#before remembering that I don't think that existed in whatever edition was out in the 70s/80s

[dire-kumori]

If the Afton kids played DnD, what characters would they make?

#not necessarily 'what races/classes would they be in a DnD setting' #but rather 'which races/classes would they choose to play as' #I had some thoughts for Elizabeth's character being a warlock with a pact with the fey #before remembering that I don't think that existed in whatever edition was out in the 70s/80s #I have lots of ideas for Ev #none of which I'm sure fit well #like maybe he'd play a paladin or fighter bc he'd want to create a hero who could protect him from all the scary monsters #or maybe he'd play a bard who uses music to make people smile since he feels so bad all the time #I'm also attached to the idea of him playing a ranger so he can have an animal companion as a nod to Saffron Pawn (by lonelyfreddles) #and for Mike I have no idea #maybe edgelord rogue or barbarian smash or sorcerer arsonist #I feel like no matter what class he played he'd go full aggro in his playstyle #random #Elizabeth Afton #Evan Afton #Michael Afton

[inkskinned]

hey it's nanowrimo. i have tips bc i've done it about 34 times.

Don't edit. Ever. Stop it. If you just decide to start a new project half thru this one with all new characters, no problem. pick up and keep writing as if you'd already written the first half of that.

"but i spelled it wrong" whatever. "but the grammar" whatever. make it exist first. no time for sense. think like you're working on a typewriter. no backspace. only forward go.

Don't re-read further than a paragraph or two backwards. "did i mention the gun before?" listen - it doesn't matter. if you need there to be a gun there, the gun is there. put it back in once you finish the book.

"i forgot the specifics of X thing i already wrote" whatever. change it, make a note/comment to figure it out later, and just write what makes sense for the moment. "no raquel it's legit the characters name and origin" idc that character is now reborn as Claudius from Elsewhere. it's fine.

only you see your mistakes. nobody else knows. one of the ways writing and dance overlap - only you know the choreography. nobody else will know if you miss a step, so just keep dancing and pretend you meant to do it like that.

it's an illusion that you need to write linearly - from point A to point B to point C. Nah; that's just timeline propaganda. I've written a LOT of books out of order and just reordered them once i've finished. if you have a scene you'd LOVE to write but can't get there yet because of plot, just fuckin write the scene. I've always found its easier to establish "point F" "point J" and "Point A" and then wiggle my way between those scenes.

write what you WANT to write. 230 pages of smut? of well-researched discussion on bread? whatever. the point is to strengthen muscles however you can.

if you miss a day, a week, whatever. not the end of the world. we all have dry days. also time is a myth so u can do this challenge whenever u want.

as soon as you try to write for a specific audience, you kill your voice. you are writing for yourself. stop thinking about how people will take ur book. it don't matter. what matter is u, enjoying writing. i luv u.

play to your strengths. i have characters talk so much because i don't know how to write a plot if it kills me but i'm really good at dialogue so.

i love a flight of fancy. write a poem in there. shift tactics and write in code. keep it fun for yourself.

see what happens if you shift something major about ur main characters - gender, wealth, superpowers. or if you change point-of-view. or if you kill everyone in a big explosion. do NOT edit anything before this or after it. often these little weird one-off exercises teach me what interests me about what i'm working on. it is never what i thought. plus it is a fun way to add like 1k words.

stretch.

it's for fun and for practice. stop doing that project if it's giving you anxiety. once my nano was literally 50k words of half-started stories. just things i tried and tried and tried and wasn't able to flesh out. oops. but i am now 50k words of a better writer.

add dragons?

read books/listen to books on tape/etc. people often make the mistake of "buckling down" to just write. you need inspiration. you need to like. fill up on words. you need to remember how it feels to lose yourself in a story.

i don't have the time or space to really talk about this in this post but a lot of creative people turn to drugs/alcohol because it can help you be more creative. this is harmful, and walking a blade that only cuts deep. if you notice you and your loved ones are turning more to substances, please know i love you and i hope you are able to get help soon. i feel like this almost never gets mentioned because it's kind of a hazy underbelly to art. you are always more important than the work.

on that note. drink your fukin. water.

don't talk about a story until you've finished it. once you tell the story, it exists already, and isn't about discovery. i usually have a very canned "haha we'll see" response.

grapes :) tasty snack.

i love you be free.

#edit: the command not to talk about it is from personal experience! #i have heard Otherwise in the tags so i will edit to say: #if you've noticed that you tend to like Talk A Lot about ur piece but never WRITE it - #consider voice-to-text #also #u might be like me and ... need to figure it out on the PAGE and not OUT LOUD #i am often an auditory processor so i wont tell people specifics but i'll be like #huh. so i have a character who is in love .... and they don't know it #and my friend will be like ''oh they should kiss' and meanwhile #somehow #saying it out loud im like #yeah thank u ur right the dress SHOULD be purple that's what the problem has been <3 #idk!!! it's up to you!!! my suggestion is to say LESS until you know for a FACT that saying MORE works better for you #-- always better to slowly unspool in ur exploration of that #than to accidentally talk too much and get Bored Of Project #idk idk idk #i have adhd so every book surprises me bc im like #wait where did any of this even COME FROM #and whatever little gremlin in my brain that writes is like :) #''heyyy girlie.......'' #WHICH IS A LONG WAY TO SAY: #i didn't know about Not Talking About It as an option until i'd ruined a few projects!! #but there are people who need to do the other thing!!! and i love us both!!!! #wow brains are so funny!!!!

[pebblysand]

Is My Heart Still In It? (and further reflections ahead of the Page Pals Project)

Hey everyone, I hope that you're doing well. I am back in Ireland now, and just wanted to come on here to remind you of the castles re-read project that will be starting tomorrow (more info here if you want to join). I am very excited about this and look forward to receiving your thoughts and to talking about each chapter as we progress!

Additionally, as a lot of you also saw last week, I received a not-very-nice anon about chapter 21. At the outset, I want to state that my intention writing this isn't to revive the issue, or to stir shit up again. Anon apologised and even if they hadn't, they're allowed to think whatever they want to think. I know a lot of you were very upset on my behalf, and a lot of you DM-ed me last week, which was very kind, but I also think that anon was very well within their rights to have disliked the chapter. Word-vomiting it to my face probably wasn't the most productive way to go about this, and that was typical URL-badman behaviour, but it is a free country.

I haven't had a chance to re-read the chapter, but I also think it's pretty clear what this person disliked about it. There is a change of tone in chapter 21, and a change of pacing, that may have felt rushed to this person, which is probably why they didn't enjoy it. Again, that's not really the question, here.

I think the part of this anon that really stuck with me was the allegation that my heart wasn't "in it" anymore. Firstly, because at a very, face-value level, it's not true. I don't want to seem like I'm being full of myself, here, but I think it is pretty much acknowledged that I am someone who has a very strong work ethic. I spend hundreds of hours on each chapter, I edit, publish, edit after I publish, answer anons, answer comments - like, if there's one thing you cannot actually fault me on, it's the amount of dedication that I have put in this project. I can accept that maybe, when it comes to chapter 21 specifically, I did a little bit less editing than I usually do, which may have caused it to be a bit clunkier, but that was mostly because I was very keen on giving you a chapter before going on holiday, not because my heart wasn't "in it". My heart is in fact so "in it" that I wrote and published 43,000 words in less than a month, so stop it.

But also, on a different level, one that this anon probably didn't even anticipate, they were right. Because, I mentioned their message to my therapist, earlier this week, and said: "Do you think they can tell?"

To be fully transparent with you all, when it comes to castles, I've definitely had many moments of fluctuating motivation in the past four years. I think that when you are writing a story this size, for that much time, it's natural that you will experience ebbs and flows. The summers, I've noticed, have always been particularly hard. The summer of 2021, when everyone was coming at me about my characterisation and, afterwards, about the contents of chapter 8, made me want to give up more times than I can count. So much so that I didn't publish anything for six months after that. I can state very clearly that my heart was very much not in it, then. The summers of 2022 and 2023, when I basically wrote myself into the ground and burnt out by August because I was sleeping four hours a night for months, trying to manage writing and work, were also awful. Those who were here last summer will remember the post I wrote about how much I'd sacrificed for castles, and how much I considered giving up. My heart also wasn't in it, then.

By contrast, now, I'm feeling a lot better about this story. Its end is in sight and I'm so very proud of what I have achieved and what I have managed to pull through. I'm also about to embark onto writing a series of chapters that have literally existed in my head for years, and which I can't wait to share with you. Whilst I am a bit nervous about how the end will be received (which, again, is normal when you have poured that much of yourself into something), I can't wait to finally show you all where I was going with this. I'm so excited for us to finally be able to discuss Everything, and for this fic to be complete. I think that paradoxically when you look at what this anon was saying, I am on "high" when it comes to castles, at the moment. I am more motivated, and my heart is more "in it" than it has been for a long time.

So, why do I say that anon was also right? Well, because I'm grieving. Because like a parent who is watching their child age and move out for college, I'm watching this story edge closer and closer to being finished with a mixture of joy and pride, and grief. I've always felt that once a chapter is published, and once a story is finished, it no longer belongs to me, it belongs to the readers. And, right now, there are only three chapters left, which are my own. Soon, this story will have grown up into its own thing and it will belong to the people who read it for as long as there is a Harry Potter fandom, for as long as the internet exists, but it will no longer be just mine. And, so, when I say "Do you think they can tell?" I mean that. Can they tell in my words on the page that I'm saying goodbye, too? That maybe I am slowly trying to distance my heart from this thing that I've built little by little, because I'm hoping that the grief will hurt just a little bit less, when the time comes?

I love this story so much. I know that it means a lot to a lot of you, and I don't mean to diminish that reader experience in any way, but it means a lot to me, too. Probably in a very different way. This story has been my refuge, my baby, my best friend, my enemy, my lifeline, for four years now. And, I love the community it has brought together, stupid anons included, so I worry. About what it'll be like not having that. About whether people will be interested in my writing in the future. About the possibility that I might never experience this level of connection again. And, so, of course, I am happy and keen, and so excited to finish and share this with you. Also, I'm not going to lie, I'm very much looking forward to getting some of my free time back (haha) for the first time in years. But, I'm also grieving. And, maybe, like this anon accidentally suggested, you might be able to tell in my words, or you might not. Either way, I'm telling you: my heart is very much in it. It's just - learning to say goodbye.

So: join me on the re-read, starting tomorrow. Join me as I say goodbye. And, I can't say I won't cry, but I hope we'll all get where we need to be in the end. ❤️

#castles

[fire-but-ashes-too]

SOOOOOO

i was tagged by @rickie-the-storyteller over heeeereeee and it didnt let me reblog so new post!

LAFGSLKRGHLSKGH THIS IS SO FUN HELP WHY DIDNT I KNWO THIS EXISTED-

ANYWAYSSSSS

i gto very little ships (sadly) so im gonna go with both platonic and romantic ehehehe

Annexander (is it how were calling it?? idk) (@holdmyteaplease ur the expert on this give me a feedback)

Alexander: Think you can answer some questions without the usual level of sarcasm? Anne: If you can ask the questions without the usual level of stupid.

Alexander: *shatters a window and climbs through it* Alexander: *turns around and helps Anne through it* Breaking and entering is wrong Anne. Anne: Okay. Anne: Shut it Alexander, I only shook your hand because I had to. We will NEVER be friends. Alexander: Lets survive this together! Anne: I HOPE YOU DIE. Anne: Fellas, I gotta know for science. Is the opposite of red green or blue? Alexander: Technically a mix of green and blue? Anne: So blurple. Alexander: That's implying you're mixing blue and purple. Anne: Would you rather have fucking bleen? MOTHERFUCKING GRUE? Alexander: You were confusing before but now I'm scared Anne, holding a scooter: Alexander! Can I go outside and play with this? Alexander: Sure, whatever. I'm not your parent, okay? Anne, running outside: Thanks Alexander! Alexander, running out after them and screaming: NOT ON THE STREET! STAY AWAY! Alexander: It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free: pouring river water in your socks! Anne: Why would I do that? Alexander: It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free!

HELP CAUSE WHY IS THIS SO THEMMMM AKFGASKJGF

Anne and Indigo (the absolute besties)

Anne: So... what would you do if you were in bed with me? Indigo: Depends. Is your bed comfortable? Anne: Yes. Indigo: I'd sleep.

*Anne sends more than 5 messages in a row* Indigo: I ain’t reading all that. Indigo: I’m happy for you tho. Indigo: Or sorry that happened. Anne: I have a plan. Indigo: Good! As long as we aren’t breaking the law again, I’m open to hearing it. Anne: … Indigo: … Anne: I no longer have a plan.

Anne: Oh, so when crows remember people who wronged them and hold grudges, its “intelligent” and “really cool”. Anne: But when I do it, I’m “petty” and “need to let it go”.

ok... this is scarily accurate...

Alexis and Claire (friends to lovers complete dumbasses edition)(they have exactly 1 brain cell and they take turns being the responsible one. most times i gets forgotten at home)

Alexis: My hands are cold. Claire: Here, let me hold them. Alexis: My lips are cold too. Claire: *covers Alexis's mouth with their hand* Alexis: You’d be stupid to lay a hand on me. Claire: Oh, you’d be surprised how much stupid shit I do. Claire: You either buckle down and do your work or you’ll end up at McDonalds. Alexis: We're going to McDonalds if I don't do my work? Claire: NO- Alexis: What do you do for a living? Claire: I exist against my will. Alexis: Claire, I have a question. Claire: What is it, Alexis? Alexis: What color is an orange? Claire: Alexis, you bonehead! Its color is the same as its name. Just like a lemon. Alexis: I hope no one lowkey hates me. Alexis: Highkey hate me. Hate me with every fiber of your being. Alexis: Go big or go home.

THIS IS FUN. VERY FUN.

HOW TO CREATE CHARACTERS 101: NAME, BASIC VIBES AND THROW THEM AROUND IN THE INCORRECT QUOTES GENERATOR✨

tagging literally everyone i know on this one cause the world deserves to do this

@olivescales3 @albatris @bloody-neon @bassguitarinablackt-shirt @briannaswords @cabbojage @daisywords @desastreus @did-i-do-this-write @deanwax @digital-chance @enchanted-lightning-aes @ember-writer @eli-is-an-idiot @firesmokeandashes @fioreshere @guessillcallitart @gwenthekween @harleyacoincidence @holdmyteaplease @iannicellis @jaxypaxyhaxy @j3st3rfun3r4l @kooperation1101 @koala2all @lycaens @liv-is @lyonette-does-things @mayakern @nocturnalmohawk @quinnharperwrites @roisinivy @raspberrykraken @spicymochi @scifimagpie @the-mindless @unmellowyellowfellow @whynotcherries @writingmargo @writing-with-sophia @writeblr-of-my-own @wrenofthewords @yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout @yesireadbooks @your-absent-father @zihus @zillanovikov sorry if i tagged any

#NO IT WONT LET ME POST AAGAINNNNN #OKOKOKOKOK IT DIDDDDD AHHH #well damn #thats a lot of tags you got there huh

[postsforposting]

It's a memory, and it's out of order

This theory about GO S2 belongs to @bbbitchvibbbez. They asked me to post for them.

The sequence of events is (mostly) real, but out of order. Rather than the Metatron, I think it's possible that Crowley, Aziraphale, and Gabriel all hid whatever was in the box Gabriel brought to the bookshop, and they hid it even from themselves. And what we're seeing is actually several months of memories re-edited together without the knowledge of the thing in box ever existing/where it's hidden. Why they did this or what it is, I have no idea. I don't think it was the book of life, but that's just more of a gut feeling. I also think the memory flashbacks have each been altered to some extent (minor to major) to have some kind of clue hidden in them about like, what the thing was, where it is, and why they did it.

The "hiding" miracle is not actually to hide Gabriel, that's just how they're remembering it now that they can't remember what they were actually hiding.

I think that would also explain the weirdness around hiding Gabriel, like why they perform the miracle on him, not the fly, and why they don't seem to need to do anything to reverse the miracle. Everyone just recognizes him once he has his memory back. This hinges on angels recognizing other angels through "their you-ness", their essence, not physically by a person's face like humans do--all of Gabriel's "him-ness" is in the fly, as Beelzebub says, so none of the angels recognize him except when the fly is buzzing right next to his head. Crowley and Aziraphale have lived on earth for all earth's life, so they have learned the skill of recognizing faces. This is how they know it's him even though his essence is in the fly. Thus, they should have done the hiding miracle on the fly, not on Gabriel's corporation. This tracks because once Gabriel "opens" the fly, all his essence is back, and the angels can recognize him.

Saraquel is working with them to hide any remaining evidence of what they did from the Metatron/the other angels. They apparently had a video of Gabriel leaving and hitting the button in the elevator to earth but they didn't know he was on earth before Muriel brought them the matchbox.

#good omens

[alexanderlightweight]

Hola, hope you're doing well. I was scrolling trough tiktok and I saw an edit of the "You would not hold up well under torture" "oh and you would?" "I did" so maybe Magnus let that detail slip? Or i don't know something inspired in that quote? 😁

hola! i am doing very well thank you, and this prompt was a lot of fun so i hope you like where i went with it <3 it was definitely inspiring

-

“Magnus!” Simon calls, relief in his voice as he heads Magnus’ way and really, if it wouldn’t delay him even further, Magnus would just portal Simon somewhere else.

Where his existence doesn’t interfere with Magnus getting to Alexander as quickly as possible.

“Yes, hello Simon.” Magnus says dryly and he continues on, stepping past Simon and rolling his eyes when Simon’s expression drops.

“Wait, Magnus—” and Simon is chasing him now, “uh, wow. You are fast, is this a warlock thing too? Because I thought vampires were supposed to get cool stuff, but I can’t even outrun runed shadowhunters.”

“Simon, I am incredibly busy.” Magnus tells him, a hint of fire to his tone. “I am going to collect Alexander, and then I am taking him home. So why don’t you run along, before I ask someone who is actually supposed to be here, why you are bothering the Commander of this Institute’s partner?”

“Uh—”

Magnus makes eye contact with a blond hunter he thinks might be called Undermole, he’s not entirely sure because Alexander is too distracting for Magnus to pay attention to much else. The hunter immediately steps up, blocking Simon’s path.

“The Commander is waiting for you in his

Magnus pauses, suddenly suspicious as he glares at Simon. The hunter seems to notice because suddenly, he’s also staring Simon down, backing Magnus up.

“Simon—” Magnus drawls, leadingly, “is there something you have to tell me?”

“What? No, me? No, I’m just you know, happy to see you. Yeah, cause you’re my buddy and Alec’s buddy and—”

“I am not Alexander’s buddy, Simon.” Magnus says, voice clipped, and he lets magic wreathe his nails with fire as he looks at them, feigning boredom. “And whatever you think you are to me, it’s about to become even less.”

“Izzy just needs to talk with Alec. For like a half an hour, max!” Simon blurts out, “but she lost track of time and Alec put in a rule that if it’s not an alarm level emergency, you get priority.”

“You would not hold up well under torture.” Magnus mutters, utterly disgusted and done with both Simon and Isabelle. It would have been one thing to ask if Magnus would mind waiting a few minutes, but they have plans and he won’t be postponing them for underhandedness.

“Oh, like you’d do any better.” Simon grumbles and Magnus scoffs, even as Undermole sucks in a deep breath and looks between the two of them in horrified shock.

“Oh, I’m known for holding up under torture.” Magnus tells me, delighting in the panic and sudden fear in Simon’s eyes. “You can ask any hunter here, including your girlfriend. I’m sure the clave has pages upon pages of just how little information they’ve ever been able to extract from me no matter how hard they tried. Do you want a lesson, Simon? In the art of holding, one’s tongue?”

“I’ll take him from here!” Undermole interjects and he’s bodily hauling an unresisting and gaping Simon away.

Magnus is furious now, his skintight as he remembers just how far he’s willing to go before betraying those he cares about. It creates an itch, a hunger and need he can’t settle, and Magnus isn’t sure what’s showing on his face, but every single hunter he passes gets out of his way and keeps their eyes down.

Alexander’s door is shut, and Magnus slams it open with a flare of magic that has Isabelle spinning, hand on her pommel and Alexander looking towards him with delight.

The wonder on his boy’s face fades the minute he sees Magnus and Alexander barks out an “Izzy, leave now.”

His sister tries to protest, and Alexander ignores her, walking over to Magnus and when she continues to talk, Magnus gives in and flings her from the room. He’s seen shadowhunters survive much worse than being slammed against the hall and his magic seals the door into place.

“What do you need, Magnus?” Alexander is asking him, smooth and sweet and concerned.

“I’m going to take you somewhere knew,” Magnus tells him. Which is a change from their plans, “and I’m going to fuck you until the only thing either of us knows is how well we fit together.”

“Okay—” Alexander tells him, hands soothing as the rub Magnus’ shoulders and then tightly grip his biceps, “take me home then, Magnus. I’m yours, why don’t you show me where I belong, okay?”

“With me,” Magnus murmurs, his anger stoked and the fire needing the cool of a blizzard to temper it. “You belong with me, to me, don’t you sweetheart?”

“Always,” Alexander promises him, and he lets Magnus tug him through a portal. Taking his boy to the fortress Cat and Ragnor once built him, so that Magnus could put himself back together, piece by piece.

#writing wednesday #writing wednesdays #magnus bane #alec lightwood #shadowhunters #shadowhunters au #lumine writes #my fics #my fanfics #my ficlets

[clavissionary-position]

CLAVIS × READER, Waltzhectica

N O T E S This is a suuuper-old fic I wrote over a year ago but never posted, long before I read Clavis' route. So his characterization here is based on how shady he seemed before we discovered who he really is. I also added some tiny edits. I remember I was inspired by the writings of gilbertvonobsidian and ndoandou <3

Clavis Lelouch has hands for tuning traps.

Clavis Lelouch has hands for placing pitfalls on roads he's paved, pebble by rigged pebble.

Clavis Lelouch has hands for forgeries and framing friends.

Clavis Lelouch has hands for betrayal.

So why do you take his hand when he asks for a dance?

His approach is preceded by a prance of bergamot, a jaunt of peony, and it sends your heart hammering.

You'd asked Rio to leave the small thank-you in Chevalier's faction office, a week ago. It wasn't much, and you'd rather not have gifted Clavis anything at all for fear of further entangling yourself in his plots.

And yet it seems now that you've done precisely that.

A young, merry couple cuts across his path, but the thread between him and you only cinches ever-taut. You are the rabbit in his prowling gaze. He is the hedonistic hellcat in yours.

His elegant, ambling strides carry him to tower and tantalize before you. His bewitching expression glitters under chandelier-light.

A man so gorgeous yet so wicked should not exist. But Clavis Lelouch defies expectation and common sense.

He bows and holds out that portentous hand, asking you to see the gentleman and not the beast.

Strangely, you see neither. Strangely, you almost see humility.

Clavis Lelouch is no stranger to masks. You know this as well as you know your own heart.

But tonight both those certainties come into question. You take the devil's hand, scared, but above all intrigued.

He yanks you into his arms and sweeps you into pandemonium. Into the maw of the ballroom, where grace promptly dies and something that could never be called a dance spirals into unholy existence.

Clavis Lelouch reigns as crooked king over the lawless land in his head. And for three weird minutes on this alluring night, he ferries you, flailing limbs and panicked gasps, into his private underworld.

"Take care to hold on," chuckles your ferryman, knowing full-well that you are holding on for dear life.

He tests your spine as the top of your head grazes a tray of appetizers. Luke's bear key-chain finds a new home between your teeth. You catch morsels of political discourse as you are hurtled above Chevalier and his audience.

But somehow you escape death (and even injury) because somehow Clavis catches you every time, with heedless but confident hands, and with such mirth dancing in his eyes.

The string ensemble has capsized, the guests watch in horror, and Clavis―Clavis laughs.

A hearty laugh that thrums in your veins and sets your skin tingling.

You don't know if you're having fun exactly, but whatever this is, it is rare and unforgettable.

And as he draws you into a grand and terrible finale, as he shushes you with only an exquisite finger separating his sylphlike lips from yours, and as he disappears into the astonished crowd, you're left thinking that "rare" and "unforgettable" is exactly how you'd describe Clavis Lelouch.

--- Thank you for reading!

#ikepri clavis #clavis lelouch #ikepri #ikemen prince #ikepri clavis x reader #clavis lelouch x reader #atelier writes ikeseries

[sonkitty]

Crowley S2 Hair Post #17 Redone

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 2, The Clue, Permit

...

Introduction

Well, I said I would decide when the time came, and the time has come. So fine, here we are. As I said way back on my post about Before the Beginning, I have a high preference for present day Crowley as it is.

The whole story and its set of games include various challenges, and the minisodes are no exception, especially when it comes to analyzing Crowley's hair.

Surprisingly, the present day sideburns are still broadly solvable without the minisodes. If anything, they are a guide for trying to figure out the minisodes themselves by telling an audience player to seriously consider the spaces as the hair changes.

I've already admitted these things are a bit over my head when it comes to these memories, but I'll go over the how and why of it a bit more.

A good place to start is The Magic Trick You Didn't See theory I've referenced before, most notably in Post #8.

Reminder, the core theory there is that the Metatron has access to the Book of Life and has been editing it the whole time. More to the point, he's been editing mostly Aziraphale's memories and maybe Crowley's as well.

Now, something I have not said explicitly in my posts from that theory is that the author themself says Good Omens 2 has bad writing in it, presumably on purpose.

Sorry, but it does.

You know what? I'm not a professional author or even much of a reader, but that resonates.

Their idea is that the bad writing is a clue that the Metatron is editing the Book of Life, and he is a bad writer.

Well, I still think the Book of Life is actually in that matchbox, but otherwise, the idea strikes me as quite plausible. Well, sort of. You really shouldn't be able to edit someone's memories. I personally don't think that's a good story-telling device. What's the limit? What are the rules? Why not just write the story exactly as you want it to play out or the person exactly as you want them to be? Unless it's a game?

But I'm not a professional writer, especially Neil Gaiman, and I do believe the "Crowley storming out" sequence is meant to be an obvious story edit.

But not by the Metatron. That was a team effort. This effort suggests the "rules" of such a game would then entail that the Metatron isn't allowed to be the only being that can edit the story (or memories).

The Earthly Objects game is being played, and this game is powerful stuff.

As I've said, Earthly Objects itself might be a book that is a game. So, combining these ideas, Earthly Objects might still then be a book that the Metatron himself can edit, instead of the Book of Life. He still has to play the game at the end.

And certain players of a high enough caliber can make their own edits.

Then we approach what I think is a tricky question for this story.

What is the character point of view?

This question feels like a trap because of the spaces acting like a point of view within the game. People are going to ask the question anyway, especially with this episode giving at least three hints as to who was remembering a scene and who is about to remember a scene.

But since the Earthly Objects game exists, the Metatron could be editing parts, and Crowley and Aziraphale themselves can also be editing parts, an audience player is going to have a very hard time finding the answer.

My understanding is that the memories we see aren't just a person's memories.

These memories are stories, and the spaces in these memories still have readings of Crowley based on various factors though those factors aren't so easily and plainly paralleled to the present day ones.

The stories themselves, I believe, are embellished and contain hidden messages between Crowley and Aziraphale, even if they have to deal with the Metatron intruding on those memories and trying to separate them in the end.

For whatever it's worth to anyone on the character point of view question, I do think Crowley is the closest thing we can have to that.

Aziraphale is the surface-level point of view and messenger.

Crowley is the layered-level point of view and messenger.

On my first viewing, the Good Omens 2 story felt more like Aziraphale's story. It was disappointing and felt quite lacking on Crowley's end of things.

But when I dug deeper and found the games, things changed. I can't see the extent of Crowley's point of view on the story without playing the games. I can't speak for other people, but that's how I feel. The story is amazingly and beautifully different with the games. Since I have played them, I do think finding 6 Threshold Tricks is a big deal, especially with my limited understanding of how much The Pocket Trick affects so much else.

The Threshold Tricks help make the bookend nature between Crowley and Muriel scenes stand out. In turn, Crowley himself having bookend solo cuts for the season stands out more too. He's who we saw first in Before the Beginning. He's who we will see last before the credits slide his cut over to the side and start rolling. He "pockets" the story before those credits start.

So, that's why I have a hard time with the hair in the minisodes and understanding the character point of view. I'll still pass along my limited understanding throughout these posts.

...

Episode Title

This episode has got some nerve being titled The Clue!

It has the first "touch" of The Bigger Thresholds Trick, two more touches for The Sunglasses Trick, and the first two touches of The Pocket Trick. The Pocket Trick starts this episode—The Pocket Trick!!!

The Pocket Trick is loaded with so many clues, such as the most likely place to discover the existence of the Tied Hands.

This episode also has a reflection of Aziraphale in Crowley's sunglasses as a clue for The Window Trick.

There's like 10 million clues in this episode!

If the challenge is to guess The Clue that is not the record but to pick the most special clue of the clues or something, my answer is the Pocket Frame touch point in The Pocket Trick, Triple Part 2. That Pocket Frame is for capturing the Green with the rainbow. It happens before Aziraphale even "proposes".

Here is the video frame in question:

I will go over it more when I get to that part of the episode.

But anyway...

I'm using Crowley's name as a general preference and figuring I can get away with it because the official subtitles do.

Images are brightened as I see fit.

...

Hairstyle Notes

Crowley's hair is shorter than what's going to appear later, but in this minisode, short does not necessarily trend human as it does compared to the present day storyline. It doesn't necessarily mean Crowley's point of view or Aziraphale's point of view either.

This length goes down mostly to his shoulders. When he bows his head with the scroll, some skin can be seen at the neckline of his cloak.

The hair is not just short though. The sides of Crowley's hair are more fluffy and curly than what's going to be shown when he has shorter hair around Job and Sitis.

What's worth considering about the space?

Earth is a lot younger.

This reading looks more like "open" because of at least two factors that aren't Aziraphale or the goats or Crowley himself.

There are no humans in this scene.

Not only are there no humans, there are no human-built or human-inhabited structures with thresholds visible. I keep looking in case I missed it somewhere, and I'm not finding them.

The space is wide, open, and vast. There is a ravine in the background.

I still can't find any humans or human-built structures.

I can find goats, water, plant life, and rocks. There is also a supernatural ball of fire active during most of the scene though it is not formed until after the scene starts and dissipates before the scene's end.

In this particular story within the story, a stronger curl or fluff in the hair is associated with what most closely matches a "supernatural" reading later when human-built structures are involved.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

Crowley touches one of the goats. Aziraphale touches a rock by eventually going to stand up on a specific one. Crowley touches the scroll.

Neither addresses the other by direct name though Crowley is addressed as "Demon" by title initially. The names said are Almighty God, Almighty, God, Satan, and Job.

Questions include "Ah, shall we begin?" and "Where was I?"

Time to pay attention to the pockets.

With the changed costume, there are no present day Tied Hands. However, quickly in their place are threads on Crowley's chest that form pockets over him already.

Crowley creates a pocket between himself and the goat just by grabbing it.

He is pocketed between goats just before he creates the large supernatural ball of fire. Not only that, he briefly crosses his left arm horizontally above his right arm when "Land of Uz" appears on screen.

With his right-side snake tattoo being more evidently visible on his face than in preceding cuts, Crowley crosses his arms upward, then uncrosses them as his means to create the giant fireball.

When Aziraphale shows up, Crowley creates pockets between his arms and his head before fully lowering his arms. As a general guess, that helps keep the ball of fire where it is above him.

The scroll itself creates a massive pocket over the landscape with a small opening between Crowley and Aziraphale themselves::

Crowley is maintaining position under his fireball until he unleashes it. It's like his own temporary supernatural roof.

Aziraphale is notably touching his own robe at times during the scene.

When the crows appear, they are visually pocketed between Aziraphale's and Crowley's heads.

My tangential reading to improve my play has me at finishing Pyramids by Terry Pratchett and starting on Guards! Guards!, which is the book I've found most commonly recommended for reading first instead of going by published order. Yes, I still chose publishing order anyway. Pyramids has a funny-but-cruel "short-handed" joke, which is not a pun I've thought of yet, so I'll be keeping it in mind.

I'm also on The Sandman Volume 2 by Neil Gaiman. I'm in the early part of it but The Threshold was heavily emphasized with the introduction of Desire, and I've been emphasizing thresholds as quite important for this Good Omens 2 story in my own theories.

...

Story Commentary

The opening immediately gives us a year, 2500 BC, with some film grain on the cut as a visual alert that we have entered a story within the story we are watching. This part also helps alert us to something like a movie and different than the sign boards used in season 1. Between Crowley and Aziraphale, Crowley is the one the story tells us who likes movies. He'll mention a "Richard Curtis film" later this episode and was at a movie theater while waiting out whenever Hell would come for him in season 1.

In other words, when looking for a point of view, that's a likely clue, especially since much like Before the Beginning, Crowley is shown first, and he is alone.

Once Aziraphale arrives, does the scene shift to his point of view?

If so, I think it's shared because the stories themselves are like coded messages written between the players, mainly Crowley and Aziraphale, with some potential Metatron invasive edits.

Due to the scenes with the kids later, it's possible the camera angles hint to the point of view, at least sometimes. So, if that's the case, I think that Aziraphale's POV on Crowley is at least the 3/4ths Crowley's left view of Crowley's upper body and face.

That's this general angle:

This particular scene is exaggerated in ways that remind me of a cartoon, such as the scroll rolling its way all over the vast space. That's a clue for someone figuring out the hair about the nature of the space too. That's the type of clue I would expect from Crowley instead of Aziraphale because again, between the two of them, he's the one who is known to watch cartoons.

The scroll appears from nowhere, and once dropped, it doesn't actually go anywhere in the scene itself either. It's not on the ground. It went into that same "pocket" dimension other cartoon items do when items are grabbed for the convenience of a scene.

This scene is a parallel to the closing scene of the minisode, which is far more serious in tone. That makes it the front bookend, or part of an outer pocket, to the minisode itself.

Aziraphale alerts us to how "unreal" the scene is by saying, "This can't be real". The line itself then has two opposing meanings. The memory story can't be real, or isn't quite real, but the contents of the scroll allowing Crowley to destroy everything Job owns is "real".

Hence, maybe things didn't happen this exact way back then, but the messages inside the story are still going to be real enough to hold value to the characters.

In the dialogue, Crowley at one point says, "I am a demon. Maybe I'm lying." I can't find the post I have in mind, but I know there was one where the author remarked that was a signal for Aziraphale's POV since he talks like that in season 1. When Crowley says, "Would I lie to you?" Aziraphale says, "Well, obviously. You're a demon. That's what you do." That tracks...except of course if this memory is how Aziraphale got such notions into his head to begin with. No one ever said the game was fair.

But POV aside, I feel it worth pointing out that this logic works under the premise of "correlation equals causation." As in, the statement implies because Crowley is a demon, he is a liar. With the Rule of Three in Earthly Objects, this logic will repeat two more times during the episode. It will also show that extremely similar literal statements can have strongly different contextual meanings. Here, it means Crowley himself is suspect. Later, it means Crowley was manipulative to use Aziraphale to get him into the mansion and reach the kids. With the concluding scene of the minisode, it will mean a lie to oneself as a shield for admitting loneliness.

As I prefer to interpret the story, Crowley is not a liar because he is a demon. Crowley is a liar because he uses deception as a strategy, for his own side. That can be part of his job as a demon or part of coping with his own existence.

I have to do a lot of questioning for correlation and causation to play the games in the story itself.

In trying to examine how the spaces read Crowley, a few things came up in my notes that are worth mentioning here.

Fire is a relevant element to Crowley himself and occasionally the only visible light source within a scene. That's almost true of this one. Presumably, there is a sun out there somewhere to light the day, but it's never actually shown on screen. Aziraphale's halo—or whatever that thing is surrounding him—also acts as a temporary light source.

However, while the supernatural ball of fire is actively in place, it is shown to affect the lighting on Crowley himself, making his red hair look all the more red, for example.

General reminder, that the quote on the matchbox shown in episode 1 refers to "sparks of fire". I've mentioned I think a lot of things already suggest that link between that quote and Crowley. Fire is going to show up repeatedly.

Another thing that comes up is...hats. Or, in this case, a headband. This headband itself actually changes within the spaces too. Why hats? Why head gear that's not just his sunglasses? Do I have to start paying attention to other head accessories like earrings and regular eye glasses? I don't know. I haven't figured it out. What I have figured out is that at the end of The Door Trick, a symbol of fire can be found to Crowley's right, and a hat worn by a relevant passing human can be found to his left. He is "pocketed" between these two things that keep appearing in the spaces of the minisodes as if they have some meaning. A hat-wearing human was behind him for another crucial part in the preceding cut of Crowley facing the camera.

These are things I can also find in a number of places in season 1 once I know to look for them.

I have mentioned that I suspect Muriel's helmet helps them somehow in their part with The Bigger Thresholds Trick and being unable to fathom how I could ever figure that one out. It's still true.

If I progress further, I will update accordingly as time allows.

Yet another thing that comes up is...roofs. Roofs?!

Yeah, roofs. I was very perplexed at that.

This game is a mind trip, let me tell you. I wrote it out in my notes about my confusion for why the story wanted me to figure out something with the roofs. I know I've seen the roof of the elevator when Crowley and Muriel enter. I know Crowley touches the edge of the roof to his car in The Window Trick.

After reviewing The Door Trick and The Door Catch yet again, but not finding whatever mysterious roof thing I thought I should, I decided to look at the ending credits.

I am not joking that I wrote this in my notes:

"Why am I saving and watching the credits when the elevator roof is still lacking? What does my subconscious sense as relevant that I don't? Is that what's happening? So confused."

And do you know what happened?

Here is what I wrote:

"This game is such a mind trip.

Unbelievable.

My subconscious knew to check that Crowley raised his head enough to make a fucking self-pocket of hair that can be seen in line with the roof of his car when Aziraphale smiles before they are both blurred and disappear from the credits. WTF.

Crowley narrows his eyes when Aziraphale smiles.

That's what my subconscious wanted me to find because of the roof thing!!!"

I can't believe this game!!!

Here's my post about it before publishing this one: If no one ever told you...

Alas, while I have found the fire-and-hat pocket for the end of The Door Trick, I really don't understand why this story thinks those things are worth considering or what they mean. I just know I found a pattern that I suspect is intentional.

Anyway, time to move on...

Muriel

(For reference: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2))

The scroll minisode scene acts as a front bookend to Muriel's one and only minisode scene in the season. Muriel is wearing a headband with some gold. It is not the exact same headband that Crowley wears, but the similarity is nonetheless noted.

I went ahead and made a composite picture to look at both of them their headbands:

The scroll looks very similar to the one Crowley held that disappeared in the preceding scene. Meaning, it's a same-or-similar earthly object they each touch even though they have no other form of interaction during the minisode.

Both Muriel and Aziraphale stand the entire time. Muriel has a desk much like what can be found in the present day scenes, but they have no chair as Michael does. The desk has folders on it too. These things remind of me of the present day form of Heaven since Muriel had a desk and folders there too.

For pockets, Muriel makes one with their hand and the scroll, some pockets between themself and the desk, and some pockets with their own hands.

Satan is brought up in the conversation but not the actual demons working for him. That is to say, Crowley is not named specifically in this conversation.

Muriel has no interaction with Gabriel. The two are not on screen together during the entirety of episode 2. Aziraphale talks to Gabriel and Michael when not with Muriel. When a number of angels show up at the end, Muriel and Uriel are not among them. Whereas both Crowley and Muriel touch the scroll, it is laid out on the floor when Gabriel is on screen, so he never physically touches it.

Crowley's scene is the front bookend to Muriel's scene. Gabriel's scene is the back bookend to Muriel's scene. Meanwhile, Aziraphale is a common thread between all three.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

#crowley #good omens 2 #good omens #good omens s2 #david tennant #good omens season 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens crowley #crowley good omens #good omens theories #good omens theory #good omens speculation

[hxhhasmysoul]

should I read jjk

idk, probably not

Its power system is very much an homage to Nen and powerscaling makes as little sense in JJK as it does in HxH, bless the authors curse the fandom.

Gege also sometimes uses anticlimax effectively like Togashi. The story, similarly to HxH doesn't overly concentrate on just one character.

I think Yuuji is an amazing protag, on par with Gon or Killua. I love the main villain and I very openly simp for the other main villain, as a character he's ok too.

Other characters are more hit and miss, some I love some I'm fed up with, and I won't say who and why because that would spoil the whole thing.

There's a lot of: things are set up and then pay off later in the story, a little like putting a puzzle together.

It fails at a lot of things it tries to do. It is rather left leaning for a shounen, and has some very strong leftist themes, but it's very uneven in handling some them, it doesn't always stick the landing.

It tries things and it fails. Gege seems to have got fed up with it half way through and seems to desperately want to wind it down, you can actually see where there were likely supposed to be character moments or plot developments and well they are condensed to off screen and exposition dumps, one fight feels like it was written by an editor or ghost writer from Gege's notes. ;-;

To me it's beautifully drawn but that's a personal preference.

I need to get traumatised by the story to get into the fandom. HxH took me for an emotional ride, JJK in its best moments too. I'm emotionally attached to Yuuji like I'm to Gon and Killua. I will always love it for what it did to me at its peak, no matter what Gege does to finish faster.

The fandom is atrocious. The either true lack of reading comprehension or willful misinterpretation is shocking. People has no attention span, they don't remember what happened earlier in the story, they will say lol what did I just read, and instead of reading the chapter again write that jjk makes no sense, that those who claim to understand it are lying, that it's boring and mid because they don't know what's going on in it. Some characters exist in fandom mostly as fanon and fans will openly reject canon. People will literally argue with manga panels. The transphobia, misgendering, thinly veiled homophobia, misogyny concealed as terfy "feminism" and racism are pervasive in the fandom. They will often be used to perform morality and write about how awful the author is. A lot of people think it's a cute joke to write very vile, violent things about the author, whenever the story doesn't go their way.

If you want this kind of mess in your life, then sure, read it. Maybe you will get attached to it, maybe just think it's whatever, no harm no foul. But if any of the above makes it not worth your time then it's understandable to ignore it, there's so much other stuff out there. Have you read the Summer when Hikaru Died?

__ edit

also, if you choose to give it a try start with the main story and maybe read Zero (the prequel) just before the Shibuya Incident ark starts. The writing in Zero is much weaker, the world is much less fleshed out.

#answering asks #jjk #jujutsu kaisen

[mermaidsirennikita]

No but for real can we TALK about how there is some genuinely offensive shit re: the Romani in Kleypas's book that gets a pass, but the in-character stupid line stuff gets cut bc it's the 21st century or whatever. Like I generally like her books, but if there's something to update that should be it!

Yeeeeah dude it really bugs me, ESPECIALLY because I feel like there's really zero excuse. Beyond just "educate yourself Lisa" ... she's aware that her books have "race issues". Because the incident that I'm pretty sure helped kick this off was Hello Stranger getting called out for a racist passage. Her oldest books (which she's essentially let go out of print) have been critiqued re: race. While there are some complex intersections re: race and ethnicity at play with Cam and Kev, I still feel like the fact that she's aware that her books aren't perfect re: race means she has to know those aspects are problematic.

I knew Seduce Me at Sunrise had edits to the moment when Kev kidnaps Win.... and though that's honestly one of my favorite moments in the book, I though maybe the edits were meant to be downplay the kidnapping as Kev's Mystical Rom Dude Ritual moment. Which I don't remember being HUGE in the act itself, but in dialogue, etc. But no! I was just basically taking away the aspects of "ravishing". Which is fucking stupid, lmao. Because in no way could you read the line about "she was going to be ravished" and interpret it as "Kev is going to rape Win". Why? Because we are in Win's head when that happens, and she is literally like "FUCKING FINALLY".

(Personally, I think Lisa unintentionally wrote Win as having a bit of a rape fantasy/CNC fetish vibe, and like... that's fine. People don't like to talk about it, but rape fantasies are among the most common fantasies for women to have, and it is fine, and it is one reason why a lot of people like old school romances, dark romance etc.)

But all the weird shit wherein, for example, Cam will be all "YOU ENGLISH DON'T UNDERSTAND, WE ROM DO NOT VIEW A HOUSE AS HOME" when like, the a good chunk of series revolves around the Hathaways basically doing a massive home reno in which Cam and Kev are both quite invested lmao, stays. The weird asides about Kev's hot-blooded Rom nature stay. (And might I add, lol... Kev seemed a lot more disconnected from that stuff, and one thing I dislike a good bit is that him shedding his inhibitions with Win and letting loose is like, aligned with him letting this Rom aspect of his personality that he'd been denying... free. The shedding of Kev's sexual inhibitions are aligned with his heritage, because in these books Lisa basically uses Roma to suggest "wild, untamed sexuality". And after his own book, Kev is significantly more involved in Cam's "let us help these unknowing English people with our mystical ways" stuff than he was before. Because now that he's fucking Win nasty the way he always wanted, he's like... more... Rom....? I love Kev and Win, but I hate that.)

Lisa is by no means the only historical romance writer who's done this. I think there's a grand tradition in historical writers working around the aughts especially where you get the vibe that they're like "well, I want to acknowledge that poc existed back then, and I want to portray them positively" but they also don't want to invest in deep characterization or push their (let us be real, often racist) readership too far... So it'll be like "here's the hero's best friend, a former slave!" "here's the hero's half-brother, also a former slave because their dad owned a plantation!" (Read a Tessa Dare book that did this, and I can absolutely see what she was going for, but it didn't come off well.) I love Jennifer Ashley's Mackenzie books. I LOATHE The Seduction of Elliot McBride because she tried to incorporate India into the narrative by having the hero like, live there in the past as a colonizer, and be all "India is amazing, here are my friends because I like Indian people more than white people now" (which, woof, but very common at this time) but lmao his buddies were his employees? And also his illegitimate daughter whose Indian mother was DEAD? Like, come on dude.

(Still not quite as bad as the Kerrigan Byrne book wherein the hero is a literal former war criminal whose big kindness was taking the lone survivor of a village he massacred home and making him his valet. But still.)

And I mean, this does continue, which in some ways I view more harshly because there has been years for feedback and critique to accumulate so more recently working authors should know better. Like the Evie Dunmore "hero has a Plot Important Dancing Shiva tattoo except that isn't actually Shiva in any way, shape, or form and also let's throw in a predatory villainous gay man for good measure" book.

And I'm not saying that Lisa's work is as egregious as those examples. I'm not. But none of the above examples are going back and revising their work in minute detail, while missing the most problematic aspects of the work lol.

I'll also be real and add that another huge reason why these edits suck is that... Nobody is saying you can't edit your work. Authors can and should be able to do that. But... It sucks when people don't know that they're buying what is essentially an abridged version of your book, especially when the edits are heavy, as they are with certain books. Someone could've read your book 10 years ago and when they buy it on Kindle now because they finally have an e-reader, they should be able to know outright that they're buying a different version.

#romance novel blogging

[severeweatheralert]

Things I learned while writing two novel-length fics in the space of nine months

Or, advice I hope might be of someone use to someone out there, but all brains are different so YMMV. Ironically, this is probably the longest tumblr post I've ever written. Do let me know if you got something out of it!

Planning

You don't need to know every single plot detail at the start. It DOES really help to know roughly where you're going, plotwise and thematically, so it feels less like you're running straight into the great unknown and more like you're headed to some destination. Even if you don't quite know how you're going to get there, yet.

You don't need to know every single character detail, either. Favourite song? Favourite food? I couldn't name my own, let alone my characters'. What is important is a general idea of what makes them tick. What do they want? Why are they here? How do they think? (and if you do introduce details, save them in a notes file someplace, so you can easily find them later).

Outlines are great. Outlines are not the law. If you come up with something that works better than the thing you'd originally planned? Change it.

Scene setting

Remember that you're writing fic, not a movie script. That means you don't have an effects team to pay and you can make the entire environment do whatever you want. Forest fire on the horizon to match your characters' mood? Do it.

Trust that your readers' imagination works. You don't need to describe every single detail to set a scene effectively. Just pick out a few that give off the mood you want, and leave it at that. (Setting dependent, of course- a scifi setting will need more description than a classroom or a hospital room, where most people will have been in their life at least once). This goes for character descriptions too.

Sprinkle scene descriptors through the dialogue/action instead of starting with a whole paragraph of exposition. You'll pull people in quicker.

Research: if you're setting your fic in an existing place, it helps to do (some) research and incorporate that in the work. Simple things like incorporating the name of an existing retail chain or a highway makes your setting feel a lot more real. Google Maps is great if you're writing in a country you've never been to. Just hop on streetview.

Drafting

If you're trying and failing (multiple times) to write a scene, ask yourself if there might be a pacing reason for that. Is the scene necessary at all? Are you trying to start too early in the scene? What are you trying to establish with it, and could that maybe happen elsewhere in the story?

If you get stuck on a phrase/name you haven't picked/word you can't think of/detail you haven't yet researched: put something like [NAME] in brackets. Then keep going. You can come back to it later and you don't need to disrupt your writing flow.

Turn grammar and spell check off. Run a spell check when editing but don't get haunted by the little red line while drafting. A lot of the time its suggestions are bad anyway.

When writing dialogue-heavy scenes, it's sometimes nice to get the actual dialogue out of the way first, then come back later and add actions or descriptions in between to pace the dialogue.

Sometimes you'll have to draft a scene multiple times before it feels right. This is painful, but ultimately okay.

Feel like you should write but don't really want to? I like to set a timer for like 20-30 minutes, give it a go, and if I'm not into it by the time it goes off I'll go do something else.

Editing

Let a section sit for at least a day before going back in to edit. Give your brain some time to forget some of it. You can still draft the next bit in this time!

Sometimes it helps to set the text to a different font or to paste it into a different text editor. Trick your brain into thinking you haven't seen it before, basically. If you're brave, you can even use the editor of whatever website you're posting to.

This is when you run the spell check. But remember: you're allowed to mess with grammar and use words that the spell check says don't exist. "He deadpanned" is a perfectly understandable dialogue tag, for example.

Use a thesaurus! I like powerthesaurus.org because it has a dark mode. The main thing to remember is that you're using it to find synonyms that may fit your meaning/the mood better, not to find more complex words. Especially useful if you find yourself using the same word over and over in a section.

Practical things

Brainstorming on paper works WAY better for my brain than brainstorming digitally, for reasons unknown. Plus you get the fullfillment of using up a notebook.

Have a scraps folder for deleted scenes. Don't actually delete them! You can scrap them for good lines later.

Especially for longform work, keep notes. Things like repeated lines, relevant plot details, things you want to incorporate in future chapters: keep them somewhere where you can find them.

For writer's block: sometimes you need to let a story simmer for a bit. I like going for hikes or chewing on my plot in the shower.

I like having two WIPs with vastly different moods at the same time. One in posting stages, one in drafting stages. That way if I don't want to work on a very moody WIP, I can switch to the other and still get something done.

If you're writing longform work: you'll improve over time. Try to resist the urge to go back and edit the first chapters once they start grating at your perfectionism. Especially if you've already posted them.

Don't write the whole thing in one document if it's longer than ~10k. I like SmartEdit Writer to organize my fics. It's free.

Uploading

I'd recommend having a few chapters' backlog before you start posting. This way you a) know you like the fic enough to keep working on it for more than one chapter; b) have some backlog in case writer's block strikes or life gets in the way of writing; c) can go back and edit in foreshadowing or edit out plotholes as you discover them.

If you have (and want to give) a lot of content warnings, keep a list while you're writing the chapter, so you don't have to figure it out last minute before uploading.

Your works' stats (kudos/hits/subs/comments) say nothing about the quality of your work. This one is hard to internalize.

#writing #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #writing advice #writing tips #mine #writeblr #creative writing #writing advice with lang #this is very personal obviously #long post

[rjalker]

so yeah after the absolute bullshit of that dream I no longer remember the lyrics to the nonexistant anime's opening theme in my dream besides the first not even full line which was something along the lines of:

-Your world is made of gold (100% accurate)

-And it's crumbing down (not accurate) Might also be "falling down"

-to wash over you (not accurate). might also be "to bite you" or "to hit you"

and some random line in the middle somewhere at the end of a stanza:

don't let it divide you on the bite (not accurate). Definitely ended with "on the bite". Divided is not the word that was used. It was saying don't let (something) make you all fight over the meaning of the bite.

"The bite" part was seemingly fucking random, whatever sentence was actually there, "the bite" was replacing a more normal word. IDK

the lyrics were an English translation of the original Japanese and not translated very well.

I remembered so many more of the fucking lyrics before the bullshit "haha you think you're awake but actually you're asleep" X20 started.

the first episode of the anime brought us in at ground level to a big busy city (possibly Tokyo? but like. with America's bullshit stroads) where traffic was stopped completely for as far as the eye could see, and the person in the car whose shoulder we were temporarily watching over was swearing and getting mad at people they'd just almost run over, because traffic had been stopped for so long people in Taxis were getting out to walk.

Traffic was stopped because at the giant intersection like, 5 miles ahead, because our protagonist(???) was a bus driver who'd just had a heart attack (or maybe a ''your werewolf transformation is nigh'' attack) and was unconscious. It was a big bus that you had to have a specialized license to operate it -- even if it was backing up traffic for literal miles. So everyone was stopped while the paramedics got the protagonist into an ambulance (I...think they were planning to drive out on the sidewalk) and could find someone else liscenced to move the bus.

People all around in the first few rows of cars were trading rumors through their windows. a bunch of people were convinced the bus driver was dead, others were insisting he'd been drunk, and ect.

sigh. I really wanted to write down those fucking lyrics.

Edit: I probably won't do much with this story idea, but anyone who wants to can use this as a writing prompt! And jury-rig the rest of the song into existence if you want.

#Rjalker has weird dreams #hiss #writing prompts #writing prompt #story idea

[masonscig]

Man. I won't say I'm disappointed with this book, but I think the series is a whole lot better when the focus is on things being done TO the mc vs random people suffering because x wants their blood

Like, book one was about Murphy going after the mc. Simple clear threat that fits the tone of the books. Sure some other people died but I don't think it hindered anything

i liked book 2 because it was just a genuine supernatural problem. The carnival guys who's name I can't remember rn were just having a simple conflict of interest with wayhaven. I'm not mad at the trappers coming in at the end but I think a simple low stakes ending where they sign the treaty or don't would have been just as fitting

But book 3 was absolutely not ready to actually handle the dark topics it wanted to devle into. The scope of the plot was way to wide and it still managed to feel slow. If it were up to me I would have just had the trappers going after addie with no connection to mc. It would be lower stakes than like. A dozen or whatever kidnappings and wouldn't have made the actual romance (you know the focus of the books?) Feel so out of place tone wise.

Sorry for rambling into your ask box lol I just have many thoughts about book 3 (like the fact that on steam it sits alphabetically between book 1 and 2 so my steam games list goes 1 3 2. That's going to bug me forever)

HI <3 before i respond, don't apologize for leaving a long ask in my inbox! i absolutely love getting asks and especially ones that open up discussions! <3 thank you for this !! answering below the cut

you're so right about the differences between books. it's so much better when it's contained – the story for this was just too big for her to get her hands around. and that's awesome that she was ambitious! the story quality just suffered a lot bc of it. dude i LOVE that it was just One Guy Versus Unit Bravo for a while, because it was just so much more focused and allowed for more romance to bloom – and a huge reason i liked falk so much is that, like you said, it was a conflict of interest. he's not evil – just from another world with another cultural standard for "judgment". in book 3, it's literally a human (or supernatural in this case) rights violation. these are children – being kidnapped and attempted to be sold. this isn't a story that should have any lighthearted plot beats in the slightest – unless they were organic, and none of them felt that way

it's funny (not funny haha, funny weird) you say that about addie, because i was having an in depth discussion with friends about how much better the plot would flow if less people had been kidnapped. even just the idea that there are supernatural youth existing in wayhaven and that it is in fact, not safe for anyone! human or supernatural!

this book is just lacking the emotional impact plot-wise that it should, in my opinion, because she tried to cram so much into one book. that doesn't mean any of the plot points are bad, per se, they just needed to be workshopped, edited down, saved for later books, cut out completely – whatever makes the series flow better! and that's not to say any of these ideas are bad ideas – it's just unrealistic to write literally every possible idea for twc! there's going to be a point where there's too much to call back to and it's going to affect the story if those things aren't mentioned again yk?

also STOP ITS OUT OF ORDER ON STEAM??? LMAOOOO the cherry on top to a shit sundae huh.

#asks #twc book 3 #twc book 3 spoilers #twc spoilers #long post #let me know if i need to tag any triggers or if there's more spoilers tags that would be helpful! #i have another general ask about what i didn't like about book 3 and i'm definitely working on that – it'll just take a while #i have quite a few points to make – but tbh i need to replay to make sure i articulate it right #also... just so you know @ anyone reading this who would care: #i'm planning on doing a lot of rewrites but it'll be slow! my friends and i have been brainstorming improvements #anyway ty to the anon for the ask! <3

[foundry-fabrications]

End of an Era

Breathing heavily, the Foreman surveys the damage with a scowl, fists clenched and shaking with fury, knuckles bleeding. The room is in shambles. Splintered wood and twisted metal liter the floor of his workshop, countless blueprints shredded and scattered.

With a heavy exhale, the Foreman slumps into his chair, his normally large frame rendered small by exhaustion. For the first time in ages, the Foundry lies quiet, the silence broken only by the Foreman's weary voice. "Why did it have to end this way?"

Hello friends. I'm sure you're all aware by now of the ongoing situation with WotC and the Open Game License. I won't be going into any details as I have nothing useful to add there are people who can offer better explanations than I ever could. Lunch Break Heroes did a wonderful video breaking down the situation, why it's awful for the community, and why you should care.

I want to preface what I am about to say by this. I love D&D. I love the team behind the game and how much they appreciate us as a community and what we have to say. I've been incredibly excited for One D&D and whatever the future holds for the game. Sure, WotC aren't perfect. Even through their many stumbles and missteps, especially recently, I still supported them. But not anymore. What WotC has done to us is unforgivable and no amount of backpedaling or apologies will absolve them of their crimes against this wonderful community.

But let me be perfectly clear. My anger is directed at the ones in charge, the executives, NOT the designers. This was a business decision made by business people out of greed and I encourage all of you to remember that. I am 100% certain that the designers would be protesting alongside us if they could without fear of repercussions. Their workplace is already a hellscape because of their boss's decisions, we shouldn't make it worse.

With all this in mind, I have had to make an incredibly difficult decision, one I never thought I would have to make. Effective immediately, the Foundry will no longer produce content for 5th edition or for One D&D in the future. Existing content will remain available for as long as it legally can, afterward I will be removing all access to it, so get it while you can. I will of course give notice before this happens.

As for the future of the foundry, I honestly don't know. I don't want to shut everything down permanently and I'll always want to continue making things. The obvious thing is to switch to another system, but I don't know where I'd go. I would love to jump to Pathfinder, and that's likely what I'll play from now on, but I don't know if I'll be allowed to make content for it. I do know, however, that I want to play and make content for Ironsworn, a wonderful solo RPG by Shawn Tompkin. We shall see, it's too early to start making plans and I'm honestly exhausted by all of this. I need more time to think before I start making plans.

What about you all, those who have supported me for so long? I know none of this is easy to swallow, I get that. I would hope that you might stick around and see where I go from here, what I do next, but I know you came here for my D&D content. With that source gone, I wouldn't blame you if you stopped supporting me. I understand fully and I support your decision either way.

It's funny, I always wanted to branch out into other RPGs, but I never thought it would be like this. Thank you for listening and for all of your support over the years. Stay safe, don't forget to love each other, and I'll see you later.

#opendnd #openD&D #openDnD

[sometimesraven]

any writing advice for someone writing their first novel? (*cough, cough, aka me*)

<3

Disclaimer: what works for me might not work for you, so feel free to take, twist and scrap whatever you need. I recommend asking/shopping around for ideas and other authors' processes, and it'll take some trial and error before you find what works best for you. But here's how I personally write.

Disclaimer disclaimer: this got real long while I was writing it and I realised how terrifying it must look to a first time writer. Take it step by step, at your own pace. It's not as scary as it looks xx

BEFORE YOU WRITE

(I'm going to be focusing on the story itself, but I'm sure it goes without saying that you should have your characters planned out first)

First things first: have a basic idea of the story beats. It doesn't have to be a Big Old Detailed Outline, just a basic compass to keep you going in the right direction so you're less likely to hit a roadblock. Personally I use the Plot Embryo! Here's my favourite video explaining it:

It's a nice simplified, easy to use tool for plotting. Here's a page from one of my journals breaking it down in a way I can personally come back to and understand:

hopefully you can read my shitty handwriting but I've put a little breakdown in the image description.

I then use these prompts to scribble down the basic idea of what journey I want my main character/s to go through, and use that as my blueprint for when I write.

WHILE WRITING

First things first: if you're like me, and seeing errors or plot holes in the stuff you've already written will bug you forever, do what I do and NEVER READ BACK OVER YOUR WORK WHILE IT'S STILL IN PROGRESS. Sometimes I have to skim back to remember where I am but as a rule, once something is written it's no longer my problem until the whole thing is done.

Don't worry about chapters and other such structure. I use the plot embryo to split things up so I know where I am, but otherwise chapters and scenes Do Not Exist until the editing process. Here's the "chapters" of a WIP as an example (this is a slightly different embryo adapted for romance but you get the idea)

Then just keep going until you're done. You don't even have to do it in order. If I'm stuck on a scene, I'll just put a big word in all caps that I can ctrl+f easily (usually either ELEPHANT or PENIS sklfsgskjf) and move on to the next bit I have ideas for, then come back to it later.

This first finished story will be bad. It'll be rough, patchy, full of holes. THAT'S OKAY. This is what we sometimes call the "Zero Draft". The draft that literally exists just to get the story out of your head to make the whole thing easier.

EDITING

Warning: editing is the longest, hardest part of writing a novel. Your book will go through several different versions, be scrapped and torn apart and put back together again. This is what makes the story great.

This is where every author differs, and there's a whole bunch of ways this can go. Personally, the first thing I do once the zero/first draft is done is put it down. Don't look at it, don't touch it, don't think about it. For at least a month. This allows you to come back to it with fresh eyes that haven't been staring at the same words for so long they just hate the whole thing regardless (and you WILL HATE IT. This is normal).

Then, the first thing I do is read back over the whole thing, adding notes and reactions as if I am a reader. If a part of what I've written makes me go 🥺🥺🥺, I'll write that down. If something could be worded better, I write that down. If you think a certain thing that you would put in the tags of a tumblr post, write it down. Treat it like you're someone else's beta reader, note down every negative, every positive, every ???? part. This will give you an idea of what is and isn't working. Here's some of my funniest notes from my zero draft of book 2 just to prove how literal I'm being here:

Then, and this is a controversial move that doesn't work for everyone but it works for my autistic adhd self-loathing brain: WRITE THE WHOLE THING AGAIN. FROM SCRATCH.

This sounds daunting and it is, but you've already written it once, so the second time is easier. Usually I don't worry about making this perfect because again, this is just another draft. I'll copy from my zero draft anything that I think is fine and write new bits or scrap bits as I go.

Sometimes, the story is fine. Sometimes this is an easy refining process. However, if you're anything like me, sometimes the whole thing is messy and you'll realise halfway through rewriting that the whole thing needs restructuring. Do not despair. This is normal.

I'm using book 2 of the Truth Saga as an example for this. I got 40k words into rewriting it before I realised that the reason it felt so 'off' was because the whole thing was sagging in the middle, characters were being left behind, and the whole thing needed restructuring.

It was a rough realisation, as Reckless Truth (book 1) was such a comparatively easy process. I only did three drafts and didn't have to restructure much. Book 2 is giving me so much grief and I'm gonna slap it when it's done.

If you hit this roadblock, it might be time to do what all mood writers hate. Detailed plotting. Go right back to basics. Write down every plot point in detail this time. Act like you're spoiling the whole entire story for someone. Have you ever watched a movie or book review where the reviewer does a full breakdown of the plot? Do that. In this you'll find out exactly where you're going wrong and be able to tweak and fix it. If you have more than one main character, I recommend doing a separate plot thing for each of them and one for the book as a whole so that you can make sure their emotional arc is getting the attention it deserves.

Then, when you're happy with the new plot you've written based on the draft of your story, go back and try to rewrite it again. If this sounds like a nightmare, it is. But it's worth the work, I promise.

From there it's a case of rinse and repeat, reread, rewrite, re-edit until you're mostly happy with what you've got. Then send it to beta readers and editors to tear apart even more and put it back together until you think it's ready! I also recommend joining some writing discords, watching streams or videos about writing, just research research research basically

Happy writing!

#writing advice #author advice #writeblr #authorblr #novel planning #writing process #authors of tumblr #answered #mine #writing #sagetheenbymage

[marvelousmop]

Thoughts on "Daleks in Colour"

Before I start, I'd just like to say that I have no problem with this as a concept. The original serials still exist, they're still on iPlayer, and no previous omnibus edit has entirely replaced a serial so far. Now, the animated reconstructions have, but also those are of mostly lost episodes, and the original surviving clips are still available to watch. I won't treat this as though it's replacing history until it actually does so and until then, I don't think "This shouldn't exist" is a particularly engaging criticism.

To start off with some positives, I think the colourisation is mostly very impressive. Some of it doesn't work too well (I feel like the forest should've been a bit duller, though I understand why they may not want that as the opening image of their colourisation project), but it's undeniably impressive in my opinion. Similarly, the soundtrack is a bit mixed: I feel like some of the intense orchestral stuff shouldn't have been in there, but I did like the added synths, and some of the other colourful orchestrations grew on me a bit (shoutout to the sort of Oceans 11-esque music they scored the Doctor's escape from the Dalek city with). Separate from the visuals, they're really good orchestrations, they just don't match too well (nor do they match the more ambient score of the original serial that we hear at some points).

Now for just pure negatives GOOD GOD, THE EDITING! Taking a 3-hour serial and trimming it down to 75 minutes was bound to cause some problems (and honestly the fact that they ended up with something still mostly coherent is impressive) but there's a right way to do it - the Peter Cushing adaptation only runs for 10 minutes longer, and that one also had to include the prerequisite TARDIS setup - but this just isn't it.

In general, it feels like the people behind the editing read too many articles about declining attention spans, and the result is just endless overwhelming noise and montages. It feels like they were told to cut out anything where the characters weren't saying anything exciting or running around (sort of the opposite of the Garth Marenghi quote "Everything without dialogue was considered for slow-motion.").

And the flashbacks.

Interspersed through bits of dialogue are cuts to things we've already seen: Are the characters talking about the city? Let's cut to it three times. Are the characters talking about Ian getting shot? Let's cut back to that again, the audience probably forgot. Are they talking about picking up the drugs? Show that clip, and do it again five minutes later when they're talking about that with different characters - GOOD GOD JUST TRUST THE AUDIENCE TO REMEMBER ANYTHING!

That's my main issue really. It feels like it doesn't trust the audience to keep up with the story, and it annoys me. Sure whatever, studies say attention spans are falling, bla bla bla, but do you know what else? If someone wants to watch something, they will do it. They will pay attention as much as they need to, you just need to trust them. Believe in your audience.

#mop's inane ramblings #doctor who #daleks in colour #daleks