes/problem places solved.

This is why taking breaks works. It lets your brain have the space it needs to work.

#iwryficmarathon2023 #IWRY countdown #writing advice #bangel #buffy x angel