#as i used to be much more of an original fiction writer than i currently am

[alltoomaples]

you are in love - CL

pauses, then says "You're my best friend" and you knew what it was, he is in love

pairing: artist!fem reader x charles leclerc

synopsis: recalling the moment when everyone except you two sees that you were meant to be together

note: i've visioned taylor swift songs as originals by the reader in the writings hence using it for fictional reasons only. Sending no hate and/or shade towards the girls Charles had dated previously/dating currently. All my love and respect for them and their privacy. French phrases and words are from google translate so apologies for any errors found.

a/n: here's a looooonng post that hopefully makes up to all my lack of writing pace. i'm picturing a part 2 for this one but i'll let you guys decide about it. i really appreciate your support and love! thank you for putting up with the slowest writer to exist. hope you'll enjoy this as much as i did. happy reading!

until i found you masterlist | other works

. . . .

It all started in the year 2006 when you attended your first karting race with your dad. He is your guy who introduced you into the world of motorsport and ever since you heard the sound of fast cars and that smell of burnt tyres and gasoline on the very first day of attending monaco grand prix, you fell in love with the sport. Specially and specifically, that fast red car, Scuderia Ferrari.

You developed a passion to drive so you asked your dad if he would take you along to karting that he goes during weekends with his best friend, Hervé Leclerc. Your dad never thought you would become his best pal and share the same found of interest in the sport, so he was over the moon when you asked him.

After a month, you joined your dad and even practiced kart races with your new friends, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc. As much as you wished to be a racer and race along your kart friends, you were more into music and that was priority for you. So you go to the race events to cheer for your friends as much as possible.

Just as any other day, the three of you went on kart race. And not to mention, the trio were very much competative than intended to which made these races highly intense and interesting.

“You two are going down today” Pierre said, as he wore his gloves. “In your dreams, Gasly!” Charles said, strapping in his suit. You shook your head while picking your helmet, walking towards the two of them. “Well nice chat boys but that podium is mine” You say, wearing your helmet and then ruffled their heads.

And just like you said, the podium was yours. You crossed the line first, following Charles and Pierre. Your dads watching you three and cheered you on. The track team handed you trophies and just like champange on motorsport, you were given carbonated drinks that fuzzed out just the same and the boys sprayed all over on you while you did the same going left and right with your eyes closed.

Jules, Charles’s godfather, came over to us to congratulate, giving you the biggest hug first. “Hello?? nous avons également remporté une victoire aujourd’hui" (we also got a win today) Pierre said, making us all fall in a laughter as we broke the hug.

“Eh bien, le gagnant mérite un long câlin" (Well the winner deserves a long hug) Jules said, running his hand over your head as he leaned in to kiss your head. “I agree with Jules” Charles said, while Jules stood between the boys. Charles looked at you and cheered on.

“Et c’est mon meilleur ami vous les gars !! Le gagnant est mon meilleur ami!" (And that’s my best friend you guys!! The winner is my best friend!)

You felt giddy when he said that out loud, your and his dad alog with Jules witnessing the moment. You and Charles shared the same thought as you two started running towards each other, engulfing in a hug. Smiles and laughs all around you.

“Hey attendez-moi!!" (wait for me) said Gasly as he joined you two in a group hug.

And that’s when you made your best friend for life.

. . . .

You eventually went on your journey to pursue your dreams of being a musician. While working on it, you also decided to study your masters in Literature for fun as you adore reading and writings of the great authors and writers of old times. You got aceepted in New York University for September intake of 2018. The very same year when Charles got his seat in Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 team.

You were thankful that you were there when he received this news and you were so over the moon for him. It wasn’t just his dream but yours too. You still to this day, remember how it was revealed all too well.

“Charles, Y/N is here!” Pascale gave you a hug as she welcomed you in. And he walks down into the room, seeing the two of you have a talk.

“Did you hear anything from the universities you had applied for?” Charles asks, getting you a glass of water as you all stood in the open kitchen. You looked at him with a staright face, and that’s when he slammed both of his on the counter.

“NO WAYYYYY!! vous l’avez n’est-ce pas??” (you got it didn't you?) he exclaimed, jumping with happiness which made you laugh.

“Uhhhuh, New York Univeristy!! Et ce n’est pas moi, tu l’as aussi Charles” (and its just not me, you got it too charles) you say, this time you jumping with excitement and on verge of tears.

“Hold on, est-ce que tu lui as fait demander une demande pour moi aussi maman??” (did you made her apply for an application for me as well maa) Charles asks Pascale, making her laugh and nods her head no. As you shook your head, you call out for Arthur and Lorenzo as you grab your phone and go to Charles to show him.

“Charles Leclerc, vous êtes maintenant pilote de Formule 1 pour Alpha Romeo Sauber" (Charles Leclerc, you're now a Formula 1 driver for Alpha Romeo Sauber) You say, your voice breaking as tears started spilling out of your eyes. Pascale gasped, Lorenzo and Arthur with mouths wide open while Charles stood still, looking and re-reading the post. He chuckled as he had no words to say. He turned towards you, eyes filled with tears as you hugged him.

“Vous l’avez fait. Vous en avez fait le meilleur ami!!" (You made it. You made it best friend!!) You say, swinging side to side as you hold him tight while the two of you cried on each other’s shoulders.

“Non, nous l’avons fait! Parce que je ne pourrais pas le faire sans toi (no, we made it! cause i couldn't done this without you)” He whispered as he brings you much closer than before.

“Je suis tellement fier de toi Charles! Et votre père et Jules aussi!" (i'm so proud of you charles! and so is your dad and jules) You say before you break your hug. You wipe off his tears with your thumb and pat his back. He then walks over to his brothers while you hug Pascale, she congratulates you as well.

They open up a bottle of wine and celebrate together with the whole families around at Leclercs, for all the new beginnings that’s about to embark. And as the leclerec brothers were chatting up about it, Charles zoned out as he looked at you, talking with his mom. He felt so content, safe and grateful that he had you since day 1, through all the ups and downs, through the dark times with his dad and his godfather passing away, the two of you always picked each other up like always.

But this time, he felt something within him that he couldn’t explain. He sees you laughing with his maman, looking simply gorgeous with this glow that he thought how has he never saw this until now. Am i falling for Y/N? Charles thought to himself but his train of thoughts couldn’t run any further as he heard the glass tapping.

“I’d like to make a toast, to my families, Y/L/Ns and Leclercs, for all the support and love you have given me. I couldn’t have made it here without you guys. To papa Leclerc and Jules, me and charles are gonna make you so proud! and last but not least, Charles Leclerc!” You say, hold your glass towards his direction. “Je ne serais pas venu ici sans toi, mon meilleur ami! Voici de nouveaux départs!!” (I wouldn't have made here if it weren't for you, my best friend! Here's to new beginnings!!)

“Hear Hear” everyone erupts, clinking their glasses as you two hold each others gazes, raising your glasses to one another.

There’s a photo session to remember that very night. Many polaroids for everyone. At the end of the day, Charles took one polaroid of the two of you, smiling as he held it in his hand. He went into his room and stood in front of the picture frame he had, one with his dad and other with Jules. He sighed to himself as he continued his trail of thoughts that he had.

“Je ne sais pas si cela arriverait de sitôt ou tard, mais je pense que c’est elle” (I don’t know if this would happen anytime soon or later but i think she's the one) he says to himself.

And on the other side, as soon as you reached home and said your goodnights to your parents, you went in your room. You changed into your pjs and then you found the polaroids sticking out of your coat. You took them out and held in your held, as you sat on your bed. You felt something that you couldn’t explain. Was it giddy or the so called butterfly effect? you thoughts went on and on to the point you started thinking ‘am i falling for him?’.

You stood up quick, twirling around but shook your head to not build in too much hopes.

He’s my best friend, you mumbled.

You went near your desk where you had a picture of you and Jules on the day you won the podium at kart race. You placed the polaroid next to him as you sighed with a smile on your face.

“Jules, si c’est lui, j’attendrai que tu me donnes un signe. Et j’espère que tu m’attendras, mon meilleur ami” (Jules, if he's the one, I'll wait for you to give me a sign. And I hope you'll wait for me too, my best friend)

. . . .

Fast forward to 2020, you were now officially working with a music label as a songwriter. You wanted to work first as writer and when it’s the right time, you’ll become a music artist yourself someday. As you worked on your dreams in London, Charles was chasing down his. He was now officially driving for the red team you two dreamed and grew up as fans, Scuderia Ferrari. Even if you were miles apart, you’d still keep a close eye on your best friend.

When you went to New York for your masters, you two would keep in touch soo often that eventually, it turned from daily calls, to one day a week, then eventually, one day in a month to end up with random texts in months or so. At this point it felt like what you had felt before you left Monte Carlo was nothing but emotional of saying goodbyes. You still held to the last string of hope but only to get shattered when you saw the headlines of him being in a relationship. You were happy for the couple, you really did. And yet through all this only one person knew you actually weren’t.

“Pierre, je vais vraiment bien. Ne vous inquiétez pas à ce sujet” (I'm fine really. Don't worry about it) You said, sipping your coffee as you were invited by him and his girlfriend who also was your classmate from highschool, Kika at the cafe as you were attending the British Grand Prix. “Kika s’il vous plaît aidez-moi ici” (Kika please help me out here) you pleaded to her, squeezing her hand which made her chuckle.

“Y/N i love you but we’re just checking in on you. From what he’s told me, it seems like you two were the ones” Kika expressed, giving you a smile. You pulled your tongue towards the both, making them laugh.

“Well i appreciate you two for caring about me but trust me, there wasn’t even something to begin with and he seems quite happy with her, at least she’s better for him than the previous one duh” You say, stating the obvious. “All i care is as long as he’s happy, i’m happy!” You say, leaning back on your chair.

“In that case, we need to set up a date for you!” Pierre says, looking at you. Kika clapped her hands, nodding her head as she agreed. “We’ll set a blind date for you!” Kika exclaimed with excitement in her tone. “You guys don’t have to-” “Nope, and its a done deal! Now i’ll see you ladies at the end of the practice session” Pierre cut you off as he stood up, hugged me and then Kika as they shared a quick kiss before he runs down to AlphaTauri HQ.

“Soo is it cool to deny the offer of blind date” You say to Kika while interwining your arm with hers. “Oh mon dieu tu vois quelqu’un!?!” (Oh my god you are seeing someone) She said, shock all over her face as you laughed.

“Why didn’t you tell me!”

“Well Pierre didn’t let me!”

“That’s true! Now who’s the guy, parlez-moi de lui” (tell me about him) Kika said as you two exited the cafeteria.

“Well its not like we’re seeing each other exclusively. We just hitted off during one of the writing sessions. His name’s Brad, he’s an artist. We went out for drinks and then i asked if he was interested to tag along on F1 race with me and he said yes. He wanted to come for today but he had practice session at studio so he’ll be joining on race day” You say, smile all over your face. Kika engulfed you in a hug as she twirled around you.

“I’m soo happy and i cannot wait to Brad and tell all embarrasing stories” “Va te faire foutre!” (Fuck off).

Eventually that day you got a call from work soo you had to skip friday and saturday session, which meant you weren’t able to surprise Charles. And on the race day, you came along with Brad. You introduced him to Kika and Pierre as you ran into them while making your way to the F1 paddock. You quickly excused yourself as you wanted to surprise Charles.

As you entered the Ferrari Garage, you came across Andereas, Joris and Lorenzo. You chatted with them for a while and before you knew it, Charles walks out of his room.

“Joris, you left your-” Charles stopped himself from talking as he stood still. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing or at the moment he questioned whether he was hallucinating.

“Est-ce que je vois des choses ou est-ce que c’est vraiment vous??” (am i seeing things or is it actually you) He mumbled, making all fall in pits of laughter as you rolled your eyes.

“Eh bien, belle façon de dire que tu m’as manqué aussi trou du cul” (well, nice way of saying I missed you too asshole) You say as he runs to you and engulfs you in a big hug. And god did you miss these hugs!!

“Bonjour meilleure amie” he whispers with a big smile. “Bonjour meilleur ami” you whisper back with a bigger smile. (hello best friend)

The race had ended and Charles finished P4. Knowing Charles, you knew he’d beat himself up for not getting podium, but he really did a great job in your opinion. Once the post-race events were done, Charles came back to the motorhome to find you squealing out loud.

“C’est mon meilleur ami! Forza Charles Forza Ferrari” (That’s my best friend!) You say as you jump run towards him, tackling in a hug. Everyone in the room chants along, making him feel mood-boosted. You broke the hug and grabbed his face in your palms.

“Je suis si fière de toi Leclerc” You whispered to him, looking straight in his eyes. The two of you get a bit lost in each others eyes until Kika and Brad came by next to you. “Merci Y/N/N” He whispers back to you.

“Hey why don’t we celebrate tonight before you head off to your next destination?” Brad suggests, Kika nodding in and so did you. “That’s would be great! What do you say?” You ask Charles and he simply nodded in while his phone started ringing.

“It’s my girlfriend, i gotta take this” He says, suddenly the atmosphere turned upside down awkard. You quickly spoke out before things went anymore weird. “Oh sure! Tell her we said hey and i’ll text you the venue and timings. See you tonight” You said in a hurry and Charles gave a small smile before he left the premise.

“I guess we better get this party started” Kika said, grabbing you by your shoulder as she saw your expression got changed. You quickly shared a smile and made your way out.

The party was great. You tried to get your mind off and talked with Brad and Kika more instead because Kika and you agreed that you might make things more akward than the afternoon events.

As you were getting drinks with Kika, Brad sat around with Pierre and Charles. Charles was engaging with Brad to get to know him and Pierre was holding back his eye rolls so bad.

“At one point, we envy you alot mate” Brad said to Charles, confusion written all over the face of the monegasquean. “May I ask why?” Pierre said, letting a chuckle out.

"That’s cause you’ve got no idea how much y/n talks about you, Charles. She really goes on and on about you, your friendship and how you're her favourite person and best friend. She really looks up and cares about you mate” Brad said with a smile over his face.

At this point, Charles looks down at his hand before he looked up to see you, standing there while you laughed about something Kika said. At that moment, he felt like it was that moment before you two left. A deep sigh left from his mouth as you caught him, staring at you. You pulled your tongue at him, making him chuckle.

“She’s the best person ever and anyone that has her in their life, they’re the most luckiest ones” Charles says, looking back at his empty glass before looking at Brad.

“I don’t know about you two, but you seems to be gentleman. Do look after her, even if she says she don’t need anyone, that’s when you really need be there” Charles spills out his emotions, making himself think that he had enough drinks. He excused himself for the bathroom.

“Pierre, not trying to intrude personally, but does y/n and Charles realize they’re more than friends at this point?” Brad asks out of curosity.

“I’ve been waiting and pining for these two for years. So to answer you my friend, we all are waiting for that very moment” Pierre said, as the two of them clink their glasses.

. . . .

December 2023. The time of year were everything had changed.

You were back in Monaco during the holidays. You were now officially working as an independent artist as well as songwriter. You had released an EP back in 2021 and it became a massive hit. Now not only you were signed by the leading music label but many great artists want you over for writing sessions. You finally made it!

And just like all times, your best friend became your no.1 supporter. He was soo thrilled when you shared the news with him and he’d always be the first to share any news or interact with fanaccounts of mine. This made you heart swell with love for him. And a bit more love for more than a friend best friend gets.

You pretty well hided yourself with the feelings and just like a teenager, you pinned after him while he was in relationship. When you came back home, you took your time off from social media and wanted to spent time with yourself, and well, avoid charles relationship gloats. And that’s your first unexpected change you definately didn’t saw it coming.

“It’s unfortunate how things turned out Charles though. Didn’t thought he’d do just when season got ended” your maman says, maman Leclerc and Kika nods along. Yours, Leclercs and Gaslys were over at Leclerc’s residance for the holidays and all the ladies were in the kitchen, prepping up for dinner.

“What do you mean?” You say, mixing up the veggies for the salad. They all look up stunned at you, like a deer caught in front of the car.

“Y/N. Charles and his girlfriend mutually called it quits” Kika says, passing you the salad dressing. “Oh noooo! That ain’t good” You say, feeling genuinely sad that they ended.

“Hope that mistletoe will let you two see what we all have been waiting for” Pierre whispers as he came in between me and Kika. You shoved with your elbow sharply to his hip, which made him squeal like a girl.

Dinner was lovely, having everyone together at this time. My père and père Gasly gave toasts along with our moms and after desserts, mama Leclerc suggested for me to sing some songs. Then, i played the songs everyone had requested and then Charles suggested to give me some rest so he brought out the speaker and played some jazz songs. Everyone made a pair and started dancing under the moonlight. While i was busy capturing the pictures, I caught Charles walking in his room through my camera. I set my phone back in my pocket and made my way to his room.

The door to his room wasn’t fully closed when you reached up there. You stood by the door to see him, staring at the picture frames he had held in there.

“Knock knock” You whisper, so that he doesn’t get startled. Charles turns around to see you, his face lights up with a smile and waves you to come in. You walk in the room and stand next to his desk. You haven’t been able to talk as he had only came home today and the past few weeks have kept the both of you busy.

“I’m sorry Charles” You say, playing with the hem of your sweater.

“You heard huh?” Charles said, sigh left his mouth as his back was facing you while he looked towards the pictures.

“Yeah, maman told me” you say.

“It was about time y/n, because quel est le sens si vous n’êtes pas avec quelqu’un avec qui vous voulez être” (what’s the meaning if you’re not with someone you want to be with) Charles says, turning around to see you.

“Vrai. Si votre cœur dit que c’est elle, c’est elle” (True. if you're heart says she's the one, she's the one) You say, smile all over your face.

“I mean, look at our Gasly and Kika! Bénissez-les tous les deux aahh” (Bless them both) You say, keeping your hand over your heart.

Charles looks at you, his chest getting all warm and fuzzy just being around you. If anyone else was in the room, they would definitely say ‘garçon est-il tellement tombé amoureux’ (boy is he soo fallen in love)

“I tell you a secret. This is between me and you. I’ve been writing a song based on them” You say, giggles and happy jumps around while Charles chuckled, shaking his head and gets his head around and get rid of the nerves.

“Je pense que c’est toi, y/n” (I think you’re the one, y/n) Charles blurts out, making you go to still mode.

“Hum hein?” (Uhmm huh?)

“Je pense que je suis tombé amoureux de toi mon meilleur ami” (i think i've fallen for you my best friend) Charles says, walking closer to you as he grabs you hand. He takes you towards the picture frame and points out his finger to the polaroid.

The very same polaroid you kept yours next to the picture with Jules to find him kept his next to Jules as well.

You shook your head as you couldn’t believe this and before Charles could ask you, you grabbed your phone quickly.

“I guess he did send me the sign that i somewhat missed out and i cannot believe i missed it” You mumble, while you found the picture.

“What are you talking about y/n/n?” Charles asks, him totally getting confused. You simply smiled and turned your phone towards him.

“At the day when we took this picture, i didn’t knew what i was feeling so i asked Jules to give me a sign. Et il l’a fait” (And he actually did) You exclaimed, tears welding up your eyes. Charles looked shook and looked up and down between your picture and his before he looked back to you.

“Je suis tombée amoureuse de toi aussi, ma meilleure ami” (I’ve fallen in love with you too, my best friend) You whisper, wrapping your arms around his neck.

Charles mimicked your smile before he pulled you in a kiss. His hand cupped your cheek while yours runs through his hair. Both of you gets lost in the moment, like you’ve been waiting for your whole life. Both of you pull back as you ran out of air.

“Merci de m’avoir attendu” (Thank you for waiting for me) Charles says, resting his forehead on yours.

“Vous valiez vraiment la peine d’attendre, mon amour” (You were definately worth the wait, my love) You say, as you rub the tip of your nose with his.

. . . .

“It was ABOUT time that you two finally got together” Arthur said, Pierre chiming in with ‘THANK YOU!’ while everyone had a laugh about it.

“So let me get this straight, everyone except us knew this” You gasped, placing the glass of wine you all were having. Everyone chanting in yeahs made you and Charles look towards each other.

“To be honest, it was the very same day when you raced with Pierre and Charles” Pascale says, your mom nodding along with her.

“Ahh yes. I clearly remember me and Hervé agreeing with Jules when he said that you two are meant to be together” Your papa chimes in, with a smile on his face with hint of saddness as he misses his best friend and a son figure to our family, Jules.

You walk over to your old man, embracing him in a hug. He hugs you back, patting your back. You pull back, asking him if he’s alright and he nods.

“Here’s to Mr. and Mrs. to be Leclerc” Your dad toasts, raising his glass. Everyone hoots and cheers as dad gave a push, making you stand next to your fiance, the love of your life, your best friend.

He looks towards you and you towards him, pulling in for a kiss. Kika, Pierre and Arthur hoots in the background, making you pull apart and chuckles leaves your lips.

“Now can we hear Y/N’s music, you said its based on real events!!” Kika exclaims, getting all excited. Little did she knew it was based on their relationship. And a part of yours as well.

“The stage’s yours now, mon amour” Charles whispers, leaving your side to get the speakers for you. You connect your phone to the speakers.

“Well I recently finished with the mixing and couldn’t play for much perfect timing. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to as much as i had creating this. This is You are in Love.”

. . . .

let me know if you are interested for pt.2 :)) until next one, see yaa

check out my works: until i found you masterlist | other works

#charles leclerc #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc blurb #f1 x reader #f1 imagine #charles leclerc fanfic #formula 1 #charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc x female reader #formula one #charles leclerc fluff

[willtheweaver]

A writer’s guide to forests: woodlands made by man

Forests are for the most part, the realm of nature. But what about those with a less than natural origin? Here are some woodlands that are shaped artificially.

Parks and gardens- Trees look nice, there’s no denying it. As long as there have been people who admire trees, there have been gardens and parks. Grassy meadows, neatly trimmed hedges and flower beds may get all the attention, but an accenting grove, or a rambling woodland always adds to the aesthetic. Wealthy aristocrats would import trees from far away places, while more modest landowners and public spaces grow native species. Though the results do look quite natural, they are nonetheless human creations.

Orchard- Fruit and nut bearing trees have always been favored as a reliable source of food. And so people since nearly the beginning of agriculture have been planting orchards to provide for them. Trees are planted in rows, evenly spaced apart for the ease of harvesting. Smaller orchards, those catering to families who pick their own fruit, and those that grow fairly delicate fruits still do the harvesting by hand, while many more rely on machines to do the heavy lifting.

Tree farm/ plantation- Many trees types cultivated are deciduous species, but there are some instances when conifers are preferred. Being relatively fast growing, and usually possessing a single, straight trunk, they are the ideal tree type for use as lumber and paper products. Of course, one cannot forget the need every November and December for Christmas trees.

Palm plantation- The tropics are ideal for growing oil palms. Thousands of acres are devoted to the tree, as so much of our food and other products these days relies on palm oil. This is not a good thing as the demand means that vast areas of rainforest have had to be cleared. In Indonesia, the problem is particularly evident, as the growth of palm plantations is one of the main factors behind the decline of orangutan numbers.

Coconut grove- Almost anywhere you go in the tropics will have coconut palms. Buoyant, the nut floats easily on the currents, and where it is too isolated for a coconut to reach naturally (such as Hawaii), people have brought it with them. As well as the coconuts, the palms themsevles are also used; palm fronds can be used for roofing, and the fibers are used in weaving.

Bonsai forest- The art of growing miniature trees has been practiced for centuries. Some trees are collected in the wild, harsh natural conditions causing the trees to grow slowly and stay small, but many more are shaped over many years. While many bonsai are grown singularly, groves and forests are also popular choices. These can be either monospecific, or mixed, and can be part of a larger landscape creation that includes rocks, water, and figures.

There are plenty of examples of forest areas that are man-made. Don’t feel like you have to confine your story to a natural woodland. Use what you find around you to inspire the setting and drive your characters and the plot. What happens on the earth can easily be applied to science fiction or fantasy. Put your own spin on it (maybe your characters are small and live in a bonsai forest…of course they could also be normal sized people who happen to be in a giant sized bonsai planting).

Edit: As pointed out in the comments/reblogs, I seemed to have forgotten woodlots, so I am going to include those.

Woodlot- Common areas open to members of the community include a mixture of open pastureland and forested areas. People would have their flocks and herds forage here in spring and summer, whilst they managed and harvested the trees. Trees in woodlots would not be felled, instead the branches would be cut back and allowed to regrow. The resulting growth produces straight branches that are used in constructing walls, fences, as well as firewood and charcoal. (Communal pastures and woodlots are not really thought of these days, as many areas were lost over the years due to industrialization, urbanization, and the enclosure of land by the aristocracy)

#writing #creative writing #writing guide #writing inspiration #writing prompts #worldbuilding #writer #writers #writers and poets #writing community #writer on tumblr #writeblr

[snowmist-hashira]

♠ Information ♠

Video link from: Anime For You [YouTube]

Header artwork Artist: りんご@お仕事募集中 Links; Pixiv & ZeroChan

Commissioned Avatar & Emotes artwork Artist: Kurumi_Igarashi [KYIR999] Links; Tumblr, DeviantArt, Instagram, Twitter, Ko-fi & Fiver

Greetings! I can be addressed as Snow, I'm a writer on Tumblr. I've been writing since June of 2023, I'm still accepting one-shot requests focused on both Muichiro Tokitou x (Female) Reader and Yuichiro Tokitou x (Female) Reader.

Please understand that I have certain reservations about writing polygamous relationships involving the twins. While I am not completely opposed to the idea, I will carefully consider each request on a case-by-case basis before deciding whether or not to proceed with it.

As for another platform, I do have a discord that I created solely for this purpose~ Don't be shy to reach out whenever you want!

I did just recently created a sub blog, wherein I'll be posting, sharing and reblogging things other than my works. Unleashing my demon in this blog.

Chaotic blog: @snowbluesky

I also write on other platforms, specifically Wattpad and Archive. Though I'm more active in this site~

I am heavily inspired by Slay (@theyslaydemons), and I hold great admiration and respect for her and her remarkable works. She is truly someone I look up to and admire in the writing community.

My request will always be open, feel free to share your ideas and requests with me anytime and I'll do my best to bring them to life through my writing. Your suggestions are always appreciated and valued.

Feel free to reach out if you'd like to be included in my taglist! Whether you're interested in being notified about every fiction I post or if you have specific preferences for the type of content you're looking for, just drop me a message or ask~!

I enjoy engaging with readers and fellow writers in various ways.

I'm open to interacting with you beyond the scope of requests.

With that ending note, I want to express my sincere gratitude for your continuous support, whether it's through liking, commenting, or reblogging my fictions. Your engagement means a lot to me, and I truly hope that the work I put into creating them brings you as much joy and satisfaction as it brings me.

Thank you once again for your unwavering support!

♠ Tokitou Twins ♠

ℜ𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔱: [Requested] Melting Hearts

♠ Yuichirou Tokitou ♠

ℜ𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔱: [Requested] Headcanons: Seeing his future self

♠ Muichirou Tokitou ♠

ℜ𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔫𝔱: Heartfelt Confessions

♠ Rules ♠

I accept requests, but please note that I don't write explicit content or rated 18 scenes. Another reason I may decline your request is if I have already read or seen a similar idea from another writer. If you still wish to request it, please make sure to attach the original author's permission along with your request.

If the requested idea has already been fulfilled and submitted by another writer, and you'd like to see it in my writings, kindly mention the name of the writer/s or provide their link so that I can properly credit them.

Regarding the word count for requests, I kindly ask that they do not exceed 800 words, taking into account the specific details and complexity of the request. (With the exception of the anonymous request made on the date of 07/17/2023)

I will be selecting requests based on certain criteria. Although I cannot guarantee that I will be able to fulfill every request, and I sincerely apologize for my limitations, please know that I am genuinely honored and appreciate the effort you put into submitting the prompt and sharing your idea.

As mentioned earlier in my return post, I won't be sticking to a weekly posting schedule. Instead, I aim to create a healthier routine for myself, one where this blog isn't a burden but rather a hobby. I used to write frequently when I had free time, but my current busy schedule doesn't allow me to manage all my responsibilities, including this one.

Nonetheless, I'll continue to accept requests. However, I can't assure timely fulfillment due to my other commitments.

Thank you for your understanding!

#muichiro tokito #yuichiro tokito #request #demon slayer kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #fanfiction #kimetsu no yaiba #mist hashira #mist pillar #masterlist #information #muichiro x reader #kny fanfic #kny x reader #demon slayer fanfic #demon slayer x you #Snow_BlueSky talks #Snow_BlueSky announcements #yuichiro x reader #kny yuichiro #kny muichiro

[murphychips]

a treacherous descent into werewolf romance fiction

okay so. this story begins with me being on facebook, scrolling through videos, and getting these adverts at the end of EVERY video clip from these sites:

and i mean EVERY single one. and out of deranged curiosity i ended up clicking them and checking out their previews only to find maybe some of the more garbage i've ever had the displeasure of reading. each advert was different and each story varied, but all of them had dogshit quality.

eventually, i wondered who was making this stuff; MULTIPLE apps were being advertised to me under a bunch of different names, and all of them were centred around werewolves or mafia or billionaires. sometimes all three!

so i downloaded a couple of apps to see if i could identify an owner, but those all varied too! most don't even have websites; the app is the only thing they have. almost none of them have author names, or any way to identify the writer, and there's no way to submit to most of them. eventually, i chased up a few of these apps on reviews to find most appear to be stealing content from across the internet:

some of these are stolen from amazon, others are stolen from similar apps are cross-posted, others--as one comment says--appear to be scalping from wattpad (and likely AO3 and fanfic.net, although i'm currently trying to find examples).

HOWEVER

one app that crossed my phone was Letterlux, which does feature a submit page and appears to actually promote original work! the genres remain the same--werewolves, billionaires, mafia, etc--and so i was like alright. this appears to be a publishing outlet of SOME kind. what's the catch?

the catch is the abysmal fucking offerings:

the 'exclusive' contract here is if you do the whole 'submit a thing and they extend an offer', whereas non-exclusive is you just posting the thing. but look at the numbers! look how low they are! $450 if your story is above 200,000 words????????????????? and you have to post EVERY DAY for the update bonus; if you miss more than 4 days, you're out of the running. HOLY EXPLOITATION BATMAN. never mind that for the non-exclusive, you get a measly $250 for 200,000 words and NO update bonus. with the signing bonus of a whole $50, that's $300 for 200,000+ words: a whopping 0.0015 per word.

another app that appears to promote original work is Galatea, owned by inkitt; it appears legit in that it's been advertised by a bunch of different places, i.e. Writer's Digest, and has a fairly slick site, but reviews from users say it's a scam--a less predatory scam than usual, but still a scam.

TL;DR, if you write heterosexual steamy werewolf romance, your shit is likely making money for some company in whoknowsistan, who use microtransactions to make you pay for individual books. and i haven't even TALKED about how some of these apps have some of the most crazy IP protection i have ever seen, such as banning you for an hour if you screencap ANYTHING, and hiding recorded videos:

but despite all this, and this horrible rabbithole of novel apps i've fallen down, nothing compares to me having to read all this fiction and realising that we are ignorant to the quantities of sheer bad werewolf writing out there, so much so that i'm honestly tempted to post my own straight-bait just to see how far i can get. things that i've noticed:

all the female protagonists start off as abused or hated and are saved by some Alpha/Alpha King/Alpha Demon/idk man

sometimes the werewolf aspect is just an inner wolf who like. yells at you sometimes?

there's gamma rank werewolves?

there's DELTA rank werewolves?????????????

i honestly think i'm becoming addicted to finding out just how unhinged some of these stories get, but that is beside the point: in the end, for the love of god, don't be a dumbass and use these shady apps, and do NOT submit to places who won't even give you an entire penny per word. also, check your shit; it might have been scalped for someone else's profit. okay. ciao.

#what do i even tag this with tbh #just don't be a moron okay #sdfghjsdgfhjk #anyway back to reading awful werewolf stories on wattpad from the actual authors

[silverslipstream]

writeblr intro!

Well, hello there! Welcome to my page! Thought I'd finally get around to writing and pinning an intro, seeing as my writeblr recommendations post has gone STRATOSPHERIC and I've followed so many new accounts!

I'm Jeb (he/him), 20 years old, and an aspiring writer, poet and disaster dork from New Zealand (who currently lives in the UK - England, to be more precise). I'm a huge lover of writing and reading science fiction works, particularly hard sci-fi - Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series and his novel The Songs of Distant Earth were the works that inspired a young me to start taking writing seriously. I also write fanfiction, romance, horror, a smidgen of fantasy, spy fiction... whatever takes my fancy, basically! I also love writing and reading poetry, and hope to have some of my poems published professionally by the end of 2023!

Outside of writing, I'm a huge motorsport lover. Formula One is my main passion, and in fact I originally joined tumblr to post about my then-WIP, The Edge Of Control. TEOC may be in cryogenic storage, but my love of speed and high-octane racing remains: I regularly watch F1, IndyCar and the World Endurance Championship. I also love spaceflight, astronomy, Shakespeare, teen movies from the 80s/90s (ESPECIALLY John Hughes' work), many cheesy romcoms and lasagna. (What? It's literally the perfect food!)

Right, now with all that out of the way, let's get onto the real good stuff... (sorry in advance for the lack of taglists, I haven't remembered how they work!)

links to my work:

jebberjabber on AO3 (my main account, for fanfiction) degnercurve130R on AO3 (for F1/racing works) KesslerCascade on Wattpad (for original works)

works-in-progress

You Can't Take It Back Now!

type: fanfiction (fandom: Bittersweet Candy Bowl, Webcomic) genre: romance (of the sapphic, friends-to-lovers variety) summary: Sue and Amaya have been best friends ever since they met in second grade. They're proudly inseparable, but when a secretive confession from Amaya turns into a sudden kiss from the assuredly-straight Sue, everything changes. Can they navigate their friendship while dealing with their rampant emotions? Is it just drama, or did Sue have more investment into their kiss than she let on? status: six chapters currently complete, with two published on AO3! Bi-weekly updates planned. link: You Can't Take It Back Now! on AO3

White Sky

type: original work genre: hard science fiction/mystery/thriller summary: It's 2094, and the Earth-Luna Treaty Organisation (ELTO) is planning the upcoming 125th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Meanwhile, Katarina 'Kat' Lloyd, a reclusive scientist, is framed for a crime she didn't commit and forced into outer space. Seeking refuge aboard the cislunar debris hauler Dowager Caroline, Kat and the Caroline's motley crew discover that her framing was simply a cog in a much bigger plot - one with dire consequences for mankind... status: currently in the planning stage, rough draft established and plot outline written

works published on Tumblr:

An Acquired Taste - In a post-cyberpunk/solarpunk imagining of 22nd-century New Seoul, a corporate engineer makes a chance meeting with a street vendor and makes an important discovery.

Executive Decisions - In an alternate history where the Cold War went hot, a US Air Force nuclear-bomber crew face a moral dilemma as they near their Soviet target. Operation Trident - A soldier experiences a combat drop on the Belgian coast, as part of an ongoing human offensive against an alien occupation force. Ignition Sequence - An experiment with a second-person perspective where the watcher observes a Space Shuttle launch in Florida.

#writeblr introduction #writeblr #writeblr community #writers on tumblr #fanfiction #science fiction #silverslipstream #writers community

[duckprintspress]

Meet the Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors: Mikki Madison

Today, we’re kicking off introducing y’all to the contributors to Aether Beyond the Binary, our currently crowdfunding awesome anthology of 17 stories set in aetherpunk settings starring genderqueer and non-binary characters, with an interview with writer Mikki Madison and excerpt from her contribution!

About Mikki Madison: Mikki Madison has been writing stories since she was seven years old.  While she is most prolific in fanfiction and has works scattered among  more than a dozen fandoms, she has been making strides into original  fiction. Her favorite genres to read are romance, fantasy, and cozy  mysteries. When she isn’t reading, writing, or falling headfirst into a  new fandom, she can be found baking, doing puzzles, walking her foster  dog, doting on her niblings, or playing Pokemon Go. She has also written  under the name M. K. Mads. Link: Tumblr

Mikki Madison has been involved with Duck Prints Press since our first project, and has contributed to two previous anthologies: And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and He Bears the Cape of Stars. She’s also written two short stories with the Press, one – The Fated Prince published on our webpage (and included in the contributor short-story bundle campaign add-on!) and It Happened on Maple Street, which is Patreon-backer exclusive.

Q&A with Mikki Madison

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I’m a planner. I virtually always have an outline for any project I’m working on, whether it’s a quick scribbled bullet list or more involved note cards. The note cards are typically for novels, while short stories  I can get away with something less involved. It helps to keep me on track and if the story veers while I’m writing, I can adjust either the  outline or the story as I need to.

Do you like having background noise when you create?  What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

It varies depending on project and also where I am. I have a bunch of story- or genre-specific iTunes playlists that I would listen to whenever I was at in-person write-ins, which usually contained movie and video game scores because I write most easily with instrumental music playing. So if I was writing a fantasy story, I’d have a playlist with the score from the LOTR movies or Final Fantasy games, and if it was a sci-fi story, I’d have Star Wars, and steampunk would be the movie scores from the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies. Recently someone in the DPP server shared a link to a YouTube channel with immersive writing sessions that are about 2 hours long, with 25-minute sprints interspersed with 5-minute breaks. I’ve been putting that channel on the TV while I’m writing at home and it’s really helped me focus!

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

As you can probably tell from a glance at my Tumblr, I love tea. I’m virtually always drinking tea, especially when it’s cold outside.

What are your favorite tropes?

Found family is one of my absolute favorite tropes. I love seeing a disparate group of people come together to care about each other. I’m also a huge fan of rivals to lovers and second-chance romances. Plus, the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one!! I love it when the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one.

Tell us about your pet(s).

Right now, I don’t have any full-time pets – I foster dogs for a local rescue. I’ve had 9 dogs over the course of the past year, from 80-pound coonhounds to 3-pound chihuahua puppies. It’s been extremely rewarding and I’ve had so much fun getting to know all the different dogs. It’s hard when I have to let them go, but I know that they’re not “my” dogs and I’m happy that they’re getting to go to a forever family.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

This quote from E.L. Konigsburg: “Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply  the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don’t talk about doing it. Do it. Finish.”

Novels in particular are marathons, and finishing a story of that length is a skill you’ve got to build. It’s fine if it gets trunked, it’s fine if you never edit it, but I think especially as a younger writer, you really need to learn to at least finish that first draft. It helped me tremendously early on to focus on finishing my stories, instead of just editing the beginnings over and over and over.

What are your favorite resources and tools for your craft?

A friend of mine has gifted me a couple of writing-related card decks – one is a prompt deck called Writer’s XL Emergency Pack, another is a card game called Once Upon a Time. I’ve recently been using both to come up with short story ideas and it’s been really fun!

I draw anywhere from 3-9 cards, depending on the length of what I’m doing, and then start brainstorming how to use the different cards  within a story. If I’m not feeling one of the cards, I discard it and  draw another one. 

For example, I was recently working on a story where I knew one of the MCs didn’t want to work with the other one, but I didn’t know why. I knew that was going to be a big plot point, but none of the ideas I’d come up with seemed to fit. So I started drawing some cards out of the Once Upon a Time deck to see if that might spark something. Three of the first cards I drew were “secret,” “wolf,” and “cure.” Bam! A secret werewolf looking for a cure. That gave me my motivation and helped me  outline the back half of the story.

When you’re writing short stories for NaNoWriMo and you’re desperately trying to come up with something else for your word count, these are lifesavers. And I like the physicality of shuffling and drawing them.

Share five of your favorite books. 

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett – if you enjoy fantasy and comedy and you haven’t yet read the Discworld series, this is a fantastic place to start. The Night Watch books are probably my favorites and this one is  excellent. 

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan – Honestly I love all of Courtney Milan’s romance novels, but The Brothers Sinister series (of which The Heiress Effect is the second book) is really, really great. I love Jane, the heroine of this story, SO MUCH, and the secondary romance between her sister and a lawyer is so, so sweet. I’ve read it three or four  times at this point.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – I love found families and fantasy and romance, so this book was right up my alley and I read the entire thing in one go. The kids particularly were wonderful.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi – Another book I read in one go, and it was SO much fun that I couldn’t put it down. Scalzi’s sci-fi is both funny and accessible, and another thing I liked about this book was that the first-person POV and the unisex name (Jamie) meant that you can read the main character as any gender you’d like.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – I really loved the structure of this book: essentially several episodes of this ship’s  crew becoming closer as they make their way across the galaxy on a yearlong journey to help create a new wormhole. It was both fascinating  and heart-wrenching.

And my +1 (because we do 5+1 in fandom, yeah?): A Clash of Steel by C. B. Lee – This is a queer YA retelling of Treasure Island set in 1820s China, and it’s an absolute delight. Lee’s descriptions are so vivid that it feels like you’re actually there, and the romance is so, so good.

About Mikki Madison’s Aether Beyond the Binary Contribution

Title: Mixed Dough

Tags: bakery, bed and breakfast, character injury (permanent), character injury (serious), cults, death of a sibling (past), emotional hurt/comfort, food (graphic descriptions), gender exploration, gender non-conforming character, getting together, hurt/comfort, m/nb, non-binary, past tense, plane crash, tattooed, third person limited pov

Excerpt:

“Your plane crashed,” Jules explained. “You’re badly injured. Help is on the way. I’ll—”

The pilot’s eyes grew wide, and they struggled to speak. Jules leaned in closer, putting his ear as close to the pilot’s mouth as he dared.

“Where…?”

It was the only word Jules could make out. “You’re in New Blanchard. Or, well, just outside of it.”

The pilot’s eyes closed and their whole body sagged. “Thank fuck.”

They were still breathing, albeit barely, so Jules didn’t panic. He glanced back toward the bed-and-breakfast and the road; the ambulance lights were pulling into the driveway. “The ambulance is here. I’ll…”

His eyes fell on a tattoo peeking over the collar of the pilot’s shirt. In and of itself, that wasn’t a cause for concern, but given the shape and that the pilot had been in a gas-powered plane…

Jules pulled the shirt down to reveal a tattoo of three interlocking rings, about the size of a half-dollar.

Well. Shit.

Mikki Madison is one of 17 awesome contributors to this collection. Visit our Kickstarter Campaign page to learn all about the other contributors and this project!

#aether beyond the binary #duck prints press #mikki madison #queer anthology #nonbinary #lgbtqia

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Fanfic asks 5 & 20!

Ty so much for the ask!

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

I am DETERMINED to finish at least one entry into the 2024 Brio Fic Week. Idk what suddenly happened where my brain no longer can make Brio kiss and instead is just rotting on Animal Crossing Happy Home Paradise, but here I am, designing adorable cottages every day instead of smut writing. 😂

I have a good start though, I swear. It’s gonna happen. If I have to take a PTO day off work and make it happen, this fic is happening.

A Raw Snippet (I haven’t read through yet so this may change, but this is kinda the general feel I was hoping for):

20. Any plans to work on original fiction this year?

I don’t think this will ever happen. Original fiction is hard because you have the task of worldbuilding and characterization from scratch, which requires so much skill to do well. For me specifically, I also would need to feel some sort of passion or attachment to original characters to feel moved enough to invest the hours and hours it would take to create all this from scratch. And idk if I have it in me right now. Creating chemistry is difficult, as we know. Because as consumers of media we know that we don’t always feel that chemistry from fictional characters. So it’s kinda like all these stars have to align for the magic to happen. I suppose there are fictional genres other than romance, but pfffft, who wants to write that? 😂

But also listen, I am TELLING y’all, the GG fandom writers are so far ahead of the traditional romance authorship currently monetizing the most lazy and cliched trope, it isn’t even a competition. Maybe I’m biased because I especially love the Brio chemistry and I love reading original takes on what it looks like, I am yet to find a published work that executes the way you all do. There is so much self doubt in fic writing. But please believe me, if Colleen Linear-Storytelling Hoover can hoover in those bucks, the masterpieces we have gracing our AO3 fandom tag would have no trouble. The world-building, the use of character-affirming symbolism, the subtle exploration of the personal psyches and an unlikely kinship between two damaged, guarded people… We HAVE all that. Our trope is tailored. It’s sprinkled with believable, in-character pieces of structure that make it something unique and beautiful. Our “stuck in an elevator,” or our “high school dating AU,” or our “jealous of new love interest who won’t work out anyway,” is so much more immersive and visual than all these romances I keep trying to tolerate but can’t take seriously because those authors aren’t you guys. Fic has absolutely ruined me.

New Year Fic Asks

#ask games #new year asks #asks #fic writing #nbc good girls #brio fanfic

[aseriesofsmallthings]

Hello!

Welcome to my writeblr! I'm very new to this whole thing, and while I have *had* tumblr for a while now, I've never actually used it, so please bear with me :)

About my writing

I started out writing fanfic and short stories over a decade ago (ouch, now I feel old) and am hoping someday to become a published novelist. I mostly write horror, fantasy, and dystopian fiction, (with romance often playing quite a big role), though I am incapable of resisting dabbling in other genres too from time to time. A lot of my writing tends to deal with themes of loss, mental illness, suffering, and the inevitability of the human condition. In a bid to see myself and others like me represented more widely in the media, my longer fiction works often include neurodiverse, disabled and lgbt+ characters.

About me!

First things first, my name is Shannon, though online I mostly go by Shay. Feel to free use either :)

Now, a few fun little facts to break up those hefty chunks of writing (make the most of it, this might be the last time in a while).

I'm from, and currently live in, the UK. And I use she/they pronouns.

I'm a (twenty-something year old) child living an adult's life. And I am not having fun. Please, send help.

My reading tastes tend to be quite similar to my writing, in that I'll read just about anything I deem interesting in most genres but my preferences lie in dystopia and fantasy.

I have ADHD and a whole host of other funky little brain things that keep writing (and life) all that much more fun! On a serious note, this may mean I'll disappear from time to time and posts may not always be consistent. (It also means interactions may be somewhat difficult for me, so again, please bear with me :)

I'm an amateur field hockey player with no other interest in sport besides playing it.

I have studied creative writing at uni briefly but I'm currently in the midst of switching to a social sciences and anthropology degree - expect a little academia related content maybe.

I'm a fur-parent - pictures may follow (they definitely will) of my little demon child.

I love to travel (especially solo) and often take a lot of inspiration for my writing from my little adventures, from setting and plot ideas to character development and world-building. Also, train journeys have proven quite fruitful in producing some pretty solid sentences... that have yet to be of further use.

A few pictures (below) from my most recent solo trip.

I also occasionally play video games, listen to an unhealthy amount of rock music, obsess over fictional characters (other than my own), and partake in multiple other creative pastimes, most of which get abandoned rather unceremoniously (thank you, ADHD).

About my writeblr

My username 'a series of small things' comes from one of my favourite Van Gogh quotes; "great things are not done all at once, but by a series of small things brought together", which I think is really apt, not only as a writer but also just in everyday life too. Also, inspite being rather artistically inept myself, I have a fondness for ol' Vinny, which makes the quote even more perfect.

I hope to use this space as a way to start getting my original work out into the world and to hopefully make some like-minded friends along the way too! I'll mostly be posting some of my short stories and progress reports on my longer wips, but may also post some poetry and other random ramblings from time to time.

Feel free to ask me any questions and interact with me :)

#writerscommunity #writeblr #fantasy writer #writers #writerscorner #queer fiction #writer things #writers on tumblr #neurodivergent #adhd writer #new blog

[nkjemisin]

ooh i saw your tags on a post about horizon forbidden west! do you mind me asking, what didn’t you like about the game? was it some of the writing or characters? my guess would be the Ancestors and/or Sylvens….. but i admit, the plot was secondary for me because I was having so much fun running around as Aloy: riding sunwings and exploring subterranean Las Vegas and swimming in the San Francisco Bay. and like you said, it’s SO visually beautifully, so i have on rose-colored lenses when it comes to both games. but i’m always interested in what other folks think about them because no game is perfect. anyway thanks! :D

Well, I tried to explain this once before and Tumblr ate it; let's see if I can do it this time.

My biggest issue with the game was that it had worldbuilding fails in specific areas -- namely wherever the devs were reluctant to let go of their own culture. It's a common flaw in worldbuilding that I talk about all the time; I did a Masterclass that addressed it in greater depth, but since I can't share that, here's a presentation I did a few years ago. (Note that the slides are meant to be accompanied by my verbal explanations and examples, so if something's not clear, that's probably why.) Anyway, in that presentation, I don't really have a name for this "fear of straying from the familiar," but I note that it's everywhere in SFF, and it's one of the reasons that so many "original" fictional cultures end up feeling like "us all over again, but they wear funny clothes." Usually those "us again" cultures feel a lot like medieval Europe, specifically, for reasons of historical racism and Eurocentrism -- and in the game, that's the Quen, Oseram, and Carta. Like, clothes aside, Avad was more Louis the XIV (also called the Sun King) than Rameses II or Moctezuma -- and there was no real reason for the Carta to feel familiar at all. And I'm pretty sure this is also why the few societies which structurally resembled any Indigenous American cultures (Tenakth, Nora, Banuk) were framed as innately tech-backwards and dangerously superstitious -- because that's how white supremacy and scientific racism have taught us to think about them, even though many Indigenous societies had tech advancements colonial Europe hadn't mastered (offhand: public health and sanitation, agricultural techniques, land management techniques that are damn near terraforming, much more). But it fit the pattern: all the places where the worldbuilding fell flat were where the creators could not for whatever reason give up the things they found familiar and comforting about our current world, whether they made sense for the future or not. I also think this is why the story in the second game landed squarely on racial and gender/sexual tropes that most writers know better than to deploy unironically these days, like The Black Guy Dies First and Depraved Homosexuals, and more. And I think this is the source of the game's cringier moments, like the weird nostalgic paeans to Vegas and the US military.

Then there's the game's United Colors of Benetton-style handling of race -- lots of superficial diversity, but a curious aversion to exploring its implications in any meaningful way. There was none of this aversion when it came to exploring disability, class, or sexuality. And meanwhile they can animate every strand of Aloy's flowing locks, but only one character gets kinky hair? (Why would anybody remark on Aloy's hair color when Varl is the real hair-unicorn in this game?) That made it obvious that the problem was unease with the whole concept of race on the part of the decision-makers, in-game and IRL.

So tl,dr; the devs couldn't or wouldn't decenter themselves, and so sacrificed story quality and plausibility in order to maintain completely unnecessary Americentrism, jingoism, patriarchy, capitalism, etc.

Now, I want to emphasize: I also play the shit out of this game, and will buy the third game whenever it happens. It is genuinely beautiful and mostly does a good job of creating a world that feels plausible and lived in. It comes so close, in fact, that I suspect editorial interference; that is, I suspect some of the flaws I see were inserted by non-writers at the company, because they're too glaring for writers of any skill -- the skill necessary to make everything else we see in the game -- to have missed. Maybe I'm letting the writers off too easy, but I always try to remember that writing within a corporate environment for a multimillion dollar investment, with decision-makers whose egos must be appeased, is a whole other ballgame from writing for yourself. But it's frustrating to see good writing, and see so obviously that it could've been great writing.

Well, maybe in the third game.

ETA: Minor edits for clarity, because that’s how I roll.

#answered asks #gaming #horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west #long post

[grelleswife]

Hi! I wanted to ask your opinion on why you enjoy Kuroshitsuji if it isn’t too much to answer. Recently I have been feeling like I’m being ‘punished’ for enjoying Kuro because I always see people talking bad about it and Yana on twitter. 😅 I am well aware Kuro has a lot of issues but I really enjoy the characters and such but the opinions of people about the series kind of has been hurting me as a fan and thus I have been losing interest🥲 I was hoping I can talk to someone who is a fan of Kuro that can help give me some mindset or something. I have been drawing for Kuro for years so I’m quite passionate towards the series and Yana herself and but this has been bugging me. If you can’t answer this it is totally okay and you can delete this ask❣️

Hi, anon! That’s not too much at all! My apologies for the late response; I wanted to make sure I could sit down to properly get my thoughts in order before answering.

My love for Kuro was originally (and is to this day) rooted in the source material. The manga and anime introduced me to some of my most beloved fictional characters, including Miss Grelle—as attested to by my url! 😉 The story instantly had me hooked with its campy hijinks, tragic undertones, and forays into the dark corners of the human psyche. Even with the current lag in pacing, I’m excited to see where the Phantomfam’s adventures take us next! And, of course, I would be remiss without mentioning the artwork. In a visual medium like manga, aesthetics can make or break your enjoyment of a series, and Kuro’s Victorian steampunk flair is perfectly suited to my tastes, especially with the steady improvement in quality as Yana’s honed her craft over the years.

However, particularly during this dry season of short chapters and plodding plot progression, it’s the community that grew up around Kuro that nourishes my love for it the most. Naysayers condescendingly sneer that the fandom is dead, but the incredible art, funny memes, awesome animations, excellent fics (some of which outshine published novels I’ve read), insightful meta and more that I see across my dash and in the tags suggest otherwise. And when we come together (such as during past fandom weeks or @anewp0tat0 ‘s recent event to celebrate the 200th chapter) that display of talent burns even brighter. As a writer, building up lore in headcanons and fic or reading my mutual’s creative interpretations of Yana’s world is just as fun—if not more so—than engaging with the actual manga. That enrichment alone is enough to keep me invested in the Kuroverse for the foreseeable future.

The series also holds considerable sentimental value for me because it served as the catalyst for my queer awakening and brought friends and loved ones into my life who I would never have met otherwise. Even if the day comes when I put Kuroshitsuji on the shelf in favor of other stories, that positive impact will remain.

However, that doesn’t mean that the series or fandom are perfect. Yana’s sleazy past and irresponsible pandering to the gross side of the fandom are an unpleasant reality with which we must contend, as are the fujoshis, transphobes, and other creeps—some of whom proved to be a genuine danger to minors—who continue to give us a bad name. But those people who blindly label Kuro as wholesale trash and accuse all fans of condoning the problematic content merely betray their simplistic, black-and-white way of thinking. We cannot and should not sweep the objectionable aspects of the series under the rug, but we can interact with Kuro critically—recognizing and calling out the areas in need of improvement while also cherishing the best parts of this cursed butler manga. As long as you’re consuming media responsibly, and in a way that doesn’t actively harm others, then you have no reason to feel guilty. You sure as heck don’t deserve to be punished!

Ignore the haters as best you can, and try to focus on what first ignited your passion for Kuro; don’t let those jerks steal your joy. 😤 Alternatively, if you need to take a break from that onslaught of negativity and just rest for a bit, that’s fine, too! There’s no shame in stepping away to recharge, and you shouldn’t push yourself to participate in fandom if doing so is detrimental to your well-being.

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been having a tough time over on the bird app, but I hope my answer was helpful and that Kurohell can continue to be a happy, welcoming place for you! 🖤

#kuro asks #kuroshitsuji #sorry for babbling as i tend to do #but i hope this helped!

[thefirstknife]

Narrative, lore and abuse

I want to talk a little bit more about the constantly repeating ideas about how Destiny used to be better, how the lore is constantly being retconned and how writing was better before. Not only are these sentiments entirely factually incorrect (and I'm currently working on a project to document 8 years worth of reviews, opinions and comments about Destiny to show that no, people really didn't enjoy vanilla D2 or D1 as much as they think they did); the sentiments about lore, supposed retcons and mistakes as well as ideas that it used to be better and that original visions were better are all ignoring a very real and very serious troubled past that came with working at Bungie over the years.

Specifically, I think a lot of people forgot about this article. It's an in-depth review into the hostile work culture and crunch at Bungie, focusing mostly on the troubles that the narrative team went through. The snide comments about how Bungie doesn't know their own lore and how they don't pay attention to details and how they changed certain things over time really ring as petty and hollow when they're put into context of what the employees were going through. I want to remind people.

This article was also not debunked by Bungie and they instead acknowledged it and apologised. In case there are people who think that these devs were exaggerating their reports. They did not.

To start:

There is seemingly no better microcosm for Bungie's historic, company-wide cultural troubles than its narrative team, which has experienced toxic leadership, issues with crunch, and at times unmanageable separation between ideas of ‘Old Bungie’ and ‘New Bungie’ culture, and more — all within the last five or six years.

The narrative team had it worst. This basically plagued the entire development of Destiny.

Several sources spoke of a narrative team lead from that time who appeared to suffer massive burnout during the project, creating an increasingly toxic work environment for others on the team, enough so that team members kept a countdown of days since his last "explosion" on a whiteboard. Many people I spoke to were familiar with a story of him throwing a chair at a window because he felt others were ruining his creative vision of the game.

And:

Some sources who had encounters with him during this later period said that he would frequently issue narrative direction despite no longer being a senior team member, and would become angry when he felt the Destiny 2 writers were deviating from his original vision for Destiny 1. One source told a story of him yelling at her over the phone so aggressively that she was brought to tears, and she subsequently refused to be on phone calls with him without a third party present.

I want people to really read this and commit it to memory. A narrative lead was so toxic that it led to actual physical violence. A narrative lead that was physically explosive over people "ruining" his creative vision of the game. I want us, as a fandom, to truly read this with full understanding that maybe, just maybe, when current employees are changing or "retconing" lore, they are doing it to remove all traces of a person who caused them real trauma and abuse.

What amounts to funny little lore tabs for us to pore through, it's very likely a reminder of abuse to the employees who are writing it. If they want to make minor changes to distance themselves from someone who abused them, I am happy for them if they do it, even if that leads to minor inconsistencies in my lore. The wellbeing of another human is more important than a "retcon" in a fictional story.

I would rather a story change than have "the original" coming from a toxic abusive asshole that is actively making the lives of everyone on the writing team miserable. I frankly don't care about his original vision for Destiny. I don't believe it was anything good.

More under for length. It's a lot.

Writers wouldn’t learn about changes to their work until after voice lines had already been recorded.

Absolutely insane that this is what the writers had to deal with. Yes, of course there are mistakes and issues, especially in the early days of Destiny 1 when the crunch was worse and Activision was forcing them to release new DLCs and forcing them to switch focus to the sequel.

This highlights the issue of people using older lore as proof of retcons. What if these mistakes and inconsistencies that we're seeing are a result of crunch and decisions being made away from the writing team? A lot of old lore could be the actual mistakes that are now being fixed. People tend to prioritise what was written first as some sort of gospel, ignoring all of these well publicised issues that we know Bungie was going through.

The other way around could be true. Old lore, things that were written first, were mistakes due to the disruptive workplace that these devs were struggling with and they didn't have time to double check before their work was shipped off to recording and publishing. Perhaps these people are using this time away to correct some of these mistakes that never should've been released in the state they were released in.

This absolutely makes sense due to the report of an employee that didn't want to stay anonymous. Cookie Hiponia started working at Bungie in 2016 as a contractor and became a full-time employee in 2019. In her words:

Hiponia recalled that when she first stepped in, Bungie hadn't had a lot of editing oversight on the Destiny franchise, and had not previously focused very much on its story, consistency, or continuity. That led to a leadership that appeared to operate without normal professional boundaries. As Hiponia puts it, "They just had a bunch of people who wrote things and kind of had the run of the place."

For years, during entire D1 and early D2, there was apparently no editing oversight, the story wasn't focused on properly and especially they did not care enough about consistency and continuity. Basically, top guys were making things up on the fly and treating the game's story as their personal sandbox. We should be taking 6-7 year old lore with a grain of salt instead of treating is as superior. An actual developer came out publicly to tell people that Bungie did not care about the story, consistency and continuity at the time.

More on hell working conditions:

One leader from earlier in this period was described by one of our anonymous sources as a "sexist nightmare" who yelled in meetings, and would throw papers across tables. Multiple people told us he would frequently rewrite things at the last minute, often on his way to voice recording sessions.

+

One lead frequently made sexist remarks, but also complained about "reverse sexism" and on at least one occasion made homophobic remarks to a queer colleague. He would openly mock his team members’ ideas in meetings then play his mockery off like a joke, and would frequently take credit for work others had done.

+

A third narrative lead was called a "callous, hierarchical, authoritarian, incurious, cruel leader" by one anonymous source. ... Others recalled that he frequently insulted people who stood up for themselves, including publicly dressing down the narrative team after they accommodated a last-minute request and asked that such a rush not happen again. On another occasion, he separated and cornered an employee who stood up to him to yell at them. Multiple sources say he also regularly made racist remarks...

Cutting off that racist remark, you can check it out yourself in the article if you want the specifics. I am copying the article directly because I have a feeling not many have read it and not many would if I just posted the link without highlighting these parts.

Those close to the team describe its members working 60, 70, 80, even 100 hour weeks during some expansions, frequently with no breaks in between crunch periods. One team member crunched while so sick they were unable to type, and had to have someone else type for them while they dictated.

People working in these conditions cannot make a coherent story across many years of development and across multiple different teams that were being treated no better than cattle. The fact that there was any kind of a story in Destiny at the beginning is a miracle to be honest so the fact that there are inconsistencies and mistakes is more than expected.

Furthermore, when Bungie decided to stop the crunch, they didn't extend any help to the writing them:

Another source said that the team had been told not to crunch as part of a growing studio push to eliminate the practice — the idea was that the studio would simply cut features if crunch was the only way to get them done. However, many of the writers felt they had been backed into a corner after the painful release of Destiny 2’s first DLC expansion, Curse of Osiris.

This was an incredibly difficult time for the narrative team:

Curse of Osiris' story had been lambasted on Reddit, with a few female narrative team members being singled out by the community for harassment, death threats, and vitriol. Our sources say these women didn't receive support inside the studio or from the community team for what they were going through, and multiple sources were aware of one member of leadership still at the studio who emailed Reddit comments about these women to other company leaders in a seeming bid to tear down the narrative team because players didn't like the story.

+

The same leader is also said to have been dismissive during a meeting about the controversy, explaining that no one should be worried because they were just going to bring back the Destiny 1 writing team to solve everything.

Ah yes, because the writing in D1 was just splendid and did not have any issues whatsoever /s. This is already showing the rose-tinted glasses of the "good old days" that apparently plagues not just the community, but the actual developers as well. D1 was lambasted on release, especially for lackluster story, and continued to be lambasted for pretty much every DLC. These first two DLCs were an especially huge subject of crunch, as this article details, they still weren't done up to a month before release. Incredibly in-depth article about how much the game sucked during Dark Below. This also discusses how incredibly bad lore delivery was at the time, with everything being relegated to cards that can only be read on the website.

These are just a few articles I collected during my deep dive into 8 years worth of Destiny's existence. It's an incredibly long task to go through up to 400 pages of content on every website that wrote about Destiny. So I'm sure there are more and even harsher criticisms of Destiny at the time, especially if I deep dove into reddit or Youtube. I am putting this excerpt to illustrate how wrong the claims of supposed greatness at release are. Even some of the devs had this perception, skewed by their own egos and ideals of importance that ended up harming and abusing the entire narrative team.

And let's not forget the community's involvement here as well. The criticisms we post online are seen by devs. That doesn't mean that criticism shouldn't be posted, but maybe it should be posted in a more humane way. The narrative team shouldn't be getting death threats over this.

Because of these comments and reviews and the reception that the narrative team got even from inside the company (especially if these writers were women or people of colour or queer), they just continued to crunch:

As a result, the narrative team was afraid of what would happen if it shipped something else that appeared to the community to be incomplete or not up to standard. So they continued to crunch, some of them going so far as to hide the overtime from their leads so they wouldn’t enforce story cuts.

+

Crunch was exacerbated by the constant need for revisions and last-minute changes, often worsened by constant conflicts over who had control of the story.

Worst of all:

Some of Bungie's old guard were especially precious about the vision of Destiny 1, and reluctant to change anything about the tone, characterizations, or direction of the story as the game moved into Destiny 2 and its subsequent expansions. This was especially frustrating for the team in cases where that vision had never been explicitly defined in the game or elsewhere, but only existed as ideas in the heads of people who no longer worked in narrative.

This is absolutely horiffic. And this sort of a sentiment is the same type of a sentiment that some portions of the fandom also exhibit. The utter mystification and glorification of some imaginary version of D1, treating it as a holy relic that cannot be touched, changed, altered, developed or evolved. This is the death of storytelling. Stories and characters have to change and evolve over time, especially if we're talking about a live service game that is supposed to go on for a decade.

Even worse, a lot of this were things that just existed in someone's head, were never properly communicated to others and were never established as things that are important or that should be taken as important going forward. All in all, what this tells me, is of a narrative team with leaders who are driven entirely by their self-inflated egos, who treated the game as their personal project, who abused, neglected and demeaned a group of people they were in charge of and who were especially nasty to those they thought of as inferior to them; women, people of colour, queer people.

Knowing that, I don't want to know or engage with their "original" ideas for Destiny. And I don't blame the writing team for wanting to scrub their influence away as much as possible. As a matter of fact, I commend them. I hope every aspect of this toxic crap is thoroughly removed even if it results in the entire rewrite of established lore.

This next bit is for people who want more cutscenes and who think that cutscenes are more important than written lore. This is how cutscenes were being made:

Another issue was with the development of cinematics, which were considered a prestige project. Largely written separately from the main writing team in a "star chamber," the cinematics team frequently tried to operate independently from the main narrative team, resulting in disconnects between established lore, planned quest narratives, and major story beats. The cinematic team’s decisions, Hiponia and others recalled, would override decisions made by the narrative team, forcing last-minute rewrites and more crunch.

Personally for me? Until we know that this sort of an ideal is removed entirely, I would rather we never receive another cutscene ever. I would rather get 20 weblore pieces.

Next paragraphs details how much these leads were fighting against inclusivity and diversity and how much the rest of the writing team (that mostly consisted of marginalised groups) had to fight tooth and nail to get inclusive stories told. We owe everything to these people. We owe them all of our great stories about women, inclusion of characters of colour in important positions and the opportunity for them to be big parts of the story, LGBT+ content and incredibly well-handled stories portraying stuff like trauma.

Under all this stress, toxicity and abuse, these passionate people were still fighting, often risking their jobs, to give us these stories and characters. I want people to keep that in mind the next time they even slightly think of calling it queerbaiting. Queer people weren't getting called slurs and being abused every day at Bungie for years for some fans to call their stories queerbaiting.

Despite their best efforts, these toxic leads who had more power still managed to push stories with negative stereotypes. Some low-tier employees can only do so much against big name cishet white dudes who more or less own the company.

In all of these situations, the members of the writing team who fought for change would routinely be told they were difficult to work with, not supportive enough of their leaders, or were aggressive or abrasive and needed to be better at taking criticism.

This bit also details the absolute uproar that Bungie and Activision made when writers decided to give Devrim a husband. I want people to apprecite just how much of a change has happened since, especially if they dare talk about how things were better under Activision. We would not have a fraction of LGBT+ rep under them. This also goes to everyone calling it a "retcon" that Saint-14 and Osiris are lovers because in the "good old lore" they weren't. Except they were. The writers just couldn't say it. The leadership lost their minds of Devrim saying he has a "partner." Not even openly saying "husband." Just "partner." That's how bad it was.

For comparison, today we have entire lore pieces of Devrim and Marc having dinner, and Devrim helping Saint deal with the trauma of almost losing Osiris. Things changed, for the better. So I am not sure why some would rather we go back to before.

Bungie obviously makes mistakes. They made mistakes before and they make them now. Sometimes stories change, direction changes, ideas change, sensibilities change. Sometimes someone makes a decision to take the story into another direction and it requires ignoring or reworking something previously established. These are all normal things that happen when writing anything, including books, TV shows, movies and so on.

But in this case, with how Bungie was handling narrative and how the narrative leads were treating employees? These aren't just normal mistakes and changes. A lot of these mistakes are due to the overworked and abused employees who had to crunch under people who would demean them and abuse them to the point of mental distress and physical injuries. People working under those conditions will make mistakes, especially when the leads are literally circumventing their writing and making changes to the writing on the way to recording sessions.

The fact that there's any coherence at all is a miracle. And then we get fans nitpicking irrelevant details that are easy to mistake even when you're not being abused by your boss while working 100 hours per week, let alone when you are. Think about how those employees feel when we nitpick stuff that they made while they were actively being abused at work every day.

This isn't a defence of Bungie having narrative mistakes. Bungie failed these employees that they were supposed to care for. It has since become evidently better, but the cost is there. Many lost their jobs and their security and health dealing with these working conditions and this needs to be embedded in the mind of every fan who wants to nitpick something written 5 years ago.

And ultimately, yes, perhaps writers that are still there want to actively change the story to remove all traces of leadership that was pushing a certain narrative. Perhaps that's annoying to us, the players and lore enjoyers. Perhaps we hate seeing certain details change in front of our eyes. Perhaps we hold dearly a detail from 2015 that has since been retconned out of the story. Perhaps someone thinks that Destiny's story was the best during D1 and that everything else that's happening now is a retconned crap.

Then re-read this article again and consider that these stories were made under inhumane working conditions. And if you value fictional story details over the wellbeing of real humans, then it's time to reasses your values. To me personally, I am immediately put off from the way those stories went when I know how they were made and what was the cost. I still appreciate then, but I will not scrutinise irrelevant details being changed or mistakes being fixed years after they were first made while the workers could quite literally physically not type from exhaustion.

I first and foremost rely on new lore and always will. It was made with less abuse and with more employees of sound mind, as well as with marginalised groups not being demeaned and shut down. Bungie is currently very obviously and clearly taking the story much more seriously and are aware of how important it is for Destiny's success. Are things now perfect? Probably not! But even those that were previously abused have said that things changed for the better and that there is hope.

Most of the new lore is also repeatedly going back to explain and rework some of the older stuff which can, yes, cause things to change. I don't mind, not with the context of this article looming over our heads. As I said before, people tend to emphasise the importance of stuff written first as proof of changes which ignores the very real possibility of stuff written first to have been written wrong and new rewrites being used to correct that information to what the narrative should've been from the start.

Are there genuine mistakes? Of course. Not every mistake is the consequence of abuse. Sometimes they are just mistakes. They exist in every writing. Don't take them too seriously, especially if they are about some incredibly niche detail that doesn't change the story either way.

However, please keep in mind how much crap the writing team for Destiny went through. Allow them to breathe, allow them to make mistakes, allow them to choose to change things that remind them of their abusers.

And when you're reminiscing about "good old days" of D1 or early D2, remember the conditions under which they were made. It was not a good time for the employees in any department and the fandom glorification of that time can be incredibly painful and defeating to the devs, especially those that belong to marginalised groups.

While you had immense fun at 16 playing D1, hundreds of people were undergoing the worst time of their life trying to maintain the game while being abused 80 hours a week. I'm not asking for people to stop thinking about how much fun they had at the time; just to put things into perspective and to recognise that this is the work of nostalgia. I had fun playing vanilla D2 as well, but I can simultaneously recognise that this was not a good time for Destiny, I would never want to go back to that time and I especially don't want to shittalk developers into going back to that work schedule only to deliver inferior products. I don't want my entertainment to be soaked in blood.

This especially goes for the lore fandom. We almost always talk about the pvp toxicity and sometimes pve toxicity, but rarely touch on the toxicity of the fandom that treats the story as some esoteric construct that doesn't involve a human cost to be made. Are changes annoying? Sure thing. When in doubt, use the most recent information. That's it. Pondering ancient lore can be fun, to a certain extent. At some point, you have to let it go.

There are still many pieces of lore that have been the same for years (my recent post about the Books of Sorrow is one example), but banging your head against the wall about some niche detail from D1 Y1 is usually pointless. In most cases it's a detail that doesn't change anything. In a lot of cases, it simply reflects an in-universe confusion about some information. Unreliable narrators are everywhere in Destiny; characters are biased or they lack knowledge or they interpret things wrong.

The setting is specifically set up in that way. The Collapse wiped away so much knowledge and context so people are sometimes wrong. This is explored in a really over-the-top and funny way in the Festival of the Lost lore where a Cryptarch misinterprets what a "fourth-grade researcher" means.

There is not a single omniscient narrator in Destiny lore. Everyone has their own biases and convictions and limitations of knowledge. Sometimes they will contradict each other by design. Not to mention the amount of complex and secretive characters that are deliberately not telling us everything, such as Rasputin, The Nine, Elsie or Mara Sov. Or the Eliksni who are a displaced and fragmented people that lost much of their own history and often work against each other and have varying perceptions of who they should be as a people. There will be conflicting information regarding these characters and stories.

On top of all that, there will always be a human element present. Writers will make mistakes even on their best days working under the most favourable conditions. So keep in mind what writers went through at Bungie. Not for Bungie's benefit, but for the benefit of largely marginalised people who, despite everything, fought for their voices to be heard and present in the game we love now.

#destiny 2 #bungie #lore #long post #taking the seasonal downtime to address some of the more meta stuff in regards to the lore and fandom #i think this is really important overall. i think too many people forgot about this article or didn't fully understand its gravity #i've been very careful with how i engage with stuff from this time ever since this article #things were bad. especially for the narrative team. #they most likely know about all of the mistakes that we are nitpicking. trust me. they most likely know #i'm also heavily put off from people who celebrate early destiny days ever since this article #100% the same vibes of people who talk about some mystical time before when things were 'better' #for whom? #every woman and person of colour and queer people were suffering. i don't want to celebrate their suffering #the only thing worth celebrating is their strength to keep fighting and that they eventually prevailed #they are allowed to change the story that their abusers were pushing in any way they want imo

[prahacat]

Hi, I really hope you don't mind me asking a few of the questions from the fan fiction writers ask because I'm curious. Of course it's totally fine if you don't want to answer.

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

🍭why did you start writing?

And my own... Do you write in your first or second language and how does this affect your writing process?

Hey! I LOVE talking about writing and (fan) fiction so thank you so much for giving me an excuse to do so! <3

✨ A fic I wish got more credit: "The Red Night" (it's on both tumblr and ao3) Yes yes, I know. It's poetry, it's very short, it's kinda weird(?) but also kinda generic. Basically the kind of stuff where, as a writer, you're lucky if people click on it at all (and I'm beyond happy some people did and even liked it enough to leave kudos/likes or reblog <3). But I spent several days on those ~500 words, I love how it turned out, it's like my favorite child, it's so ME ... and sometimes I can't help but wish it would get the same love as my other fics.

💝 A fic that got a different response than I was expecting: All of them, in some way, but especially "Three Days of Thawing". It was the first fanfic I uploaded to ao3 after years of writing original fic only: a little oneshot I wrote as a part of a bigger project and ended up posting just for the hell of it. I honestly didn't expect to get a response at all. A fic where nothing happens, it's just 15k of two old jaded men bickering and drinking tea? Little plot, hardly any romance? they don't even kiss. Who'd want to read that?

🍭 Why I started writing: Writing in general: Because of my love for words. My family had a lot of books, so I grew up with stories. As a kid, reading was like eating to me. Sometimes, when I was starved for words and there was no book around, I'd read the tv manual, a cookbook, the labels on my cereal box. Whenever I was bored, I'd dig through my parents' bookshelves until I found something that sounded interesting. Naturally, since it wasn't geared toward children, a lot of it went right over my head. For example, I remember reading this passage from Bronte's Jane Eyre:

‘As we are!’ repeated Mr. Rochester—‘so,’ he added, enclosing me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: ‘so, Jane!’

… and it had me so confused. I didn't get it. "Pressing his lips on my lips? Okay, so like kissing? Why doesn't the author simply write kissing then? That's such a strange, roundabout way of phrasing it!" Yes, I was very young. But moments like that made me think about the different ways to use language for the first time. I feel like writing stories is all about expressing simple truths in a bit of a strange, roundabout way.

Writing fan fiction: I started writing fanfic (again) because I was stuck with my original story. So I wrote a short story about my current obsession, Star Wars. And then another one. And another. I love the disaster lineage, and I love writing for the PT because so many of my favorite themes can be accommodated in the stories. A lot of it is about family, about the more quiet, intimate struggles that happen inside of us, but there's also something so inherently "Greek tragedy" about the characters that makes their destruction feel intense and almost inevitable.

First and second language and how it affects my writing process: I write in both my first and second language. English is my second language. I don't think my writing process differs much in either language. My English is okay, I guess ... I keep looking up comma rules and prepositions when editing.

There are a few instances, especially when writing emotional, introspective scenes, where the idea of what I want to say evokes a strong, very specific feeling, but it remains abstract, almost like music or a blur of colors. Or like a train of vague thoughts, but they keep moving and flashing and I can't grasp them. And in such cases, I sometimes resort to my native language to "search" for imagery or tangible concepts that can be expressed with language. It's not like I have difficulty expressing my ideas in English, it's more that the process of pulling them from some unconscious, wordless depths into the realm of consciousness and language comes easier to me in my native tongue. I guess it's more of a creativity technique?

For example, I remember using this technique on this little paragraph from "Three Days of Thawing" (the fic where Dooku is stuck in his Redemption Arc, oscillating between self-loathing and the need for acceptance/forgiveness):

Maybe Dooku wasn’t happy, how could he ever again, but he had learned to put some distance between himself and the hated shadow inside him, the way most people no longer think about the bacteria living in their mouths or the mass of dead skin cells on their bodies, all a gross but inevitable part of the self. Him: the man he hated, and the man who hates, and the man who tries to forgive them both, and the dizzying distance in between. Sometimes, when he sits by the lake and stares at his reflection trapped inside the ice, he can delude himself into believing he might become whole again.

I felt the part about the split self very strongly, but it wasn't until I thought about it in my native language that the words to express this feeling came to me.

There are quite a few scientific studies about how emotions are accessed and processed differently in your native language and in your second language. I know I'm definitely a bit more detached from my emotions when I'm speaking/thinking in English. In contrast, my "English brain" is more rational and analytic, which is great for "killing your darlings" and avoiding sappy, melodramatic dialogue (something I love to write, but it often doesn't feel right for my fav characters like Dooku or Obi-Wan).

Gah, I could really talk about this topic for hours! It's so fascinating to me, and I'd be very interested in hearing the experiences of other bilingual writers!

Thank you again for the questions, this was a lot of fun!

#asks #prahacat writes #bilingual writers

[ciaossu-imagines]

Following up with this fandom prompt, I'm going into an under-requested but well received fandom on this blog, Servamp!

Send me a fandom and I will name a character:

Who I will protect at all costs: This is a two-way tie between Sakuya and Tsurugi. I could not pick between them because both of them just hit me so right. They make me want to take care of them and want to protect them and make them happy!

Who deserves better: So many of these characters deserved better than the lots they got in life, if I’m to be honest. However, seeing them deal with those and, in some cases, how they’ve chosen to overcome them, makes for some truly fantastic characters.

Who was killed off too early: It’s not that they were killed off too early because there’s no way the story could exist with them still being alive, but I really would have liked to have seen more regarding Mikuni’s mother and that whole situation with her. I think it would make a solid side story to the main manga, along with one focusing on Hyde and Ophelia’s time together.

Who I used to hate but now I love: Something about Mikuni really bothered me when he first showed up. He just gave me some creepy vibes but the further we got into the story and the more we learned about him, the more I started genuinely first liking and then loving him as a character…the fact that he’s also kind of strangely gotten more attractive thanks to slight art style evolution might have helped as well.

Who I used to love but now I hate: Hugh. I had found him absolutely adorable and he was originally my favourite of the Servamps. Though I don’t hate him, per se, he’s definitely a little soured in my view.

Who needs to be killed off asap: Touma. I don’t care about redemption, I don’t care about excuses. I just want to see him dead.

Who is unfairly hated: As with all answers to this and the next question, I will say the same thing as I say for any and all fandoms. Nobody. Everyone is entitled to love or hate the characters they do. These are fictional characters, everyone will interpret and see them in their own way, based on their own biases and reads on the characters and can hate or like the characters they do without having to be ashamed about it.

Who is unfairly loved: See the above answer.

Who needs to sort out their priorities: Tsubaki, honestly. I do feel like it’s just that enough attention hasn’t been paid to really fleshing him out, but I can’t fully get a grip on his priorities or motivations a lot of the time. I do get the argument that he can just be a sort of embodiment of chaos for the sake of chaos, but I also don’t fully get that vibe from him either.

Who needs a hug: If I could, I would hug Sakuya at least five times a day. It goes along with my first answer of who I would protect the most!

Who needs to get out of their current relationship: Okay, I know the fans of this particular ship will kill me. I get their Servamp/Eve dichotomy and I even enjoy it at times but there is a really unhealthy, abusive part of Hyde and Licht’s relationship, if viewed in any subjective or realistic way.

Who the writers love: Mahiru, but as with most stories, this mostly comes down to being the protagonist. I do find him a little bland at times but he’s still an enjoyable character and doesn’t fall square into the ‘bland bitch protagonist’ field so I don’t mind how much of him we do see.

Who needs a better storyline: Not so much a better storyline, and again, I’m not fully caught up to the manga, but I feel like Tsubaki needs…more. I’m not fully sure how to articulate what I mean by that, but I find him stagnant in some ways. I feel like there needs to be more done with him, more of a back-story fleshed out or more sides to him shown.

Who has an amazing redemption arc: I feel like we’re still seeing it but I do feel like Tsurugi, for the time he’s been in the picture, has displayed and had focus given to a lot of character development and it has made him one of my favourite characters because of that.

Who is hot as fuck: He’s a little off-the-wall, but Higan in both his younger and older forms is just super attractive to me.

Who belongs in jail: Honestly, there were a lot of options. There’s a lot of characters who have done some…questionable things. However, my gut still goes with Touma every time.

Who needs to be revived from the dead: If the spoilers I’ve gotten is any indication, I think I got my wish here, but I’ve always thought that Sensei needed to come back, that there needed to be some twist there. I know a big plot line is that Kuro killed him and the fall-out from his action and the vote they took but I feel they jipped us what could be this batshit insane and truly intriguing character in Sensei.

#fandom prompt #servamp #sensei servamp #touma taishi #higan #higan servamp #tsurugi kamiya #tsubaki #tsubaki servamp #mahiru shirota #hyde servamp #lawless #lawless servamp #licht jekylland todoroki #sakuya watanuki #hugh the dark algernon iii #mikuni alicein

[cordeliawrites]

Hi,

I want to start out this message by saying that I came here straight after finishing For Love is Always with You because I had to let you know how I’m currently feeling. Which is not an easy task when I am trying to type this through mounting tears, nevertheless she persisted.

You are an exceptional writer. As someone who is well versed in the world of literature I am confident in that statement. Absolutely exceptional. You are also the person who I wished created Harry Potter and its world. J.K Rowling may have formed the outline but you filled it with vibrant colors. The care you showed while writing these beloved characters was deeply touching. You made a story that surpasses the original. The ending with Voldemort and the time travel was exquisite. Nothing felt too out of character and the pacing was perfect.

Thank you for giving Draco and Blaise and Snape as well as other Slytherins the room to be real and have hearts and souls instead of caricatures of cartoon villains. Thank you THANK YOU for saving Sirius and giving him a future and path to healing. Thank you for turning the boy who lived into the girl who loved. Harry Potter could learn much from Harri Potter. Thank you from the bottom of my Tom loving heart for saving Tom. For writing him with such honesty. I have always felt like in the end Voldemort should have been saved instead of vanquished. That he had so much pain that he became pain itself. As you wrote he didn’t know of love and deserved to experience it.

Speaking of that, I loved all of the thoughtful quotes you used to emphasize moments in your story. I saved quite a few of them. I love the symbolism and the imagery. I devoured this story in mere hours. What a privilege it was to read it all in its entirety and not have to wait for updates.

Lastly, I will say that the only fault I found was that it ended. When I was scrolling the final chapter I watched as the pages shrunk knowing that I was almost done and feeling desperate for it to continue. If you ever choose to write one shots or snapshots of that world post battle or pre battle I would be forever grateful. If not, then I can reassure myself with the knowledge that I saved your story onto my phone so that I may revisit it.

I leave you with this, you have reinforced my deep love of stories. You have proven yet again that fan fiction has spectacular writers. And you have provided me a place in which I can escape into when the world is untenable. This quote sums up the remainder of my review.

“I choose words, more words, to cure the tameness, not the wildness”

-Alice Notley

Sincerely and with the highest of regard,

Taylor

HIIII!!! I’m truly at a loss for words. I’ve had an emotional month and reading this has brought me an incredible amount of joy. THANK YOU so much! I appreciate this so so much. “You are an exceptional writer. As someone who is well versed in the world of literature I am confident in that statement.” I wish I could explain how much this means to me. It humbles me beyond anything. And that you enjoyed the things I added in the story more than the original is mindblowing!! 🥹🥹 “The care you showed while writing these beloved characters was deeply touching” this makes me emotional (in an amazing way) and I cannot tell you enough that it means everything for you to say this. The me who spent years writing this story is grateful and speechless. Thank for reading and loving the quotes and added symbolism because it was one of the best things about writing. I am HONORED, honored, that fliawy has reinforced your love of stories. And also that fanfiction writers are amazing (I couldn’t live without fanfics and I am also thankful to my favorite fic writers who remind me of this!)

❤️❤️❤️❤️Thank YOU again, I will be coming back and re-reading your message on a rainy day. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[crowemoji]

I'm planning to make a comic in the isekai genre just purely out of hatred with how boring and dogshit a majority of stuff is there in that genre.

I want to make it mostly comedy. Yes, mostly. I want some serious stuff in here too so that it's thrilling.

Here's my ocs, the main four:

Hino Toshiro, the protagonist we follow, the one that gets isekai'd. Oh right, he gets isekai'd into his own video game. He was originally an indie game developer (I just wanted to follow the classic tropes you see in a lot of isekais and be stupid about them).

I wanted him to look a bit more unique when compared to other isekai protagonists, so I didn't go with the basic hairstyle almost every male protagonist has (can these guys be creative for once).

He has a bite mark because the protagonist of the game got bit and died from it, so Toshiro becomes him, essentially 'respawning' but he kept the bite mark. In order for Hino to not get shot at first sight, he looks around for a dead body and uses the lab coat from it in order to cover it. The bite mark has turned into a scar and all that blood has dried up (it looks fresh in the concept art but this was something I thought of later after I drew him). He can't get infected but he knows that the bite mark stayed because that was a feature in his own game. The feature being that whenever you die, the wound from your previous body stays, so you have to find new ways to make sure you aren't getting killed by the people who are supposed to help you.

And because he's the developer and one of the writers (his friend group consists of people that also want to make a game with him, so that's his development team), he was able to research a lot of stuff about biology and microbiology. He isn't as experienced as a person with an actual degree obviously, so he isn't a know-it-all type guy.

Kinoshita Hitomi, one of the characters from the fictional biotech company, (I haven't thought of a name yet). She worked as a clinical technician before the apocalypse from the game happened.

She used to play baseball when she was a teen but abandoned it because of her parents wanting her to specialize in some sort of medical related career. Now it's useful here because she can kill zombies with only one or two or three swings (it depends on where she hits them, but usually two).

Maria Cumberman, you can tell she's not japanese by her name, she's from Canada and came here to get employed in the company. She's very young for being a microbiologist and one of the researchers for finding a cure for rabies but considered a savant so she got her degree earlier than most.

Let me add on a bit more: The research for finding a cure for rabies backfired, causing the apocalypse in the game, the virus took over 2 months to completely mess up everything in the building. This rabies variant takes over a lot faster than the regular version. It still takes some time to act, but not as slow as rabies [can be], it's acting time is predictable however, so that helps.

Because she was one of the researchers, she blames herself and feels extremely guilty about it. She and the others are trying to find the cure themselves, but Maria is the only one actually experienced in this type of thing, so they need her alive.

I haven't thought too much about the plot yet (I wanted to design my characters first), so I need to think of why the virus spread that quickly.

Tanaka Futoshi, worked as a business development manager.

He has a ring which was from a previous marriage. He divorced his now ex-wife of 6 years (she was a piece of shit), but he didn't want to get rid of the ring because 1. it was expensive and 2. it looked neat (it doesn't look that cool here but I'll add more stuff when I get to making more detailed reference sheet), so he moved the ring from his ring finger to his middle finger to silently say 'fuck you' to his ex. It doesn't really affect him in the current time because he moved on but it's a funny backstory for his ring.

Height chart.

Tanaka looks a little off but I don't really care to redraw him.

That's all. Here's some more concept sketches.

Other stuff about the world, not necessarily only about the characters:

The lab coat;

Company logo;

And ID card tier codes (tier I, II, III, and IV). This appears on the bottom of someone's ID and depending on what tier of access they've been given, they can gain access to various rooms and equipment. The ID scanners also check the fingerprints that exist on a special holographic sticker to ensure that the person who's in possession of the ID is the actual owner. I can't put the concept image of that here because image limit.

That's it, hopefully I get to make an actual decent comic instead of it being boring and dogshit like the isekais I'm making fun of (if it becomes something like that, feel free to shoot me).

My plan is to make it black and white like mangas usually are, but it has some colour... well, the only thing that's going to have colour is blood. But I think it will make it a bit more interesting to look at because I personally love looking at artworks that do that type of thing.

I've drawn comics before but they're always short and they're not even my own characters, so this is gonna be my way of practicing. Hope you had fun reading. If you'd like some more stuff about it don't be afraid to ask (if you even want to).

#art #artists on tumblr #ibispaintx #oc #original character #ocs #original characters #isekai #comic #blood #blood tw #tw blood

[listlessdionysian]

A Love Letter for Support Systems

Evening all. It's been a minute since I last posted something, and I'm currently to waiting to hear back from a couple of places regarding my latest short fiction submission - so in the mean time here's a quick, gushy post, about the often invisible support systems for writers.

(and maybe why you need one)

First off, this is a lonely and repetitive nightmare we're trapped in. The process of drafting, editing, submitting, swallowing rejection, and then doing the whole thing over again is often a solitary labour. It's also one you can't really discuss openly with people as it tends to prompt people to develop panicky swivel-eyes as they think about escaping from this frothy mouthed creature you've become. So while a lot of the nuts and bolts stuff is solitary, there's a myriad of things that feed into.

Speaking personally for a sec: I first started writing stories when I was sixteen or so. I made my first couple of submissions around that time, but had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it. Fast forward a few years and I'm starting to have more serious and focused thoughts about what I want to do and why I want to do it, but with little to no motivation to start, or persist once I've started. Fortunately - for me, anyway - it was around this time that my then girlfriend (now wife) and I moved in together. She has always been my biggest cheerleader and my fiercest editor. Almost everything I've written, she's read - often more than once - and played a significant if not pivotal role in getting that project over the line.

While I may be the one sitting at a keyboard, hammering the keys, talking to myself, and occasionally staring deep, deep into the void that waits just beyond the borders of self-doubt - she has always been the one to first put me in front of that keyboard and then keep me there. It's through the small things: huge declarations of support and praise aren't necessary (sometimes not even helpful), rather it's the small gestures and acknowledgements that what you're doing matters. It's the new notebooks at Christmas. The cup of tea you've been craving but didn't ask for.

And above all it's listening. Listening when I'm stuck, listening when I'm excited, and listening when all I want to do is blow up my computer and pitch a tent at the bottom of the garden and sulk. My wife is an extraordinarily gifted writer, and frequently puts my work to shame without the slightest effort, but still finds it in her to support and praise me in my work. Her fingerprints are all over my every achievement, and her sweat and labour has mingled with mine. Every story, every essay, every last word - though I'm the one that's typing - is a shared effort.

It's the same for all of us - I think.

Writing, and art more generally, doesn't exist in a vacuum (and how we all love to say it). A story or a painting or an album exist at one end of a production line, into which goes everything from loved ones to friends to family to culture to our present moment in history. Everything is drawn in and mixed and mingled, and every piece of art is trying to say something. And while my work is often frenetic in its focus, I try to make sure that gratitude lies at the heart of everything I do.

We absorb and transform so much of the world around is in ways that often occur without reflection or effort. Something we overheard in a cafe or a bar. A line of dialogue from a TV show that's still ringing in your ears a week later. It pays to pause and consider the origins of what we do, and what we owe to those around us.

Anywho - I'll dredge up more of the usual fantasy gumph at some point in the next week, once the day joy settles.

-LD

#writing #writer stuff #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #thoughts #reflection