agaycabbage

[agaycabbage]

grieving after "the end"

Every single day for the last five years, I've written in Rewrite the Stars, my Mass Effect fanfic. It's turned into an almost 3 million word passion project that has gotten WAY more attention and love than I ever could have anticipated.

And this week, I put "The End" on the entire series. It's done.

I'm excited about that. I think my readers will love the ending (and I did leave it open for anything that happens in future games), and I'm proud of myself for accomplishing something so massive.

But I'm grieving. Hard. Today will be Day 3 since I wrote anything for Garrus and Elle, and I feel empty. I miss them. I know their story is complete for now, but after all that time, not reconnecting with them everyday is difficult.

This grieving process is part of the bigger writing process, I think. Most of us go through something like this after we finish, especially series or bigger projects. And I think it's part of the writing process that deserves recognition.

I'm honoring my grief today. Maybe I'll do that by going to the BioWare store and spending unnecessary money. Maybe I'll do it by writing other things instead. But it'll be a long time before I'm over these characters and this story.

#writing community #writing process #fiction writing #fanfiction writing #writeblr #mass effect fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic authors #ao3 fanfic #fanfic

[agaycabbage]

The best part about writing fanfiction is that I don't have to have a plot

I'm not getting paid for this, no one can tell me what to do

I can just write 1500 words about my blorbos holding hands in a grocery store and literally no one can stop me

[agaycabbage]

To all my readers who get through the first ONE MILLION words in a weekend. You honor and terrify me.

“you cant read a fan fic with 400K+ words in one night.”

you don’t know how crazy i am.

[agaycabbage]

you don't have to do this alone

Yeah, you're probably the only one writing your book, but that doesn't mean that you must (or that you should) write alone!

You're more likely to get words down if you're writing with others. It takes the pressure off your brain to focus exclusively and intensely on writing. That's exhausting! If you introduce a social aspect, you have other things to focus on, and that's actually good for your progress.

You can remind your brain that writing isn't hell. Who wants to sit there alone and stare at a blank page?? It's miserable! And that misery tends to build up until even the thought of writing is painful. If you have friends with you, even if you don't get words down in that session, you probably had some laughs. Now, you're reassociating writing with good things instead of with that pain, and that will very likely mean you're going to get more words down in the future.

And it's just a better experience. No one else knows what we're going through except other writers. You deserve people who can support you, and I'd bet your friends would love your support too.

There are lots of ways to find writing groups (and online, they require much less actual socialization, even if you're chatting...and minimal socialization while socializing is very important to me). Go out and find or create a group, and you'll change the whole writing process for yourself.

Can't wait to see what you create!

#writing #writing community #indie authors #fiction writing #authors

[agaycabbage]

I know most authors don't understand LLMs but that prosecraft project is not an LLM all it did was analyze and assign grade based off of designed metrics (in this case, what "emotion" the writng has)

It's as much "AI" as Grammarly is. Or even your spellchecker on your devices. There's no LLM generation. Everyone's jumping on a guy for making the tech equivalent of a Plagiarism checker and accused him of plagiarizing like ChatGPT does, but it's not even remotely the same technology...

1. Why would you come here and not Twitter where I posted anything about Prosecraft? And you're anonymous? Coward. You're either Benji in hiding or just a creep.

2. Super weird to defend AI use ever at all.

3. Even if I gave a shit about what he did with the data, let's take a step backward. Tell me how you think he got the full content of 25k published books without theft/piracy?

You fucking weirdo. Get away from me.

#writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing community #ai is theft

[agaycabbage]

I don't know what other motivation you could possibly need today, tbh.

Now it's time for him to get mad at me for washing his face even though it happens every single day.

#writer #writing advice #writing process #writing community #dogblr

[agaycabbage]

You have to make it through today.

Whether you live to see tomorrow because you're doing okay...

or because Mitch McConnell and Henry Kissinger are still alive and you damn well better outlive them...

You can make it to see tomorrow. You will. 💜

#stay alive #writing community #mitch mcconnell #you deserve it #do not go gentle

[agaycabbage]

Nothing else I buy this year could possible top this

#fanfic authors #fanfic #fanfiction #fanfiction writing #fanfic writer

[agaycabbage]

The age old question every writer faces:

Should I push through this whole draft, finish it, then go back and edit? Or should I edit as I go??

I have the only actually correct answer for you:

#writing advice #writing process #writers #writer #writing community #fiction writing

[agaycabbage]

the writing process is more than just writing

I saw this picture on Twitter today, and I laughed. I think it’s funny, and I think we all like playfully bullying ourselves with things like this. 

But I also think way too many of us believe that the only acceptable part of the writing process is the actual writing. That’s...just not true. 

There are sooooo many non-writing or writing-extra things that can be part of your writing process. Making playlists? Writing process. Creating aesthetics on Pinterest? Writing process. Talking about your book part of the writing process! 

We all have a creative well that will run dry, a creative spark that will be snuffed out if we allow it. If we force it. You’ll force that if you don’t feed that creative energy, and that’s what you’re doing when you participate in all these non-writing pieces of the writing process. 

You’re involved in the writing process anytime you engage in storytelling--that means reading books but it also means watching movies or TV and playing video games. Daydreaming! Daydreaming is an excellent way to feed your creative brain, and it IS part of the writing process. Please, writers, I’m begging you to stop forcing yourself out of daydreaming and into writing. 

You need activities other than writing within your writing process if it’s going to be fun, successful, and especially if it’s going to be repeatable. If you bully yourself into finishing this novel, great, you’re done...and now you’ll hate writing the next one. Your poor brain! 

The writing process is so much more than just writing, and you’ll be a better, happier, more productive writer if you don’t fight that. 

#writing community #writing #writers #writeblr #writing process #editing advice #writing advice

[agaycabbage]

Happy Solstice, in whatever way or part of the world you celebrate 💜

#summer solstice #happy solstice #sunset

[agaycabbage]

Space husband knows best

#mass effect garrus #garrus fanart #garrus vakarian

[agaycabbage]

an editor’s editing process...

...is a little anal, and probably a little chaotic, but it’s very effective! 

Here's how I plan and prep for my big edits/rewrites. The general idea is a visual display of the whole novel, chapter by chapter, with color-coded Post-it’s that decrease in size as we get from big pieces of content down to smaller details. 

I have my giant whiteboard (isn’t she beautiful?), and I map out each chapter with the yellow larger rectangles. Effectively these are a super simple backward outline with just a quick bulleted list of the content in every chapter. 

The orange-y squares are for bigger content or structure changes. If I’m editing the content of a chapter, I use one of these. 

The smallest Post-it’s are for the details, one for worldbuilding, one for character details, and another for focus points within the chapter. 

The final piece is those bright pink squares that show me where I’m going to add or remove a chapter and a quick description of what’s going into that chapter. 

And of course, because this is me, I have a key nearby so I don’t forget which color or Post-it is what. 

Especially with my neurodivergent brain, I find that a visual aspect added to my editing process is a game changer. Most people might have some pages of notes, might have it all in their mind, and then they sit down to edit. But I can’t sit down with a book I know by heart, all these edits in mind, and just...do it. 

First of all, that’s boring. ADHD brains don’t do boring. And I don’t really want to get bored with my book! 

Second, I’ll definitely lose track of everything I intend to do/add/change/remove. It’ll end up costing me more time in revisions when I need to go through another round of the things I forgot, and that’s assuming these things aren’t connected because that’s a whole different mess! 

Third, that just leaves me with no space to think things through, to test things out and move them around, to change my mind on the fly. 

This chaotic, beautiful board changes all that! 

When I edit for clients, I often walk them through the process of taking in edits and organizing the work needed. This sort of visual can be extremely helpful, and you could make this work in a notebook with post-its!

Everyone's process is going to be different, but if you find edits really painful, anxiety-inducing, difficult—consider adding a visual step. It might make all the difference.

Now...go forth and revise! 

#writeblr #writing community #editor #editing advice #fiction writing #self editing

[agaycabbage]

Weird to be the fraysexual in the crowd who is still asexual and yet also very much thinking about sex regularly. 🫠

REblog if you are Asexual, support Asexuals, or spend most of your time actually thinking about Superheroes.

[agaycabbage]

Give the desert even the smallest bit of rain...

And incredible things happen.

#desert living #new mexico #cactus #pics

[agaycabbage]

I'll let Geralt die a million times before I'll change him into purple pants and a green and yellow striped shirt that doesn't fit. Not sorry.

what game devs think are tough choices in games: you have to kill this person or spare them

what tough choices in games actually are: this armor will make you more powerful but it’s ugly

#gamer problems #witcher 3

[agaycabbage]

i think the next completely unfaithful reimagining of the persephone myth should be a Taken-style action adventure where demeter viciously fights her way through the underworld to rescue her daughter