#nearly every other kinks are correctly tagged most of the time all of them except daddy kink

[gallickingun]

You're one of the first blogs I found coming into the fandom and lemme just say your writing is freaking amazing!!! 💕😍 As a new writer going into the fandom, do you have any tips and tricks you wish you would've known when you first started?

Ah, thank you so much! I’m so happy to have been one of your firsts! 💖

Hmmmmmmmmm, let’s see. Honestly, mainly connecting with people! I was scared shitless of @lady-bakuhoe​ until I started talking to her and realized she was a dweeb. But the chances are, your “favorite writer” isn’t nearly as scary, or busy, as you think they are. And most of the writers in this fandom are really kind, and just want to see others succeed! 

Recognize that you aren’t a bother, not a burden. And if someone sees you as such, then it’s likely you didn’t need to bother with them in the first place. Find and cultivate friendships that will encourage you and push you to do better, to always hone your craft and expand your vocabulary! I’m really lucky to know the people I know (looking at you @k-atsukidayo​) and they are ever so graceful in helping me, reminding me that I’m not a total garbage person all the time.

Use the tagging system correctly, and spell their names with the additional letters like it is in the manga/japanese versions. You won’t get nearly as many people to notice your fic if you call him “Bakugo” in the tags. And if you want to write it as Bakugo or Shoto in the fic, then feel free to do so, but make sure you add the ‘u’ in the tags! When people are browsing, those are the tags they go for, i.e. bakugou katsuki x reader and todoroki shouto x reader. Recognize that it’s your FIRST FIVE TAGS that count. So make sure it’s those that you are most impactful with. And also realize that tumblr’s algorithms are garbage and sometimes it doesn’t even matter how you tag it, so take that how you will.

Just. Keep. Writing. And don’t be afraid to try out the “minor” characters, even if you don’t fully understand them. Trust me, no one does. Does anyone know exactly how Kaminari would be with a girlfriend? No! No one really knows how any of these kids would be with a significant other, not truly. Which leads me to my next point-

Don’t worry too much about OOC. We can guess based off of their personality traits that are displayed to us in the show and the manga, but we don’t know every character to their fullest and truest selves, only Horikoshi knows that. Now granted, we know that Bakugou has a temper and Todoroki is a little shit, but we don’t know what kinks they’d have or whether or not they’d be into PDA. Make those guesses for yourself, and write the characters in a way that makes you feel good, feel comfortable. I don’t prefer Bakugou to call the reader a “dumbass” every line, so I don’t have him do that. Instead, I sprinkle it in here and there when I feel he thinks he needs to pretend to be tough. But that’s my own preference and therefore my own decision.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT NOTES. Seriously. Especially with COVID going on, there are so many more silent readers now than before. Just keep writing, regardless of notes, because even if it’s not popular on tumblr, it should be popular to you. And I promise that someone, somewhere, is reading your content, whether or not they’re telling you about it.

If you’re looking for interaction, and you’re of age, I would suggest to add the word “thirst” to your blog description. You can see thirst on Jo’s blog - it’s just short, rambling types of drabbles/blurbs about certain kinks or situations but it gets people interacting and also allows you to do short spurts of writing. That’s not really my thing because I’m a whore for worldbuilding, but there are others (like @kamehamethot​) who do a great job of it! 

I think those are most of my troubles, from what I could remember. I was always too worried that I didn’t know enough about each character, but I said screw it and wrote Moving Target before I’d even watched the show, and the piece did really well. It just goes to show that you don’t have to have read every manga page or listened to every dialogue snippet from the show to write these characters. And don’t be afraid to tag people either! Some blogs may not like it, but others are really just looking for more content! And I love getting tagged in stuff, even if it’s not my cuppa tea. If a blog is uncomfy with you tagging them, chances are they’ll either ignore your posts or reach out to let you know! And don’t take offense to that - each person is in charge of their own experience online, and if they want to adjust their experience by hopping off/on your tag list, it’s your job to respect that. 

Most importantly - don’t react to hate. Just don’t, man. It’s not worth your time and energy. If an ask makes you uncomfortable or you smell that it’s going south, just delete it. What are they going to do to you? It’s tumblr, bruh. 

Oh - AND THAT BRINGS ME TO THE ACTUAL MOST IMPORTANT THING. If you don’t like it, don’t write it. Even if it was a request. If you’re not feeling something, chances are it’s gonna show in your writing. Readers sending in requests will understand if a certain situation doesn’t strike your fancy. I tend to leave my requests in my inbox in the hopes that eventually they’ll excite me, but others just delete them. It’s your blog, your experience, so don’t be afraid to do whatever it is you need to do to make it the best. 

I hope that helped! Please feel free to message me if you need more help! And tag me in anything you write! except deku, that damn nerd.

[lytahalifax]

XI Questions Tag

(I don’t know why I did that in Roman numerals, I’m obviously in a weird mood :)

I was tagged by @byjillianmaria​ for this. Rules: always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, write 11 questions of your own, tag 11 people. I don’t think I really know 11 people here, or can come up with 11 questions, so I promise NOTHING with regards to following rules. Because I am an iconoclast*, baby! (makes air guitar gestures and noises) *iconoclast (n) = a fancy way to say “lazy”.

Questions:

1.) What’s a line of dialogue that you’re most proud of? Holy cripes, that’s kind of a tough one to answer, having written a bunch, and forgotten even more, in the past four years. I would say it’s easier for me to talk about chapters of things I’m proud of, and in that, I’m particularly proud of a chapter I wrote in my Mass Effect series “Once More Unto The Breach” called “We Who Are About Die”. It’s essentially about the people who initially designed and floated the specs for The Catalyst, and how they came together as one race and expended all their efforts, not in self-preservation, but in giving the galaxy a fighting chance against the Reapers. They knew it might take millions and millions of years for their goal to be achieved, if ever, but they were committed, almost as one, to the notion, choosing to die not screaming and in fear, but as an almost indomitable force that would not be denied, no matter how long it too for their plan to bear fruit. However, there was a line my editor particularly adored that spun off from that whole thread, about “the weight of a billions years of justice, no longer denied”.  My Shepard also had some really nice comedic bits throughout that whole series. OMUTB, as my first real “child”, is the series I made absolutely the most mistakes with, but also am the proudest of to this day. “Near Wild Heaven” from “Black Swan” is another personal favorite, a chapter I was having so much fun writing, I had to force myself to stop. 

2.) Which of your characters would you most like to hang out with? Camilla Davies from Black Swan. I suspect she would understand me and my life experiences the best out of anyone on the planet, would be able to give me savagely effective life advice, and possibly transfer my brain into a cloned female body. In fact, I think I’d probably really enjoy hanging out with her, Reese and Alanna; I always felt they were kind of the Three Musketteers of SOAP. Bledoc Caitor, a one off OC I wrote for Once More Unto The Breach as a shoutout to a longtime reader, would be a distant second because he would probably make me the galaxy’s best bowl of ramen, and I really, really love ramen. 3.) Do you have any goals for the rest of 2017? Survive the oncoming storm of massive life and career changes coming up in the final quarter of 2017, and essentially prepare for some major life retooling I hope to achieve in 2018. Unfortunately, this probably means taking a sabbatical or otherwise semi-retiring from writing, at least for a while.

4.) What season inspires you the most? It’s a toss up between Spring and Autumn. Probably Spring; March/April is usually about the time I come out of my winter doldrums and do a lot of my writing again. 5.) If you could rewrite one part of an already-published work, what would it be? The first 20 chapters of Once More Unto the Breach. Well..maybe not ALL of them, but holy crap, there are some massive technical errors and embarrassing gaffs and continuity glitches I made there. I very nearly gave up on the entire endeavor were it not for the fact that I started working with a real top notch editor who essentially trained me how to be a better ,more effective writer, and it’s clear the final 20 chapters are SO much better as a result. I might also redo “To Bask In Your Starshine”. But maybe not. 6.) Do any of your characters have pets? What kind? Shepard kept coming back to the Normandy, even when she didn’t command it anymore, to collect Space Hamsters from the lower decks. Her oldest daughter has a pet kakliosaur. I imagine Camilla has a couple of cats, because they were the only animals she could really relate to: one of them is a tortie Maine Coon, which she adopted because she liked the coloration, not realizing how diva-esque torties are in their behavior. Reese probably has a fancy tropical fish tank setup he poured way too much time and money into. Nicole has a dog, like a golden retriever or a bulldog or something. A mutt for sure.

7.) What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re feeling uninspired? This is the answer - or at least part of it - that will make people gasp in shock and go, “Lyta! You can’t say things like that!” I have two techniques: one I would recommend, and one I would not. It should be obvious which is which. First, I smoke weed. Not often, not all the time, I’m actually on a bit of a six month break from it. I don’t smoke specifically going in to look for inspiration, I just do it to relax, but I would be lying if I said there weren’t times when inspiration didn’t come and come HARD when I was stoned. At least two of my stories, Old Soul and How Can I Sleep?, are the result of me breaking through serious blocks after toking up. Seriously, I could not figure out how to do Old Soul and almost gave up until I got baked and started watching old 1970s tv commercials, and then it came to me. I’m pretty damn sure that good chunks of the final three chapters of Black Swan came to me while I was toked up as well. Second, and much more often, I go for a lot of walks. Like a lot a lot of walks. I try to walk about 12,000 steps a day at a minimum now, which is probably why I’ve lost 20 pounds since April. But for years, I’ve done this when I can, because I find it can get me into a good “zen headspace”, almost like a walking meditation, where ideas flow easier from out of the great miasma of notions inside my brain. Large chunks of Black Swan chapters 5 through 12 were “flashes of inspiration” that came to me when I got “into the zone” during walking, and made sure to write quick emails to myself on my cell phone, so I wouldn’t forget. I’m pretty sure the same goes for Grande Dame, and definitely so for Bearing Witness to Time. If it weren’t for my walks, I wouldn’t have most of my writing ideas. Indeed, it’s gotten so that if I go down a path I haven’t traveled in a long time, my brain starts to play back memories of writing a particular story, as if the brainstorming somehow became encoded in the local metalayer of that location, and walking through it is like replaying a tape in my mind.

8.) Do you have a go-to writing snack/drink? Beef jerky. Usually of the spicy variety It’s high in protein, tasty, and a provides a viscerally satisfying experience in the eating of. Grrr! Chomp! Chew chew chew. 

There is an awesome jerky shop at Container Park in Las Vegas that I love to stock up at whenever I’m there...unfortunately my supply never lasts. I should probably find out if they do mail order.

9.) Do you have any self-indulgent stories/characters that you’d never publish (or even write down)? Hah! Oh boy.....yeeeeeah. There was this one crack fic I came up with called “The Yurizoku Formula, or GAYBIES!” It was a weird story, in the vein of “Chloe Price’s Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (which I recently took down for personal reasons) or “Today’s Fish is Trout ala Creme” from OMUTB. If I remember correctly, the long and short of it is Warren accidentally infecting Brooke with a virus that makes her incredibly irresistible to all the women on campus, and she has to deal with their unwanted affections as she tries to get through her day, growing increasingly exasperated and flustered, sorta in the vein of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. I remember it being much funnier and more clever back then than it obviously is. Sometimes I get ideas and my own personal kinks bleed through a little too much...as an example, the end of “The Domina Effect” in Black Swan was originally written to be a faiiiir bit more “sexy” between Rachel and Victoria, but NQW correctly convinced me to drop it. (As an example of my “kinks”, my first complete work ever written was a lesbian erotica sci-fi mind control story which I called Love is the Drug, which sadly I lost the files to before I could submit it to an appropriate archive. There are actually strong echos of this story in A Power Greater Than My Own...the bit where Victoria, as the domme, finds herself feeling helpless in the face of her so-called submissive at the end, because of how hard she’s fallen in love with her. I) I was also thinking about writing an AU fic in the ME universe called Domination: A Love Story, where the Asari are much more in the mold of Frank Herbert’s “Honored Matres” from the later Dune novels, and a 19 year old Shepard is helpless to watch as her colony ship is essentially taken over by an Asari “diplomatic expedition” who are slowly but inexorably brainwashing everyone over to their way of thinking. Not every Asari agrees with this method of behavior however, prompting a young(er) Liara T’Soni to try and help Shepard get through the horror of that particular situation; in the end, she’s forced to temporarily brainwash Shepard, in order to keep up appearances around the Asari Inquisitors, but eventually “releases” Shepard, so the two of them can run off and join a resistance cell.  Huh...I might actually come back to that one someday... Usually, when I get ideas that are terribly self-indulgent, they tend to not hang around, and then get swept out by whatever part of my brain reclaims needed storage space for better things. I’m sure there are whole stories that I’ve completely forgotten about. 10.) What works inspire you to be a better writer? Oh gleesh. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I tend to avoid reading other peoples work in general, with some exceptions, is that I find it very intimidating and daunting. Like “OMG! This person is so good, how could you even think that you are on the same level with them, you absolute hack? What could you possibly have to offer up to the great Singularity of Human Artistic Expression that someone hasn’t already done, and done WAY WAY better than you? For instance, I’ve specifically avoided watching TransParent on Amazon, because I still have an idea for a TV show about a “transhumanist transwoman” which I call “Swing Out Sister”. I probably will never do it, but I’m afraid that if I watch Jeffrey Tambor’s no doubt AMAZING work, I will give it up forever and ever. That said, the things I am watching right now that just blow me away with their style and panache are Rick and Morty and especially BoJack Horseman; I’m most of the way through BoJack season 4 and holy holy holy shit. Obviously, I am a fan of dark, almost cynical takes on the nature of suffering and the human condition. 11.) Say something nice about your writing! (Not a question, don’t care). What?! No! You can’t make me, you’re not my supervisor! Oh, okay. I will say this: people tell me that I am really good at writing dialogue, and this is the only thing I have ever agreed with. I write good dialogue. Sometimes, I even write great dialogue. Once, I wrote superb dialogue - I suspect. Dialogue and snappy patter is my forte, along with weird, high level ideas that I can never properly fill the details in. I’m good at A to C plotting, but figuring out “B” is where I still need a lot of work. Okay, well, I enjoyed this a lot but I am going to be a Naughty Lyta, and not pass it forward. At least, not for now, but I reserve the right to pick it back up and move it forward at a later date.