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jeon-kookie-dough · 3 years

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Caught in the Game - Chapter 01

After growing up in the midst of Toman and a rather wild time in college, you are now working for a popular fashion magazine. You were aware of your boss's gang past - Kokonoi Hajime's name having been well-known during your school time - but after you bumped into an old friend at work the other day, one coincidence follows the next and you find your past catching up to you...

pairings: Koko x reader, Chifuyu x reader genre: angst, gang!au rating: m for violence & slowburn smut word count: 2,536 next>

The subway was much stuffier than usual. Bodies pressed into each other at every curvature, the sweat mingling on the sticky handlebars. And it is only the morning, for fuck’s sake.

The way from my house, which is located kind of in the outskirts of Tokyo, to Chiyoda where my office was located, felt like a lifetime this hot morning. Between trying to avoid creeps in the subway and standing in the longest queue in front of my favorite coffee shop for what seemed like hours, I was trying to supersede immense tiredness.

As of November, of the year prior I was working for one of the bigger fashion magazines in the country and the deadline for my latest article was already scratching at the front door. More like clawing, actually.

Up until starting up this job, I was used to living a half-assed life. School came easy to me, despite having been caught up in some…situations. College was a blur of alcohol and parties and I just barely graduated. After college I held myself above water with various part-time jobs, having been kicked out from home at barely 18 and landed my current job by chance. This upcoming article was more than important to me, thus stressing myself, and crying my fucking eyes raw from frustration, since it was the first time having my work printed in an actual magazine instead of just publishing online.

The second I stepped foot into Marunouchi Park Building, I sighed of relief and thanked who ever invented ACs. I entered the elevator, pushed the button for the 23rd floor and leaned back against the cool metal wall of the cabin. Just as the doors were about to close, somebody sprinted into the otherwise empty cabin. The person was male and of average height, balancing a couple garment bags and shoe boxes in his arms. I wasn’t really surprised that he was going to exit on the same floor, as the other offices in this building were mostly financial firms.

Not minding the other person, I let him leave the elevator before me, clocked in and greeted my colleagues with a friendly nod. I took a while, but in the past eight months, people seemed to have accepted that I was far from a morning person, so they learned to appreciate my curt nods. Only because I bring coffee. At least that’s my hypothesis.

“Good morning, sunshine!”

My eyeballs immediately rolled to the back. Hearing my boss’ voice in the morning was like nails on a chalkboard. I rolled back with my chair, peaking around my cubical. The bright sunlight illuminated the office through the glass front, reflecting in the angled door to the chief editor’s single office. His figure leaned in the door, arms crossed and hand holding out expectantly.

“S’up, Koko?” I mumble. I knew exactly what he had his hand stuck out for, but I wouldn’t give him the gratification he wanted. That rich fuck, I thought. Bet he snorts his coke with 10k yen bills but can’t even get his own fucking coffee.

“Think my hand is missing an iced Americano this morning. Care to explain?” His slender frame circled around the cubicle wall, now towering above my sitting person. My office was usually occupied by five people in total. Inui always being late and the other three on vacation left me as the only victim. I rolled my eyes at him. “Dunno”, I retorted, opting for my most innocent look. “Think I might have dropped it. You can have a sip of my Cappuccino, but I’m afraid I spat in it.”

Kokonoi Hajime was a peculiar person. He stood at 5’9” and his black locks braided away from the left side of his face was his signature look. He cared a lot about his staff being dressed well, as he himself only own designer suits from Italy. Despite enjoying the power he had over his staff, he also was very liberal in the way we communicated with another at the office. I had never met him before taking the job, but I had certainly heard of Kokonoi way before.

Koko was only a year or two older than I was and back in middle and high school he had a reputation. He lived one school district away from me, but the stories about him were also told at my school. Stories of a financial prodigy that hid behind his wannabe gangster friends that, most of the time, resorted to violence.

“You have a foul mouth”, he snickered, grabbing my cup and taking a sip anyway. “Somebody ever told you that?” I hummed in response, counting my coffee lost, and turned on my laptop. “I have a meeting in five minutes, so please take my calls, will you? Inui is useless, as always.” I nod silently, still grieving the loss of my coffee. Koko’s gaze rested on Inui’s empty desk, then on me. “How’s that big article of yours coming along?”

I knew he meant no harm with that question, but my elevated stress levels along with the acid, that always seems to wing in his voice, made me snap. “Fuck off, alright? I’m working on it.”

The chief editor raised his hands in defense and backed away from my desk, a smile playing about his lips. “The meeting’s until noon. Tell Inui to take my phone when his drags his lazy ass here.”

Inui arrived at 10:30, offering a coffee and a doughnut as a peace offering. I told him to screw off and, finally, concentrated on my article. It was almost done, but I needed it to be perfect before handing it to Kokonoi for proof-reading. I couldn’t afford messing this up if I ever intended of becoming a regular in the print.

I was so emersed in my work that I never saw the visitor arrive or leave. At lunch, all that occupied my mind was my hunger. I didn’t really have a lot of money left, thanks to the fucking chief for having me dress in expensive clothes so he quote unquote didn’t have to claw his eyes out at the sight of me, so a snack from the vending machine it was.

With food just in sight, my feet may have become a little too eager and I stumbled a crashed face first into someone walking by, having them fall onto the marble floor with me. I cussed under my breath and tried to get onto my feet, when there was already a hand outstretched to help me.

“You okay?” I averted my eyes immediately, embarrassment written on my face. “Uh, yeah, I’m alright, I guess. Er, I think you dropped something.” I dove right back down, picking up the visitor laminate. It read ‘Visitor for KOKONOI Hajime. Name-‘

My gaze darted up immediately, meeting a pair of silver eyes staring right back at me. “Mitsuya fucking Takashi?” I whispered in sheer disbelief. My opposite grinned, squeezing his eyes shut doing so. “It’s been a long time, huh, (Y/N)?”

I found myself accompanying Mitsuya to a Korean restaurant down the street for lunch. His treat, he said. The sun was merciless, and he scolded me for not carrying an umbrella with me. “It’s bad for your skin, you know?” I grunted, looking up at him. “Like I care.”

My high school graduation ceremony had been the last time I had seen Mitsuya. Up until then, we had almost been inseparable, having lived in the same shitty apartment complex, visiting the same middle school and him only being one year older. Back then, a lot of things happened. We never really had a fall out, at one point things just changed.

At the restaurant, we slid into a booth and a young waitress came to our table to take our order. Her eyes revealed that she found my companion attractive, but as per usual, he was oblivious. A couple minutes passed, and we were handed our drinks.

“Alcohol at this hour?” His eyebrow shot up in worry, vanishing behind his silver hair. He changed it up a bit since then, leaving his shaved sides in his natural black hair color, his top hair raked with black strands in the otherwise light hair. “Thought you had given up on that.”

I stirred my vodka soda with the glass straw, the ice chinking against the glass. “Yeah, I had.”

Mitsuya didn’t dig any further and leaned back into the cushioned bench instead. “So, a fashion magazine, huh? I thought you always wanted to become a sugar baby, what happened?” At his question I emptied half my drink in one gulp, disregarding the straw completely. “Turns out I’m not really cut for sucking wrinkly dick.” To that, Mitsuya busted out laughing. “You achieved just what you always dreamed of. How does that feel?” I asked quietly.

He stayed silent for a while and I watched him gnawing at the inside of his cheek, clearly thinking about how to choose his next words. “A lot of time has passed, you know?” His voice was dull as he finally spoke. “And a lot happened in between. I guess it was either getting my life under control or…” His voice trailed off, but I knew exactly what he left hanging in the air. Prison. Or even worse, death. “For my sisters’ sake, I chose to get my life together.”

I nodded, fumbling with the glass straw, one burning question on the tip of my tongue. How are the others? Is everyone still alive? I was too afraid of the answer, so I pushed the thought way back.

“Tell me about you, though”, Mitsuya smiled and leaned forward, folding his hands and propping his chin on them. “Working for Koko now, huh? How’s that been?” I groaned quietly and let my head hang. “He’s a fucking pain in the ass. Making me buy all this expensive shit so I’ve got nothing left in the bank. If I knew beforehand who the chief editor was, I would have never taken that job.” Mitsuya chuckled and flicked my forehead. Just like he always used to.

“I know what you mean” he mused. “I never thought I’d see his face again after-“ My eyes shot up at the tone in his voice. I never knew they had met before. Back then, I would have feared for his life. Everyone was young and stupid back then; delinquents with nothing but fist fights on their minds. But the folks Koko had surrounded himself with were more on the actual criminal side.

“What? Mitsuya, you never told me!” Even I was surprised at the pure horror in my voice. “Why didn’t you say something?” Mitsuya shrugged. “Nothing bad ever happened. It was just a surprise to see him in a position like this, that’s all.”

After lunch, which was fucking delicious, dare I add, Mitsuya and I exchanged numbers before going our separate ways.

The rest of the day I couldn’t concentrate on anything anymore. Before I headed home, I met Kokonoi’s gaze through his glass door and it gave me the shivers. Like he was watching me. Like he knew something. Creep. This weird feeling followed me all the way home and I caught myself looking back at every turn, at every red light. For some reason the conversation I have had with my old friend had me nervous. Nervous for him, for me, for everyone. What if Koko’s the same old thug, but with a lot more money and influence?

At home I opened a bottle of white wine, dunked the cap in the bin and sat at my desk, ready to catch up on the time I wasted at the office being worried. With a little liquid confidence, of course. Cheers!

I had approximately gotten about three hours of sleep. My body felt like it had gotten run over by a truck, my brain felt like soup. The only silver lining was, that I had, hallelujah!, finished my article – and my favorite co-worker Natsuki returning from her vacation. She had been working at the magazine already when I had started and showed me around.

Only a few days after I had started working, Atsushi Sendo had been transferred from another internal office to ours. There had been a lot of rumors occurring around his transfer, sexual harassment among them, but in the end, he had only royally fucked up his latest pitch and, as a punishment, had been put under Koko’s supervision, since he’s known to be the meanest editor. He ended up liking to work with us so much that he just stayed. The three of us ended up becoming the bane of Koko’s existence.

I stepped one foot into the office, yawning and pulling an Inui, I can’t believe that I arrived even after him, before I heard Natsuki already picking a fight with the chief editor. I silently put her coffee next to her cup of tea, handed another one to Inui and sat down at my own desk.

“With all due respect, Kokonoi, but you can’t expect me to not freak out when I come back after three weeks and find myarticle published under your name!” I leaned back into my chair, eyes closed, and head thrown back, and listened to the bickering in the chief editor’s office. A few minutes later, Natsuki threw the door into the lock behind her, the heel of her shoes dangerously echoing in the otherwise silent room.

It only took a moment before my sleepy body jumped awake when it got hit by a paper ball. My eyes ripped open just to find her eyes lingering over the wall between our cubicles. “Thanks for the coffee”, she said, raising the cup in a silent toast. I did the same, somewhat straightening up my spine in the seat. “Glad you’re back”, I yawned. “Old scrooge was unbearable.”

“Was?”, Natsuki barked under her breath. “He’s the spawn of hell! Remind me to never take anything from him again. He’s the kind of person to always expect something in return and I don’t even want to think about what he would expect.” I grunted in my chair and sipped on my black coffee, leaving a red lip print on the paper.

“Money” Kokonoi, who unbeknownst to any of us had left his office, answered Natsuki whilst keeping his sly eyes on my. “I don’t take anything but cash. (Y/L/N), where’s your article. Deadline’s today.” Natsuki’s and my eyes met over the screen. Our boss rarely called us by our names, much less our family names - he prefers shit like darling or sweetheart. Why the fuck am I still working here?! – so we knew something was up. And maybe I have a hint.

“Check your mails. I submitted it at, like, 3.” “A.m.?” Natsuki mouthed in disbelief, but I kept my eyes fixed on Kokonoi. He beckoned me with a finger to follow me. “Come in my office for a minute, would you, sweetheart.” There he was again. The egotistical, chauvinistic asshole. The chair hit the screen behind me as I rolled back a little more forceful than intended, but I followed him, anyway.

#tokyo revengers #TR #chifuyu x y/n #koko x y/n #matsuno chifuyu #tokyo revengers x oc #tokyo revengers x you smut #hajime kokonoi #sanzu haruchiyo #mitsuya takashi #slowburn #smut #gang!au #kurokawa izana #izana #ran haitani #rindou haitani #hanma #kazutora hanemiya

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dorthyanndrarry · 4 years

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Dothyanndrarry’s current Fic library: Part two

All lists are arranged oldest to newest. Longer fics have word counts. Only links to the tumblr versions because linking outside the website makes tumblr think I am a pornbot and then it disables all my links.

All these stories are available on my Ao3 account, my pen name is DorthyAnn, searching that and any of the fic names should get you there. Sorry, I’d link them if tumblr would let me.

Below there are links to:

My 16 longer stories, and 10 tiny stories

My 44 one-shots are located on post one

Longer Fics (Oldest to newest)

Thermodynamic Equilibrium

Word count: 5K

First Original Post . Swap! Draco’s hot/Harry’s cold .

The longer story on tumblr: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 (does not include epilogue chapter. Epilogue is only on ao3 and wattpad)

Stealing Sweaters/Stealing Jumpers

Word count: 13K

Tumblr: Part 1 . Part 2 . Part 3 . Part 4 . Part 5 . Part 6 . Part 7 . Part 8 . Part 9 . Part 10 .

Harry’s hoody’s gone missing and there only one person who could have taken it, Draco Malfoy.

Date of Lifetime

Word count: 14K

Ao3 only

Dinner with Harry Potter is a part of a charity auction and Draco intends to win the date and finally put his crush on Harry Potter to rest.

Whatever You Want, Draco Malfoy (WIP)

Word count (currently): 10K

Tumblr Part 1 . Ao3 has the rest of the posted parts

Draco has a drinking problem and an attitude problem. Harry has a hero problem. Somehow the solution to both their problems is each other

Lipstick

Word count: 3.6 K

Part 1 . Part 2

Draco finds a tube of Pansy’s lipstick. He puts it on in a fit of curiosity and finds that he really, really likes how he looks. He’s not the only one.

Rumour Has It…

Current Word count: 2.5 K

Part 1 . Part 2 . Part 3

Rumour has it, Harry Potter was caught in Draco Malfoy’s bed!?

Magical Menagerie

Word Count: 14K

Ao3 only

Convinced by Hermione to get a new pet, Harry goes to Magical Menagerie and finds it’s now owned by Draco Malfoy who has changed since the war… in a good way, a really good way.

Kiss me Not

Word count: 21.3K

Tumblr: Part 1 . Part 2 . Part 3 . Part 4 . Part 5 . Part 6 . Part 7 . Part 8 . Part 9 . Part 10 . Part 11 . Part 12 . Part 13 . Part 14 . Part 15 . Part 16 . Part 17 . Part 18 . Part 19 . Part 20 . Part 21 . Part 22 . Part 23 . Part 24

Sometimes a witch or wizards magical signature is so completely incompatible with another that they repel one another like magnets. On the other hand, if two magical signatures mesh well together, well there are no stronger relationships in all the world. In a sample of a thousand people, the average witch or wizard will be slightly repelled by four or five people and strongly repelled by only one, at the most. The opposite is true for attraction. But Harry Potter can’t kiss anyone at all.

Tea At Three

Word Count: 8.9K

Tumblr: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 -

Draco Malfoy is the head potion brewer for the Ministry’s onsite supply. Every day at three he goes to the nearest break room which coincidentally happens to be the auror break room, where he always seems run into Harry Potter, who might also be waiting just for him. It’s most certainly not the highlight of his day and he certainly doesn’t hold anything other than friendly feelings towards Potter. It’s just tea. Nothing more than tea at three.

Seven Steps

Word Count: 134K

Tumblr: - Part 1 - Part one contains links to all 122 parts

It started with just seven steps to try and win Potter’s affection, but life and relationships are rarely as easy as a checklist on a piece of parchment.

Lace (very NSFW)

Word count: 8.7K

Ao3 only

Harry just can’t stop thinking about it. Despite what his friends say, he just needs to know. Why Draco only gets dressed in the bath. Why he waits until Harry asleep or gone. And what’s in the little black bag he takes with him. Most of all, he wants to know why Draco stopped talking to him. Once he knows, everything will be fine.

Distortion (HP Horror)

Word count: 8.9K

Ao3 only

Harry wakes in darkness. A darkness that goes on and on without end. He can’t see or feel, he doesn’t know what’s happened. All he can do is hold on, replaying his memories to keep him sane. Until it’s over. Until he can go home again.

It Takes Two

Word count: 8.9K

Tumblr Posts: - - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 -

A potion accident combines Harry and Draco into one body for a day. As a single shared mind they’re smarter, more reckless, and far too confident. Leaving their friends worried and sometimes annoyed. Except for Blaise, who thinks it’s all hilarious.

Halloween Night

Word Count: 3.2K

Tumblr - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 -

Halloween only tends to remind Harry of his parents death, there’s nothing happy or fun about it. Its a dark day for him. Draco decides to try and change that, to take Harry out and experiences something new. To make new memories. Together.

Nobody

Word Count: 12.3K

Tumblr Posts: - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 -

Junior Auror Potter runs errands, takes witness interviews, does paperwork, and gets the coffee. Rarely, very rarely, he’s sent out on the most routine calls, such as when Draco Malfoy misses a meeting with his parole officer.

Bitter Transmutation : Cruel Transformation (WIP)

Current Word Count: 83.3K

Tumblr: Part1 - Part one contains links to all currently available parts

Tiny Ficlets/Drabbles/HC

Draco PTSD: Tumblr Post

Harry and Draco demonstrate a mature adult conversation: Tumblr Post

Draco lounging, Harry staring. What’s new? : Tumblr Post

A small headcanon about Draco smoking: Tumblr Post

A small wolfstar moment during their time in school: Tumblr Post

A fleshed out chat log about Draco telling his parents about his marriage to Harry Potter: Tumblr Post

-Hey, how are you? -Gay, featuring Drarry: Tumblr Post

Harry showing off shirtless on the quidditch pitch for a flustered Draco: Tumblr Post

Touch-starved tidbit: Tumblr Post

A moment in time of a sleepy morning of two being happy together: Tumblr Post

#dorthyannwrites #drarry #drarry fanfiction #fanfiction #harry potter #draco malfoy #cw long post #tumblr is such a fuck

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dramionediscussion · 4 years

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To the person who’s asking about the chapter count. I’ve never looked a chapter count totally isolated from a word count. This tends to happen almost inevitably and unconsciously as both are right next to each other at both FF.net and AO3. I am inclined to first look up the word count, then compare it to the chapter count. Mainly I prefer longer form works (unless it’s just for a pure smut, I discard anything under 10k. My preference is +40k, though sometimes I click on 10-40k if there’s otherwise something highly appealing, like an interesting premise or summary, or if it’s highly rated or popular, etc). If I just had to choose between long-chapter vs short-chaptered fic, then I’d go with the long-chaptered, but that’s more about the preference for the longer form, because that’s what it often implies. Nothing inherently in the chapter count itself. If the chapter count is high, but the fic itself is short, that just happens to be a red flag for me. If we are talking about a chapter length of under 1k, I am prone to dismiss it outright. 1-2k is a bit iffy, but after the threshold of 2k, I tend not to care about it (I don’t calculate it exactly, a quick glance and a fast estimate is more than enough). If a fic falls anywhere between 2k-15k with its chapter length, I am alright with it (the upper threshold is more difficult to estimate, because fics which have over 10k chapter length are quite rare, and I don’t think I’ve ever even seen anything over 12k. For me over 15k would probably raise an eyebrow). The total chapter count is irrelevant, unless it’s something absurdly high, like well over 200 chapters or something. I am more than willing to read through that one million words (about the length of HP series) fanfic epic, if I like the content. I am ready to give that 1-3 chapter chance to almost anything, which could even remotely be interesting. Although unfortunately more I read Dramione, I am becoming increasingly pickier and I abandon fics ever more easier. If I really enjoy something, then it doesn’t matter whether it has 20 or 200 chapters, because the supply of Dramione I happen to enjoy is high but not infinite. The problem is more of finding works I truly like, rather than not having time to read them all. If I don’t enjoy something, well that doesn’t really matter either, because it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be reading it more than couple of chapters anyway, so the time-sink is about the same regardless of the length or chapter count or anything. (Ofc, all of this is just a heuristic I’ve developed automatically and subconsciously while I’ve read countless Dramione fics. It’s just a normal pattern-recognition, not a logic-deductive causal law of the nature, in which I perfectly judge every fic apriori without reading them. I am aware that I might be missing some good fics, but there’s thousands of fics out there, and one has to sort them somehow and exclude some without reading them. Or read them all indiscriminately, which I don’t have time for. As long as it’s better than total randomness, then it’s fine enough, despite not being absolutely perfect). I don’t know how widely shared this sentiment is with other Dramione fans, because it’s not that often I see this brought up in any reviews. I basically never talk about Dramione with anybody ever, so my exposure to the larger Dramione audience is very limited (fics, their reviews and I sometimes look at this place). However, this question peaked my curiosity, and I decided to see, if there’s any obvious relation between fics’ popularity, its chapter count, word count and chapter length (in this I treat popularity and likeliness of people seeking out or clicking certain types of fics totally interchangeably). I first looked at the top10 most favored Dramione fics (FF.net) and fics that received most kudos (AO3), then calculated their average and median word counts, chapter counts and chapter lengths. Then took another sample of different tier of popularity (top 101-110), then from another one again less popular (601-610), and finally one more (top 1351-1360). And see if any patterns appear (this is a very crude, but crude and fast is more than nothing. Unfortunately I don’t have time to do anything profound, as I did this to satisfy my own immediate curiosity, and afterwards decided to share it with others). For a sake of brevity I only show FF.net numbers, because differences between AO3 were quite minor in this instance. The first number is always the average and the second is the median. I excluded one-shots and cross-overs. First tier (top10 most popular Dramione fics) Total word count: avg. 240,108 / med. 208,569 Chapter count: 44 / 37 Chapter Length: 5457 / 5637 Second tier (top 101-110) Total word count: avg. 101,844 / med. 89,565 Chapter count: 23 / 21 Chapter Length: 4428 / 4265 Third tier (top 601-610) Total word count: avg. 88,450 / med. 75,175 Chapter count: 25 / 25 Chapter Length: 3538 / 3007 Fourth tier (top 1351-1360) Total word count: avg. 78,000 / med. 63,848 Chapter count: 26 / 23 Chapter Length: 3000 / 2776 If one would plot this out, there’s a clear linear correlation between the popularity and the word count and chapter length, but the chapter count seem to be quite unrelated with the popularity. Top10 sweet spot is interestingly very close to a longest HP book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 257,045 words). Also the chapter length is even closer to HP series (5,5k for the whole series). The chapter count is a little more off the track, but not terribly far from the mark (HP from 4th-7th books has 35 / 37). It seems that there’s some kind of a descending effect. Although, it’s might be just with the sampling and small sample size and lack of controls, and million other things. But it’s still there, that more popular fics tend to have longer word counts and longer chapter lengths (at least up to that ceiling or golidlocks zone of best rated fics), and they have a linear relationship with its popularity, while the amount of chapters doesn’t seem to be related.

#dramione #submission

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sugamoonv · 5 years

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Origins Pt.1

At Last

Summary: You learn how BTS came to be and what specifically they are.

Word Count: 4,485

Pairings: Jungkook x Jimin/ Jin x Yoongi/ Taehyung x Jimin/ Future Hoseok x Namjoon/ Future Jungkook x Jimin x Taehyung

A.N: This chapter is a flashback and does not include you/reader so it’s way different from the other chapters so far. Hopefully, this doesn't make my fic seem all over the place bc I promise it makes sense in my head but if it is confusing, let me know and I can go back and edit/organize things. I also split this because right now the chapter altogether is nearing 10k and I’ve already made you guys wait a while for this. But the second half of this chapter should be up in one to two days depending. Also also, I believe the tags got messed up in the last chapter so if I forgot to tag you or you want to be added, just let me know

Masterlist / Origins- Part 2

“Hyun-ah!”

The woman glanced away from the sparring trainees to the witch making her way to the training field. With a single command, the young women had all dropped their wooden weapons and stood in a line, backs straight behind Hyuna. As the witch was is proximate distance, they followed their admiral deeply bowing. With a nod of the witch’s head, Hyuna bounded off after her and the young women went back to their training.

The white colonial house was off limits to Mistress Jennilee’s army. Years of training and willpower aided Hyuna in resisting the temptation to look into the open windows to get a glance of the interior. They rounded the dirt path to the front of the house where a horse-drawn carriage was awaiting them. Hyuna stepped forward and opened the door for Jennilee to step into the carriage then moved back to the small bench attached to the back outside. The carriage jolted and off they were.

This house was built similarly to Jennilee’s but had a masculine touch to it. Hyuna had opened her mistress’s door before the servant made his way down the porch steps to the overshadowed driveway. The man gave a deep bow and turned to hold open the door for them.

The inside was light despite the dark wood that built the walls, floor, and staircase. The familiar aroma of herbs and spices filled Hyuna’s nose. It was similar to those that her mistress used and grew in her greenhouse for spells and potions. Hyuna kept her composure as an older man and his admiral came into view in their guest dining room.

Hyuna made sure to keep the way her heart skipped at Hyo-Jong’s appearance hidden. Jennilee had been working close to her father’s companion Byung-Wook which meant that she had been spending ample amounts of time with the admiral of the man’s army. Keeping their affair secret was proving to become more and more difficult as the time went on but they were determined to build a life together someday.

The same servant that had greeted Jennilee and Hyuna entered the room with a tray. He carefully set each small cup and poured the steaming tea in each for them then stepped to the side of the room, waiting like a statue if any of them may need him to fulfill a request.

“Thank you, Namjoon,” the older man muttered. He had his nose buried in the concoction of herbs, eyes closed. With a deep breath, he straightened in his seat, “Make sure to go help Hoseok bring the horses to the barn.”

The man shot off without a question and the occupants of the room were finally allowed to discuss recent events.

“There have been more invasions as of late. I have lost some of my men and Hyo-Jong is unable to train the new men quick enough to survive the next attack,” a deep frown marks Byung-Wook’s face.

“Do we know who keeps orchestrating these attacks?” Jennilee leaned in.

“That is what I have been trying to figure out, my dear girl. In the meantime, I am asking for your assistance. The attacks are more frequent and so I fear my servant’s well-being. As you can see, Namjoon and Hoseok have been very loyal to me and it would be an injustice for me to lose such good workers.”

Jennilee knitted her eyebrows but stayed silent.

“I have granted them the blessing of long life. So that if they were to be targeted, they may yet live. Already I had to have someone bury the body of some simpleton kitchen girl who had wandered too far out and was killed by this army.”

Jennilee nodded her head in understanding. “What is it you wish for me to do?”

Byung-Wook sighed and with a flick, the smoke stopped rising from the stone bowl. “Until I am able to end this warmongering traitor, I ask that we combine our soldiers and magic until this person is no longer a threat.”

Hyuna and Hyo-Jong glanced at each other, happiness glittered in their eyes despite the threat at the prospect of having a guise to spend more time with each other. They kept their backs straight and eyes forward as Jennilee and Byung-Wook pricked their fingers and closed the deal with blood magic. The walk to the sleeping bunker on the training grounds may have been a little fast paced and Hyo-Jong may have forced some of his men that night to remain silent with threats to their lives.

A piece of meat was thrust into the man’s face as he sat in the dirt. He looked up to another man with the plumpest lips he’s ever seen and warm brown eyes that gave his a run for their money. The man gave a kind smile and nudged the food further into the sitting man’s face. They both ignored the mist dampening their hair, warning of later rain, and the man took the piece of meat from the other’s hand cautiously. Once the man went back inside, the man sitting greedily ate the meat; it was cold and had some burn marks but it was better than an empty stomach.

Rain was pouring down in buckets, the loud thumps of rain against the inn’s roof and the mud drowned out any other noise. The man was still sitting in the same spot from before, only now he was shivering under some poor attempt at a shelter and was covered in the mud underneath him. Too weak to move, he had resigned to his fate.

The man from the inn rushed out the door, a leather jacket he had traded for earlier in the week acting as an umbrella. He stopped himself a few paces from the door; he wasn’t sure what he had seen in his peripheral vision. But turning, he confirmed his thoughts as he looked down on the poor man that had taken food from him earlier. Sympathy quickly flooded his chest and guided his actions.

The man put on the leather jacket, ignoring how his hair became soaking wet, and moved over to the slumped man. He inserted his hands under the man’s arms and dragged him to the door, working extra hard to avoid his feet sinking into the slick mud. He dropped the man onto the rough wooden floors and stirred the fire to re-add heat to the room. He ran up to one of the rooms of the inn he knew would be unoccupied and yanked a blanket from the bed. Some customers at the bar gave the owner’s son strange looks as he ran to the back, arms full.

He carefully removed the soiled clothes from the unconscious man’s body and immediately covered him with the blanket. He hung the clothes near the fire so that they may dry and then started preparing food to replenish the man. Once the plate was full, he kneeled down and shook the man awake.

“What is your name?”. The man had moved into a sitting position and was shoveling the second plate of food into his mouth. The blanket on him had fallen to his waist which exposed the man’s pale skin and slim figure. Luckily he had stopped shaking and his hair had dried somewhat.

“Mn Ygi”

“What?”

The man swallowed the mouthful, “Min Yoongi.”

“Oh,” his mouth formed a perfect ‘o’. “I am Kim SeokJin. My father owns this inn.” Jin admired Yoongi’s thinner lips, squinted eyes, and squishy nose, “If you want, I can convince my father to let you stay here so long as you work.”

“Jimin, you’re going to get us in trouble,” the man weakly protested as Jimin worked kisses up his neck. They had snuck from their training session in order to take advantage of the quiet bunker, something that rarely occurred with the all-male army.

“Jungkook! Jimin!”

They shot to opposite sides of Jungkook’s cot as their lieutenant walked in.

“Of course I would find you two in here.”

“Sorry, Taehyung,” Jimin sheepishly looked down. Jungkook was not used to Jimin being so informal with someone of a higher rank and was afraid to refer to the man the same as his lover, but it seemed the man didn’t mind so much as he broke into a wide grin.

“Get back outside before Jin-ki sees that you’re gone. Then you’ll really be in trouble.”

Taehyung brought his hand up as if he were about to brush it against Jungkook’s cheek, but quickly dropped it and turned and lead the men out of the room. The two forces had joined a few weeks ago but Jungkook and Jimin still had yet to get used to the sudden presence of women amongst their ranks. The women joining them meant they also had more eyes to watch out for even though they slept in different bunks. Some years of sneaking had taught the two men the signs of secrecy but they decided that not exposing the admirals would be for the best, considering that tensions were also high between the two armies.

Most of the men and them themselves refused to spar with the women, spreading the belief that they were weaker than them. Disputes over how to train the younger men and women also rose during their weeks together. Surprisingly, the women were harsher during their training which either took the men off guard or spurred them to act more aggressive. This change in behavior, unfortunately, trickled down to Jungkook and Jimin.

Jimin could hold his own during a fight. He had proven that many times with his training and the small battles defending his master’s land. He was more flexible than the average soldier and so he was graceful during his sessions, and quick. But this opponent was being noticeably aggressive towards Jimin. Jungkook flinched with every hit that landed upon Jimin’s body. He would have to make sure to be extra careful with the man later in the night.

Jimin cut through the air and he had landed a few severe blows on his opponent. But where his opponent lacked in agility, he made up in brute strength. Jimin had poorly timed a kick to the man’s torso and was subsequently dragged to the ground when the man caught his foot. He used the position to his advantage and quickly moved over Jimin and grabbed him by the neck. Jimin wrapped his body around the man’s abnormally large arm in an attempt to free himself from the stone cold grip. The man foiled Jimin’s counter maneuver by lifting his arm and slamming it, and Jimin, to the ground beneath. A sickening crack was heard as Jimin’s grip went slack with breathlessness, yet the man didn’t cease.

As the man brought a fist into the air, Jungkook rushed the man and tackled him off of Jimin. They rolled on the ground, trying to gain the upper hand and as the man did, Jungkook quickly hit the man in the throat and turned them so that he was straddling the man. His fists quickly made time marring the man’s face til soon blood was mixing in with the dirt. The man had landed a few blows against Jungkook’s ribs but was futile as Jungkook saw red.

Arms were pulling Jungkook from the now badly beaten man. His first instinct was to rush to Jimin but the disproving looks from his admiral, captain, and lieutenant halted him. Jimin was now standing with the help of another woman and was giving Jungkook a look of sadness and gratitude. The man was slowly getting to his feet behind Jungkook with the help of a few others that banded with him.

“You best sleep with one eye open. May you suffer the harshest punishment for your transgressions against the natural order.”

The man sneers and spits blood at Jungkook’s feet, who is too frozen to the spot.

“Take care of this.” Hyo-Jong gruffly ordered.

“If I may, Admiral. It may be best for me to administer the punishment as you and Captain Jin-ki are preoccupied,” Taehyung quickly interjected with a bow. Hyo-Jong and Jin-ki regarded their inferior before Hyo-Jong nodded and walked away. Taehyung silently breathed out a sigh of relief. Taehyung excused the three men to clean themselves, promising publicly that he would deal with them once the day’s events had come to an end.

Seokjin nervously stood to the side as his father eyed Yoongi up and down. Yoongi had tried to look as impassive as possible during the inspection from the older man, but he could occasionally feel his lip twitch and the urge to rub his ears. Yoongi’s dry clothes were stiff and no doubtedly smelled. Their declaration of his status was something he feared would ruin this opportunity at a warm bed and sustainable food.

“What is it you are able to do, boy?”

Yoongi heard Seokjin lowly slip out his name, to submissive to actually call out his father but refusing for Yoongi to be referred to as ‘boy’.

“Anything you require,” Yoongi kept his voice low. “But I am especially gifted at writing poetry.”

Interest lights in the man’s eyes, “Music and poetry are very similar to one another, yes, boy?” Yoongi unsurely nods in agreement. “Do you have any skill with instruments?”

“I play the piano.”

“Excellent,” Seokjin’s father loudly clapped his hands, startling Yoongi, “You shall work in the kitchen as payment to board and during your spare time you will teach my son how to play the piano.”

“Father, that’s not nece-”

“Deal.”

“All I am saying is that she needs to mind her own.”

Namjoon watched Hoseok move about the barn with angry gestures. Since being Byung-Wook’s favored servants, they had intuitively turned to each other as confidants. With the recent changes over the weeks, they sought each other out more and more.

“This witch takes far too many trips for my horses to properly rest. And she doesn’t tell Master Byung-Wook where she is leaving, so for all we know, she could be conspiring with this traitor.”

“Taehyung tells me that since Hyun-ah has joined them there are fewer attacks, Hyo-Jong hasn’t lost as many men,” Namjoon informed while focused on his nails.

“As if Taehyung has much to tell. He’s too infatuated with those two soldiers,” Hoseok muttered. “His stupidity will only end in banishment and loneliness. He’s hopeless.”

“Well, I hope he’s certainly not as hopeless as you hold him to be because he is the only person in Byung-Wook’s ranks that we can trust so far.” Namjoon frowned at Hoseok.

“I don’t even understand why you went to him. I could do the same as him with less suspicion.” Jealousy coated Hoseok’s voice.

“This was before Byung-Wook granted us abilities. And if you were to do anything with your ability, you know Byung-Wook would know.” Namjoon stepped close to Hoseok’s face, “I have managed to hide that from him this long and I’m not about to risk it now because you have some petty quarrel with a man you don’t even know. Remember, you came to me. If you want the freedom you say you so crave then listen to me and don’t do anything until you have my permission. Understood?”

Hoseok stared past Namjoon with his jaw clenched.

Namjoon patted the man’s shoulder, “Good.”

“Lieutenant Kim,”

Taehyung was supervising Jungkook and Jimin as they cleaned the bunk and turned to see Byung-Wook’s servant at the doorway. Jimin watched with curious eyes as they bowed to each other and walked outside together.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Jimin whispered.

Jungkook grunted and sat back on his thighs, “I don’t know. The Master probably sent him to talk to Lieutenant Kim.”

“Yeah, but they’ve been speaking to each other a lot,” Jimin drew his shoulders in. The insecurity in his voice left an unsettling feeling in Jungkook’s stomach.

“Why does it matter?” Jimin sheepishly looked away from Jungkook to focus on making one of the beds. Jungkook stood and made his way behind Jimin. “Jimin. Why do you care?”

“Something just feels off. There’s something going on with Taehyung. I know you’ve noticed it too.”

“It’s none of our business. It most likely has to do with The Master. It’s not our place to question what they do.”

Before Jimin could get another word out, Taehyung re-entered the bunk. Upon seeing the men’s inactivity, he gave a dissatisfied frown but said nothing. The faraway look in his eyes worried Jimin though he did nothing as Jungkook nudged him to begin cleaning again.

The sun had long set and Jungkook and Jimin were both sore, jointly from the multiple bruises and their punishment. Sweaty men began filling into the bunk, plenty happy with full stomachs that their spaces had been organized and cleaned. Their beds seemed extra soft with the pressed blankets, tucked corners, and fluffed pillows. Jungkook doled out dirty looks as he watched the men ungratefully enjoy the fruits of his labor, even if it had been a punishment.

Hyuna looked down at the beaten man, sweat dripping down the sides of her face and hair sticking to the back of her neck. Hyo-Jong’s footsteps sounded upon the soft earth as he jogged to the two. Chips of armor and the man’s weapons laid a few feet away from him. Hyuna saw the way he glanced at the weapon and hit him once more, completely knocking him to the ground. Hyo-Jong sent a wary glance at Hyuna and the man then signaled for the few soldiers patrolling with him to retrieve the man. They lifted the struggling man from beneath his arms and disappeared past the forest line to the training field.

“Are you hurt?”

Hyuna shook her head as she relaxed into Hyo-Jong’s concerned hold. He brushed a few strands that stuck to her forehead back and pressed his nose onto the top of her head. They quickly separated as some of Hyuna’s soldiers ran to them, nearly as worn as their admiral.

“Han-Bi, tell that Master Byung-Wook that we have captured one of the traitor’s men.”

“You want to spread your fingers more.”

Yoongi guided Jin’s hand to properly rest upon the piano keys. The bench assigned to the piano was small, so the two men had been forced to squeeze together. Yoongi had tried to teach Jin standing, but Jin felt paranoid with Yoongi peering over his shoulder and Yoongi grew annoyed at the mistakes he wasn’t able to adequately correct with the distance.

A broken melody composed of hesitant notes filled the room. Yoongi would flinch every time a harsh note reverberated in his ears and would replay the song for Jin. Luckily, Jin was talented with music and so he had picked up the skill fairly easily. Though Jin still had much to learn.

After spending half the day practicing the one song, Jin picked up the tempo and was soon playing to the correct pace. Yoongi closed his eyes and focused on the music coming from the piano and the soft, concentrated breathing coming from the man close beside him. It took him a few seconds to realize that Jin had stopped playing and opened his eyes to come face to face with the man. Yoongi’s eyes searched the chocolate brown eyes melting in the sun’s light, wanting to experience the sweetness.

He cleared his throat and slid an inch off the bench, “Why did you stop playing?”

Jin playfully shrugged his shoulders. His eyes flickered to Yoongi and the corners of his lips lifted and he tilted his head, “Maybe I want to hear you play.”

The tips of Yoongi’s ears turned a bright red and his hand darted towards them before he awkwardly laughed. Jin held in a laugh as he watched Yoongi slide another inch off the bench.

“You should continue playing, you’re getting a lot better.”

“I’ve been practicing for too long. I want to do something different.” Yoongi tongued the corner of his lips, torn between following Jin’s father’s orders and making Jin practice more or pleasing the man and allowing him to practice free will. Jin decided for him and sprung up, dragging Yoongi with him.

The kitchen was busy with orders as men bustled in and out of the keep of the motel. Yoongi got a large whiff of stew as a waiter passed by him. By now, Yoongi had become familiar with the layout of the kitchen in which he was saved in. The beaten wooden floors, the stone fire, and the large wash bin and the stack of dishes that remained no matter how many hours he spent laboring over them.

“My father doesn’t know but I enjoy cooking. He believes that as his son, I have no need to learn to cook. He only let me learn piano after seeing a nobleman’s son play.”

Jin smiled but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Is piano something you enjoy?”

Jin shakes his head, “I once saw a man in the street playing guitar. I would have much preferred to learn that but my father saw the piano as more elegant.”

Yoongi listened intently and watched as Jin stole a bowl of stew from a tray passing by and sat at the table meant for the cooks to take their meals. He spared a glance at the man that angrily huffed at Jin and yelled for a new dish. As Yoongi on the opposite side of the table, Jin pushed the bowl forward and held out a spoon. Yoongi took Jin up on his offer and began eating with him.

“Mmmm,” Jin closed his eyes in contentment, “I could make better.”

“I trust you,” Yoongi eyes squinted in adoration. Jin responded with an affectionate gaze and reached over to rub Yoongi’s hand, letting his fingers linger a second too long for it to be considered a gesture of simple thanks.

Yoongi kept his hood up as he slinked through the town market. The smell of fried foods and sight of fruit stands made his stomach growl, but he was here for one thing and refused to be distracted. He finally found the stand he was looking for. A crowd of people concealed the actual stand but the music that drifted through the air indicated he was in the right place.

He elbowed past some people to the front of the crowd. In the center a man sat on the ground, guitar situated in his lap. Yoongi wasn’t sure if it was the same man that Jin had told him about. He had a feeling that it was as the man had gray running through his hair. The man’s fingers moved swiftly upon the strings, almost becoming a blur. The melody produced matched the man’s fingers, quick and smooth.

Yoongi waited until the man stopped playing and the people dispersed to other stands. The man didn’t notice Yoongi. He had his back turned towards him as he put away the guitar. Yoongi cleared his throat, demanding the man’s attention.

“I’m here to trade for a guitar.”

The man quirked an eyebrow at Yoongi. “And what would you trade? From the looks of it, you would be better off trading the little you probably have for a good size meal.”

Yoongi sucked in his lips in annoyance, “I can offer a few nights stay at the Ossu Sieromushi.”

The man considered Yoongi’s words for a few moments before shaking his head. “Good food but I have no need.”

Yoongi took a few steps closer to the man. “Please. This is important. I just want a guitar, I’ll even take one that’s broken.”

“Listen, boy, you have nothing to offer me. Get lost.”

Yoongi backed into the street and disparagingly watched as the man finished packing his stand and left. He rubbed his hair beneath his hood and began the trek back to the inn when suddenly a hand grabbed onto his shoulder. He whipped around to a man much taller than him with a powerful aura.

“May I help you?”

“I overheard that you were looking for a guitar.” Yoongi squinted at the man. “My name is Kim Namjoon and I am a servant for Lord Byung-Wook. I believe he has an old guitar that I could acquire for you. All I ask is for a few minutes of your time to speak.”

Yoongi’s eyes lit up at the mention of the guitar. Namjoon shifted his hand to the space between Yoongi’s shoulder blades and together they walked into a shaded alleyway. Yoongi looked behind him, scared that people would be judging them and scared for himself. He had no idea what this man was capable of or if he was being honest about his identity in the first place.

Namjoon used the brick wall of the building behind him as support and looked Yoongi up and down. The energy that Namjoon had sensed from the man greatly mismatched his stature. The power he felt, he assumed that he would have found a larger man.

“Do you know of the Amarbhagat?” Namjoon guesses from the confused look Yoongi gives that he does not. “Not many commoners do. Hundreds of years before us, as magic users became more commonplace. After a few began feuding, they started investing in protection for themselves. Spells worked but they were tiresome and when they grew more powerful in society, it was more practical to have others do it for you. The thing is, is that humans are disposable and no amount of manpower, weapons, and preparation can take on a powerful witch. So witch’s developed a spell that allowed them to grant immortality to others. The catch is that anyone that is granted immortality can pass it on to others as they have access to that magic. Once servants and soldiers started passing on this immortality to their loved ones and friends, it threatened the witch’s standing and they grew strict.”

Namjoon paused to allow Yoongi some time to retain the information just told. Yoongi hummed to indicate for Namjoon to continue.

“Nowadays, immortality is usually only granted to those that make up the army of the Lord or Lady they are serving. Together, they make up the Amarbhagat.”

“What does this information have to do with anything?” Yoongi glared at the man, sure he was just wasting his time

“Why is this guitar so important to you?”

Yoongi blushed but quickly hid it with an even sharper glare. “Don’t change the subject. Why tell me about the Amarbhat?” Namjoon smirked, not surprised by Yoongi’s cleverness.

“Amarbhagat. And I am telling you because I am one,” Yoongi’s face transforms into one of shock, “The main thing I wished to do is offer you a deal. One that we would both benefit from.”

Tagged: @detectivebourbon @eshika0102 @xsmilebitesx @perfectlyfangirling @eilowyneleyne @itsapurrfectstorm @idonthavehusbandsihavelovers @suck-my-bts @rosymccheese @craftypersoncheesecake @ficcion-escrita @twilight-loveer @perfectlyfangirling @respectfully-yours-emily @delightfulyoongi @disfoqia @deathsasshole @mint-myg-yoongi @vljvanessa @young-yellkie @jungkookssistan @sincemalik @milady-mira @stardustjjk @recoveringflowerchild @xandraray22 @shelley-hennig14 @justapotatonow @riyahrocks @notalentforsubservience

#bts x reader #jin x suga #yoongi x jin #jungkook x jimin #jikook #taehyung x jimin #vmin #taehyung x jimin x jungkook #vminkook #namjoon x hoseok #poly bts x reader #soulmate au #history au #flashback #immortal bts #bts au #poly bts #at last #bts fic

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program-800 · 5 years

Text

Exploring D:BH fics (Part 3)

In this post I’m going to talk about how I cleaned the text data and trained the model (plain old Latent Dirichlet Allocation) shown in the interactive visualisation of topics in DBH fics mentioned here was made.

Recap: Data was scraped from AO3 in mid-October. I removed any fics that were non-English, were crossovers and had less than 10 words. A small number of fics were missed out during the scrape - overall 13933 D:BH fics remain for analysis.

Again, stuff is always WIP!

Part 1: Publishing frequency for D:BH with ratings breakdown Part 2: Building a network visualisation of D:BH ships Part 3: Topic modeling D:BH fics (retrieving common themes) Part 4: Average hits/kudos/comment counts/bookmarks received (split by publication month & rating) One-shots only. Part 5: Differences in word use between D:BH fics of different ratings Part 6: Word2Vec on D:BH fics (finding similar words based on word usage patterns) Part 7: Differences in topic usage between D:BH fics of different ratings Part 8: Understanding fanon representations of characters from story tags Part 9: D:BH character prominence in the actual game vs AO3 fics

Basically, what I did here was apply the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm (topic modeling). I’m not going to go into the details behind it (not going to add to the big collection of layman LDA posts hanging out on the Internet) - all you need to know in this context is that it’s an unsupervised algorithm (i.e., I don’t tell the algorithm what topics to form, beyond the number of topics to look out for) that is trained on large amounts of text to pick out ‘topics’. Topics are like collections of co-occurring words - that they happen to usually be human-interpretable is a nice quality of LDA.

There are quite a few variants of LDA. This one is the basic vanilla one.

1. Identifying names for removal. Based on past experience with LDA, if I don’t remove names, they end up intruding in topics/forming a topic(s) on their own. That’s not really informative. I don’t really need a topic of D:BH character/OC names.

I ran the Stanford Named Entity Recognizer on all of the text. This tagger automatically picks out people’s names for me. I already had a base collection of names from my earlier run with RK1700, so I added on to that collection. Of course, the tagger won’t be 100% accurate, so I still had to check its output.

Let’s just say that was a lot of manual work. I had a collection of 13439 names in the end.

2. Keeping only nouns and verbs. Since I wanted themes, I thought perhaps nouns and verbs may be the most important words to capture those (this is up for debate. Definitely an assumption on my end, and something to keep in mind when looking at the results). I ran the Stanford part-of-speech tagger on all the text, which automatically labels the part-of-speech of each word (e.g. adjective, adverb), retaining only nouns and verbs.

3. Final clean of the text. (Note: I’ve already done some cleaning for steps 1 and 2 to prepare the text for the taggers). At this final clean, I removed words that were only 1 character long, had any non-English characters, were stop-words (i.e. really common words like I’m), or that were in my collection of names.

So now, each story is basically a list of nouns and verbs that aren’t very common/redundant words and that aren’t names.

4. Chunking the stories. My research work is with shorter social media text, so I’ve never had this issue before. But training a model to look for patterns in something as long as a fic (that can be more than 10k words, even for one-shots!) - we’re not going to get nice topics. So - I made the decision to chunk the stories.

I started by splitting them by chapters. One-shots stay as one-shots (one document), but a three-chapter story gets split into three separate documents. This bumped the number of documents from 13933 (the original number of fics) up to 41597.

Still, some chapters and one-shots may be really, really long. Here are my chunking conditions:

If a chapter/one-shot is below 2000 words, Leave it as one document. If I divide a chapter’s/one-shot’s length by 1000, a) and I get a quotient larger than 2 and a remainder of 0.5 or less (let’s say, quotient = 3, remainder =0.4): The chapter/one-shot is chunked into a chunk of 1000, a second chunk of 1000, and a third chunk of 1400. b) and I get a quotient larger than 2 and a remainder of greater than 0.5 (let’s say, quotient = 3, remainder = 0.9): The chapter/one-shot is chunked into a chunk of 1000, a second chunk of 1000, a third chunk of 1000, and a fourth chunk of 900.

The logic really is that I didn’t want random chunks of 2 words or something floating around. The algorithm can’t learn patterns from such short text.

This increased the document count from 41597 to 50126.

5. Bigrams and creating the dictionary. I used Gensim for this this task and LDA.

So, bigrams. Single words like ‘guns’ and ‘shots’ are great, but bigrams (basically two words that appear together, like gun_shot) give a bit more context. I looked for bigrams that appeared at least 100 times (no rare ones, they’re not useful for learning patterns) and appended them to the respective document that they appeared in.

Then I created a dictionary of words for the model to sort into topics. I put some filters here too (also important to note, results may change depending on choices here). I only wanted words that appeared in no less than 140 chunks and no more than 40% of the chunks (20050 chunks); so terms that weren’t too rare or too common.

6. Training the LDA model. Important part of LDA: picking how many topics you want the model to learn. I relied on a measure called coherence to help with this. It’s basically just a quantitative automated measure of topic interpretability. The gold standard really is to get human judges around, maybe agree on saying, ‘Hm, this topic model looks fancy but makes no sense’ and you go back to the drawing board. But I don’t have that and coherence has been shown to correlate pretty well with human judgments, so it’ll do.

I ran LDA to model for 2 topics all the way to 60 topics in steps of 2. So: try 2 topics, 4 topics, 6 topics.... to 60 topics. I calculated coherence at each topic number. Once the algorithm was done, I plotted out the coherence graph and manually checked the higher-coherence-scoring models.

44 was one of them (other suggested topic numbers were 30 and 38, but they were still a bit too general for my liking. Again, note the bias introduced here from my choices).

7. Labeling topics. With the final model decided, I plotted the visualisation using pyLDAvis. Using the top 10 keywords of each topic, with lambda (λ) set to 0.6 following [1]’s recommendation, I manually labelled each topic. I’m definitely not the final word on the D:BH fandom or topic models, so perhaps you may disagree with the labels I came up with.

And that wraps up this little exercise on LDA with long(er) texts! It’s admittedly not as exciting as the network of ships, but it was a good introductory exercise to working with texts outside of my research area.

#dbh #detroit become human #dbh fanfic #fandom stats #text analysis

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ahiddenpath · 5 years

Text

Seven Years of Writing Fanfics

I’m being a little premature- I’ll celebrate seven years of writing as ahiddenpath in September- but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I’ve learned. Please read on if you want to hear about the writing habits I wish I had when I started in 2012, and about the habits I wish I didn’t have back then!

I’ll also be talking about my writing plans in general. Check it out below the cut!

1.) Make a story bible.

A story bible is a reference document for your story. Before you post a new fic, I strongly suggest creating one. For digimon specifically, this means making some choices before you begin:

Which version of the character names will you use? Do you intend to remain consistent with this choice? For example, I’ve seen a lot of writers use Japanese character names and English digimon names. Will you use official honorifics? Custom honorifics? Will you use terminology from one translation of the show, or a mashup?

Make these choices upfront, create reference charts, and remain consistent.

After that, you can also keep references for topics such as characterization details (if you say that Bob’s favorite drink is coffee in one chapter and tea twenty chapters later, be prepared for a flood of comments pointing out the inconsistency), setting details, and anything that you don’t want to forget. Spending half an hour hunting down a silly detail instead of writing is a huge bummer.

Growing Up with You is my worst offender of ‘problems a story bible would have fixed.’ It’s got... every issue you can imagine, lol! For example, pairing Hikari with Gatomon (instead of Tailmon), using ‘digitama’ and ‘digimental’ interchangeably in the 02 arc, using the English terms for evolution stages while using Japanese names for other things, confusing Bakemon and Bakumon, it’s a mess. It’s so bad that a complete, painstaking edit is the only thing that can fix it... Which is enough to make me weep, given that the story is over 400K words long.

Organize yourself before you start. Here’s a link to some printable Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 references.

2.) Avoid Longfics.

I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. NEVER PUBLISH A NEW STORY WITHOUT HAVING AN ENDING IN SIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING.

I’m not saying you can’t write huge, epic tales. God knows I’m unlikely to stop doing that. But, if I could go back in time, I would separate Growing Up with You into four fics. It would be something like this:

Growing Up with You I: Childhood

Growing Up with You II: Digimon Adventure

Growing Up with You III: Liminal Space

Growing Up with You IV: Digimon Adventure 02

I’m sure some arcs would be longer than others, but this way, I’d have four stories that are roughly 100K words long.

A lot of folks just... don’t want to read a 400K story. It’s intimidating, man! Although it varies by genre, the average word count for a fiction novel aimed at adults is 80K words. That 400K fic is like FIVE NOVELS, DUDE!!!! That’s a commitment for readers!

Shorter stories are more reader friendly, but there’s also a huge benefit to you, the writer. Separating your longfic into multiple stories allows you more opportunities to write towards an ending. Breaking your story into digestible chunks decreases the writing paralysis that comes with being nowhere near the ending. It also cuts back on meandering chapters that don’t carry the narrative closer to that ending. Furthermore, thinking of the story in arcs before you start writing forces you to plan more... Something I never did in 2012!!!!

Best of all, once you reach the end of an arc, you can take a break before launching the next one. It’s hard on a writer to continue endlessly producing without a break. It’s hard on a reader to hit the final available chapter in a fic and wonder if it will ever update again. But if you complete an arc and take a break to plan and write a few buffer chapters, the tension and impatience is gone for your audience, and you get to breathe. It’s a win-win!

3.) Avoid long chapters.

Back in 2012, I often posted chapters that were 10K words and longer! Here are some benefits to posting shorter updates more frequently:

-Shorter wait times between updates.

Let’s say your planned chapter is 15K words long. I could update my story once in the span of a month, or I could break the chapter into three parts and update three times in a month! This keeps readers happy and interested in your work.

Over time, you’ll develop the ability to create sub arcs/movements, finding spots to break them up into separate updates. This also creates natural moments for cliffhangers, tension, and mini resolutions. It’s a great way to insert more moods and movement into your narrative.

-More exposure for your story.

Every time you update your fanfic, it gets pushed to the top of the update list on fanfiction.net or AO3. The more you update it, the more hits your story will receive, thanks to all the extra time it will spend on the first page of newly-updated fics.

-Easier editing.

I do my best editing when I’m working with 5K words or fewer at a time. Personally, I can only focus on close editing for about 90 minutes before I start missing mistakes and forgetting details. I could edit a 10K word update in two sittings, but then it’s possible to forget about details and moods from the previous editing session! So, unless your story bible is really hardcore, your editing process could benefit from shorter updates.

-More feedback/support

I have a few amazing readers who leave some form of feedback/appreciation for me whenever I post a new chapter. A supported writer is a happy, productive writer! More updates means more chances for feedback and support from your readers, which in turn can fuel and direct your writing! Again, everyone wins! (Thanks, guys, I love you!).

4.) Publish your story on both fanfiction.net and AO3.

Why reach one audience when you could potentially reach two? There are plenty of readers who only use one platform or the other.

At this point, it would be ridiculously difficult to post my 70+ chapter fanfics to AO3... Do yourself a favor and post to both from the start!

5.) Remember: writing and editing are two separate processes.

Guys guys guys guys guys. Lemme be real here.

I used to painstakingly write a first draft, check for spelling/grammar errors on my word processor, and then post it.

Here’s what my process looks like now: word vomit a first draft, do an edit in my word processor, print the edited draft, make edits on paper, transfer edits to word processor, print new draft, make edits on paper, transfer edits to word processor, final read through, post

If my new method looks more time intensive... In a way, it is, but in a way, it isn’t? I bang out that first rough draft without a care in the world, where I used to agonize over every word. Agonizing is not fun. Word vomiting can produce some, ah, discouraging results, but it feels like creative play. It’s fun, it’s flexible, it’s fast... And you can fix it later through the magic of editing. And if you’re having fun, you’ll keep writing. If you’re agonizing, you’ll find yourself making excuses to avoid writing.

Plus, my current method produces tighter, more deliberate prose, while maintaining the freedom and energy of word vomiting... And avoiding the angst and doubt. This is my best defense against writing paralysis and my greatest weapon in the battle of producing words.

My method can’t be right for everyone, but I do encourage you to try it out, especially if your writing hasn’t been joyful lately.

6.) Don’t run too many fics at one time.

I encourage writers to have one longer fic open and one shorter fic, preferably of different tones/settings/main characters. This gives you a way to keep writing when you’re sick of one project without bogging you down.

You will likely have some readers who love everything you do (god bless), but many people have particular genre, character, and setting preferences. If you have three fics open, then readers of any one story have to wait much longer for the next update while you alternate updating each fic.

And more importantly, having a ton of open stories just... It feels heavy, guys. It’s a weight, a pressure. Trust me. Forgive me, fanfic gods, for I have sinned.

7.) Maintain a buffer

Okay, so my Nanowrimo project for 2018 was to write 50,000 words for After August, my current open fic. By the end of the month, I had a roughly 80% complete first draft of the entire fic.

Guys! Guys! It’s so cool to know exactly where the story is going, from start to finish. My editing is so deliberate on this piece! I can spot repetition and inconsistencies, since the draft is printed and sitting in front of me in a binder. I can tweak emphasis and maintain more balance between character appearances. It’s a whole new ballpark for me, someone who always wrote one update at a time and posted it upon completion (or worse, wrote ahead and lost the material when I changed my mind about the plot before reaching that future point).

Plus, even if my life gets extra busy or hard, I can still maintain my updating schedule. I can print out a chapter, take it to work, and do hard edits during my lunch break (I realize that makes me antisocial, but have you ever endured coworkers telling you all of their problems while you try to eat a sandwich in peace? The editing is much more fun. I am antisocial, is what I’m saying. Born into it, baby).

Regular updates are a big part of maintaining steady readership, so having a buffer both increases the quality of your work (since you know where the story is going for sure) and ensures that more people read it. Awww yisssss.

Okay, well, my concentration is gone now, so that’s the end of my advice! If I think of anything else, maybe I’ll add it?

I do want to touch base with my writing plans, though. Currently, of course, my goal is to complete After August. If I can post one chapter per week, it will be compete in early March, but I’m going to aim for completing the story in May, to allow for any issues that might come up (for example, Kingdom Hearts III is coming out soon!).

After that, I want to complete Seeking Resonance... Although I have no idea how long that will take? I just know that the heavy atmosphere was really starting to weigh on me.

After that... Well, do you remember that survey I made a while back? It looks like my next project should probably be completing Four Years.

I might simultaneously work on one of these two stories and Tales of REM, or maybe I’ll alternate between SR and FY for a while? To be honest, though, I would really like to wrap up SR as soon as I can.

Either way, completion is the name of the game this year. Please look forward to it! Let me know if you have any ideas for future fics, or if you have a favorite from my list of potential future projects!

#writing advice #seven years of fanfiction #fanfic advice #fanfiction advice #faves

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samuelfields · 3 years

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Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear of money)

Do you have a fear of money? The more I see people talk about money, the more I see how SCARED we are of it.

How we let others poison our views of money.

And how easily we use negative words to describe it.

Here’s an email I got from someone who read my book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. What do you notice?

“Frick it, I guess I’ll write the email…

Money stresses me out. My parents didn’t teach me anything about it and I’m very dependent right now. I did a year of nonprofit and made about 10k after taxes and it was miserable, so I figured if I can pull that off for one year then I can make it work. And I did! But I don’t know if I’ll hit it this year (it’s a bit depressing and a big source of anxiety). I think time is the name of the game though, the career is moving forward, hopefully, game sales will kick in passive income.

For the “rich life” I’m a simple person. I want enough money to be able to travel. I want to own a dog. I want a kitchen with an island. I want to have a nice desktop and a nice coffee table. My partner doesn’t want to own a house but I kind of do. Since I don’t have a full-time job outside of my freelancing which is currently in a drought period, I don’t have really ANY money, averaging about $250 a week.”

My response:

“Good stuff. Great to meet you

Now I want you to look at your email and count the number of times you use negative words to describe your life/money. How many do you count?”

His response (notice the skepticism):

“Ha, I can’t tell if this was an automated message or not but you got me there!

Depending on your definition, about 6-10.”

6-10 IN A SHORT-ASS EMAIL. (Well, compared to the kinds I write…) Finally, my response:

It’s not automated.

Good!

Now, can you rewrite that entire email to be POSITIVE instead of negative? Send it over my way.

This guy didn’t even notice his reflexive negativity with money. It’s become like a dull toothache, something he gets used to. And since negativity is his worldview — the “lens” through which he views everything — I guarantee it’s an invisible “drag” on his entire life.

I asked him to rewrite his email to be POSITIVE instead of negative because sometimes, it takes someone pointing out your pattern to shake you out of it.

When I talk to people about money, here are the most common words they use to describe it:

“Anxious”

“Stressed”

“Is it too late”

(What words come to mind for you?)

But it’s even more revealing when you listen to the ways they talk about money.

What they say: “What’s my Rich Life? Well, I just want to go on vacation with my kids a couple times a year, nothing fancy…”

What they really mean: Notice those last two words — “nothing fancy.” When people talk about their Rich Lives, they almost always minimize their own dreams. When you’ve spent your entire life worrying about what can go wrong with money, it’s almost impossible to dream.

What they say: “How do I KNOW your programs will work?” OR “Will this book work for me if I live in Bolivia and I have a lazy left eye and I only eat mussels on Mondays?”

What they really mean: “I have a finite amount of money. If I spend it here, I need to know it will absolutely work, otherwise, I will have wasted my money…and there’s no way for me to ever earn more”

Are you about to say what I think you’re about to say?

What they say: “Even if I made $250,000/year, I wouldn’t eat out at a nice restaurant like that. What a waste!”

What they really mean: “I have never eaten at a place like that and I don’t want to be the kind of person who “has” to go there to enjoy food. I’m simple.” (One level deeper: “I’m nervous that if I ate there, I might actually like it. I don’t trust myself to avoid going there every single week and spending all of my money”)

What they say: “I shouldn’t get a credit card.”

What they actually mean: “I don’t trust myself to control my spending, therefore I need to restrict myself”

What they say: “I went to [ANY FOREIGN COUNTRY] and they tried to rip me off because I was an American”

What they really mean: “Well, yeah, I could have afforded an extra $5 for those postcards…but I HATE BEING RIPPED OFF. If someone else is winning and I am losing, I HATE IT”

So many of us make day-to-day money decisions, never understanding the “invisible scripts” that actually guide these decisions. And in America, money is driven by FEAR.

FEAR that we’ll never have enough.

FEAR that we can’t make more of it.

And FEAR that someone will judge us for our spending — or even what we want to spend on.

I hate this. That’s why I show you how to identify your Money Dials, the things you LOVE spending on, then I show you how to spend MORE on it.

I also show you how to get psychologically comfortable with the idea of changing your identity. People say “Money changes people,” in disgust, as if it’s a bad thing. Money should change you! It should let you dream bigger, it should let you live an easier or more adventurous life, and it should let you bring others with you (learn about the psychology of the wealthy).

But you can’t do that if you’re stuck thinking about money as a source of anxiety and fear.

An interviewer recently asked me what I would change from my 20s. I said, “I would have more FUN. I was too rigid. But the times where I had the most fun and I was the most successful was I just loosened up and tried a bunch of new things”

With money, try these different approaches.

Know that you can trust yourself

Know that you can eat at a really nice restaurant once for the experience — and truly enjoy it — but trust that I’m not going to trip and fall and end up going there every single week. You can also use credit cards without overspending (follow the systems in my book). You can pay off your debt and stay out of debt. You can become Rich and do good. Trust yourself.

Know that you can create more money

You can negotiate your salary — or find an entirely new job. You can start a business, even if you don’t have an idea. You can build your network to sidestep people with 10 years’ more experience than you — and get perks you’ve never dreamed of. All of those things can dramatically increase your income. Above all, your money is not a fixed pie that you have to exhaustively guard and protect. You can also expand the size of your pie.

Stop being afraid of waste

In puritanical America, one of the biggest no-nos is WASTE. Oh no! Ramit, if I start spending more on the things I love, I might “waste” some of my money!

How do I “KNOW” that your book will solve my exact, highly specific problem that I worry about every fucking day of my life? If it doesn’t, I’ve wasted $10!!!! Scammer!!!

Oh no! Ramit, what if I hire someone and they don’t handle my SEO, my WordPress uploads, design all my graphics, triple my conversion rates, write my entire email funnel, and create a new webinar system? I might have WaSTed the $13/hour I tried to pay them!!

Oh no, there’s so much government waste! We should ONLY focus on cutting government waste. Especially that one thing I really hate. What? It only represents 0.03% of total spend? No, that can’t be right. Anyway, we need to handle WASTE. Also, don’t talk about raising my historically low taxes, you socialist.

If you spend your entire life worrying about waste, you miss a simple fact of life: In any system of sufficient complexity, there will always be waste. Yes, you should take measures to control it, but you should also accept that there will be a certain amount of waste — and move on!

I know that I’m going to buy courses and attend conferences that won’t be perfect for me. I know I’m going to eat at a restaurant that’s unmemorable. I know I’m going to make bad hires.

SO WHAT?

I’d rather try new experiences and learn with each one…than to sit back and let the bogeyman of “waste” scare me from doing anything at all.

So much of personal finance advice take your latent fears and heightens them.

NO! Don’t use a credit card, you might overspend a little!

NO! Don’t eat out at that restaurant, what a waste!

NO! Don’t try to negotiate your salary, you should just be happy you have a job!

If you spent the last ten years worrying about your waste and all the bad things you might do, you’ve accepted the message that you should be SCARED. That you’re an organism that simply reacts to whatever’s around you — that you have no agency or control.

Meanwhile, the people who have gone on offense have taken control of their own finances, their own psychology, started to earn more, and happily spend on the things they love. No anxiety. Just confidence and the systems to back it up.

You listen to these fears and end up frightened and anxious, sitting around worrying about all the things that can go wrong with money.

Or you can go on offense. You can take control of your money.

You can build a plan to spend extravagantly on the things you love.

You can EMBRACE making mistakes, knowing you’ll waste a little money, but it’s fine, because over the long term, those mistakes are minor, and you can create more wealth for yourselves.

You choose.

In my book, I wrote this:

Play offense, not defense. Too many of us play defense with our finances. We wait until the end of the month, then look at our spending and shrug: “I guess I spent that much.” We accept onerous fees. We don’t question complicated advice because it’s given to us in a language we don’t understand. In this book, I’ll teach you to go on offense with your credit cards, your banks, your investments, and even your own money psychology. My goal is for you to craft your own Rich Life by the end of Chapter 9. Get aggressive! No one’s going to do it for you.

My dream is for you to remove the shackles of negativity around money. To decide what you LOVE spending on, and spend more on it, so money goes from a source of anxiety and doubts to a source of joy and possibility and purpose.

Get my book here

3 things we noticed from people who don’t worry about money

Over the past month, we’ve been digging into the tactics and mindsets of the wealthy to find out what they do once they’ve “checked all the boxes” and mastered the basics of personal finance.

How do they get to that enviable position where they never have to worry about money again? What do these carefree people know that we don’t?

They do three things above all:

1. They are prepared for everything

Earlier this year, the New Yorker ran a fascinating article titled “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich”. In the piece they described how some of the smartest, most successful people from Silicon Valley and Wall Street are preparing for the apocalypse (yes, you read that correctly). They are buying remote property, building self-sustaining bunkers, and sometimes even stockpiling ammunition to prepare for the eventual breakdown of civilization.

When asked the simple question of “Why?” here’s what Yishan Wong, the former CEO of Reddit, told the New Yorker:

Most people just assume improbable events don’t happen, but technical people tend to view risk very mathematically … The tech preppers do not necessarily think a collapse is likely. They consider it a remote event, but one with a very severe downside, so, given how much money they have, spending a fraction of their net worth to hedge against this … is a logical thing to do.

Maybe you’re not ready to drop a few million on a bunker in rural Kansas, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared for the future.

In speaking to our students who worry about money, I’ve noticed that a lot of people are afraid of unpredictable things that might happen in their future. Some people refer to these as “the things you don’t know that you don’t know” or “unknown unknowns.” Here’s how one student described his fear:

What worries me isn’t job loss. What worries me is the million other things that could pop up. What’s hiding around the corner that I don’t know about?

This type of fear can be incredibly powerful, because your imagination runs wild with worst-case scenarios. It’s like when you are walking down the stairs into a pitch black basement of a rickety old house. It’s terrifying. Anything could be lurking in those shadows.

But there’s a simple solution: Turn on a light.

You can do the same thing with your finances. Instead of being afraid of “unknown unknowns,” you can shine a light on your financial future by learning from people ten years older than you who can tell you exactly what to expect.

2. They protect the money they already have

Ever see a news story about a rock star or athlete going bankrupt and wonder, “How is it even possible to lose that much money?” ESPN’s documentary Broke investigated the phenomenon of very rich athletes going completely broke. The statistics are shocking:

According to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article, 60 percent of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement. By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress.

One of the primary causes of financial problems for these athletes was not extravagant spending. It was mostly due to bad investments, ranging from real estate to restaurants to car washes.

It’s an interesting cautionary tale because one of the most common questions I get from students who have “mastered the basics” of personal finance is “How do I make my investments grow faster?”

As your wealth grows, you’ll find the investing opportunities start to grow as well. Instead of just a “boring” target date fund, now you can buy real estate, invest in start-ups, and take sizable positions in individual stocks. At a certain level, the world of hedge funds and private equity start to open up as well. It’s tempting to throw your money at these exciting opportunities and promises of outsized returns and it’s easy to develop an obsession with growth and moving faster.

I find this fascinating, because the research I’ve done revealed that the most successful wealthy people have the opposite approach. Instead of asking “what can I gain?” their #1 question is “how can I avoid losing money?”

For example, Warren Buffett has two rules of investing:

Rule 1: Never lose money.

Rule 2: Never forget rule 1.

So what does this mean for you?

This is more a matter of mastering your own psychology than any new tactic or fancy asset allocation. There’s a reason at IWT we consistently recommend boring, simple investments like lazy portfolios and target date funds.

But we’ve also spent enough time studying the psychology of personal finance to know that being a 100% disciplined monk with your investments is near impossible. No matter how much you read about the merits of basic index investing and why stock picking never works, there’s still a little voice in your head saying, “Yeah, but what if I find the next Amazon stock? I’d be a millionaire in five years!”

Here’s what we recommend: instead of suppressing that voice in your head, embrace it. Take 5% of your portfolio and put it aside for whatever crazy idea you have for making your money grow faster. Invest in Bitcoin. Buy $5,000 in Tesla stock. Invest in your cousin’s car wash if you want.

Do whatever you want, because while you might lose that 5%, you can sleep well at night knowing 95% of your money is still safe and protected.

3. They don’t do it alone

There’s a great scene in Entourage where the agent Ari Gold is introducing the management team of actress and singer Mandy Moore.

(Heads up: You may want to put in headphones for that link, there’s some NSFW language in that clip.)

It’s kind of eye-opening as he goes down the line introducing this super-team of six people who are required to manage the career of just one person: manager, music agent, publicist, attorney, music manager, theatrical agent, etc.

It’s also possible to develop the same type of super-team to manage your finances and literally outsource your worry to someone else. Attorneys, accountants, life insurance specialists, financial planners, investment advisers, and even a psychologist or psychiatrist could all be part of your financial super-team.

You might be thinking, “Wait, what? I thought Ramit hated financial advisors. Doesn’t he spend an entire chapter in his book telling me NOT to hire a financial advisor. So what’s going on here?”

I asked Ramit about this incongruence, and he pointed out a really interesting and counterintuitive insight: Once you reach a certain point, the basic personal finance rules no longer apply.

Normal people with ordinary financial needs don’t require an advisor. That’s why we tell most people it’s not worth their time. But once you’ve conquered the basics, then the basic rules no longer apply.

Here are a few scenarios where it DOES make sense to pay an advisor:

When you have a lot of investable assets (~$1MM+) and have much more to lose if you make a mistake.

If you have complex situations (imagine having three kids, planning for college, and buying a house at the exact same time).

When you just want a second set of eyes to make sure you have everything done right and aren’t missing anything.

When you’re short on time and want to pay for convenience (e.g., you can hire a bookkeeper who you forward bills to and who pays them for you).

When you run your own business, an accountant is a no-brainer who can “cover your ass” and also look out for things you don’t know about.

Is hiring an advisor expensive? Yes, of course. But ask yourself, how much is constantly worrying about your finances costing you?

If you’re looking at getting help with your finances from a professional, then we recommend beginning your search at the National Association of Personal Finance Advisors (www.napfa.org). These advisors are fee-based (they usually have an hourly rate), not commission-based, meaning that they want to help you, not profit off their recommendations.

What else can you do to stop worrying about money?

If you’re still not sure you’ve done everything right with your finances, you can implement the 10 year saving strategy.

The 10 Year Strategy involves asking people ten years older than you what they wish they’d saved for, and starting to save for that.

Sounds obvious, but it requires admitting that despite your superior financial abilities, you’re still going to have the same expenses as everyone else. Young people love to pretend we’re going to be millionaires, work from the beach, and somehow magically make money and have low expenses all our life.

Here is what will happen to you as you get older:

Yes, you WILL have a nice and very expensive wedding (even if you’re a hypocrite and think you’ll have a “small, beautiful” wedding)

Yes, you WILL have kids and want to buy them nice stuff

Yes, you will need things like family health insurance and life insurance and homeowners’ insurance and family vacations and other things that you can’t predict right now because you’re not in that life situation

So reach out to someone older than you and ask them what they wish they’d saved for. I guarantee their answers will be surprising.

What are you going to do today?

If you’re not earning more than you spend, automating your money, and maxing out your accounts, that can be your first goal. This is the majority of iwillteachyoutoberich readers.

If you’ve done all that and are looking for the next step, try implementing the 10-Year Savings Strategy.

One more thing: You can’t just scoff at this for being too easy and do nothing. You have to consciously choose:

I’m going to do this within the week

I’m not going to do this because I’m going to do another strategy within the week

I’m not at this stage yet…I’m going to pick up your book (or another book, or just do it) and get there

Note: There is no #4 (“I’m not going to do this at all…I’m just going to do nothing”) because that is a cop-out. Get it done.

Do you know your earning potential?

Take my earning potential quiz and get a custom report based on your unique strengths, and discover how to start making extra money — in as little as an hour.

Start The Quiz

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear of money) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/scared-of-money-why-how-to-overcome-your-fear-today/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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allisonilluminated · 6 years

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How To Pace a Fanfiction

Hey All,

We're going to talk about pacing today, but let me start by telling a story.

When I published my first fic, Serena's Sister (Pokemon, T), I had no idea where I was going to go with it. All I knew was that I had a cool idea and enough inspiration to turn it into words. In my entire life, the longest thing I had ever written was seven thousand words, so I was understandably amazed when I wrote three thousand words in two day. At the time, that seemed like a ton, and I was nowhere close to slowing down.

By the time summer rolled around, I had finished the first part of my story, and I was ecstatic. 60k was more words than I had written in my entire life, and I still wasn't close to done! Happy, I set my story aside for the summer, ready to come back in the fall and finish it for good. I had the plot, I had my characters, and there was nothing that could stop me.

There was just one thing I hadn't accounted for – I had become a much better writer than I was when I had started.

I came back, and suddenly my chapters were exploding in length. I wrote five thousand words one week, then six the next. The scope of my project ballooned too – it wasn't just a drama between sisters anymore. Now, it was about Erin, Paul, and Korrina, but also Serena, Ash, and their group, but also Alain, Mairin, and the Ninja Village, but also friend drama with Elle, Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor, but also high stakes political drama about Diantha, Cynthia, and Malva, but also villainy with Team Rocket and Lysandre, all while following an overarching plot spanning continents and time lines and dimensions. Plus, since the fandom was Pokemon, every single one of those characters had a team of at least two Pokemon, all of whom had their own personalities and movesets to keep track of.

Is it any wonder I hit a dead end?

I'm really proud of Serena's Sister – as my first and so far longest story, it holds a special place in my heart. It has tons of problems – plot holes galore, underdeveloped characters, major fanservice, a protag who borders on Mary Suedom, etc. However, I think the biggest problem with the story is the pacing. To understand what I mean, here's my forty chapter story broken down into ten chapter chunks:

Chapter 1-10 (Part One):

Word Count – 26,206 words

Main Perspectives – Two (Erin, Serena)

Protagonists – Six (Erin, Serena, Bonnie, Clemont, Paul, Ash, Elle)

Time Frame – A Few Weeks

Chapter 11-20 (Part One):

Word Count – 32,110 words (+ 5,904 words)

Main Perspectives – Four (+2 Team Rocket, Clemont)

Protagonists – Seven (+1 Korrina)

Time Frame – A Few Weeks

Chapter 21-30 (Part Two):

Word Count – 58,665 words (+ 26,555 words)

Main Perspectives – Eleven (+7 Ash, Elle, Mairin, Alain, Diantha, Zygarde, Froaky)

Protagonists – Twelve (+5 Mairin, Alain, Diantha, Zygarde, Cynthia)

Time Frame – One Week

Chapter 31-40 (Part Two):

Word Count – 59,221 words (+ 556 words)

Main Perspectives - Fourteen (+3 Korrina, Bonnie, Sawyer)

Protagonists – Seventeen (+5 Shauna, Trevor, Tierno, Yuki, Sawyer)

Time Frame – Five Days and One Timeskip

The problems here should be pretty obvious. From part one to part four, there was a 126% increase in word count, three times as many protagonists, and 3.5 times as many perspectives – all in a much shorter in story timeframe.

More importantly, people tend to look for average word count per chapter when they look for stories. Serena's Sister looks like it has a 4k average word count, but in reality part one has a 2k average and part two has a 6k average. Once people hit the longer chapters, a lot stop reading, which is the biggest problem with bad pacing.

Okay, so that's the problem with bad pacing. How do I fix my pacing in future stories?

Here are some strategies to work on your pacing. None of these are necessary, and it's up to you to figure out what works for you.

Standardize your chapters. This is the best way to fix your pacing issues – make all of your chapters roughly the same length. Your goal shouldn't be to produce as much as possible, but rather to make the most cohesive product you can. Major variation with chapter length is jarring, and it can take a reader out of the story. Some common standard chapter lengths people use are 2k-3k, 5k-7k, and 10k to 12k. It's super important that you understand how much you feel comfortable writing, so you don't overshoot how many words you can realistically put into a regular chapter with your goal. This doesn't necessarily include first chapters, which can be shorter, or finales, which can be longer.

Standardize your sections. A lot of people tend to split their stories into parts – both of my main projects are. One problem Serena's Sister had was part one only had twenty chapters, while part two was just as long when I hit a wall yet I wasn't close to where I thought the part should end. Try to think about your parts like separate narrative arcs making one longer arc. If you can make each part about the same number of chapters, your story will feel a lot smoother for it. It's like building a rhythm – breaking it can throw your readers off.

Limit Your Scope. It's totally cool to want to rewrite an entire show. Chances are, you're not going to have the endurance to make it all the way through.

Case and point – Ashes of the Past by Saphroneth (Pokemon, T). It's a time travel fic encompassing every character and event from the first thirteen seasons of the anime in a comprehensive reworking of history. He's almost done, too – his plot revolves around events from the fourth generation (Pokemon has seven) and that's what he's currently writing. There's a reason his story is the most popular in the fandom – it's fantastic.

You know what else? He's been writing it since 2011. There are 250 chapters and 1.5m words. There are more rotating perspective and plot points than I can keep track of. On top of all of that, Saphroneth writes really sparse prose, so imagine how long it would be if he had lots of extra detail and description.

Know your limits. What's the story you want to tell, and what do you actually need to tell it? If the background political intrigue arc can be summed up in a single line of dialogue from a secondary character, does it really deserve 10k words of your time? Tell your story, not every story, because that's what the readers want to see. This includes limiting your perspective characters, sending unnecessary subplots to the background, and above all understanding what your focus is.

In short, you don't have to turn your idea into an ASOIAF scale project just because it's a possibility. Control your muse.

Time management. You know that moment you're reading a fic and thinking, “This is taking them a really long time?” Guess what – sometimes that's because it is, in fact, taking a really long time to describe a really short period of time. Try to avoid any jarring or unannounced time skips, or spending too much time on one short time frame. This is a lot more flexible, so this point is mostly to the extremes. It's just as important to think about how much time is elapsing in the story as outside.

Your writing style sets the tempo. Every story has different pacing. Recognize what speed you want to be going at in the first place! Are you writing a fast paced thriller or a slow burn romance? The meatier your prose, the faster your story will feel. Keeping your style steady is something a lot of people don't have to think about, but knowing what your goal for pace is is super important.

Outlining. I don’t personally outline, but it can be a wonderful tool for setting out your plot and keeping to a set road map. Having a good outline can often be enough to alleviate pacing issues, although checking your scope is still incredibly important.

Essentially, the key to good pacing is consistency. Good pacing shouldn't be noticeable, because pacing is what keeps your reader in the story. It gives a story a sense of cohesiveness that's essential for an immersive reading experience. How do you pace your stories? What's your experience with bad pacing?

Thank you all, Allie

Support Me: Fanfiction.net - Archives of our Own

#writing #fanfiction #fanfic #pacing

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fanfictionlive · 4 years

Text

Getting back to a beloved WIP

So like two years ago, I was on a good roll with fanfic. I was writing and posting something every week, actually had a backlog, and everything was basically just right with the world.

In that time, I started a fic of an AU I'd wanted to do forever. Basically it's based off the series One-Week Friends where a girl loses her memory of her friends each Monday. I finally found the right ship to do it with, so I started.

I had 10k across three chapters and probably the longest chapter I've written (4200 words).

I was just in love with life and everything was right with the world...and then I fractured my wrist. I do everything longhand and had already developed tendinitis because of it. So my right forearm is entirely messed up and I can't write with pencil and paper anymore.

"Why not just type?" For me, a big part of writing is sensory feedback. I don't flow well on a computer screen unless it's text-based RP. I have to do everything longhand.

I got an e-ink tablet that mimics the feel of paper pretty well about a year ago so I should've gotten back to writing, right? Not really. I knew I'd be awful after being away so long so I just didn't write.

And didn't write. And didn't write.

Even though I had this AU I loved so, so so much. (Perfectionism is awful)

Well, I decided that, with the current state of the world, I'd get back to writing, my prosaic quality be damned.

Yes, I completely suck compared to what I was able to do then. But I just gave myself permission to suck and be a beginner again. I just needed to fall in love with the act of creation again. With that done, I've been churning out stuff on a fairly consistent basis for a while now, mainly for one fic that's my bread and butter (mental health/trauma and all the hurt/comfort that comes with it).

I've kept looking at that one AU, not wanting my prose to be bad, but I finally broke down and went back to it.

In just one day, I've written 3.5 pages (~800 words if I use 235 as the average per-word page count). I'm having so much fun with it. I'm so glad I let myself get back to this AU because it's just a lot of fun and not just constant angst. Like there is some level of angst because the girl loses her memories every Monday and of course she's worried about it. But really, the basis of this fic is just your typical slice-of-life stuff with some weird amnesia mechanic...and a slight spicing of the paranormal. (Not something from One-Week Friends; I just wanted a little something extra for what would otherwise be a relatively bland high school AU.)

Plus it helps that I love writing this gaggle of losers in general and watching them bounce off each other.

submitted by /u/Kiki-Y [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans https://ift.tt/2YHBIQP

#fan fiction #writing #fanfiction #tv show #series #movie #fan #write

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andrewdburton · 5 years

Text

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today)

The more I see people talk about money, the more I see how SCARED we are of it.

How we let others poison our views of money.

And how easily we use negative words to describe it.

Here’s an email I got from someone who read my book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. What do you notice?

“Frick it, I guess I’ll write the email…

My response:

“Good stuff. Great to meet you

Now I want you to look at your email and count the number of times you use negative words to describe your life/money. How many do you count?”

His response (notice the skepticism):

“Ha, I can’t tell if this was an automated message or not but you got me there!

Depending on your definition, about 6-10.”

6-10 IN A SHORT-ASS EMAIL. (Well, compared to the kinds I write…like the one you’re reading. LOL.) Finally, my response:

It’s not automated.

Good!

Now, can you rewrite that entire email to be POSITIVE instead of negative? Send it over my way.

I asked him to rewrite his email to be POSITIVE instead of negative because sometimes, it takes someone pointing out your pattern to shake you out of it.

When I talk to people about money, here are the most common words they use to describe it:

“Anxious”

“Stressed”

“Is it too late”

(What words come to mind for you?)

But it’s even more revealing when you listen to the ways they talk about money.

What they say: “What’s my Rich Life? Well, I just want to go on vacation with my kids a couple times a year, nothing fancy…” What they really mean: Notice those last two words — “nothing fancy.” When people talk about their Rich Lives, they almost always minimize their own dreams. When you’ve spent your entire life worrying about what can go wrong with money, it’s almost impossible to dream.

What they say: “How do I KNOW your programs will work?” OR “Will this book work for me if I live in Bolivia and I have a lazy left eye and I only eat mussels on Mondays?”

Are you about to say what I think you’re about to say?

What they say: “Even if I made $250,000/year, I wouldn’t eat out at a nice restaurant like that. What a waste!”

What they say: “I shouldn’t get a credit card.”

What they actually mean: “I don’t trust myself to control my spending, therefore I need to restrict myself”

What they say: “I went to [ANY FOREIGN COUNTRY] and they tried to rip me off because I was an American”

What they really mean: “Well, yeah, I could have afforded an extra $5 for those postcards…but I HATE BEING RIPPED OFF. If someone else is winning and I am losing, I HATE IT”

So many of us make day-to-day money decisions, never understanding the “invisible scripts” that actually guide these decisions. And in America, money is driven by FEAR.

FEAR that we’ll never have enough.

FEAR that we can’t make more of it.

And FEAR that someone will judge us for our spending — or even what we want to spend on.

I hate this. That’s why I show you how to identify your Money Dials, the things you LOVE spending on, then I show you how to spend MORE on it.

Talking to a small group about money psychology. On book tour, I hosted private events in NYC event at Thompson Square Studios (NYC) and our Hills Penthouse (West Hollywood). As a reader of IWT, you can get your first month free at either of these locations. Please reach out directly to [email protected]

But you can’t do that if you’re stuck thinking about money as a source of anxiety and fear.

With money, try these different approaches.

Know that you can trust yourself. Know that you can eat at a really nice restaurant once for the experience — and truly enjoy it — but trust that I’m not going to trip and fall and end up going there every single week. You can also use credit cards without overspending (follow the systems in my book). You can pay off your debt and stay out of debt. You can become Rich and do good. Trust yourself.

Know that you can create more money. You can negotiate your salary — or find an entirely new job. You can start a business, even if you don’t have an idea. You can build your network to sidestep people with 10 years’ more experience than you — and get perks you’ve never dreamed of. All of those things can dramatically increase your income. Above all, your money is not a fixed pie that you have to exhaustively guard and protect. You can also expand the size of your pie.

Stop being afraid of waste. In puritanical America, one of the biggest no-nos is WASTE. Oh no! Ramit, if I start spending more on the things I love, I might “waste” some of my money!

How do I “KNOW” that your book will solve my exact, highly specific problem that I worry about every fucking day of my life? If it doesn’t, I’ve wasted $10!!!! Scammer!!!

Oh no, there’s so much government waste! We should ONLY focus on cutting government waste. Especially that one thing I really hate. What? It only represents 0.03% of total spend? No, that can’t be right. Anyway, we need to handle WaSTe. Also, don’t talk about raising my historically low taxes, you socialist.

I know that I’m going to buy courses and attend conferences that won’t be perfect for me. I know I’m going to eat at a restaurant that’s unmemorable. I know I’m going to make bad hires.

SO WHAT?

I’d rather try new experiences and learn with each one…than to sit back and let the bogeyman of “waste” scare me from doing anything at all.

So much of personal finance advice take your latent fears and heightens them.

NO! Don’t use a credit card, you might overspend a little!

NO! Don’t eat out at that restaurant, what a waste!

NO! Don’t try to negotiate your salary, you should just be happy you have a job!

You listen to these fears and end up frightened and anxious, sitting around worrying about all the things that can go wrong with money.

Or you can go on offense. You can take control of your money.

You can build a plan to spend extravagantly on the things you love.

You can EMBRACE making mistakes, knowing you’ll waste a little money, but it’s fine, because over the long term, those mistakes are minor, and you can create more wealth for yourselves.

You choose.

In my book, I wrote this:

Get my book here

And comment here if this resonates with you. I want to hear from you.

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/scared-of-money-why-how-to-overcome-your-fear-today/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

samuelfields · 5 years

Text

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today)

The more I see people talk about money, the more I see how SCARED we are of it.

How we let others poison our views of money.

And how easily we use negative words to describe it.

Here’s an email I got from someone who read my book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. What do you notice?

“Frick it, I guess I’ll write the email…

My response:

“Good stuff. Great to meet you

Now I want you to look at your email and count the number of times you use negative words to describe your life/money. How many do you count?”

His response (notice the skepticism):

“Ha, I can’t tell if this was an automated message or not but you got me there!

Depending on your definition, about 6-10.”

6-10 IN A SHORT-ASS EMAIL. (Well, compared to the kinds I write…like the one you’re reading. LOL.) Finally, my response:

It’s not automated.

Good!

Now, can you rewrite that entire email to be POSITIVE instead of negative? Send it over my way.

I asked him to rewrite his email to be POSITIVE instead of negative because sometimes, it takes someone pointing out your pattern to shake you out of it.

When I talk to people about money, here are the most common words they use to describe it:

“Anxious”

“Stressed”

“Is it too late”

(What words come to mind for you?)

But it’s even more revealing when you listen to the ways they talk about money.

What they say: “How do I KNOW your programs will work?” OR “Will this book work for me if I live in Bolivia and I have a lazy left eye and I only eat mussels on Mondays?”

Are you about to say what I think you’re about to say?

What they say: “Even if I made $250,000/year, I wouldn’t eat out at a nice restaurant like that. What a waste!”

What they say: “I shouldn’t get a credit card.”

What they actually mean: “I don’t trust myself to control my spending, therefore I need to restrict myself”

What they say: “I went to [ANY FOREIGN COUNTRY] and they tried to rip me off because I was an American”

What they really mean: “Well, yeah, I could have afforded an extra $5 for those postcards…but I HATE BEING RIPPED OFF. If someone else is winning and I am losing, I HATE IT”

So many of us make day-to-day money decisions, never understanding the “invisible scripts” that actually guide these decisions. And in America, money is driven by FEAR.

FEAR that we’ll never have enough.

FEAR that we can’t make more of it.

And FEAR that someone will judge us for our spending — or even what we want to spend on.

I hate this. That’s why I show you how to identify your Money Dials, the things you LOVE spending on, then I show you how to spend MORE on it.

But you can’t do that if you’re stuck thinking about money as a source of anxiety and fear.

With money, try these different approaches.

Stop being afraid of waste. In puritanical America, one of the biggest no-nos is WASTE. Oh no! Ramit, if I start spending more on the things I love, I might “waste” some of my money!

How do I “KNOW” that your book will solve my exact, highly specific problem that I worry about every fucking day of my life? If it doesn’t, I’ve wasted $10!!!! Scammer!!!

Oh no, there’s so much government waste! We should ONLY focus on cutting government waste. Especially that one thing I really hate. What? It only represents 0.03% of total spend? No, that can’t be right. Anyway, we need to handle WaSTe. Also, don’t talk about raising my historically low taxes, you socialist.

I know that I’m going to buy courses and attend conferences that won’t be perfect for me. I know I’m going to eat at a restaurant that’s unmemorable. I know I’m going to make bad hires.

SO WHAT?

I’d rather try new experiences and learn with each one…than to sit back and let the bogeyman of “waste” scare me from doing anything at all.

So much of personal finance advice take your latent fears and heightens them.

NO! Don’t use a credit card, you might overspend a little!

NO! Don’t eat out at that restaurant, what a waste!

NO! Don’t try to negotiate your salary, you should just be happy you have a job!

You listen to these fears and end up frightened and anxious, sitting around worrying about all the things that can go wrong with money.

Or you can go on offense. You can take control of your money.

You can build a plan to spend extravagantly on the things you love.

You can EMBRACE making mistakes, knowing you’ll waste a little money, but it’s fine, because over the long term, those mistakes are minor, and you can create more wealth for yourselves.

You choose.

In my book, I wrote this:

Get my book here

And write me back if this resonates with you. I want to hear from you. Yes, I read every email you send me — really.

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/scared-of-money-why-how-to-overcome-your-fear-today/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

kennethherrerablog · 5 years

Text

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today)

The more I see people talk about money, the more I see how SCARED we are of it.

How we let others poison our views of money.

And how easily we use negative words to describe it.

Here’s an email I got from someone who read my book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. What do you notice?

“Frick it, I guess I’ll write the email…

My response:

“Good stuff. Great to meet you

Now I want you to look at your email and count the number of times you use negative words to describe your life/money. How many do you count?”

His response (notice the skepticism):

“Ha, I can’t tell if this was an automated message or not but you got me there!

Depending on your definition, about 6-10.”

6-10 IN A SHORT-ASS EMAIL. (Well, compared to the kinds I write…like the one you’re reading. LOL.) Finally, my response:

It’s not automated.

Good!

Now, can you rewrite that entire email to be POSITIVE instead of negative? Send it over my way.

I asked him to rewrite his email to be POSITIVE instead of negative because sometimes, it takes someone pointing out your pattern to shake you out of it.

When I talk to people about money, here are the most common words they use to describe it:

“Anxious”

“Stressed”

“Is it too late”

(What words come to mind for you?)

But it’s even more revealing when you listen to the ways they talk about money.

What they say: “How do I KNOW your programs will work?” OR “Will this book work for me if I live in Bolivia and I have a lazy left eye and I only eat mussels on Mondays?”

Are you about to say what I think you’re about to say?

What they say: “Even if I made $250,000/year, I wouldn’t eat out at a nice restaurant like that. What a waste!”

What they say: “I shouldn’t get a credit card.”

What they actually mean: “I don’t trust myself to control my spending, therefore I need to restrict myself”

What they say: “I went to [ANY FOREIGN COUNTRY] and they tried to rip me off because I was an American”

What they really mean: “Well, yeah, I could have afforded an extra $5 for those postcards…but I HATE BEING RIPPED OFF. If someone else is winning and I am losing, I HATE IT”

So many of us make day-to-day money decisions, never understanding the “invisible scripts” that actually guide these decisions. And in America, money is driven by FEAR.

FEAR that we’ll never have enough.

FEAR that we can’t make more of it.

And FEAR that someone will judge us for our spending — or even what we want to spend on.

I hate this. That’s why I show you how to identify your Money Dials, the things you LOVE spending on, then I show you how to spend MORE on it.

But you can’t do that if you’re stuck thinking about money as a source of anxiety and fear.

With money, try these different approaches.

Stop being afraid of waste. In puritanical America, one of the biggest no-nos is WASTE. Oh no! Ramit, if I start spending more on the things I love, I might “waste” some of my money!

How do I “KNOW” that your book will solve my exact, highly specific problem that I worry about every fucking day of my life? If it doesn’t, I’ve wasted $10!!!! Scammer!!!

Oh no, there’s so much government waste! We should ONLY focus on cutting government waste. Especially that one thing I really hate. What? It only represents 0.03% of total spend? No, that can’t be right. Anyway, we need to handle WaSTe. Also, don’t talk about raising my historically low taxes, you socialist.

I know that I’m going to buy courses and attend conferences that won’t be perfect for me. I know I’m going to eat at a restaurant that’s unmemorable. I know I’m going to make bad hires.

SO WHAT?

I’d rather try new experiences and learn with each one…than to sit back and let the bogeyman of “waste” scare me from doing anything at all.

So much of personal finance advice take your latent fears and heightens them.

NO! Don’t use a credit card, you might overspend a little!

NO! Don’t eat out at that restaurant, what a waste!

NO! Don’t try to negotiate your salary, you should just be happy you have a job!

You listen to these fears and end up frightened and anxious, sitting around worrying about all the things that can go wrong with money.

Or you can go on offense. You can take control of your money.

You can build a plan to spend extravagantly on the things you love.

You can EMBRACE making mistakes, knowing you’ll waste a little money, but it’s fine, because over the long term, those mistakes are minor, and you can create more wealth for yourselves.

You choose.

In my book, I wrote this:

Get my book here

And comment here if this resonates with you. I want to hear from you.

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

Scared of money? (Why & how to overcome your fear today) published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

0 notes