#I am so wildly specific with the style of things that I like

[neverchecking]

Heya! I love your writing style! I see this is a new blog so I hope youre having fun writing all of this!! <3 I wanted to request something with Twilight if that's okay? Id love to see a more sub side to him, everyone writes him as being some sort of a don, but I bet he has his weaknesses too ;) but tbh I'd love anything with twilight ❤ have a nice day and take care of yourself!!

Hi, thank you! I am fairly new to the tumblr scene, so I'm hoping I'm doing okay. I am also having tons of fun so far!

You absolutely can request something with Twilight! Especially sub! Twilight! Take care of yourself as well, darling~

If I become the blog known for turning the Links into subs I will cry /pos

they're just so submissive and breedable yk?

Also since there was no specification on Yandere type, I went, once again, with a softer Yandere! (I know I said mostly but Yandere has me in a hyper fixation chokehold so thats what I will write for now).

Smut so MDNI!

Smut CW: Mentions of slight breeding beforehand, Twilight likes being called a Good Boy, so praise, cunnilingus (I tried keeping it pretty GN, but I did write it with a AFAB! Reader.

Good Doggy

Since his journey to the Twilight Realms and this current one, Twilight had learned several things.

One: Turning into a beast of the Twilight had consequences. Ones he never would've thought about previously.

His appetite had grown exponentially, his senses were beyond heightened (He could hear your every breath, smell you from miles away, see you in the densest of fogs, practically taste you when you leaned in close enough he could feel the heat of your body pressing against his), and he was territorial. Beyond so. And it showed.

It showed in the low growl in his throat when Warriors dared to walk too close to you. In the warning flash of teeth he would show Legend when one of his quips teetered the edge between funny and hurtful. In the absolute glower he would shoot Time when he DARED to pair you with anyone other than him on patrol. You were his, his to care for and to protect. To worship and to glorify. His, his, his, his alone. He didn't share.

Well, not with just anybody. His cub had somehow wiggled his way in, playing around with you in Twilight's sight and that made something else show. Something entirely new. Something that had him yearning to give you your own cub to play and care for. While, yes, Wild was more than capable of taking care of himself, something in Twilight's hindbrain kicked into high gear whenever he saw you mothering over the Champion like it was something you had always done.

It was positively tantalizing.

It had him yearning just to pump you full of seed until you had no choice but to carry. Carry his brood, something that tied you two together for life. And that was really all he needed, wasn't it? To be tied to someone, especially such a divine being like yourself, for life. Tied so you couldn't leave him behind. He couldn't handle being left again. Not by you. He needed you to eat and breath, to exist in a way that kept him going. You were his driving force. His Mate.

Which brought him to his next point.

Two: Turning into a beast of the Twilight had consequences. Ones he never would've bet on himself having.

Because he ached to please you in every way possible. The canine in him just wanted you to be pleased with him, to praise him, to call him your 'Good boy' as you instructed him on what to do. On how to make you shiver against him, on how to make your thighs clench around him, on how to make you think of him and him alone.

Goddess, just the thought of being the sole reason for your relief had an invisible tail thwapping about wildly. Had him drooling. What good could he be if he couldn't please you after all? No good. And that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be your good boy.

No other title mattered.

And finally third.

Three: Turning into a beast of the Twilight had consequences. Ones that were so delicious golden and perfect that he had to thank the light spirits in some way, shape or form for them.

He had stamina now. Nothing could stop him. Not your nails, clawing into his scalp as you gently pulled at his hair. Not your thighs, clutching around his head in a suffocating hold so that he couldn't pull away (Not that he would ever dream of doing so). Not the sounds of your whimpers and whines as you pleaded with him. Pleaded with him to stop, then continue, then faster, more, hold on- Every instruction that spilled from your lips was followed to the absolute T.

Your eyes, dazed and lidded, looked down at him, swimming with lust as you gently combed his hair after ordering him to stop. Take a breath, you said. He didn't want to breath. Not when he could have this alternative. Not when he could die a happy man, being absolutely smothered by you.

"You look so good down there, Twi. Being such a good boy for me."

Your smirk told him that you knew exactly what those words did to him. Not that it wasn't hard to see. He audibly whined, like a canine being denied a treat, craning his neck for just one more lick. Just one more swipe of his tongue to catch just one more hit of you in your purest essence. Just one more please- He'd do absolutely anything for you! You just had to ask! All he asked for in turn was one MORE TASTE-

"I'm not taking it from you, my sweet boy. Just take a breather. Can't have you passing out on me."

Why not? Why not when that was what he wanted? Who needed a breather? Not him. And while you may not have been taking it from him now, you would eventually and he could not squander this moment. That would make him a damned fool.

"There you go, that's my good boy. You're doing so well for me."

He was doing well. You were praising him, bestowing him with your grace for something he was doing!

The second your grip loosened, he was right back to lapping at you, watching you carefully for any sign that you wanted him to change or stop completely. Anything, anything at all. He would follow. You ask him to sit? He is down on the ground. Shake? He'd do it. Speak? He is praising your gospel.

"Good doggy."

#linked universe #linked universe x reader #yandere linked universe #yandere linked universe x reader #linkeduniverse #lu twilight #lu twilight x reader #yandere legend of zelda #yandere twilight x reader #yandere LU twilight x reader #Yandere twilight #twilight x reader #loz x reader #legend of zelda #loz #Cindersins #I did NOT think this was getting done tonight #But sub! Twilight? #NGHGHH #BARKING #Get it? #Bcecasue #wolfie? Yk? #legend of zelda twilight princess

[loudclan-clangen]

Hey there!

Checking out Loudclan? That's great! Thanks so much!

Loudclan was originally planned to be drawn as I played the game like most other clangen blogs... Then I got frustrated about how slow it was moving and played ahead. Just a little bit, nothing to worry about, only about 1000 moons. So this blog should be running for A WHILE. I also take pretty big liberties with the designs and events. I think it's more interesting that way! Also it's been several real life months since I started playing and some things I just... forgot. Or lost. Either way, it's fun to stretch my creative skills.

As for the mechanics of the blog:

General Content Warnings Include:

Death, Animal Death, (Cat Death specifically), Death in Childbirth, Violence, Murder, Illness, Gore, Bad Parenting, Cheating, Affairs, Drama, Cursing, Language, Dirty Jokes, ECT. (if i missed something please let me know)

Updates are not going to be on a consistent schedule... ever. I'm a college student. I just don't have the time or energy.

The style is going to vary wildly. It's been years since I've consistently drawn cats and I wasn't ever really happy with the way I did it back then anyway. Come along for the ride with me! I'm just as surprised by what my hands create as you guys!

Overview:

Loudclan is set in a fictional location that is based on South Central Alaska. A group of rogues fled up the mountains to get away from the deep snows of the valleys at the beginning of a particularly harsh winter. The clan follows three "Leaders" in the form of the Leader, the Lead Healer, and the Lead Mediator. These leaders will each pass their position on to their oldest heir, the closest related member of their direct family. Issues regarding what happens when two cats have similar claims have yet to be sorted out by the clan, and may never be fully decided... *insert mysterious foreshadowing sounds*

If you are interested in more of a deep dive into the lore check out this post: Lore, or anything tagged #loudclanlore .

Want to see a list of all of the Loudclan cats? Go here: Allegiances.

Asks are welcome! I will do my best to answer them quickly and efficiently! I am happy to talk about characters, art, process, gameplay, pretty much anything. (I probably won't be showing sprites though, just because I've played ahead so far and a not insignificant amount of them are just... gone. Lost to the ether. Sacrificed so that my laptop could keep running the game.) All asks are tagged #loudclanasks .

Also fanart/writing/edits are more than welcome! You guys are so cool and talented and I am honored that you would want to make something based on my dumb little pixel cats. Referencing or imitating my style/designs/layout is absolutely allowed, just make sure to mention me so I don't miss them! All fan contributions are tagged #loudclanfan .

I will never complain about anyone "blowing up my notifications" or spam liking. I think it's so neat to see people go through the blog liking as they go. Don't worry about it. I enjoy seeing you enjoy my work!

A little bit about me, you can call me "D"! I use any pronouns, I'm pretty ambivalent about them but the majority of people use she/her for me and I'm fine with that. I'm 20, I live most of the time in Alaska and part time on a ranch in Texas and I'm working on my BA in Elementary Education. I started reading Warriors in 2nd Grade and stopped in 6th Grade but the brain worms never die. If you know me in real life no you don't: It took me all of high school to kill the furry allegations I'm not going through that again. Oh, and my main blog is @restinginpiecesofpizza but warning, there's spoilers for Owlstar's family tree for like 8 generations posted on there.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog! I hope you enjoy!

[ahhhsami]

What writing tips would you give to beginner writers?

These are some general things I wished I had known when I started writing. Keep in mind that everyone is different, so these tips may not be as useful to you as it may be to someone else.

Tropes exist for a reason. If you have an idea, but see that there's already a fic with similar ideas, that's okay. Don't be discouraged. Tropes are loved because people want to read them and reread them. Plus your take will always be different from others because we all have different perspectives, writing styles, and ideas.

Write for the hell of it. If you have an idea, just write. It's okay if it's not good. It's okay if you never go back to it. The more you write, even if it's not to be shared, is good experience and can help you grow as a writer. Keep in mind though, that the more you post, the more feedback you receive which can help you improve greatly. It's always good to get constructive criticism from others. It's also okay to not be interested in constructive criticism. You'll still improve just by writing more.

Write for yourself. This might sound cliché, but it's true. Write what you want to and what you enjoy. Even if it's niche, that's okay since there will still be people interested in it. Interests are not exclusive and you may even be surprised that what you think is niche, might not be at all!

Schedules work for some and don't work for others. If you're a person that knows deadlines work for you and it won't hinder your creativity, then set a schedule for yourself. Set goals of writing a specific amount of words. Set dates when you'll post new chapters. BUT, it's also okay if schedules don't work for you. They personally don't work for me at all. Writing and sharing, especially when it comes to fanfiction is FREE. So don't feel obligated to get a chapter out by this time or that time. Creativity comes and goes, things in life happen, there's so many factors to posting, so don't feel pressured to do as others. Do what suits you! Some people can post every week, some can post every few months, some people need years and that's perfectly okay.

Don't base your success on hits/comments/kudos/etc. Some of the best stories I have ever read on AO3 have had low hits/comments/kudos. There are so many hidden gems out there. But do keep in mind that when you start writing and posting, these things may naturally be lower at the beginning. Over time, as you post more, people can become familiar with your style and what you write. On top of that, this feeds back to just writing. Writing more will improve your skills, which then will draw in more readers and also get them to stay or look at your other works.

Don't be scared to share and self-promote. When you start, it can be daunting to share what you've created. But we all had to start somewhere and if you asked me if I liked my first stories, it would be a hard no. What matters when I do look back at them, is that I see improvement. And as long as you keep working and enjoying the process, then improvement will definitely happen. Finally, when it comes to self-promoting, do it! Sometimes the only time I see a new story that I end up loving is because someone has promoted their own work. They're proud of it and I love to find new things that people were passionate about. I will also shamelessly recommend my own stories if needed. Just don't spam people 😂

Pantser, Plotter, or Plantser. These are three different ways of describing your writing style. Pantsers are more fluid and free with the way they write. Plotters lean toward more strict planning, relying on outlines and following a specific plan. Plantsers are a combination of the two. Try different styles and gradually you'll find what works best for you. I started out as a wildly free, honestly chaotic, Pantser but am very much a Plantser now. Writing styles can change over time, but just know that being comfortable with the style you're using is what's important.

Hopefully some of these things are helpful. They're somewhat vague and not all of them are strictly related to writing, but they are all things that I believe are important to know. These are also some things that can even be helpful to people who aren't new to writing. These are all things that I still follow and practice to this day too.

PS: I like to keep my asks/dms open for people looking for a second eye on their writing. If anyone is interested in having me read anything and share feedback, you're welcome to send me a message. My availability varies due to work, so you may not hear back from me right away though.

#reply #anon #writing #fanfiction #fanfic #writing tips #if you're looking for more specific tips I can share in that way as well

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Actually wild for me that people not liking the one piece art style is something that's come up often enough that you've mentioned it like twice considering I personally love the (mainly manga (and not the digitally colored version), i haven't seen a lot of the anime although the animation in wano and egghead is gorgeous) art style a lot. For some reason I am always shocked to learn people have different opinions from me despite that being basically a daily occurrence

The messages I get complaining about one piece very wildly but mostly it's about the art style specifically about how the females are drawn and how it's misogynistic. My view is no one in One Piece is drawn with a realistic body type male or female. Well with a few exceptions like Luffy and his brothers but that's about it. But when it comes to female characters and how poorly they can be written in anime, especially Shonen anime One Piece has some of the best written female characters I have ever seen so that definitely makes up for the unrealistic proportions. Now, when I say best written, I don't mean just in anime. I mean in fiction in general. But I still get messages like this

Or like this at least two to three times a week

Really why did you send this? Were you expecting a response like I'm sorry it's popular it's just statistics. I've been on Tumblr since 2012 and I've been following the fandom statistics page. I think since then and I've never seen One Piece out of the top five on the anime and manga page and it's consistently in the top 20 overall so it's popular. It's going to get a lot of requests. I'm sorry get over it quit sending me the stuff. It's not going to change things. In fact, it just makes me want to stop doing this blog

I personally don't like Naruto ironically due to how it handled its female characters but I still make polls for it when requested. I even allow the curse polls and the memes that have gotten completely out of control. Please quit sending me these stupid messages. That's not what the ask box is for

#ask #not a poll #one piece

[howtofightwrite]

Hello! I have a very particular sort of scene that I've been trying to get right for over ten years now and I can't make it work; I hope perhaps you can help.

A husband and wife duo who have Mixed Feelings about one another are trying to break out of a facility. (He was recently discovered to be a spy, she is a conscripted soldier in the facility. She was sent to escort him to execution but hesitated - I'm not sure where, in the cell, in the hall? - and - he took advantage of this hesitation? she was arrested as a traitor? - I don't know that either, yet - and they end up running through the halls together to escape)

The facility is vaguely sci-fi; think Star Wars Original Trilogy-style weapons, and there is space travel, but technology isn't... wildly advanced. Like it's not all digital and holograms and hand-wavey stuff, it's only a little more advanced than what we have available now. (Like SW OT.)

Point A is them in the cell. Point B is them on a spaceship breaking free.

I cannot get them from Point A to Point B with any kind of plausibility, or without staggering incompetence on the part of the soldiers and commanders in the facility.

They would likely be armed with only her sidearm, unless they happened to grab rifles off of further escorts sent with her?

I'm sorry this is so vague, thank you in advance for any help!

Personally, I’m of the opinion that any scene that’s been marinating in the brain for a long time (especially for years) has deeper structural/internal issues than just putting together action. Just from reading your question, I can feel the way you’ve laid this specific scenario out breaking your own suspension of disbelief. You’ve got several problems that have built up over time and, now, they’re all working against you.

Change if it’s Not Working

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got came from being forced to memorize my martial arts school’s Ten Steps to Mastery as part of my first test for black belt. I only remember the first five and I can’t guarantee they’re all in order.

Set a goal

Take action

Pay attention to detail

Practice, Practice, Practice

Change if it’s not working

Regardless of whether you’re practicing a front kick or writing a full length novel, flexibility is important. The more we try to force something to work, the less likely it will. Training flaws into your technique means they’ll be more difficult to correct later. So, don’t forget to stop and look at the larger picture if you feel yourself getting stuck.

Remember, change isn’t failure. Writing is a complex process and not every idea, plotline, character moment, or scene is going to work out when fit into a larger context. And that’s okay.

Outside emotional exhaustion and stress, my writer’s block kicks in when I’ve taken a wrong turn in the narrative or am avoiding a difficult emotional moment that my characters need to face before their story can progress. Something has made me/them uncomfortable and instead of facing it, I’m attempting to avoid the uncomfortable feeling by throwing some other distracting piece, usually action, in the way. I call these moments false notes. I usually hit them when I’m coming at the story from an external perspective (what have I seen other characters do in other stories/films?) rather than an internal one. (What would this character do?)

If something isn’t working, stop trying to make it work. Instead look for what you’re missing, and where the pieces aren’t connecting. It’s usually further back than the scene you’re working on.

My characters are always right. I’m either not listening or going about it the wrong way.

Food for thought.

Your Heroes are Reactively Active

We hear a lot from the writing community about the importance of Active Characters. These are characters who are doing things to move the plot forward. They make choices. They take action. Then, there are passive or, what I like to call, reactive characters. They are characters who react to things in their environment, whatever that is, but they’re not actively making choices. Passive characters get a bad rap in American storytelling tradition (more so than in the wider Western storytelling tradition.)

Passive characters really shine when working with characters who are in settings where they’re struggling to survive. In the real world, passivity is one of the best ways to survive abuse. Any victim of long term or systemic abuse can tell you that standing up and fighting back, especially in situations where you have no power or means to change your circumstances, makes the situation exponentially worse. You’ve got to gray rock it out, suppress, and survive.

Lastly, there are characters I like to call reactively active. These are characters who feel like they’re being active but are actually just reacting to actions taken by other characters. They appear a lot in YA Fantasy, but they’re everywhere. And, because these characters are always reacting to another character’s (usually the villain’s) actions and choices, they get an easy out when it comes to escaping narrative consequences for the things they do. It’s a deceptive sleight of hand used to maintain a character’s moral purity. These characters appear active on the surface, but, underneath, they’re passively reacting to the narrative events inflicted on them. They don’t take action. They respond to action with action.

Let’s get back to your scenario.

We have a husband and wife in some sort of heavily or, at least, decently fortified, military installation. The husband has been outed as a spy, put in whatever functions as a prison or holding cell within the complex, and scheduled to be executed. The wife is a loyal soldier who must now choose between her love for her husband and her love of duty.

This has the makings of some good drama.

The first obvious problem point is that these characters are trying to do too many things at once. They’re coming to terms with their deep feelings of betrayal, experiencing a last minute change of heart, making a snap decision to escape, and rapidly coming up with a plan to escape in the heat of the moment. If this feels unbelievable, it’s because it is and, even better, doubles for putting the characters in a reactive or passive state. The wife character isn’t acting, so much as she’s reacting last minute to the immediate, impending danger. That would be fine if she wasn’t also having to help carry the burden of coming up with The Plan.

There’s the surface level here, where the last minute change of heart is mimicking the kinds of behavior seen in countless other forms of media regarding escape scenes. However, this narrative decision happening in the heat of the moment is also allowing the character to skate over the emotional consequences of her own betrayal. She’s not choosing so much as she’s being forced to make a choice. And that is removing her agency.

If she makes the choice earlier, starts putting The Plan in place with the help of some friends/colleagues (even if it happens largely off page) then executes at the cell, she takes back her agency and retains her status as an active character.

The difference here is in the processing time. Characters can’t plausibly escape fortified lock up without a plan or, really, The Plan.

The Narrative Structure of Last Minute Rescues

The first problem in your scenario is that you have two characters, neither of which are doing the pre-planning legwork required to successfully execute The Plan. Rescues are like heists, they either take a village or require characters who are extremely meticulous and actively manipulating the village to fill in the gaps. (James Bond does Option 2 beautifully, but even he has a team behind him.) Usually, both happen to some degree. The burden is segregated out into different pieces for different characters. Normally, there’s at least three. The character locked up is trying to figure out a way to escape, but comes up short. The one on the outside who is putting together the pieces needed to execute the rescue/get away. And, sometimes, the one on the inside who is experiencing a change of heart, who, at the very last minute, turns heel and assists with the rescue (most often in the turn of misfortune where a piece fails and the rescue is at risk of being bungled.)

All of this additional weight/build up/expectation of the non-existent plan is being put on two characters and crammed into a single scene.

Think about the rescue of Princess Leia from the Death Star for a moment. How many characters are required to make that escape work?

Seven.

All of them. If a single character in the entire group is missing, the whole thing falls apart. Even Threepio is necessary, mostly because Artoo can’t talk. This off the cuff, by the seat of our pants rescue requires all seven characters and they still end up bungling it to kill their samurai master.

You need one to turn off the tractor beam so they can actually escape. (Doing the real work.)

You need one to figure out where the princess is being held, unlock the doors, and figure out where they are.

You need two to bullshit past the guards going in and one to pretend to be a prisoner.

You need one to bullshit past the guards a second time to save the one that can’t talk with the floor plan.

You need the princess to be the one to get them back out because she’s the only one with balls.

And none of it mattered because the escape was a trap all along.

While you don’t need these specific roles for everything, escaping from a heavily fortified facility is not a two man job. That’s where the feelings of implausibility and extreme incompetence are coming from. There aren’t enough characters helping to clear the way or be there as a safeguard for when things go wrong. This feeds into the next problem.

Soldiers, Spies, and Their Squads

We have another unintended scenario brewing at the same time. And that’s the exhausted retail employee going on a rampage and slaughtering their surprised colleagues. This really knifes your tension. By reacting to the immediate danger, the wife is not making an active, conscious choice with full knowledge of the consequences, and those consequences are killing people she knows, respects, is friends with, shares a camaraderie, or who are at least familiar to her. These other soldiers aren’t faceless goons. It’s a lot harder to pull the trigger on someone you know than someone you don’t, especially someone who has the same values that you do.

Soldiers aren’t characters who work alone. They have a squad. They’re part of a unit. They have a support network surrounding them that allows them to do their job to the best of their ability. Spies are the same way. They also have a support network which allows them to act to the best of their ability, even when it feels like they’re acting alone. Spies have handlers and they have assets, their job requires they build their own support networks so they have someone who can get into the places where they can’t. Those people may be witting or unwitting assets but they’re still there.

Both of these characters should have fairly extensive support networks to fall back on when in crisis. They’re in crisis. The crisis is both physical and emotional. Where are their people? Two characters who are social archetypes whose jobs and survival during wartime are reliant on building trust and skillful communication have no one willing to put their lives on the line to help them out? They only have each other? That’s staggering incompetence.

Spies aren’t assassins. They’re social animals. Soldiers aren’t lone wolves. They’re social animals. If there’s a structural failure here, it’s happening with your secondary characters.  Ignoring the importance of secondary characters is a mistake that a lot of new writers make and I can feel those early mistakes being carried forward in this scene. This is what Hemingway meant when he said, “kill your darlings.” If an idea isn’t working, if it’s holding you back, kill it. Look at the problem and your work from a new angle. One good line or one good scene, regardless of your emotional attachment to it, doesn’t outweigh the entire work.

Plans and Floor Plans

If you’re having trouble coming up with a character’s escape, step back and take a look at the facility itself. Whether it’s breaking in or breaking out, you, the author, need to have a clear visualization of the entire picture so you can find the weaknesses or fracture points.

Plans are easier to conceptualize when you know what the dangers are and what defenses have been put in place to prevent what your characters are attempting. Which parts of the fortress are better fortified than others? Where does this military expect to be attacked? What have they done to prevent it? What are the patrols? Who are the techs? How does the military support itself while fending off attempts to damage its resources? Who handles the supply lines?

The boring minutiae of your world is what makes it feel real. Action is dependent on your world building and this goes deeper than just their weapons. The social systems in place guide how your characters fight. It’s there in how they perceive their environment, and how they recognize usable tools. If you build a functional and consistent world, the action will take care of itself because violence is a natural response to environmental threats. Violence seeks to exploit established systems, to gain an advantage over them. If the violence is imagined separately from the environment, the violence won’t feel real because it’s not reactive and it’s not reacting to environmental stimuli. From there, it’s not logical.

Ask yourself, why do we use guns?

Then ask yourself, why do your characters use guns? What does it allow them to do that they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise? Or, what does the gun do better than other weapons that makes it the preferred choice?

The answer for the real world and your setting might be the same, and they might be different. Both will influence how the character uses their weapon. How they use their weapon guides how they fight. If you’re lost, ask yourself questions.

For example, let’s take a last look at the prison.

Prisons are built with the expectation of keeping multiple people contained for an extended period of time, preventing them from leaving in the event of an escape, and preventing those who are sympathetic from breaking in to rescue them. What have the characters in your setting (not your protagonists) done to facilitate that goal? What safeguards have been put in place to prevent someone from leaving and entering?

In the real world, prisons are built in a way that two people can’t just walk out. There are points of entry and exit that are designed to be remotely controlled from secure locations and cannot be operated or accessed on the ground. You’d need someone (like R2-D2) who can access the remote functions to get someone past the exits that they can’t open themselves.

-Michi

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you're already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

#howtofightwrite #Michi answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

[saintsenara]

Hi! I just wanted to ask: what advice would you give someone who wants to start writing fanfiction for the 1st time, without any real writing experience? Have a nice day!

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i'm always honoured to be identified as someone who might have something meaningful to say about writing - and so i always worry about doing justice to questions like this without coming across as being flippant.

because i don't think its ever worth giving advice on writing style or techniques, because these are so inherently subjective. i am an unabashed plantser - i have a vague idea of how i expect a story to go [and i always skip to the ending first, harry burns style], but i let the muses take me where they will otherwise - and this obviously affects everything else about my writing process: whether i like to stick to a specific posting schedule [no]; where i begin in a scene [dialogue]; whether i prefer short or long pieces [yes]; what sort of themes i want to look at; my attitude towards the source material [i believe in the value of canon coherence, but i'm not drawn towards trying to make my work unclockably canon-compliant]; what i find useful to receive from others during the writing process; and the fact that i like to play with genres, themes, and pairings.

if these things don't apply to you - and there's no reason why they should, even after you've been writing fic for a century - then i don't think i'm qualified to give you any advice on how you should go about putting words on a page.

but i do think i can give you something.

because if you want to start writing fanfiction - as is the case for everything else you will want to start doing in your life - there is only one key principle to bear in mind:

fortune favours the bold

by which i mean, at the most basic level, that the only way to start writing fanfiction is to... start writing fanfiction. the only way that you'll ever know if it's something you enjoy doing - and what it is about it that you like, what you find instinctive, what you don't, what your "voice" is, which characters you find harder than others to bring to life, what techniques you'll use to plan, how your work will be received, how that will make you feel, how your style will change the longer you write, and so on - is to grit your teeth and just take the leap.

but i also think that remembering that fortune favours the bold is a fandom principle which serves us all very well in a context broader than just tapping out fics while hunched over our keyboards.

because boldness is synonymous with courage - and writing something and putting it out into the world does take courage! - but it's a courage which has quite a distinctive style.

boldness is not solemn, quietly-enduring, captain-going-down-with-his-ship bravery. to be bold is to be audacious, daring, cheeky, innovative, and a little bit irreverent. it's not someone saying mournfully over your coffin "she fought bravely to the bitter end" - it's someone looking at you in awe and saying "how the fuck did you pull that off?"

and this matters in fandom. because participating in fandom - whether you end up writing fic or not - takes a hell of a lot of brass neck.

after all, each of us has ended up here because we looked at canon and said "sorry - did you think you were done?"

and then - when canon got flustered and started stammering - each of us has rolled our eyes, rolled up our sleeves, and said "don't worry, hen. you can leave it to me."

to be in fandom is to have the audacity to treat the text as a springboard - rather than something which remains behind glass in a museum. it's deciding to fling the characters we love into genres they don't originally come from and revelling in the chaos which ensues. it's finding missing moments and daring them to be just as important as a canon scene. it's the fun of wildly improbable alternate universes - from dystopian horror to coffee shops. it's cheerfully ignoring that there's a point canon thinks its story ends - whether that's finishing narratives which end unsatisfactorily or just playing with happy-ever-after. it's taking two characters who never interact in canon, winking at the camera, and making them kiss. it's taking two characters who never interact in canon, winking at the camera, and making them fuck. it's having the time of your life becoming a malevolent deity and making a character suffer.

while it might not always feel this way, at its core fandom is fun. and it's fun in a way which is quite unusual in this day-and-age - in that it's something we get to shape for ourselves, rather than having to engage with a product according to the whims of the corporation marketing it. it lets us be indulgent without calling us greedy. it lets us chatter away at each other without calling us unproductive. it lets us be sincere without requiring performative earnestness from us. it lets us engage with the uncomfortable and the lurid without the bland sanitisation of respectability.

and it allows us to be hopeful.

and i have always been struck by just how much about fandom rests on hope.

to believe that the dead can live happily in another universe, to believe that time-travel can fix things, to believe that bad people can get their comeuppance, to believe that good people can be imperfect and it doesn't matter one bit, to believe that those who are hurt can be comforted, to believe that justice can be done, to believe that villains can be redeemed, to believe that an insignificant background character matters just as much as the hero, to believe that things can be better - whether your story is overthrowing a corrupt government or letting two people enjoy themselves uncovering a kink, to believe that the most improbable people can love each other - romantically or not... all of this takes hope.

and hope takes boldness.

so be bold and start writing.

be cheeky. take risks. be your own biggest fan. be irreverent. be cunning. recognise that not taking fandom too seriously is self-protective. be self-indulgent. have some self-awareness. be collegiate. gas up your friends whenever you can. be nice to your commenters and try and give them the benefit of the doubt if they express themselves poorly. be curious. regard disagreement as interesting. be compassionate. be tenacious. be prepared to write stuff that flops. be prepared to write stuff that gets left on the drawing-board. be prepared to write stuff people hate. be prepared to write stuff you hate. be audacious. believe you can do it. be hopeful. be daring. be brave. and be bold.

because i promise you that, even if you've never written a word of fic before, you can write your way into and out of anything - any fic, any trope, any pairing, any characterisation choice, any plot hole, any setting, any premise - and have fun and look good doing it.

if you simply have enough nerve.

#asks answered #asenora on writing #fortune favours the bold #shy bairns get nowt #alexa play naughty from matilda the musical #one for the theatre girlies there...

[that-ari-blogger]

A Study In Style

Roll With It is the best piece of television ever put to screen. This is not up for debate, I will not be taking argument. I will die on this hill. Roll With It is perfect. No, I'm not biased.

In all seriousness, this episode is gimmicky and fun, so as far as plot goes, analysis is difficult. Instead, I'd like to focus on the character writing and artistic embellishments on display and explore what they do for the story.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Spider Man: Into The Spiderverse, Arcane, Critical Role Campaign 3)

Artistic style is a remarkably underrated part of animation. People credit the writing and the direction, but the specific visual elements that make up a style can often have a more significant impact on the story.

Think of it this way. You are watching a series through a window. The direction dictates where the window sits and what it sees, the writing and the acting dictate what goes on outside, but if the style describes the window itself. A window made from tinted, stained, or warped glass will change what you see dramatically.

So, She-Ra's base art style relies on pastel colours and a two dimensional, cartoony aesthetic. It's realistic in theory, at least in contrast to One Piece, but its flat and appealing, and the expressions are often exaggerated to great effect.

Because focusing a shot is difficult when you don't have a camera (smudging colours in animation has a habit of not looking too good), animation has picked up tricks to focus the viewer's eyes. For example, Spider Man: Into The Spiderverse brought animation into the forefront of the public consciousness, and almost single handedly changed the industry, and it used a mixture of techniques to express its focus.

The items in the background of this shot are less detailed than Peter, and have a kind of 3D glasses effect making them difficult to focus on. They are also in stark contrast with the red of the Spidey Suit.

She-Ra takes a different approach, saturation. The vast majority of the series is shot in pastel colours with little-to-no shadows clogging up the shots. This is then accentuated by specific key-frames of bold colouration and deep shadows that contrast wildly with each other and the rest of the episodes they are in. I have a habit of using these key frames as my opening screenshot for these posts because I think they look the coolest.

The point of this is to highlight certain elements in your mind, in the same way that when you close your eyes after looking at a fire, the image lingers for a moment, memory tends to work the same way to bold colours. There is also the idea that making specific moments stand out visually tells the audience to pay attention.

If you focus on certain moments, you guide the audience's view towards them. It's the same thing that a camera does in a still image, focusing on specific items in the shot to guide the eye.

In Roll With It, as the characters present their own plans, the art style changes, to match the minds that you are being transported into. Adora's style is the same as normal for the series, but the contents are different. Adora is matter of fact and to the point, but she perceives threats everywhere. Adora cannot relax.

But the specific colour choice also has an effect on the meaning of a shot, and for that, let's discuss the other animated pioneer of the past few years, Arcane.

Arcane has zero chill, and even less subtlety. This shot centres around Jinx's mental instability caused by her sister. Its a tortured mind who is hallucinating about someone who isn't actually in the scene. So, naturally, her world is on fire with pink flames, associating that fire with Vi, for whom pink is a signature colour.

Glimmer, however, takes the series' key frames and colour and dials that up to eleven. Everything in this shot is bold and action packed. I am tempted to describe it as violently pink.

But the shot is entirely monochrome. Everything here is pink or black, and that acts as a neat worldview for Glimmer's worldview. Glimmer perceives the world in black and white, but where the white would usually represent good in that idea, here, it is replaced by pink, and by Glimmer. Adora has a reputation for a hero complex, but I would argue that Glimmer has something similar. Not in the same way as Adora's pathologic need to save people, but Glimmer definitely has an ego problem.

The pink also makes Glimmers mind difficult to read as an audience, and I think that is the point. Everything in Glimmer's worldview is super bold and in focus, meaning that it dims the effect of the focus. In the wise words of someone with a definite hero syndrome.

"When everyone's super, no-one is."

Glimmer is the perfect example of how someone with an incredibly simple worldview of good and bad can do some truly morally grey acts. In this case, because she doesn't believe in good and evil, she believes in Glimmer and evil. Either you agree with her, or you are her enemy. I wonder if that will ever come up again.

There's also no way I can mention this scene without pointing out that this is a reference top classic James Bond, and that speaks to Glimmer's character as well.

The original James Bond was a character whom the world revolved around, and who rarely ever failed. He was charming, and witty, and cool. In short, Glimmer perceives herself as a Mary Sue. And it's important to understand that this is her opinion of herself, and not the actual reality. Once again, Glimmer has an inflated sense of superiority and does not understand the fact that she could be flawed.

Bow, on the other hand, is simple. He is the single most simple character of the entire cast. But that doesn't mean he is flat. I want to stress that Bow is only rendered this way by the insanity of everyone else on screen.

In a world where everyone is a ticking time bomb, Bow serves to balance out the shenaniganry, which makes him an Orym figure.

Art by Hanna Friederichs (@agarthanguide)

For context, Roll With It is very clearly drawing on the aesthetics of table top role playing games. This is the D&D episode, and no this hasn't artificially inflated what I think of the episode at all.

Critical Role is a D&D actual play series that is currently in its third campaign. If you have read my series on Stray Gods, you will recognise two of the cast members of CR as Laura Baily (Who played Grace) and Ashley Johnson (Who played Calliope).

Orym of the Air Ashari is a character played by Liam O'Brien, a voice actor who is somehow not weighed down by the sheer amount of talent he is lugging around. Seriously, this guy has been in everything from Star Wars to League Of Legends.

In any case, the current campaign of CR centres around a collection of walking disasters, and I mean that as a compliment. Everyone in the series is one step away from spiraling into insanity, with the one possible exception of Orym.

So, Orym has taken the role of the team's everyman, rendered simple by the rest of the cast, and you can see where I am going here.

Bow and Orym are the straight men of the group (a deliberately ironic choice of wording), balancing out their companions and offering a sense of stability and comfort.

But, both Orym and Bow have stuff going on behind their eyes. Orym is grieving form the loss of his husband and father, and Bow is dealing with some serious self-worth issues, but you don't see those elements that often, purely because of the more overt nature of those they surround themselves with.

But this is a post about style, and what do the visuals of Bow's plan tell us about him?

Well, Bow's style draws on the aesthetics of the original She-Ra series, back when the series was designed entirely to sell toys and nothing else.

Once again, Bow is simple, he is a paragon hero, who is fighting in this war because it is the right thing to do. So naturally, his mind harks back to the version of this story that was purely idealistic.

I also want to quickly mention Mermista here, because she is my favourite character. In her mind, she is She-Ra, armoured up and powerful, the chosen one.

And this is where my point comes in to this post. That's right, I do actually have something to say.

This episode is a D&D episode because it is drawing on the key element of TTRPGs, the chaos. TTRPGs are fun and are designed to be a mix of different playstyles. Sometimes you are playing Blades In The Dark and you want to be something out of left field, and that is completely ok.

The message of this episode is that different styles complement each other and make each other better by contrast. Foils are important, even when they aren't antagonistic.

Final Thoughts

This episode is perfect. No more comments.

Next week, I will be looking at White Out, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #character analysis #what's so special about...? #she ra and the princesses of power #she ra bow #mermista can do no wrong #mermista #she ra mermista #she ra glimmer #glimmer #spop bow #spop glimmer #spop adora #spop mermista #roll with it #critical role bells hells #critical role orym #orym of the air ashari

[belethlegwen]

Hey I've read both your stories and I absolutely love them. I can't wait for the next chapters. I have a little question. I would really like to know what the different uniforms in The Stranding look like (Eastern Coastal Watch, Royal Guard, Medic uniform). What are their styles and colors? (I know some colors are mentioned in the story, but I would like to know how you imagen them or what they are supposed to look like). I would really like to get some reference pictures to imagen them better. Anyways thank you so much for your great stories!

Hello darlin! I am so so so so sorry it took me this long to get around to this ask. I'll do my best to lay some things out here. Apologies for how wildly messy this is going to be. I have a folder for uniform references but I didn't write down literally anything about where I got them from at the time, and they've been sitting in this folder for years.

Without further delay:

Uniforms of the Vogunti Military Branches

Branch One: The Coastal Watch

Our lads (and soon enough, ladies) of the King's Eastern Coastal Watch dress primarily in green with brown highlights and pants for the majority of the non-Officer ranks. The style, minus the hat, is very much like this for their jacket:

The jacket is green, with brown on the cuffs and for the vest. Typically, anyone below Major isn't required to wear the vest while on duty, a standard white/offwhite buttoned shirt underneath is more than suitable, but if there's a parade or an event then full dress typically demands a vest to be worn. Vests are usually where are Award pins are displayed, while rank pins are displayed on the jackets (specifically collars, shoulders and breast depending on branch and significance).

Their hat is pretty basic. A beak, the emblem of the Coastal Watch (there are slight differences for which region, Eastern/Northern/Western/Southern (distinction between East and West of the Collapse, the conflict area with the Hostenians). Their hats are green to match the uniform, and bands are added for rank.

For officers, the hats get a bit fancier and different in style, mostly in the sense that a band gets added for each rank and become more prominent/colourful as you climb through the ranks to make it easier to distinguish higher-ranked officers by the heights of the hats. ("High hats" very literal here).

They tend to be significantly fancier in make, bolder/polished beaks, metal embellishments. That kind of deal.

Officer UNIFORMS are similar to the coat above, but the coats are longer, and they have white socks with black buttons up the side that go to just about the knee, the pants are looser and tend to be a softer material.

This is the closest approxiamation I can find specifically for the coat. Higher collar, green instead of blue and brown instead of red. Vests are always worn (unless there's certain extenuating circumstances such as heat concerns, so on, but that's usually for training/more casual drills). White shirt, brown pants with a green stripe up the side.

The medics are pretty basic field attire when working, but for parade/events, they will usually be in the same dress as the regular Watch members/officers.

Lionus, bless his face, is supposed to wear an officer's uniform, and utterly refuses.

Lots of pockets, less buttons to fuck around with, additional straps for holding bags/packs in place better. They have broad belts with lots of pouches to help carry bandages, gloves, tools and medicine as necessary. Same hat as basic Watch Members.

Branch Two: The Inland Watch

The King's Inland Watch follows almost the exact same uniform dress styles as the Coastal Watch, but with stricter adherence to vests. Their coats and vests tend to have more buttons than the Coastal Watch as they are significantly less likely to need to remove their layers and do water rescues/swimming. Their colours are red with black accenting.

Branch Three: The Navy

General Navy attire for non-officer members (but still members of rank above Midshipman/Private) is extremely similar to this, though minus the hat:

Their colors as well are cerulean blue (leaning more towards a lighter version, like Crayola Cerulean/a shade darker than Sky blue), with admiral blue accenting.

Ranks below Major have long, relatively wide-legged pants of light material, white with no accents. Their coats have tails but are fairly short in the front, as shown, and they looooove their shoulder tassels in the Navy. Once you're above Sub-Lieutenant, you get tassels.

The accents on the sleeve-cuffs will be more elaborate as you get promoted.

Midshipmen, specifically, are not required to be in dress like this with the coat unless in parade/there's an event/inspection sort of deal, OR unless they've been assigned as specifically a Captain of a certain area of the ship, though those distinctions are typically reserved for Sub-Lieutenants or Lieutenants. Their coats have no accents on the cuffs or collar, no tassels, and their collar either isn't as tall or is required to be folded down (the Navy is the fastest growing military branch and has been for several years, sometimes the influx of new privates is large and they have to essentially strip the accents off of back-stocked clothing, so it's not uncommon for privates to sometimes wind up with collars that are too high, hence the rule about folding them down.)

This is a VERY similar kind of idea to how the coats change, with some minor details tweaked that I am not able to get like... 1000% into right now or I'll be here all week.

Privates do not wear hats, Lieutenants and everyone up to Admiral wear tricorners with varying bands/ribbons as accent.

Rear-Admiral and up wear Bicorners with feathers/colored bands and so on to express their rank. High-hats applies quite literally here as well: The more important you are, the bigger the hat.

Also the way they wear the bicorn is an indicator of rank, and also indicative of if the officer at the moment is directing just this vessel, or a fleet of any size.

This orientation is specifically "I am just as important off of this fucking boat". Regardless of status of current operation, members of the Royal family and the highest ranked admirals will always wear their hats like this.

Their uniforms are much more dressy as well, starting at Captain and going up through Commander, Commodore and the Admirals:

Differences being very high boots, shoulder tassels, etc. and their pants are white with admiral-blue striping up the side.

I did this as an embarrassingly rough attempt to colour it correctly as a reference for a piece of Henry and Melanie I had commissioned from Aaytaro back in the day, to give you an example:

It is terrible, do not judge me.

Branch Four: Noble Guard

Their colours are black and gold, with lower ranks accenting with white as well. The higher ranked you are, the more solidly black-and-gold your uniform becomes. You are a member of high distinction and require extreme respect, because you are typically dealing with (or are) members of the extended Royal Family.

This, but with white instead of red, and the lower ranks will actually have fully-white breasts beneath the golden embellishments.

Our Lieutenant General, Duchess Ais'lyn Vogunti, wears this specifically:

This typically with pants/a false skirt over pants. Her full attire for parade/events/just being a boss involves a gold-embellished belt with scabbard and saber. She wears an exceptionally large hat, wide brim folded up one side and pinned with a rank-distinguisher/royal emblem (depends on who she's bossing around that day) and very very large white feathers.

Similar to this. Black, gold accents/ribboning/etc.

They also do the high-white-socks thing for the lower ranks specifically, again with more white on your uniform meaning lower rank, less white meaning higher.

I think that's about it for these, but thank you so so so much for your patience! I have at least one more ask to get to but I'm still up to my armpits in trying to move and everything, so hopefully this will all settle out soon. Very glad I got this out while I had a bit of time this morning!

Thank you so so much for the ask <3

#g/t #giant/tiny #giant tiny #g/t author #g/t writing #gtauthor #author thoughts #The Stranding #Henry/Melanie #Uniforms #Character references #Watch #Navy #Noble Guard #I wish I had more time to really set this all out properly FOR MYSELF if nothing else #I'm worried this all just reads like a massive mess #hope it's helpful to people though!

[tapedeckshoard]

Writing Information

What I Write:

I am up for writing just about anything, sfw and nsfw! My 100% no-write list is as follows: I will not write about pedophilia, incest, bestiality, or certain kinks (scat/watersports/really heavy/dark kinks). If you aren't sure, just ask me! I will not judge you, and the worst I could say is no!

My main focus for this blog is reader-insert and human!reader, but I am willing to branch out! Like I said, the worst I could say is no! So hit me with whatever! I will write any style of reader (afab, amab, gn, trans) so don't feel left out! All are welcome here!

This is a Transformers-centered blog so I won't take requests from any other media, but I will accept requests from a wide variety of Transformers media! If I don't know it, I will do research beforehand to make things as accurate as possible! That being said, I do have a particular fondness for Transformers Prime because that show made my childhood.

How This Works:

If you want to suggest I write something, just shoot me an ask! It can be as vague or specific as you want! I don't take formal requests, so it's not guaranteed I will write it, but I will do my best to take your idea and make it into something!

Other Things To Know:

I have a job, and a fairly busy life sometimes, so it might take a while for any suggestions to get answered, but I will try my best and let you know!

I know it can be intimidating sending in an ask, but I promise I am harmless! I want you to spam my inbox!

Any other questions? Just ask!

You can also find me at @dipsticktapedeck on Tumblr (my main blog), Ghostsandposts on Quotev, DaddySnowflake on Ao3, and JunosTapeDeck on Pillowfort. Wildly different users, I know, haha!

Thanks for reading!

-Tapedeck :)

#writing #writing information #requests #tfp #transformers #maccadam #maccadams #tfp x reader #macaddam #transformers x reader #writers on tumblr #dipsticktapedeck #tapedeckshoard

[braisedhoney]

please tell me about the pigments i would love nothing more than to hear you talk about that one shade of red you like and the process it took too recreate it

... oh, op. you have no idea what you've unleashed.

alright. here we go.

OKAY SO THE RED PIGMENT. pr206. my beloved. my dearest friend. it was an absolute bastard to find because there are so many of these. however many you think there are, there are MORE, and that's only if you don't count the many many scenarios where colors are known to be multi-pigment mixes, usually varying in tone/shade/intensity depending on the brand and manufacturing style. some colors are more consistent than others, but there are situations where a color can be named the same and contain the same pigments and STILL look wildly different depending on the ratio, binder, and paper you use. and that's not accounting for the way the pigment is processed. some pigments (like pv19 for example) can come in so many shades it's frankly kind of ridiculous.

anyway, my quest begins when i am, admittedly, in an edgier phase. i want a blood red, but not specifically because of that—no, i want it because it is THE IDEAL COLOR (to me) for a perfect, warm, slightly muted but still intense shade to add to a muted autumn watercolor palette. and... if you look at my whole theme, you probably know how much i love warm colors. i want to paint mushrooms. i want to dim down some of the brighter greens to make them autumnal. i want the perfect red to put as an undertone.

the search starts in earnest.

the immediate issue is this: reds (and purples and pinks) have horrifically bad lightfastness. not all of them, mind, but many are NOTORIOUS for fading under uv light, which means they will also fade if exposed to sunlight even in passing should it happen often enough. and—in especially bad cases where they're essentially working with dye and not pigment—they can even fade inside your notebook. inside of a drawer.

so not only are we working with an unfortunate pigment base (i'm simplifying here, there's way more nuance to this but shh) but we are working with one that skews heavily toward floral pinks or oranges. the red i'm searching for is warm, but not orange. dries dark but not brown. is transparent, not opaque. that last part is agonizing, because i also desperately do not want a color that will fade on me or generally destabilize, and most of the stable dark red pigments are EARTH pigments like red ochre (pr101) or the like. which, while fascinating because of their historical usage in things like pottery and even cave paintings that last to the modern day, are VERY OPAQUE. this is an issue with my preferred style of watercolor painting specifically, because opaque pigments tend to lift easier off the page and limit layering.

the search continues. pigment after pigment breaks my heart for one reason or another, drying too close to the cooler purpleish-red tint of wine at best. i think i find it in perylene maroon, but the drying shift (the difference between how a color looks wet vs after it dries on the paper) is so extreme that it loses the luminosity AND it's more opaque than most. i languish.

for a while my search turns to creation. i try and mix as many of my single pigment colors as i can into something that vaguely resembles what i'm looking for—so i take quinacridones and mix them with napthols, with nickel azos, with dashes of ultramarines and burnt sienna. everything turns out either just a bit too opaque, just a bit too muddy (that happens with multi-pigment mixtures, and is why so many people swear by single pigment colors. it's personal preference, really, great art can be made either way.)

still, nothing works. failure haunts me. i sit before a pile of used up watercolor paper that is literally covered edge to edge in nothing but similar red squares with various gradients and blooms as evidence of when i tried and failed to convince myself my efforts were close enough. i admit defeat.

in the meantime i shift my focus. i try and appreciate different color palettes and profiles, experimenting with things like fully transparent palettes (personal favroite) to fully opaque ones that function more like gouache. but despite finding appreciation for it, i still think about the damn red that i could never recreate. it kills me.

and then one day, a youtube video. a pigment is being discontinued, and the watercolor community is distressed. this happens a lot, because pigments are actually not always popular because of artists—sometimes beloved colors are put out of production because larger markets like car companies no longer find them popular enough to invest in. this time, the casualty is pr206, aka brown madder, aka quinacridone burnt scarlet.

let me tell you a little about quinacridones. they are genuinely remarkable colors. they have their own cult followings because of how bright and abnormally stable they are under uv light. they're transparent. they're luminous. they come in mostly shades of red and pink and purple, though there are a couple oranges and yellows in there. (there are no quinacridone blues, as far as i'm aware, but the phthalo blues have that category covered.) they also rewet beautifully, so you can put them on your palette and let them dry and not worry about it turning into a useless little rock of color that you can't get any pigment from anymore.

quinacridone magenta (pr122) is probably the most popular of these, the most often used besides maybe quinacridone violet (pv19). a few years prior we suffered the loss of quinacridone gold (po49) and since then people have been On Alert when it comes to losing these colors. i am one of them, because i never got the chance to even see po49 in person, and now the tubes are so stupid expensive that even the student grade versions go for Ridiculously High Prices on ebay, and the professional brands are being hoarded like (ironically) gold by anyone lucky enough to have a tube left over.

but back to our main character. not me, the pigment. pr206. i have legitimately never heard of this one, which to be fair is probably because i try to limit the random colors i fixate on since the hobby can easily get VERY expensive if you aren't careful. but it's a quinacridone, and that catches my eye.

i open the video.

now, i'm sure any artist out there will be familiar with the fact that screens don't display color consistently. it depends on your device, but most can agree that something that looks cooler on one may be warmer on the other, it's just what happens. but i see this color being swatched, and my brain implodes.

it's almost a perfect match.

it could work. it could. years of thinking that same thought have left me bereft and mistrustful of this specific quest marker, but the thought refuses to leave me. probably because the 'discontinued' label flashes like a neon sign.

i resist for about six months, and then i cave. at this point i have genuinely been trying and failing to find this color for upwards of five years. i am desperate, and the color might not be available anymore soon anyway, and apparently i am weak to sales pitches. (note: the color IS now unavailable in some brands, but others bought a decent supply and should have it available for at least a little while, alongside po48 which is quinacridone burnt orange, a favorite of mine and probably one of the only oranges i use regularly. both are discontinued officially, but they'll still be on sale till those supplies run dry.)

the color arrives. i grab my favorite brush. i pull out my stash of paper that i save for special occasions.

it's almost perfect.

i mix it with quinacridone burnt orange.

the result is, i swear, a perfect match for what i have been searching for.

it's warm. it dries dark but not dark enough to look brown. it keeps its luminosity (thank you quinacridones). it's fully transparent (thank you quinacridones). i genuinely feel the urge to weep, but i don't because i am clinging at last to the dredges of my sanity and also salt makes watercolor pigments behave differently and i will not risk this glorious moment. finally, after all these years, bill cipher has a gun i found the goddamn COLOR.

i mix it with warm yellows and with my favorite blues. with the pinks, just to laugh. life is beautiful and i am painting its sunsets, and i do not care if they look ridiculously messy. i have won.

the moral of the story is to never give up. or maybe it's to remember you never actually know everything about even the fields you love the most, because this color totally blindsided me despite being much more common than i expected. or maybe it's that i seriously needed to chill out for a while.

but yes. that is the tale of one (1) of the colors that has taken up residence in my soul. i hope you don't regret asking now lmao.

#ney's art tips (art questions) #ney's chatter (ask answers) #so also i said that a good alternative to pr206 is pr175 #but i'm actually not totally sure about that because i've never tried it myself #watercolor is an expensive hobby and that's part of why i swapped to digital orz #BUT! from comparisons i've seen they are at least similar enough to scratch the itch #ironically i think i still USE po48 more than i do pr206 #but that one is also In Discontinued Limbo where you can buy it but supply is indeterminately limited lmao #still a gorgeous color though. #... wow. this was incredibly niche and probably barely coherent i am so sorry LMAO #but thank you for indulging my color madness. it was the only hobby i had for *ages*. #long post #very very long post #good god is this my longest text post? aside from maybe a hive story?

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

Mega Question…? Analysis:

« I remember » - OOTW reference

« Good girl, sad boy/Big city, wrong choices » - « white t shirt, good girl faith, James Dean look » (Style reference)

« We had one thing going on/I swear that it was something » - « we were something don’t you think so » (the 1 reference)

« ‘Cause I don’t remember who I was before you/Painted all my nights/A color I’ve searched for since » - « we were in screaming color//you showed me colors I can’t see with anyone else » (ootw + illicit affair reference)

« But one thing after another/Lost in situations, circumstances/Miscommunications » - « and I, lost you » (maroon reference)

<< this is her giving the thoughts on their past relationship>>

« Have to say/By the way/I just may like some explanations » - this is her now in the present asking for context

« Can I ask you a question?/Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room/And every single one of your friends was/Making fun of you/But 15 seconds later they were clapping too?/Then what did you do? » - « if one thing had been different, would everything be different today/rosé flowing with you chosen family/throwing pennies in the pool » (the 1 reference that signifies her trifes with the relationship that get referenced by specific occasions with others in presence »

« Did you leave her house in the middle of the night?/Did you wish you'd put up more of a fight/When she said it was too much? » - « you pick me up no headlight » (style reference) « it’s 2 am in your car/ headlights pass the window » (iwyw reference) + a metaphoric reference to if he showed up at her door like in betty

« Do you wish you could still touch ...her?/It's just a question » - this is her being snarky and asking if he still yearns for her after (probably) listening to keep driving and little freak and all of harry’s house

« Half-moon eyes, bad surprise/Did you realize, out of time/She was on your mind/With some meathead guy/That you saw that night/But you were on something/It was one drink after another » - reference to the BBMAs night in 2015 a la woman + exile

« Caught in politics and gender-roles/And you're not sure and I don't know/Got swept away in the gray » - this means how both of them got silent with each other because of things like 2016 elections, expectations from society, new relationships blah blah

« I just may like to have a conversation/Can I ask you a question? » - once again a tie in to her present state

“Include repeat of chorus”

« Does it feel like everything's just like second-best after that/Meteor strike?/And what's that, that I heard, that you're still with her/That's nice, I'm sure that's what's suitable/And right/But tonight… » - this is in reference to knowing he’s with Olivia and seeing them be together for longer than haylor (at least publically) makes her insecure in a sense that she thought she’d be his only ONE; « I hope she makes a beautiful fool, who takes my spot next to you » (happiness reference); « I’m sure that you got a wife out there » (rwylm reference)

“Another repeat of chorus”

Interestingly, the song is 3:30 long, which could be a reference to her being close to 33 when she released it….

Also, she sang it on May 20, the anniversary of Harry’s House, and dubbed it as being during a happy moment.

Anon - I have been sitting on this for ages, waiting until we got closer to the song’s anniversary to post. Thank you for your patience AND this analysis!

I have a couple things to add and a view or two that diverges but otherwise: spot on!

I think “sad boy” because he was wildly misunderstood. He had this image as a charming, British lothario and it was untrue and stifling. As we have seen over time, he is a kind, generous, loyal person who feels things deeply and is happiest even with/part of a family.

That “friends making fun of you/15 seconds later they were clapping too” line? Made me call into question Champagne Problems with the “no crowd of friends applauded” line. Ooof.

The politics and gender roles arguments? I think some had to do with her being called a sl*t and the “Madonna/whore” way she was being presented in the media (the dating too much and break up song narrative) , while he was lauded for being linked to a bunch of different women. Which—I don’t think he wanted to do, if I’m honest. He’d rather have been with her. But yeah - I don’t think 18-20 year old H fully understood the misogyny she was facing.

That bridge. Ooooof. The whole song is ambiguous enough that she could say “I wrote it about the past” but also make people wonder if it’s that’s true. She built in plausible deniability, but it’s flimsy. And she made sure we could tell its subject. I am going to go into this in another post…

But this is amazing. TYSM

[minecraftbookshelf]

Heyo just wondering if there are any physical descriptions of the rulers for marriage of state au? (there could have been some I have read before just can't remember) I know it is based off empires so the skins are prob somewhat relevant but the skins can be interpreted in many different ways. So I guess my actual question is, what does everyone wear??? Are chemises and stays common in some places? Do some empires wear a bunch of layers like the Edwardian and Victorian styles or are they like some specific cultural dress of somewhere? are some empires wearing an un-holy mash of a bunch of different styles? Hoop skirts and crinolines? (how do u spell that stupid word??? ;-;) I know you went into what empires wear is made out of but what garments are said textiles made into?

So I've made a few character design focused posts so far. Specifically, Joel and the Seablings so far. I'm in the process of writing Xornoth's. (I randomly generated the order for them because I am indecisive XD) They have their own section on the masterpost as it currently exists and will be one of the things I keep directly linked on the revised version when I get around to that.

On a general note, "what everyone wears" varies fairly wildly from empire to empire. My costuming decisions draw about equally from the skins and the architecture styles (e.g. greco-roman influences in the ocean empire combining with fantasy coture, Rivendell combines visual elements from the lotr movies with a viking-era Scandinavian influence, Byzantine layers and accessories in Mezalea, etc...)

chemises and stays are one of the varieties of undergarments that can be found, but very much older versions. Most of my influences are high/fallen fantasy and ancient civilizations through about mid-medieval Europe. So no hoop skirts or crinolines.

I'll save more of the specifics because if I type it all up here I'll be even slower about making the actual official character-specific posts

Edit:

There is also Official Art. So far just the Seablings. It’s linked on their posts

#ask and it shall be answered #justafeweggnoodles #marriage of state au #rain rambles #i am not a historical costumer myself #but i am close with several of them #so ive picked a lot up via osmosis #mos: asks

[time-slink]

completely unrelated to like, anything going on right not at all lol, but ive been thinking about the way ppl talk about art on the internet and its super interesting to me like

ive noticed 'i like your style' being used as a way of saying 'this looks nice' which IS LIKE TOTALLY FINE DONT GET ME WRONG but i find it fascinating that i get this compliment a lot when even the way i draw the same characters fluctuates wildly between art— i dont think i, specifically, really have A style, and i certainly don't aspire to have one?

i take it as a 'i like this art,' which it's definitely implying, but i kind of wonder where the terminology came from? is it something about how much art there is on the internet, that being distinctive is held as more important? and then somewhere along the line it just became synonymous with 'good'? am i reading it wrong and its more like a 'there are aspects of the way you draw certain things that i admire'? even if so, its interesting that people usually say 'i like your style' instead of 'i like this style', is it something about branding? no clue and honestly thats the fun part

#shush slinky #^absolutely no shade at all on people who say this #anyone who compliments art is doing such a nice thing and i'll take it in any form #im just a nerd about language sometimes #which you cant tell from the sheer amount of run-on sentences i use X)

[crusherthedoctor]

Tbh, the more I think about frontiers, the more it feels “artificial” it looks like a sonic game, and has elements people wanted, but it doesn’t feel natural. When I look at superstars, thats how I see sonic as a franchise. But when I look at frontiers, I get constant mixed feelings, especially with how it handled certain characters and story. I don’t know, but frontiers was probably a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Agreed.

It's not just the obvious qualities, like how it's piggybacking off of Breath of the Wild, or how various aspects of the level design are cobbled haphazardly in a way that detracts from the intended open world experience, or how bland everything is and how "Starfall Islands is meant to have its own aesthetic and style" doesn't work as an argument when there is no aesthetic and style for the environments, or how the writing feels a lot more Archie-esque, or how the voice actors sound less "I'm doing a low-key portrayal of these characters" and more "I'm genuinely depressed and bored IRL", or how The End is nowhere near as gripping as its manifestation of death schtick warrants, or how Tails says he's Wildly Inconsistent, or... everything to do with Eggman. Because even putting all that aside, the little things are frequently off as well.

Like cutscene pacing for example. There are so many moments with unnaturally drawn out pauses between characters during a conversation, and them just kind of fucking around and merely existing, the latter of which was something that the Pontaff games frequently got criticised for by fans. Then there's the specific way that references are often pulled off: they rarely feel natural and non-intrusive, and with how shoehorned they can get, you get the impression that they're desperately trying to convince you that they're totally Sonic fans to compensate for not actually knowing the games past the surface. Especially since half of them aren't even accurate references. Like shit, why not add an overdone Snapcube reference while you're at it, might as well given fans remember that more than they do the actual games at this point.

And I know I keep bringing this up, but I must stress: why is it that, nearly a year since the game originally came out, and despite all its popularity and acclaim, and fans taking any opportunity they can to boast about said acclaim ("It won an award!")... I can never find sincere praise for it that doesn't boil down to vague "They fixed it!" refrains, with maybe a side dish of Fuck Pontaff at most? Why am I more likely to find someone who can explain the ins and outs of why they like ShtH, ironically or unironically? Why am I more likely to find someone who can explain in helpful detail why they like Sonic Underground? Why are these diehard fans of Frontiers so reluctant to actually discuss the game, instead of repeating "It's the best because it is, please notice me Flynn senpai" over and over?

I'm sure they'd say that Frontiers' widespread adoration by the fandom shows they did something right. As if popularity automatically equates to quality. As if I can trust what a fandom that has grown to care more about portrayals that openly shit on the games has to say in order to convince me that I just don't get it, maaan.

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic Frontiers

[onyx-wyvern]

There’s a lot of those “how to write [x] character if you’re not from [x] community” posts out there but this one is one I only realised like 2 minutes ago so here we go lmao

I already see barely any trans characters in writing BUT one of the biggest parts of trans culture is the concept of dysphoria and how it affects people and how they relieve it. Trans rep in character design can be very obvious or very subtle, but it’s almost always defined by how dysphoria is dealt with across different individuals: top surgery scars, breast implants, cut/grown out hair, baggy clothes, etc. etc. the list goes on.

But I think a key to writing these characters well isn’t asking “how does this character deal with [x] dysphoria?” but instead asking “how does this character create [x] *euphoria* for themself?” I’m transmasc nonbinary, so my examples will relate to my own experience.

Instead of “dealing” with the size of my chest by just putting on a sports bra and wearing a sweatshirt, which wears me out and only worsens the feelings im having by turning it into a chore, I create euphoria for myself by committing to more. Instead of just dealing and making it something to appeal to outside eyes, I think “fuck it, go flat or go home” and bring out every too-small bra and a pair of leggings. I /will/ have a flat chest- not I want to /look/ like i have a flat chest.

I don’t tie my hair back to make it /look/ short, I cut it and style it to make it /be/ short.

Creating euphoria isn’t the same as just dealing with dysphoria, in the same way being isn’t the same as appearing to be.

Obviously for some kinds of dysphoria, it can take longer, be turned into euphoria only by one process, or, unfortunately, cannot be dealt with really at all in a physical way. One thing I can’t really deal with, euphoria or no, is my hands- they’re smooth, soft, and by all means incredibly small and feminine. The easy thing to do is of course to just wear a long-sleeved hoodie and keep the sleeves over my hands, and often times I do.

But sometimes euphoria doesn’t have to be physical, it can also be looking to the future at things that could be done later on; testosterone hormone therapy, or T, redistributes fat deposits and promotes muscle growth— both of which contribute to soft, feminine hands becoming thinner and more masculine. When I see my hands and think “man, this sucks, I can’t do anything about this” I deal with the dysphoria by rolling my sleeves over my wrists—but I induce euphoria by remembering what can be done in the future.

This is just my own experience with dysphoria as a transmasculine person- a transfem person might have wildly different experiences, as would an androgynous enby, and even other transmasc people. I’m only speaking from my own thoughts and feelings on the subject, but I do know that the thought process of “I am creating euphoria, not discouraging dysphoria” is a mindset that’s much more positive and realistic.

And if you yourself are trans and reading this, I want you to reflect on how you deal with dysphoria, specifically on whether you’re dealing with it by dealing with it, or dealing with it by countering it with euphoria instead.

You are your own person, and if you aren’t happy with that then be what you want to be- don’t just /seem/ to be what you want to be. This goes beyond being trans, of course, but when it comes to something as seemingly unshakable and dauntingly overwhelming as trans dysphoria, it can be a uniquely— and often horribly— lonely experience.

There’s days where I can’t put in the effort to give myself euphoria, and that sucks. It really really sucks. But whenever I can, that little spark of joy, that little spark of hope, makes it just a little more bearable each time.

If you made it to the end of this unedited wall of text, holy shit thank you. But also, remember to give yourself a little bit of euphoria every once in a while. Show dysphoria that this is your body, not its. And, especially if you’re pre-everything, remember that if you can’t do something today, the future can always have other plans for you.

#trans #transgender #transmasc #ftm #transfem #mtf #nonbinary #dysphoria #euphoria #trans euphoria #long post

[vergess]

What's covered by "prose editing"? Do you mean editor's services for articles and original work, SPAG for school work, beta-reading fanfiction, workshopping shitposts, what kind of services are we talking here?

I've edited for each of those media (primary and secondary school; fandom; shitposting), as well as the following:

Technical manuals (Chicago and Microsoft styles)

Newspapers, including strict character limits (AP style)

Copy and editing for research journal submissions (style provided by journal)

Print and digital magazines (style provided by publisher)

University level creative writing composition for short stories and novellas

Novel editing for slush submissions and indie publishing

The specific skills I have on offer include:

Spelling, punctuation and grammar (English-US and English-UK)

Developmental and structural edits

Content editing only for styles or fandoms with which I am already familiar, or for which a style guide is provided.

Redlining and line edits, with fact checks only for non-technical writing

Proofing, including print and digital proofing

Now, for readers who stared at "SPAG" for a second like "wtf does that even mean," here's some extra clarification on what those services are.

SPAG (spelling, punctuation, and grammar) is the most basic type of editing. It can usually be done by a computer automatically, though MS Word's grammar checker is notoriously bad.

Developmental edits are focused on helping the author decide their audience, conform to or break genre expectations, and develop the broad order of story elements.

Structural edits are focused on achieving the goals from development as effectively as possible. In fiction, this is the point at which cuts tend to start, with smaller characters being merged into single, more prominent characters. In technical writing, this is the point at which you determine things like the order in which data will be presented, what needs to be in the introduction rather than methodologies, etc. For writing manuals and documentation, this is the point at which you determine the specific categories and organization you will be using.

Content edits are what most people think of when they think "editor." This is the point at which the finished draft has been organized to the author's satisfaction, and the editor proceeds to go through it looking for style and factual errors. A style error varies based on the medium: something correct for a software manual in MSWG would be wildly wrong for a school essay in MLA or for a fanfic about Supernatural.

I consider informal manuals like Britpickers' Guides to be sufficient for most things in fandom, so if you have anything like that, then I'm happy to do content edits for unfamiliar fandoms too. However, if I am not familiar with a fandoms' canon, I cannot fact check the piece for canon compliance.

Line edits are sometimes called "punch ups" or "redlining." It is not related to the art technique or financial racism law. Line edit is the more common name. This is the point at which an editor goes line by line or paragraph by paragraph through a completed piece to adjust phrasing for maximum impact. If you've never seen a redline for text, here's an example of a redline I did last year:

None still living know what once sat where Refinement now rises from the Bismuth sea. > None alive yet know what once sat where Refinement rises from the Bismuth Sea. Rumors and speculation abound, but the one accepted fact is that the city sprang from the singular will and vision of one woman: the Founder. > Rumors abound, but only one truth is known universally: the city sprang from the will and vision of their singular Founder. No other figure in Refinement commands the same admiration and reverence. > No other figure in Refinement’s history commands more admiration and reverence. Though her name, age, and even species are argued over to this day, some details of her origins and mastery of the stuff of the Bismuth Sea are yet agreed upon. > Her name, age, and even species are as lost as whatever came before the city. Two pale shadows of her legacy remain: the myth of her origin, and the legend of her mastery over the chaotic tides of the Bismuth Sea.

Proofing is the last possible stage in editing, and occurs immediately before printing (traditional media) or publication (digital media). It's your opportunity to double check the piece for minor typos you missed before.

For print media in particular, it's extremely important to proof thoroughly. Once the book is printed, it cannot be changed. And worse, the process of composing a draft into a printable format can introduce errors, with hanging words on blank pages, or words cut off entirely!

For digital media, this is a less mission critical stage, as you can always correct the piece after it is live. There are two major exceptions to this: news writing, and school work. In both these cases, because the damage done by incorrect proofing is high and the opportunity to issue a correction is low, you should always proof schoolwork and news, even if it is submitted/published digitally.

So!

That's all of the editorial services I can offer!

Honestly, seeing it laid out like this, I think $10/1k words is a steal.

#answered asks #honestlyvan #editing