For our next twitter party, we want to talk all about the shifting friendships, opinions, (and dare I say it, romantic feelings) between Mal, Alina, and Nikolai with the tag #TryingToForgetHim! Come prepared with your best tweets, questions, comments, gifs, memes, and more. Let's make some noise! 🗣️

#SaveShadowAndBone and #SixOfCrowsSpinoff TWEETING PARTY 4/30 at 12PM! Come check it out here!

Remember to:

Only use three hashtags.

Enjoy and be engaging with your tweets! Keep sharing! Timezones under read more.

If you cannot attend, you can always schedule tweets ahead of time on desktop in order to help out still!

ALL TIMEZONES: Tuesday, Apr 30: 9am PST 10am MST 11am CST 12pm EST 2pm -03 5pm GMT 6pm CET 8pm MSK 9pm +04 10:30pm IST

Wednesday, May 1: 1am CST 2am JST 4am AEST 6am NZST

The freak autistic girl who rambles about her interests and has 30 billion weird kinks does exist btw, it's just that she's usually also a little fat so nobody wants to hear it.

Writing Tips - Beating Perfectionism

1. Recognising writing perfectionism. It’s not usually as literal as “This isn’t 100% perfect and so it is the worst thing ever”, in my experience it usually sneaks up more subtly. Things like where you should probably be continuing on but if you don’t figure out how to word this paragraph better it’s just going to bug you the whole time, or where you’re growing demotivated because you don’t know how to describe the scene 100% exactly as you can imagine it in your head, or things along those lines where your desire to be exact can get in the way of progression. In isolated scenarios this is natural, but if it’s regularly and notably impacting your progress then there’s a more pressing issue

2. Write now, edit later. Easier said than done, which always infuriated me until I worked out how it translates into practice; you need to recognise what the purpose of this stage of the writing process is and when editing will hinder you more than help you. Anything up to and including your first draft is purely done for structural and creative purposes, and trying to impose perfection on a creative process will naturally stifle said creativity. Creativity demands the freedom of imperfection

3. Perfection is stagnant. We all know that we have to give our characters flaws and challenges to overcome since, otherwise, there’s no room for growth or conflict or plot, and it ends up being boring and predictable at best - and it’s just the same as your writing. Say you wrote the absolute perfect book; the perfect plot, the perfect characters, the perfect arcs, the perfect ending, etc etc. It’s an overnight bestseller and you’re discussed as a literary great for all time. Everyone, even those outside of your target demographic, call it the perfect book. Not only would that first require you to turn the perfect book into something objective, which is impossible, but it would also mean that you would either never write again, because you can never do better than your perfect book, or you’ll always write the exact same thing in the exact same way to ensure constant perfection. It’s repetitive, it’s boring, and all in all it’s just fearful behaviour meant to protect you from criticism that you aren’t used to, rather than allowing yourself to get acclimated to less than purely positive feedback

4. Faulty comparisons. Comparing your writing to that of a published author’s is great from an analytical perspective, but it can easily just become a case of “Their work is so much better, mine sucks, I’ll never be as good as them or as good as any ‘real’ writer”. You need to remember that you’re comparing a completely finished draft, which likely underwent at least three major edits and could have even had upwards of ten, to wherever it is you’re at. A surprising number of people compare their *first* draft to a finished product, which is insanity when you think of it that way; it seems so obvious from this perspective why your first attempt isn’t as good as their tenth. You also end up comparing your ability to describe the images in your head to their ability to craft a new image in your head; I guarantee you that the image the author came up with isn’t the one their readers have, and they’re kicking themselves for not being able to get it exactly as they themselves imagine it. Only the author knows what image they’re working off of; the readers don’t, and they can imagine their own variation which is just as amazing

5. Up close and too personal. Expanding on the last point, just in general it’s harder to describe something in coherent words than it is to process it when someone else prompts you to do so. You end up frustrated and going over it a gazillion times, even to the point where words don’t even look like words anymore. You’ve got this perfect vision of how the whole story is supposed to go, and when you very understandably can’t flawlessly translate every single minute detail to your satisfaction, it’s demotivating. You’re emotionally attached to this perfect version that can’t ever be fully articulated through any other medium. But on the other hand, when consuming other media that you didn’t have a hand in creating, you’re viewing it with perfectly fresh eyes; you have no ‘perfect ideal’ of how everything is supposed to look and feel and be, so the images the final product conjures up become that idealised version - its no wonder why it always feels like every writer except you can pull off their visions when your writing is the only one you have such rigorous preconceived notions of

6. That’s entertainment. Of course writing can be stressful and draining and frustrating and all other sorts of nasty things, but if overall you can’t say that you ultimately enjoy it, you’re not writing for the right reasons. You’ll never take true pride in your work if it only brings you misery. Take a step back, figure out what you can do to make things more fun for you - or at least less like a chore - and work from there

7. Write for yourself. One of the things that most gets to me when writing is “If this was found and read by someone I know, how would that feel?”, which has lead me on multiple occasions to backtrack and try to be less cringe or less weird or less preachy or whatever else. It’s harder to share your work with people you know whose opinions you care about and whose impressions of you have the potential of shifting based on this - sharing it to strangers whose opinions ultimately don’t matter and who you’ll never have to interact with again is somehow a lot less scary because their judgements won’t stick. But allowing the imaginary opinions of others to dictate not even your finished project, but your unmoderated creative process in general? Nobody is going to see this without your say so; this is not the time to be fussing over how others may perceive your writing. The only opinion that matters at this stage is your own

8. Redirection. Instead of focusing on quality, focusing on quantity has helped me to improve my perfectionism issues; it doesn’t matter if I write twenty paragraphs of complete BS so long as I’ve written twenty paragraphs or something that may or may not be useful later. I can still let myself feel accomplished regardless of quality, and if I later have to throw out whole chapters, so be it

9. That’s a problem for future me. A lot of people have no idea how to edit, or what to look for when they do so, so having a clear idea of what you want to edit by the time the editing session comes around is gonna be a game-changer once you’re supposed to be editing. Save the clear work for when you’re allocating time for it and you’ll have a much easier and more focused start to the editing process. It’ll be more motivating than staring blankly at the intimidating word count, at least

10. The application of applications. If all else fails and you’re still going back to edit what you’ve just wrote in some struggle for the perfect writing, there are apps and websites that you can use that physically prevent you from editing your work until you’re done with it. If nothing else, maybe it can help train you away from major edits as you go

hey you're doing a great job, just remember: a semicolon can be used to combine two sentences where you might otherwise use a period; this allows you to create longer and longer run-on sentences

So incredibly adorable.

13 <3

Hello, thank you for playing!

13. Buttoning up their coat for them when you don't have to

“Wy, Wy, wake up!”

Wylan opens his eyes to find Jesper crouched beside the edge of the bed, gently shaking him awake, eyes wide with childlike wonder. “Jes? What’s going on?”

“It’s snowing!” Jesper is practically vibrating with excitement, far too energetic for whatever time it is in the morning. “And it’s actually settling. Please get up, I want to make the most of it.” 

Sitting up, Wylan blinks and rubs sleep out of his eyes while Jesper darts around the room, opening the curtains and rummaging through cupboards to throw a random selection of clothes towards the bed. “Love, is this the first time you’ve seen proper snow?” 

Now that he thinks about it, the last time Wylan remembers real snow and not just a few flurries that quickly turned to sludge was when he was a child. 

“Uh huh, it’s too warm in Novyi Zem - the worst we get is torrential rain, and I’ve definitely never seen any here.” 

Wylan bites back a grin as he dresses. He’s never seen Jesper so excited over something as seemingly trivial as the weather, and he finds it hopelessly endearing. He lets his boyfriend practically drag him down the stairs foyer and shoves his feet into his sturdiest boots. Jesper seems ready to fling himself straight out the front door, but Wylan stops him, handing him a scarf, gloves and his coat. 

“Is this really necessary?” Jesper huffs at him as Wylan dutifully buttons up his coat for him and wraps the scarf around his neck. 

“I know you can’t get sick, but you can still get frostbite.” Wylan pauses, stepping back to pull on his own coat. “And I would prefer it if you kept all your fingers.”

Jesper raises a suggestive eyebrow at him. “Oh? Tell me more.”

With his coat now buttoned, Wylan just laughs and nudges Jesper towards the front door. “Come on you miscreant. I bet I can beat you at a snowball fight.”

More Sentence Monday

Thanks for the tag, @tinyarmedtrex!

Using this as an opportunity to give some attention to a snippet from Drie Is Eeen Feestje, a spin off from my Kanej Wensen series with three OC Dregs getting to have a fun night together.

Mikhal & Meril are having a chat with Nico, to see if he's interested...

Mikhal started off directly. “So, Nico… Meril and I might have noticed that you seem to glance longingly at us every time you get the chance.”

Nico’s Kerch complexion lent itself to going especially florid. His eyes, which Meril had noted were brown with hazel flecks at the center, were currently wildly darting between them. “I-I… um… Yeah?”

Oh, this is better than I’d imagined. Something about a man as tall and muscled and aggressive as Nico, reduced to stammering and blushing, thrilled her fiercely. Meril grew braver as the heated feeling grew. “Is that a question, Nico? Because we all know the answer.”

“No… I mean… Y-yes, I’ve been looking, and no, it isn’t a question.” 

She’d seen him be intimidated by Anika. This was different. He was completely flustered, his fingers clenching and unclenching around his whiskey glass. There was scarring over his knuckles from fights, similar to Mikhal’s. She couldn’t help but compare their hands. A visual of the two men with their hands all over each other swept through her mind. It was quickly followed by another; their hands on her, dedicated to her pleasure. Bloody hell. Mikhal seemed enthused at the prospect of getting Nico upstairs, and she was getting more aroused by the minute. Now to see if Nico was on board. Ghezen’s fortune favors the bold…

“Would you like to do more than just look?”

Read more the whole story here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55404562

Soft tagging: @aphroditestummyrolls & @19burstraat

I cannot explain how often I think about how so many descriptions of Inej focus on her hair and specifically its length, and how important it becomes to our understanding of her and who she is and that even though she never directly says it we have this understanding that her hair means so much to her. And I cannot explain how often I think about that in conjunction with this Tante Heleen quote from Inej’s flashback to being sold to the Menagerie in chapter 16:

‘She’d tugged on the matted hair on Inej’s head.

“This will have to be shaved,”

Then she’d stepped back.

“Pretty,” ’

Jeebus. Hotness in this snippet is holy hell!

More Sentence Monday

I missed Several Sentence Sunday so let's go with this instead. Thank you for the tags @jazzythursday @thesleepyskipper @onthewaytosomewhere @theprinceandagcd

Here's a snippet from my Priest!Henry and Interloper!Alex AU :P

"I dreamt of you last night." The far too familiar voice comes through the thin barrier. Henry nearly leaned forward to steal a glimpse of Alex through the screen but stopped himself with a harsh reminder that this was confessional, he was here to offer people solace on behalf of God not to indulge in his earthly desires.

The reminder worked until Alex spoke again.

"I was on my knees in front of you. I remember feeling like I was praying at your altar." 

The image came far too easily. Alex on the floor, looking up at him through those sinfully long eyelashes, his mouth open and willing. Henry had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop the moan that threatened to escape. 

"Then you grabbed my hair, and I swore I saw God. Though in my dream he was more forgiving than the one you serve. He was perfectly fine with my method of worship." 

Henry squeezed his eyes shut. He should get up, leave. He should not stay and listen to this blasphemy. 

But he was rooted to the spot. He wasn't sure his legs would work if he tried to stand.

"Do you want to know what happened next?"  Alex asked. 

Through the small screen Henry could see that Alex had turned towards him. He had to remind himself that Alex couldn't see him, though it felt like he could. 

"Is this a confession?" He forced the words out. 

Alex barked a laugh. "If that's what you need to tell yourself baby."

He inhaled and exhaled. He should leave. This was different than before. This wasn't just listening while Alex flirted. This was encouraging him, engaging in it. He'd be breaking several vows if he stayed. 

"Well sweetheart?"

Tagging @kaalee @yojfull @dreamtigress @kezzzx @nerdlingmerchling @thoughtthedormouse if you want to post a snippet on this very random day XD

Don't act like the prospect of working with Spock doesn't tick off some weird box for you.

DS9 s05e06: Trials & Tribble-ations SNW s02e07: Those Old Scientists

That smirk!!

Six of Crows: A Comic Adaptation

Part 1, Chapter 3

Pages 23–24

Previous Pages

Download the Chapter 2 Digital Copy

jesper!!!!

Some Sentence Sunday

It's still Sunday in my current time zone since I'm on a work trip in PST so it counts! Thanks to @theprinceandagcd, @cha-melodius, @onthewaytosomewhere, @three-drink-amy and @blueeyedgrlwrites for the tags! And @kiwiana-writes for the open tag!

Here's another little piece of my @aroyallybigbangrwrb they were neighbours AU that will hopefully be finished soon-ish (missed my own deadline, oops!)

After a ridiculously long period of starting and deleting words, overthinking a thousand different ways to say ‘Hello’, Henry finally texts Alex to see if he was around and he replies almost instantaneously in the affirmative. Before Henry could even text back again with his problem, unsure how to word it without sounding like an utterly helpless blockhead, there’s a knock on his door.

When he answers it, Alex is leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed across his chest, appearing slightly out of breath. Henry wonders if he sprinted down the hall. “What’s up, buttercup?” Alex flashes him one of those million kilowatt smiles.

Henry curses his mind for being so useless at stringing sentences together when he’s faced with that type of blinding light. He should really be able to do this, he was a bloody writer for godsakes! 

It's so late I assume everyone's already done it but just in case...

@noahreids, @orchidscript, @myheartalivewrites, @cricketnationrise, @ships-to-sail

@rmd-writes, @indestructibleheart, @nontoxic-writes, @sparklepocalypse, @firenati0n

@priincebutt, @dragonflylady77, @suseagull04, @agame-writes, @fullsunsets

@hgejfmw-hgejhsf, @anchoredarchangel, @tinyarmedtrex, @henryspearl, @inexplicablymine

@nocoastposts, @duchessdepolignaca03, @jmagnabo92

Read this one. So incredibly, adorably sweet.

keep my heart in your palm

"His favorite pair were the first ones he had truly invested in and spent a good chunk of kruge on. They were by no means anything high-end, but the stitching was durable and the leather had grown soft and pliable with time and use. They were Inej’s favorite pair, too. She had told him on her first night back a few voyages ago while they lay in bed together, his hand draped gently over her waist." - or, a pair of gloves, a night together that doesn't go quite as planned, and mending what's broken ❤️

Read on AO3

Thinking about how in chapter 3 of Six of Crows we get this really well written juxtaposition between the spring crocuses and the smell of death in the boathouse - reflective both of the duality of the social hierarchy in Ketterdam as Kaz and Van Eck stand there together and the abrupt end of Kaz’s idyllic, childhood memory of crocuses on his family farm into the pain and literal dead bodies that have haunted him for the past 8 years - that in itself is paralleled at the end of Crooked Kingdom when Jesper describes the spring flowers outside the boathouse then learns Matthias is lying dead inside, with the addition that Wylan then picks one of the tulips to lay on Matthias’ chest and they all follow suit

Kaz to himself: you already bought the flowers just GIVE them to her

inej: are those for me?

kaz: no, it’s for the graves of my enemies

Inej:

If you're reading this I'm rooting for you