#wrote this for a creative assignment but i actually like it so i'm posting it here

[therulerofallpotatos]

Fic Tag Game

Tagged by: @wincestation, @realisticintentions, @realmermaid333, @cosmic-lullaby, @suchaladyy, @beri-allen

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

149

2. What's your Ao3 word count?

361,707 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Wednesday currently. Teen Wolf for six years. Harry Potter, Hannibal, Thorki, Starker, Twilight (Bella/Carlisle and Bella/Aro), The Umbrella Academy (not that i got very far before getting obsessed with wyler), and Madrigalcest (Primarily Brumira)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Overall?

Fuck It (Steter, Teen Wolf, 3,396)

When it Needs Fixing (Steter, Teen Wolf, 3,339)

Hostile Takeover (Steter, Teen Wolf, 2,781)

Absolution (Steter, Teen Wolf, 2,691)

Wandering in the Dark (Steter, Teen Wolf, 2,250)

In Wednesday?

Her Monster (Wyler, 708)

Hold Me Close (Wyler, 593)

Revelations (Wyler, 499)

Warning, She Bites (Wyler, 464)

Impressing Wednesday Addams (Wyler, 387)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Sometimes. I reply when I have something meaningful to add. Otherwise it'd get very repetitive and generic and that kind of soulless connection isn't really the point of this kind of thing. I adore my comments nonetheless and I read them a lot.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hold on. I gotta skim my list.

update: i do not remember some of these fics or what happened in them

Maybe Modi the Brave (MCU, Thorki). This was an angsty fanfic of a fanfic. There was a happy ending in the original fic, The Rescue by madwriter223

I'm not counting Absolution because it was immediately followed by a sequel. But technically, it did get me the most angry sobbing comments which i treasure to this day.

The Final Straw was angsty but it was also dumb and half-cocked and the closest thing to an embarrassment on this account. It was literally just a half-thought half-scene of my 18yo self's emotional state in 2018 that is very evident that I wrote this angrily in study hall. I wrote a lot of fic in that high school during classes. Like a lot. It was my school computer. I got plenty of use out of it. There was no structure or coherent plot. I didn't even hint at anything deeper to be explored in your own minds. I didn't want to look at it long enough or think about it long enough. I just wanted it out of my head. If I didn't have a strict no deleting my works policy, or hiding from my past art policy, I would probably have deleted it within the week of posting. I do not understand how it has the kudos, subscriptions, and bookmarks that it has. I guess it resonated. Good for y'all. I mean it.

Literally just the entirety of Tyler's Bad Year is meant to be about a very traumatic time in a young man's life and him surviving it. I'm not going to go through them and try to pick out "the worst" one. That's not really the point and it'd be largely subjective.

I'll Eat You Raw has an angsty ending but angstiest? I'm not sure.

I don't write a lot of bad endings. Open endings? sure. Complicated endings? Absolutely. But unhappy endings? No. I don't often have the desire.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Jesus fuck we want to be here all day? Ok lemme look through shit again.

Wandering in the Dark has a whole story behind it. There was actually two versions. Only one was posted to ao3 and is the "canon" version. I wrote this fic for a high school assignment my senior year. We were assigned to pick a chronic disease out of a literal hat, then write a story around it. We had complete creative control so I took that chance to write teen wolf steter fanfic in class and actually have it be on task for once (I got an A in that class btw). The reason my teacher got a dark ending version is because by the time he got back to me on the maximum word count, I'd already finished the canon version and it was way too long. I couldn't trim the fat, so I wrote a different ending to shorten the story. That version is one of the angstier stories I've written. The one posted and linked above, is the very happy by comparison. This fic is also designed to be read by someone who doesn't know shit about teen wolf.

Through Thick and Thin was also extremely happy. As is Her Monster. Benevolent Gods was meant to be very hopeful. The Hale Pack (Undying) was the end to a series that was my baby for a long time . Like long enough you can see my writing evolve as you go. Part one was one of the first things i ever wrote. Like ever. The last part was years later. Jasper was meant to be a very light-hearted, happy story as well. It's extremely sweet and fluffy. You was also very happy and the epilogue cemented that happiness. Warning: She Bites literally had a happy end that unknowingly prevented a main character committing suicide in the near future. Saving lives by being horny. Wednesday Evening, and every installment in that series, is excessively happy as well.

Alright I ran through my list of fics. These were the ones that stood out. There's too many to really commit to one answer tbh. Especially because the way they're happy varies.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really. Or. Well. I'm sure I do. I block antis on sight and I wholly reject purity culture, and I haven't really been the target of a major attack or anything. I don't get as many hateful comments as one might think, and I don't entertain the ones I do get. I've been accused of vile shit of course because of a fic I wrote. I don't remember what fic or even what ship it was for because I don't dwell on them really at all. Aside from that, I get more entitled but probably ignorant to how they come off as entitled comments that aren't really that big a deal. Just a bit of a peeve sometimes. I honestly think the majority of them truly believe it's a kind gesture when they say it.

9. Do you write smut? What kind?

Yeah. You could say that.

What kind? In a word? Intense. I could make a joke or a long elaboration on my niche in hyde sex and whatnot, but at the end of the day, intense. Even my most laid back, domestic, slice of life fics have a sense of intensity to them because otherwise I get bored and it feels soulless and it's just not my writing style.

10. Do you write cross-overs?

When I feel like it. When I have an idea.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I have a steter fic on a russian fic website that was translated years ago. I have no idea which it was or if it's still there. Wait! I might remember. Yeah no. I don't remember. It wasn't the one I thought of.

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No. I've started to outline one before but it went nowhere and we both forgot about it.

13. What WIP you would like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Harry Potter and the Night that Changed Everything.

I had a whole novel basically planned for it. Writing Bellatrix and a Harry who was raised by Bellatrix took a lot out of me emotionally, and I lost steam.

Also, a Bella Swan/Marcus Vulturi fic that i also had a novel length plot planned out, wrote three chapters for, and then lost steam when I left the fandom due to getting the life sucked out of me by a bunch of toxic people in the fandom killing my joy. Those chapters are just collecting dust in my files right now. I'd like to go back to it one day and finish it in some form or another. Maybe it's original enough I could actually just write an original novel out of the scraps I already have. Actually, to be honest, it is probably original enough that I could write it as an original story. There is not a lot of Twilight there that is necessary to the story and can easily be written out. Something to think about maybe. Ironically not the first prompt I thought up initially for Twilight that I then realized nothing about Twilight was necessary for the idea I had, and I just wrote it without Bella entirely. This is how my original zombie novel started and then immediately evolved into an entirely different thing that has nothing to do w Twilight. Like literally nothing. I had to work to put the Twilight into that one. Not the other way around.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

wyler (steter and tomarry honorary).

15. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and characterization

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

pacing. movement heavy scenes. Longer projects if only because I have less practice at them.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Yeah. If it fits, I'll write it. I won't pretend to be fluent, but I'll do my best. Probably won't do anything too complicated for the sake of realism of my abilities. Especially if it's not Spanish which I at least have spent time trying to learn.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Teen Wolf

19. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Listen...

We've established how well I am at picking one end all number one.

Fuck ok. back to the list.

Water of the Womb was one I was planning to write for almost a year and it turned out pretty good I think. Actually no.

No. It's not a fic that's been posted yet.

I think the favorite fic I've ever written is I Bit Him So He's Mine. it's my "Wednesday is a Hyde season one rewrite au". It's my first novel that is more than just a future novel. It's hit 40k and I have to start Act 2 still. It's my first proper murder mystery where the mystery is the primary plot equal to the romance. I've had a lot of fun with it, I've put my heart and soul into it, and I really look forward to calling it ready to post. Once it's done, you guys are getting regular updates for a long time.

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day?

Out of the Fire haunts me. It was a lesson to learn. I had the desire to write a steter/hannigram crossover and zero plan of any kind outside that. It crashed and burned because I only had a first chapter in me. I recently met a local and successful author who recognized my ao3 username because of this fic and remembered me years later enough to compliment my writing (I cannot express how much that meant to me). Wait no that might have been Mark of an Angel which also haunts me, but I didn't have zero plan. I had almost no plan, and lost steam when I hit a creative block at a bad time. Normally, I'd have just sat down and workshopped a starter outline and wrote myself out of that block, but I lost steam so I never did. Different deal. Not as impactful in my creative journey. Out of the Fire, however, was very important to me because of why it failed, and remains very influential with every new project I start. Actually rewriting/finishing that project would be a defining moment for me as a writer, I think. At least to me personally.

Tagging: @duplicitywrites, @dispatchvampire, @dark-visitors, @fiktorsempra, @graciebirdie, @gardenoblues, @grim-reaper-barbie13, @gabelish, @killingdoll, @lavender-lotion, @lovepoison9, @wednesdayandherhyde, @udunie, @itshype, @insomniac1994, @onlyangelxo, @obsidianpen, @ourdramaqueen, @persephoneed, @pororoh, @badmoodbatflowers, @brascu

#wednesday netflix #wednesday addams #wyler #my writing #tomarry #wednesday fanfic #teen wolf #steter #hannigram #thorki #harrymort #not all of my teen wolf fics were steter but most were #i am also v proud of my stallison fic #sometimes i just write one fic for a ship i had an idea about but only really had the one passion project for #this also included jasper/bella #and was going to include marcus/bella #i had a Caius/Bella idea as well that I never had the chance to start

[exploredawhatifs]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you @xottan for the tag!!! This beginner is humbled and honored that you'd think to tag me so ended up doing this instead of sleeping.

How many works do you have on ao3?

(4) in my heart; (6) according to ao3. The first (3) were meant to be one thing, but I didn’t know better. Thought a series would tie them together as one unit more than it actually did.

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

157,510… I have mixed feelings about this. I love writers who have an economy of words so I suspect proper editing would cut that crazy number down, but I don't have a proper editing process.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sherlock with an eye towards some anime one day

4. Top five fics by kudos

By pure kudo count, the top three go to the three parts of the

For Appearance’s Sake series (Frostiron) followed by

The Doctor’s Choices (a Johnlock WIP) and

Bend Thee Aghast Challenge (a Frostmaster WIP)

but the kudo rank is nearly identical to the posting dates so with only a four month Ao3 career, I’m not sure kudos is a fair way to judge the work

5.Do you respond to comments?

I do now! @lokislonelylady helped me get over the initial comment response fear and I’m forever grateful. Writing and posting also gave me more confidence to leave comments for others’ works and @xottan was the first writer to respond at length. That was a game changer. I didn’t expect responses and still don’t, but it was nice to feel a connection (thank you!!), so now I make it a point to respond to any comments I get as soon as I can or at least before the next post. I don’t get many so it’s easy enough

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Angsty… maybe Unbinding (part three of that first series)? I was told the last part was a bit depressing before the comfort hit.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Uh… only 2 works have an actual ending so far… but I suspect The Doctor’s Choices will be the happiest ending of what I have in the works.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not on the fics itself, not yet. More for not knowing what I’m doing, like tagging. The first version of tagging for For Appearance’s Sake series was a mess. Also for not understanding the ship I first ventured into. 

9. Do you write smut?

Ehm. Yes. Not sure that I'm particularly good at it, probably not but I only have one story that’s not explicit/dark, and that was just for a therapy assignment.

10. Craziest crossover?

None as of yet

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not yet. It’s early

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but that sounds cool.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet. I’ve never even had a beta reader… collabs sounds interesting. 

14. All time favorite ship?

Great question. This one is hard. It was Johnlock for a long time. I started reading in the MCU eight months ago, and the MCU has so many creative pairings that I’m just confused. That said, based on the various works in progress and ideas popping in my head, it must be Frostiron at the moment.

15. What’s a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

None. This question prompted me to go fix what I hated about the wip and so, I'm good. I consider Fools’ Scheme a work in progress. Technically, it functions well enough as part 2 in the series in terms of moving the plot along, but considering the whole thing suddenly deviated to an emotional, happy ending, that middle part really needs some emotions massaged into make it work better with part 3, but emotionss are so hard.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I’d love to say action with a bit of world building, but who knows? It’s hard to judge your own work, and based on the comments from the English professor in college… this ESL kid was barely understandable.

Realistically, the strength I can confidently talk about is speed. Based on the past four months, I average about 1200 words an hour when at a computer; 600 an hour on my phone (though to be fair, usually when I’m writing on the phone… I’m also supposed to be doing something else… like work). Makes me question my career choice (zero writing involved in my day job). With this writing speed, I really would have been making bang during Dickenson’s day where writers got paid per word.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Emotionsss. How other writers put emotions on paper is beyond me.  I do okay with fear and anger but the feels? like love and sadness? Absolute crap, and I don’t know that it will get better since the moment my writing starts down that path, I nope out of there so fast that I’m done writing for that day or it pours out of me in an unfiltered melodrama that I can't imagine anyone wants to read and I’m a wreck for half a week.

Other than that, choppiness. I focus so much on the action and plot that some of it comes out short and action, action, action without the why... this is especially true because my adhd has me jumping from scene to scene or even story to story as I write. Literally Johnlock for ten minutes, then it’s Frostmaster for a paragraph, jump to two separate Frostirons I have going on in the back, and a random Loki & Nebula that’s brewing before jumping back to Johnlock. =.=;;; my brain…

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Yesss. It would be fun to do it in the way Groot is handled in the MCU.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

MCU - Tony Stark/Loki, though it was without even understanding what Frostiron was. I must have read like five Tony Stark/Loki before jumping into writing an unplanned novel, and in all of them, Tony was pretty mean to some weak version of Loki. My fix was to make Loki a bit stronger so that he could send Tony to prison… turns out most people in Frostiron sees them together. Halfway through writing them, I suddenly realized why;;; They’re so alike.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

It varies from moment to moment. Literally, it’s the fic I’m working on and since the last thing I typed is Let’s do ‘Just a slave’, (Thor & Loki) that is the one at the moment, even if it was a therapy assignment. 

It’s not representative of my usual stuff but I did manage to write it in a single sitting of three hours and found it fun, so I guess it counts.

***done!***

Well, that was interesting. More challenging and fun than I had imagined.

Tagging someone: I also tag @lokislonelylady, though, like @xottan says, no pressure. Don’t know if you can even write until you’re fully healed. Sending my love and gratitude either way! Honestly, there should be an amazing commenters’ version of this because @lokislonelylady , you brighten people's day with your comments! I have learned to comment just as much thanks to you.

And while there's really no reason anyone else will stumble on my tumblr, but if you do and you’re writer, consider yourself tagged! (if you want)

#questions for fic writers #ask game

[study-with-aura]

Friday, February 23, 2024

I am posting this on Saturday because H's mom needed to drop her off early since something came up on her end, so I never got the chance to post my Friday update. We had fun though. I still had my piano practice to do, so while I practiced, she worked on a few things that she needed to finish. On the other hand, she did say that my playing was beautiful, and I was elated to hear.

H also plays, but she goes back and forth between enjoying it and doing it because she wants to be done with it and her mom wants her to at least complete Level 10 and then if she wants to stop, she at least knows how to play extremely well in case she ever wants to come back to it in the future. I told H a while back when that was decided that I agreed with her Mom. It was good to at least have the knowledge as she didn't know what she would want in her future, so she plays often when she's in the mood and not often enough when she has no motivation. It works for her, so who am I to say anything?

I plan on doing ARCT and then I'll feel like I've mastered to where I want to be. I'm a completionist, and I actually do enjoy playing. It's why I'm trying to find more time. I want to finish by the time I finish my HS studies, but I also heard that I need ample time for the ARCT since it's a whole other level. If I pass my Level 9 exams, then I can start Level 10 and plan on completing that by the end 10th grade and then I would have two years to prepare for the ARCT exam. That's my plan anyway. My parents don't really care what I do as long I continue to enjoy playing. It's merely hard to find the time to practice! I can only do it by cutting short my supplemental study time, which I have done, but I don't really need a full 2-3 hours for that since I cut my reading down to only one extra book at a time instead of a supplemental book and a fun book along with assigned readings.

Am I doing too much? Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough at all.

It's time to practice again. I'll try to update about today (Saturday) a bit later.

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Reviewed solving systems of equations graphically + reviewed equations of parallel and perpendicular lines + learned to find the distance between a point and a line + learned to find the shortest distance between two parallel lines + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 16-18 vocabulary + read second part of chapter 26 of Emma by Jane Austen + read about understanding poetry + read about how to analyze poetry + read poems and marked figurative language identified + wrote a short poem using figurative language describing a scene from a photograph

Spanish 2 - Copied new vocabulary

Bible I - Read Joshua 17-18

World History - Watched lecture videos on what and why on the origins of WWI + started writing an essay describing how Balkan nationalism, entangling alliances, and militarism led to WWI (due Monday)

Biology with Lab - Finished my human impact presentation + presented to dad

PE/Health I - Read an article about resources for teen depression and stress

Foundations - Read the definition of resourcefulness + completed one minute creativity exercise + identified fallacies in stories and arguments

Piano - Practiced for two hours in one hour split sessions

Khan Academy - Completed World History Unit 6: Lesson 1 (parts 6-7) + completed High School Geometry Unit 6: Lesson 4 (parts 1-3) + Unit 6: Lesson 5 (some was assigned)

CLEP - None today

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 220-259 of My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron and finished the book

Chores - Dusted my bedroom, my bathroom, and the study + laundered my bedding

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Matthew 28)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

-

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful to have my friends over again tonight for a sleepover to get ready for our second to last cookie booth tomorrow.

Quote of the Day:

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.

-Wilma Rudolph

🎧Symphony Op. 11 No. 1 in D major (Overture; 'L'amant anonyme') 1. Allegro - Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

#study community #study blog #study inspiration #study motivation #studyblr #studyblr community #study-with-aura

[esta-elavaris]

Nobody Knows

Okay, starting things off with something I wrote back in 2015 for my first creative writing class at uni. It's a short horror story, the assignment was literally just "write a short story with roughly 1.5k words" bc they were great with giving us serious freedom to write what we wanted to write, and this was what I came up with. I think it was the first 'serious' original short story I wrote, I was 18/19 at the time (so, disclaimer on that score if you're going to compare it to the stuff I'm posting now at almost-27 lolol), so the quality will probably reflect that, but it has sentimental value and a bit of other meaning to me, so I'm posting it as is. Definitely a "look at what I dredged up from the archives" kinda thing rather than a "wow isn't this great?" kinda thing.

I remember I went into that first semester, looked at the people in the class around me and just thought "oh god, I am so fucking out of my league here" -- but then, three months later, my course leader (who ended up being my personal tutor in the years that followed, and my favourite teacher across my whole degree) really enjoyed it and his very kind feedback resulted in the moment where I stopped and thought "man, maybe I actually have something going with my writing". It also ended up in my uni's Eng Lit magazine, which I still have a copy of for archival purposes ✨

Plus, if I reread it too closely to edit it to the quality I like to think I can produce now, I will end up convincing myself not to post it 💀 so here! Have some baby!writer stuff.

By the time I reached nineteen, I was scared of Nobody. That was what I called him - Nobody. My own private little joke.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Nobody.”

“Who are you staring at?”

“Nobody.”

Not a lie, but not a response that would get me thrown into the nearest mental hospital. I considered that a win/win. It also described him accurately – for he didn’t seem to have a body. All I ever saw of him was shadow. Sometimes it would be clearer, forming a silhouette, and other times he’d just be an ever-shifting mass of darkness. I’d been too young to be frightened by his appearance when I first found him in my grandmother’s attic. I’d thought my cousin’s tales of hauntings in the house had always just been made up to scare me, but regardless, Nobody didn’t scare me – not at first.

By the time he did, I’d known him for a decade, and had only resented him for two of those years. The resentment began at my seventeenth birthday party. Before then, having a negative thought about Nobody was utter blasphemy in my book. I would never allow a bad word to be said about my guardian, protector, teacher and presumed imaginary friend. Not one. My mother would suggest that I was too old for this behaviour, and that it was time for Nobody to go away, only for me to go ballistic. I learned to keep him to myself after that, but my good opinion only strengthened, if anything. What could be bad about somebody, living or not, who was so willing to protect me? Who toppled over the chairs my bullies sat in? Who snuck me the answers I needed in tests? It was absurd, but I kept my mouth shut, and as far as everybody else was concerned, my imaginary friend vanished. It meant little to me – it wasn’t like any of them could see him in the first place.

Then things changed. What was meant to be the best night of my life turned out to be the worst. No parents, no neighbours, no rules. Just lots of booze, music and fun. Or so I thought. The first hint that something was awry was when all of the alcohol became mysteriously unavailable to us. Packs of beer would end up in locked cabinets, with the keys nowhere to be found. Bottles of vodka would fling themselves towards the sink and smash there, any potential source of amusement quite literally down the drain.

Then came the issue of the music. My best friend spent the entire evening wrestling with the CD player, wondering why it would refuse to play certain songs (the ones I knew Nobody hated), or why the volume refused to go any higher than, a pretty pathetic, “six”. The final straw was when every guy at the party suddenly became dramatically ill. Every single one. Headaches, vomiting fits, fevers, or even just a sense of pure unease. They needed little motivation to leave such a pathetic party in the first place. Within an hour, the only guests left were my two best friends. My seventeenth birthday bash had been demoted to a sleepover worthy of a ten year old.

After that, Nobody became less of a trusted ally and more of a domineering parent. Where I used to look at my hungover friends with a smug smirk, happy that Nobody had prevented me from drinking enough to end up in that state, I now looked at them with envy. They were normal. They drank too much and endured the consequences. When they were too lazy to study for tests, they failed. Life was difficult and it was unfair and they complained about it relentlessly. But that was what made it fun. They had to think about their next move, take responsibility for themselves. If they forgot their keys, they’d be locked out – they didn’t have any ghost to open the door for them. Without the dark you find yourself unable to appreciate the light, and so life became unbearably boring. I knew that whatever was approaching me in life, it would be fine. Nobody would handle it, whether I wanted him to or not. I hated it, and I hated him for it. My life was no longer mine to control, but instead belonged to somebody who was dead. How twisted was that? Each day was monotonous, and I found myself learning little - if that - from the limited life experience I had. I made no attempt to have an eighteenth birthday party.

Spurred on by thoughts of my failed seventeenth birthday party, and non-existent eighteenth, I made my decision. On the night of my nineteenth I took a lighter to the living room curtains, setting the place on fire. In the grand scheme of things it seemed like a perfectly safe and reasonable thing to do in the name of distraction. By time the blaze was out and smoke stopped billowing out of the window, I was already down the street, peering out at my home from behind a wheelie bin to make sure that I wouldn’t be returning to the charred skeleton of the house at the end of the night.  What I did return to, however, was a foreboding mass of shadow that I was too scared to tear my eyes away from. His presence had gone from endearing to terrifying in seconds flat.

My bedroom was trashed. Books were scattered on the floor, my clothes were strewn around any and every surface available. Even the door had a long, jagged splinter running up through the middle. Nobody made no move, no attempt at communication. Instead he stood stock-still in the corner, shadows bristling.

I didn’t sleep at all that night, instead sitting up in bed, staring at the void that was once my dearest companion with a sense of dread filling my chest. Hours later, when my drunkenness gave way to a fierce headache, all of the painkillers in the house had mysteriously vanished. I’d hoped it would end there, the same way arguments with my parents went. I’d lie, they’d be angry, eventually we’d all forget about it and move on. Nobody wasn’t the type to move on.

That’s where the decision to get rid of him came from. I couldn’t handle it. The constant hounding of my steps, the uncomfortable atmosphere, the lack of sleep. Sure, without him my life would be mundane and ordinary, but what was I with him? An adult with no decisive powers and an enforced bedtime.

When the day came, I kept up the façade marvellously. Nothing was out of the ordinary, and as far as he knew I was simply visiting a new friend at her apartment. Nobody didn’t show any sign of realising something was up until it was too late.

“That’s it?” I asked the ‘mystic’ dubiously as she finished burning incense and tracing odd symbols on my arms with the ash.

“That’s it,” she waved a hand “You may leave. He cannot follow.”

Nobody’s head shot up in clear alarm. His silhouette jerked towards me, but didn’t move. Couldn’t move. His head snapped between the old woman and I, almost like he was watching a tennis match, before it settled on me again and he unsuccessfully tried to move. The shadows around him spiked outwards.

“Oh, hush! You have no power here!” the old woman snapped impatiently.

I paid her as promised, but kept my gaze on Nobody. It was a weird feeling. Like seeing a caged tiger at a zoo. So much power, but no ability to use it. He’d gone from running my life, to being unable to take even a single step in my direction, all thanks to a bit of ash and some fancy words. For half a second, I faltered. I wanted to apologise to him. Pleasant memories surfaced – my toys putting on shows for me as a child, dancing on invisible strings, or even not having to pay to use the tube, as the ticket gates opened on their own upon my approach. But then the shadows spiked angrily again, and the regret was replaced by the more familiar fear.

When I walked out of that apartment, for the first time in ten years I was truly alone. I was truly free. Free to make my own decisions and live outside of Nobody’s grasp. It was then that life decided to catch up on all the years’ worth of lessons it had been unable to teach me until then. My freedom lasted four minutes. If I’d had Nobody with me, he’d have noticed the car that I failed to until it was too late, so used to not even having to look before I crossed the road. The last thing I saw was his dark silhouette, standing motionless in the window overlooking the street.

#esta's OG!fiction

[fayesdiary]

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Hello everyone!

Today marks the second anniversary of this blog! Wow, I can't believe it's been two years already! (Note, I created the blog earlier but February 4th 2019 was my first original post here so I use that date as the blog's birthday)

I'm honestly suprised this blog lasted this long, since I'm a very shy person usually on the Internet and commitment isn't exactly my strong suit. But what can I say? I love it here and Tumblr feels like home at this point!

To celebrate I'm gonna reminisce a little bit and write down my thoughts about this blog. It's gonna get really sappy, I'm sorry.

Just kidding. I'm not sorry at all.

2022 has truly been the year of all time. A lot and I mean a lot of ups and downs. I started and ended my first job, went on vacation, had one of the worst instances of allergy + depression, you name it. In hindsight, every few months I was in a wildly different situation and mental state.

But the thing that overall made 2022 great was finally getting into art! To turn the ironic hate off for a moment, I love Fire Emblem. It's not my favorite series (Kingdom Hearts and Kirby share that position), but it's one I still adore and now am truly greatful for, because for a reason or another it was the only one it felt welcoming enough to me to actively make an account about it and be active in social media rather than a ghost after years.

Before I made this blog I wrote a few supports for the fire-emblem-heroes-supports blog. I think they were the first piece of writing I ever made willingly and not as part of a school assignment, and looking back I still cherish them.

Eventually I had the idea for this blog, and after a lot of hesitation in typical me fashion, fayesdiary was born! I mentioned it a few times already, but originally it was meant to be just meta analysis posts, a few headcanons and theories and my sporadic writings. Overtime though it became a lot more freeform in what I posted, and I think it's all the better for it!

I got the courage to write and posts my first fanfictions and slowly carved my own personal space here on Tumblr. Like, a very cozy rat hole. Over time, this blog became a personal hobby and it gave me a lot of satisfactions. I got close to some people I truly admire and made a few friends too!

And boy, then we get to last year, which has been an absolute blast in terms of creativity!

I don't think I ever had in mind making a dialogue dump website of Awakening, but it happened and I had a lot of fun making it and giving it a lot of tiny details! ...even if its layout has the stability of a Jenga tower and it's just the Gangrel arc. Whatever. It's the thought that counts.

I wrote a bunch more! Not as much as I wanted, but I made some stories I'm really proud of. And I took part in a few fandom events and not just one but two Secret Santas for the first time!

I took a shot at making wallpapers and made some I'm really proud of, especially the Three Hopes ones. They were so fun to make and the process was just tons of fun!

And that leads nicely to... making art.

See, the thing about me is that I always sucked at making art. I couldn't keep my hands stable, I am incredibly clumsy and I couldn't draw anything more complicated than simple childlike doodles. And while I loved painting, the fact I felt incapable of making anything good or that I could like lead me to not even bothering to try. Why bother if you're just gonna be disappointed and frustrated, after all?

Until I got into group painting at around July, and I loved it. I made some paintings I truly like, and that eventually gave me the courage to start drawing again. As a half-joke. Only this time, I decided to draw with references, and my whole world got upside down. Turns out I could actually somewhat draw if I had a reference! And somehow I never realized it in years!

Something clicked. I figured it'd just be a thing I'd do for a week at most and then drop like so many other creative projects of mine, but... it stayed. Not only that, but I got more invested into it. I went from physical to digital (with the mouse!), and eventually shifted to a graphic tablet a friend lent me (and then pretty much gifted me). Eventually the drawings became so many I decided to make an art blog! Me! An art blog! The me from even just early 2022 would have called you insane if you said it! And now not just that, but I'm even making preparations to open a Redbubble shop! I still can't believe it!

And a huge part is thanks to this blog, really! It gave me and still keeps giving me the courage to try new stuff, find new friends and people who inspire me, and lets me know people enjoy what I make or say. It's amazing, and it makes me feel so happy!

I'll be honest, I am grateful to this blog. It truly helped me get into a better place, and I can confidently say ever since I opened it I feel a lot happier. And that's coming from the local cynical bastard who usually hates themselves, but now? I went from hating myself to being neutral at worst for the most part. Even if I still have my moments sometimes, but that's normal. And now I actually have hope for the future!

But really, it says a lot that for once at the New Year party I wasn't the one who claimed the next year was going to suck. Heck, I was actually caught off guard when one of my friends said it and I said no, it's gonna be good!

Anyway, enough rambling. What I want to say is, thank you for everything. Thank you to the people who complimented me or even just commented on the things I made. Thank you to my mutuals and anonymous lurkers. Yes, I know you're there, I was and often still am one of you. And most of all, thank you to all my online friends I made here on Tumblr. When I think about it, we haven't known each other for that long, but I want you to know now I can't imagine a life without you and you brighten my day every time we chat. I love you so much and I wish you nothing but the best<3

Here's to plenty more years of this blog!

#not fire emblem #faye gets sappy #fayesdiary 2nd anniversary #faye #my art #(not) sorry for the long post but incoherent rambles are actually the best way to show my gratitude [citation needed]

[zyrafowe-sny]

For the fanfic writer emoji ask:

💖 What made you start writing?

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

What made you start writing?

This is a story in two parts.

Child me was a huge bookworm and loved creative writing assignments in elementary school, so I also wrote poems and original-ish stories for fun. That continued and evolved into some fanwork starting around middle school (when I discovered fanfic online). I wrote and posted one ficlet and one abandoned WIP in early college, but between papers, internships, choir, grad school, work, etc. my creative writing tanked. I sometimes had ideas for fanfic or original work, but never really did anything with them.

Fast forward many years later to last October. I was frantically bingeing The Owl House because I was late to the party and the first episode of the last season just dropped. I had so many feelings after Thanks to Them, and felt compelled to actually write. I eased my way in with a drabble sequence, and now I have a little over 30k words posted on AO3. My writing definitely slowed down in 2023 (and I was never a fast writer to begin with), but I am working on WIPs most days again and am hopeful that I will actually finish something.

Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

I love it when characters choose to be family. In The Owl House, we get a canon moment of Luz & Hunter. I've also written Hunter & Vee and Vee & Luz. Nimona basically adopting Ballister is also one thing I enjoy about the movie and graphic novel.

I'm also a fan of identity crises (have written two takes on the haircut scene in TOH - Thanks to Them).

What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

Grief definitely shows up in a lot of my fics. It's something very personal to me (lost my dad a few years ago) and writing it can be cathartic. Sometimes it's just a throwaway line (like a character being reminded of someone they lost), but sometimes it's a bigger theme.

#thanks for the ask! #ask game #fanfic ask game

[underthetree845]

ask game

😅✍🛒🛠💖👀🤗

Hello darling! Thank you for the ask (<3)

😅 (What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?)- God, um, I have this one x reader thing I wrote, and it was the very first piece of fanfiction I ever came up with. I wrote it in eighth grade (T-T). It wasn't super terrible and I didn't say "orbs" instead of eyes even once, I just kind of didn't know what I was doing. No planning took place, it was just a little forced, but I'm kind of proud of myself for just getting it out. It was an Armin/fem reader thing where they were going to a party dance thing and there was a confession. Kind of like a less evolved version of my recent masquerade fic, actually. I guess I enjoy writing dancing. I know I was young and everything but I'm so thankful that I hadn't figured out that I could actually post on fanfiction websites yet, I kept writing and thankfully (at least I believe/hope) that I got better. ✍ (Do you have a beta reader?)- I do not. I'm not against it or anything, I just don't. I do have this one friend that I send e v e r y t h i n g I write to though, albeit after it's published because she's not really an experienced writer (not that she's bad, just not the right person to ask for feedback). She's even read that dance fic I mentioned in the previous question.

🛒 (What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.)- Mutual pining is a big one for me 😭. Whether it's friends to lovers (which is what I mostly write), strangers to lovers, enemies, coworkers, etc. etc. there will always be mutual pining at some point. Even if one has had feelings for longer and I depict the growth of the other's feelings (which I find really interesting). Also- random- but I feel like hand holding/focus on hand touches is always a light thing I find myself wanting to incorporate. Not sure why.

🛠 (What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?)- I like to use google docs. It syncs to my phone too so I can write on the way to school or in public if I'm bored, stuff like that. Straight up writing in the tumblr drafts scares me, it's too easy to delete O.o. I oftentimes keep one doc for notes (if it's a longer fic) and write the fic separately. Fun fact though, when I started out, I was actually using the notes app on my phone. That didn't last long, but I still have my first few unpublished 8th grade fics on there.

💖 (What made you start writing?)- Okay so what made me REALIZE that I liked writing was my English classes in school. I've always been a bookworm- ever since I was a little kid- so it was amazing to me that I was able to create stories and show them to people in the same way real authors could. So middle school me loved doing creative writing assignments, I always went way over the wordcount, I loved reading books, etc. etc. Eventually I start getting into fandom, and through internet browsing, I come across fanfiction for the first time. I have to say, it kind of blew my mind. It's hard to explain that I never really stopped reading as much as I did in middle school and elementary school, I just read a lot more ~digital works by unpublished authors~ now (and I still do read books, I'm currently reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and I love it). The rest I kind of already explained. I tried my hand at it for awhile in the notes app, eventually made an account, read, liked, etc., started posting, and the rest is history. :)

👀 (Tell me about an up and coming wip please!)- *Rubs hands together.* Okay, so: First of all, I'm ALMOST, almost I swear! I'm almost done with the next chapter for my ongoing fic. I'll probably post it sometime next weekend (I don't know if you follow it but there's that). I'm currently working on a Dazai oneshot with the pocky game (you know what that is, right?) And then someone sent me a jealous Chuuya request which I plan on completing after my other two wips since they won't take long.

🤗 (What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?)- EEEE! Okay okay!

Dear new writers, WE ARE SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU HERE. Please don't be shy! Reach out, interact, share your work (if you want to) and there will be people who say hello back! Remember, don't compare yourself to other writers. We all started at some point. We all had a first post, we all make mistakes, we're all human. On that note, don't beat yourself up about making it perfect! Getting out a first draft is a great first step. It can include notes, errors, run on sentences, and that's fine because it's a draft! You do not have to be perfect, none of us are. Do not feel bad about not having the time to write, or even if you do have the time but lack the energy. Take care of yourself first always! Remember to have confidence in yourself. You created something that wasn't there before and put it out into the world and it's a story and it's yours and that is amazing in every aspect. Don't give up on yourself, take care of yourself, be kind to yourself, and you will slowly but surely find your place in the writers' community! <3

Thank you again for the asks! I hope all of you sleep well tonight. <33

#answered #ask game #sorry this was so long oh my god #emoji asks

[cakeissweeterthanpickles]

Hello! 8, 10, and 13 for the writing questions, please! :D

8. If you had to write an entire story without action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

In middle school, I had an assignment to write a short story. We were encouraged to use a lot of dialogue (because it was measured by number of lines, not words), but I wrote a story without any. It was about a deaf child who meets a mime and they communicate with each other. I'm gonna be honest, it was terrible writing and the story idea sounds bad to me now. But it was also 6th grade so what can you expect

10. Has a piece of writing ever "haunted" you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Roald Dahl's The FREAKING Landlady. That's not what it's called but man. I hated that story. If you haven't read it, I advise you not to. Especially if you have a weak stomach, like me. I read that in middle school and I still think about it all the time.

As for my own writing, there was a poem I wrote when I was little that haunts me. Not because it's weird or anything, it was just "good" and I was so embarrassed about the attention it got. So I avoided reading or thinking about it for years. I don't anymore, though. I could post it on tumblr if you really want to read it (I will warn you-only my mom thought it was great)

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you to write about? What is easy?

As far as my creative writing goes, I'm actually really terrible at dialogue. I can write it in my head just fine, but it always sounds so unnatural on paper. Sorry, that's not a subject matter. I'm pretty good at descriptions though, if I can pat myself on the back for anything. Oh, now that I think about it, I'm not good at writing gore, injuries, or anything medical-ish. I'm too squeamish to do any proper research. Also, describing stuff like that (despite detailing being my strong suit) gives me the heebie jeebies

Thanks for the questions! 💞 (I hope all of that made sense lol)

#tag game #theamiableanachronism

[cescalr]

hello dearest! <3 for the ask game:

how does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

How long is your longest fic?

What order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

Hey mate <3

1; So, as someone who is currently studying creative writing at university, the lack of community.... I guess, response fanfic tends to get these days (beyond a very appreciated Loved this!!!!!11!1!1 which of course <3 thank you random commenter person. but also. what about it did you love.) isn't as - er, frustrating as it could otherwise be, since I get feedback on my writing from professional academics on assignments and such. Basicaly - I actually really miss FFN calling it 'reviews' instead of comments, because that encouraged people to actually... tell me things. And not just spam letters. And i love the letter spamming! keysmashes are nice :) But i always remember the comments that talk about the fic more than the ones that just flatter me. Like, yes, flattery will get you quite far opposed to popular aphorisms, but er I'd also like to know if my sentence structure flows nicely. That would be useful. I like getting feedback as much as support, the lack of the former can be a bit awkward though because it means I don't know what I need to change to improve my work. As someone who wants to storytell just like, in general, outside of fanfic, that's kind of important! Support is great. Love support. Would also love feedback if people were willing to give it <3.

Oh!!!!!!!! Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay. So. I don't know if saying you and viv would be cheating or not (or count as nepotism? hey besties <3 <3 <3 hehe) sooooo you guys are honourable mentions <3 but okay, so - in absolutely no particular order, and nowhere near all the people i could rec;

Ꝥ. esama | Archive of Our Own !!! hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 281 works of impeccable quality and substantial wordcount, you'd be remiss in saying Esama was anything but prolific, especially given those cover roughly 66 fandoms, give or take Ao3's consideration of things like Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts as separate media franchises......... hmmm. Anyway. Really really great author. Go check out their works!! trust me. They'll have at least 1 thing you'll enjoy. My personal favourites are all assassins creed fics, but they have hp and mcu fics, too bestie so yk. Specifically i recommend Wizards IN SPACE - I mean, it is quite literally called Wizards. IN SPACE. what is not to love about that premise? The writing is A* tier, to boot. <3 esama is basically the reason I write fanfic. Give 'em a look-see; they're also here on tumblr, as @/esamastation :). Good to give a follow - they're much more consistent at posting when they make new fic/chapters on their tumblr than I've ever been on mine, lol.

Ƿ. For someone else who is also here on tumblr (and may or may not count as nepotism. I don't actually know the definition of nepotism. Hi tumblr mutual of mine, lol!) Is freddieslater | Archive of Our Own. I will read almost anything they write for fandoms I know, and have read things for fandoms I don't know one even small thing about just because they wrote it. RJ's style is just superb, and their ability to write fic you can completely understand even if you don't know the fandom is really grand. Good glee & TVD fic is hard to find, lemme tell ya that right now, and theirs is superb! Remus is also here on tumblr, under the same username :). Hence. You know. Being mutuals and all.

Ł. This is a curveball. Something to throw you off your game. I'm going to recommend an FFN author who only recently migrated to Ao3 that writes solely SI fics. Yeah. That's what I'm doing. Some of the first fics I remember fully reading all the way through were this guy's work, so I think it's only fair to give him a shout. Soleneus | FanFiction. I haven't read all his fics for reasons that should make themselves... very clear upon looking at his account, but the fics I have read, namely the Fallout and Mass Effect series plus the Worm fic (a franchise i actually know nothing about; some kind of grimdark superhero thing I think - prior knowledge was not stated as necessary, and I read way too much fic for things I've never seen. Bestie why am I telling you this like you don't already know that?) are genuinely really well done series and some of the best examples of how to get an SI/OC fic to work without being all mary sue and shit. [or marty stu, in this case, I suppose?]. I'm going to be frank and say not every rec for an author I give recs all their works - I'd avoid his HP stuff because his view on the series is diametrically opposed to mine, for example. But that doesn't mean that what is there isn't worth at least a gander. I'm of a mind that you should give fic a chance even if the summary or whatever sounds strange; this might come from the fact I first started reading fic on things like FFN and Twisting The Hellmouth, which didn't have filterable tags and people would just straight up lie in the four-characters-allowed-here section so more people would find their fic, so.... I've ended up reading a lot of stuff I wouldn't recommend. But you find things that come from a different perspective than your own to a franchise you love, and that can be interesting! My views on the worlds of ME and Fallout are vastly different from his, but his fics for them are far better than anything I could ever write for them. His worldbuilding is seriously solid stuff, and honestly his characters are pretty good. SIs get a bad rep, I think, because of things like the shitty reincarnated as harry potter or whatever and just be an asshole for 40 chapters trope, but it can be done properly, and Sol achieves that. I really enjoyed the Fallout and Mass Effect series when I read them, 'bout... half a decade ago lmao, but still - those would be the ones I'd say to take a look-see at.

3. Hm. I actually think it would be in that order; Characters drive the story for me. Their emotions and thoughts and things all drive the action - but, then, that's just standard story structure (according to my Novel module lecturer, anyway). My style specifically is.... interrogative? I like Putting People In Situations and Making Them Do Bad Things For Fun And Profit [Angsty Entertainment]. I can go chapters without dialogue, though I love writing it, because writing gives you the unique ability to see right into the character's thoughts, unlike in things like film where that's more difficult (or awkward - just look at the narrated version of Blade Runner, lmao). You can, I guess, wallow. My writing style is brooding alksdjf;alskdfj;alskdfj; god. I can't escape the vampire allegations /joke. Er. Hm. I like fun things :) Like making my blorbos suffer :) But they'll be happy in the end so it's okay :). Also - I write romance, sure, but I tend to use romance as a way to look into the characters involved. It's sort of more a tool than the main draw, which is why my steo never gets anywhere close to dating alsdkjf;alksdfj;asdf oh well.

4. My longest fic is For What It's Worth. This should not be a surprise, given it's a rewrite of HP5 -> 7. It is currently 91 ,527k, with the wip next (and fucking final, jeez) chapter has about 3, 517k words atm, but that's nowhere near how many it's going to have. Harry's not even left Privet Drive yet! It's still early summer!! Also, If you count the side stories, 100, 576k is the wordcount for the series - so that boosts the collective count to 104,093. So. This fic is long enough on it's own, but it's over 100k when the in-continuity and arguably-part-of-the-fic side stories are included. Oof. (Nowhere near all that long a fic in comparison to many of the things I read, though. Read a 2 mil word star wars fic once. Very good fic! I don't remember what it's called.)

5. I write in the order I write; sometimes I write chronologically, start of fic to end of fic. Sometimes I write a scene and then find where It goes much later on - that happened in Keeping This; the fic got piecemealed together over a course of. A While. And one of the scenes sort of... towards the middle? I wrote way before it showed up. You can see this in my Journey Across the Dimensions WIP ficlet collection fic (that i really should separate out and make an actual series, instead of one of those fuckawful fic collection fics. I am the problem). But most fics I just write in order. FWIW's first two chapters - 32k words before the edit, down to 29k - were done in a single session on one Sunday. Like, 10am to 4pm or something like that. I don't remember that was in 2018!!! I can't remember that far back!!!! I have the brain of a forgetful goldfish!!! A sieve a cat got it's claws on!!!

Thanks for the ask bestie <3 <3 <3

#ask game #is this a long post? hm. #long post #<3

[notmaplemable]

I’d love to hear about your fics and your process as a writer.

How long have you been writing, did you do any fics before RWBY, and do you feel like your writing has evolved over time?

Well, I first started doing creative writing outside of English assignments during my Junior year of HS (11th grade), which would have been 2017/18. But I didn't start with fan fiction. I've written a full 92kish fantasy novel.

Which I wrote on and off from 2017 to very early 2020. And it's terrible. Which, it was my first attempt at long form writing, so it was going to be terrible no matter what. But it was the best I could do at the time and I certainly wouldn't be as skilled as I am now, which still isn't very skilled, if I didn't write it. So you gotta take the good with the bad.

And no, I will never ever ever ever release that document to the public. You people deserve better than that.

Then I didn't really write anything at all from March of 2020 to around this time last year. Why? To make a long story short, medical problems. I had to be rushed to the ER in March of that year, I've spend several days in the hospital since then, I almost had to drop out of college at one point, and I had my last surgery towards the end of August last year.

I actually wrote my first post here, It Worked For Mom, while I was recovering from surgery. So there's a bit of a fun fact for this blog.

I started maybe 5 or 6 Fallout and Dragonball fics while I was in HS that never made it past the first chapter. That I also never published.

I wrote my first RWBY fic around the end of May last year. Rosa Aurum which means Rose Gold in Latin, and yes it was Lancaster. I've been on that train since day 1. Which was sort of my spiritual successor to Beacon Beckons if you've ever read that fic.

I didn't even finish the first chapter for that one.

My second attempt at a fic was actually Lancatster (Jaune x Ruby x Blake) but I can't find the file anymore. And I don't remember the name, but I do remember making it to chapter 2 with the one. So, progress.

------

Now, with everything I wrote from High School to the fic before Ghosts of Summer I had a pretty thorough outline. I fact, it'd say the I probably over planned. The outline document for my novel is about 37k words itself. Which considering the finished novel is a little over 90k, having your outline be 1/3 the size of the finished project is just absurd.

And I tried to use that same method for those first 2 fics that never went anywhere. Safe to say, didn't really work out.

With Ghosts of Summer, which is the first fic I've published and the first that's really made it very far, I've kind of just used the Tumblr version as a rough outline. Which is also what I've done with Ginger Whisper and Arc-Noire and will do with my other series most likely.

So, I've gone from a hardcore planner to a kind of a middle ground between planning and pantsing.

So I guess you can say my planning method now is to throw ideas at you people, see the reaction and if there's any feedback, and see if I like the idea in practice as much as I like it in theory. Which helps me decide if I want to pursue that idea in the novelization or not.

I've recently started giving myself a minimum amount of words to write in a day. 1k words a day. So, actively tracking the amount I write a day has helped me quite a bit in writing consistently. Instead of kind of just waiting for inspiration and hoping that carries me along.

Which is how I've managed to write four 5k+ chapters of three different fics over the past month and change. And I do plan on being much more consistent on the front in the future.

------

As for how my writing has evolved over time. Well, I think my dialogue has gotten a lot better. As well as my prose and writing in general has gotten a lot easier over time.

I'm still terrible with plots. And I'm absolutely terrible with writing body language. So, I think I tend to rely a little bit too much on showing over telling on that front.

I do think I've gotten better overall in the last few months. I think most of that just comes from consistently writing and practice does make perfect. And the fact that I've had the opportunity to work with other wonderful writers on here really had helped too.

But, there's still a lot for me to improve on and I'm going to work hard to continue improving my writing. I do eventually want to be published, so I have a long way to go.

One interesting thing though is that I don't really have any more anxiety when it comes to writing or posting my writing. Not really sure why though.

------

I'm happy to answer any more questions you might have.

#my answers #q&a

[essektheylyss]

🍭💎📡 for the writer asks please? (don't feel like you have to do all of them either)

🍭why did you start writing?

I started writing because I read a lot as a child and I had a really cool third grade teacher! We had a period everyday where we had some amount of time to do a bunch of writing assignments, which were all different formats and genres and changed every month, and so long as you turned in that month's assignments at the end, you were free to use the time to write that or any other creative writing you wanted. (I was real disgruntled when the school implemented a banal essay-specific writing curriculum the next year, which was probably a contributing factor to why I dug my heels in and continued doing creative writing on my own, and only begrudgingly wrote essays until late high school/college when I got the freedom with them to enjoy them.)

💎why is writing important to you?

I think a lot of my thoughts for this one were answered here, so in an effort to not repeat myself, I will refer you to that! Tl;dr, writing is like... the overall formation of my worldview and how I engage with anything, so it's really important.

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

SOAPBOX TIME. To preface, I think fandom lurkers are great, and I think they are a vital part of the fandom ecosystem. This is not about that.

That being said, there has been a few trends in recent years in two opposite directions, first of fandom content being increasingly thought of as a commodity for consumption, and also a push to only make fandom content for oneself without worrying about engagement, and I think both of these are unhelpful!

I do think that making art for metrics alone is a losing battle—you should have a connection to what you're making! But everyone in fandom does, and I think that "to engage with the fandom conversation and other fans" is a perfectly valid and actually important reason to make creative fan work! Even when it comes to shitposting or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, more academically-leaning meta, I'm certainly posting more because I find it fun to contribute to the conversation and having discussions. I think fandom is in large part about that kind of discussion, even if the form that takes is everyone contributing to the dash by making their own posts with their own spin on the media.

(This is also why I personally really dislike fandom areas where everyone's working with the same headcanons and parameters, and stepping outside of that or even expressing a different headcanon will get you shunned at best. It takes the conversation and the creativity out of it! What is the point! Are you trying to make a fun little sandbox to hang in or a cult!)

But the thing is, as much as fandom on tumblr is a bit of a parallel play situation, where we're hanging with our mutuals reblogging our silly posts, all of those posts are made by someone, and those people are also in fandom. Every single post is made by someone in the fandom!

Which goes back to the commodification—there is, increasingly, even purely among fans, something of an artificial distinction between "content creators" and "consumers". And no one has to create something in order to be a part of fandom, but everything that is thought of as fandom is created by someone, down to shitposts and gifsets (which I include here as an example because they are so ubiquitous and take work and skill to put together, but I think are often seen less as someone's creative work and more as a commodity unattached to the op)—which I think is a lot of why the decrease in engagement can be so disheartening. Because if no one is sharing their own work, and people aren't then sharing other's work, then there is no fandom.

And I know this question is about writing in particular, but I also consider meta as "writing." I consider shitposts as "writing" even if they take a lot less time than a whole fic. Writing and sharing your writing is incredibly valuable to fandom because it is the foundation upon which we're all participating in community, but I think this is a discussion that can't be limited to only one artform, because in this case it's more about community than the creative work itself.

#thank you for the questions! #I started answering this first today and the last question ended up so long that I kept having to draft it and come back lol #so hopefully it is coherent lol #megs is writing #ask games

[icannotreadcursive]

Hello it's me again. Tell me if you want me to stop sending you asks nonstop, I do not fully understand how interaction on the internet works and so I base everything I do on whether I'd enjoy it myself and I would, but I recognize you might feel different and bwahdgahhhkjkkljkll

Anyway, how did you first get into writing fanfic? How did you get over the feeling that everything you write is #cringebad? I know every writer thinks that...

Hello! I quite enjoy getting asks but rarely receive them, so honestly this is great, don't even worry about it hon

As for how I got into writing fanfic, I really started writing things that would count as fanfic long before I knew about "fanfic" or "fandon" as concepts.

Like, I wrote a sequel to the musical Cats when I was 5 or 6. And for some elementary school creative writing assignment I wrote about the kids of a bunch of my favorite book and movie characters going to school together. I just naturally engage with stories by making up more stories.

I actually discovered fanfiction . net in middleschool--I think the only things I ever posted to that account were a continuation of an anime that had ended like mid-arc and a Harry Potter fic with just the most unabashed self-insert mary sue going to Howgwarts with like Harry's kids and all that generation. I stopped using that account and switched over to a second ffn account I initially made to keep my Brokeback Mountain fic separate because that movie's rated R, so that fic felt grown up and different to me, and I was kind of hiding it from my mom, but that didn't last long because I'm a terrible liar.

That fisrt ffn account is long gone, I took those fics down, but some parts of the HP fic stil exist re-worked without the self-insert character and can be found as the And The Family Circus series on my Ao3. My other ffn account is still up (unless the site purged it, I haven't checked on it in a while) but everything on there has been crossposted to my Ao3, except for my very first Brokeback fic, which I cannot bring myself to take down but which I have grown so far past as a person and a writer.

Now, I want to make a point that no, not every writer feels like everything they write is #cringebad. A lot of writers are insecure about their writing--hell, I know successful professional screenwriters with movies you can call up to watch right now who dread other people seeing their writing! But that's a learned insecurity, it's not an inherent part of being a writer.

I'm lucky enough to have grown up with a lot of support for my writing. My family's always treated my interests with respect, and I just kinda didn't make friends with people growing up who would be jerks about that kind of stuff, so I never got that social shaming as a kid that teaches you that your interests and creative endeavors are bad or cringe or a waste of time because you'll never be good enough to make anything of it or whatever.

Do I look back some of my old writing, from like high school, and cringe? Yeah, absolutely. Cuz I've learned enough to see now that it's clunky and unrefined and dialogue is stilted and unnatural and the character interactions don't make sense and a lot of it is hamhanded and messy--but it's the writing of a child, of someone still learning not just how to write but how to be a person. So I cringe with fondness for who I was and the enthusiasm I had to so confidently put that mess out into the world, and I thank the stars that I've grown since then.

But yeah, I write primarily for myself, and I enjoy what I write, so I figure I must be doing a pretty good job. The fact that other people enjoy it too is a wonderful bonus.

And I do know that every writer (except maybe a few who are delusionally arrogant) has moments while we're writing when we're fighting with it and every word we're putting down feels wrong and it's like damnit this is terrible, I don't know what I'm doing, this is so bad, why am I doing this???

At that point you either gotta push through and tell yourself that's a second draft problem--because the most important thing is getting it on the page, you can edit bad writing but you can't refine something that doesn't exist--or you take a breath, take a break, take a walk, just put it down for a while and when you come back you may find you have a better feel for how to handle the scene or you may find what you already wrote isn't as bad as you thought.

Well, that got long, but yeah, that's my story and my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for the ask!

#eiiri answers

[mcfiddlestan]

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

🥺 ❌ 💞 💔

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Declarations of love will always get me. But, also, like...ok IDK how to explain this...but when the two characters are in the midst of sexy times and one or the other (or both!) are just overwhelmed with all the feels, and their inhibitions are gone, and their walls are momentarily down, and they are the most vulnerable they can be -- think naked in every sense of the word -- and they choose that moment to express their feelings or let the other into their thoughts -- THAT. That will always get me in my feels.

❌ What’s a trope you will never write?

Probably A/B/O. Not my jam and not something I'm knowledgeable enough to write.

💞 Who’s your comfort character?

I have three. Loki, Tony Stark, and Bucky Barnes. But if I had to pick one that really is my comfort...it's Tony Stark. I mean, I was upset/pissed when they killed off Loki (fuck the Russos), and Bucky will never cease to pull at the strings of my heart. But Tony. Oof. When Tony died -- or more accurately, when I realized he was going to die -- I cried so hard I couldn't breathe. To this day, I can't watch That Movie after "And I am Iron Man." I don't need to go into detail how or why this character just hits so close for me. A lot of it has to do with RDJr for sure. RPing him and delving into his character, his head, also probably helped make him so important to me.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

I started my first FrostIron fic 15 days before I was to leave for my study abroad trip in London. I updated while I was there -- and did some of my best writing, IMO. I actually used the first part of the first chapter of the sequel I had started planning for my dialogue assignment for my Creative Writing course. My prof loved it. LOL. Anyway, I wrote the epilogue while I was in Ireland with a friend after the ten weeks of courses. She had started reading the fic on AO3 as I had been posting it (haha), and I started writing the epilogue after ppl demanded a sequel. We were in a hostel in Dublin, and -- SPOILER ALERT -- I was writing the end of Tony and Loki's relationship. It wasn't an amicable end, it wasn't very healthy either, and it was heartbreaking to see it come to an end after everything they'd been through. As I was writing, I started crying right alongside Tony and Loki. Even today, when I re-read that chapter, it makes me tear up a bit.

Send me an ask! Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

#fanfic writer emoji ask #mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea #matbts #asked and answered #sorry this took so long!

[piqueconcentration]

Questions That Actually Prompt Conversation

Originally posted April 30, 2023

Moving is hard. Moving is hard for a lot of different reasons, but one of them, and the one that I've been running into most often considering my relatively recent relocation, is making friends. I'm honestly pretty good at it, too- as much as I like the idea of being the strong, silent type, I tend to not shut up nearly enough which is, ironically, one of the best ways to get to know people.

My partner, having been so shy as to be nearly selectively mute for a while, has much more difficulty on that front, even though she goes to school, something that I have decided not to do for the time-being, under-achieving as I am known to be. School, in this case, provides the benefit of the time-honored shortcut to friend-making- going to the same place on a regular schedule (which is honestly the best advice that I can give on this subject; if you go back to some sort of public place daily or weekly, you will eventually make friends).

Regardless, the difficulty in question has impressed upon me of late the importance of being able to make conversation. I'm not talking about "small talk," as poorly-defined as it may be, as those conversations tend to hit the dirt within a few sentences, I mean I've gotten interested in questions that you can ask people that can actively prompt an entire conversation. Kind of a "get-to-know-you" kind of thing, but odd or off-beat enough that it feels less like an interrogation and more of a brainstorm.

Anyway, here are some good ones from the far-reaching depths of my samsung notes app:

(These will be structured with the question in bold above, and my own responses/examples just below.)

______________________________________________________________

1) If you were to create a piece of media/story to reflect certain themes, which themes would they be, and why?

- Love that takes work

- How to live without regrets (without believing in fate)

- Breaking past the barrier of the self (creative resistance, cognitive distortions, time blindness, etc.)

- How cool it is that everyone is interested in different stuff

2) What is a topic that you have a special connection to because you did some sort of academic assignment about it; what did you learn?

- Tapirs

I don't remember too much, but I definitely did a big project about them in elementary school.

- Basking Sharks

How they're rad, giant , and harmless; how they used to travel in gigantic schools of hundreds of individuals; how fishermen got pissed at them because they would get stuck in nets all the time, so the people started putting giant blades on the fronts of their boats and ramming into the sharks, cutting them in half.

- The Satanic Panic and Dungeons & Dragons

I wrote a research paper that I was really proud of about how parents' fear of the roleplaying game in question at the time may have been misplaced concern about mental health issues.

3) What is a topic that you pretend to know less about than you actually do?

- Anime & Video Games

I am insecure and these feel embarrassing- I feel like I need to make sure people know about my personality before they make judgements based on the things I like, and how other people who enjoy similar things may act/be perceived.

- Herpetology (Reptiles & Amphibians) & Wildlife

I have a tendency to just start regurgitating information at a high speed; I need to make sure the others in the conversation are actually receptive to me verbally launching my interests at them.

4) What is something in pop culture that you would change the representation of?

- Committed Relationships

New love/infidelity is romanticized a lot and I think that it encourages dissatisfaction and a "grass-is-always-greener" attitude, I think solid partnerships built on mutual trust and effort should be romanticized more.

The only piece of media that I can think of that kind of does this (albeit imperfectly) is High Fidelity, and I don't like that movie very much.

5) What is something that you would tell your younger self that is only important to you? (Avoid things that would drastically alter your life trajectory)

- "What you think is Generalized Anxiety is actually OCD, what you think is a Depression symptom is actually an ADHD symptom, and it's called 'Executive Dysfunction.' The right people will understand more easily when you call it that."

- "You do not dislike mayonnaise- you like aioli and those two are the same fucking thing, one just sounds better. The bread you're eating with savory sandwiches is too sweet and your parents are not bothered by it, but you are. Switch to sourdough and put olive oil on it."

6) What habits/motions/idiosyncrasies do you notice about your friends/the other people in the conversation?

- My partner does a thing when she plays video games where she scrunches up her face and relaxes it in quick succession. It is adorable.

- A friend of mine will sometimes tilt his head to one side and then the other when he is about to respond to a question.

(This is best when you can imitate the motion or manner of speaking, but be sure that everyone involved is comfortable with the topic, as this can be a sensitive subject for some people.)

7) In what ways are you glad that you're different from how you used to be?

- I've always been really prone to showing off how much I know about specific things, but I used to be way more insufferable about it. Now, I try to be really transparent and genuine about the things that interest me, and practice Intellectual Humility whenever I can.

- I used to be really concerned about my sexuality and making sure my gender identity was solidly masculine. I no longer give a shit, and thank god for that.

8) Which albums were the most influential in your life? What are some memories that you have of them?

- Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder

- Say I Am You by The Weepies

- Random Access Memories by Daft Punk

- Awaken, My Love by Childish Gambino

9) What are your favorites of the compliments that you've received?

- "I've never once felt judged by you."

- "You make it feel really easy to jump in." (In reference to playing music and improvising)

- "Your sweeping form is impeccable."

10) What crime would you be most likely to be arrested for?

- No comment.

______________________________________________________________

These next ones are bonuses because I did not come up with them, rather I've found them on the internet over the years. The list on my phone is more of a compilation than a canvas:

If anything, what would you change about the way you were raised? - More emphasis on the results of hard work as opposed to talent

- More fluid views on gender

"WAT R UR ADJECTIVES"

Thank you, Skweezy.

Para mi: lanky, nerdy, effeminate, no driver license

What are your tiny hobbies?

- Wire-wrapping rocks and pieces of sea glass for jewelry that may or may not get made; making little wire rings

- Taking cuttings from plants and seeing if I can get them to root

- Finding rocks that I like and putting them in a bag to give out to my friends when they hang out with me

Ideal rocks: ones that fit comfortably in your hand and pocket; soft enough to wear down after a long time of keeping them in your pocket and rubbing them when you need something to do with your hands (I check the hardness); rough enough to feel a difference when they start to get smooth, but not so rough as to be uncomfortable

- carrying around my notebook

- making lists in my phone's notes

Funny animal names

Band/song/album names

Things I like

Gamertag ideas

Story/Fantasy/DnD ideas

Restaurants of whatever area I'm in

Good movies/shows to watch with a group of friends

Websites to return to

Fruits I want to try

Conversation-starter questions

#pique concentration #conversation #questions

[fyredraka]

Book Reviews of Jane Austen's book, Emma, for IB literature. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green.

Dated 23/2/2012, re-edited 02/03/2024

Sorry if I haven't posted as often as I should, however, I have been swamped with multiple assignments. I had the great desire to launch a radio drama, however this was not achieved. I'm not sure if I will ever get around to doing radio dramas. Perhaps a podcast would be possible. Of what topic I am not sure.

As for creative projects. I wrote a monologue/soliloquy for Jane's Austen book, Emma, for IB Literature class. (I have no clue if this was every submitted) I disliked this book at the time but now I have learnt to appreciate it greatly. Trying to read this work was like trying to trudge through wet cement waist deep. To Jane Austen fans, I am sorry if this offends you. I just deeply dislike reading books that waffle on and on and on. These books that waffle on are not books that I enjoy spending time on, and this continues to be true to this day. I find romantic dramas dull, until I am very hormonal and want to elicit tears.

In comparison, I managed to finish John Green's book, The Fault in Our Stars in less that 18 hours (when I mean less than, what I intend is that I couldn't be bothered to calculate how much time it took for me to sleep or eat or attend classes, but what I do know is that I read it very quickly). It made me cry four times in thirty minutes, and I generally did not cry easily (now this is different). Only certain pieces of literature make me cry, such as the end of the Eragon cycle or if one of my favorite characters died in Harry Potter. I consume fantasy literature with a great voracity. I read and eat, I stay up until I no longer can and then sleep until noon or deal with the sleep deficit during the day. This continues until I am done with the book.

For this reason I have stopped reading books in general because my passions consume me, and I fear this. However now I have coping mechanisms. I write my thoughts, I write summaries, I reflect. I put time slots to organize myself. I have developed a great passion for food and cooking and having restful sleeps. I now prioritize my own sanity and well being over my passions. I hate cramming and pulling all-nighters. I need consistency and personal summaries, to think creatively and analytically. I do follow logical flows and can identify patterns, long before the majority of people become concerned. My traumas have left my senses hyper-keen. Multi-generational trauma and having to survive the Amazon has left me keen. I appreciate my hearing and attempt to protect it. I appreciate nature and all its values. We need to learn to live in harmony with nature, before we exhaust all our natural resources and destroy our own planet. By 2025 we will reach a tipping point. To return to the main topic at hand…

If I were to review the Fault in Our Stars, I would give it a 5/5 because it was EXCELLENT. It will bring laughter, tears, and hopefully you will want to read it again and again, because I have read this book multiple times and have watched the movie multiple times. I let one of my friends borrow the book, so I cannot read it again… until yet another friend of mine reads it… which probably means I will not be in the presence of this book until a month or so from now (sighs). That and yet another, third friend, wants to read it, a male friend… so I am not so sure how well he will appreciate the book.

And you (John Green) do have typos in the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars… that or you actually meant to say "lo"…

#book review #the fault in our stars #jane austen #Emma

[dogaseducationblog]

like severus snape, james potter and harry potter once said... leviCORPUS!

hi, tumblr's lovely people,

I know, I know... you've missed me. I'm well aware that in my farewell post, I said this break won't take too long but oh, boy, wasn't I lying? but no worries, as Georgina Sparks says in Gossip Girl you can tell Jesus that the freak is back. aww, I can almost hear your virtual screams, didn't notice you love me that much. I love you too, fellow teacher candidates. anyway, a bit of seriousness now, please. we're still here for education and education only. it's not like you're following me to bore you to death about Taylor Swift, Gossip Girl, Harry Potter, etc.

speaking of Harry Potter, you must have been wondering what this post is all about and how it connects to a spell from a fictional world. well, actually it doesn't. I thought it was funny when I wrote it. however, even though this post has nothing to do with our Hogwarts houses, it does have a connection to the title. as you can see from the word I capitalized, we are gathered here to talk about our Corpus assignment. I won't trouble you by explaining what Corpus is, probably you already know. you're as much of a genius as I am, duh? although, I want to tell you all about our task.

for this assignment, we had to prepare a worksheet to teach and reinforce the topic we chose from the units in the book sent to us using Corpus tools. we were paired up with my classmate Ayşe (I'll tag her blog here, so you can check it out) and first, we started by choosing our topic. after deciding that the most effective unit to prepare the most effective work is Unit 3, where we can talk about our hobbies and free time activities and at the same time focus on likes and dislikes, we divided our process into four parts, taking into account the sample work our teacher posted on Google Classroom. afterward, we started to brainstorm and develop our activities step by step, considering whether they met the requirements in the checklist sent to us beforehand.

to tell you the truth, I (as always) loved the outcome and was very proud of us. there were aspects of the assignment that were really challenging and difficult to understand, but we overcame them by keeping in mind the elements of the task that gave us the capacity for creativity and a deeper understanding of the needs of a new generation of learners. it was also a new experience for me to prepare activities and to combine them with an educational tool like Corpus, which I didn't know before, and I'm so glad that our assignment gave us this space where we can be challenged sweetly, but in return, we can acquire a different teaching skill. besides, how can you not love an assignment that gives you a reason to combine its name with a Harry Potter universe spell?

well, I'll go now before I talk more and turn this post into a 7-book series. if you're curious about our work, you can check the link. also, that sweet little pink and lilac-designed worksheet has my blood, sweat, and tears on it. if you try to steal our ideas, I'll know and I'll make sure the teachers' guardian angels haunt you for the rest of your life. so, beware.

thank you so much for tolerating me and reading until the end. you know I wouldn't probably. sending you virtual hugs and so much love.

until next time,

with love... and obviously education, Doğa.

oh, and also... LEVICORPUS! 🪄

#technology #corpus linguistics #21st century learning #english teacher #education #english learning #learning english