#writerbrain

[ellatholmes]

me: should I start a new wip?

brain: we have wips at home

the wips at home:

#another one? another one? you want to start another one? are you---are you sure? yes???? #writerblr #writing meme #writer meme #writerbrain

[adrenaline-whump]

I realized something recently. Sometimes, I get writer's block from having too many options.

The first two Whumptobers I did, we had one word or phrase per day, plus a few alt prompts. But for the last few years, each day has had a theme and three related prompts, plus alt prompts.

I'm not complaining, not at all! It's awesome to have choices, especially when everyone's working in different media and so on.

But consider that (31*4)+15 alternate prompts makes a hundred and thirty-nine separate prompts. Honestly, I think that was part of what was blocking me.

Again, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that. Everyone's process is different. This is me realizing that my process gets bogged down in decision paralysis. Back when I had just a few choices, I had to get super creative to come up with whumplets for the more unusual prompts. It was hard, but those were some of the best ones I wrote! Anyone remember Hallucinations? I love that one, and I never would have written it without the prompt.

This Whumptober, part of my strategy goes like this: I'm trying to use just the song lyrics, in order, as inspiration for the story scenes. If I truly can't figure out how to work them in, even with a vague reference, even a vibe...then I'll fall back on one of the three related prompts. If that doesn't work, I'll go with an alt prompt.

So far, so good...I've got 7000 words covering the first 20 prompts, with only one alt in there. Not bad for starting on October 2nd, lol.

#writing #writerbrain #writing thoughts #it's nice to be writing again! #like I said earlier i'll probably post all at once #late in the month on AO3 #prepare for spooky!cadeverse #not really a whumptober set per se #but inspired by

[brightlotusmoon]

#i'm going to cry #stop calling me out #writing #fanfiction #i do feel guilty for not updating #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #shut up i can't hear you #damn it writerbrain #ow my writerbrain #quantum entanglement fic

[aaronieros]

the problem with having writing as a hobby is that occasionally it gives me The Disease and i stay up past 1 am writing and think to myself "i can just do the proofreading and editing in the morning" but The Disease robs me of sleep and demands i forfeit all time to The Fiction until it is complete

#i'm fighting the writerbrain demons #i want this fic up so bad though i won't lie

[pleuvoire]

i can just tell i'm going to finally start going crazy with kingohger fic ideas right around when the show is ending and for a long time after. it's always like this

#my writerbrain is always late to the party

[recurringwriter]

if i started liveblogging the experience of myself re-reading a novel from the 80s about cats would that amuse some of you

#it's like the warrior cats progenitor novel (and imo better but that may because i read it at the age that one is Supposed to read WC #and read my first WC book at the age one should probably read this one) #i'm just thinking. i have such trouble reading novels lately (anything really) and maybe having like a book journal would help #me to stay motivated and idk we could talk about themes and plot and narrative and stuff and Engage my writerbrain

[thegreatandpowerfulversy]

My overactive writerbrain is doing its thing again, taking the two most recent things I've been into and smashing them together into a bizarre crossover that still, somehow, inexplicably works.

This time, it's Worm and the Silmarillion. Specifically, I'm thinking about how there are three Silmarils, and three main Endbringers, and both of these groups of three things are themed around land, sea, and sky. So, naturally... what if they're directly related?

Imagine the distant future of Arda, maybe not quite to the third act of the Music of the Ainur, but getting close to it. It is the age of Men and Aftercomers, the younger Children of Ilúvatar who have never so much as seen an elf, who live and die and pass not into the Halls of Mandos but into some other, hidden place beyond Eä to await what is to come. The Valar keep to themselves in the west, Melkor was cast out and Sauron defeated, and none in Middle Earth Bet even remember the legends of the Two Trees and their Light, or the terrible Oath sworn to reclaim its last glimmers from any who would dare to keep them.

But even in this time, the Silmarils still exist, somewhere. Maybe someone delves and/or swims too greedily and too deep, or maybe Men advance their technology and look outward to the stars. But someone, somewhere, encounters something they shouldn't, and the time of kinslayings begins again.

Maedhros and his Silmaril were lost into a fiery chasm, deep within the earth. Even without their masters, the balrogs and dragons and the rest of Melkor's designs still lurk and work their evils. It is not just the greed born of Fëanor's oath that corrupts him, but external powers too, until nothing elflike remains and Maedhros becomes a hulking Behemoth tunneling through the bowels of the world, always chasing a spark that the currents of magma will never let him reach.

Maglor cast his Silmaril into the sea. But the sea is Ulmo's domain, and Maglor swore an oath to pursue the jewels even should the hands that hold them be a vala's. Whether he regrets his action or not, the Oath compels him to swim after the Silmaril, and it drives him to swim ever faster and harder and better, streamlining away everything he used to be until all that remains is a powerhouse of water itself, a Leviathan who carries the ocean in his wake as he circles the world and assails the coastlines where his prize might briefly have been.

Eärendil took a Silmaril into the sky, never to touch down again, never to let himself be seen except as a passing star to those below. He swore no Oath, and can keep the Silmaril rather than chase it endlessly, but in so keeping he finds within the knowledge and cunning of the Noldor, and a perspective from high above so foreign to the mortals who walk the earth. With the Light upon his brow, borne forever on the wings of Varda, he becomes the legendary firebird, the Simurgh, ever watching the lives below with a sense of duty to intervene and to keep the world's development along the path he knows is right. ...And also she transes her gender at some point, I guess.

But someone, somewhere, encounters something they shouldn't: perhaps Melkor returned to Eä, or another Ainu who neglected to join the creation after the visions from Ilúvatar but who enters now, late, like Ungoliant or Bombadil before them. Some catalyst alights upon the world and brings forth power and light, kindling conflict first for conflict's sake alone.

And sometimes, a volcano will send forth a brilliant spark to see the surface world once again, and for a while it travels from hand to bloodier hand, until the Behemoth emerges in an attempt at its recapture, and the Light sinks again in its wake. Sometimes, another jewel will wash up on the shores, ever followed by the Leviathan who lays waste to coastal cities, even sending floods upriver where the Silmaril has been traded inland. And through it all, the Simurgh sings what she can recall of Elwing's song, distorted with every new century passed until it brings only madness to all who hear. The Simurgh, too, is mad from it, but cannot cease, and her once well-meaning interventions in mortal affairs are turned quickly to the new power's ends.

...I don't have a plot or anything, this is just a vague concept based on a random connection my brain made and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it down. Anyone is welcome to take the setting and run with it if you want, flesh it out a bit more, while I have plenty of other wips already that I should be writing.

#worm parahumans #worm web serial #silmarillion #wormblr #the silm fandom

[beingatoaster]

I'm taking a mental break from writing(/editing/revising/etc.) for the end of the year and mostly it's good for me, I'm doing a lot of relaxing stuff in time I would normally be going "but I could use this time for writing" about and I know it's good for the writerbrain to lie fallow a bit, but there is a little bit of. oh I just thought about how I could rewrite that bit to work better. oh I just had a new scene pop into my head that would really add to that WIP. oh yeah I'm thinking about that goofy little oneshot idea I had a while back, since I'm not working on anything right now I could-

And right now I'm managing to restrain myself by writing the thought down and then going back to Recreational Activities, but man. I was supposed to take next week off too and I'm not sure I can do it. I've taken longer breaks from writing before! They're just usually caused by health issues (mental or physical) or work getting overwhelming or some other part of IRL getting in the way. I thought it would be nice to take an intentional break in which I was not writing because I was doing intentional fun things instead... but my brain is getting so damn itchy about it right now.

[isayoldbean]

the problem with watching so much cr and d20 like i currently am is that my writerbrain reaches a point where it can't stand it anymore and tries to convince me to start getting a campaign together with an extremely heavy emphasis on homebrew content and i have to gently remind it that that would be a terrible idea as i have literally only ever played one (1) campaign of dnd in my entire life

#and that campaign was cut tragically short due to our dm having some real life stuff going on #so really i haven't even played an entire campaign. maybe like 10 or 12 sessions #i would do anything to be able to be gay in dnd rn though i want to play again so bad it's unreal

[yaoist]

brandon sanderson has the classic writerbrain where his skill at depicting individual people as relatable and understandable and non-stereotypical masks his actually very conservative beliefs, which mostly show up in the worldbuilding

[rin-the-shadow]

WriterBrain Strikes Again!!

So I know I was posting last night about some kind of RiddlerVerse What is Reality fanfic, and I do still intend to do that, but I have to do a bit of story planning first and at this point it might be a series of drawings more than a text-based fanfic. (Mostly because I don’t want to have to spend time figuring out how to refer to each of them in the text without making it clunky and a visual medium will be easier to sidestep that with)

In the meantime, enjoy this Batman The Audio Adventures fanfic that’s been floating around in my brain for a bit:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45796018

#rin does fanfic #riddler #batman #batman the audio adventures #edward nygma #bruce wayne #rin breaks canon #joys of writing #yeah so 'throw opponents in a situation where they have to work together' #has apparently become my new thing in writing #since my brain keeps spitting out ideas around this concept

[ellatholmes]

#has it... has it been done before? #writerblr #writerbrain #writing meme

[adrenaline-whump]

On Writer's Block and Whumptober

I first started writing for Whumptober in 2018. I was a completionist that year, and the next two. And then...it got harder. Writerbrain just resisted. And this year wasn't any different. I'd resigned myself to not participating this year.

But...

What if...? whispered the writerbrain.

Of course, I was like "Where tf have you BEEN" and "What are you on about, writerbrain" and "are you really coming up with a plot on October SECOND"

And after many negotiations, it seems like there might be some words. But the way it's probably gonna go down is, they'll be inspired by 31 Whumptober prompts, but probably will wind up posted on AO3, and may not get there until the end of the month.

But by golly I'm going to do SOMETHING with the 1600 words it gave me for the first 3 days.

(It's gonna be a lil bit spooky, it's going to involve Cade and Donnie, and there will be a bit of whump but that won't be the center of the story.)

#writerbrain #i promise i'm not mentally ill #it just sometimes do be like that #cadeverse #cade #donnie #honestly i think the writers block was partly due to the pressure of writing something whumpy for every single prompt #as soon as i gave myself permission to put plot ahead of whump #the words started to materialize

[brightlotusmoon]

Wait, what fic am I reading, this feels way too familiar, and why hasn't it updated in a year, I'm getting concerned-

Oh. It's me. It's my fic I wrote years ago. I'm the one who hasn't updated.

Bitch.

#fanfiction #i do feel guilty for not updating #help #too many wips #covered in wips #my fanfic #damn it writerbrain #ow my writerbrain

[mousieta]

Big Dragon rambling

Caveat: I am absolutely obsessed loving Big Dragon. My feral brain has latched onto it and will. Not. Let go. I am starting my 3rd rewatch in anticipation of the final ep. It is fantastic fun and its giving me everything I want in spades.

However-

My writer brain is gonna writerbrain. So if you don’t want critical thoughts go ahead and scroll on by.

IMO one of the biggest writing flaws is Mangkorn’s characterization and its inconsistency. There are a few changes, that I think could have relatively reconciled it within the show. (I am perfectly fine projecting all of this *into* the show, I just think it would feel better written if the show visually rendered some of this)  Also, warning for SPOILERS thru ep 7

Early on there needs to be a larger sense of history between Mangkorn and Yai. Yai is shown to throw a dart at Mangkorn’s face which is great but we need more of that layered in, more acknowledgment that they know one another. Perhaps a montage of them poaching each other’s sexual prospects in various clubs layered with the scene of them hooking up with various people. To further establish them as rivals as well as playboys.

This would make the escalation in the fight over Ajo have a better sense of scale.

Mangkorn’s revelation that he’s had a crush on Yai since he was a freshman and that he’s actually known who Yai is since they were children seems to come out of left field, which isn't necessarily bad if one could go back and see subtle clues that were missed. However, these don’t really exist outside of Mangkorn’s insistence that they try to be friends - which circularly only makes sense in the context of his long term crush.

Again, a fairly straightforward fix would be to more firmly root the first two-ish episodes in Yai’s POV. We shouldn’t ever actually see Mangkorn’s POV and we should always look at Mangkorn from where Yai sits. Establish that we only see Yai’s version of Mangkorn and establish that Yai is unreliable as a narrator when it comes to Mangkorn.

So with these two elements established, we can then have the big reveal when Mangkorn tells his mom that he’s had a crush on Yai for years. A small montage revisiting a few key moments in the first couple eps but establishing that Yai is mis-perceiving Mangkorn. This renders Mangkorn more understandable and then allows us perspective into both of their POVs.

Couple this with not spending so much time with them as kids. We could have that scene but more relevant would be a scene of Mangkorn realizing who Yai is his freshman year, and his initial crush blooming followed by a series of scenes (could be relatively short) showing him trying to get to know Yai but constantly misstepping/fumbling in ways that makes him come off as an asshole. Then, him learning/realizing that Yai is a player and Mangkorn thinking/trying to be a player, too, as a way of connecting with him only to wind up becoming a rival instead of a like-minded peer. Perhaps even layer in some judgey comments from Yai’s friends, to explain his animosity over rich kids that seems directed at Yai but isn’t (in ep 1).

So it becomes clear that Mangkorn being a player is mostly an accident but one that he rolls with because he doesn’t *mind* women throwing themselves at him but he is largely romantically inept (and exclusively homo-romantic; show this rather than just have him allude to it ambiguously). So, this is why, when presented with the chance to get drunk off his ass with his crush and winds up in his bed, he leaps for it and, also why he uses the only leverage he’s been able to find in 4 years to try to get his crush to spend time with him.

Like, I think all of this characterization is potentially there, it is just not realized well with either the directing or writing. I think it is important to see why Mangkorn is so taken with Yai, why he’s held this candle for years despite ostensibly rivaling and seemingly resenting Yai. Where, for Yai, it is understandable that his attraction stems from constant frustration, lust and a truly spectacular one night stand that, coupled with just having to spend so much time together helps him realize he actually likes and cares about Mangkorn, it needs to be clearer why and how Mangkorn’s affection grew as opposed to vague references and hand-waving.

Instead of telling us: Mangkorn has had a crush and found Yai cute for years, Mangkorn has only ever fallen in love with Yai (a man), Mangkorn is terrible at romance and hitting on people, etc etc; it would be nice to see this fleshed out.

#big dragon #meta #mangkorn x yai #mousie watches bl

[pleuvoire]

was overcome with an urge to beta read someone's writing because i love doing that and i know sometimes people put out posts like "hey i want a beta reader for so and so, taking applications" so i went to search "beta applications" in tumblr and i should not have been jumpscared by the drop-down menu but i just FORGOT

#i was so wrapped up in writerbrain....