digonshaikha

[digonshaikha]

Hello everyone. No I'm not dead, I've just been taking a very very long break. Chapter 17 of Wake of the Survivor is finally up. Feel free to comment. I love hearing from you!

#fallout 4 #john hancock #ao3 fanfic #fallout

[digonshaikha]

My first time playing Fallout 4 has been awesome! Sometimes you're on a super serious mission and suddenly you're dragged into helping robot pirates. It's great! That said, this was the first time I've disappointed my entire team because I sided with Ironside and, uh, killed all the scavs :(

But listen, Vault Boy here has a soft spot for sentry bots like Ironsides, he used to serve with them back in the day! It was nice to be treated like a fellow soldier again, and yes, the added bonus of them being pirates helped sweeten the deal.

So it was all worth it. And now I have a cannonball gun for Boe the Vault Boy!

[digonshaikha]

#get off my lawn

[digonshaikha]

Deathclaugust leftovers round, it’s Leopard! she’s the goodest girl. Markedly more docile than others and prized for their bright coloration, a sign of good health is in their pristine spots and supremely soft fat tail.

#fallout #deathclaw #cuteness #adoreable #fallout fanart #fallout universe #i want it

[digonshaikha]

Chapter 16 takes us into a deeper dive with some heavy emotions and nsfw content. I hope it's half as enjoyable to read as it was to write. Follows and feedback are greatly appreciated!

#fallout 4 #john hancock #ao3 fanfic #fo4 #fallout #adventure #fanfiction #fandom #action #lovers #maccready #preston garvey #fallout cait #hancock #smut #love story

[digonshaikha]

What would your advice for just-starting-out young authors be?

I love new writers! I’ve never known a better way to escape my reality and live a thousand different lives.

I started writing when I was young, maybe 12 or 13 years old. I am now 25, and very much consider myself to be a child, but still, in my 10+ years of personal writing and classes, here are some of the best tips I can give anyone who is new to writing, regardless of age.

Read. Read. Read. Then read some more. The easiest and fastest way to learn how to write is by reading and studying how other people have written their stories. Study their balance of dialogue vs description vs action. Study the words they use and what they’re choosing to describe. Study the scenes that make you feel something, or pull you to the story even more, and dissect it until you understand how to do it.

Daydream. At night, in the morning, before and after school, during school, during work. When people are trying to talk to you, just daydream. Image worlds with populated moons. Imagine worlds with multiple human-like species all living in the same area. Image a boy who goes home and cries to his adoptive family parents, and girls who practices knife throwing every night to prepare for the apocalypse that no one sees coming. Dream of everything and anything because that’s how you keep and improve your creativity. Eventually you may even write something with it.

Write for yourself. Always start by writing what you enjoy, and love your characters and your stories. Everything about your first draft should be because you love the story, not what other people like. You will never please everyone, so start with yourself, and build a community with the ones who love your story as much as you do.

Do it on your own timeline. If you want to write a book in a month, edit the next and publish right after, do it. If you want to write the first five chapters of 8 books without finishing, do it. If, like me, you want to write your first novel at 18 years old, and 7 years later still not feel ready to publish, that’s ok! You are not falling behind anyone else, you are exactly where you should be on your own path.

Practice. Your writing will improve with practice, that’s how it works, it’s how it always works. No way to skip right to publishing a first draft and becoming famous for it. Practice and just keep writing, you will improve.

Challenge yourself. While you may love fantasy or romance, or maybe all your story ideas are too big for only one book and they all end up being series’, you need to try new things. Write a mystery short story. Write poetry on how you feel. Write one page on how you could survive a zombie apocalypse as long as you have your coffee in the morning, it doesn’t matter, just try new things. Trying new things is how I wrote this haiku: Take a deep inhale, Breathe fresh air into my lungs, I savorfreedom. Is it the greatest haiku ever? No, but it makes me happy, and reminds me that I can write, good or bad, and still be proud of myself.

Keep all your projects. Good or bad. Look back on them years later and think, yeah that was terrible, at least I’m better now. Or maybe think, this wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. It’s a progressive journey. You can take your time. DONT EVER SHAME YOUR YOUNGER SELF FOR THEIR WORK. THEY TRIED THEIR HARDEST AND WROTE AS BEST THEY COULD. WE ARE PROUD OF OURSELVES, NOT EMBARRASSED OR SHAMED. Whether the work is from years ago or days go. Be kind to yourself, no one else owes you that.

Compare. Compare to popular novels, compare to your friends stories or to people online. Compare and see if your character are developed enough, or if your story makes sense, or if it’s relatable. When comparing however, keep in mind that your written style will be different than all others writers. Your first novel will not be the same as an author’s 10th book that just went viral on TikTok. It takes practice and time. Compare for style, technique, structure and plot. Not for popularity, worth, importance, and don’t feel down thinking that someone writing at a higher grade level makes them better, it doesn’t.

Share your work. If you are embarrassed, use a pen name. That’s perfectly fine. Put your work out there and get feedback. Having one person saying your story is (negative criticism here) is going to happen, don’t freak out. It doesn’t mean your story is flawed and should be tossed. If most people are saying that, then maybe it’s time to revisit the story and plot. Getting feedback from people reading your story is important, you want to ask specific questions so you don’t get generic answers. Get real reviews from real people, the mean voice in your head doesn’t get a say.

Learn the difference between perfect and done. I know, I know. Perfectionists around the world just scoffed and thought ‘I would if I could’. Here’s the thing, it’ll never be perfect. A word won’t be right, you can’t find the right way to convey an emotion, your choice of vocabulary isn’t up to your standards, I get it. You want your work to be absolute perfection so that everyone loves it and no one can say a bad thing about it, but it doesn’t work that way. Instead make it to ‘complete’, then nitpick some details, then it’s done. Done is good, it’s where you want to be.

Self-publishing? Pay for a professional editor and a graphic designer. It makes a difference, I promise.

There’s lots of others, but I would say as a writer-starter-pack, these should get you started, then you will learn lessons all on your own, or find them as you’re writing later on. Truly, just have fun, and the rest will come with time.

Happy Writing!

Willow

[digonshaikha]

What a gorgeous couple, I love it! 😍

Valerie and Hancock, santa party in Goodneighbor, 24 December 2289, colorized

just wanted to draw something for the new year (for full disclosure: repurposed Hancock from a previous drawing I did for secret santa back in 2020)

Happy New Year everyone!

[digonshaikha]

doodles

[digonshaikha]

why write a story if no one's going to read it?

Sometimes you don't want to share a story with others. Sometimes you do want to share it, but no one clicks on the title. So why bother writing it down if the only person you can guarantee will read it is you?

You need to get it out of your head. It just keeps replaying in your imagination on a loop and the only way to get it unstuck is to pin it down on paper.

You need to figure out what the story is. You have a lot of disjointed scenes or lines that you know are connected but you can't quite figure out how.

There's something in the story that's important to you, and you don't want to lose that thing by forgetting it. Future you might find that thing important too.

You want to be able to go back to the story again and again. Maybe to make adjustments over time. Maybe just to revisit a story that gives you the emotional release you need in that moment.

You want to be able to use text-to-speech to read the story aloud to you. Maybe it's a bedtime story. Maybe it's keeping you company while you do errands and chores.

You want to find out whether you can write a story (because not everyone can).

You want to be able to have almost the same story, but a little bit different, and you want to have it 15 times with slight variations. Then you can go through your own personal menu picking exactly the combination of beats that will satisfy you most on this reading.

You enjoy the process of finding just the right words or phrases or scenes to paint the pictures you want to shape the scene.

You want to find the exact rhythm and syllables and structure to make a sentence really sing.

You don't really have any particular reason, but you know you want to write that story down.

[digonshaikha]

x

[digonshaikha]

This picture is a few years old but my god it deserves to make another pass around the internet. What a brilliant artist... I just can't stop staring.

A very fun sketch commission for @lastlamb! Always a blessing to do some more Fallout stuff!

#fallout #ghoul husband 💞 #fallout 4 #fallout universe #fallout art #john hancock #fallout hancock #hancock fallout 4 #hancock #amazing art #commission #fo4 #sole survivor #sketch #digital art #art #ghoul #ghouls #fallout ghoul

[digonshaikha]

Lmao why do we do this?! 🤣

sorry in advance, my babies

[digonshaikha]

An older pic of a sheepsquatch I did

[digonshaikha]

As if finding yourself in a Radstorm wasn't bad enough

Commissions (open) | Patreon for timelapse, hi-res and more fan and original content | ko-fi

[digonshaikha]

I’m laying claim to this one bwfore someone else can

[digonshaikha]

Thank you SO much! I am so excited about this picture, I just can't stop smiling. I will treasure it always! 😍

“Close friends”

Yeah sure, definitely not “budding romance.”

A fun little fallout art trade with @digonshaikha of her OC and Hancock playfully palling around!

#Art Trade #Fallout #Fallout 4 #Sole Survivor #Sole Survivor x Hancock #John Hancock #Fallout OC

[digonshaikha]

This pornographic place told me a body was to be feared and then wanted at the same time Feared because it was the pathway to the mortal sin and then wanted because we'll all be dust a few short years from now.