#fanfiction tips

[promptsbytaurie]

anything with wing clipping. i once tried to do research on it for a fic and,, it is SO angsty

i got u fam <333 (i have way too much brainrot on this bear with me LMAO)

tips for writing ✨wingfics✨

!!please credit/tag me if you use this!! i'd love to see what you write!!

physical differences:

area where wings connect to their back is insanely sensitive!!

feathers falling e v e r y w h e r e

wings are big!! if the wearer hasn't had them for long, or is younger/inexperienced, they're gonna knock shit over

~birb noises~

they're actually really good singers with insane lung capacity, a lot of them are/could be opera singers

thin bones, so they're super light and even though most think it's embarrassing to be picked up so easily there's always One Dude who's like 'carry me everywhere'

smaller birds = smaller people. most wings correspond to a specific species, and hummingbird varieties are notoriously short (though never say that to their face, they will probably murder you <3)

unless the avian is a kind of waterbird (penguins, sometimes eagles) going into water will clog their wings and they could drown!! adding onto this i imagine that avians have special bathtubs and brushes and stuff so that they can properly clean their wings

on the flip side if an avian does NOT clean their wings they can get tangled or matted which a) is super painful b) could impact their flying and c) could cause sickness !!

dislocated wings >:(( this happens about as often as dislocated shoulders do with regular people. this can be caused by a couple things like blunt force, trying to manuever/twist wings in ways they aren't supposed to go, or flying too often/straining wings.

psychological differences:

preening!! it's intimate, but doesn't have to be romantic/sexual. obv there is room for very fluffy and romantic moments but it can be either way

flock!!! it's kinda like a family or a pack

the urge to Make a Nest and Only Let the Flock In

once the Flock is In the Nest then the Flock Will Not Leave Ever

molting!! old feathers fall out to allow new ones to grow in !

molting is basically the bird version of a period except all birds have it once or twice a year. they're more emotional, super sensitive, and extra clingy during molting!!

if an avian gives you one of their feathers it's basically a version of marriage, except it doesnt have to be romantic. its essentially a promise, like a 'we're with each other forever' kinda thing.

just as humans have discrimination, i imagine that avians have it too. more common species like songbirds, ravens, or crows are probably valued in society way less than those like eagles, doves, or parrots, and there could also be stereotypes against species like vultures or condors.

on wing clipping:

in my mind wing clipping is a lot like trimming your fingernails realllly sloppily, except the difference is that you should NEVER clip an avian's wings.

what i mean by fingernails is that the nails themselves don't hurt but if you do it sloppily there are Consequences: clipped too short -> irritated skin. clipped inconsistently -> sharp edges, snags on everything INCLUDING other feathers

huge violation of boundaries/self!! clipped wings -> can't fly. flying is integral to avian health and if they can't fly their mood and mental health will fall drastically.

clipped feathers take a long time to grow back, and therefore clipping has long-term effects. it also damages the feathers themselves (obviously) in ways that sometimes can't be healed

if an avian's wings are clipped their trust goes DOWN and their insecurity goes UP. its likely that if someone else tries to touch their wings they will freak out

clipped wings also make avians more jumpy and paranoid because they've lost their major way to escape/protect themselves: flying away.

angst potentials in wingfics (spoiler: there's a lot):

like i said, clipped wings -> can't fly. write about an avian's first time flying again. (not super angsty but still)

SUPER angsty: write about the actual act of wing clipping.

an avian is neglecting their wing care and tries to hide it.

relationship between a 'noble' avian (eagle, dove, etc) and a 'basic' avian (crow, raven, etc) and society's dislike of the relationship.

or maybe avians are a minority in a human world, and an avian has to hide their wings to be safe.

hope this helped!! <33

#writing tips #wingfic #fanfiction #fanfiction tips #advice #writing advice #wings #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing prompts #prompt list #ask #anon ask #anonymous #anonymous asks

[blocksgame]

Tips on character voices when writing fic

This is written in mind for people writing fic in MCYT/QSMP/DSMP/Life series/etc kind of fandoms. But if anyone finds it useful for anything else, well then, hell yeah.

Character voice is big in all, uh, fiction, and mimicking it in any fanwork is big. But I think it’s especially big in these fandoms where the voices are so distinct – it’s usually how a Real Person Somewhere (the streamer) talks, versus something very scripted that you’d see in a TV show or novel. And it can be a big difference in your character sounding generic versus really feeling true to the original.

Listen to a bunch of your subject talking. If you want to write a character well, watch vods from their point of view, or episodes where they show up a bunch. Take note of what they say and how.

2. If you don’t know how to start doing that: try literally writing down what they say. Transcribe an actual exchange in fic-format. You probably won’t want to publish a literal exchange from canon, but it will give you a sense of how to physically write what they say.

3. If you do this (or just pay attention to how they talk), you will get a lot of: Stumbling, pauses, repeating words, filler words, weird sentence constructions, fragments, etc. I love em! Here’s something that comes through in improv much more than in novels or movies: Most people, even very charismatic people, are not very eloquent when they speak. Writing out conversations or sentences will give you a sense of the unique and delightful way in which your subject is not eloquent. vvvvv way more under cut vvvvv

(People use a LOT of filler/etc when they speak. It’s reasonable to cut back on this if it’s interfering with a nice-looking or readable result. I believe this is the eternal struggle of people who write transcripts – you want the transcript to be accurate, but there are also a lot of things you can obviously simplify and not lose the meaning. So you’ll end up falling somewhere on this spectrum either way. But I do think a lot of mediocre/generic fic dialogue is very stylized – it doesn’t sound like your guy because your guy literally wouldn’t say that. They would say it worse and more confusingly.)

(I’m serious, if you’ve never sat down with a short non-completely-scripted clip or real conversation or whatever and just written out exactly what was said, do it. It will make you better at writing.)

4. Wonda-cat made a really incredible list [link] of characterizing speech patterns for the Dream SMP members. But you can also do your own reconnaissance and come up with your own patterns, common phrases, etc.

5. You do not have to get EVERYTHING right. You’re not going to, like, get so deep into the speaker’s brain that you can produce “exactly what they would have said if they were somehow in your fic.” That is impossible. You’re just trying to evoke a character, and if you get a few turns of phrase to ring true, you’re doing great.

6. A lot of these people are popular because they are hilarious. Include jokes. Yes, even if your thing is angsty or serious. A lot of the most serious lore I can think of from, e.g., the Dream SMP or 3rd Life or the QSMP - the really story-defining, life-and-death moments - were absolutely hysterical. If you’re writing characters who are usually funny, then add some humor. It can heighten angst via contrast and a sense of realism. Ask yourself what a funny streamer would make jokes about if they were possessing a character in this situation.

7. Some people have the mystical ability to “hear” character voices in their head, and read things in their voice. If you can, do this with all of your dialogue during the editing process. This won’t always get you there, but sometimes it can catch things that sound wrong by invoking "that's really hard to imagine them saying". If you don’t have this power, try recruiting a friend who does.

8. So there’s dialogue and then there’s narration that’s still from a character’s point of view. I’ve mostly given you tips about dialogue, but a lot of this is also true for narration. IMO, narration is less about phrasing things the way the subject would, and more about recreating the way they think. I don’t have concrete rules on how to do this, but here is my wisdom:

You can get eloquent again - narration is more of an abstract and artistic process than dialogue.

Spend time with your subject’s source material.

Pay attention to what they notice and care about. How do you think they think?

Don’t be afraid to get weird with it.

That last one also applies to all art ever.

9. MCYT tends to give you a great boon you don’t see in other media: what the speaker says to their chat/audience when nobody else is listening. This can be incredibly characterizing even if you’re writing a story where people don’t have chats. It’s your person talking about their thought processes and feelings! Mine that shit.

10. Some questions that might help guide both characterizing narration and dialogue (that you’d get from dialogue):

How open are they about their feelings?

How often do they lie? What do they lie about?

What kind of metaphors do they use, if any?

How quickly does their mood change?

How can you tell when they’re in different moods?

What kind of things do they pay attention to?

How formal is their speech?

11. Finally, this is a little odd, but I find it’s much, much easier to write a character that sounds good if I, the author, like them and am rooting for them at least a little bit. If a character needs to be there who you don’t love, try to love them. Or at least get a sense of what other people love about them. It just makes everything else easier. I swear to god.

Happy writing out there!

#mcyt fic #fanfiction #writing advice #writing tips #fanfiction tips #qsmp fic #dsmp fic #works for whatever too I'm just not gonna try to tag everything #fanfiction advice

[toxicpineapple]

writing tips masterpost

hello to my loyal tumblr followers... i am often asked to give writing advice but usually when people ask me this i'm nooooot completely sure what to say despite having a ton of advice to give. it's such a broad question when there are so many different things i can advise on, right? so i thought i'd make a sort of writing advice masterpost where i can compile the tips that i think people specifically in fandoms could benefit the most from hearing, OR that i wish someone had told me when i was still finding my footing as a writer.

hopefully this will be helpful to you. i am putting all of the advice under a read more since this is going to be a long one. let's roll!

✬ paragraph breaks are your friend

the fastest way to get me to stop reading a fic is if i click in and see that there are NO paragraphs made and the entire piece is in a huge block of text. no matter how good your work is, i just can't read it at that point. the giant paragraph makes me get lost, i can't focus on anything... it's a huge no.

the trick is you want your paragraphs to sort of act as a guide for your reader, taking them through the story, keeping them engaged. do not be afraid to do short paragraphs! i can understand wanting to shy away from one or two sentence paragraphs for fear of not having "enough substance" in your work, but the truth is, a thousand short paragraphs is ten times easier to read than a huge block of text.

realistically, you want to have a good amount of variety in your paragraph length. variety is key. readers will notice when your work gets formulaic, and some people will like that, but for others that can turn people away from your work. but don't force it! a paragraph should end at the end of a statement, or if the paragraph is getting too long then cut off the thought and continue in the next paragraph with a transitional phrase.

as a general rule of thumb, you want lines of dialogue by different speakers to be put in separate paragraphs. you also want to avoid doing huge chunks of narration or exposition in the same paragraph as you introduce a new speaker. just make a new paragraph! no big deal. i guarantee you your reader will be way more engaged and nobody is going to come at you for doing more rather than less.

✬ make sure the reader knows who is speaking and when

you don't have to end off every line of dialogue with "she said" and in fact i would really recommend you don't. but you ALWAYS need to have some kind of indication in the text as to who is speaking, otherwise the reader can get lost.

this doesn't necessarily mean that you always have to explicitly say who is saying what, though. if it is obvious in a scene who is saying something -- so for example, a scene where there are only two characters talking OR the dialogue has some kind of phrase, statement, etc that makes it obvious who the speaker is -- then in that case you can just let the dialogue speak for itself. sometimes in writing less can be more. you disrupt the flow of a scene if you start to exposit unnecessarily when the reader could reasonably work something out for themself.

✬ "said" is your friend too

related to the last piece of advice, here's another note: don't shy away from using the word "said".

don't overuse it, either. obviously, you don't want every single line to be "he says" "she says" back and forth, especially when they might be asking questions or shouting, in which case the word "said" probably isn't all that applicable at all. but it's a nice default. if you catch yourself busting out the thesaurus, my recommendation? quit it. just use said. it's not going to hurt you and the reader isn't going to mind.

but yeah, in the event that a character is raising their voice, whispering, inquiring -- there are tons of other words you can use in lieu of said and then an adverb. it's just context-dependent, and also, you don't really want to lean too far one way or another. like i said, variety is key. too much of the same breaks immersion.

✬ if you wouldn't say it yourself, probably don't use it in writing

another related tip. look, i get it. you want to spruce up your writing with synonyms. but the fact of the matter is that a lot of these words that "mean the same thing" on paper actually have wildly differing connotations and if you don't understand what those are you're going to look kind of silly whipping out a word you just found off the internet. we can usually tell, too.

your vocabulary will naturally grow and expand as you continue to read and learn. you don't have to try and force it to seem smarter in your writing. people who can write compelling prose and dialogue without throwing in fancy words they barely understand look a lot more intelligent than people who have a thesaurus at the ready 24/7.

✬ if there's a simpler way to say it, take it

this one can be sort of style-dependent, so if it's not your cup of tea then feel free to take or leave this tip, but in my opinion, taking a whole seven-line paragraph to describe a simple action wastes both your and the readers' time.

how many times have you read a fic where the main characters are having a conversation with these long rambling paragraphs between lines of dialogue? sometimes this makes sense! if you were writing a death note fic it would absolutely make sense for light or L to be pausing every few seconds to carefully analyse their opponent's move... but that's not always the case. sometimes characters are just making small talk.

i'm not saying you can't show off. you should show off where applicable. but there's a time and place. sometimes a scene benefits more from you taking the easy way to describe something and moving on. flowery language is great, but if you're meandering too much the reader will lose interest and attention.

✬ a metaphor is useless if nobody knows what it means

writing is subjective and highly personal. write for yourself first and foremost, and use the metaphors that feel right to you -- but the best metaphorical pieces, to me, are the ones that people can understand and identify with.

you've read a story like that, haven't you? with a reoccurring theme or motif that comes back into play at the end in a way that makes you feel so satisfied and complete? THAT'S what you aim for with literary devices like that. if you write a story that nobody can understand, with metaphors that just don't make any sense -- then you haven't really successfully told a good story, have you?

i understand wanting to have a magnum opus. i think it's easy to fall into the "misunderstood writer" mindset where you want your pieces to be so magnificent that only the likeminded will get it -- but writing is a form of communication. metaphor is just another means with which we can illustrate how we feel. you WANT your readers to understand what you're doing with the metaphors, you WANT the people who step away from your story to know what you were trying to say. you don't have to be obvious, just make it good. make it something that can be reasonably drawn from the text.

at the end of the day flowery language is just flowery language. that doesn't actually make your story good.

✬ grammar intermission

(.) period/full stop: used at the end of sentences. oftentimes not used at the end of sentences in dialogue, because lines of dialogue are considered a fragment of a larger sentence. use a period/full stop at the end of a line of dialogue if the dialogue is followed up by another complete sentence. example:

"i just went to the store," he said, scratching his head.

"i just went to the store." he scratched his head.

(,) comma: used in the middle or to separate different clauses (parts/sections) of sentences. used for incomplete clauses, AKA sections of the sentence that could not function as individual sentences. also used to indicate a slight pause. example:

she reached for the ripest banana, plucking it from the bunch.

a comma can also be replaced by a conjunction like "and" or "but". example:

she reached for the ripest banana and plucked it from the bunch.

(;) semi colon: used to separate different complete clauses in sentences, AKA sections of the sentence that are related but COULD function individually as their own sentences. example:

he sighed as he looked out the window; it had been so long since he stepped outside.

not to be confused with

(:) colon: used at the end of a line that leads into or introduces another line. example:

his fingers drummed restlessly against the window sill. it was finally happening: he was finally leaving this place.

(-) hyphen: used to connect compound words like three-years-old or hyphenated surnames like jones-smith.

(–) en dash: used to indicate ranges of time or distance, like 3–4 hours.

(—) em dash: a girl's best friend. slash j. but an em dash is used to indicate a few different things: an abrupt end to a thought or sentence, a "cut-in" where you interject something tangentially or unrelated before returning to the original thought, or a diversion in the sentence/thought. examples:

"no, listen, you don't understand—"

he scowled—an ugly look on his usually handsome features—and told her to be quiet.

it's not like she had wanted it to go that way—but when had it ever mattered what she wanted?

(()) parentheses: used to add additional context, information, or a semi-unrelated thought that would break the flow of an ongoing sentence without completely taking the reader out. example:

"no, i'm sorry. i just forgot to call you this morning," he said, looking away. (in truth, he'd sat by the phone for fifteen minutes trying to psyche himself into it, but hadn't been able to muster the courage.)

✬ show don't tell, and tell don't show

show don't tell is one of the classic pieces of writing advice that i do, often, think is correct -- but it's a little more nuanced than just never telling your readers what a character is thinking. you want the work to speak for itself without you implanting messages or themes into the reader's brain. at the same time though you don't want them to be doing too much work because it breaks immersion.

this ties into what i was saying above about simpler being better sometimes. you want to be concise especially in scenes that might call for it. a fight scene should be quick and snappy. no need to dig into the physical sensation of being enraged -- just say the character is pissed! but if a character is having a meltdown or panicking, you can get SO much more out of describing how that feels than just outright saying it.

✬ remember your perspective

another huge thing with show don't tell is that you don't want your character to be able to objectively say what everyone else is thinking and feeling -- unless that makes sense for them within the context of the story. really dig into it. DOES the character have a reason to know what their opponents, friends, etc are thinking? how well do they know the other characters? how attentive are they to the emotions of those around them?

it's better to focus on descriptions than labels in that case. say what face a character is making, describe their body language or tone. your character can have impressions, just make it clear that those ARE their impressions. and let your character be wrong! they do not have to be a completely objective source of information.

✬ when it comes to representation, if you aren't confident you can do it well, don't do it at all

i'm one of those people who's kind of of the opinion that white or cishet or otherwise systemically advantaged people have no place being the loudest voices in conversations about representation, least of all AS the representatives. if you are someone with systemic privilege and you choose to portray someone who is oppressed -- that's not necessarily a bad thing. but you need to be willing to do your research and have a sensitivity reader, and you have to be ready for people to say you did it wrong.

not much else to be said about that. your voice on the matter isn't actually all that important. there are people from the demographics involved who DO have stories to tell about themselves that will be MUCH more valuable than your perception of them, so it's honestly better to just let them tell it. that's how i feel.

✬ don't break the rules unless you know how to follow them. in other words, your rebellion should be obvious

a lot of times i see people breaking grammar or other rules and citing "stylistic" choices as their reasons why. which is all good and well, to an extent -- but you want it to be very clear that you ARE breaking the rules on purpose in a way that adds to the artistic merit of your piece.

if you don't know the rules, then it really just comes across like messy work. you both have to know how to apply the rules, and also how to break them in a stylistically significant way. if it doesn't make sense for the rules to be broken, if it says nothing... it's honestly better to just follow them. that's my take.

✬ don't be scared of names and pronouns

i said before that you want variety in your work, and that is very very true -- but it's also true that certain words like names, pronouns, etc will sort of blend into the background in writing. people don't notice them. that means if you're using a name or pronoun a lot in a scene to make it clear who exactly is being referred to...

hey. look into my eyes. breathe. it's okay. you do not have to resort to highlighting arbitrary characteristics of the characters. i know. just breathe. it's okay. use their names. they have them for a reason. it's all good.

this isn't to say that you SHOULDN'T do that, just do it when it makes sense to. if height is something the characters are noticing then use "the shorter boy". if age is relevant, eye colour, hair colour, whatever -- go ahead and use them. but don't be excessive with it. i should not be having to read the bluenette more than i'm reading shuichi's actual goddamn name.

✬ read

this is the huge one. reading other works informs your writing. it teaches you skills and tricks you can use. it helps expand your dialogue and your world view. it might even highlight to you things you do too much of in your own writing. read, all the time, whenever you can. it doesn't have to be books. it can be fanfic, articles, whatever -- just keep reading, because you will be passively absorbing knowledge during that time and it'll help you grow as a writer.

✬ practice

BOOOOOO TOMATO TOMATO TOMATO! SHE SAID THE THING SHE SAID IT!

but listen, it's literally just true. i write almost every day for at least a couple of hours and i have been on a trend of consistent growth for the past five years. go read my fics from 2019 if you don't believe me. i've grown fast and i've grown constantly. you just DO grow through constant practice, even if it doesn't always seem that way.

not only that, but you start to build confidence too. writing a lot helps develop those muscles to a point where you start to realise that you ARE that good and you DO have that dawg in you. or whatever. you just have to keep at it. you're not going to magically improve thinking for six months about how you want to be a better writer without practicing anything about it.

✬ yeah, betas are good

you want to have a good editor. i know that that can feel like having someone ELSE be the reason your piece is good, but that's genuinely not it. a beta reader is a second pair of eyes on your work, someone who can tell you about the issues and mistakes you're missing. they'll tell you when something doesn't make sense. they'll point out your punctuation errors. you don't NEED to have a good editor for every crummy little oneshot... but it's good to have one.

✬ numbers are fine and all but don't compare yourself to other people

i think almost everyone in some kind of creative pursuit wants to get some kind of acknowledgement for it. we want to be the best we can be, and it can be discouraging to receive utterly no validation along the way! i get it!!

just don't get caught up in crunching the numbers. you are not as good as your fanbase is. you alone know your skillset and you absolutely should not say "well this other writer got THIS much attention" because that'll just wear you down. it really will. external validation will only keep you going for so long, and you'll always end up needing more. you HAVE to build your own personal confidence first or you'll crash and burn.

✬ read your writing out loud

there is no quicker way to see if something is wonky in your prose than reading it out loud and seeing if it makes sense verbally. i highly recommend this to anybody who struggles with sentence flow. it's a good one.

✬ yippee hooray!

🥰 and that's what i've got for now. thank you if you made it this far, please take all these tips as you will, it is all subjective of course, these are just the tips that help Me the most when i sit down to write something.

please feel free to ask me for additional advice (on specific topics if you could!) at any time, i love encouraging new writers and i am passionate about writing so i will gladly offer support in any way i can, including beta reading works for anybody who might need that.

take care now 💖

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #fanfiction tips

[hannawinchester03]

THE CASUAL MEET UP..

Mob boss! Bucky X Fem Reader

The story of two people who shouldn’t be in love but they are, one of them know this already and the other is just lost, trying to make it through life.

Plot line..

(Y/n) runs into some trouble with the law, needs help getting out of the situation, so she uses a friend’s advanced and gives Bucky a call. A man with endless access to money and helps people in need, for the right price of course. Something that’s sounds strange to some, but perfectly normal to others.

This chapter contains: family loss, grief, alcoholism, knives, guns, money, poverty, physical abuse, mental abuse, mental illness, and depression.

Word count: 2,000

(Y/n) let out a small sigh as she leaned back into her seat at the bar taking another sip from her glass swallowing the last sip of her whiskey as she looked around at the vacant seats around the tables in her once very popular family restaurant.

It has been 3 years since the incident happened, for the last 36 months it had been eating her alive, watching her back everywhere and anywhere she went awaiting for the arrival of the people to come and finish off the job, waiting for them to kill her and putting her out of her misery but it seemed to never come.

“Why me..” she mumbled out as she slid off the seat standing up as straight as she could as she held onto the wooden bar countertop. As she stepped down she let the glass cup fall from her hand hearing it break as she let go of the countertop walking over to the other side of the room.

She made her way to the empty stage kicking an empty beer bottle to the side as she sat on the edge of the stage her feet dangled as she got herself situated, she rubbed her face a little as she let out a groan trying to wake herself up, but she had a little too much to drink so her eyes were glazed over even after trying to rub it away.

(Y/n) looked around at the dimly lit dining room, observing as some of the back corner tables had chairs up on top of them as if to tell the customers to not sit there, she lightly shook her head as she looked at the other end of the restaurant seeing the street lights lighting up the inside of the abandoned looking restaurant she once called home.

(Y/n)’s mind was once filled with great memories of running around the restaurant with her mother greeting everyone of the customers as a child with a menu and looking up at her mom as she introduced herself and took their orders.

Memories of sitting in the kitchen listening to her father as he sang along to the radio and cooked all of his and his wife's family recipes, telling her how one day all of this would be hers so she better pay attention closely.

Not only was her mind filled with childhood memories but with her teenage years, walking customers to their tables, now her introducing herself and taking orders, bringing the customers anything they needed as she would make small talk long enough for the food to come out bringing it out watching as they smile happily sitting back with their families and enjoying their food as they listened to live bands play music.

These are all the good memories that (Y/n) liked to think about, granted there were a lot of memories trapped inside these walls, most of them were good but there were some bad.

She will never forget the time she walked into the kitchen seeing her father with a knife up to her mothers neck, threatening her for who knows what, she always pushed it aside as she didn’t like to think about it much, thinking it’ll get better but it only got worse.

The next time her mother was holding a gun to the back of her fathers head. “You know we couldn’t afford it! Why would you..” (Y/n) listened to her mom scream at her father as she watched from behind the door trying to hide so she could watch but she was spotted, she couldn’t help but jump as she watched her father turn and punch her mother watching as she fell onto the cold pavement.

(Y/n) always thought those were the worst moments of her life growing up, but as she got to her teen years she told herself it was normal, all families were like this she always told herself. She would fake a smile making sure all the customers were happy as she tried her absolute hardest to keep them coming as the food got worse and they began to lose business everything going down the drain.

All leading up to the day she will never forget. It was a normal Wednesday afternoon, a nightly band who were just a couple of high school kids that had instruments and would play their best music they could, each one already exhausted from their school day but they got as much free food as they wanted so they stuck around and played lousey music in hopes for some extra tip money.

(Y/n) worked the night shift, so they always came into work at 7:30 and would be there all night until 5 am. The restaurant had a bar and most of their business was from all the drunks coming to their bar once all of the other bars closed, so they stayed open as late as they could.

(Y/n) remembers it like it was yesterday, walking through the back door leading to the kitchen hearing a loud scream and a gun shot not long after. She remembers gently setting her keys down so she wouldn’t make noise as she looked around the corner to see what was going on.

The sight she saw was her mother on the ground with a puddle of blood forming around her as her father was backed up against a wall with a gun pointed to his head as an older gentleman stood in front of him without a mask or anything, (Y/n) always found that strange, she could never understand how someone could do something so hateful and still have the nerve to do it without a mask to hide their identity, as if they were above the law and their wouldn’t be consequences for their actions.

“Where is all the money, all the money you owe me!” Is all (Y/n) heard before she heard a loud gunshot watching as her own father got shot making her cover her mouth as she moved back around the corner going to run out of the back door they she had come in from but she stopped in her tracks as she saw the door swing open making a loud bang as a man with a gun in his hand standing in the doorway.

(Y/n) felt her heart drop as she watched the man take a step inside towering over her it seemed like as she fell to her knees holding onto her necklace her mother had given to her as she closed her eyes waiting for her doom.

All she heard was two or three shots making her flinch as she tightened her grip on her necklace. “this can’t be happening..” she remembered telling herself under her breath as she curled into herself.

For what seemed like hours she waited until she felt someone’s strong grip on her arm as she was pulled to stand up making her cry out in pain at the strong grip as she was holding her so she wouldn’t fall. “What do we do with this one?” She heard a voice say as she tried to look up but her eyes were full of tears she couldn’t see anything. “Take her to a hotel.” Another man said out as she watched the silhouette through her fuzzy vision as it got closer. “I’m sorry we didn’t get here in time, we were supposed to protect you from seeing that.” Was all (y/n) heard before she was unconscious.

The next thing she remembered was waking up in a hotel bed, wrapped in silk sheets as she looked around still in the same work clothes she had been in the night before. She rushed out of bed and looked out the window seeing she was nowhere she could seem to remember, which was strange since she knew just about everywhere around her.

As she ran to the nightstand to grab the phone to try and call someone she realized the phone was not there making her look around frantically opening all the doors to bathrooms and closets until she opened the main door and ran down the hallway getting to an elevator, once inside she pressed the main floor button.

She watched as the numbers went down and when the doors opened she ran out to the front desk. “Sir, where am I? What day is it?” (Y/n) said out to the man who was mopping the floor making him look at his watch and begin to speak in a different language making (Y/n) fall to her knees crying as she knew she was lost in a place she probably couldn’t get away from.

“Ma’am you’re okay, you are in upstate New York, the date is Friday, August 23rd,.” (Y/n) heard as she felt someone holding onto her shoulders as she wiped her tears away and looked at the woman in front of her as she was kneeling in front of her. “Thank you..” she mumbled out as she looked up at the woman and sniffled a little as she looked around.

“d-do you have a phone? I need to call someone.” (Y/n) asked softly as she tried to stand up but the woman handed her the phone so she stayed in her spot and dialed the number to her family restaurant, listening to it as it rang again and again. “Hello, little joe's Italian restaurant, how can I help you?” (Y/n) heard her best friend's voice making her let out a sigh as she couldn’t find her words.

“Damn prank callers..” was all (Y/n) heard before the phone was hung up.

(Y/n) doesn't remember much after that she chose to forget, after hours and hours of state provided therapy telling them what had happened and them just telling her she gots to accept the fact my parents retired and ran off to their dream vacation, leaving her some money to survive along with the family business, god she loved to wish that’s what happened but she was told it so many times she was eventually made to believe it.

(Y/n) leaned back, laying her back against the stage. As she huffed softly she rested her hands under her head looking up at the one busted glass light bulb for the spotlights thinking about how she’d have to fix it, soon dozing off.

“Hello! Wake up! Did you really sleep here?” (Y/n) heard as she felt someone kicking her foot making her sit up and let out a small cry as her back ached with pain from the way she had fallen asleep. As she blinked her eyes a few times she noticed it was Elizabeth. Her best friend since childhood was a girl whose family came to eat here frequently enough for the two of them to become friends.

“Oh no, I just got here. Wanted to take a quick Power nap before our big rush..” (Y/n) mumbled out as let out a small yawn walking to go behind the bar turning the lights on from the control panel and heard the bell above the door ding as a customer walked in. “I hope y’all are open..” the older man’s voice said as he walked over to the bar, (Y/n) and Elizabeth showed the man a smile. “Of course, it’s 5 o'clock somewhere right.” (Y/n) joked as she grabbed a glass and went to pour him a drink.

“Oh I’m not here for that, I’m here with a business offer..” the man stated as he grabbed a card from his pocket and put it on the bar counter. “If you ever want to sell, or need help give my son a call, he’ll take care of ya for the right price sweetheart.” The older man said as he glanced between the girls before turning around and walked away toward the door.

Hope you enjoyed! Tried to give y’all as much backstory information so you can feel more part of the story and understand the characters role, stay tuned for the rest!

Here is bucky’s backstory!

Feel free to message me with requests or other suggestions I'm all ears.

Bye, until next time!

#marvel #marvel mcu #mcu x reader #mcu x you #my writing #james barnes #mcu fanfiction #mcu imagine #mcu rp #fanfiction tips #james buchanan barnes #bucky barns x you #bucky barns x reader #bucky barns fanfiction #james bucky buchanan barnes #james barnes #bucky barns x y/n #james bucky barnes #bucky fic #bucky x female reader #bucky x reader #bucky barns imagine #bucky x you #bucky fanfic #bucky barnes #bucky imagine #mcufam #winter solider fanfiction #winter solider imagine #winter solider x y/n

[foxhoarder13]

Now I love creepypasta fics just as much as the next guy.

But I wanna see more things that, if your keeping parts of the canonical character, show us those parts.

If you're writing a Jeff The Killer fic where he has his canonical appearance, then lord knows that's gonna affect some shit. I mean for gods sake this kid burnt off his eyelids.

Show Jeff having to take constant fucking eye drops since he CAN'T BLINK. Have him still after years, make the mistake of going up to rub his eye when he gets something in it.

And while we're on canonical appearances, y'all realize Nina Jeff and Toby all have serious mouth injuries right?

It would affect how they ate. How they talked. What they ate, how their faces moved. Show us that.

Toby has CIPA, Schizophrenia, Tourette Syndrome, PTSD, ADHD, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Eating Disorders, I mean this kid has a lot of shit going on. That is GOING TO AFFECT HIM.

And yes, you could write the characters as yk, not having these things. But tell us if you're not. Mark it as an au.

Because that's what it fucking is.

#Creepypasta #Fanfiction tips #jeff the killer #ticci toby #Nina the killer

[rougepancake]

HOW TO WRITE FANFICTION

1) Pick a Hozier song that you like

2) Pick any fictional character(s) that the song makes you think of

3) BIG BANG THAT SHIT AND COMBINE THEM

4) Proofread

#hey guys guess what I’m doing #don’t look at me rn I’m going through it #marie rants #writing tips #writing #fanfic #author tips #fanfiction tips #writers

[skiter-cat-slaying]

Hermitcraft fans. I’ve seen a lot of fics where they have a rule of “no asking for backstory” and it’s always taken so *seriously*. These are the Hermits. They joke about e v e r y t h i n g.

They would totally joke about it like

(they are playing detectives)

Detective Ren: Where were you last night, miss Joe Hills

Joe Hills, the most open man ever: Xisumaaaa!! He’s asking about my paaaasst!! Rule breaker Ren!

or something like

“Dude wtf were you doing in your life that made you refuse to build castles scar”

and scar would get all fake solemn: “well.. at a very young age, castle’s ate my parents……”

or angsty!

“lmao why are you so secluded all the time”

“… I-”

“oh crap sorry I didn’t mean to upset you–”

Thosr are wayore fun than the writer just stating the rule and only touching on it when it’s important to the main character! And I’m not saying I hate the “no backstory unless person gives the okay” rule, it’s a solid rule, but it could be way more fun.

I might just want more silliness in angsty times….

#Hermitcraft #joe hills #rendog #writing #fanfiction #writing tips #fanfiction tips #It would add character guys #please i’m desperate #(Not forced)

[thewatcher727]

Review Tip: Understand The Difference Between Constructive Feedback And Just Being Mean

Constructive feedback aims to provide helpful suggestions and insights that can assist the writer in improving their story. It focuses on specific aspects of the narrative, such as plot, characterization, dialogue, or pacing, and offers suggestions for enhancement. On the other hand, being mean or overly critical serves no productive purpose. It often involves belittling or attacking the writer without offering any substantial suggestions for improvement. It's important to understand this distinction and ensure that your feedback is constructive and supportive rather than hurtful or discouraging. Elaborate on the importance of maintaining a balance between providing honest feedback and being mindful of the writer's feelings. Encourage writers to focus on specific examples, provide actionable suggestions, and highlight both strengths and areas that need improvement.

#creative writers #creative writing #fanfic review #fanfiction #fanfiction tips #helping writers #how to write #references for writers #review tips #wingfic #writer #writers #writers and poets #writers community #writers corner #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #writing #writing advice #writing community #writing help #writing inspiration #writing life #writing prompts #writing resources #writing tips #writing tips and tricks

[ghl-osty]

fanfiction

i’d like to talk about fanfiction real quick because there are some issues really frequently that can make or break a story. and they’re avoidable!! and it makes me so sad when i’m trying to read a good fanfic and there’s so many errors that i have to stop.

NAMES

so this is one i see surprisingly often… please make sure you know how to spell a character’s name when writing a fanfiction. it’s usually something small like damian vs. damien or lucas vs. lukas but to me it’s so distracting and disappointing when there’s a beautifully written story with a character’s name spelled wrong.

SPELLING

this is a big one, too. when writing, some people don’t always have a spell check or an editor built in to their platform. if that’s you, please triple check your work! and here are a few frequent ones i see-

-shook vs. shock

i shook his hand

i was in shock that she did such a horrible thing

-peaked vs. piqued

-he looked like he peaked in high school

-they piqued my interest

blonde vs blond

-she had blonde hair

-he had blond hair

blonde is a gendered word. i’m not actually sure how it’s used with nonbinary people, let me know!

their, there, and they’re

-it was theirs

-she’s over there

-they were scared, and now they’re not

remember that they’re is a contraction of they are!

quite vs. quiet

she tried to be quiet, not making any noise.

they were quite bored with this whole event.

(thank you to @nathaaaan for the suggestion)

SERIES VS. SERIE

i watched a really good series yesterday

serie isn’t actually a word…

BILINGUAL CHARACTERS

please, please, please do some research if you write a character who speaks another language. even if it’s reading other fanfictions to figure out how your character’s language fits in with the language you’re writing with.

-having a character to say that it’s ’hard to switch back’ is… unrealistic at best. i wouldn’t recommend using it.

-please gender the words correctly! in most of the romance languages, words are gendered. make sure to add that in!

REPETITION

unless you’re going for a gimmick, i’d be careful with repetition. having a character say something more than once, especially in the same sentence, can be annoying and makes the dialogue sound forced.

especially the word antics…. i literally had to put a fic down because ‘antics’ was in every other sentence.

ex: “Lily sighed, annoyed. She was so annoyed!”

(yes this is a real actual example with the character name changed. don’t let this be you.)

FORMATTING

i think this can be overlooked a lot but format is important!!!

-paragraph breaks!! seeing a huge chunk of words with absolutely no breaks is overwhelming. add some space!

-“the punctuation goes inside the quotations.” he said

-i know i’m being a bit of a hypocrite, but capitalization! names, beginning of sentences, and places!! if you don’t capitalize, at least be consistent with it!

“This is how fanfiction, or really any writing, should be formatted.” Eli said with a smile

“And every new sentence should be a paragraph break,” interjected Alex, “Unless you’re going for a certain style. In which case, you do you.”

Eli sighed. “That’s true, Alex. What OP didn’t know was that tumblr has a formatting issue, so that when she posts this, the paragraph breaks won’t show! She hopes she fixed it. But it might not work!”

“We can always imagine the bullet points as paragraph breaks.”

-friendly neighborhood reminder that paragraph breaks happen when introducing a new idea as well!

-bolds and italics are important.

“I told him not to go,” acceptable, a bit dry.

“I told him not to go,” exquisite, flavorful.

and as always. please make sure they’re talking like people. not disney sitcom characters.

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE TENSE

you would not believe how much i see this messed up. and it’s easy to get wrong. remember, you can always look something up if you aren’t sure. but stay consistent with your tenses!

past tense

She walked up to the drab, grey building, trembling. As she pulled the door open, a bell rang, signaling her arrival.

this one’s probably the most used. notice that it’s almost like we’re retelling the story, after it’s already happened (hence past tense)

present tense

She walks up to the drab, grey building, trembling. She pulls the door open, and a bell rings to signal her arrival.

we have to change quite a few words for the same sentence to make sense in present tense.

future tense

She’ll walk up to the drab, grey building, trembling. She’ll pull the door open, and a bell will ring to signal her arrival.

i honestly don’t think i’ve ever seen future tense used in a novel unless it’s used in dialogue. but it’s almost as if you’re speaking hypothetically about an event.

but please make sure you’re consistent with these! don’t use one and then switch to another!!

but all in all just double check your writing, always!!! there are so many good works out there that could be great.,… if you don’t have someone to beta read you can always send it to me or put it in word <3

#writing #creative writing #fanfic #fanficiton #fanfiction writer #ao3 fanfic #archive of our own #ao3 #ao3 writer #wattpad #look i’m tagging wattpad to not leave anyone out #but i don’t use wattpad #just to clarify #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #writerscommunity #writeblr #writer stuff #writer on tumblr #writer on ao3 #fanfiction tips #fanfic tips #too many tags #long post #writing is hard #but you can do it #pinky promise you can #please let me know if you see any errors #i know i act like i know everything but i’m wrong #so often

[rdhadastroke]

So this straw-masked dumbass decided to do a thing and share some personal tips about writing fanfiction/writing someone else's character/writing in general!

Please keep in mind that I am a hobbyist writer, not a professional! These are just suggestions/things that help me that may or may not work for you, please feel free to correct me or add your own anecdotes :)

Tips for getting ready to write:

Make sure that you're in an environment where you can concentrate.

Whether that be in a quiet room, a chatty café, or blasting your eardrums out with music, whatever gets you in the groove is good. Not everybody can focus in the same environment, so your choice of surroundings for when you right aren't going to be the same as everyone else's. I (personally) listen to long video essays, my current favorite song on loop, or a playlist about the story/characters.

Clear a space for where you want to write.

Clear the space of excess clutter and keep only what you need. If what you need to write is a lot, that's fine! Having too much going on at once in your writing space can overwhelm and/or distract you. I know from personal experience.

Have all of your materials at hand.

Character sheets, previous stories, note paper to jot down ideas, rough environment & scene sketches... Whatever references and tools you need, keep them with you! Also, keep a glass of water or some other drink nearby. Hydrate or diedrate, my friends.

Make sure that you won't be interrupted while you're writing.

This may not be an option for those of you living with your parents or a roommate, but it's ideal for your creative flow to go undisturbed, uninterrupted, and unwatched. Is your father really watching you write your fanfic? No, probably not, considering that he's snoring. But it still feels weird to write when he's sitting in his armchair right behind you. No, I am not projecting my experience onto the reader under the cover of an absurd joke, why would you say that?

Now that setup is out of the way, let's go over some actual writing stuff:

Always, always, always block out what you want to write before you actually write it.

By "block out", I mean give a basic summary of the events you want to take place in that chapter or segment. I usually do this event-by-event because I struggle to carry on a story without an outline, but you can do it by chapter or by paragraph if you'd like. Make jokes in your mini-summaries, and phrase things in wacky ways (that convey things to you effectively)! You don't have to be too serious about it. After all, if you're in a lil silly goofy mood, you can get an epic sentence like this:

If you get stuck on a part of a story, move on and save it for later.

If you're anything like me, you understand the screaming, crying, pissing, pants-shittingly frustrating experience of not knowing how to describe something or figure out what should be said next. As angering as it is, it's okay. Just write a mini block-in for what you want to happen, want to describe, or the general tone of what you want to be said. Or use a keyword that you can Ctrl+F for to finish those pesky scenes when you're ready. If your writing software can do it (I have no clue if any one program does this, I only use Google Docs), mark the spot for review to return to it later. If you're one of those frighteningly powerful people who write stories by hand, highlight it and paste what you want to go there over it once you're ready. If you aren't familiar with this infuriating part of writing, you're a lucky bastard and I envy you immensely.

If you have writer's block, there are 8 potential strategies (that I can provide) you can use to alleviate it.

These are NOT surefire fixes for writer's block and are EXTREMELY subjective and results will vary from person to person, but they can potentially help you.

Read a book. Sometimes reading how another author writes (dialogue, scenery, figurative language, etc.) can help you get a better grasp of what you want to write, and how you want to write it. You might even get inspired to make a different story, which bleeds into the next point.

Work on/start a different story. (This isn't always the best way to get out of writer's block, so if you can't get a word down, this probably won't help.) Sometimes changing what you're working on can free up the ink clogged in your pen, for lack of a better phrase, and give you an, "aha!" moment.

Eat and drink something. Brains don't work when they don't have fuel, so feed your machine. Frequent maintenance keeps an engine running smooth, so occasionally get a snack and make sure to keep hydrated.

Take a walk and get some fresh air, and touch some grass for the love of god. Jokes aside, getting your body moving can excite your brain into working and clear some brain fog, since exercise gives your brain a dose of serotonin. As silly as it sounds, sitting in the sun and touching some grass can actually make you feel nice and rejuvenated, it helps me a lot. Even if you don't go outside, moving around is a good way to give your brain a break.

Talk to a friend and get their input. Their ideas can get you through a tough spot and inspire you to get writing again.

Look at pretty pictures and distract yourself from what you're doing. I have pictures of art pieces and doodles I like hanging in front of the desk where I write, and losing myself in pretty stuff helps me work through what I'm struggling with.

Jot down notes by hand on what you're trying to do. Planning things out on pen and paper, despite being tedious, imprints information in your mind and can be useful to your writing needs

If you're writing a fanfiction, look at the source material. Chances are, there's something there that could help you along.

If you don't have the motivation to write anything, don't.

This isn't the best advice for someone who's on a time limit, but works wonders for passion projects and fun stories. Very few do their best work when they force themselves to do it. Besides, there's no point in having a hobby if you don't get joy out of it and overly stress over it.

Writing someone else's character? No problemo, here's some fanfic help:

Always look at the source material, and don't be shy to explore new territory with the character.

It's important to stay true to the personality of a character when you're writing someone else's creation, but don't be afraid to throw in some headcanons and artistic flair. Remember, there's a difference between writing a character unrealistically (pertaining to personality, likes, interests, and universe/world/time period) and changing the circumstances of the original story. Characters are people too, and people react differently to the same thing depending on the world around them. A character may not have [x] trait if [y] event never happened, likewise [y] event never would have happened if this character didn't have [x] trait. Take into consideration the people around the character, as well, as they can also affect what the character does and how they develop. Change up small events in the original source material's story to get a different story and a different reaction out of the character. Experiment, and have fun! It's your story, write it your way!

That's all the advice I have for now, and I hope I was helpful! :)))

#fanfiction tips #writing tips #writing help #writing #fanfiction help #fanfiction #writing advice #fanfiction advice #hobby writer #im not a professional

[readingfanficismyhobby]

Okay never mind, ao3 isn’t all fixed because it is being repeatedly shut down by religiously and politically motivated hackers through a “DDOS” attack. So that’s great. Good luck to the ao3 staff that have to deal with this issue, we love and appreciate you!

In the meantime, I have a few suggestions for readers during these trying times. It seems like ao3 has brief periods where it functions, so I would recommend that people find long and complete fics they’ve been wanting to read. Then download them because we have no idea how long this will be an issue, or when the site will be down again. The way I do it is by downloading them as a pdf on my iPad, and then saving it to the files app so they’re all in one place.

If you don’t want to download things you could also just open up a tab with a fic and click the “entire work” button so you have the whole thing opened already. You can do this with multiple tabs.

Alternate sites like fanfiction.net or wattpad are always an option as well, but I’m not that desperate yet.

Hope this helps! And once again, thank you ao3 staff for fighting to keep the site operational.

#ao3 #archive of our own #DDOS #ff.net #fanfiction #wattpad #fanfiction tips

[whackacole3]

do you have any tips for new writers? you write fast and your fics are pretty damn good so i thought it would be good to ask you!

omg yeah, i can try! here’s a few things that come to mind. this stuff is mainly for writing fanfictions, but i guess it can apply to books as well?

reminder this is just what i suggest, if you think differently that’s okay! every writer is different.

and if anyone has any more suggestions, feel free to either comment and/or reblog with your suggestions.

(also idk what speed has to do with anything but that just comes with practice and motivation 😭)

1.) stop caring and stop worrying. i know this might sound counterintuitive but it's really not when you look deep into it. once you sit down and decide to just have fun is when your best work comes out, at least for me. writing is supposed to be fun, you’re supposed to enjoy it. if you find yourself stressed and dreading writing you’re doing it wrong. remember to take breaks if you need it to refresh yourself. writing is extremely hard, but i believe in you. just try to have fun!

2.) find more ways to come up with ideas. i think most people would agree that prompts are hard and many people don’t know how to come up with them. personally, i use quotes. if you know anything about me, quote fics are my fucking life, man! you can use lyrics from songs, a funny moment that happened in your life, a saying your parent always told you while growing up, literally anything! go wild.

3.) find your unique style. when it comes to writing, everyone has a style just like when it comes to any other art form. i write in a more casual, organic style because that’s what comes naturally to me. don’t try to mimic other’s styles because you think yours isn’t “good enough” or something of the sort. you can take inspiration, but don’t forget to be true to yourself and your own style.

4.) write how you want. piggy backing off the last one, don’t let anyone tell you something is “improper” or whatever. if you think adding a million commas best suits your story, then so be it! i use dashes, ellipses, and semi-colons like my life depends on it. it’s an important part of how i write and that’s that’s okay.

5.) make sure to commit to it. while it is important to not push yourself too hard and to take breaks if you need it, don’t forget to commit to it. try and write everyday. whether it be only a paragraph or the entire story in one go, every little bit helps. it gets you into the groove, basically! i’ve heard some people say that 250 words should be your daily minimum, but personally mine is 100. so it’s whatever works for you.

6.) don’t expect it to be easy. writing is hard, that’s just the case. you are making up your own stories (with already set in characters or not) and coming up with things is hard! it’s going to get confusing at points, it’s going to get frustrating, it’s going to make you want quit sometimes. this will happen especially if you write longer form content.

7.) don’t give up and always believe in yourself. feeding off of the last one, no matter how hard it is, don’t ever give up. take breaks for however long you need, but never give up. you can do this. and if no one else believes in you, believe in yourself. you are what matters.

8.) don’t forget to edit and revise. you don’t exactly need to go over your work once you finish, but it’s a very good practice. if look through it at least once or twice: you’ll find mistakes that you maybe didn’t notice; you’ll notice scenes/sections that you can elongate to better serve the purpose/narrative; you could find things don’t matter and can be removed; and so much more. you don’t need to go crazy over it, but it’s definitely something you should do.

9.) don’t forget/be scared to ask for help. everyone needs help from time to time, even the best authors/writers need guidance from others. ask your friends to help with a scene/part or two if you need it, if they’re willing ask them to edit/beta for you, and so forth. you’ll never get anywhere without the help of others, you can’t do this on your own and that’s okay. you might want to be independent and get there by yourself, but that will be ten times harder than if you just ask for a little bit of help.

10.) write for you and nobody else. i would say this is probably the most important one. don’t worry about what others think, story telling is for you! yes, you might share it with others (directly or by posting it online) but at the end of the day, it’s for your enjoyment and no one else’s. if you want to write an OC and canon character, do it! doesn’t matter if no one cares about your OC other than you. YOU ARE WHAT IS IMPORTANT!!!

#cole talks #cole rambles #writing #writing tips #writer #author #fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic tips #fanfiction tips #tips

[mockerycrow]

Any advice on how to write fanfics? What has helped you in your experience? I'm thinking of writing on e I finish the COD: MW games and also do some Darkest Dungeon afterwards because my desire to write angst is making my ears emit 1930's cartoon smoke out of my ears

Okay, so,,, I don’t know how helpful I’ll be with this, but I’ll try, anon!!

TIP #1: Read. This sounds so simple, but I promise you that reading books and other pieces of fanfiction has helped me a lot with my own writing. I do advise reading actual physical original books too, because don’t get me wrong! Reading other authors’ fanfic pieces will help, but I’ve personally have gotten a lot of my experience through authors and books such as the exorcist. I highly recommend reading classic poems if you have a tough time with describing feelings and using metaphors! [I personally have copies of many works of Charles Baudelaire. I also have a copy of The Bell Jar.]

TIP #2: Use synonyms. Synonyms of different words keep you from directly repeating yourself over and over, so instead of saying “___ Said.” over and over, you could say; “___ replied curtly.” “___’s tone was somber as they began,” It also completely depends on the tone of the characters mood. Are they angry? Are they frightened? Are they happy? You gotta ask yourself these questions. You don’t even have to specify who’s speaking if you describe their action before the dialogue. For Example: Soap stared at you blankly as he watched you overfill your cup of coffee, letting out a chuckle. “Tired this mornin’, aye?”

TIP #3: Use music. I have entire playlists dedicated to characters that I listen to as I write for them. It doesn’t have to be complete accurate songs either, it can be songs that also remind you of them. I use songs to write more in character, as well as set the mood for the fic. Is this fic sad? I find sad music that I can relate back to said character. Is this character a particular angsty one? Find songs that relate to their trauma, or at least how they would respond to a conflict situation.

TIP #4: Do not force yourself to write if you feel burnt out. This is a big one! I may have a lot of WIPs, but I don’t allow myself to complete ones I don’t feel too confident about in that moment. I take a step back, maybe complete other works first—and it may be weird to others who read your stuff, maybe you answer a day old ask immediately but answer a 2 week old ask 3 days later? Go at your pace. At the end of the day, it’s YOUR decision to write.

I may have more tips, so I might add them later! (june 17th, 2023)

#crow’s tips #tips #tips and tricks #tips on writing #writing tips #fanfiction tips #tips on writing fanfiction #writers block #writerslife #call of duty

[ilovemybarricadebabies]

There are times where I wish people who read fanfic would understand the whole “don’t like, don’t read” thing. It’s not a hard concept to grasp.

If there’s content, characterization, grammar/spelling, small minute details that will just bother you, whatever it is in the fic that you don’t like, hit the back button. That’s what it’s there for.

You don’t have to tell the author or reader why. Just leave and find a fic that is more suitable to your tastes. Simple as that.

#fanfiction #curating your own reading tastes #fanfiction tips #fanfic #curating your fandom spaces #fanfic tips #don’t like don’t read

[hannawinchester03]

IN ANOTHER GALAXY..

This is a regular imagine, as if you're part of the guardians of the galaxy! Mostly backstory but pt2 coming soon with more romantic and erotic scenes for sure!

Enjoy!

Here is the part 2!

Chapter contains: some flirtation, baby groot (obviously) , mom figure, death, family loss, drunk father, childhood trauma, and sarcasm

Word count: 1587

The year was 1989, Chicago Illinois. (Y/N) was 9 years old, she already was learning how to drive. "You gotta know your way around, who knows when you'll get lost, you always gotta find your way home." Her dad always told her, meaning this meant learning to drive earlier than most people and take care of what needed to be done.

(Y/N) didn't have much of a childhood, grew up faster than she would have liked but hey stuff happens.

It was a casual Friday night for (Y/N) same routine as usual, her dad goes out drinking and partying it up with his friends at the local bar. (Y/N) was used to it by now, it's been 3 years since her aunt passed away, her aunt was like a mother to her, her real mother passed away in child birth, but her dying wish was that her sister took care of (Y/N) like she was her own. Which she did, she took care of (Y/N) while her father drank to get over her mothers passing, but to them it seems he has never gotten over it, probably didn't help the fact that (Y/N) looked exactly like her mother.

(Y/N) remembers her aunt telling her stories of how the two sisters were thick as thieves together, always going out exploring the abandon houses, going to the woods, running through malls together when they were younger, even doing normal things like spending time with each other, like listening to music while they watched their parents dance. (Y/N) always wished that she had a sister or another sibling to play with and share memories with like her mother and aunt did.

"Your mom always wanted to have twins, she'd tell us she has a feeling that you were gonna be a twin, like Luke and leia.." (Y/N) was always told which made her sad at times that she was her mothers one and only child. There was a lot on the 9 year olds shoulders to say the least. (Y/N) always had vivid dreams of what is would be like to in space watching down on the world, making sure every child didn't need to go through what she did, it could have been much worse she always thought but the last 3 years for sure proved her wrong. It was worse, eating only once a week or not for weeks at a time.

It was around 10 pm on Friday, she was waiting for the house phone to ring, and hear the same words she heard every Friday night, the way the bartender would always call her asking to pick up her dad or call him a cab, they had little to no money so the only option was to learn to drive and pick him up herself. Little 9 year old (Y/N) who could barely see over the steering wheel driving at night listening to "my sweet lord- by George Harrison" was the last thing she remembered of her past life.

That was 15 years ago, "I really wanna see you, I really wanna be with you.." was the last thing she heard from the radio before the disaster struck, she watched as a child not much older then she was running through the main Street, then the child was gone only a light shinning down where they were last seen, causing (Y/N) to slam on the brakes and get out running after the light.

15 years later here she stood in the middle of platform floating the in the middle of the sky, standing next to a talking raccoon, a miniature tree that somehow talks but only could speak the three words "I am groot"and the only other person she knew of who was also from earth. A place she once knew so well and now it was just a fuzzy memory.

"Okay we gotta work fast, the others are going to meet us with the other materials. We just need that things heart.." Quill spoke as he looked around at the group mainly looking at (y/n) making her raise an eyebrow at him about to say something back but she was distracted as she heard a small. "I am groot" making her look down and smile softly as her attention was then quickly pulled away as rocket spoke up translating for them. "He says '(y/n) knows what she's doing' he's right, she wasn't born yesterday..like some people." Rocket stated as he lightly nudged (y/n) leg and gave her a small wink with the wrong eye as usual making her chuckle.

Quill rolled his eyes and was about to speak up but quickly got interrupted by the smaller aliens started bursting through a door running in their direction, He quickly stood in position in front of (y/n) to protect her making her roll her eyes as she moves around him grabbing groot propping him up on her shoulder so he wouldn't get stepped on as she held up the gun rocket had given her quickly shooting as many aliens as she could, as she reloaded she took over watching as the others took turns killing the monsters as they seems to keep coming.

"Look out, here comes the big one!" Quill shouted as he was reloading his weapon, (y/n) watched as an alien got to close to him so she quickly shot it and turned her attention to the bigger alien, she couldn't help but stare as it was almost double the side of the other aliens taking a step back as she focused on the multiple arms and hands the monster has, and how it had multiple eyes, she couldn't help but think about how she got into the situation.

"(y/n) just distract it! Whatever you do don't shoot its heart." Rocket called out as (y/n) nodded quickly running towards one of the higher platforms standing on top of it watching as it tried to grab her, shooting its hands away every-time watching as it stumbled back and quill got behind it shooting its head making the monster stumble back falling onto its back crying out in pain.

(y/n) watched as rocket threw a shock wave close to it stunning the alien so it would be in place for a minute or two, she nodded her head at rocket as she jumped down off the platform knowing the plan from here. She got out the laser that rocket has gived to her, she always though it looked kind of like a light saber, but always thought to herself since no one's from earth and they'll know what Star Wars is, she always told herself.

She got next to the beast and sliced clean across the aliens torso watching as it stopped breathing from the clean cut she had made, she watched as rocket climbed on top of the beast slicing its flesh and reached his hand in ripping out the heart. (y/n) couldn't help but stumble backwards as she could smelt a awful smell coming from monster as rocket held the heart up in the air.

(y/n)'s eyes lit up a bit as she now was able to see the heart, the thing they were going after. She could help but stare at it as it looked breath taking, it looked like a solid chunk of gold making her eyebrow go up as rocked stood up holding it proudly. "Great now we have the final part, let's go the others are probably already there." Rocket stated as he began walking back to the ship.

(y/n) let out a small huff still shocked, not that they had killed the monsters, she's used to that by now, considering she's been around it for the last 15 years. She snapped out of her thoughts as she still felt groot on the shoulder playing with some of her hair making her glance down at him.

"I am groot". He hummed out making her chuckle softly and toss some hair over his small head. "Maybe you need to grow out some hair. A nice green to brighten you up." she said back to the small plant making him smile and reply with a simple nod.

"I don't understand how you understand him.. doesn't it freak you out? A talking tree." Quill spoke up as he followed next to (y/n), she let out a small chuckle as groot continued to play with her hair wrapping small vines around her hair and she shrugged. "I mean he's still a person, he talks and has feelings why would it freak me out.." She stated back.

"Well maybe because you're from earth, how is this all normal to you." Quill responded as he walked up onto the space ships loading ramp. "Maybe it's because i wasn't born yesterday, after 15 years you learn to accept everything." She says as she followed behind him, once on the ship she sets groot down and smiles softly at him.

"We're in another galaxy, nothing surprises me anymore Peter." (y/n) states as she passed by quill heading to the main control room to meet up with rocket. "It's Star lord!" He cries out behind (y/n) making her and rocket laugh as they settle into their seats buckling up and (y/n) hums happily as groot comes and sit on her lap for the ride.

Hope y’all enjoyed, please feel free to leave comments, like and share with your friends!

I’m always open for suggestions or ideas so feel free to comment!

#peter quill #peter quill x you #peter quill x y/n #peter quill x reader #peter quill x fem!reader #peter quill fanfic #peter quill imagine #peter quill headcanons #fanfiction tips #guardians of the galaxy #marvel #fanfic #writing #female writers #writers and poets #writers on tumblr

[psylunari]

Comments: thoughts, types, how-tos, and etiquette (part 1 of 4)

I did a thing again! It's overly long. Who could've thought?

Commenting, or reviewing, is one of the backbones of fanfiction. It’s an integral part of any writing community. Writers and readers can grow and have fun helping each other.

This epic is going to be different from the Tips and Tricks one. There won’t be just bullet points on how to do X. I have thoughts on the matter, and I’m going to discuss them. I can’t possibly cover every topic ever, it’s a broad subject, so I might’ve missed your question.

While the technical info is precise, suggestions come from my experience. You don’t have to agree with me, everything is up for debate. Just keep it civil.

This is better read sequentially, but you can skip to any section. They are as numbered:

1) The basics

2) Thoughts on comment culture

3) Types of comments

4) Writing cohesive and coherent comments

5) Etiquette

6) Technical questions

7) Short-answer questions

8) Long-answer questions

Part 1: Sections 1 and 2 (you are here).

Part 2: Sections 3 and 4.

Part 3: Sections 5 and 6.

Part 4: Sections 7 and 8.

PDF version here, containing the whole thing. It has a table of contents and cute formatting.

♥ 1: The basics ♥

1.1 What is a comment anyway?

Feedback are “messages sent to the creators of fanworks in response to their works” (from Fanlore). I’m going to refer to it as “comments” like on Archive Of Our Own and Wattpad. They’re “reviews” on Fanfiction.net. There might be other names in other sites.

Commenting is usually a verbal expression of thoughts/feelings. It takes practice to be good at them. I don’t mean there are “rules”, but it can be easier, almost effortless. Like in regular writing, there are patterns to commenting, and guidelines left by people who were here before you are. You don’t have to start from square one.

Note that “comment” is a neutral word. It doesn’t mean “praise”, “criticism”, “hate”, or “invitation to chat”. It’s a message, and what you make of that message is up to you.

1.2 How to leave/reply to a comment on…

This subsection covers the Big Three™ fic sites: Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net, and Wattpad. There might be perks I don’t know on other sites, like Quotev or RoyalRoad.

1.2.1 Archive Of Our Own (AO3)

You do not need an account to comment unless the fic is restricted to registered users or guest comments are disabled. The author can delete comments on their fic. If the author has turned off all comments, you cannot comment. If comment moderation is on, your comment will show up if they approve it.

The comment box appears below, near the end of the fic/chapter.

Type the comment and press “Comment”.

1.2.2 Fanfiction.net (FFN)

You do not need an account to comment on FFN. The author cannot:

lock the fic only for registered users;

disable guest comments;

moderate comments before they appear;

turn off comments entirely.

They cannot delete comments from registered users, but can delete guest comments.

The comment box appears below, near the end of the fic/chapter.

Type the comment and press “Post Review as [user/guest]”.

If you check the boxes on the bottom left, you’ll mark the story/author as favorite, or follow the story/author, when you comment. That only works if you’re logged in.

1.2.3 Wattpad

You need a verified account to comment on Wattpad. You cannot leave comments without an account, or without verifying the email address linked to your account. The author can delete comments on their fic.

There are two types of comments on Wattpad: regular comments, displayed at the end of a story part (like at the end of a chapter), and inline comments, displayed beside the text of the story (paragraph by paragraph).

The author cannot:

lock the fic only for registered users;

moderate comments before they appear;

turn off comments entirely, but they can turn off inline comments.

This is the speech bubble for inline comments:

Click on it to open the comment box. It appears as below. Forgive me for the UI not in English, I have tried.

The regular comments box (below) is near the end of the fic/chapter.

Type the comment in the desired box (inline/regular, doesn’t matter) and press “Post”.

1.3 Other ways to leave and receive comments

Comment sections are not the only way to leave/receive comments. Examples are:

emailing if the author has left a contact email;

sending an ask on Tumblr, if they have linked their account;

reblogging the fic on Tumblr, if you add your comment to the post/tags;

private messaging, if the host site has them as FFN does;

private messaging part 2, if the author has linked their social media.

♥ 2: Thoughts on comment culture ♥

2.1 Insights on the alleged “death of comment culture”

Subsection 2.1 will apparently go off-topic for a while, and contains a few ironic paragraphs. Proceed with caution.

Oh, the good old days. A distant past when readers would always R&R (read and review). Finished a chapter? A comment ensued, “can’t wait for the next one”. Finished a fic? A detailed, considerate analysis of plot points. People fearlessly shared their thoughts instead of clicking a “like” button. Likes can be so “empty”. Readers recommended fic to friends and group members. There were even rec lists! Awesome times to be a ficwriter, right?

Was there such a thing as “the golden years of feedback”, or are we just nostalgic?

From Fanlore:

Since the beginning of fannish time, fans have complained about the lack of feedback for their fiction and art. Letters of Comment in print zines in the 1970s and 80s, posts on USENET in the 1990s and early 2000s, online journal comments later—all are filled with complaints about a universal lack of feedback. One common refrain: “People used to be better about leaving feedback than they are now.” (source)

Even so, there is a shared perception among ficwriters from the 1990s and 2000s: people used to comment a lot more. And I do agree. I feel like feedback used to be more frequent. My writing was nowhere near good in 2010 or so, but my fics from that time had 10+ comments, even genfic one-shots in tiny fandoms. I posted exclusively on the local fic archive, in Portuguese. Wild guess? Zero percent of them spoke English as a first language. There were Brazilians like me, a handful of Portuguese people, and the occasional Angolan.

More than a decade has passed. I’m a much better writer. I translated and tweaked the same genfic one-shot to English, from the same tiny fandom, for 8 kudos on AO3 and zero comments. Having a favorite/kudos button, imitating the “like” button trend on social media, leaving people too comfortable, or even lazy. They don’t need to show love with words. It’s too much trouble. Little by little, they’ll quit commenting forever.

Where have I read a similar thing before?

Plato criticized this spread of written language as an impediment to wisdom. He said that writing is only a semblance of truth and that people will seem to know something when in fact they will know nothing. He complained that writing things down would eliminate the need for memory. Socrates, too, had decried the written word, and had said that one can ask questions of or argue with a speaker, but the written word may not be understood and may be interpreted falsely—a precursor of today's complaints about the lack of face-to-face communication. (source)

If ficwriters were never satisfied with the feedback they got, and “X technology will make the naive populace dumber” is as old as time, who’s to blame for the death of comment culture? Did it even exist one day? Did it really die?

It all boils down to context. Let’s consider a few things:

Excessive hours online are messing with our attention span, and reading requires concentration. Also, in 2001 (20+ years ago!), more than half of employed US people, 25 and over, already used computers at work. Not everyone has the brainpower and/or the attention span to stare at a screen all day and read fics later on another screen.

Most socialization now occurs on social media, which have algorithms behind them. In layman’s terms, a social media algorithm is a set of instructions for a website. It tells the website to prioritize and push 1) sponsored content (that someone paid to promote) and 2) high-engagement content (creating more user data, to show users accurate ads hoping they’ll buy stuff). In summary, whatever makes corporations profit. In algorithm-based websites and apps, “likes” will boost a post for more users; the algorithm sees it as engagement-worthy. FFN and AO3, on the other hand, have no algorithm. Some people don’t know about it and might think a simple favorite/kudos will “boost” the fic to more people.

Check these graphs for a percentage of US households (1984 to 2010) with a computer. Those are not numbers for households with an internet connection, but at least a few of them had it. Computers were pricey. Phones didn’t do much more than call, texting, and the Snake mini-game. Thing is, the internet was a smaller, more tight-knit community, even in the dawn of online fandom. Also, fandom people online were not only fans of pieces of media: there was an overlap with computer nerds, both ostracized groups. They searched for friends online with common interests and found them. It’s a lot easier to speak your mind to someone closer than an anonymous ficwriter you’ll never chat with.

Have you ever heard of sanitizing the internet? In case you didn’t, you probably should have. Long story short, corporations work for profit, and some of it comes from advertisers. Advertisers have requirements. A frequent one is “we do not want to associate with sites hosting Not Safe For Work (NSFW) content”. To sign a contract, social media corporations ban NSFW content and promise to delete it on sight. The problem is: lots of users are posting loads of things every second. Humans couldn’t possibly check all posts. Algorithms do the job via image recognition and such. If an image/video looks like it breaks the rules, it’ll be taken down. Those algorithms also scan keywords indicating animosity or hate speech. Social media users, especially the ones who couldn’t know the internet before social media, are used to the internet being “safer” now. They relaxed about it. When they stumble upon NSFW, unpleasant things, or just things they dislike or disagree with, they’re not used to seeing it. Their reaction is, oftentimes, disproportional.

What does the above topic have to do with the rest? Let’s do the math. First, you add lots and lots of users to the internet, to the point it’s not a small, intimate community anymore. Second, you “protect” those people from encountering unsettling content so easily, making them prone to lash out at the first sight of it. Third, you teach them all it takes to show appreciation, and make more people view “quality content” on their feed, is clicking a “like” button. The result: both readers and authors have never seen each other online, may or may not be sensitive to poorly worded sentences, may or may not react disproportionately to those sentences, and you have a “like” button right there. As a reader, clicking the button to show your love sounds a lot more fail-proof, and the fic goes commentless.

The fic I mentioned earlier? I used to be mildly relevant as a beta reader and blog writer on the local fic archive. That’s probably where my exposure came from. Being a recognizable face matters. The fandom? Nightwish. They were already big with metal fans and became a mainstream hit in 2004 with the single Nemo. It defied the looming decline of metal as a “genre of the youth, played on the radio” in the following years. I posted that fic in 2012 (already eight years after Nemo), and even if Nightwish was still decently popular, I posted the translated fic on AO3 in 2020 (sixteen years after Nemo), after said decline happened. It just wasn’t a thing anymore, like all trends and fads die out.

What do I conclude from all that? Things aren’t always what they seem to be, and there is more to it than readers being “lazy”. Note that those nuances do not apply to all cases of not getting comments on fics. They just help to paint the picture.

On a last note, I do think comment culture was greater in the 2000s, and probably was in the 1990s as well. People recognized each other a lot more in fandom and were all for how easy it was to comment on the internet. Mailing letters to fanzines, for example, was a bit of a hassle. So, in my eyes, there was a period of 10–20 years in which they commented more often.

Fighting against the 2020s state of the internet is kind of a losing game, but you can change how you interact with fandom, and influence people around you.

2.2 Why should you even comment on fics?

Readers don’t owe comments to anyone. The same goes for authors: they don’t owe you content. Their fics are not written for you. They are shared with you. And it’s fine! It should be a stress-free relationship where no one owes anyone anything, but add the human factor, and it all gets complicated. You’re not forced to comment, ever, and shouldn’t feel forced either, but it’s not my point.

Here are a few reasons to encourage readers to leave comments more often, even if you’re shy, feel like you have nothing to say, or don’t know how to say what you think:

It feels more personal than getting kudos. Someone took their time to write a message (of whatever length). Day = better!

It creates a sense of community. Writing can be a terribly lonely hobby. Most people don’t have beta readers or even friends in the same fandom. I myself was a lonely writer in a few fandoms for a while. While it made me find happiness in the act of creation, I love when someone gives me insights I didn’t have. It’s expanding on the microcosm I created. It likely wouldn’t happen if a reader disliked my fic, so I see it as praise.

An author might pick up an abandoned work again. Not saying it’s guaranteed, but I’ve heard of it before. People put fics on hiatus for various reasons, and one of them is struggling with low confidence. Ficwriters are people, they feel insecure at times.

It hones your critical thinking, feedback, and argumentation skills. If you write medium or long comments with in-depth analysis and impressions, it’s a zero cents writing exercise. Plus, much more fun than schoolwork.

You might become friends with the author, or with other readers. It depends on all parties agreeing to it, and there might be a shade of “never meet your heroes” to this. However, as ficwriters are people, some are nice folks.

Authors who ask for constructive criticism will thank you forever. While the current fandom culture doesn’t favor concrit a lot, some people are still open and eager for it. Yes, you can give concrit even if you don’t write fic yourself. You need knowledge, structure, and politeness, nothing more, nothing else.

Sharing your love and appreciation is enough of a reason. It doesn’t have to be perfect. There are no standards, metrics, or school grades.

2.3 What if you don’t want to leave a comment at the time?

Sometimes, you’ve downloaded the fic for your e-reader. Others, it’s four in the morning and all you want to do after a 100k binge read is sleep. Possibly, the author looks too intimidating, and you have no idea how they’ll respond. Perhaps, something else? It’s normal, we’ve all been there. Here are a few alternatives:

Favorite/kudos the fic. Return later if you want to comment, it’ll be in your history.

Create a reading list somewhere, write a memo to comment on another time. Google Keep is good for that. Some people even make spreadsheets for fics they’ve read.

Bookmark it with a note. Write “leave a comment later”, return if you want.

Type the comment somewhere else, save it, send later. It can be anywhere from an email to yourself to a note on your phone, your friend’s inbox, your notebook… anything.

2.4 What if you never, ever want to comment on fics?

It was said before, and I’ll say it again: readers don’t owe writers comments. You don’t have to apologize or justify yourself. If you want to show your love in other ways, they exist.

Favorite/kudos the fic.

Bookmark it, with or without notes. Make a bookmark into a recommendation by checking a box, if you want.

Create a rec list. You can post rec lists on social media, for example. You don’t even have to explain why you liked it. That was how we did it before algorithms took over.

Share it with friends/acquaintances. Maybe you have a shared taste?

Be open to changing your mind in the future. Don’t be strict on the “I never leave comments” stance. There are many arguments favoring comments and very few against them.

Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 are waiting for you.

#archive of our own #ao3 #fanfiction.net #ffn #wattpad #fanfiction #fanfiction tips #fandom etiquette #feedback #comments #comment culture #psyluna.txt