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pleasestaywithmedarling · 8 months

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Author Ask Game

Thanks for the tag @starlit-hopes-and-dreams!

I'll gently tag @verkja, if you'd like, cause I am SO excited that I should finally have time soon to start reading your work, and I'd love to hear more about it if you're down! And of course, anyone is welcome to jump in; please tag me if you do!

I only have one fic on this side of the internet, so this will all be about my WIP Sin of Purity, Purity of Sin.

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

I personally don't vibe with the idea of writing "lessons." I guess the ideas that have been sticking out to me the most have probably been guilt and innocence, and the way the past can recontextualize the present and vice versa. But that's just me; I'm sure anyone could read this and see something completely different.

Or maybe we're all just here for the whump :)

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

Disclaimer: I have nothing at all against any religion that is not causing anyone harm; there are obviously a lot of wonderful religions and religious people in the world, and I 100% support that.

That being said, the key feature of the worldbuilding in this fic is the official religion of the kingdom, and that was very much inspired by my own wildly toxic religious upbringing. Before I started writing, I didn't really bother to plan out what most writers would consider the basic features of a fantasy world--I don't think I even got around to naming the kingdom the story takes place in until maybe a half-dozen chapters in. But I had worked out a lot about the fundamental theology and practices of the worship of Vato, the way the temple system is organized, the relationship between the temple and the culture and subcultures of the kingdom, the doctrines and practices that are basically arbitrary or just make no sense, etc. And all of it draws pretty heavily from my own experiences with the type of churches that I grew up in.

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

Okay so the obvious answer is that Anden and Kiri are both trying to gain their freedom. But Anden would prefer to achieve that by his own strength--he doesn't like feeling weak, and to him being forced to rely on others can sometimes feel like weakness. And Kiri...I think Kiri would prefer the temple simply have a change of heart and let them go lol

If there's anything that I'm trying to achieve with them, I guess it's just the catharsis that I personally get from watching them suffer together the different ways that they're growing, both individually and together.

How many chapters is your story going to have?

No idea! The events of the story are all mapped out, but I'm letting myself just experiment and have fun with this fic, and I'm really trying to embrace serialization rather than try to match the pacing of a typical novel. I would say that the chapter I'm currently working on is right at the midpoint of the narrative arc--if that term even applies to my unstructured mess of a plot--but that may or may not mean I'm at the halfway point in terms of the chapter count. The back half of the second act could end up stretching out a good half dozen chapters, or for all I know it'll only take, like, two. And how long will the third act be? Who knows? Not me!

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Unusually for me, this is an original. I will probably just keep in here on tumblr; idk if I'd want it on my AO3 account with my fanfiction--it feels odd to me to mix the two.

When and why did you start writing?

I started this one I think about a month and a half ago--it has not been long! Tbh I'd had a pretty awful summer, and I'd been getting back into reading whump as a form of escapism. Had the idea for this one, and I realized it would do me a lot of good to have an outlet just making something I want to make, just cause I want to make it, and not worry about how good it is or what other people think about it. This is easily the most self-indulgent work I've ever written, and it makes me so happy to hear that anyone else is enjoying it too!

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

Idk, you do you!

Oh gosh I hate doing these because I am SO forgetful and I feel like I always leave off a favorite blog! But here's a sampling of writers whose works I've been really enjoying this past year: @i-can-even-burn-salad, @little-peril-stories, @clairelsonao3, @dont-touch-my-soup, @whumpcereal, and of course @starlit-hopes-and-dreams who I guess I'm tagging twice in one post!

Blank questions below:

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

How many chapters is your story going to have?

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

When and why did you start writing?

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

#tag game

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forthesanityofstorytellers · 8 months

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Author Ask Tag

Ooo I haven't done this one yet 😁😁 Was tagged by @anyablackwood (here) and @gummybugg (here), thanks you guys!

I mean technically you both tagged my main but this is my author profile so there, lol

ANYWAY

A quick light tagging of @moonluringfrost @adie-dee @astellarium @bloodlessheirbyjacques @winterandwords @afoolandathief

and on we go! Using Abracadabra for any WIP-related questions

1. What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

Be annoying a do crime? lol Ehhhh don't really have one. Though Rod (MC) does muse at the end:

My mother survives through me because I choose to remember her traditions. Whenever it is that I truly die, I will only live as long as my stories do. Beings, Terrans and otherwise, are easily forgotten. Stories and traditions are not. I guess that’s all any of us can truly strive for.

So...ig if there's a lesson of Abracadabra it's to make your story a good one? As in one that you like and are proud to have been a part of, one that those close to you will want to tell and close to them will want to tell, etc etc

2. What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

I'd say 'not a lot' but in all honesty I took inspiration from probably a thousand different things and each bit was a thought or idea or small detail or something similar, and so I can't point to one thing and say 'yes, this inspired the world of Abracadabra'. Plus it's set on modern-day earth, so...I feel like the snippets of inspiration would be evident to those who watch/read the same things I do, lol

3. What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, and help readers grow as a person?

We both have very simple aims; to be entertained, to tell a good story, and to maybe play a trick or two.

4. How many chapters is your story going to have?

Right now it's standing at 29. I was hoping to get it up to at least 30 initially, and hopefully with the re-write I'll manage to get it up there. If for no other reason that to make it a nice round number, lol

5. Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

Original content. I plan to self-pub once it's done, but...I dunno, I'm entertaining other options. I mean I'm still going to self-pub once it's done, but I'm waffling between doing things like putting up done chapters on Tumblr. I also entertained the idea of using Neocities to make a blog where you can read all the stuff for free, using Substack for chapter releases before publishing, posting on Royal Road...etc.

6. When and why did you start writing?

In general? I started writing when I was 12 (I think, may have been before that) and it was legitimately reading Lloyd Alexander and thinking, "can I do this? Can I write like this?" and no one told me I couldn't, so I did. And now here we are.

For Abracadabra? I think I started writing it in 2016 as a part of a trilogy where each book followed a different MC with one large overlapping plotline so you got to see what the others were doing when they ran into a different MC. And said trilogy started because I began working with my dad (one of my biggest fantasy/storytelling influences) in my first actual collab. We were about halfway through the first book when he got diagnosed with cancer. By the time I got to the third book (now Abracadabra) I was on my own and felt I needed to finish the story. Possibly why Abracadabra has the 'lesson' about our lives being stories that live in other's hands.

7. Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers on Tumblr do you follow?

My dad had a saying. "I didn't cheat, I used all my resources to the best of my ability."

While hilarious and also said to cover up the fact that he was, in fact, cheating (and I can hear him saying that to me now, because he insisted to his dying day that it's not cheating and it's a mantra I'll adopt at opportune moments) man was also a genius, observant, and hacking computer systems in high school. In the 70s. So when we accused him of cheating on computer games, what he was saying in a hilarious and quippy way was "I figured out how to reprogram the game to bring my desires of how I want this game into the parameters of how it functions because I that is a thing I know how to do."

Point being, to other writeblrs...don't be afraid to use all your resources to the best of your ability. Cheat the hell out of the system.

...

Also back up all your digital shit. Save it in at least three different places, make sure one of them is in an offline format or - even better - an offline removable format (like a portable hard drive or usb, or even written down on physical paper). My first book took two years longer than it was supposed to because the laptop I was using crashed two days after I finished the first draft and three years of work went down the drain and the only thing I had left was about three pages of a cut scene I wrote in the middle of history class. I had to rebuild it from memory.

I mean, it turned out better I think, because I had at least three years of writing experience to build off of at that point and that's also likely why it went faster, but I also had a panic attack when it happened and that wasn't fun.

Also the writeblrs I follow tend to be a) ones that followed me first and b) ones that I looked at and went 'oh yes, I can be friends with this person' (usually because I have begun reblogging a bunch of stuff because it made me laugh or think or nod along or I agree with it or thought it was interesting or). Not always in that order, tho lol more of a social follower ig.

#tag game #author ask tag #writeblr #writeblrs #Abracadabra #my work #my writing #author #my WIP

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i-write-shakespeare-not-disney · 8 months

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So sorry if this is a lot. I was looking at all the questions and was like "there's too many to choose from, whyyyyy?!" (Feel free to skip any you don't want to answer)

what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

what was the first commercial property (book/movie/tv show/etc) that you realized was actually professional fanfiction?

what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were reading it?

what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it?

how do you balance writing and life?

what’s the weirdest reason you’ve ever shipped something?

how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

do you try to put themes, motifs, messages, morals, etc in your writing? if so, how do you go about it?

how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

what is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

said: overused or underused.

what would be on a moodboard for your current wip(s)?

if you could have another author write your wip for you (bc we all dream of this occasionally), who would it be?

sarcastic narrators: entertaining or overdone?

do you notice your own voice in your writing style?

how has your writing style changed over the years?

do you hear other people’s writing styles when they talk?

do you describe a character’s appearance all right away or in pieces?

Sorry I'm just now getting to this!

I hope you don't mind, I'll put it under a read more:

A writing tip I always follow... oof I've gotten so many aha. I think the one I still remind myself to follow is to trust my subconscious and not be so stuck to a story idea that I avoid a better one just because I don't want to change the course from the original idea. It helps with writers block too!

I wish I could say PJO or even Magic Treehouse, but tbh the first time I found out a fanfiction could be "professionally published" was with 50 shades of grey u.u

I think the last thing I googled was the definition of a word but... I can't recall the word lmfao

The last thing I googled while writing.... I think was pilot flight schedules for Rody!

I don't balance. I can't. I freeball. Sometimes I don't write for weeks, sometimes I'm writing during my 15 min breaks at work and while waiting in the car at my siblings' bus stops. Sometimes I'm staying up till 3am on a work night because I just HAVE to finish a scene/fic, sometimes I go to bed early and wake up super early because the next plot point came to me mid-dream lmfao

bahahah uhhhhh because of online shippers i think. Like, that's why I started jjk and then I ended up... not shipping the couple I went into it for? lmfao Idk if that really counts as weird though. I'm not sure what my weirdest is....

I act out the emotional scenes! I get into their heads and think like them and imagine the conversations and what would make them yell and cry and what could be said to them to further the emotion or stifle it etc. and I've noticed while writing that I'll make the facial expressions lmfao

I do!! sometimes it's unintentional, but sometimes it's very much planned out from the start. Like in These Violent Delights, I had Dabi and Hawks go through the stages of grief in opposition to each other. So Dabi started out with the normal procession of the phases (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance) while Hawks experienced them in reverse (Acceptance, Depression, Bargaining, Anger, Denial), which is why the third chapter is longest with both POVs, because they're the most in tandem at that point. They're both in bargaining, they're both kind of in the same vulnerable but wary state. That I planned from the very beginning and I wrote it all out in bullet points. It's probably the most organized fic, and even then, I had to re-vamp the whole last two chapters lmfao

I think I do very much imagine it as a movie which helps with blocking and tone and then the "script" of course. If it's a very emotional scene, it's easier to let the words flow.

Hmmmmmm. It depends on the villain I think. I like the idea of ruthless villains, but I do always like having a backstory. Not necessarily to excuse why they're villains, but just to have a grasp on their character as a whole, how they make decision, if they're more about intellectual manipulation like Ozai or more about power dynamics like Shig in the Enchanted AU or if it's more a general concept like invasion of privacy in the rodydeku one shot. Depending on the type of villain I'm going for, I focus on different aspects, but I like having a base backstory for them.

"said" is just something people shouldn't be afraid of. It's distracting if you use a bunch of different speech tags, and it's distracting if you use "said" 10 times in a row. Sometimes a person does just say something, sometimes you don't need to specify who said because it's obvious, sometimes an adverb to go with "said" makes all the difference.

Right now, the WIP i'm on is part 2 of the rodydeku one where they meet again after a long time so the moodboard I think would have time stamps and edgy sad tumblr posts and hands reaching for each other just shy of touching and something you can't really tell if it's a sunrise or a sunset. One of my best friends makes moodboards, maybe I'll ask her for one klasdjakldf

Ohhhhhh shit ahahaha I genuinely don't know.... I'm so particular about how I want things done for a story that's mine that idk if I could relinquish my idea to an author I like kadsjfa

Hm. I usually like sarcastic characters! It definitely depends on if they're being cynical and sarcastic or just have a penchant for sarcastic humor though. I don't really like smart-alack cynical sarcasm.

I think I do notice my own voice, especially with turns of phrases, but a lot of people tell me I'm good at differentiating the voices of different characters who narrate, so maybe it's not as glaringly obvious as I think?

I'd like to think my sentence structure has gotten more polished, albeit a bit more verbose.... I know my strength is in emotions, so I've leaned into those descriptions a lot more. I have noticed I have a tendency of using runons or just very long sentences that are grammatically correct, they just have a bunch of commas. I didn't do that as much before, but I'm working on breaking it up lmfao. I do read older things and cringe, so at least I'm certain I've improved over the last decade

I actually dont!!!! Like, I talk to my friends all the time, but when I read their stuff, it's very different from their voices, so I can't say I can tell just by how they speak. Same in my writing classes before, their writing styles were very different from the way they talked in class.

I have a tendency... to overlook descriptions at first in fanfiction lmfao. I think that's because I used to be very annoyed seeing the same description word for word in the first page of every fanfiction. So now I sort of describe the person slowly, moreso in moments when one of them is describing or admiring something about the other. Like, I mention about halfway through the fic that Deku has a mohawk, because Deku isn't really gonna be prone to describing himself, but he's fawning over grey eyes which he describes in a variety of ways, as well as the auburn hair and smug smile as he falls more and more for Rody. I think the same goes for Teaching a heart, Sokka and Zuko describe each other in different ways than they'd describe themselves and notice different aspects about each other. Probably something to work on though, since not everything is a fanfic and I don't want the character to be a blob aksjdfka

Thank you for sending these!!!!!

#ask phoenix #phoenix speaks #ask game

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www-ldyjulanna · 2 years

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The oubliette of life

By Ldyjulanna

(Betty Hayes)

June 29, 2022

oubliette French for a place of forgetting

authors note:

{{I’m not sure exactly when I first heard the word oubliette, but I remember being intrigued by the whole concept an oubliette is usually a very deep hole. Most the time either natural or man-made going down deep enough that it would be dangerous to Nigh impossible to get back out. That is why it’s called the place of forgetting in medieval times, it said that castles had oubliette as forms of punishment most often near and/or below banquet halls so that once someone either fell or was placed in the oubliette they had nothing, save the smells and sounds of parties and banquets. As in sound would travel and the smells of food they would be left forgotten at the bottom of this great black pit. Smelling and hearing everything that was going on but left to their own hell of sensory deprivation, solitude and starvation. I feel I should also mention it was around this time that I was asked to write some medieval poetry around the concept of the oubliette. I don’t remember what happened to the former exactly what it was about or what it said. I do however remember that the teacher in question. The board was for thought it was good enough to show the principal to try and enter some sort of poetry contest. He agreed with her, but he also ended up sending me to school, shrink LOL needless to say I never turned to any more poetry into the school after that. :-) Also don’t ask me what prompted this little squirrel moment I was currently trying to write a fanfiction and lost my train of thought and couldn’t pick it back up. I recently read that if you were working on one thing and couldn’t continue start something small and it might help new get back to where you are going so will see! I’m kinda disappointed. I don’t have a copy of the original to see how they differ. With the passage of time.}}}

I for one have always thought that an oubliette and life had a few things in common. An oubliette is usually dark and deep, so you don’t know what you’re going to find at the bottom. Much like you don’t know what’s going to happen in life. When were born as infants we are brought into a foreign, world.

The unknown oubliette of life. If we’re lucky were born to a good family who helps us and supports us and holds us up during our slow exploration into the oubliette of life until their arms get tired or with age. We become too heavy for them to be our safety net. As with the exuberance of youth.

We rush headlong into the dark unknown trying to find the answers at the bottom of this very big deep unending hole known as the oubliette of life. As we age while hanging out over the edge. Those lucky to have been born to caring and loving parents provide us with proper grounding and/or education which could also be known as tools such as, safety harnesses and rope, pickaxes and pitons to slow our descent into our journey of life to a safer, slower, more controlled descent.

Where those of us not so lucky have to be content with scraping and bouncing along the sides, dragging scraping our fingernails bloody along the oubliette’s unforgiving walls scrabbling for whatever cracks, crevices, footholds and left-over purchases made by those before us. That we can hope to find. Leaving pieces of ourselves along the way.

So, that we can survive hitting bottom at a faster rate with enough energy to fight our way back to the top. Without the luxury of repelling gear in the form of caring friends, family and lovers to be our anchor to give us respite when we lose foothold on the flimsy purchases, we’ve carved out in our haste to see what’s at the bottom of life’s oubliette.

Some can set and wait to be pulled into the light. Those that are lucky… They didn’t get scraped and bloodied on their way down so they can handle a few scrapes as they lazily twirl and bounce off the walls while being hauled up.

The not so lucky ones whose fingertips are bloody by the time they hit bottom from trying to find footholds purchases and respite for just a few minutes here and there, all on their own. When they finally find the bottom of the so-called oubliette of life. This, pit of existence. At first, there is enjoyment and excitement at having finally accomplished this task, no matter the pain and fear suffered to reach the bottom. This is the place everyone wants to go right?

The place everyone strives to find? and they found it. So there has to be something here, right?

It’s a few minutes later, though, looking around cold, hungry, blind from the complete darkness they feel around the walls even feel the marks and indentations of so many before them.

Where they have scrabbled probably most likely in a panic. After discovering the same thing, they did that this entire activity. This journey all the pain. Everything is meaningless.

There’s nothing here just more endless blackness. And they, being, who they are;

don’t even have the luxury of the safety rope or harness to see dangling in the darkness.

When they look above them at the place they’ve been, it’s just more endless, pointless, cold darkness.

Maybe if they are one of the lucky ones who had footholds, handholds; also known as friends and lovers by who they would truly be missed. And remember that they want to hear about their journey. Maybe then they would have a reason to claw their way back; and to remember light that they want to believe is still up there where they left it. But as they look around and they see nothing but blackness around them

they begin to lose sense of their surroundings, the sense of their feet on the firm ground; that they’ve fought so hard to get to. They think to themselves,

why?

Why?

Why should they try?

Why, should they claw why should they risk falling back down?

Again and again into the darkness and shame and disappointment for not having accomplished yet another goal?

This time?

Why try getting out?

When there’s really not anything up there in the so-called light they can barely remember to begin with?

That was the whole point, wasn’t it? The whole point in this journey down the oubliette of life, wasn’t it?

To accomplish something to have something to show for it?

Once they got to the bottom have something to bring back to the top so that they could say yeah, they did that!

But there’s nothing here at the bottom of this endless darkness.

There’s nothing to take back nothing worth fighting for. Now that they’ve got to where they thought they wanted to be. Especially since they don’t have an anchor at the top, waiting to help to pull themselves up so they can show them what this was all for. That they’ve journeyed into the oubliette of life and have something to show for it.

So, they square their shoulders, pick up a pebble and put it in their pocket for later, for remembrance.

Placing their Fingers against the unforgiving walls when the pressure against their battered and used fingertips, sends fire up their arm and into their already abused overworked shoulder muscles.

They take a deep breath and push the pain down. Because if they concentrate hard enough, they can hear faint sounds of others and they tell themselves that maybe, just maybe on their way up,

They might meet someone, and if they do, they’ll wait for them, to find what they’re looking for at the bottom.

If they are lucky, maybe they have an anchor that can help both of them up. So, time to start ignoring the pain. Trying with all their might to find purchase almost slipping back into the darkness. When their feet skid.

Lucky for them though they are there not that far off the ground. So, when they land again. They sense movement around they decide to wait. Suddenly a hand comes out of the darkness and grips. There’s pulling them closer. They noticed that the person belonging to the hand does indeed have a rope.

So, they graciously accept their saviours offer of help, and they are cautiously pulled up after waiting for their Saviour to come to terms with what they to discovered, at the bottom. Of this all-encompassing darkened oubliette of life, they become too comfortable allowing their offered lifeline out of the darkness to take most of their weight when suddenly it snaps. And this time they are falling harder and faster.

Then They ever did when they lost their hold on their first journey down. They find themselves scrabbling even more desperately than before to slow their rapidly increasing dissent.

Fear overtaking them in the total blackness that was starting to grey before their lifeline snapped. Once again, they feel the fire in their fingertips. Even worse, before as they are not yet healed from their first journey slow as it was into the pit of life. Their only half muffled scream of protest at the persistent pain is echoed back at them off the walls.

However, is cut off quickly when there back slams into the unforgivable ground, that they were standing on. Before deciding on trying to claw their way to the top. They are disoriented because in the darkness. They can see nothing; and know nothing of what’s coming to them or what may not be. They know, their eyes are open but in the absolute blackness. It makes no difference. Knowing they are staring in the direction that they know the light has to come from, but all they can see is absolute darkness. They wait a few minutes to see if their lifeline and anchor also joined there fall? They try to breathe in and feel pain in their chest, their mouth fills with coppery liquid. They know is blood.

They weigh their options trying to get up and climb their way out with their obvious injuries.

But really what is the point now? They are and have been repeatedly bruised, battered and scarred and have nothing to show for everything that they wanted to do. Hope they’d find at the bottom of this forgetting place. With no answers to be found.

No treasures to take with them and show off.

What’s the point, why even try?

Why, why, cause themselves even more pain with absolutely nothing to show for it?

What’s the point?

Especially for something that from down here at the bottom of this oubliette of darkness. Of this place of forgetting. They can’t even see the faintest hint of light, that was never very bright to start with.

no, why not stay? save themselves the pain? Fadeaway as those who are meant to fade into the oblivion of life’s oubliette.

Even if they are a lucky one. How long will others stand at the edge of life’s oubliette waiting for them, really?

Or could they really truly look beyond the darkness and work together to bring each other back to the edge of light? How far and how long will another allow their weight to drag them down?

They have already made many missteps in haste, and suffer many failures, resulting in more permanent damages and despair. Each time. Is it fair to make another pay for their hastily made mistakes and multiple failures?

If you fail alone in the dark, yourself. That’s one thing. However, at some point you have to make a decision.

-The oubliette of life

Ldyjulanna 6-29-2022

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ayahachitwister · 8 months

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5 and 13 for the ask game?

5. what inspires you to write?

To be honest? Just a pure, deep seated passion and a desire to make people happy through my writing.

When I was a kid, my sister and I would play with beanie babies. We made a whole world and story out of it… and we talked about writing it. Before I knew it, it was my dream to be the youngest published writer.

…Needless to say, that didn’t happen. And probably a good thing, ‘cause… my first few stories were rough. DX’

I started really writing with fanfiction when I was in high school. Started with Sonic, then switched mostly to the Tales series. And I knew back then that my writing needed work. My scenes were tiny little blips with just a bunch of dialogue. But I wanted to be better.

So with every story I published, I practiced. I challenged myself to get better and improve on the things I lacked. Nothing really motivated me to do so except that fire inside of me that wanted to share my stories with the world.

I still want that, more than anything. I want to write stories people will fall in love with, that’ll stick with them long after reading it… I want to make a positive impact with my stories.

I guess in a way, TWEWY also inspires me, ‘cause I dream of writing a story as wonderful and impactful as those games are.

But either way, as long as my stories make people happy, then that’s all that matters to me in the end~ 💕

13. who are your favorite writers?

…and darn, this is the question I was kinda dreading. 😅😅

As someone who also writes original stories, there’s a significant number of writers who think you have to read to be a good writer. And I don’t doubt that it helps… but I struggle to sit down and make time for reading a lot of the time. I’d just rather be writing.

Growing up, my favorite author was Tamora Pierce. But I haven’t really read a book like that in forever… and last one I read of hers, I just couldn’t get into the same way.

All that said, I do very much value the stories you can find in other mediums, from games to anime to movies. I’ve spent countless hours analyzing them with my friends, and that’s been my way to study what plot points work or don’t work and why.

Though, that also makes it hard to define my favorite writers… But if we were to look at manga, then I have three, along with reasons why~

Hiromu Arakawa: I absolutely love the world building of Fullmetal Alchemist. And I love how she built the plot into the whole country. It’s truly a wonderful, mysterious plot the characters have to figure out together, and Hiromu Arakawa does a beautiful job of building up to it while following a few different groups of characters.

Jun Mochizuki: While I haven’t been able to keep up with The Case Study of Vanitas due to the… uncomfortable bloodsucking scenes (sorry I’m ace, so those scenes just don’t work for me), Jun Mochizuki still has a place on this list due to the amazing writing of Pandora Hearts alone. The twists and turns the plot goes through are so captivating, and I strive to have a reveal as eye-opening as the whole Jack thing. If you haven’t read Pandora Hearts, read it. And if that manga’s anything to go by, then prepare for some huge revelations to come in The Case Study of Vanitas.

AidaIro: I only recently found Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, but it’s also an amazing work with lots of mystery. On top of that, I lovvveee the way they write the characters and comedic beats—they’re all so quirky and perfect, yet they’re allowed to get serious when the story calls for it. They somehow manage to bring together every little thing I love in writing in a way I can only hope to accomplish one day 💕

And… if you look at those examples, they all encompass one of the major things I said on the themes stuff before—mysterious, complex plots that change the status quo time and again. Combine that with amazing characters and a little lighthearted humor alongside the serious adventure, and you’ve just spelled out the perfect writing style for me 💕

#aya’s answers #This ended up being longer than I thought it’d be #Whoops #But thanks for the ask! :D

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creepypasta-archive · 1 year

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Mind and Spirit

by Our Guild

One of the most interesting takes on the "conversion" type stories. One that breaks all the schemes and manages to be interesting and new. Could be also a Jeff posession story, so it could fit in the ghost part of the timeline, but even then it is an interesting thing to read

CW// blood, murder, guns, mindbreak, possesion, rape mention, blade, assault

Click below to read the original unedited story

Authors Note: Sup peeps. Minion here. Well my computer got wiped due to hardrive malfunctions so I lost everything I had been working on. Now I am starting new projects that I've been wanting to work on. I will be wrighting one more oneshot for December before I start releasing multichapter stories. As for this one, it was something I came up with in one of my many pondering and an attempt to have a more diverse library of fanfictions. I hope you enjoy it. As usual, nobody owns anything canon. Read, Enjoy, Review!

Mind and Spirit

Nineteen year old Luke Yancy sat at his computer while his TV ran in the corner of the dorm. Luke had always been a weird person. He wasn't weird in the matter that he looked strange besides the signs of sleep deprivation around his eyes, but it was more of his social awkwardness. He didn't hang out with the cool kids, or go to any parties. All his friends were still in high school. He mainly sat in his dorm and watch TV, play games, or read. In fact, there was one thing he did quite a bit. Luke had a fascination with the horror genre. He played horror games, watched documentaries about cryptids, and read creepy pastas.

This morning, however, his eyes were glued to the television instead of his computer. On said television was the news. There was a rather interesting headline.

Jeff The Killer Caught

Actually though, this was the second time that headline had appeared. Luke remembered the first time they caught someone called Jeff the Killer. It was suddenly all over the headlines that they caught some sicko who burnt off his eyelids and cut a smile onto his face. People started calling him the Joker and blamed it off the Dark Knight or something. To be honest it was bullshit. Luke knew the inspiration. Still, he was finally caught and now no one had to worry about him killing them at night. Or at least that's what he had thought. Then the name Jeff the Killer was heard again in the form of a bloody message on the wall of a victim.

"Jeff the Killer lives in spirit."

Nobody was sure what that meant. Some believed that Jeff was back in the form of a ghost while others believed that it was some crazy fan. However, what was certain was that this new Jeff the Killer soon started gaining a pretty high body count. That however, seemed to have ended today and the latter was proven correct. This man was different. He was middle aged with combed back brown hair and a mole in between his eyes. He had a crazed look as he laughed, being carried by a police man on each side.

"They deserved it! They deserved it you see! Each one of them! Cheaters, murderers, rapists! I gave them what they deserved! Hahaha!"

The news cut to the reporter as she started talking about the court case. It was painfully obvious that he was going to be put to death. Nobody could get away with killing so many people. No matter what evidence that could come up, they wouldn't let someone that dangerous live. Of course, this sentiment was re-told by the news anchor, confirming Luke's thoughts.

Honestly, the man was a fool. Jeff the Killer was already killed. To think that some crazed fan would take up the mantle and become Jeff the Killer II. This was clearly a psychotic man…. But still… to become Jeff the Killer in all but body… What must that have felt like? Luke couldn't help but ponder it. After all, Jeff the Killer was a feared name that held great notoriety and was very well known…

Luke shook his head before putting on a white hoodie and getting ready for classes. It's not like it was something that he would ever experience in his mundane life. Nothing exciting ever happened to him. It was one day after another. Attend classes, eat ramen noodles and pop tarts, and spend most of his free time studying.

Luke prepared to walk outside, sliding a pocket knife into his pocket and pulled his hood over his orangeish brown hair before going out of his dorm. The cold weather made him huddle deeper into his hoodie more. He didn't like it. He preferred warmth. Anything warm that he could huddle in was good. Especially since his shitty heating didn't work worth a damn. It made him angry. Why did underserving people live better lives than him. He who worked hard and barely slept for everything compared to those who just sat around and got everything they wanted. He who was barely living a life compared those who lived a life of luxury. He who was an honest worker compared to those who lied, cheated, and stole for their wealth.

Luke clenched his fist as he walked towards the class building. He walked in through a side entrance, it being closer and allowing him to get into the warmer building quicker.

Damn. It's still cold here.

Luke continued to walk into the building to where he would reach the lobby. There he paused. A man stood in the lobby, pointing a gun at several people.

"ALL YOUR MONEY! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!"

He yelled. The man hadn't noticed Luke walk in. He pulled out his knife. He would save these people from this man. Luke crept forward so that the man couldn't hear him, but with all that shouting, he doubted that the man could anyway.

Luke grabbed the man around the stomach with one arm, pinning the man's arms and used his knife hand to press against the man's throat.

"Drop the gun. Now."

The man made a noise that almost sounded like a choking one. He dropped the gun and it clattered to the ground. A trickle of blood touched Luke's hand.

It was warm.

Warmth.

He liked warm.

He wanted warmth.

He wanted more warmth.

He wanted to never be cold again.

He wanted to never be bullied again.

We wanted to protect everyone.

They wanted this.

This is what they wanted.

This is what the spirit wanted.

A grin came across Luke's face, the shadow of his hood covered his eyes.

"I don't think we've met before. My name is Jeff."

Luke pushed in the knife, warmth covering his arm. The man made a funny noise. It sounded like when you gargle water before spitting it out. It was a funny noise. But it was annoying. They wanted quiet now. The noise burned.

"Shhhh. Go to sleep."

#jeff the killer #creepypasta #jtk #fanfiction #horror #story

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stackthedeck · 2 years

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Hello! I remember you saying that you want to write you’re own romance stories in the future (I could be misinterpreting it so let me know if I am) I love romance but I always feel awkward writing it since I haven’t tried since I was like 13/14. What got you to push past that kind of fear of writing smth “wrong” (if that makes sense).

I do want to write romance stories!! My best answer for you anon is that you never push past the feeling of writing something wrong but you’ve gotta write anyway. The first step to being really good at something is sucking at it. I started writing at 13 and no one stopped me (they should have someone should have looked at that middle schooler and said hey the plot twist of they’ve in a comma this whole time isn’t good). You’re going to read something you wrote a year ago, a week ago, an hour ago and think damn this sucks and then you’re going to read it again to figure out why. Most authors cringe at their early work and I certainly do but you gotta go beyond the “I was so terrible” and ask why? Use those critical analysis skills to dunk on yourself but not too much. you’ve always gotta find what you’re best at and then do more of it. A blunt beta reader is also very helpful in this process. Also you can always go back and edit and get it right the second time or the third time

Also read in the genre you want to write in. Like there are some tropes and conventions you have to do or otherwise it’s not that genre and there’s others you can bend. Find out what you like about the genre and what you don’t. If you’re writing what you want to read, then it’s never “wrong” you know? There’s always going to people who don’t like your stuff but you are your own target audience. Also read other people’s writing like you read your own. “What’s working what isn’t and why?” Go into a bookstore and buy the worst reviewed romance novel and the best and figure out what makes them different. Is it the characters, the tone, the mood, the dialogue?

Also since you’re here. My best advice to aspiring writers is to write fanfiction. Now admittedly if you only write fanfiction that’s not going to translate well into novel skills. Like fanfic is way more fun than original writing for me because it’s less conceptual work and I get that instant gratification of feedback. So I’ve started checking how many words of fanfic I write a day and then I double that and that’s how words I have to write for something original by the end of the week plus all the other word counts of the other days. But fanfiction is great for practice specific skills and doing writing exercises. You don’t have to build characters or worlds you just want to try writing in a different style or describing something without sight. Like I knew I was going to need to write sex scenes for my current original wip so I wrote fanfic smut with a bunch of different characters and changed the motivation and relationships each time. I got better at writing smut and understood what worked and what didn’t

So yeah my advice is unfortunately practice. Put words on the paper and eventually it’ll feel right

#asks #writing advice #I feel weird giving writing advice #but like anon you asked this is on you

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prismatic-bell · 2 years

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as youre very both old school fandom and also someone who works to preserve old fandom content, what do you think is the best way to print off and preserve fanfics? I've been wanting to start to move my many many many archived pdfs into actual physical copies but ive been way too intimidated to really look deep into it so I was wondering if you had a preference

Okay, so.

My preference is "yes." Yes, I want you to archive them. Yes, I want you to save them. I've worked to preserve 1960s teen pulp mags, for fuck's sake, it can't get much worse than that, and I'm grateful to have them.

With that said, pick any or all of the following options to make your physical printouts last longer: --select acid-free paper --bind by sewing, not stapling --store in archival sleeves, like the ones you use for old comic books And now, pick any or all of the following options to make my life easier as a historian (or, you know, the lives of the historians who come after me): --include the title --include the author's name --include the fandom name --include which version of the canon, if relevant (e.g. the OG Transformers show vs the Michael Bay movies) --include the date, or at least year, of publication --include the summary --include the site of origin, including the URL All of these things are called provenance and help not only to identify a specific work, but to place it within its cultural context. As an amusing example: I recently got into James Bond, and decided to go through every fic in the main pairing tag, in chronological order. There came a point where suddenly, out of nowhere, there were like two solid pages of nothing but A/B/O, which I previously had not seen at all. I had a suspicion, so I looked it up, and sure enough--those two pages appeared within just a couple of weeks of the corresponding Supernatural episode. Having publication dates let me determine that. If I were a historian trying to piece together a long-ago puzzle instead of going "lol I live on the hellsite, I bet I know exactly where this came from," that would be a huge datapoint. I could probably find a similar sudden explosion in other fandoms, as well--and if we're going far enough in the future, if Supernatural were to just vanish off the face of the planet along with its entire fandom, historians could still trace that it existed and even determine some of its events based on when certain tropes begin to appear in other fandoms. And further, the fact that its tropes and major events appear in so many other fandoms would allow those historians to say "this must have been a very, very popular story." (This isn't just me making shit up to sound important, by the way. This is literally how we have records of a lot of things throughout antiquity and even into the Renaissance. The more copies there are of something, or the more references that are made to a thing in other things, the more likely it is for at least part of it to survive. This is literally how we know about Shakespeare's two lost plays--he was a popular enough playwright that quartos of his plays were advertised for sale.) Whew! Now let's get into stuff you could do that would make me, as a historian, scream with delight if I were to open your folder full of labeled, acid-free fanfiction fifty years from now: --write a little something about why you picked this particular fic to preserve in hard copy when doing so is bulky and time-consuming compared to the easy instant storage of the internet, yes, even if your reason is "I'm trying not to use my phone in bed because the screen keeps me awake but this story is soothing to reread" --write a little something about who you are, even if it's just "my name is X, my age is Y, I live in Z, I printed this out in 2022" And last but not least: Marginalia. Marginalia. Marginalia, my beloved. That's when you write your thoughts in the columns on the sides, underline stuff, circle it, and so on. Having marginalia means I actually get a window into your thoughts as you read--your perspective, stuff that stuck out to you, places the story made you feel some kind of serious emotion. And yes, this goes for everything. Villain A kills Hero B and you write "YOU MOTHERFUCKER" in the margin, that tells Future Historian Me that you really loved Hero B, you were invested in seeing her succeed, and that this scene really resonated with you. One of my most treasured possessions in the fandom museum is a copy of the novelization of the Help! movie the Beatles did. This particular copy is very worn--unsurprising, it was a cheap paperback even when it was printed--but also, its original owner apparently took it to the movie theatre and

wrote notes in the margins indicating all the things happening onscreen that weren't in the book. What does this tell me? WELL. Let's go ahead and take a look: 1) the written ink doesn't look any newer than the book, so I'm guessing a little when I say this was the original owner and in the theatre, but I have an actual datapoint I'm basing that on 2) based on handwriting and the main demographic of the Beatles audience at the time, this was a young woman, probably a teenager. 3) she went to see the movie more than once (some notes are in pencil, some in ink, but the handwriting is all the same) 4) she was dedicated to making sure every moment of the movie was preserved. This was an era before home video players, so once the movie left theatres, she had no guarantee of seeing it again. 5) while the book is worn, it's not beaten all to shit. It was read a lot, but there's no evidence it was mistreated, so it was probably a prized or at least respected possession.

What can I extrapolate from this, with the understanding that I mean "what theories can I reasonably form but not prove"? Well. She was probably a pretty big fan, since she went to see the movie at least twice and also bought the book. Maybe she wanted to keep the story after the movie was gone. Maybe she was looking for answers for some teen mag contest like "find these things in the Help! movie and win a chance to meet the Beatles." Maybe she had a friend who wasn't allowed to go to the movie. You know what the most tantalizing possibility is to me, although I'll never be able to prove it and actual ethics as a historian mean I can only present it as one among many possibilities? Maybe she did it as a source reference for writing fanfiction. We don't know. We can't know, because I have no idea who the original owner was or if she's even still alive and no way to trace her. But that? In terms of fandom history, that is a fucking gold mine. Pure 24-karat all through. From a strictly historical view, that's worth more than the animation cel I've got in there, and I paid over a hundred bucks for that thing.

So yeah! That was a lot of words to say "just do it." But there's your answer!

#you ask nina answers #the fandom museum

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caprica99 · 3 years

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Shadow and Bone rant, because I need it

Shadow and Bone has some incredible potential, both the books and the show, but neither actually lives up to it.

Alina could have been interesting. Cartographer is a rare profession for fictional characters, but in the books/show she's just a beginner (at 17/20 it's understandable). Make her at least 25 with 9 years of experience in the army, give her a promotion with subordinates she's responsible for and you would get a more interesting character who saw some serious shit in the army, acts like a soldier, and knows responsibility. (And maybe wants to stop the war at all cost, utilizing the Fold maybe.*wink, wink*)

It bothered me that we never saw her using cartography this profession that makes her unique for reaching her goals. In the show, she has dreams about the stag. It would have been interesting to see HER figuring out the whereabouts of the stag by using the stag's surroundings like mountains, specific types of trees, topography, etc. Work smarter, not harder.

Diana Bishop suffers from the same passiveness in the first book of the All Souls trilogy, but she actively uses her science historian background and those passages are the most interesting parts of her POV. Alina's interest in drawing and geography would give her a unique personality, and made her relatable to many (see ADoW and history nerds). Many YA heroines have a specific and useful skillset: Katniss-archery, Clary Fray-drawing, etc. Sadly, her entire personality is running away with Mal.

Mal's character feels pointless to me. The story depicts an oppressed minority group with special powers, and their struggles in the world, the heroine and the antagonist are both part of the said minority group, and he's constantly shown to be a bigot against the Grisha, so what makes him so important to the plot? His tracking skills? Give the job to a no-name tracker and I wouldn't miss him.

At least the show made him more likable, but Archie and Jessie still lack romantic chemistry. However his chemistry with his friends Mikhail and Dubrov was spot on, I really liked it. They showed life as a simple otkazat'sya soldier on the front, and their death was painful to watch. I thought that his friend's death would make a bigger impact on Mal, him wanting to get revenge on the fjerdans and end the war at all cost, and saying that maybe Kirigan's plan actually makes sense would make an interesting narrative. (They are at war dammit, there's no black and white only grey.)

Mal and Alina don't act like soldiers in a war-torn country, they act like American teenagers, and it's annoying. The General and Ivan are the only ones who act as soldiers in a 3 front war. When the villain shows the most responsibility in your story you should rewrite your heroes completely, or make the villain your hero.

The show is better than the books. It's a rare phenomenon but it is something everyone agrees upon. To me, the first book reads like a draft the author forgot to expand. The worldbuilding, the Grisha, and the characters were a perfect base to an original fantasy universe, but it all falls flat. The show made it richer by introducing multiple POVs and giving the actors more leeway (Ben Barnes ladies and gentlemen). But in the end, they had to stick to the books.

This is incredibly confusing to me because we have numerous fanfictions about Alina staying at the Little Palace, embracing her Grisha side, helping the Darkling because his plan makes sense, or changing his plan by coming up with a better one, or having dark!Alina etc... Clearly, this is what book fans wanted: giving Alina agency, make her realize that she had to work with the Darkling because she's Grisha too and they have the same goals but have different methods, let her be Professor X to Alexander's Magneto, ending the corrupt and incompetent Lantsov line, anything would have been better than taking Baghra's words at face value and running off.

Change I like: the whole West-Ravka storyline, it made the General decision understandable. Zlatan sold Grisha to the fjerdans, wanted to kill Alina and his actions could have led to a civil war, Kirigan only acted as a general of his time (not 21 century guys, we are talking about the unforgiving 19 century) and besides we only see the destruction of Zlatans army (BTW they were ready to kill everyone on the skiff) and not the whole city.

Change I don't like: making Alina half Shu. I'm not completely against it, but it was poorly executed. The racism Alina faces overshadows the Grisha-hate, rather than complementing it. Alina acts like being half Shu is somehow worse than being Grisha, eventough there are literal Holocausts going on against Grisha in two neighbouring countries, slavery in another, and the show never addresses it. This is the biggest problem with her character, she never embraces being Grisha, sides with the muggles, and makes her mission to kill the only person who stands between Grisha and persecution.

Would have been good: the show could have made little 5 minute scenes depicting the plight of Grisha in other countries. Either at the beginning or the end of every episode.

Episode 2: the Ice Court

Episode 3: the Shu concentration camps with the experimenting

Episode 4: slavery in Kerch

Episode 5: the Wandering Isle with consuming grisha blood

Episode 6: the Demon in the Woods storyline

Episode 7: Luda+Aleksander

And now... The Darkling/ Aleksander Morozov/ General Kirigan: the most interesting character in the entire series.

In the first half of SaB he was depicted as every soldier's dream general. Sitting and eating with his men, fighting side by side with them, constantly checking on his troops while other generals prefer to attend court. But in the second half, he transforms into a Mustache Twirling Villain TM and makes rather OOC decisions throughout the trilogy. He could have been a generic villain from the start, but why make him then a compelling character with understandable motivations?

In the books, I understood his motivations, but in the show, he was completely right. His backstory shows that he tried peaceful tactics but those never worked out. The only thing that worked against his enemies was power and violence. The price of hesitance was Luda's life (I'm willing to bet they were married). The Fold was actually a mistake born from desperation. He spent centuries in hiding, seeing his people persecuted. Even with the Little Palace and the Second Army Grisha are considered second-class citizens, they can't hold properties. He has to walk the fine line between usefulness and being a threat. He has to bow to incompetent Kings who don't give a shit about the state of the country. If Alina had to go through so much how would she end up? Because it's a miracle that Aleksander still has it in him to fight for the Grisha.

Many bring up Nikolai Lantsov as the Darklings foil ( or Diet Darkling as @ambitious-witch calls him) to show there is an alternative to Aleksander, but it's wrong. Because Nikolai was never part of an oppressed minority group, never had to fear centuries of persecution, he's an actual prince, it's easy to not be radicalized with his background.

Bonus: If Bardugo wanted to create a fictional world with tsarist Russia as a base, the least she could have done is to open a Wikipedia page or a dictionary for the correct names and terms. Starkov is a man's name: Alina Starkova is the correct form. Ilya Morozov, Aleksander Morozov, and Baghra Morozova would be the correct forms.

EDIT: They could have shown the building of the Little Palace and the start of the Second Army. I wanted to see the normal life at the Little Palace before Alina came along, little Grisha enjoying their powers, their reaction if the Darkling comes to see their training (I headcanon he visits the lessons at least once a year), the other teachers, and their reaction to Alina. Alina in canon is good with kids, maybe if she had spent time with little Grisha, she could have embraced her powers sooner. Having met with foreigners (Fjerdan, or Shu) and hearing their gruesome accounts of the foreign treatment of the Grisha would made her willing to fight for their future.

#shadow and bone #sab netflix #sab spoilers #grishaverse #anti leigh bardugo #the darkling #alexander kirigan #aleksander kirigan #aleksander morozova #alexander morozova #alina starkov #shadow and bone cast #shadow and bone netflix #darklina #alina x darkling #malyen oretsev

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ukiyokki · 3 years

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mars reads too much dreamnotfound fanfiction for their own good

a dreamnotfound fanfic recommendation list by your resident dumbass (me)

this took way to fucking long... i’m tired

below is a (very extensive) list dedicated to all my favorite dnf fics, ranging from quick one shots to 100k+ word monstrosities that devour the storage on my computer, forever incomplete masterpieces to ongoing works of art, you get the idea. i provided links for each fic/series for your reading pleasure. there will be no smutty/nsfw fics on this list, that’s just not my vibe lmao. this list goes in no particular order, and i’ll update it from time to time when i feel like it. now, without further ado, let us begin.

Heat Waves (complete) by tbhyourelame

(wtf else did you expect, looking at a dnf rec list?) amazingly well written, and while it’s not my favorite dnf fic it’s damn near close. in the midst of a brutal heatwave, a suffering dream comes to terms with the fact that he is desperately in love with his best friend. everything i could say about this fic has already been said by nearly everyone who’s read it, so if you haven’t yet caved into the hype, just go for it. you won’t be disappointed.

Gonna be around (completed) by georgescatcafe

(mc irl) my favorite dnf oneshot to date. just read it, i don’t wanna spoil for you :)

Inferno in the Sky (ongoing)by zairielon

(star wars au) an ongoing star wars au currently clocking in at almost 200k words. need I say more? everything about it absolutely slaps, each chapter is amazingly written, and it’s just good. also, can we just appreciate dream and tubbos dynamic in here? 10/10, amazing, must protecc. oh right, a summary: george, an exiled padawan turned engineer, must return to the jedi temple after attacks on it from an unknown assailant threaten the safety of himself and the other jedi.

Like Magic (ongoing) by KangarooKen, NotGra55 (Gra55)

(harry potter au) the unofficial official dnf harry potter au. we watch the young unlikely wizard pair grow up together throughout their years at hogwarts as they battle good old fashioned wizard racism. beautifully written, incredibly fun and suspenseful, and just an overall blast and a half.

GeorgeNotFound, Son of Poseidon, and the League of Minor Gods (ongoing) by Clichewho_69, Cygnvs, Trash_Kinggg

(percy jackson au) percy jackson au? check. “road trip” (technically quest but u get what i mean)? check. enemies to friends to lovers? check. this fic follows the plot of the lightning theif (albeit loosely), but everything is explained enough where you don’t have to read percy jackson to understand what’s going on. basically after moving to the usa, george gets taken to camp halfblood where he learns that a) gods exist. b) he’s the son of poseidon and c) he needs to prove that he didn’t steal zeus’s master bolt.

Protected (completed) by aenqua

(royalty/camelot au) my favorite piece of dnf media of all time. dubbed the official dnf camelot au, where dream is the heir to the throne and george is a servants son with a secret that couldp get him killed. these childhood friends grow up together and learn trust, love, and acceptance. (that summary did not justice to the masterpiece that is this fic) here’s the directors cut

The Hunter (completed) by HederEgo

(mc irl) a choose your own adventure fic with 13 different endings, where dream the hunter must kill george and stop him from beater the ender dragon. enough said.

The official dream team cowboy AU (series)(ongoing) by antsu_in_my_pantsu

(cowboy au) cowboys and outlaws horses and shit. and the big gay. it’s a cowboy au, what else did you expect? fucking yee haw (all seriousness this is a great read, i loved it so so so so much and i can’t wait for the final chapter to release).

This is a Drista moment, let's just accept it (completed) by Qekyo

dnf fic from drista pov. considering its unique perspective, it’s perfectly done. beautifully showcases a sibling relationship through drista and her memories/moments with dream, and it just works, y’a know? also drista supremacy.

Dear Dream (completed) by Qekyo

(wwii au) i don’t cry when watching/reading anything sad. translation: i’m a heartless bitch. however, this fic is the only exception. it caused me to cry so hard my mom walked in my room and asked if i was ok. ‘nuff said.

TECHNOlogical Wingman (completed) by Closeted_Bookworm

techno is the autocorrect ai on dreams phone, and he gains sentience. interesting concept, and the author fucking nailed it. great fic.

It Was Only a Fic (ongoing) by imagineitdear

dream starts reading a dnf fanfic (we’ve all been there buddy).

Teacher’s Pet (ongoing) by niyuha

(teacher au) in which dream is a high school english teacher and george is the new comp sci teacher in room 297.

Saltwater Secrets (ongoing) by earlgay_milktea

(mermaid/high school au) a great example of the shear amount of variety in fics this fandom has to offer. when i started reading dnf fics i would have never thought i’d find one about a mermaid george hopelessly crushing on his human friend, who happens to be his schools star swimmer. yet here i am, and i am far from disappointed.

Smash My Heart (incomplete) by dontrollthedice

george and sapnap are commentators for duper smash brothers tournaments, and george develops a crush on an up and coming smash streamer named dream.

roleplaying in the dark is harder than it seems (completed) by Alienu

laser tag. 10/10

solar system (completed) by quartzfia

(mc irl) george vists dream in pandora’s vault.

Ramblings of a Lunatic (completed) by jungkooksfic

ahh communicating through a notebook left on a shelf in a bookstore- what a perfect way to start a relationship.

Paint me like your French Girls (It's Charcoal, Actually) (completed) by Turtle_ier

(artist au) george is an art student, and dream is a model.

00:00:00 (completed) by isleofdreams

(soulmate au) 00:00:00 is the moment you meet your soulmate, as indicated but the clock ticking down on your wrist until the moment you meet. i’m not a fan of soulmate aus; this fic is the exception.

Blue Skies Smilin' At Me (completed) by kivy

(artist au) i don’t usually cry while reading stuff, but this brought me damn near close. george is a painting conservator and chats it is with the ghost of the artist if the painting he is working on. they fall in a love.

Current Location (incomplete) by hendollana

(influencer au) george simps for a hot american instagram model. who knew he’d actually follow back?

The Withering (series) (series ongoing, 1 work completed) by App1e_Juice

(mc irl) lore and world building and fight scenes and everything i crave. what’s not to love? something starts making the plants and crops around dreams village wither, and must team up with new friends to find the cause of the mysterious disease plaguing the land.

Minecraft, But You Can't Leave (complete) by facadecake

(mc irl) dream and george are sucked into their own private minecraft world together and must beat the game to escape.

Free The Game, Beat the End (incomplete) by goatgoatwasfound

(mc irl) a glitch in minecraft causes thousands of players from around the world to be trapped inside minecraft, with only one way of escape- beating the ender dragon. first dnf fic i ever read, and it’s still 10/10 for me.

Why don't you come a little closer? (completed) by lifeofandoms

george gets stood up by a date, and Dream pretends he’s the date to save george from the embarrassment. simply adorable.

lightning bug (completed) by saintachesP

(band au) while on tour, dream realizes his feeling for george.

Hold me closer (completed) by Treesofmyheart

(mc irl/dsmp) i just,, really like this trope.

Dizzy on caffeine (completed) by GleamingGreenGoggles

(coffee shop au) best dnf coffeeshop au i’ve read. periodt.

living a life of crime isn’t always easy (series) (completed) by itisjosh

(mafia/assassin au) stockholm syndrome except it’s not weird.

Inhibitions Make Interesting Situations (completed) by Ship_On_The_Sea

i pissed myself laughing. it’s just a dream and george being hilariously dense, flustered idiots. serotonin central.

thy eternal summer shall not fade (completed) by gracequills

(high school au) that moment when you recite shakespeare to your crush in your ap lit class instead of confessing (hate it when that happens).

All is Fair in love and Football (ongoing) by graciegirl2001

(college au) #1 favorite college au. in which george is a cheerleader, and dream is the football teams rising star player. this one gets extra points because of the amazing karlnap moments sprinkled throughout. *chefs kisses air*

online love (completed) by andbutso

(high school au) online classes go zoooooooom

Can’t help falling (completed) by isleofdreams

dream re-learns the guitar to sing to george on his birthday. beautiful. fluffy. amazing

dance in the rain and my arms (completed) by lazy_kitkat

george is a rain god, and dream is a wind god

Weather Boy (completed) by DaintyDiizzle

wouldn't you like to know, weather boy? (where dream can control the rain)

The color orange (completed) by anon

(mc irl) dream describes the colors of a sunset

Family Mode (completed)by Strawberry_flavoured_tears

they’re dads :,)

Breathing Room (incomplete) by papercranes

(band an) an amazing band au. the mad lad author wrote original songs for each chapter. above and beyond, mad props :). unfortunately, it’s incomplete

Piece of Clay (completed) by carbonbrine

(artist au) george is a sculptor and his sculpture comes to life- but oh no he’s hot.

Try (completed) by Not4typicalwriter

(royalty au) george must choose a suitor, but none of them are up to dream, his head knights, standards. or dream is hella jelly. also protective dream is perfect

When the Roses Bloom (completed) by HederEgo

(royalty au) close second for my favorite fic. go to royalty au for a quick serotonin bost. it’s all fluff and flowers and crushes, and i love it. criminally underrated.

Heavenstruck (ongoing) by dontrollthedice

george is dreams guardian angel, and dream want to find out more about him and his past life. bittersweet :,)

Bang and Burn (completed) by App1e_Juice

(spy au) george accidentally falls for target number 1 on sapnap’s secret agency’s hit list. this ones great, i love me a spy au :)

Can I get a uhh… (completed) by lemonskies

dream keeps pulling up to the drive through mcdonald’s that george works at drunk.

Pretty Stranger (completed) by anon

when looking for dream in the terminal, george sees a cute guy and decides to flirt.

Take my Hand (completed) by latinbias

(royalty au) another royalty au? poggers. surprise twists? double poggers. love this a lot.

seconds, minutes, hours, lifetimes (complete) by meridies

ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP *inhales to compose herself* roadtrip au. unrequited love, ignored feelings, longing, pining, you know the drill. absolutely love this one, its the best roadtrip au i have ever read, in any fandom. (maybe cause i identify with it a little too much, but thats not important. whats important is that you read this fic. right now. im waiting).

Message redacted (complete) by justyouraverageloser

(text fic) dream asks for a girls number and realises hes been given the wrong number. however, an unexpected relationship starts to form between him and the stranger on the other end of the line.

the waves (completed) by anon

(mc irl) this fic was written by the same anon who wrote the color orange, which is up there on my fav dnf oneshot list. dream and george know they have a higher purpose. they don’t know where they came from, or why they are seemingly the only humans in the world, or how they feel about eachother, or even where the skeletons come from, but they are sure of one thing: they have to beat a dragon.

The Dream Doll (completed) by PeppDream (Pep_Pizza)

(voodoo i guess) i’m a real big fan of fics with really out there or unique concepts, so naturally this one makes the cut! i really liked it, it’s really sweet and made me think a lot about what matters to me in the world. george finds a strange doll in an antique shop, and would really like to just stuff it in a drawer and forget about it. sadly (?), the doll has other plans.

last updated February 6th, 2021

#dnf #dreamnotfound #dream not found #dreamnotfound fic #dreamnotfound fanfic #dreamnotfound fanfiction #dnf fic #dnf fanfic #dnf fanfiction #dnf fic rec #dreamnotfound fanfiction recommendations #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #i’m ok i swear #i read too much fanfiction #i should probably go to bed

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ltleflrt · 3 years

Note

Hey Carrie! You talked a little the other day about writers' tendency to start a fic too early in the story, and how you see a lot of first scenes that could have been scrapped to improve the story. My question is if you have some tips to recognize while writing that first scene that you are starting too early in the story?

Hello friend!

That's a really good question, and I'll see if I can give an answer that makes sense. I am not a professional, and I'm not educated or trained in this stuff, it's just something that I recognize from years and years and years of voracious reading. And as with all writing advice, I encourage you to take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt and remember that no writing rule is a hard rule, only a guideline.

Also, my advice is going to be pertaining fanfiction, and specifically to AUs. Obviously a published book has an editor with a razor blade going through a manuscript for you, and the problems that bother me in fanfiction crop up in AUs more than Canonverse.

Oh, and every instance of "you" is general, not specific 😜

So I think the main problem that I see is that people are starting with an Info Dump. An Info Dump is not always a bad thing, sometimes it's completely necessary, but it is NOT where you want to start your story. If it absolutely has to be done, it's better to be somewhere in the middle or near the end. When it's something that your characters need to know.

That's an important bit: Do your characters need to know this?

And related to that: Does your audience need to know this for the story to make sense?

And very important follow up: If the answers to the above questions are yes, does the character/audience need to know this RIGHT NOW?

There's a lot of information about your story that YOU need to know. Heck, my notes files are full of sooooooo much stuff that I know about the characters and plot that never reaches the final product.

So when you're reading your first chapter (I say reading, not writing, because sometimes info dumping for your own benefit is good, and then you fix it before you share the story lol), ask yourself those two questions.

So for example:

In an AU where Dean is a tattoo artist, and it's his POV. The story starts with Dean driving to work, and when he gets there he's going to find out that the empty shop next door has been purchased and is going to be a yoga studio. He meets Castiel out front, up on a ladder trying to hang a hand painted sign, and some teens go running buy and knock into the ladder and Dean has to catch Castiel from falling. (Anyone who wants to adopt this idea is welcome to it btw, I would love to read this lol)

The mistake I often see in a first chapter like this is that as Dean is walking to work, there's a whole Info Dump about why he's a tattoo artist instead of a hunter. He'll be ambling along, thinking about his nice little business, and there's info about how his mom died in a fire, and his dad was a jerk, and Dean didn't go to college because he saved his money for Sammy's college fund, and Dean's only passion was art, and Bobby Singer introduced him to a tattoo shop owner who took Dean under his wing, etc.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: Why is Dean reflecting on his past? Does Castiel need to know this information in order to build a romance with Dean?

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Why does this information matter? If Dean's only reflecting on this because you want to make sure your audience knows where the timeline changed and this became an AU, then you're starting too early in your story. Dean doesn't need to know this, and honestly in a lot of cases the reader doesn't need to know this. This is information that should have been left in your notes file.

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: If this information is pertinent to the plot, like maybe there's some trauma there that Castiel might need to know about to develop their relationship, then you don't want to put it HERE, you want to put it in a conversation with Castiel LATER.

If I was writing this AU, I would just start with Dean sipping his coffee, he's kinda tired because reasons, he looks up to see an unusual commotion, and has to drop his coffee and sprint forward to catch Cas. If he's reflecting on anything in this scene, it's going to be whatever made him tired, or how good/bad the coffee is this morning. Since Cas is a new business owner, they can talk about the origins of Dean's business on their first date, because it'll be a relevant response to Castiel talking about the origins of his yoga studio.

And just in general, if Dean's origin story includes a lot of canon elements, like mom dying in a fire, dad being a deadbeat, Sammy being the adorable overachieving Stanford student.... try to hide that info for as long as you can so that the audience is actually curious about it by the time the info might pop up. It's the wild divergences that are more interesting earlier on.

Okay, and then I want to talk about my giant pet peeve for a starting chapter. It's a specific kind of info dump, that often includes the stuff from above, but then goes a step further.

My nemesis, The Daily Grind.

I haven't asked the authors, so I could be wrong about this, but I feel like most of the time when this type of chapter is included in a story it is because the author wants to show the reader that the character's life is boring and meaningless before the plot's inciting incident. I can absolutely see why that might be considered an important detail about the character, but keep in mind if it's boring and meaningless to the character, it's boring and meaningless to your audience.

You know how I said earlier that writing tips should never be hard and fast rules? Well this is in regards to that Show Don't Tell rule, and it's an example of TOO MUCH showing lol

It is possible to do a daily grind in an interesting way, but only if you include a Shake Up right away. And you have to look at the 3 questions a little bit differently.

So for example:

Castiel POV, and he works in an office. His daily routine is to always get up at the same time every day, he goes for his run, he grooms himself, he has his breakfast, he goes to work and talks to Kelly about how Jack's doing in kindergarten for a few minutes before going into his office. Adler comes in to be a prick, Castiel hates him for it, and then he does his reports, has lunch hiding in a corner of the lunch room so that his co-workers will leave him alone, he does more reporting, leaves an hour after his shift technically ends, goes home to a lonely apartment that maybe includes a pet who is the only being that shows him affection, has an unsatisfying dinner of leftover takeout while watching a mindless reality tv show, then he goes to bed.

Ugh.

BORING.

Which, yeah I get it, the point is that his life is boring. But now the story is too, and I've clicked the back button before I can see how exciting it's capable of getting.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: No. He knows. Poor thing definitely already knows.

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Yes, but...

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: Yes, but new question for ya:

Optional Question 4, why does this need to be separate from your plot's inciting incident? The answer to this 4th question is usually that it doesn't.

Chapter 2 of this type of beginning usually shows the shake up of Castiel's day. My advice is to start with the shakeup, and sprinkle in the details of what you would have put into chapter 1 to show the contrast. It's far more interesting to learn how boring Castiel's day is by starting with the shake up.

So, same scenario:

Castiel's alarm doesn't go off for some reason, OH NO HIS ROUTINE IS SHAKEN UP! You're explaining his routine while also stressing him the fuck out because he has to rush, or skip something that he normally needs to do. Action! Interesting! He gets to work late, and has to miss his conversation with Kelly about Jack because she's telling him that Adler's already in his office being a prick because Castiel isn't there waiting for him like he always is. Oh shit, he's pissing off his asshole boss! Conflict! He's so flustered by the shakeups that he misses something on his report, and he gets a call from that new marketing guy Dean Winchester who asks if they can have a meeting about it when Castiel normally takes his lunch. BAM! MEET CUTE OPPORTUNITY! While Castiel is getting all flustered by how pretty Dean is while they talk about TPS reports, he can reflect on how this is both better and worse than hiding from his co-workers in the corner of the lunch room. The rest of the day after that meeting he's thinking about how weird this day is, he still goes home an hour late, he talks to his pet about his weird day when he gets home, and maybe he still eats leftover takeout, but he's not paying attention to the reality tv show because holy shit he wants to count Dean's freckles.

In this example, you're Telling the audience about Castiel's normal routine instead of Showing them. But since it's during a plot heavy chapter, it works!

Lemme see if I can TL:DR this...

As you're reading, ask yourself who needs to know this information, why do they need to know this information, and why is it important for this information to be included early instead of later?

If the answer to any of those questions boils down to "this is backstory" instead of "this kicks off the plot", then you've started too early.

I hope this helps? I'm always nervous about giving writing advice because so much of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm just feeling around in the dark. And I definitely do not ever want to hurt an author's feelings, because this hobby is so fucking hard, and we're all fragile. Even authors who welcome con-crit with open arms will have a weak point that they're unaware of that might get poked wrong and cause a crack, ya know?

I hope anyone who gets this far who might see their own works reflected in my examples understands that I have a lot of respect for their ability to put their work out into the world, and I want them to keep doing it. We're here to have fun, okay? Okay. I love y'all 💜

#ltleramblings #writer's angst #also i think some of these problems can be solved with a prologue #but that's something i'm literally exploring in my current WIP #so I have no idea if I'm doing it right #and i might be breaking all of my own rules with it lol

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shititbe · 3 years

Text

Anyway, HSM2 is about internalized homophobia, and no one can tell me otherwise.

High School Musical is one of the most beloved franchises in the world. Teenagers all over the world grew up watching Troy and Gabriella harmonize together. Three movies, and nearly a decade later it’s still beloved by all. The first film easily forgotten in the ashes of the early 2000’s, the third film stuck in a purgatorial limbo of the rather unfortunate late 2000’s. The second film on the other hand sticks out between the ruckus.

The second High School Musical film takes place at Sharpay and Ryan’s family country club, during the summer between junior and senior year. The Wildcats are working summer jobs on the country club, often forced to the beck and call of Ryan and Sharpay themselves. Sharpay uses all her prestige to help Troy with college instead of starting at the bottom ( or rather, in the kitchen washing dishes) with his friends. In the time she’s helping Troy, she is also pushing her brother away; replacing him with Troy in their musical number for the talent show, and refusing to hang out with him in preference for Troy. Ryan becomes vengeful to his twin and starts hanging around the Wildcats in the kitchen. At first, he was met with some distasteful looks and words (most of which from Chad). With the help of Kelsey, and her neutral party, Ryan fits in smoothly with the other teenagers, eventually giving the WildCats all dance lessons.

Throughout the movie, the main conflict continues to be the internal conflict of Troy Bolton. He debates over and over again if he should go through with Sharpay’s shenanigans, or if he wants to “listen to my own heart.” This of course involves Gabriella, as she is Troy’s love interest. She’s not in the second film except for the beginning, then, where she leaves in the middle of the film - in order to create angst for Troy - then when she shows up again in the finally to sing/rejoin Troy.

The conflict in the second film is the combining of Troy’s two worlds. His first - his main world in the first movie, that hence became his secondary world - which is represented by Chad. Then his secondary world - which becomes his main world in this movie - which is represented by Ryan. Chad represents Troy’s masculinity, or his more idealized version of himself. Ryan represents Troy’s femininity or his current version of reality. These two worlds collide in the iconic song “I don’t dance”.

Since this movie - and hence this scene - came out in the early 2000’s, a lot of the innuendoes went over people's heads. Luckily, as the children who watched this movie grew older and more experienced, and the world became more accepting, we’re able to see this song for what it is.

Before getting into the lore and symbolism of the iconic “I Don’t Dance” sequence, context is needed. For most of human history, homosexuality was seen as a sin in all places except ancient times (see: Greece and Japan). The modern age is the most accepting on all fronts, such as sexual orientation, race, and religion. In the early 2000’s, High School Musical director Kenny Ortega was not publicialy out yet. He wouldn’t be till 2014.

Originally, while writing this, my first thought was that Kenny - the director - would be using Troy as a y/n type character to project his insecurities and struggles with masculinity, and what that means in defining his orientation and societal views that would be placed upon him. Then, it came to me later that this is in fact not the case, Troy (and Gabriella - who is in fact a y/n character for the female audience) is more of a character for a man of his time, confused with his own ideals of masculinity and the views of society because, “oh god, I can’t like theater/drama because only queer people and girls like it!” The second point is pushed further with the Troy and Sharpay sub-plot. Sharpay tries to further Troy’s career as a basketball player, though that’s not what he wants anymore, and Troy is no longer sure if that is what he ever wanted to begin with (enter the song “Bet on it” and the hilarious meme “no dad, I’m giving up on your dream”).

Keeping these things in mind - Kenney’s queerness, and Troy’s struggle to realize you can in fact sing and be a heterosexual, wow, revolutionary - it became clear to me that Kenney’s y/n characters were Ryan and Chad.

For those who aren’t into the arts, or find them too difficult after a singular attempt thinking they could write a world class novel on the first go, let me be the first to tell you every author has a y/n character. First, for those who don’t know what y/n stands for, it’s a popular fanfiction trope where a writer will write a story about a character dating, being friends, and so on, with the reader. The y/n stands for “your name” so anyone can be the main character in this story at any time. For a writer of mainstream fictional work, such as High School Musical, Game Of Thrones, Lord Of The Rings, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, even most comics. Now, most writers or directors aren’t going to be as obvious as having a character not named (or named y/n) or even named Jane (looking at you Jane Austin), the y/n character of many mainstream authors/directors/comic artists and so on is usually the character they feel or have given the most attributes similar to themselves.

It’s the same reason people have favourite characters. You see a fictional character and you either 1. Want to Bob the Builder them, 2. Some sort of weird sex thing, or 3. See more/the most of yourself in this character. Number three - thankfully - is usually the main reason. Some people just create their own favourite characters. An even easier way to think about this, is just projection baby, that’s psych 101.

Before I went off on a small tangent of fictional works and how human emotion plays into creating them (except anything Disney has made in the past decade, and no you can’t change my mind on that) I mentioned that Chad and Ryan are Kenney’s y/n characters. As a queer person myself, it’s clear for me to see the different struggles each of these characters face and how these reflect the queer experience.

So, let’s finally get into it.

Ryan, without it being explicitly said is clearly a character of what people in the early 2000s think a gay man is. He is effeminate, wearing bright coloured outfits with lots of accessories - namely his signature hats - he is also in the theater department doing musicals, and passive/subservient to any of his twin sisters' wills. Yes, now we know gay men aren’t just feminized men, but in the early 2000’s a gay man who can do "masculine" things like change their car oil, like sports, and so on, break the "effeminate" stereotype thus confused many cishet people. Sharpay is painted as more confident - or, for sake of comparability - masculine to her twin in the first movie, and most of the second movie. Making Ryan a bit of her dog who would do anything to get by - painting Ryan as lesser than human, once more, playing into the homophobia of the early 2000's.

Despite the clear stereotypes playing into his character, Ryan is consistently one of the most confident characters in the movie. The other, being his sister of course. This confidence in himself is what gravitates the other characters towards him, either by being intimidated (Troy, thinking Ryan and Gabriella were a thing), or admiration (Chad, by the end of “I don’t dance”).

Chad, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game. While he is confident in the first movie, and the first portion of the second movie, he begins to break more and more when Ryan becomes a more integral part of the Wildcat group. To keep in mind, Chad is also the most vocal about his distaste for Troy’s artistic past-time. When the other Wildcats join Ryan and begin learning how to dance for the talent show at the end of the movie, Chad is also the most vocal about his distaste. The baseball game where “I don’t dance” takes place, is the climax of Chad’s arc and his turn towards acceptance to Ryan/Troy’s hobbies.

Of course, there is more to the “I don’t dance” sequence than just Chad’s realization - the exact one Troy comes to terms with in the second movie as well - of “oh my god I don’t have to be gay to enjoy stereotypical ‘feminine’ things.” That is the main part of the song though, that and all the sexual tension.

Going back to what I’ve stated previously, Chad and Ryan are Kenney’s projection or y/n characters. Let me do a small recap before we get into the nitty gritty of the famous “I don’t dance” video.

Thinking back to the first few paragraphs, I stated that Kenney wasn’t publicly out till 2014, about 7 years after the second movie came out. This could be due to the fact that a) it’s the early 2000’s and everyones still very homophobic, or b) self-doubt that comes with the queer experience. The most likely reason is a mixture of both of these. Because of this, Ryan is the more self-assured version, or idealized version of Kenney that he wants to be. Ryan is confident, never being swayed about his lifestyle (could be read as: sexuality) even though Chad - and most of the wildcats in the first movie - put him through relentless “teasing” and humiliation. He’s confident, almost to a fault, he’s sure of himself, and yet still reaches out a hand to Chad and the other wildcats to show them that they’re just being, kinda dick-ish.

Every queer person wants to be Ryan. Despite his heavily stereotyped characterization, I personally believe he is one of the stronger written characters in the movies, mainly due to Kenney putting the time in to really make Ryan feel like a real person, to give himself some sort of relief of his own anxieties, a chance to see the world through a person who truly has no fear. Unlike Kenney himself.

This is where Chad comes in.

Chad is seen as “confident” in the first movie, the second Troy “leaves” basketball though, all that confidence comes crashing down. His best friend has another hobby - one he thinks is “not right” (it’s okay, you can say gay), - they wont be spending all their time together (first, can you say dependent relationship much, yikes).Chad’s defining characteristic up until their fight that instigate act three of the second movie, is being Troy’s best friend. I’m going to take this as if this were truly the case, and not a decently written character arch. Some people base themselves around their friends and their whole identity on being a friend, that they lose sight of themselves, this mainly in high school of course, when your whole world is really nothing but school, and friends. Newly developed independence is there, but that’s scary, so instead of worrying about the future, cling to something that’s reliable. I’ve seen this happen, mainly at the end of high school, when the “real world” is coming a bit too close for comfort. This could generally be the case if a person is lonely, but for timeline sake I’m going to say Chad has got some anxiety about graduating (considering the second movie takes place the summer of junior year).

His lashing out at Troy’s hobbies and at Troy’s neglectful friendship, make more sense with that background, and are seen more in the second movie where Troy begins spending all his spare time with Sharpay (trying to collect that BAG!). Chad - and others (read: father) - insists that music is not a feasible career option, and Troy should just stick with basketball (like...that is a feasible career option). The tension Chad creates in the studio only grows when the other wildcats decide to take up Ryan’s offer for dance lessons and move from the kitchen, to helping out with the talent show. (Next essay idea: how high school musical two was really about class all along, cause Jesus).

Chad is the less obvious option for a y/n character. Though again, the 2000’s were not as cool people like to pretend they are. Chad - for Kenney - represents what he actually feels, this fear of being rejected for how he is and how he chooses to live his life/lifestyle, so he sticks to something reliable. Ryan is new, and exciting, and confident in a way that Kenney/Chad wish they could be, but in order for that to happen they need to understand that maybe people are complex creatures, and can enjoy multiple hobbies (aka: the same lesson Troy is teaching the viewers, but far less boring). But, for Kenney/Chad facing that thought and that realization is scary, and thus, they lash out at anyone (read this paragraph as: Chad mad jealous of Ryan cause Ryan bomb as fuck).

All this build up, finally comes ahead in the employee baseball match

******

The baseball game is probably the most memorable scene in the whole High School Musical franchise (minus Sharpay’s “Fabulous” solo, but that’s also from the same movie, and it’s kinda rude to give what’s already the best more points); the tension in the scene, and what it implies makes it the best written segment of all three movies, let alone the most entertaining.

Some things to keep in mind from our background information: Chad is missing his bestie and struggling with what being “masculine” really means for him and others. Ryan of course makes this confusing, because the traditional method is being thrown out the window. In short, Chad has internalized homophobia, and Ryan being open - or as open as Disney would let him - is causing all sorts of problems.

Despite the song, “I don’t dance” being logged into our collective skulls for all eternity (you’re probably humming it right now, sorry about that), the very brief interaction of Ryan and Chad before the game is lost on the public consciousness. The two are clearly comfortable with each other, though the distaste seems to be on Chad’s side more than Ryans. So, the two start playfully jabbing at each other before deciding to do a bat toss to see who will be in the outfield first.

Before they begin the bat toss, Ryan says “You don’t think dancing takes some game?” Chad then very clearly checks him out, doing a simple but effective ‘drag-your-eyes-over-them-top-to-bottom-then-smile’ and says “you got game?” (Seen in gif below)

I don’t know how much you know about sex metaphors and how many of those baseball has in it (seriously though, it’s a lot), but with the bat toss, Ryan’s hand ended up on top, and Chad’s under Ryan’s. Let’s ignore this for now, it’ll be implied again later. Ryan’s team starts out in the outfield because he won the bat toss, and hence, the song officially starts.

The first lyrics (ignoring the chores of “hey batter batter, hey batter batter, swing”) is

I'll show you that it's one and the same

Baseball, dancing, same game

It's easy

Step up to the place, start swingin

This part is sung by Ryan, who is taunting Chad out in the outfield. Before the game, as stated, Chad was taunting Ryan about his lack of “game” (both sexual and not sexual metaphor are implied), and now, Ryan has turned those tables around. Baseball - is seen as more masculine than dancing, not as masculine as football or basketball, but it’s up there. Chad is someone who cares about his masculinity, enough to the point that Ryan playing baseball makes him loose his mind. Makes him question his own personal definition of masculinity, if you will.

Ryan says, “baseball, dancing, same game,” impyling that, to him, baseball and dancing are one and the same. That is baffling to Chad, cause well, how can something meant for girls even be close to something meant for boys.

Chad comes back with:

I wanna play ball now, and that's all

This is what I do

It ain't no dance that you can show me, yeah

This only proves my previous point.

I had a conversation with myself about this, and I’ve decided not to include it in this essay, but a second essay may or may not be possible. Basically the premise - the dancing/”musical” moments of High School Musical are conjured up images by those meant to see them (ie: like a visual hallucination, but, not really) but this scene kinda poo-poos that idea.

Now, the thing I am talking about is Ryan and Chad’s peacocking at each other during the time they sing these lyrics. The movements they’re making could be mistaken for dancing - as we automatically assume it is because of the title and themes of the movie - or it could be them just getting ready for the baseball game. Ryan swings his leg over the pitcher's mound, tossing the ball up and down into his glove, making wavy hand gestures, etc. Chad brushes off his gloves, swings his legs, hits the bat on each foot, and so on.

For the peacocking, Chad makes a mock of the ballerina foot stance before strutting over to the home plate. Ryan laughs at this, which earns quite the smirk from Chad himself (see gif below).

This is when it becomes a conversation.

You'll never know - R

Oh I know - Ch

If you never try - R

There's just one little thing - Ch

That stops me every time, yeah - Ch

Come on - Ch

When Chad says “Come on” it’s when Ryan throws the baseball at him, starting the game, and giving Chad’s team their first strike of the game (get it, it’s funny). Now, obviously we need to talk about the “there’s just one little thing that stops me every time.” As a queer person, I assure you, two of the things that kept me from living my Best Life were 1) my own ignorance of what asexuality was and 2) the fear that everyone I love would hate me for who I am, and what I have no control over.

Sorry to get deep like that on main, but, can any other queer person say different? Obviously, your first point may differ, but my point still stands. In the video/scene there is a very short moment (to which I have condensed into a gif for you all, you’re welcome, and I’m sorry about the quality in advance), of the camera moving over to Chad’s team (or his friends in this case since it’s an employee baseball game) as he says this line (gif below).

I will not be explaining the use of subtly in this essay, but I’m sure you get the metaphor Kenney is trying to use. If not, let me spell it out for you in very simple words. This song has a lot of sexual innuendos (as mentioned pervious with the baseball bat scene and still, more to come), with that in mind, and clearly queer themes at play (as mentioned before, again), this scene only shows Chad isn’t as straight as he leads on. His fear/phobia of Ryan/the arts come from a much deeper place.

In shorter, and much simpler terms: Chad queer.

But, let’s get back to the boy's conversation.

I don't dance - Ch

I know you can - R

Not a chance, no - Ch

If I could do this, well, you could do that - R

Translation: “If I can do this weird, sweaty, dirty, Male thing without blowing a fuse, you can and should be able to dance just fine.”

But I don't dance - Ch

Hit it out of the park - Both

I don't dance - Ch

I say you can - R

There's not a chance, oh - Ch

Slide home, you score, swingin on the dance floor - Both

I don't dance, no - Ch (This is just the chores, you’ll see it multiple times throughout the essay, I just figured if the song is going to be in your head, go all the way right).

Two-steppin, now you're up to bat - R

Bases loaded, do your dance - R

Here we are with the baseball metaphors you’ve all been waiting for ladies and gentlemen. Girls, gays, and non-binary pals. For those who have somehow managed a sheltered existence with access to the internet, lemme help you. Ryan is talking about “loaded bases” both in the context of the game (where it shows each base has one person from Chad’s team on them) and in the term of sex. While you go out there dating - while it’s mostly douche bags and people using it ironically - your nosey friends may ask you how far you got.

“First, second, or third base?” They may ask. Or something like, “oh wow, did you get to home plate/base?” These are simply the rankings of the stages of a sexual relationship. First - kissing, sometimes just handholding, Second - making out, some light groping, Third - full on groping, no clothes come off, but it gets close. While each person has different boundaries, these are the general accepted definitions for the bases.

Home base is obviously full blown sexual intercourse. Since Chad has his “bases loaded” it means he’s done all these things before, just never gone completely to sexual intercourse with someone - in the terms of the song and the history we’ve already established, it’s most likely a male character. This is only proven by Chad’s uncomfortable nature towards Ryan (internalized Homophobia, thank you, returning theme) but his easy, and cocky personality towards everyone else. “bUt thAt DoEsnT pRovE” hush, that’s the final cherry on top. Remember this conversation.

It's easy - R

Again. Previous points have been made.

Take your best shot, just hit it - Ch

I've got what it takes, playin my game - Ch

So you better spin that pitch - Ch

You're gonna throw me, yeah - Ch

I'll show you how I swing - Ch

Ah, the famous “I’ll show you how i swing” a very strong baseball metaphor for everyone. Keeps queer people from defining themselves to dangerous (straight) people, and, well, that’s it actually. This term is mostly used by bi/pan people, though if you want to stay in the closet or are in a dangerous place, it is also used to subtly tell other queer people you are in fact, not straight. My favourite is when this term came into play when President Buchanan got elected in 1856 (for those that don’t know, he’s the first and only gay president).

You'll never know - R

Oh I know - Ch

If you never try - R

There's just one little thing - Ch

That stops me every time, yeah - Ch

This is again, the same lyric as before it doesn’t pan, and the tone is much different. The camera stays on Chad as he says this line, meaning he’s reflecting, he is now his own problem, the person that is keeping him back. His friends are not on his mind anymore, which is good, Ryan’s Gay Propaganda has been working.

Come on - Ch

I don't dance - Ch

I know you can - R

Not a chance, no, no - Ch

If I could do this, well, you could do that - R

But I don't dance - Ch

Hit it out of the park - R

I don't dance - Ch

I say you can - R

There's not a chance, oh no - Ch

Slide home, you score, swingin on the dance floor - Both

I don't dance, no - Ch

Lean back, tuck it in, take a chance - R

Swing it out, spin around, do the dance - R

I wanna play ball, not dance hall - Ch

I'm makin a triple, not a curtain cal - Chl

I can prove it to you til you know it's true - R

'Cause I can swing it, I can bring it to the diamond too - R

You're talkin a lot, show me what you got - Ch

Again, like the beginning of this song, this is a heavy base for flirting and sexual tension, which this song is drowning in.

Stop swinging - both

Hey - both

This is the part where they all start a flash mob in the middle of the baseball diamond. Again, alluding to the conversation I had to myself earlier, this only proves my own theory as no one takes notice of this. But, that’s not this essay, this is where I mention how close Chad and Ryan are at the end of the group dance.

Come on, swing it like this - both

Oh, swing - both

Jitterbug, just like that - both

That's what I mean, that's how you swing - both

You make a good pitch but I don't believe - both

Here is yet another (and the final) sexual innuendo. This is actually a rather quick one. Pitching in queer culture is considered the person who tops (because queer people even had to straight-ify their sex lives to “top” and “bottom”), this is the person who is giving, if you know what I’m saying.

I say you can - R

I know I can't - Ch

I don't dance - Ch

You can do it - R

I don't dance, no - Ch

Here is where that mosh pit ends, and how they get a little too close to comfort.

Nothing to it, atta boy, atta boy, yeah - both

The rest of this song is simply a mash-up of the baseball game being finished, and this lovely gem.

Now, clearly, Chad’s self conscious nature towards his sexuality is gone, he’s sitting close - if not squishing - Ryan, and talking to him like they’ve been friends forever. Take note of the change of close, most likely due to all the tension at the end of the song, and maybe a little of Chad’s own natural human curiosity built in. Now, I leave you with this note:

If there is anything that confirms all this more, its Chad’s girlfriend wearing the pride colours.

Also note: this could also be seen as a friend helping his bro discover his sexuality and fighting internalized homophobia, but, that’s ignoring the sexual tension, so go off I guess.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Watch the full thing here

#high school musical 2 #ryan and chad #do they have a ship name?#troy bolton #high school musical #the original not the remake or whatever the kids have now #ryan evans #chad danforth #Sharpay evans #troy x gabriella #ryan/chad #that baseball scene #yall know what i'm talking about #i don't dance #the gayest scene ever #and gayest song #Anyways: the series #should I write that second essay?#thanks for coming to my ted talk

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oneofthosesimps · 3 years

Text

Head over Heels

pairing: levi x reader I nsfw

word count: 2404

summary: reader gets fucked by levi in his office and both get interrupted which doesn't stop levi from continuing

warnings: , choking, rough sex, dirtytalk, swearing, sub x dom

authors note: first fanfiction since forever so go easy with me <3

all credits to the artist of this pic

(unfortunately, i don't know who it's from. if anyone can help me further, feel free to write me)

-----

Slowly your legs give out and you can barely hold on. You can feel the pain jolting through them and slowly spreading. Almost all of your toes are numb and if they still have a bit of blood in them, they are just tingling from the blood loss they are experiencing. Your chest is rising and falling way too fast, your heart can hardly keep up. Your brain is trying to process what is going on right now.

Your breath catches and your trembling lips release a long moan as you let your head fall into your neck. A hand rests over your mouth and grey eyes look at you. Half-closed and dark, the swirling storm in them twists your head and pulls you in, making you float. You try with difficulty to pull yourself together and leave your heavy eyelids open to look back.

His forehead slightly wrinkled, drops of sweat running down his temples, his lips open, "Oi, didn't I tell you to be quiet, brat."

His other hand digs deeper into your hip and he pushes you harder against the door. The old marks barely faded; he probably wants to leave new marks on you.

"So, everyone knows you're mine, too," he had said once.

Indispensable of his speed and depth, his lips settle on your neck, searching for your pulse, which drums in your ears. Once he finds it, he sucks on the thin skin, leaving another trace on your body.

"Or do you want them to be able to hear you again?" your captain asks, sliding one of his fingers into your mouth. "Do you want me to hear the talk again? The talk about how hard I fucked you last night?" His finger presses against your tongue and you take this as an invitation to let the muscle slide around it. "...That I hear we're supposed to be quieter because we disturbed the others? No, because you disturbed the others". He slid a second finger into your mouth, and you suck on them, drooling all over them. "...That you disturbed them, with your moans, while I fucked your cunt? Is that what you want, brat?" With each of the words of his last question, he thrusts once firmly and deeply into you, and a louder, longer moan escapes you again, which is, however, muffled by his fingers.

Your eyes twist back and your hands on his shoulders become fists. Your nails dig deep into his skin and a low moan falls from his lips as well, while he frowns and puts his head in his neck like you did before. "Fuck," his deep voice vibrates through the room and he pulls his fingers out of your mouth. Both hands settle under your ass again. "Wrap your arms and legs tightly around me."

You do as you're told, and Levi takes all your weight again, lifting you away from the door and hastily carrying you across the room. His cock slides out of you, only to settle between the cheeks of your ass. Your heart leaps as you think of what happened the last time his cock touched that sensitive spot, and a slight blush settles over your cheeks and shoulders. During the short time he holds you in his arms like this, you put your mouth in the hollow between his neck and shoulder and lick the sweat from his skin. A hiss escapes him.

Arriving at his desk, Levi sets you down and tears almost come to your eyes as you let your legs hang and the circulation in your body returns to normal.

Levi immediately takes your lips. You moan into his mouth and he takes the opportunity to connect his tongue with yours. Your hands find their way into his dark hair and you stroke through the longer stubble on the back of his head to the long strands on top.

A growl comes low from his throat and he wraps his arms around your small body, hugging you close before releasing the kiss. "You're the death of me, you know." His gaze bores into your soul again as his right hand makes its way down between your bodies, finally arriving at your hot centre. Easily two fingers find their way inside you, he curves them upward and hits your G-spot, massaging it slowly and delightfully.

Your body tenses slightly and your legs twitch as your mouth makes pleasurable sounds. "Especially now, the way you look at me innocently with your big eyes, like you're not a spoiled little girl".

You lick your lips. As soon as his name escapes you, he frowns again, and his eyes darken. He says you are his death? He is a god as he stands there before you. How his eyes captivate you, take you in and never let you go. How the muscles worked under his skin as his fingers fuck you.

"What do you want, brat? Tell me."

"You," you sigh as his fingers slide out of you and he massages the small pearl between your lower lips with your juices. Your hips jerk forward, trying to accommodate his movements. A small knot forms below your belly.

"You have me," he murmurs, raising an eyebrow. You have had him at least since the first time you raised your voice at him after he teased you for not being able to hold your own against Annie in a two-on-two fight. This, if he was honest with himself, had been somewhat unfair.

"I want your cock," you explain in more detail, biting your lower lip as the knot under your belly grows stronger. He immediately sees the signs on your face as he increases the pressure on your clit.

"Your cock what?" he taunts. Your hand digs into his thigh and you almost go insane as he continuing to play with you and eyeing your face almost with amusement.

"Your cock, s-sir. Holy, I'm about to cum," you stammer to yourself, your body quivering under him.

"Right, about to," is all Levi says, pulling his hand back. A hiss escapes you, you were so close to your climax, the heaven he had promised you. Have mercy on me, please, you think. As if he heard your thoughts, he is already planning his next moves with you in his head.

"Lie back," he says, and in the process, he grips your thighs from below, pulling your pelvis closer to him and spreading your legs further apart. No matter how many times he looks at your pussy, you will probably never lose your complete shame lying there in front of him like that, completely open.

He opens his mouth, and you see a thread of spit come out from between his lips and drip onto your already wet pussy. His gaze falls back to you and the corners of his mouth pull up slightly. You are about to go insane. He reaches around his cock and inserts it into you again, filling you completely once more and thrusting to the back in one go.

A deep moan comes from your mouth, which turns into more moans as he resumes his previous speed and fucks the life out of you. Your thoughts can barely keep up, which is why you just give up trying to process what is happening. Levi moans above you, his hands drilled into your thighs as he presses your legs even further against you. He gets even closer to you, fucking you even deeper, changing angles slightly to thrust against your sweet spot again. You call out his name loudly and arch your back.

Apparently, he's probably given up on trying to get you to be quiet. He's too busy holding you down as his left hand settles next to your head and grips the other edge of the table. His body settles further over yours, constricting your movement even more, trapping you in your current position.

You have long since given up your legs again and submit to your fate. His gaze fixes you and you feel like you are getting closer and closer to your longed-for end. He also seems to be slowly working towards his climax, which is not surprising after the fuck against the door of his office that has already happened before. The table below you slowly start to slide a bit from its original place with every push from the god above you. His documents have long been scattered around the room. Your eyes meet again before he lets his gaze slide over your face.

Never had he beheld anything more beautiful. Your half-closed eyes, sparkling at him. Your under lip, as it was captured by your teeth. Your curls falling around your face and shoulder. Your neck, which was covered with his markings. Your breasts that fit so perfectly in his hands and by his hard thrusts rocked up and down. And if he kept his gaze down even further, he'd see his thick cock driving into you and connecting both of you. A low murmur comes from his throat as he focuses on the feeling. The way your tight walls wrap around him, milking him. He was so close to his limit, so close to filling you from the inside. His hand was already tightening painfully around the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white. Just a little more, just a little more. Just a little more, until your little body would twitch beneath him and you both wouldn't know where Levi started, and you ended. Just a little more until he would break you apart.

A knock on the door snaps you out of your world. Your whole-body tenses under him and you tear open your eyes. Levi looks down at you and puts his hand over your mouth again.

"Keep it down, brat." To your shock, he doesn't stop his thrusts, he just straightens up a bit and slows his pace just enough to bring you back a bit from your orgasm. His other hand finds its way to your clit again, which he rubs in slow circles to bring you out of your shock paralysis. Your body works against you, and so you fall for him again, trying to suppress any sound from you.

"Name and occasion," he spoke in his usual deep voice, but it didn't escape you that he sounded annoyed. You were amazed at how hard he was able to hold it together, but his eyes told you that his head was still with you.

"Captain, sir, Armin Arlert, I'm bringing Commander Erwin Smith's papers as requested," came a trembling voice from the other side. Armin, too, seemed to realize that Levi didn't feel like dealing with him right now. Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. He had forgotten all about that from all the work he was doing. With a deep thrust into you, he replied, "Tch, not now."

"A-but sir, y-you asked me specifically to get the papers."

The corners of Levi's mouth drop, and he pulls you to him again, wrapping his hands around your neck and squeezing lightly to vent his anger about Armin out there. Why is he interrupted now of all times? Your breath catches and your eyes roll back into your skull. "More," you breathe over your lips. If he keeps this up, you'll cum right here and now, while poor Armin stands outside the door with no idea how heavy the scent of sex and sweat is in the air and how well you're getting fucked right now.

"Not now, you piece of shit. Can your little brain handle that simple instruction?" hisses Levi, tightening his grip as you wish. His pace picks up again and he stares into your face.

"I'm cumming," you whisper as you slowly black out. The lack of air and his cock thrusting inside you with a brutality is driving you crazy. By the time Levi loses his cool and takes it out on you, you're head over heels. Sometimes down at dinner you can see his eyes squinting from a distance because he's annoyed with one of your comrades. Almost everyone fears Levi for his cold nature. They can't see through him because he hardly lets his feelings out. But when he comes up to you and grabs you by the collar of your clothes, dragging you through the whole building to his office, everyone knows that the person who has just annoyed him has real problems. And you realize at the very first glance from him to you that your inner anticipation is immeasurable.

"Wait a minute," he murmurs softly. He hasn't heard Arlert's footsteps moving away from the office yet. Probably the boy is still too unsure how to react, since Levi said something else to him earlier. But Levi also knew that it was really time to get rid of him. "Arlert, fuck off," Levi growls and opens your mouth with one of his hands, letting spit drip between his lips again, which this time hits your tongue. Greedily you swallow it, while you finally hear Armin's footsteps and the world around you fall apart. Behind your closed eyelids everything turns white, your whole-body bends towards Levi while his name falls from your lips over and over again. Levi also finally reaches his limit and shoots his juice deep into you, burying his face in your neck and moaning against your skin.

For a moment you both lie there like that as you try to come down from your high and your breath relaxes. Now comes the moment, feeling your aching limbs, and your face contorts. Levi laughs softly and your body shakes under him.

Slowly he straightens up from you and grins at you. "I'd say I'm sorry, but that would be a lie."

A slight grin settles over your lips as well. "The only thing you should be sorry for is Armin."

Levi rolled his eyes and slowly helped you up while his gaze was fixed on the wetness and his juice between your legs.

"Tch, Arlert can take it. I'll still take that scum and his stupid little friend Yeager harder tomorrow."

"Why Yeager?" you frown and are thankful for it as Levi starts to clean you up.

"Why not? That moron gets on my nerves." You smirk slightly and kiss him on the forehead. "You're incorrigible."

#aot #attack on titan #snk #shingeki no kyoujin #levi #levi ackerman #levi x reader #levi x you #levi imagine #levi smut #aot smut #fanfic #aot fanfiction #levi fanfiction

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