graveyardrumbles

[graveyardrumbles]

Hi,

It’s your friendly neighbor fanfic author here. In the light of this apparent new trend of people feeding unfinished fics to AI to get an “ending,” and some people even talking about “blanket permissions,” let me just say this:

I EXPLICITLY FORBID ANYONE TO FEED MY FICS TO AI. DUDE, THAT IS ABOUT THE LEAST RESPECTFUL THING YOU CAN DO. IF YOU DO IT, SHALL YOU BE EXCOMMUNICATED FROM YOUR FANDOM AND WALK ON LEGOS BAREFOOT TILL THE END OF DAYS.

That is my anti-permission.

Thank you for your attention.

[graveyardrumbles]

it's almost like trying to walk on a bad mobility day is a bad idea

#the arcana #count lucio #plague lucio #nadia satrinava #fanfiction #wip #dw she already told him he didnt have to

[graveyardrumbles]

thinking about the possibility of Nadia building Plague Lucio a wheelchair + jumping hoops so he'll fuckin accept it

(idk why I decided to do present tense)

#the arcana #count lucio #plague lucio #nadia satrinava #fanfiction #wip

[graveyardrumbles]

I see you little commenter, and I love you <3

[graveyardrumbles]

had a thought about Lucio finding his younger younger self in the realms

monty:

#the arcana #count lucio #montag morgasson #wip #fanfiction

[graveyardrumbles]

this is still my fave interaction on ao3 so far

[graveyardrumbles]

bothered, unmoisturized, unhappy, in the wrong lane, dehydrated, withering

#the arcana #count lucio #plague lucio #WIP

[graveyardrumbles]

picks at this WANF tale instead of anything closer to being done

#the arcana #count lucio #post banishment lucio #portia devorak #we are not friends #we are not friends au #WIP

[graveyardrumbles]

("this" being, someone may be experiencing some ptsd from 10 years in hell a little bit)

#the arcana #count lucio #post banishment lucio #julian devorak #we are not friends #we are not friends AU #writing #WIP #implied derealization

[graveyardrumbles]

au where the ritual isn't a thing bc nadia just wrings his chicken neck right here

(she doesn't bc she knows it's an accident but by the stars does she want to)

#the arcana #wip #plague lucio #nadia satrinava #writing

[graveyardrumbles]

tfw you go out to the gardens to read a book with the assumption your plague-riddled husband won’t bother you

only to have him come bother you anyway

#the arcana #count lucio #plague lucio #nadia satrinava #writing #WIP #he came here by wheelchair so you're gonna have to deal #head pets are worth it tho

[graveyardrumbles]

💡Inspired by Sing For Me by cyanideinsomnia

#art for fics

[graveyardrumbles]

revisiting WANF lucio making poor decisions, fleshing out the timeline a lil

between all of them he definitely prefers the dumbasses in the gardens

#the arcana #count lucio #post banishment lucio #headcanons #we are not friends #we are not friends AU #WIP #writing #maybe i'll have this done by his next bday

[graveyardrumbles]

no you may not

#the arcana #count lucio #praetor vlastomil #writing #WIP #bold of you to assume he has bones

[graveyardrumbles]

Gimme all you've got on directors cut of We Are Not Friends!! I am in big need! If you asked spare some crumbs please (only if you want to tho!"

Reblog this if you want readers to come into your ask box and ask for the “director’s commentary” on a particular story, section of a story, or set of lines.  Or, send in a ⭐star⭐  to have the author select a section they’ve been dying to talk about!

bestie that was 2 years ago amid the beginning of a major historical event and the resulting maladaptive hyperfixation

i was originally just gonna spitball but then i went and skimmed the whole fic so these comments are relatively chronological

also longue as fuck

i'm sorry to anyone "keep reading" doesn't work for

it was originally supposed to be a oneshot a la don't feed the animals and idle hands, it obviously didnt stay there

the ptsd flashback in ch 12 was written a lot earlier than you think and came up a lot earlier than i expected

that event is also fairly recent - after the priestess went fishing the devil spent the magic accumulated over lucio's stay in the realms to rip a hole through dimensions and get the fuck out

(we don't know how he managed to end up in vesuvia, maybe using lucio's intense I Want To Go Home feelings as a focus point)

he may have crawled out of the basement in the rowdy raven which means when barth says "i dont know where he came from" it doesn't JUST mean "that guys from out of town"

the devil spends most of the fic as this image:

lucio did once have a tab, if he were to pay it barth would be able to renovate the raven at least three times

any assets he may have had in vesuvia belong to nadia/the state, now, but he may have ferreted money away in other places during his conquesting years - not that he knows where it is, anymore

unbeknownst to either disaster boy, the coliseum is no longer standing - nadia had it knocked down to put a library there a while ago

lucio spent 3 years as a goat and 40+ years as a man, and yet in a pinch it's the goat that comes back

i was definitely going for a "what do you want?" "your soul" "a bagel" "noooo" "... two bagels" type deal here (cause the devil hungy:

A meat pasty, still warm.

Another bolt of red agony snapped through his skull, only fading after he was strangely compelled to lean up and grab another one.

canon didn't say he was good at swimming until way after i'd written him being hydrophobic, but in fairness you kinda become hydrophobic if you know the water is consistently full of murder

if arsenic had used the mask to track him, they still would have easily found him bc it would be using the devil's energy

the skulls are an important part of this family, Julian!

pushing a dislocated shoulder back into place is vaguely a callback to my ancient invader zim fic

bright gold magic is a signifier of the fool (you can see this in the golden chain representing his blood bond w/ mc in an earlier fic), arsenic's magic was green pre-resurrection

on a related note i let lucio have molten gold during his breakdown as a sort of nod to the "lucio is the fool" theory before i'd fully decided to reject it - maybe his magic is just like that

mazelinka's magic soup being "deep gold" was just me not being able to think of a good color, maybe arsenic made this one for them

the headaches pre-reveal are what happens when two consciousnesses try to occupy the same space without either of them being fully cognizant of it

after that it's mostly just the devil being a dick

lucio being a magical heat sink was my theory on why he's "magical deadweight" in canon despite having the blood of a powerful magician in his veins

(i haven't caught back up to his route so idk what their reasoning is)

the leeches did help!! the devil definitely monches one to get that power back and bc he has zero standards

my one regret about the bodysharing is that arsenic was too efficient in locking him up before i could do more Shenanigans with it

i don't actually know what the devil was yelling at them while they were getting the magic out, but it was probably some form of ancient swear

if lucio drew another card in the deck it would be the devil because thats how things work (unless ofc his card went missing when he broke out)

the devil means lucio, here - helping/trusting/taking care of him

"Not that. Helping me? Trusting me? Taking care of me??"

but he's thinking about both of them here

"I hurt you." His attention was on him again. "I will hurt you."

the devil absorbed the Sleep Magic so it was just hot soup he drank, and yes, he may have underestimated how hot fresh soup is on a mortal's tongue

he also gets to pretend to sleep, much like jules

the devil's initial reaction to jules' confession was kind of a kneejerk subconscious lucio, how would YOU respond to this, oh that bad, and so he switches tactics to how he knows one is Supposed to react

absolutely would've fucked like rabbits if he opened the door

this is still my fave part of his escape because pls imagine the devil tripping over himself, the center of gravity is Wrong and these legs are Wrong

In a fit of desperation he let himself pull back, leaning into that feeling of being moved by something else - he felt his hooves slip on the hardwood, spindly limbs supporting them twisting and crumbling beneath him, threatening to pitch him across the floor - stumbling and catching himself on a wall he couldn’t see, pulling himself forward again on human feet and a human mind.

he may have punted portia here

One managed to remain standing, and as they grabbed for him he changed tacks and leapt on top of them, using their body as a springboard to fling himself further along the deck.

and the devil's mask acting as a link to the Outside

For a moment his reflection shifted and disappeared into darkness, accompanied by muffled, worried voices.

“ --fetch me a goddamn lifeboat before my IDIOT FIANCE kills himself playing HERO-- ”

the mind palace flooding is what happens when you're hurtling across the ocean at mach 5 and the other personality is trying to take control so now you're fucking drowning

this is a big goddamn lie bc it's lucio that's coming out on top

“This vessel is growing weaker by the day, Julian. I don’t know how much longer he’ll last me.” The Devil sighed, examining his vessel’s claws in lieu of his own, expression contorted into a mockery of pity. “Sooner or later, he’ll fall apart. Slowly, painfully, piece by piece until nothing of him is left. Surely you don’t want to witness this?”

the healing scene was originally actually going to succeed, however, i realized that's kind of a stretch for the devil's magic

the priestess ofc has been hunting him for years, but the connection only got stronger recently - before, nadia wouldn't have seen or felt anything quite so vividly

the devil talking over nadia was inspired by venom talking over the doctor in venom 1

this part was originally amidst crying on the ground time

What the hell was he supposed to do now? Was he supposed to stick with the plan? He couldn’t face either of them now. If he found the boat, where was he supposed to go?

i considered having lucio grab his floppy ears instead, but lucio knows how animals work, you don't do that

He snarled and shifted his grip to one set of horns instead, yanking his head up towards him, almost eye to eye.

people on twitter would have seen me in process of writing this part

“I shall be a perfect gentleman.”

“No you won’t.” The former Count huffed.

except like this because of sleep deprivation

“I shall be a perfect gentleman.”

“No you shall'nt.” The former Count huffed.

i had also considered making the devil be Smol (not necessarily a baby) as a side effect of the bond, but went with the sick and dying look to go w/ lucio's death themes

if i was SMART i would have broken ch 19 up into more than one chapter because goddamn

i had "lucio saves the devil's life" thing in mind ever since "you owe me your miserable life" was said, though i'm p sure he would have been fine, but then again, he's half-mortal so

i'm still disappointed in myself for not doing more with the "lucio becomes more archetype, devil becomes more human" last unicorn concept

there's stuff i wanna say about ch 20 BUT i think i was gonna cover it in a wanf tale,,

i don't remember how i was originally going to resolve things, but Weaponized Friendship was not the 1st on the list

no i have no idea how asra convinced muriel to attend julian's wedding with a GODDAMN DEMON cameo but he's never going to any other wedding ever again

i'm still down for anyone wanting to rewrite or give me pointers on rewriting the wedding to be more jewish

obviously this fic predated the tale with nevivon, so i was thinking it was just A Sea Town, but this means at least half if not most of the non-vesuvian party guests were grandmas and they partied the fuck out

(another wanf tale will cover Actual Nevivon)

#we are not friends

[graveyardrumbles]

Writing existing character voices for fanfic

Hey, so, I started doing a writeup a week ago about how to get character voices in your fanfic to sound “in character,” in response to a comment from a new writer I was beta-ing for. 

I’ve been told this is a thing I do well.

As someone who studied dialogue extensively for a theatre degree, I tend to do this reflexively now, and I don’t write out each individual step. But I put some thought into how I might break down the process if I was new at it and looking to get better.

I don’t think it’s actually that different than an actor studying character accents, except as a writer you’re breaking down meaning rather than sound.

Let’s take a look at what makes dialogue unique to a character. I’m gonna list these as bullet points first, and then I’ll suggest some exercises to explore these aspects of speech.

Most important aspects - focus on these first

Vocabulary - the words they use. As subset of this:

Complexity of words, which can include:

Syllable length

Likelihood to be used in casual conversation - a character can be very smart and still use very informal language.

Cultural touchpoints

Culture can include pop culture references - think Tony Stark’s nicknames for everyone, i.e. “Point Break” and “Underoos”

How in or out of sync the character is with the story’s setting with regard to both time and place - are they from a different country or era of time than their peers?

Important - Check these out if you have time

How likely the character is to speak their mind vs. change the subject - this could be for any number of reasons, from fear to duplicity

Amount they say / Introvertedness / how reticent they are - This is somewhat related to the above point, but not necessarily, and should be researched from different angles. Subverting a topic is not the same thing as being afraid to talk about it.

Different ways of speaking with different characters - this could be a function of story (i.e. how a character who is captured speaks to their captors as opposed to friends) as well as pure Code Switching

Deep cuts - Advanced aspects of speech

Fluency in the language they are speaking

Accents - You do not have to write a character in an accent, i.e. spell the words differently to show the accent, if you don’t want to. It really depends on the piece (usually how light hearted or humorous you want it to be) whether you do or not.

Okay, this is all well and good, you say. But HOW do I incorporate this into my writing?

Dialogue analysis exercise

Find five (or more, but at least five) representative lines from your character’s canon dialogue.

If they don’t speak, don’t have five lines, do the best you can. (I imagine other forms of communications can probably also be analyzed in this way, but I’m gonna focus on dialogue for now.)

These are going to be your key phrases. They need to be from canon and they need to be words that really show off who your character is.

Say the words out loud. Read them again and again. What do they sound / feel like?

What is the average syllable length? How many long words do they use?

Do any words jump out at you as archaic? What about modern pop culture references?

What is a different way they could have said this? Write some alternate versions of this phrase and figure out WHY the character didn’t say it this way instead. What is the difference between the canon dialogue and the alternative? Try to be as specific as possible. It’s as important to know what they wouldn’t say as what they would.

Look up any of the more complex words and find some similar ones, with a similar level of complexity. Use a thesaurus you trust and possibly also Wordnik. If your character doesn’t use ANY complex words, reflect on that. Why? What’s their reason? How does that fit with the rest of their personality?

Think of some other characters from other pop culture pieces who speak in a similar way. It doesn’t have to be 100% the same, but if it can help your ear get used to some new-but-different phrases, it’s enough. You’re training your brain to speak like the character. Start to sort phrases they would say from ones they wouldn’t. How do these two characters differ?

Now that you have worked thoroughly through your key phrases, start to imagine these lines said in something other than the original context. What if they were said to a different character? WOULD they even be said? What would change? What would happen if your character was scared / hurt / overjoyed / sick?

Finally, after all that, write some NEW dialogue for your character, either as practice, or right into your fic draft. Keep using your key phrases as a guide and go back to canon as much as you need to! You can do this!

After all of this, you should feel significantly more confident in writing that existing character into your story. Huzzah!

If you found this at all helpful, reblog and / or leave me a note. I’m curious to hear what you think.

#writing advice

[graveyardrumbles]

tfw you lose traction at the literal worst time

#the arcana #count lucio #post banishment lucio #nadia satrinava #nadia x lucio #sort of #we are not friends #we are not friends AU #spoilers