connywrites

[connywrites]

Hey, I understand a late response, but I wanted to really thank you. You have been here since I started writing and honestly inspire me to keep going!

It’s been a rough pandemic but I have a ton of drafts I would like to post again. I’m just always like.. are they really interested? haha

so thanks for supporting me since the beginning. <3

I opened my old OFAB drafts from, well, I suppose last year or more, and almost visibly gagged at how…choppy, the writing was.

I outgrow myself so quickly, but I think when I do eventually get my chapters ducks in a line and post again, the growth in my writing will hopefully show. But it’s also been difficult because I’m rusty and haven’t proofread my own stuff in a year, and have maybe a bit drabbled in between.

The years of Covid have been rough on me, and I’ve been rough in return, but I got a lot of my old angst through Gavin and Leo, and while I write scenes more often than chapters, I do look forward to brushing things up and posting again. I’m incredibly proud of my work and some of my old one-shots still get kudos to this day. So thanks all. You keep me writing, even if it’s sparse.

[connywrites]

I opened my old OFAB drafts from, well, I suppose last year or more, and almost visibly gagged at how...choppy, the writing was.

I outgrow myself so quickly, but I think when I do eventually get my chapters ducks in a line and post again, the growth in my writing will hopefully show. But it’s also been difficult because I’m rusty and haven’t proofread my own stuff in a year, and have maybe a bit drabbled in between.

The years of Covid have been rough on me, and I’ve been rough in return, but I got a lot of my old angst through Gavin and Leo, and while I write scenes more often than chapters, I do look forward to brushing things up and posting again. I’m incredibly proud of my work and some of my old one-shots still get kudos to this day. So thanks all. You keep me writing, even if it’s sparse.

[connywrites]

If u want to write a story about a character that's just you but hotter with a dark twisted backstory and magical powers and a pet falcon or something, I think u should just go ahead and do that. Who's gonna stop you? The government?? Fuck the police.

[connywrites]

I really wish as a published author that I could claim this was staged.

[connywrites]

Writing With Caution

 Writers have lots of tricks that we use to facilitate the writing process, but there’s the risk of limiting ourselves to these tricks and to being afraid of deviating from them.

1) Editing Programs

Some editing programs are great. They can highlight hard-to-read sentences, give us a vocabulary score, highlight all of our glue/filler/extra words that don’t really need to be there, find misspelled words and homonyms, find cliche phrases, and do a lot more.

However, you shouldn’t completely trust these programs. They are largely technical and cannot evaluate things like emotion, pacing, tension, and other factors that only humans can spot. If you get a bad grade by using one of these programs, don’t take it as the worst thing in the world.

If you do want to check out editing programs, here are some good ones:

StyleWriter 4 - This is an add-on for Microsoft Word. You have to pay for it, but there is a 2-week trial period that is free. I highly recommend checking it out for editing a major project. It works best for final edits and it can really help you clean up bulky writing.

Editminion - This website can check words for Latin or Germanic roots, can check for homonyms to make sure you used the right word, can look for cliches, can check dialogue for open quotations, gives you a list of how many times you used a word, and a lot more.

Hemingwayapp - This is for clear, concise writing. It also gives you a “grade level” of your writing and highlights hard-to-read sentences.

Writer’s Diet - The Writer’s Diet is a very quick editing tool that will look at up to 1000 words. It highlights nouns, adverbs, prepositions, and more.

Paper Rater - This is more of an academic program. You can set your grade level for a better assessment and you can check for plagiarism.

2) Choosing Traits Before Writing

Creating a character profile is extremely popular among writers and they can be quite helpful for remembering details about characters, but they have a major weakness.

Listing out traits doesn’t tell the whole story about characters and when writers pick certain traits they want their characters to have, they tend to limit those characters to those traits and they have trouble combining them.

My advice is to jump into writing without knowing much about your character’s individual traits. They will come in the writing. List them out later. This allows you more freedom.

3) Strict Outlines

Outlining can be incredibly helpful for a lot of writers, but it can also be a boundary. Do not be afraid to deviate from your outline. If something isn’t working, take it out. Rewrite the outline. Add stuff. Change stuff.

This is where “kill your darlings” comes in. You might love a scene or a subplot, but if they’re not working out for the story, take them out. It’ll be painful at first, but once you get more workable ideas you’ll feel a lot better.

[connywrites]

RAVENCLAW: “Good fiction creates its own reality.” –Nora Roberts (The Stanislaski Brothers)

[connywrites]

i hope you write, i hope we both write

[connywrites]

i literally cannot stop. will reblog with the link once i’m done.

#rbing from myself cuz #ya know

[connywrites]

its evident my posts float thru discord n i just plain furget to do the HTML in archive of our own lol. thats all fixed now!

[connywrites]

now that its not late at night ill actually Edit this KFDFJSD

WOW guess who thought he posted chapter 36 ages ago and just realized he didnt while writing the next one facepalms

#boy life has been goin by fast

[connywrites]

WOW guess who thought he posted chapter 36 ages ago and just realized he didnt while writing the next one facepalms

#i am so sorry.... i did not mean to be that Once A Year fanfic writer lmao #its jus been sittin in scrivener #anyway #cliffhangers aside #enjoy #i am back on this project n will update again soon!

[connywrites]

thatpyroblogs said:

Don’t worry about it. Last year was insane. Hope this year treats you a lot better and may we live in uninteresting times.

i appreciate your understanding as always! thanks and same to you <3

#my inspiration was def not on my side in 2020 lol

[connywrites]

i was hoping to be more active here this last year but that didnt work out, and my laptop is dying, because i didnt get a reliable one to begin with. so things are slow. but i did manage to save the next chapter of ofab so hopefully i can scrap that up & post it before going MIA again & eventually coming back with more. to be continued!

#fanfiction is amazing but if i dont have a proper editing program its hard for me to keep up

[connywrites]

Here's a vamp au Reed900 sentence prompt "Can I touch your fangs?"

"Do you truly believe that's a safe curiosity to pursue?"

The way Cullen's eyebrows crinkled upward with an expression between curiosity and concern sent a pang through Gavin's heart as he responded with his typical sideways smirk and a scoff.

"Like I haven't been in more dangerous positions. What are you going to do, take a finger?"

"I appreciate your low rectitude in your own mortality, but how often do you touch someone else's teeth?" Gavin paused, scrunching his nose - of course the bastard had to make it sound as awkward as possible.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Gavin rolled his eyes, and the chilling gaze from his partner would never cease casting a spell on him, or some other supernatural mumbo-jumbo mortals like himself couldn't fully appreciate. If Cullen fit any vampire stereotypes, it was his adoration for monologuing, and Gavin usually lost track within the first few minutes. Still, he knew that it all boiled down to him being human and more or less fragile compared to something so far beyond, such as the undead ‘creature’ standing in front of him.

"Well, as endearing as it would be to consider, I doubt this is your first time..." Gavin's eyebrows raised as he choked out a laugh, shaking his head.

"Is that an innuendo? Never mind, if you're going to be weird about it."

"You're the one that wants to touch the most dangerous part of me. Those are bones, you know."

"Full of poison, and what, your deepest darkest secrets?" This time, Cullen almost couldn't help his own laughter; it wasn't often humanity could pull such emotions from him after a few hundred years of psychological indifference, but Gavin Reed was almost a unique species all of his own, somehow full of surprises despite his age and jaded position in the world. Gavin's grin turned into a more genuine smile, and without another second to waste, brought his hand up to Cullen's cheek, prompting a look of subdued affection that only he seemed to know how to find.

"Open wide." Acknowledging the sense of perversion in the demand, Cullen's eyebrows flickered, half-lidded eyes staring down at Gavin as he hovered his thumb right above cold lips.

"What, are you afraid now?" Cullen only ever breathed in order to speak, and his breath was often cold. Lifeless. He wondered how it worked, the preservation of tissue in a way that could still remain animated, yet unalive - an aspect he doubted considering the need for blood being essential for survival was still a trait for someone that needed to live. Whether the heart beat or not, the blood had to stay some kind of animate, somehow...

"Detective?" Gavin blinked and shook his head, seeming to snap out of his daze, squinting as he visually outlined the straight, perfectly-aligned white fangs in front of him.

"You ever lay on the ground and play dead? You know, just to fuck with people?" Of course not, he knew, but Cullen's expression lightened with something sort of endearing - for a literally bloodthirsty monster, at least.

"I see your mind at work again, unraveling the greatest mysteries of all time," Cullen murmured in jest, and the brush of his lips against warm fingertips was a strange sort of intimate Gavin didn't know how to describe.

"Haha, yeah. Your existence is kind of mind-boggling." Tilting his head, Cullen's expression flattened as he let the digit pry and reach for one of his canines, waiting until Gavin nearly had the satisfaction of grazing the sharp tip before abruptly turning with a swift snap of his jaws, causing Gavin to gasp with a start and jump back, glancing down at his hand as he digested the sensation of feeling something slick slide right across his fingertip. It was nothing but a hollow threat, he soon discovered; glaring at Cullen, he exhaled an annoyed sigh, smacking him across the shoulder.

"Bitch," he hissed under his breath, catching his breath until he could finally laugh off the steam.

"Jerk. You should have known what you were doing."

"I knew what I was doing," Gavin claimed, but his uncertainty echoed through the silent surroundings of the night.

"You can't blame me for your stupid tricks."

"Is it truly stupid if you fell for it?" Gavin folded his arms and shook his head, clearly lacking a clever comeback.

"You could get hurt, you know."

"Big words coming from a bloodsucker." Cullen's stoic demeanor remained unamused as ever.

"Nothing? C'mon, Hannibal, you've gotta have something stirring around in there."

"With words like that, I'd be under the implication you want to get eaten." They shared a look of bemusement that was equally awkward. Gavin shrugged.

"I have nothing to lose."

"Does your life mean nothing to you?" A moment of hesitation meant Gavin considered the question, and solidified the fact that no matter the answer, there might be some worth in his own idea of ‘living’.

"In that case, I'll only have a nibble," Cullen continued in jest. The grin that followed left the human hypnotized, but he was fast to escape the gaze, flipping off his partner.

"Joke's on you. No chunks out of my skin tonight," Gavin steamed, before turning around to walk away. Despite his attempt at an escape, the vampire's laugh haunted his ears.

"We'll see about that."

#FIRST OF ALL im sorry this took 11 days lmao #life circumstances n new medication happened #but i hope ur still out there #n enjoy this!! #gavnines #gav900 #whats the ship name for this again #really fucking gay? #dbh fanfiction #these was organized once #Anonymous

[connywrites]

guess whos too lazy to post the chapter here but upated ofab!

#wow! #so nice to catch up again #now i have.... 3 other chapters to proofread and put up #but i missed this. hopefully its ok x)

[connywrites]

“I’m calling it. We are lost in the woods.”

"I don't believe that," Gavin responded with a roll of his eyes.

"We've curved this trail three times, I remember this route," his partner corrected him, pointing at some of the foliage nearby. A stressed huff left his nostrils as he momentarily seethed at the repetition, running his hands back through his hair.

"You know where we're supposed to be going, then?" His voice bit sharp into the night, but Cullen didn't waver.

"In theory. I don't understand how we've reached this point. We've followed the right direction from the map since we arrived, but there's no explanation as to why we've circled back to the same area. That is to say, we should have progressed by now."

"Sure," Gavin bit, pulling out his phone in an attempt to catch any signal, all for naught. He sighed.

"Then we'll turn around. Gotta find civilization eventually," he spoke with snide satire, turning on his heel to return to where they came from.

"Wait," the other warned him, a large, pale hand gripping his bicep as he tried to leave, "There. What's that?"

Gavin paused, giving himself the bravery not to punch the man in the face, before turning to look in the direction Cullen was pointing.

"I don't see anything," he replied while squinting at the darkness. Cullen withdrew, shaking his head.

"Nevermind. It must be nothing," he reasoned, stepping up close behind Gavin. Assuming he was following, Gavin continued to walk forward, pulling out his flashlight and giving it a couple shakes to try and get the battery working, noting the series of unfortunate events that he could count on one hand that'd taken place throughout the night. Bad luck never granted him much mercy.

The following sensation was swift, although slow to sink into his consciousness as a sting dug deep into the muscle connecting shoulder to aorta, an abrupt sequence that caused him to pause, flinch and jolt, trying to pry free from the grip now holding him in place. The pain intensified, and so did his panic.

There was nothing like it. The intensity of the pain was followed by a sudden sedative that left him wobbly at the knees, hospital visits flashing through his mind as the weight slowly sinking into his chest choked his breathing. God, did he hate losing blood.

Tension strung his legs as he caught his footing, focusing the reflex into the uninjured side of his body so he could swing back a punch at whatever latched onto him. The crunch of cartilage beneath his fist echoed in his mind and he took the opportunity to bolt away from the threat, treading backwards a few steps as he attempted to muster the energy to regain his balance, immediately putting a hand over the wound and applying pressure as he felt the warm, thick trails of blood drip between his fingers.

"Son of a bitch," he hissed under his breath, adrenaline pulsing through his veins with the immediate response to fight back that had saved his life more than once. As a well-trained detective, it didn't take him long to understand what had happened, even if he couldn't piece together why.

White teeth seemed brighter in the moonlight, framed by the burgundy outlined by the pale skin tone that Cullen originally had. The most unexpected difference in his sight was the fact his teeth didn't seem that big before, despite the fact it explained the deep ache in his neck, and maybe whatever other sensations he was feeling.

"Are you fuckin' insane? Have you lost your Goddamn mind?" His voice was low and seething, but the metallic glimmer in his partner's eyes remained nonchalant. Unfeeling, almost. He was quick to realize he didn't understand much of anything at the moment, and it wasn't long before he was staggering as he stepped back.

"I apologize, detective." The response was equally just above a whisper as Cullen licked his lips with a sigh and a shrug as nonchalant as any other. Maybe Gavin was losing his own sanity.

"It's a psychosomatic response and a compulsion I can't do much to help. You could say I was hungry." Gavin blinked once as his mind profiled through the most recent police cases, which were mostly disappearances. There were no recovered bodies with teeth marks in them, which didn't guarantee his death but told little of his survival. Feeling faint, dizziness and gravity teamed to tug him toward the ground, but Cullen was quick to catch him in his arms, gently tripping beneath the final step backwards as he swooped him low in his grasp, admiring the less-than-appreciative expression glowering back up at him.

"You'll understand soon enough." Gavin squinted up at him, but his vision was swirling and the blood loss bit deeper than he'd ever imagined it would.

Murmuring unanswered questions, Gavin attempted to writhe away from the grasp now confining him, only to find the feeling of cold lips on his neck again. The clammy sensation left him shivering with a look of disgust, but there was no strength left in his arms as he attempted to depart from his perpetrator.

Falling limp in the arms of a predator, his body felt like he'd been shot, donated a pint's worth of blood, and ran a day at the gym all at once. Every instinct to fight was subdued by pain, blood loss, and the resulting exhaustion. There was a lingering, sinking feeling of fear that he wouldn't make it back home, let alone survive the night. Paralysis subdued him. Cullen shifted to lift him up in his arms as he began to carry him.

"Don't worry, darling, I'll find you a nice place to rest."

#thanks for giving me this opportunity to use 20 tropes #and finally live my vampire 900 dreams lol #it feels lackluster but i hope u enjoy :) #vampire au #gavin reed #dbh #detroit become human #rk900 #but not really #thatpyroblogs

[connywrites]

my halloween quarantine plans are to get some fanfiction material up while we’re all stuck inside this lovely holiday! stay safe, have fun, & show me pictures if u dress up!! ill put my dead connors up here too x)

#ive been waiting years #i still have this getup i went temporarily into debt for #i figured out how to make authentic blue blood #i have a shitty phone camera ill have to color correct but ill be damned if i dont do a photoshoot