winter-doggo

[winter-doggo]

🦴for writer’s ask game!!!

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing?

Ooh, boy, this might be a telling one. Answering this is tough because, while I've gathered sprinkles of inspiration from many sources over the years, I don't often consider them until I'm working on something it's particularly relevant to. It's not something I'm conscious about. I know I have *been* inspired by things, but it's more in relation to individual elements, for example, that have been soaked into my sponge brain. Like - they did X thing in X media, I want to do/put a twist on/consider that, that sort of thing.

Individual works I'm making might have different inspirations, too, that I may reference. Originally, I think this was gonna be a complicated way of saying "I don't", but I suppose that's not true - the answer is actually "I don't remember". I forget, so I need to keep reading to fill in the gaps again. Whoops!

Beyond canon material for any given fanfic, I guess there are a couple things that jump out. (Excuse me not being able to hyperlink right now lol)

In terms of fanworks:

The most honest answer would probably be pretty much any work by https://archiveofourown.org/users/DyraDoodles (particularly in terms of FF7). I've not got the braincells to explain it right now but their sort of writing, *chefs kiss*. When struggling to get into the writing brain, their stuff always helps

https://archiveofourown.org/works/47096407 Flying Home, a Madoka Magica fic by atamascolily - it's only 3000 words long, and seems like it fits into its trope (soulmate goose???) fairly neatly, but still twists it in its own angsty direction. I originally found it while writing my own goose-based fic I never finished, but it's something I keep coming back to for the way it executed itself. Very clean and effective! Helpful example for writing some fanfic trope

In terms of non-fanfic inspiration, I read a lot less original stuff than I used to, and I wouldn't call a lot of what I've read more recently inspiring to my own work. I have, however, almost finished reading Dracula, which I did not expect to be as impactful as it was. It's a very fun read, and gets the gears clicking. I can't tell you it's inspired any particular element or theme, but it does inspire me to write good!

...Man, I need to read Pratchett again. I haven't read any since I was like 12 and I think it would be good for me

I notice the question also calls it media, which includes stuff like movies and games, but I think a large amount of non-writing stuff fits into things I absorb but don't consciously remember. the closest it gets, I think, is listening to music while I write. In which case:

https://youtu.be/3pE2LwwzDeA This set of Monster Hunter music

The Heartwood from Pokémon Legends Arceus

I have a playlist of video game songs seperate from these

Ty for asking!! Hope this is interesting to you :]

#ask #ask games

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doodle of the lad from yesterday

#reblog #petz catz 2 #victor!!!!!!

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A banner @prismaticpichu asked me to make for her :] smush your favourite things together folks!!

#my art #ffvii #pokemon

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🌿and ☁️ for the writer ask game

Oooo ty for sending one in :D I'll put answers under the cut

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

It's got a surprisingly long and personal history i don't want to get into, but here's some of the things that went into its current iteration :]

I like the season

I like dogs

Doggo was a term used most a little over 5 years ago, not so much now, and more like a slang term. A lot of people will know what it means, but not a lot of people will be using it in usernames. Considering a lot of sites call for unique usernames, having something memorable and simple and unlikely to already be taken is nice.

It also means I don't have to worry about numbers, which I don't like putting in usernames lol

I just think it's neat

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

It's tricky stuff! Here's some of the stuff I usually try. Obviously since this is tailored to me, results for others might vary (and there's always the chance you've seen something like them already). but given it's similar to other advice I've seen maybe me passing it on can help ^^

Create something fresh for yourself, without even considering whether anyone will see it. As much or as little as you like. I find once other people enter the equation, it changes how I look at something forever. Just let stuff come out of your brain without worrying about how it will look to anyone else, if possible. If you can manage this, then at least it can help keep the rust off, keep you making things, and if you're lucky it might get the ball rolling! :D

(^ A couple chapters of A Cup Of Tea spawned just from this, for reference.)

Obviously, that would require things to come out of my brain, and sometimes that isn't happening. Sometimes I can get it to work by changing my standard for ideas. If you think you could write about a character mundanely eating breakfast, and might even enjoy it, but worry it doesn't have substance? Shush, write it anyway. If you want to draw someone faceplanting on the floor in the lowest quality possible, you can do that. What you're making doesn't need to matter as much if you're struggling to make at all.

Change the environnment you're creating in. Move to a different place, write/draw on something else. I've spent a long time just writing on my phone whenever the mood strikes me, but recently, I've started typing things up on the computer - document on the left, a relevant fanart on the right to help get the gears turning (and give myself something to look at other than the words once they are). Occasionally, I try creating on my phone, only to find my brain yearns for the computer, or vice versa. Write on paper, even, if you're feeling up to it.

Create something a little different from usual. If I spend too long writing/drawing the exact same thing, or within a small pool of characters, I'll drive myself up the wall. Zack and Sephiroth are everything to me but I can't do them forever. If you feel like you could try something with different characters or canons, or even style of writing, try it every so often and it might refresh your drive for what you were doing before.

For fanworks, mostly - try experiencing some canon again. Ideas might spark from anything in there, or even just having a refresher. (I'm scatterbrained enough that I lose my sense for it writing-wise within weeks lmao, I could benefit from doing this more often)

Thanks again, hopefully this was interesting for you!

#ask #ask games

[winter-doggo]

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats  🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?  🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love 🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that? 🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis 🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help? 🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love 💌 ⇢ how many unread emails do you have right now?  🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis 🐇 ⇢ do you prefer writing original characters, reader inserts, or a mix of both?  🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before 🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time?  🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings 🧸 ⇢ what's the fastest way to become your mutual? 🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now 📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app?  🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character 🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project? 🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on ❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? 🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity 🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh  🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work? 🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate 🥝 ⇢ do you lie a lot? what's the most recent lie you told? 🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately  🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing?  🍅 ⇢ give yourself some constructive criticism on your own writing 🐚 ⇢ do you like or dislike surprises? 🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here ☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username? 🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them 🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them 🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

#ask games #reblog

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#the fact the guy really does sound like zack really adds to it for me #ffvii #reblog

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Once you get this, you have to say five things you like about yourself, publicly. Then you have to send this to ten of your favorite followers 🖤

Ah, heck, I got this from @prismaticpichu too. Does that mean I have to do ten things?

(I'm also not gonna send it to 10 further people because I'm not the chain mail type, but if you're reading this, you're cool and awesome and I am lazer beaming friendship at you)

I've always been a creative type, and I'm happy I managed to hold onto that and grow over time into bringing people joy with my creations.

I'm not half bad with technology. This isn't to say the point is I'm particularly good, either, but I have a ton of fun poking around with computers and using them for things, and I like that I can do that! WinterDoggo learn more coding challenge

Autism. Sorry to be clear I mean uhh. You ever like memorising lists of stuff to do with your favourite things? Like memorising every Pokémon and memorising every Monster Hunter Monster and memorising every item you can find/bug or fish you can catch/quest you can do in The Dog Island because you love DATA and INFORMATION and STATISTICS and wanted to KNOW YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS INSIDE OUT and yeah I calmed down a pinch over the years but there's still me. I still love statistics and I still memorise the creatures. I can still identify a bunch of real world butterflies purely from me being so into THE DOG Island like 15 years ago. That sort of memorisation set the base for me being so good at speedrunning it, actually. So ok, yeah, autism lmao

As a kid/teenager I spent a while being really judgemental, and I'm really happy to have moved past that. Less of a hypocrite and more just an authentic weirdo. Maybe that's just part of growing up, but some people don't, y'know?

I've never thought I had much of a fashion sense, but I've still managed to develop something of a style in my wardrobe. And I love my leather coats and fancy-looking hats and that practically everything is in black. So kind of my fashion sense even though I don't really know what I'm doing xD

Man. How did you guys do this? I compressed what could have been a lot of little things into less numerous things. And that's a skill that I like that I have! My brain... hasn't got a lot of RAM, shall we say. So it's gotten pretty good at compression. But now I have to think of more things when I could have split "creative" into each individual creative skill hahah

This is a weird one, because while I'm not at all patriotic, I still like being British. Because people from other countries (particularly Americans) seem to automatically think my accent is great and i can spook people with weird sounding food. It's sorta looped me into liking my own voice. Thanks, internet!

I'd like to think, when it comes to fandom, I'm alright at thinking of little things that tie things together just that slight bit more interestingly while still sticking close to the source. I've gotten enough compliments on little headcanons I mention (and worldbuilding bits particularly from my Yuke's CatzDogz fics) that my silly little noggin sees a pattern. And i think that's neat!

I SENT OVER 2000 BOOPS YESTERDAY FOR THE TUMBLR APRIL FOOLS DAY AND I'M PROUD OF IT

Friendship :] I must be doing something right! Alas I'm too scatterbrained to remember half the reasons people say they like me, but they do, and all those traits that people cite? i like em too, because I like making my friends happy ^^

There we go. Thanks for reading :]

#ask

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little gifs i made for my highlights video of caleb pierce and briana white's streamily signing!!!

#reblog #ffvii

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Happy 2024 :]

#my art #summary of art

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and by "long" I mean over 10k words, or something you wouldn't be able to fully read during a 15-minute break

reblog for bigger sample size!

#reblog #poll #fewer longer chapters for me!

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2023's new handmade tree ornament is to celebrate the important holiday of Almost Christmas

#ace attorney #reblog #ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!

[winter-doggo]

FF7 Headcanon: Zack has ADHD

I know that this has been headcanoned before by people probably more articulate than I’m going to be, but I wanted to put this down both for my own purposes and also so I can link back to this later when I do up some other pieces.

It’s never stated that Zack has ADHD in canon, but he’s very coded towards it. The symptoms all tend to boil down to three categories (inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and it has three subtypes accordingly (predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive, and a combination of the two). Zack falls squarely into the third category, having both inattention issues and hyperactivity/impulsivity.

With Zack, there is a constant refrain from Angeal - focus. He says it multiple times, in a tone that suggests he’s said it much more than we’ve heard. This addresses the “inattention” in that he’s easily distracted/forgetful and loses things. There’s a DMW flashback with Angeal that illustrates this perfectly (found here) where he has realized he’s forgotten his materia before a mission and is frantically looking for it, only to have Angeal point out that he’s forgotten his sword as well.

Literally the second thing you hear out of Angeal in the game is “get serious” which is immediately followed by “Zack, focus” - again, referencing difficulty staying focused on a task. Angeal proceeds to explain “there are no ShinRa troops on this train” before setting Zack off to fight what certainly appear to be ShinRa troops. It takes him a remarkably short amount of time to finish the task, and yet as soon as he’s on the phone with Angeal to receive his next set of instructions, he’s asking “why are we fighting ShinRa troops?” showing that he either has trouble listening, or remembering information - possibly both.

Kunsel later echoes this, saying that Zack has trouble remembering things, and this is such an issue for Angeal that it even earned a remark in a letter to his mother - “zero attention span, restless as a little puppy” which brings us to the second matter of hyperactivity.

Zack cannot stay still. While not necessarily what someone would immediately think of as “stimming” it’s obvious that Zack has to be in constant motion, most obviously referenced with his repeated habit of doing squats when he’s not immediately occupied. He’s very clearly high energy, always on the move. He also fits into the “impulsivity” in several ways.

He’s not particularly good at waiting, and is prone to fidgeting - both seen even as early as the Fort Tamblin mission, when he breaks cover to pace. He also is seen interrupting others speaking multiple times, something Angeal seems used to as he tends to leave pauses for him to jump in. Additionally, the entire existence of the DMW is in itself a good gauge of another symptom - not being able to regulate his emotions; Zack feels strongly, and acts impulsively on how he feels.

One example that stands out to me was how he automatically jumped to the assumption that Angeal had killed his own mother, despite Angeal never showing any inclination to, even going so far as to physically shake him and then punch him while shouting the accusations.

So the points continue to add up, the symptoms of ADHD (particularly in teenagers) matching Zack’s canon behavior enough to support the headcanon. I’d like to briefly address the fact that some people do like to try to write him off as either airheaded or unintelligent instead.

While it’s easy to brush off SOLDIER as just being brute force (especially after playing a game where you can get pretty far button mashing), the fact is that it takes skill to manage a sword, and there’s definitely a certain level of knowledge and comprehension required to successfully use materia. Not only that, but Zack has risen to Second Class and is up for promotion for First at the age of sixteen. Though we don’t have stated guidelines of how long it took him to get to that point, it’s still suggested by his eventually managing to go toe-to-toe with the big three that he’s a prodigy as well.

I would also like to propose the headcanon that it’s not always that Zack can’t focus at all - it’s that he hyperfocuses on too many things. An average human with ADHD can face overstimulation issues very quickly, due to difficulty or even inability to properly filter out unimportant things that they should be ignoring. Now add the results of SOLDIER enhancements, heightened senses, and it follows that at any one time, Zack might be thinking about physical sensation, his own racing thoughts, his trained environmental awareness, and the actual thing he’s supposed to be doing. That could overwhelm anyone, and yet he’s still largely successful.

I was talking with @vorpalgirl earlier, and she pointed out that by the nature of the disorder, many of the medications that are used are in fact actually stimulants. Given that mako enhancement stimulates the rest of the body, one can assume that the brain - also an organ itself - is likewise enhanced, which may help explain part of why he calms down some on reaching First Class and getting the next level.

Of course, none of this is ever explicitly stated, but I find it very interesting that several FF7 characters appear to be non-neurotypical and wanted to explore the very clear coding given that Zack has ADHD.

#THIS PERSON GETS IT #ffvii #reblog #zack fair

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IDK if you do requests or not, but your art is super cute and I'd love to see more Cynthias from you, such as her exploring some old but cozy island ruins, or her stumbling upon a secluded beach and taking a relaxing walk, or even another doodle dump. (sorry Cynthia's just so cool and you draw her so well!!)

AW THANK YOU….. ofc who am i to turn down an opportunity to draw more cynthia

#champion cynthia #pokemon #reblog #she is my favourite :]

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i thought my laptop was on its last leg because it was running at six billion degrees and using 100% disk space at all times and then i turned off shadows and some other windows effects and it was immediately cured. i just did the same to my roommate's computer and its performance issues were also immediately cured. okay. i guess.

so i guess if you have creaky freezy windows 10/11 try searching "advanced system settings", go to performance settings, and uncheck "show shadows under windows" and anything else you don't want. hope that helps someone else.

#reblog #windows moment #this sort of stuff is what fuelled my switching to linux #but if anyone else is having the nightmarish “what could possibly taking up all these resources???” cycle I used to struggle with #try this!

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eepy

#pokemon #pikachu #pichu #raichu #my art

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the hungry pickle is pleased at being understood!!

the guy she tells you to worry about

#deviljho #monster hunter #my art

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the guy she tells you to worry about

#deviljho #monster hunter #my art #my favourite genre of monster... big guy wants big eats!!!!