#I can write a thousand word dialogue about someone else’s feelings

[somerandomdudelmao]

@tapakah0

This little bunny means the world to me

#I can write a thousand word dialogue about someone else’s feelings #But I can’t fuckin express myself #However #Tapakah I want you to know #that you have absolutely huge influence on me and my art #You are so fucking important to me #too #important to mee too #yes I saw your ask #no I’m not showing it anyone It’s my personal treasure #I have a special folder on my tablet #it called (keep going mate) #It is strait up what it sounds like #my collection of the reasons to keep making art #to keep improving searching creating fighting reading writing #literally…uh #I’m sure you got the idea #you are in this folder too #because sometimes when I feel like I don’t have strength to hold my pen #I go to tumblr and search for you #And everything becomes a bit easier #thank you♡

[greenerteacups]

Hello GT! I almost never comment on anything online, but (after binge-reading Lionheart in about three days) I'm overcome with a desperate need to confess that I've developed an enormous intellectual crush on you as an author. I've never been particularly drawn to Dramione as a pairing before now - or even the HP universe in general as more than a very casual fan - but after reading nearly 600 thousand of your words, I'd be craving more even if that number was 600 million. Thank you very much for sharing Lionheart with the world.

It's a rare pleasure to read something where an immense thoughtfulness shines through so brightly not simply in bits and pieces here and there, but consistently throughout every line and every subplot you stitch together. There are other works of fiction out there that I love, but very, very few of them have been carefully crafted enough to allow me as a reader to sit back and have unshakeable confidence in the depth of the author's vision. Everything you write, from the smallest descriptive details to the grander puzzle pieces tying together each book, is delivered with such intentionality. Sometimes when reading other fiction I'll find myself impatiently wondering "okay, fantastic build-up, but when are we getting to the *really good* part"; with you, every part is the good part. The oft-cited slow-burn mantra of "it's not the destination, it's the journey" doesn't even ring true for me with Lionheart - because in your capable hands, you hurl us straight at that destination with every chapter. All of this to say that my starstruck inner writer is currently pinning a hypothetical pin-up poster of you to my hypothetical writer-ly bedroom wall as someone to look up to.

One of my favourite aspects of your work is how utterly hilarious you are both in your character dialogue and your prose. You've made me laugh more than you've made me cry - and you're guilty of making me cry a lot, especially in Book Four. You balance us between hysterical (funny) and hysterical (dirty, raw feelings) without a trace of whiplash, quite often imparting both simultaneously. Is interweaving humour with Everything Else something that comes naturally to you while writing or is it a process you're consciously juggling?

I've brooded and preened over this message for entirely far too long, and it's not fair to you. Suffice it to say you're kinder than I deserve and this made me want to cry. Any and all pin-up posters of me should render me looking like a deer in headlights, as is the appropriate reaction to this kind of honor.

I'm especially delighted by the hysteria (plural)! In general, it's easier for me to write humor than it is for me to write drama. Not that either one is easy as such, but I think drama requires more architecture. You don't have to explain if a joke is funny; it just is funny, and the audience knows why the characters are laughing/amused/happy. In drama, you have to achieve a certain level of technical character work to set up the punch of a moment; there's stakes, plotting, resonance, etc., and then you have to actually deliver it in a way that isn't either flippant, ironic, or Narm. Basically, there are more axes of failure. And the stakes of a joke failing are pretty low, too: worst case, your audience is like "eh, not that funny" and they move on. If a dramatic moment fails, it can take the legs out from under a whole arc.

One of my tests for whether a moment is ripe for comedy is the question of what the comedy is doing. Is it a realistic reflection of the character's voice in that situation? And, perhaps more importantly: why am I feeling the need to put comedy in this scene? Do I want it because it's natural and tone-appropriate, or am I trying to disguise my own insecurity about the dramatic content of the scene? If the latter, I tend to cut. You can't write from fear, you know?

#greenteacup asks #'with you every part is the good part' this is so wildly moving and poetic. what the fuck. i'm stealing this for my wedding vows.

[natequarter]

possibly useless writing advice:

learn to punctuate your damn dialogue. i don't care how much you hate semicolons, i don't care whatever else you do, you are punctuating your fucking dialogue. i will eat you if you don't.

use paragraphs. you don't need to know exactly how to use them, just make sure you haven't got a block of text and you separate your paragraphs (especially dialogue!) roughly by topic. it will make your work so much more readable.

only use a thesaurus if you need to use the same word a bunch of times, at least for the initial stages of writing. outside of that, you will simply look like a ponce. or an idiot. so if you're describing a room where everything is a different shade of blue, use a thesaurus. beyond that, unless you've forgotten a word, it's generally pointless. thesauruses are better for editing. not a hard-and-fast rule, but a good idea.

don't delete stuff. save parts you can't use now in a discard document. make sure you have backups of all your work, even the cringe supernatural fanfiction from 2011 or whatever. even if you never write for it again, you may find memories or phrases of value.

rewrite stuff. whenever. getting stuck? delete a thousand words. worst comes to worst, you bring it back.

don't worry about word counts, don't worry about having a daily quota. just write when you feel like it, and occasionally when you don't. it is a good idea to write every day, but if you can't, then don't. there's nothing wrong with that. it's a habit, just like everything else, and no habit is perfectly consistent.

keep track of your narrator. if only one person is narrating your story, they should not know things only other people know. if your narrator is omniscient or you have multiple narrators? fine! but if john is the narrator, he should not know what jane had for breakfast. especially don't slip into jane narrating briefly before snapping back to john. it's weird.

don't describe things your narrator wouldn't think to pick up on. this isn't a hard-and-fast rule, especially if you're introducing something/someone your narrator already knows of, but do you think about the fact that your mate has red hair when you say hi? probably not. your narrator is unlikely to do so, either. however, if it's your narrator's first time on page, you'll probably want to. be sensible about it.

just say said! use said! i don't care what you were taught, use said! nobody will notice. i promise you they will not give a shit. use said.

adverbs are literally fine. the most important thing is to be judicial in your use of them. is someone shouting? then don't speak of them shouting loudly; that's implicit. but is someone smiling, grief-stricken? then they can smile sadly. it's fine. who give a shit.

have fun and bite your enemies! they will be in awe of your brilliant writing skills.

#🗡️ #writing

[goshdangronpa]

Hey, I finally got to tumblr! :D I think I'm pretty out of touch with DR fandom, so I'm jumping at my chance to talk to a fellow partner in crime. What did you like about Irumatsu in the first place? I'm so deep into my headcanons at this point, I'd like to know how others perceive them. I love how you're writing their dynamic!

Omg heeeey :) thank you so much for your kind words about "Kaede's Rhapsody"! I'm exploring that very question through this story - if not, I would've skipped all these thousands of words and cut to the smut! I hope you enjoy that exploration in upcoming chapters ...

... and I can still answer your question here!

What drew me to them isn't deep at all. I enjoyed Kaede as a protagonist (I really needed to warm up to Shuichi lol). Then Miu Iruma swiftly became my fave char in V3, with her outrageous dialogue, huge personality, and shockingly fragile arrogance.

That's only enough to make me consider a ship. In fact, from introductions alone, I first fancied Kaede with Maki and accepted Miu x Kiibo as a given. But I've discovered that "Normal Protag and Somewhat Antagonistic Weirdo" describes nearly all my favorite ships. Both saiouma and oumota from V3, komahina in SDR2, especially tokomaru and syomaru from UDG. It's the friction that gives it spice: shipping two perfectly nice characters (such as, idk, saimatsu) isn't quite as fun as shipping two characters who bicker and clash between (or during!) wholesome cuddling (such as, idk, irumatsu!).

There's a real opposites attract thing going on, too. Kaede is clearly a prep (not derogatory) who dresses conservatively; Miu struts around in BDSM gear and features other punk elements. Kaede strives to be nice but won't suffer fools; Miu talks a lot of smack but backs down from any pushback. Kaede is selfless to the point of self-sacrifice; Miu dies after putting her own life before everyone else's.

Besides how sharply they contrast, I also like how much they have in common. Kaede and Miu are capable of empathy, but equally capable of taking elaborate measures for what they consider the greater good. They both die as a result of trying to murder someone else. They can be deeply stubborn. And heck, they're 5'8" blondes who press lots of keys.

What really makes the ship for me is how they complement each other. Miu's a bully, but Kaede consistently argues back without hesitation, challenging the self-proclaimed genius. She's no passive victim, which is so important to making this dynamic feel balanced. Even more important is that she’s not a brute about it, either. When Kaede’s done parrying insults, she takes a genuine interest in Miu and tries to react the girl beneath the gorgeous girl genius. Kaede seems to be the only character who takes pains to treat her like a person, rather than just some misanthropic weirdo.

I think during or after the fourth trial, it's said that Kiibo and Gonta are the only ones who considered her a friend. I think about that a lot, and I'm sure Kaede would've shed a tear for her. Moreover, she would've protected her before that point. And I think that one pleasant relationship could've brought out the protective side in Miu as well. These two would drive each other crazy, but they'd be there for reach other. If they don't rip each other apart first, they'd be crazy in love and crazy good together. Not to mention, fun to read about ... and write about!

#this took actual hours to write #cuz I'm intoxicated and was watching Disney's Tarzan lol #irumatsu #miu iruma #kaede akamatsu #thanks for asking! i truly adore this ship. always happy to talk about it and my story with peeps~ #Kaede's Rhapsody

[strangefellows]

Something that occurred to me this morning and that's been living rent free in my head all day RE: Canto IV part 3 and the Yi Sang / Ayin parallels (under cut bc spoilers for Canto IV and Day 50 of Lobcorp):

Watching Yi Sang's interactions with his mirror self/Sang Yi reminded me so much of the Keter suppressions, especially Day 50.

And I went back to look at a lot of the Day 50 spoken dialogue during the workday and...

I want to hope that Sang Yi makes it retroactively clear that we do not, actually, know the real Ayin's opinion on his fate. We don't. The only person who says he should be happy and satisfied and willing to fade away is "A", who we talk to on Day 50, who isn't Ayin. It's simply Ayin's Sang Yi, Ayin's mirror self, a part of his consciousness.

"A" is the one who says it's okay to fade away. "A" is the one who says to be satisfied with the work you've done so far. "A" is the one who says all that's left to do is watch. He says you/your and we/us constantly -- he's not saying how Ayin feels, he's saying how he should feel.

In fact: "A", in his final line, says 'fade away without a trace'-- which is a direct quote from Carmen. And I don't know about you, but at this point I don't trust a goddamn word out of that woman's mouth, especially when it's involved with someone she very clearly manipulated at least a little.

(I could write an entire essay on how I feel like Carmen manipulated Ayin into the situation we see in Lobcorp due to using her near-suicide against him as leverage, as well as the conversation she conveniently has with him before that about 'oh, if anyone said something mean to me i'd probably do something drastic, but not you, right, you can endure' and making him promise to continue her work...but I'll leave it at that for now.)

My point remains: how did Ayin feel in those last few moments, that final day? Was he crying? Was he angry? Did he beg not to disappear? Was he okay with it? Was he resigned to his fate? We don't know. We were just told by "A", his mirror, how he should feel.

In fact, "A" as narrator is the one telling us about all the flashbacks from a present-day perspective. He's not letting us see, he's not showing us how Ayin felt back then, he's telling us. He's not showing us how Ayin feels now, he's telling us. We're told secondhand everything we know about Ayin: from "A", his mirror, from Hokma and Angela who are biased in opposite directions. From the other Sephirah, who are also biased. Because the real Ayin, our "X", never had a voice or a face of his own, we don't know a single damn thing about him. Not really. Not like Angela and Roland. We're only told how he felt, what he was like from others' perspectives.

And it's so, so tragic.

It's why I am so sure Limbus will bring Ayin into the picture again somehow, whether or not Ayin is Dante like I theorize: seeing the parallels and seeing Sang Yi so heavily parallel "A" and Day 50 in the cutscene during the final boss fight -- it paints a stark picture that we have never, ever seen Ayin have a voice of his own. He's never been free to speak for himself. Never been given a chance to show who he is or how he feels. He's been told by everyone else who he is, and was, and how he should feel about it over and over for 10 thousand years. It's not fair. It's so deeply sad. Does Ayin even know who he is anymore, amid all the memory loss, all these people telling him about himself from biased perspectives? And he never was allowed a chance to learn-- in the end, he was told to fade away, and be okay with it, and we never even saw how he felt about that, either.

The first and last time we're giving Ayin's actual name...is right before he disappears. It breaks my heart, especially now with the parallels to Yi Sang -- Ayin, unlike him, was never allowed to fly again. He was just...swept away into nothing. (Fly My Wings fits so well as an Ayin song too, hoough...)

So I think, given we now have a protagonist who's also had his voice and face stolen from him -- who struggles to be heard and seen -- who is around people who know him and refuse to tell him the answers -- who has to find out who he is on his own, discover himself from a blank slate...I really do think at the very least we're going to get a very blatant parallel, if not Dante being Ayin outright.

It just doesn't feel right for them to just leave Ayin as a nothing character in a series where he's so, so important. We know more about fucking Carmen than him, and she's been a ghost that haunts the narrative since day one!

Anyway, oops, this got longer than I thought it would be.

#ayin #ayin lobcorp #limbus spoilers #lobcorp spoilers #i know i keep harping on my theory but i'm just So Sure of it #and anyway regardless of if i'm right Ayin DESPERATELY needs more screentime #at the very least bc so many people misunderstand him and that NEEDS fixed

[lynne-monstr]

Fic author interview! I was tagged by the fantastic @glorious-spoon. thanks, this was so fun!!

No-pressure tagging: @afincf-tirwer @shadaras @undead-robins @tka-trashfire @hils79, @nyelung, @vampirenaomi, @prince-of-elsinore

How many works do you have on AO3?

As of yesterday, 202!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

678,560 words. which i have mixed feelings about because. i'm proud i've managed to write so much but at the same time, i've been at this for over 10 years i wish the number was higher for all that time.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Things Best Kept Between Three People (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,389 kudos

Escalation of Commitment - (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,360 kudos

I say goodbye but mean hello - (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,283 kudos

This is the Place Where I Sit - (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison) - 1,006 kudos

In Possession Of - (Leverage/Supernatural crossover) - 715 kudos

looking at these fics, it's very obvious that another way of asking this question is: "what's the most popular ship you've written." though i am very amused that an actual crossover made the top 5, considering how deeply those have fallen out of favor in the past twenty years.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try my best! some years i am better at it than other. but even if i'm in a low energy moment, i appreciate every single comment <3

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

The leverage theme continues, apparently.

Just One Last Time (Leverage with Highlander elements. Eliot is immortal. Parker and Hardison are not).

I'm not usually a sad ending person but every one in a while I indulge.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Basically all of them lol. But I guess I'll say that ghost story fic because it got really sad before the happy ending.

This is not a ghost story (The King's Avatar, yuhuang, magical realism)

7. Do you write crossovers?

Yes! They are my original fandom love and such a wonderful self-indulgence. I should try to write more of them in 2024.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not on a fic, but I got plenty for my silly ramblings back in the shadowhunters fandom, sadly.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes! yay smut. I prefer mine with some kind of kink in order to hold my interest. (not that i don't enjoy non-kinky smut but when i do i tend to enjoy it for the emotional payoff rather than the sex itself)

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! How cool is that!? Love fandom translators and the amazing work they do <3

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I don't think co-writing is a thing that I would enjoy. Trying to merge my writing style with someone else sounds stressful and also i think i might be too much of a control freak for that kind of collab.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Whatever my ship of the moment is!

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I'm pleased that all my big recent wips have been finished! I've been working on a little "troubling rain is cursed" fic for a couple years now. it's only a few thousand words long so not sure it qualifies for wip status, but i would like to finish it so I can post it!

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think characterization and silly jokes.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Description. Despite my efforts I will never be one of those beautiful prose writers.

I think of my style as very "what you see is what you get" and I consider that to be both a strength and a weakness.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

It's a hard no almost 100% of the time. And something I will likely use the back-button on.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

My first posted fic was hetalia (germancest) and I had such a wonderful time in that fandom!

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Still really want to try and wrangle my onmyoji ot3 ficlet thing.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written

That question is cheating! But I'll go with my de-aged ywz fic because I never thought I could write a story over 10k words and I'm still very proud that I managed something nearly 70k!

Means of Transportation (The King's Avatar, yuhuang, de-aged ywz)

#meme things #oh no it's me #what a fun thing to think about. yay writing!

[redd956]

Vivid Detail & Description

Today in class while reading off part of a non-fiction journal I was asked both by a curious student and teacher where I get my vivid description from, and if I had any advise.

I’ve been thinking about the moment all day, since I especially couldn’t get my words out of my mouth properly to want to explain what I wanted. So maybe by adding it to my blog I could instead give someone else some good tips, tricks, or inspo.

A few of my own favorite descriptive sentences pulled from my own writing

I bet Jaxon himself was playing imagery in his head of me tearing Audrey’s place to shreds like a Kaiju in an old movie from the sixties, raring claws and everything. I can’t imagine how wild my eyes instantly looked. (CNF Guilt as Charged)

She made it out of a piece of abandoned towel. It’s vibrant color has long since been bleached by the sun, and the threads are beginning to come apart. Yet Candy holds it tightly against his skinny body (Dwarvish-Gnome Piece 2)

 Light rain turns into violent splatters before we know it. White streaks of lighting fractal across the sky, loud booms of thunder shortly following. Destroyed pieces of a fence stand in front of the yellow field. I quickly climb over their collapsed remains, them sinking deeper into the mud underneath our feet (Usarin’s Chronicles Child Sector)

Here’s things I do (Isn’t guaranteed to work for you, just things I do)

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes

By that I mean pretend you are trying to force someone else to imagine the scene, fantasy world, or characters without them ever being there. Bring attention to things only someone literally in the scene would experience.

Think about what the reader doesn’t know, and paint them a picture so that it’s as if they’re there, detail and all.

Show emotion and story through detail

Don't tell me she is depressed

Try: Her room looks like it hasn't been touched in weeks, yet there's no dust on her bed. The pillowcase to her favorite pillow is still dampened with tears, and she lays next to it drearily staring at the wall.

Don't oversaturate

Break up paragraphs of description and detail with anything and everything. There's more to writing than detail. Frequently those are really good at writing description and utilizing vivid detail lose the charm of their works and writing through oversaturation, where they do not know the stopping limit for description.

Use everything in moderation, which is a great piece of advice for anything and everything, but also applies to writing. This goes for prose, dialogue, jokes, and also description. Practice! And learn what works, what’s too much, and what isn’t.

Professional advise that I like & How To Achieve

Use those five senses!

Sensory details are incredibly helpful in making a scene read vividly. Never forget your five senses, they can make any boring description feel more alive.

Use descriptive words (and the right ones)

This is a much more difficult one to keep up with, but it is often the problem at hand. There are thousands of words in just English alone, but this applies to other languages as well. Although some words are synonyms, each of them are still descriptive in very different ways.

Take for instance:

Cold, Freezing, Icy, Frosted Over, Cool;

The woman felt her fingertips against the cold surface.

The woman felt her fingertips against the icy surface.

The woman felt her fingertips against the cool surface.

These three sentences are using these synonyms, however each of them convey a different tone and idea. One has ice on it, another is cool maybe even nice feeling, while one is simply just cold.

Descriptive words alone are helpful to practice with, because some bring in a lot more imagery.

Less descriptive words are fine, they can work, and this doesn’t just apply to adjectives. I might make my own series of posts for descriptive words.

#writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing advise #writing description #descriptive writing #descriptive words #writing details #writing vividly #writing vivid description

[pan-de-queer]

20 Questions Game

Tagged by @jadedloverart! for once, i've finished work early and am free to write fic and answer tag games today hahaha thanks for the tag!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

31 lmao, feeling a lil fandom old or whatever haha

2. Total AO3 word count

157,459 ??? wild considering i mostly post one-shots hahaha

3. Fandoms you write for

for the past few years it's been supercorp but you can also find bechloe, junksen/embry, some choices (the cyoa game), and les mis sprinkled in my ao3. all wlw too

4. Top 5 fics by kudos -

ruined nights make for perfect first dates (bechloe)

'cause you know all of my secrets (supercorp)

maybe i matter (because i knew you) (bechloe)

love tastes like spring and blood (bechloe)

kept my face to the sun (you drive away my shadows) (supercorp)

most interesting thing for me abt this is that ruined nights is the shortest one out of all five of these??? love that ppl liked it so much tho

5. Do you respond to comments?

as much as possible yeah! which reminds me that i haven't replied to @jadedloverart's comment on my fic. and other comments. i should do that hahaha

6. Fic w/ Angstiest Ending -

i don't end with angst haha i'm angst with a happy ending or bust lmao BUT the closest to angst would probably be love tastes bc the issue isn't solved until the very end

7. Happiest ending? -

all of them 💕 but if i had to choose then probabbbly cause you know

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not that i'm aware of!

9. Do you write smut/what kind?

nope! never been interested in writing it mostly bc my brain sees it as "action with even more emotions" and i have a hard enough time with action as it is lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

used to! and if you count the mcu+comics!marvel crossover i only posted a tidbit of, then yes, i still do

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

again, not that i know of

12. Ever had a fic translated?

yeah! can't remember for what tho but someone very kindly asked and i said ofc!! and then they sent the link but i can't remember where lmao

13. Ever cowritten a fic?

a long long time ago haha, wouldn't be opposed to doing it again though!

14. Favorite ship?

it's been supercorp since the pandemic! but who knows where the winds of my silly lil whims might take me?

15. A wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

all of them 💕 lmao jk jk but seriously i have a LOT of wips and i put them all under ONE file so it's like wading through a garbage dump trying to see what i'll do next and that's just for supercorp, i have separate untouched wips for allll my other old fandoms too lmao (some wips i doubt i'll ever finish for sc though are the undercover fake lovers one, the coastal cleanup one even though it SHOULD be easy in theory, the hanahaki au that's lena's version instead of kara's, and the one based off of emily the song by jeremy zucker)

16. Writing strengths?

anything descriptive! i can go in depth about shit forevveeerrrr

17. Writing weaknesses?

dialogue. like i can WRITE it and i can even write it WELL but that dialogue came from the bloodbath of thousands of drafts so

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in a different language?

many thoughts! number one being that if you don't know it, get someone who's above average fluent to help you if you feel like the language is needed in the story! and if the language is fake (like using kryptonian) then make the inclusion of it make sense! other thoughts are for my thinking only 💕 (and my unfortunate friends who have to listen to me lecture)

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

MAYBE ranger's apprentice or percy jackson

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

i can't pick favorite for my babies but i'm hella proud of all my supercorp fics rn! it had been so long since i joined a new fandom that i felt suuupppeerrr awkward posting at first! but it's been a nice experience shifting fandoms ever since :)))

for the no pressure tags! @nostradamus0 @sssammich @ridiculously-over-obsessed @tiny-maus-boots and anyone else who wants to join!

#tag game #while i do genuinely mean 'and anyone else who wants to join' it ALSO means 'i don't remember y'alls usernames' #and i'm p sure i just flat out forGOT even if in my heart of hearts i know that username hasn't changed in a long while #i just can't REMEMBER

[pascalsbby]

Oh Kat, let me start with I love you. I love you deeply and desperately for giving us Carnal.. the same goes for TDAHB. There appears to be no end in sight for how much this grows with each lyrical masterpiece I read and reread. How do I even start to compliment my favorite series and such a ethereal writer. Nothing I say can do either justice. But I am going to try.

The thing about it is that I not only relate to Birdie but you write in such a way that I also relate to this completely feral Joel.. the mental torment and torture they both go through is so palpable. You do such a beautiful job of bringing dark desires to life. It all feels so real. Something (everything) about Birdie is so deeply personal to me somehow. Like sure some of the details are not my exact lived experience (hitting close tho) but who she is at her core speaks to my entire being. I love her and want to hold her and never leave.

The dialogue, the set up, the internal monologue, real, real, real. Your style of writing gives some of the most visceral imageries I have ever experienced while reading.

I repeat almost every single line, paragraph over and over while reading. Letting the words roll around in my mouth and mind. I love the way they sound, feel and taste on my tongue. It is so poetic and deeply moving. My brain and body respond to your art in a way that has me on my knees for you, truly. It is such a hauntingly beautiful experience to read you work.

Thank you 💓

a gift for you "the warm, guts and roaring blood of me"

Sincerely, Carnal Mary 🫠

Mary, I love you back. Deeply. Here is my attempt at expressing what all of your love has given me.

I always sit and think about what I want to say, for far too long. Not because of any other reason besides the one where I want you/every who has commented and shown love, to feel how grateful I am for your feelings and thoughts. “I hope that they know when I say thank you I really mean: YOU’RE PROUD OF ME? YOU LISTENED AND LIKE WHAT YOU HEARD? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME?” Being seen and feeling heard feels good. It’s an understanding that I haven’t encountered too often. You make me feel seen, heard, understood, listened to. 

I haven’t written before this, in a really long time. I haven’t painted in a long time, either. Sometimes I think of high school me– she was familiar with far too much, far too soon, yet still believed in some sort of magic that is hard to pull from now. I’m terrified at the pace it's retreating, but it resurfaces every once in a while. It feels like an innate overflowing. The kind of warmth you can only get from sitting directly underneath the sun’s eyeline. I feel like that whenever I'm thinking/writing Birdie. She is a thousand different versions of me and you, of them, of him, whoever. But in this story, she is paid attention to… hated, discarded, loved; even in the name of love/lust/want/yearning. Yet she isn't shamed for any of it here. I’ve felt the overflowing the most when writing this, and even more so when reading what people (you) think about it, how it makes you feel, what you think about when reading it, too. 

Whenever I sit down and write, sometimes it hurts and I can’t get it out. Other times it feels like a warm hug. Regardless, I feel like I dug the heaviness out of my chest and sat it beside me for a while. This is the calm that I would sit on my bedroom floor and cry for at 14. This silence can’t be as loud as the deafening pull of someone else's forced anger/sadness/despair. This is mine, and yours, and whoever reads it and feels it in their chest, too. To hold the warmth, guts, and roaring blood of you is a privilege. Thank you for sharing your poetry with me.

Love forever n' ever,

Kat

#i am actually crying #sweetness #carnal #joel miller #tlou #the last of us #pedro pascal

[nekoannie-chan]

You didn’t notice me

Pairing: Platonic!Steve Rogers X Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.!Reader. ? X Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.!Reader

Word count: 649 words.

Summary: You were in love with Steve, but he doesn’t in love with you because Steve loved someone else, maybe an event will change both of your lives.

Warnings: Mention of an accident on a mission, not corresponded love, Steve is an idiot.

A/N: This is my entry to @cunaeparker​ Saw‘s One-Thousand Followers Writing Challenge with the dialogue prompt #25:

“You can’t tell me that I’m in love with you because you were too busy loving someone else to notice me.”

@saiyanprincessswanie​

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics be posted in other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other's people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and are not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

My other media where I publish: Wattpad, Ao3, ffnet.

If you like it, please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

Tags: @sinceimetyou​ @navybrat817​ @angrythingstarlight​ @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad​  @shield-agent78​ @charmed-asylum​  @pandaxnienke​ @real-fbi​ @smokeandnailz​  @white-wolf1940​ @tenaciousperfectionunknown​ @xoxonotme​ @bluemusickid​ @leyannrae​  @harrysthiccthighss​ @marvelatthisone​

You opened your eyes when you heard the hospital machines, you let out some air, what you thought had happened, you dreamed it, well not all, the incident that had sent you to the hospital did happen, but the rest of the story, it was only in your head. Yes, again you dreamed that you had a relationship with Steve and married him, but it was nothing more than that, a dream, something that would surely never happen.

Steve had let you down so many times, you delusionally believed in him, not counting the countless times he talked about her and she wasn't you.

Three years ago, he was supposed to invite you to a date to celebrate your birthday and he never came, you waited for him for a long while, he didn't even apologize the next time they saw each other.

Every time I invited you, it was the same, you didn't know how you could feel so excited after so long, but the disappointment began to get bigger and grew every moment and more. You walked around the room with your eyes, having the silly illusion that he would be there, evidently, there was no trace of Steve in the place.

"I think it's time for you to forget it," Zatana said, causing you to be startled since you thought you were alone, you hadn't even noticed her presence.

"Is he...”

"He's not here obviously, understand, he doesn't care," she interrupted you,” but if there's anyone else who's worried, maybe it's worth giving them a try.

You nodded, she was probably right, well, Zatana was always right, in the end, Steve only thought of her and you didn't mean anything to him, you just understood. As soon as your friend left the room, that person came in, from the first moment it was lovely.

"Cap, Y/N has woken up," Nico reported.

"Who?" Steve asked.

“Y/N... the agent who saved your life, Steve, you have invited her out several times and, in the end, you leave her planted pretending that you do not remember that you invited her out, and well everyone has realized that, I think you should stop playing with her or if in another way…” She pointed to one's Staff to give him an indication of the threat.

That person started making visits to you and they even started dating. At last, you were living what you always dreamed of and being happy; something you had never even allowed yourself to imagine with someone other than Steve. You had even forgotten about the Captain.

A couple of months later you found Steve at the Base, but he was already so insignificant to you, that you didn't even notice his presence.

"Y/N," Steve called you.

"Captain Rogers," you replied.

"Can we go somewhere else?” he asked you.

"What's going on?” you questioned while trying to remember if you had any mission with him.

He guides you to one of the empty rooms, it looked very serious, maybe if they had any mission, you should have paid more attention to the morning meeting, but it had seemed so boring, you saw it waiting for it to start talking.

"I like you and I want you to be my girlfriend," he said suddenly.

You started laughing, you couldn't believe it, it seemed like a mockery after everything that happened, you had already given him too many opportunities and now you were happy with that person, so Rogers just didn't have any chance anymore.

“You can’t tell me that I’m in love with you because you were too busy loving someone else to notice me.”

"Are you rejecting me? Do you know how many...?"

"I don't care, goodbye Rogers," you replied as you raised your hand showing him the engagement ring. You turned around and left, later you had a date with the person you loved.

#saws1kfollowerswc #Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x agent of shield reader #steve fanfic #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers one shot #steve rogers fic

[livlepretre]

I absolutely love your fics, and I was curious about if you had any writing tips you could share?

❤️

To be extremely predictable, practice is the very best possible thing-- that, and reading attentively-- pay attention to how other writers technically format their sentences-- especially if you like what you're reading. Like, when you're writing, say you have trouble describing how someone gets from Point A to Point B. Next time you're reading a book or fic you enjoy, take note of how that author does it. Write write write and the process will get easier and more freeing.

Other than that, my biggest advice is just to let go of your reservations. Like, I used to hold back on the sentimentality on my writing because I was worried about purple prose. But I'm a foolishly sentimental person. I was reading a novel a few years back and it hit me that the writer was just going there with the emotions and that I was being ridiculous holding myself back from writing those powerful and uncomfortable emotions just because I had this mask, both on myself as the one I show in public to others but then also in my writing. Try to let down your shields as much as possible (it's really hard) and write with your heart.

As for everything else, it's somewhat minor. Find the time of day that you write best-- it's different for everyone, but writing at the right time is something which I guarantee will improve your flow. Like, I have the most free time at night, but I am too tired to do much of use in the evening hours. I write best first thing in the morning during my first cup of coffee. I don't get to do that a lot because I have almost always had either a job or now a toddler who preoccupies me during those hours, but when I can sit down to write during the right time it's magical. I know lots of people feel this way in the pre-dawn hours before work, or in the evening once their responsibilities for the day are over with. Find what works for you and it will be a lot easier. Also, location can be so key. I procrastinate A LOT more at home than I do, say, at a coffee shop. I don't know why, but I can write reams in a coffee shop and at home I am busy like, browsing tumblr and fetching snacks and unloading the dishes and on and on and on. So the right setting can make a world of difference.

And the last thing, something I am very fond of-- is something I call gentle writing. What this means is that I do not set a goal for the amount of words I write in any given session. Simply opening up the document, rereading some passages, and maybe tinkering with a sentence structure counts as writing. Anything counts, because having that flexibility with yourself makes it so much less a chore and so much more an engaging activity. Sometimes I am in a flow and I write a few thousand words. Sometimes I am not in the right mood but I laboriously bang out three or four sentences over the course of a half hour.

(Actually, I do have a few technical pieces of advice for how I write which you might find useful:

I outline everything. Everything. These are extremely free-flowing, like, run on sentences with lots of --> arrows drawn to show how a leads to b. I start with a general outline for the whole story, and then for multi-chaptered stories I then break down into arcs, and then further outline what scenes I think will be in each chapter. I personally need a general roadmap in order to write, and it really helps propel me along. Random scenes and dialogue that comes to me can be pasted into the outline around the time I think it will be good for the fic, and instead of deleting scenes that don't work I just past them into the end of the outline in case some of it can be recycled later. Obviously it's important to deviate from the outline whenever the story leads you away from it, and there are tons of scenes in my fics that were spontaneously added in, but sort of knowing where the story is going really helps. And also for fics where you update in installments it can really help with laying down foreshadowing and things.

Character motivation maps are super helpful. Every now and then I list all of the main characters, and then I list what they want and what their goals are. Often, this makes obvious to me certain tensions and potentials for drama when I realize two characters are in conflict, that maybe I hadn't realized, and it also clarifies how everyone should be acting.

Reread what you have already written. You may surprise yourself how many hidden gems you find in your old writing/previous chapters. I get lots of ideas for plot points from things I published already that were just throwaway lines originally but will now come off as intentional and foreshadowing. It's a great writing hack.)

Writing is hard and it takes some bravery to publish. But so long as you are as honest as you can be, then there are going to be readers who love your work. You've got this.

#on writing #fanfic #anonymous

[onwriting-hrarby]

On writing advice

Countless blogs. Countless articles. Books by great authors, books by mediocre authors, books by bad authors. Physical courses and online courses and tweets and Tumblrs all dedicated to: make you write better.

As if writing was a sole thing, a sole notion, a commonplace and designation for everyone in the world, the same. As if writing was a natural thing where all humans converge—immovable, static.

How restricting—how incredibly boring.

Their advice

I've been seeing a lot of Tumblrs and blogs creating masterlists about "How to write a scene between a villain and a hero", "How to write a kiss", "How to write an angry character". All of their tips sound as if there was something so exact about writing. They make us believe there's a sole way to do this, and this is how you should do it (disclaimer: I do believe in the reader's criticism, and I acknowledge these tips might be helpful for a lot of people, so if they are for you, it's all good! But bear in me for a little longer).

But writing is not something universal—rather, the universality of writing stems from its specificity of it. Writing pours out of our own experience, vision and caleidoscope of ideology, experiences and semantics, and reducing everything to simple tips feels, at least, misleading.

First, we can differ in characters. Why? Because everyone has had their fair share of experiences with people. If I want to write a villain that is nuanced, I should be able to do that; but if someone wants to write a villain that is plain "villainous", it doesn't mean that they are not doing it correctly.

We feel the appeal of literature because it shapes our world—and it does because we're shaping literature in return, too.

It doesn't make sense that everything should be written the same, because not everyone experiences the same, in the same parts of the world, with the same ideology. How I, the daughter of an ex-dictatorship country, might depict a dictator, might differ completely from the depiction of someone who hasn't lived in a dictatorship. Expecting everyone to write the same is not also reductive and unfreeing, but also completely privileged and biased.

Why writing advice is often privileged

I believe that those who write this advice come from the same place. And I do, myself, when I give advice on planning. We come from higher education, or access to literature, or even access to a computer. We come from places we can turn on our TV and watch series and learn about pacing, or watch some tropes, or feel some way or another about daily topics.

But literature is not only writing, and writing (as it often happens) is not always literature. To write literature, there must be something else (I'll refer to it as truth, and speak about it largely after). Sure, everyone can put down a thousand well-written words, making sense, even with metaphors, and dialogues. But is this really literature—if we regard literature as something that transcends the writing and shapes us?

Because, if we do regard writing as literature, what do we do about the people who have so much to tell, but not the privilege to tell their stories?

When we tell someone about "writing power dynamics", are we all understanding the same? What about a kid who has been raised in a household with power dynamics, but can't rebel, or society doesn't allow him to see that? What about people who, for example, are not taught that their story matters?

This is the problem of a single story, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains. And while I think we're progressing in this sense (more and more new, unheard voices in literature and the book publishing sector), I am still baffled by how we keep normalizing certain writing advice on how to write certain scenes, and certain tropes, as something you should regard in terms of writing. Because not all experience is the same, and therefore, the advice that some people claim as universal might differ.

Because everything is your own tradition

Everything is a fashion, and everything is tradition. My literary tradition might not be your tradition. When someone tells me that "stories can be told in a consecutive way, in media res or from the end", or any other advice on how to plot, this feels so simplistic to me. There is just not one way—there are hundreds of ways to begin a story and tell it.

You can begin my merging voices of the beginning, the in media res or the end of the story. You can put different adventures in the middle of the main plot—coming back to what happened, but not in a chronological way (the way The Odyssey does). You can begin in the middle of the action and never address what happened before (Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin; The Transformation by Franz Kafka)—so that the "story" that was "worth" being told is not the "story" that is actually being told.

Pacing: "be sure not to use a lot of commas. Use full stops when you want to speed things up", etc. How about you get the help of the music, as if writing was writing a partiture (the way Thomas Bernhard did)?

The three acts of writing: What about you do five, or four, or basically, concentrate your whole plot in just an event? You can focus your story in just a day (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Ulysses by James Joyce)—not caring about the plot altogether.

You can write characters that are already "evolved" by the beginning of the story (Humbert Humbert in Lolita), that will never evolve (Werther in The pains and sorrows of young Werther). And so on.

This is the great joy—and obvious mess—about writing.

The infinite possibilities allow us to explain a story that is completely ours. Even if what we are telling is similar to another person's, the scope of the story might change completely depending on the words you pick, the way you use dialogue—every single little decision.

Cover the basics

Of course, it doesn't mean that you should not cover the basics. Orthography, grammar, syntaxis, vocabulary—this all comes in handy. It is handy, especially for non-English native writing in English (aka me) to have posts that signal you the use of "" for dialogues, and how punctuation goes.

But don't let the rules constrict you, it's all I'm saying. People that gives this kind of advice are well read, and have really studied this, and maybe have even gone to grad school for that—but what they normally fail to mention is that maybe rules are there to be learnt, then bended when we need.

You just need to be mindful of how you're writing.

Of course you should learn how to write in in media res, because if you don't, maybe you won't know when or if you're doing it and the plotting might be a whole mess. And you can't pretend to write a character evolving without having learnt that characters evolve.

Just like how we are taught verb inflection in a language, but then when we're fluid, we totally miss it and bend it to adequate it to the talk in the streets—writing is finding your best channel to portray what you want. Maybe the writing advice doesn't work. It doesn't mean that you're not doing it right.

But what writing advice fails to say

And this is the thing that angers me the most—maybe the reason why I've decided to write all of this—is that they never tell you to read.

It infuriates me: read all my writing advice, but forbid you to read a book. Maybe it's the kind of thing that's happening everywhere—we gobble easy content, and it's undoubtedly easier to read a short article on writing than reading a novel of 500 pages.

But it will never be the same.

Because what you can get from reading (or even better, a re-reading) is your own interpretation of the literature you've been given, and there's nothing more powerful to understand yourself—therefore, to understand your motives, your aspirations, your topics as a writer—than seeing how you, as a reader, react to structures, plot, dialogue, character ideology.

Use all the writing advice you want, but your writing will lack truth if you don't read.

Because few people have this spark—this truth about them that makes a reading special. And trust me: I read a lot of manuscripts, very good written, decent in plot. But this is not all. There is something, and I can't quite explain it—a soul, a spark, maybe. It is the moment when you read something and go: "Ah". It's like sighing of relief, having your heart clenched, being absorbed by something—plot, style, whatever. It's that word that the author has used that is so unique in that context, like you feel that no one has ever used that before.

Some people have the craft and the truth but, to me, they are extremely rare. And it's always much better to have the truth than the craft—the craft, you need to learn, and that's more or less easy (you'll find a ton of articles, haven't we said?). But the truth takes years, even a lifetime, because we are in constant development—after all, never forget that even if we apply the best advice to our writing, we're still human: inherently flawed.

#writing #writing advice #mywriting #thoughts #literature #books #books & libraries #bookworld #article #journalism #on writing #sometimes i give advice #hrarbywritingdiaries #hrarbycraft

[elapsed-spiral]

For the fic writer ask meme - 🎈🍉🕯️💞 !

Thanks anon!

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

I flatter myself that if you took my name off a fic, it would still be fairly obvious that I wrote it. My fics are stripped back, they tend to be funny and I think they sound in character. My style doesn't change dramatically (I did try a more descriptive style for a while but it just isn't me. I prefer to convey stuff through action and dialogue) but I am always trying to hone my style more by weighing every word.

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life?

(CW for discussion of trauma and suicidal behaviour in this response).

Honestly, borderline embarrassed by how much writing has helped me process my trauma, mostly by chance. 

I used to write to feel less alone but since I started properly processing things I've used it more intentionally as a way of putting distance between myself and my experiences so I can avoid falling Into The Trauma Pit. 

Flag has been both a blessing and a curse in that regard. I'm convinced there's people on the writing staff with experience of trauma because the way they write about it rings true. At the risk of oversharing and also being like 'he's just like me fr', the show has thrown me a few times with the parallels I've seen between Ed's and my own personal history, though predictably it took me a while to realise that's why I was Feeling Weird. That's included threatening suicide and having someone who claimed to love me tell me to just kill myself then (I hadn't shot them in the leg though, so there's that), having a spectacularly shit childhood (which came with a bullshit diagnosis I now need to spend thousands to get removed from my medical record) which led me to believe I was a monster, and similarities with the whole Ed threatening to sink the ship scene. Standard romcom stuff, amirite?

Anyway, I guess my point is: writing has helped save my life by giving me the space and safety (it's a space ship etc) to think about what I've done and had done to me without it consuming me and I'm forever grateful for that.

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

Restructuring took me to weird and heavy places multiple times, mostly on purpose, sometimes by accident. I'm really glad I wrote it and I'm very happy with how it turned out. The Morning After the Night Before also helped me to get a lot of heavy thoughts out of my head that eps 1 to 3 stirred up. I feel a lot lighter for having written it and I really think it captures how I was feeling and thinking. 

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

The characters, absolutely. I love figuring out what makes them tick, putting them in Situations, getting their voices right. Everything else is just accessory to the characters for me. 

writer ask meme

[emersonfreepress]

For trans MCs, you said gender angst can/will manifest in the form of people who knew MC pre-transition can accidentally call them by their wrong pronouns and their deadname. I'm curious about the mechanics of it.

How will you handle the deadname part? Will we have to enter a name or will the narration be like

"And there is you, with the name you...

a) used to have (enter the deadname) b) still use even after transition (name remains the same) c) no longer use after transition. (skip entering a deadname)"

Related to it: will we get to be nonbinary and trans?

Can MC be nonbinary from the start even if cis? Like with the deadname option, will it be like:

"Before coming out as nonbinary, you...

a) used she/her pronouns b) used he/him pronouns c) ... well, you don't want to think about that time (avoid putting pronouns)"

Coding and narration-wise though, I can see that would be hard, especially if those few people who knew MC pre-coming out have dialogues or direct conversations with MC, or even just talking about MC's past to someone else.

Like using direct speech if pronouns and/or deadname is put:

""Yeah, then (Deadname) did (former pronoun) best," said Character A."

vs indirect speech if not:

"Character A said you did your best, using your deadname and former pronouns before apologizing and correcting themselves."

So I'd understand if you don't implement such options.

Ok, there's at least three questions here 😅 That's why it took me a while to properly finish this answer, I think I ended up confusing myself a few times lol

Regarding MC deadnames

I only plan for deadname customization around the time of the first scene it is actually relevant to, which isn't until Thanksgiving-times (typical). You'll be able to write in a custom one or choose that you've always had the same name. That won't extend to misgendered pronouns, though; it wouldn't be anything like the examples used here. Feels shoehorned/immersion-breaky.

Can MC be non-binary and trans?

We don't get assigned or raised as our gender, yeah? Non-binary is trans, so yes.

Can MC be non-binary from the start?

Yes, but with caveats.

I wasn't any less agender when I was using she/her pronouns for the first 20 years of my life; I just didn't have the vocabulary or established language to express it. I still had the queer feelings and thoughts, but I only had the words available to me through others and a ton of straight, cisgender media. I probably referred to myself as a tomboy or a person a thousand times more than I ever referred to myself as a girl. That word bothered me; not she or her. That was the word that was heavy to me, it meant too many things. It held the weight the of the expectations of my family, my peers, and the world at large. It shackled me to activities and mannerisms that I had no inclination towards, it forced me to conform to mannerisms and assumptions that never fucking fit.

When I still thought that not being a boy automatically means you're a girl, all I ever understood about myself was that I was not a boy and that I despised being a girl, wished I didn't have to be a girl, largely hated girls who naturally enjoyed conforming to things that tore me apart inside. There was a distinct hatred of being born a girl but an equally distinct disinterest in being born a boy instead. I didn't know "neither" or "none" was a box I could check or a thing at all and yet that is always what my gender has been.

ANYWAY let me hop off this soapbox ffs /personal rambling over. all of that is to preface the following:

As progressive and different as Emerson is, singular they as an indicator of gender identity and neo-pronouns were beyond obscure of a concept in the late 90s to the general American public; forget about it as an actual practice or show of respect. Book 2 takes place in 2008 and will introduce singular they/them as a third pronoun option if MCs want it. All the rest of my IF projects (🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾) will take place in the current day or the not-so-distant future (or literal Hell ☺️) and will have they/them and pronoun customization as options. Because moderntimes.

So! As it stands, Book 1 limits the MC to using one of the two binary pronouns (he and she) but both books will use 5 variables to represent MC gender: cis boys and girls, trans boys and girls, and non-binary kids. Non-binary MCs get the additional option to clearly indicate that they don't ascribe to, subscribe to, or generally mesh well with binary gender norms and expectations—they will be written as non-binary. it's kinda important to me

I also want the beta and final version to have a "gender angst" toggle that runs the game filtered in such a way that largely leaves out most gendered flavor text and most references to being trans outside of just a few scenes or lines. This would also let MCs use "they/them" pronouns throughout the game without fanfare. I talked about it a bit here.

Idk if it will work for all queer players... and it's possible this is an unsatisfying answer for some folks. But it's what this one queer coder wants to do for their game, so 🤷🏾‍♂️

Ultimately, this is all smoke and vapor until it is properly coded and written anyway. Execution speaks louder than planning, so I'll be trying my damn best ☺️

#lovely anon #answered #gender stuff! #new kid #customization #hot mess walking #did i answer the question...? #god i hope so i am tired of reading what i did say lol

[more-than-a-princess]

@dcviated asked: 10 and 15!

Munday Writing Stuff - Accepting!

Something that bothers you to read in RP specifically?

Two big ones would be muses with no discernible faults or weaknesses (the Mary Sue/Gary Stu sort of muse that should be appealing and attractive to everyone. I have chosen not to follow blogs for this very reason: decent writing quality, but too-perfect muses), and quiet/brooding/introspective muses whose threads don't leave much to interact with or respond to. Closely followed by replies that answer questions from your previous reply, but don't add anything else to the thread.

But a Danganron.pa-specific annoyance? DR muses whose talents never factor into their lives. Yes, they're written as being admitted to Hope's Peak Academy based on such-and-such talent, and then the muns...never show them engaging with that talent. Not even schoolwork.

As fun as high school stories can be, the whole point of Hope's Peak, at least in the Main Course, is to gather students who are incredibly skilled in specific talents while aiming to have them be wholly and completely defined by them, in order to obtain the brightest possible future. A secured career for life, money, fame, etc. That's a lot of pressure for a 16 to 18 year old! There's even canon characters who don't want to be defined by their specific talents, and some who want to pursue other interests but due to their status at Hope's Peak, they can't.

And I really wish more DR muns would explore those topics: how did their muse's talents end up shaping their muse? Did they peak in high school? Did they eventually go on to the success the school promised?

This is more of what bothers me not to read in RP, but I think it still qualifies.

How many times do you reread a reply?

I talked about how many times I read my own in another reply, but here I'll share how many times I reread someone else's starter to me/reply in a thread:

Around a dozen.

Especially if the reply is long and/or there's a Big Dramatic Moment going on.

This is mostly due to my own writing process which involves something like this:

get tagged in reply and/or starter

read said post

Immediately get a few dialogue options that I scribble down for later

think on it for a little while/overnight/while I do something else

sit down to write properly. Read through the post at least twice more.

Put the kettle on for pot of tea #1

Look at my earlier/immediate notes and either decide 'there's something here that might be okay' or 'well this is crap and I have no idea how to match my writing partner's quality and make them feel All The Things'

Decide I need to put on a playlist. Immediately get distracted by whatever random track Spotify thinks my Daily Mix needs.

"Well, I'll read this again and then do some google searches for thread ideas. For accuracy, you know."

This inevitably leads to a deep dive of: blogs, reddit, wikipedia, and/or YouTube

"Oh, this would be a great idea for another thread/a future thread! But wait, I was supposed to get inspo for -this- thread"

Goes back to read the reply a few more times

Right around here is when I try to write the first paragraph and yell about why I can't form words good. I'm an absolute imposter of a writer because why am I not turning around thousands of words per day.

Someone messages me on discord with something inevitably more appealing than trying to write this reply. I engage with it because that's a cute meme or great idea for muse shenanigans

Put on the kettle for pot of tea #2 while browsing the dash

Laugh at some dashcomm, send some memes, immediately forget where I was going with that thread reply

Read the reply once again while the tea steeps

...finally write and queue my reply to the reply, possibly while annoyed this took so long.

This is also why writing more than three replies or starters per day for me is a real achievement. Because each time, I go through this process. I'm sure there's a better way to focus and do things but I've yet to figure it out.

#more-than-a-princess answered #more-than-a-princess musings #dcviated #(Munday Writing Stuff meme) #(Thank you for the ask bear!) #(But you better be eating cake right now)

[high-pot-in-noose]

It's actually kinda trippy for me that my online identity is more or less 'a writer'. I love literature, writing, and so on, of course, (except the actual typing part) but it makes me wonder how I got here, to be this way.

For the first two decades of my life, anyone who knew me could be asked about what kind of person I was, and everyone would say without hesitation, "an artist." Family, friends, classmates, teachers, people who only knew of me by word-of-mouth — if they knew nothing else about me, they'd still know that [my name] meant 'artist.' I was the stereotype of an art kid, the kind you might find in a cartoon. Paint on my hands and clothes; expensive mediums kept carefully in my day-to-day bag; partially finished projects always on-hand to start working on no matter where or when.

No one, not even myself, looked at me and thought, "writer." The only writing I did was in English class, and only non-fiction. I was garbage at fiction — I spent so much time on art, I literally did not know how conversations worked; my dialogues felt like they were written by a new and confused AI.

Well, that's not completely true — I wrote 'poetry,' too. But I will be perfectly honest with myself about it for the first time in my life — what I put to paper back then was not really poetry, it was doodling with letters. I used flowery language and metaphors to describe scenarios that went nowhere, that meant nothing, that didn't come from any sort of sincerity, just for the lovely way it sounded and felt being read aloud. It was another medium that I used to create pretty pictures of fake things, but meant to be seen in your mind instead of with your eyes. They didn't mean anything.

Actually none of my art ever meant anything.

At lot of my best works were just things I cobbled together for fun, just to see what the end result would look like. And then people would see them and be like, "Oh, this is so powerful. It's so heavy, I'm tearing up. What does it mean?" And then I would pull bullshit out of my ass for it, saying this and that as I looked over the painting or sculpture and try to see what it was that person was apparently seeing.

What was it that they were seeing? I still don't know; those things I made are still just colorful lines and dots and swirls on a receptive surface that made a pattern just by coincidence. Just splashes of paint that fell in a form that happened to mean a feeling in the eyes of someone who saw it. They don't mean anything, they're not saying anything, they're just lying to everyone that they do, and I lied along with them because I didn't want to hurt anyone by saying that they're seeing love when there's actually none.

I suppose that's why I don't make art anymore. I got tired of lying. And these days my artistic skills are so degraded I can't even fake it anymore even if I wanted to. It's more honest this way, I think.

I think I like myself better as a writer. When something I write evokes a sentiment, it's because I intended to, and what's felt is exactly what's meant to be felt. Words can mean many things, but I know exactly what those things mean, and so every interpretation is by design. If it hurts, if it enrages, if it makes the reader laugh — yes, that's what it means, that's what I mean.

And so I feel a little more understood. And so I think I'm also more understanding. You know what I feel, I know what you feel, and we're feeling it together like we're sitting next to next even though were separated by thousands of miles. You'll never know me as Artist (a lie), that thing I used to think I was, but you know me as Writer (the truth), what I am and still will be.

#rambles #me irl