Ice started the saga of the seven suns like 3 times now and every time I get a third of the way through the first book my brain asks me would you rather be reading red rising or hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

How to Edit Your Novel (Pt. 1)

If you haven't finished writing your first draft yet, feel free to save this for future use :) If you HAVE finished first drafting (BIG CONGRATS! That's a massive accomplishment, and I hope you're super proud of yourself ❤️ ), I really hope this helps you!

There's a lot to get into regarding editing, so this post will focus on more macro edits while part 2 will focus on micro edits.

Reread

In my opinion, one of the MOST IMPORTANT parts of editing is rereading your own book.

I highly recommend printing out your book into a physical copy. Generally, you can print out hundreds of pages at the copy or stationery shop (e.g. Staples), and then put them in a 3-ring binder.

For presets, I highly recommend at least 12 pt. font and DOUBLE-SPACED!!! This is so you can annotate easily DIRECTLY between lines on the paper while you're rereading. For me, I annotate with a red pen. The biggest things to focus on for a first reread are:

Plot + subplots! Example questions:

What things don't make sense?

What things don't you like?

(Spec fiction specific, mostly) Any worldbuilding issues, like no introduction to the cool fantasy gadgets, lore not matching up, or no logistical possibilities (e.g. how do gladiators in your book use modern flush toilets when the world is based on Ancient Rome?)?

Is anything too confusing?

Unnecessary scenes?

Issues with important plot beats (e.g. inciting incident too late, climax too early, etc. depending on how you want your story to flow)?

Characters! Example questions:

Is the development clear?

Are their personalities, motivations, and backstories fleshed out?

Do they have distinct voices that can be relatively easily distinguished in dialogue?

Are their names/appearances/personalities too similar, causing confusion?

Do you have too many or too few characters?

Are the character/group dynamics organic, significant to the plot, and enjoyable to read?

Other things to get picky with include:

tone, mood, voices, general atmosphere

prose issues like dialogue, description, etc.

plot discontinuities (e.g. John has blue eyes in Chapter 4, but in Chapter 6, he has green eyes)

grammar

Go in with your red pen and do whatever you want, as long as you can clearly read what you scribble. Let yourself go wild with *circle* "GRAMMAR ERROR!" or *underline* "STRANGE CHARACTER INTERACTION" or *large bracket spanning paragraph* "BAD SCENE!" Don't worry about making it look "aesthetic," just go for it in whichever way is most efficient for you.

However, for your first reread, or just an earlier one, focusing on the big picture things should be your first priority! Imagine tweaking the prose in one chapter for it to read like the love child of Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens, but then you realize the chapter doesn't serve the plot at all and needs to be cut...

Revision

After rereading, it's time to revise. Revision is the BIG PICTURE, GENERAL edit! Remember those issues that you found? Now, you're actively brainstorming how to fix them. This is not the REWRITING stage yet—that comes after!

Refer back to the list of questions above, and find solutions. I like to do this in a systematic method where I make a table (in this case, using Notion):

You can make this in any spreadsheet software, or even just create columns in a doc or on paper. I sort it by the ISSUE, SOLUTION IDEAS, TYPE OF ISSUE (e.g. character development, worldbuilding), and STATUS (done?).

Of course, doing this in a linear fashion is also fine, where you directly go down the chronological plot order. However, I would suggest separately brainstorming for each issue before you begin this step.

For example:

ISSUE: Heist is too easy and underwhelming

IDEAS:

Increased number of trained security personnel + improved tech (e.g. city hired guards who were former thieves themselves, security cameras, classic laser beams protruding from walls, a door with more locks and a very hard constitution)

In the thief group, more tension between each other -> harder for them to all cooperate and coordinate, leading to some things going wrong

Decreased competence of certain thieves, or just careless mistakes (e.g. tripping, coughing because of dust and attracting attention, not scaling a wall properly, etc.)

After you comb through all the issues like this (or however much effort each issue warrants), you'll find yourself at the REWRITING step! We'll cover that next time :)

∘₊✧────── ☾☼☽ ──────✧₊∘

instagram: @ grace_should_write

I used to dread revising, especially after I'd finished the first draft of my first novel, but now, I quite like the process :) Yesterday, I just finished re-plotting an improved version of my story after LOTS of revising through 4 drafts! I can 100% say that no matter how difficult it is, a thorough revision is totally worth it!!!

OH! Also, goes without saying, but that spreadsheet revision example is NOT a real project hahaha

Hope this was helpful, and let me know if you have any questions by commenting, re-blogging, or DMing me on IG. Any and all engagement is appreciated :)

Happy writing, and have a great day!

- grace <3

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP list, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Ok so… this is where we get into just how utterly chaotic my creative process is, but not in a way that results in oodles of files that have creative interesting names - quite the opposite in fact.

You see… I have currently have 16 files and the titles are:

Moonrat Moonrat 2 Moonrat 3 Moonrat 4 … all the way up to the current Moonrat 16

The reason for this is that I don't actually separate different stories into individual files until they end up on Ao3. It's all just one long running thing all squished together with a few spaces between 'chunks' that sometimes, but not always, end up being separate stories and/or chapters. And I'm a packrat (pack-moonrat?) and never throw anything away so if something is cut out it's usually shoved in a free spot at the bottom of everything else to be used in something else later.

When Google docs starts taking too long to load and spazzes on me with lag, that's when I start a new file.

Because my first drafts end up looking more like free-verse poetry than stories, with usually only between 1 and 5 words on a line, either in bits of un-attributed dialogue or point form ideas, it often goes on for a ridiculous number of pages, so these tend to be large documents. I also am really really bad at titles. Except in very rare situations, everything comes out as untitled brain vomit and then is titled very close to the end (sometimes mid Ao3 post when I realize 'oh yes, titles are a thing - oops') long after I've turned it into actual sentences with real grammar and such.

Basic unfinished idea-chunks that are ongoing include, but are not limited to:

30-some pages of the first Dawning story that is still unfinished (I ended up realizing I would not finish the writing challenge in time if I continued the inordinately long Dawning story I had begun so I wrote "Dawning Oasis" instead and will finish this one some other time)

the Drifter on a special secret mission for Eris in the Sepulcher lost sector in the Throne World

Eris finding a renegade Hive chapel dedicated to her on the Moon

the last chapter(s) of "Dance with Vengeance" (this has since been posted)

several false starts based upon lyrics to other Crane Wives songs for that one writing challenge I did (as opposed to the completed one with sad Drifter having nightmares called "Ashes, Ashes")

oodles of random snippets of dialogue

Drifter teaching Eris to cook and/or cooking and/or Eris eating various dishes

various iterations of Eris exhibiting telepathy and/or non-normative vision that I have rejected from current projects for consistency reasons which may end up in other things later

more Immaru bullying like in "Visitation" and "Wind Chimes" (he knows what he did)

lots more nightmares because, when I'm not writing fanfiction, that's one of my narrative specialities

several false starts for the sequel/enactment of the private gambit match discussed in "Hide and Seek"

bits pertaining to and/or including/referencing that one bog slug

Per the rules above, you are invited to ask/message about any/all of these (or, quite frankly, anything else - I do not bite unless we both agree that I wish to bite you and you wish to be bitten).

I have never done a thing like this before, nor have I ever tagged anyone else on tumblr before, so here's hoping I did this correctly. I was tagged by: @flowers-of-io and I am tagging: @redbutterflies-blueeyes @synnthamonsugar @bbyfacedx and @annieruok94

I would love to tag more people but I actually have quite the serious disconnect between who people are on Ao3 and who people are on here and I am very easily confused. If you look at this and go "But why did you not tag me? Do you not love me?" The answer is: "No I just have no fucking clue what I'm doing. Please say hello and tell me who you are on Ao3 so I can include you if I ever do a thing like this again."

That is all.

✨20 Questions for Fic Writers✨

thanks @nirikeehan for the tag!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

42

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

226,296

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Dragon Age at the moment, plus a hint of Dishonored. In the past I've also written for The Mortal Instruments/Shadowhunter Chronicles and MCU.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Grace In Denial: oneshot, f!Hawke x Anders - mostly fluff with a hint of emotional hurt/comfort Ended in Love: oneshot, f!Trevelyan x Cullen - some classic mage-Templar angst (cw: forced sterilization, abuse) Lamentations of the Living: oneshot, f!Mahariel x Alistair - the Dark Ritual/Ultimate Sacrifice debate It Will Have To Be Enough: oneshot, f!Lavellan x Cullen - Cullen waits for her to come back at Adamant Conditionally: oneshot, f!Lavellan x Cullen - Lavellan's clan does not approve of her relationship with a human

5. do you respond to comments?

I try! But I am very slow at it, and when the backlog gets too much I psych myself out about it. Currently working on convincing myself that it's not weird to reply to comments from many months ago😅

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Mostly A Lie,about an Inquisitor who breaks up with Blackwall at his judgement and a Blackwall POV of her subsequent relationship with Cullen

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Apple Whiskey, which is an all around fluffy fic about Alistair helping my Inquisitor Neria escape one of Josephine's parties.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet, nope! And I know that if I did, I would bitch about it to my friends, block the user, and delete the comment. So what if we just didn't, hm?

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

A bit, perhaps. It's an eventual goal of mine to be more comfortable writing it, but that's definitely a work in progress.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope! Personally not a fan of crossovers.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

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

Sort of, as I participated in the DAFF Discord Server round robin anniversary event where we all popcorn wrote a crackfic. Other than that, nope! I think it could be really fun, though :3

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

Horation Caine x Marisol Delko (CSI: Miami - I will never write fic for them but their canon story makes me f e r a l)

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

My Inquisitor!Carver AU. The idea is compelling af, but I have other DAI retellings that I want to write more.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Character backstory, description in general

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

DIALOGUE, dialogue tags, making endings (to chapters or oneshots) sound like endings without being cheesy AF

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I like it, both as a reader and a writer! It can be used well for character flavoring, but is also frequently misused in a way that makes fic harder to read. If it's large chunks of text, especially with plot relevant information, I prefer another indicator that the language has shifted, like italics or a dialogue tag. I think it works best when the author has a reason for it besides "they're speaking another language", like they don't want the readers to understand what's being said, or the character is trying to deceive someone who doesn't speak that language.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

MCU Avengers

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

HMMMM probably a toss up between Inquisitor as a Companion: Neria Surana Lavellan (faux DA wiki page entry for my inquisitor) and after all this survival (a snapshot of Siobhan Hawke as Viscountess in Kirkwall)

Blank template below the cut! Tagging: @oxygenforthewicked | @rosella-writes | @demarogue | @plisuu | @exalted-dawn-drabbles | and anyone who wants to use me as their excuse to do this :3

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

3. what fandoms do you write for?

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

5. do you respond to comments?

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. do you get hate on fics?

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

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

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? T

16. what are your writing strengths?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

19. first fandom you wrote for?

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I've always thought your style of writing is really different from what I think of as "standard" fanfic prose (in a really cool way, to be clear)- so I guess my question is how would you describe your writing style and what do you like about it?

Thank you very much! ^w^

In terms of cadence and syntax and such, I've been told that it's poetic a fair amount of times, so I'll just nod along with that because fun word combos make my brain go brrr and I've gathered that's some of what poetry is about :D

In terms of overarching structure though, I consider my style largely modeled after the CR transcripts, but the dialogue's then fluffed between with narration and blank space to describe things like facial expressions, tone, character thoughts/emotions, and pauses of time dilation that the transcripts don't always capture!

So I guess 'transcript-esque narrative poetry' is the closest approximation of how I would describe it xD

Sticking the rest under the cut since stuff got long :3

I really like that by adding lots of space, I can put to the page how the duration of events in my fics feels to me, and I hope that sort of a feeling is conveyed when reading, though I've heard big spacing might be annoying to read since it's ''''nothing'''' xD but what's the use of me (me, Chanse, in my writing specifically) writing/posting in an online medium (AO3) if I don't take advantage of the medium's scrolling capabilities and use them for my own storytelling purposes? A rest is as just much of a part of a song as a played note is! :3

I also like the fun transcript -> fic conversions I've built up, and some small- and large-scale examples:

small-

I generally don't use dialogue tags like ["I don't know what to say here," they mumble, shuffling from foot to foot.] because that reads so much more like prose, rather than transcript dialogue, and my punctuation in general originally stemmed from the transcripts.

Like when someone is cut off, they get a double hyphen:

MATT "I'm afraid you're sneezing mid-sentence. "I'm not catching the final--" TRAVIS: (loudly) The Balleater. - C2 Ep 97

but formatted a little more prose-y like so:

“Verin--” “No, don’t argue with me about it. My mind is set.” - So Brother, Walk with Me

large-

In the transcripts, scene description of brand new locations tends to come in big ol' word picture chunks before giving way to a bulk of RP or battle action, so we get stuff like Matt's description of Mythburrow in Ep 74 that I try matching with things like the intro to Like a Diamond to the Rough (albeit a little more spaced out so it's easier to read).

Matt often describes settings like characters too (with purpose beyond being a backdrop), and with a variety of senses when applicable, so that's also something I like and try to keep in mind as well :3

Thank you for the question! ^w^

~

got a question? send me an ask!

I've remember that ask meme in your blog, so let's go, let's go!

My ask is number 13!!! :)

Thank you for the ask @mamadalena​ ❤ (from this ask meme)

My writing style and the dead giveaways of my writing... this really needed a bit of introspection XD And I’m still not completely sure if I nailed the idea behind the question... hope it’ll be fine anyway! <3

But long answer, so under the cut this time too 😊

Present tense. To be honest, it's not like I always wrote in the present tense (I actually have hibernated WIPs, hWIP from now on, through the years that I wrote in the past tense, both in English and in my first language). In my current fandom though, I found it easier to write with it and I like how it sounds and how it flows. So, I think that if I'll have to write a secret fic at this time, I would absolutely use it.

Multi-POV. I think this would come into play more if the secret fic is going to be a long fic. I'm usually able to limit myself to a single POV in one-shots. In long fic, though, multi-POV all the way. Almost all my hWIPs are multi-POV, because I love the chance to explore more than one character, their ways of thinking, and their emotions. And how the plot is explored too between the different POVs. I just find it more fun, and writing fics should be fun so ;) Even more, I noticed that often an ensemble cast or a main character+interesting and participating second characters increase the chance of me at least outlining some idea for that fandom, so... it may not be a coincidence ;)

Chapters Title. This I think is something really minor, but I found out I really like giving titles to the chapters of my long fics (even when I have to think about it for days). I usually prefer something short/medium-short that manages to capture the feel of the chapter without giving in away too much (unless there's a reason to).

Canon Divergence/What-if. When I love a fandom (and this usually means I love the characters + a plot that at least I don't dislike too much), I love to explore how things could've been if something went just a little bit differently, if a character was in a place where they weren't or vice versa and things like that. There's something I really find appealing in the challenge and satisfaction of walking through the butterfly effect with my characters and readers. This happens a lot in my hWIPs too.

Missing Moments. While it's not as prominent as the point above, I found out through the years that is a thing I like too, to add that tiny bit that I thought missing in the story as it is and that they just didn't give me. it obviously happens more often with my one-shots. Not even my chronic longfic syndrome is able to span a missing moment on dozen of chapters (luckily. Unless is some kind of prequel thing or something like that...).

Female characters. To be clear, it's not that I don't like male characters or I don't like to write about them (U-won, Yi Jin, Yi Rim, Yang to just name a few about Rookie Historian are a clear proof). And, to be honest, I think I always end up with a good proportion between prominence given to male and female characters (even if it's a too reductive way to define what a character can be, but let's simplify this one time) in my fics. But, yes, female characters and their friendships and relationship are going to be central in my stories more often than not.

Dialogue and Inner Voice. I may write descriptions (and like it too), but one things that I love is writing dialogue between characters. Often, it’s the first thing I write down for a scene. I love trying to capture the specific character’s voice and try to make it pop out of the page (don’t know if it always work XD). That’s why I think of the characters’ inner voice as an extension of it. How can I do without something like Yang’s inner exasperation or Hae-ryung’s unapologetic remarks? ;)

Character Relationships. Friendship, family, romance, siblings, rivals, parent-child, whatever for better or worse, in the foreground or in the background of the characters' actions and thoughts, I love to weave and explore the relationships between the characters, how the plot can affect them/be affected by them and how they can affect the character themself. I love to create interesting (I hope) plots, but then I use them as a means to see the characters and make a deep dive into their emotions. This is one reason more why I like ensemble cast: they already give me things to work upon!

Happy ending. Or at least a hopeful one (The Flower that Bloom..., My One and Only Brother). Bittersweet if nothing else works (The Quiet Fall...). I may read/watch something with a sad/tragic ending, but I'm not going to go searching for it. And, usually, I'm not going to write it. I hopelessly love happy endings and, even if I'm going to send my characters through hell and back, you can bet I'm going to give them their happy ending (not that this means necessarily a sugarcoated one though).

And last one, to end with a laugh (I'm really not being serious here):

Being slooow. Not really something that you can call "writing style", but I couldn't help but mention it XD I mean, if you write a long fic as long as mine it surely is something really annoying and that really stands up in the end LOL

Hope this long-winded answer satisfied your ask! ^-^

This said, I'm sure I forgot some dead giveaways that are glaringly obvious to someone who read more than one of my fics and invisible to me.

If you or anyone else would like to add their two cents on my writing style, I'll love to read it and see how would you recognize my writing! <3

A Nano Compromise

Since my very first attempt at NaNoWriMo in either 2008 or 2009 (cannot remember), I had difficulties reconciling how the structure was not for me but the sense of Doing A Big Writing Thing All Together in one month was very much inside my realm of interest.

The other problem I had -- which actually kept me out of NaNo for a few years before trying it and made my participation spotty -- was that November was a giant NOPE for me. I used to joke that it was National Science Foundation Grant Writing Month. But November usually overlapped with international/transoceanic travel. The month was overbooked and couldn’t handle more.

Even during years I managed to swing NaNo between all other things on my calendar, I deeply disliked like the “no plot, no problem” approach because I would end up with a Big Mess that really just turned me off and made me never want to look at it again. All these years later? Yep. Not for me.

Now, obviously, there is the “Planner and Outliner” approach where you do lots of planning and outlining but NO DRAFT WRITING leading up to Nov but ... ugh ... That actually is *NOT* how I write either.

With the rare exception of an outline dropping out of the sky, my success with writing only occurs when I alternate between exploring by writing test scenes and doing outlining and planning. 

I guess that makes me a plantser.

Thus, whenever I used NaNo in the past to give me a writing boost, I would sign up as a NaNoRebel and just work on whatever the hell I felt like, usually stuff I was already working on. If i wanted to work on something “newish” I would just write fanfic because it usually required less planning.  

As for this year, I had an idea that actually gets back to the spirit of “no plot, no problem” but with a Very Useful Twist:

It is still Nov 1 where I am and when I last left off (before many hours of adulting) I wrote ... uh ... 226 original words that make a vague attempt at sketching out the entire plot for a potential story.

What method am I using to pull a plot out of thin air?  Something from the NaNo planning 101 -- this very first resource for Developing an Idea.

When using that worksheet (page 1) over coffee during the afternoon I wrote out one paragraph each for three different existing narratives (not mine) that I enjoyed and want to steal inspiration from and then I attempted my first pass at making something unique but got interrupted. So, that’s the 226 original words plus lots of other words that I won’t be counting in my total.

Once I went off to do other things (adulting for a handful of hours) I had time to think about PROCESS and how to make NaNo work for me as a plantser who hates editing and doesn’t want a big mess of words -- when I have a big mess I’d rather just move that mess to some other folder and start from scratch based on what I remember.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Here is the important thing for me: When I make Good Outlines, they tend to be very thick and read like an overly detailed abbreviated story -- like detailed plot summaries on wikipedia or fandom wikia, but with way more white space and way more info. My outlines contain prose descriptions, key snippets of dialogue, random exposition, etc.

It is common for my outlines to be 1/3 the length of a finished story. 

SO. My outlines are often drafts. Just really flimsy drafts. But that is actually a good thing because my drafts make it is easier for me to reorder, cut, expand, or otherwise change these meaty outlines. When I have a big mess of scenes? Well, I just have a big mess.

That said, I usually need to write scenes, dialogue, and exposition-dumps in order to figure out the story and the outline. That’s the plantser part.

Often a lot of the scenes, dialogue, and exposition I write early on ends up getting radically rewritten or tossed out (or used as a spin-off story, especially when for fanfic). But writing those scenes helps me fill in my outline, especially when the scenes try out different possibilities. This process is very back and forth. Plantser.

Once I have my complete (or near complete) outline, I tend to be good to go. At that point, nearly every scene I write from there on is close to final draft. BIG WIN! NO MESS! Easy to edit! whoo-hoo!! \o/

And, in the past, NaNo just felt too cumbersome to fit into my process.

BUT THIS YEAR FEELS DIFFERENT FOR REASONS.

I’ve taken a long ---- very very very long ---- break from fiction writing of any kind and I feel a need to do something very “workshoppy” in which I just dive in with zero expectations and bang for a bunch of weeks. 

Also, 30 days really isn’t that long in the scheme of things. If I end up tossing all that I write this month into the bin on Dec 1, who cares? I don’t. I just want to get writing and feel that pressure of Write Write Write. Well, for fiction (I have been writing mostly nonfiction and research for hairy fiction projects).

SOOOOOOOOO. Here’s my plan that, afaic, isn’t really “cheating” (isn’t full NaNoRebel) and it also gets back to the old spirit of “no plot, no problem!” -- in 30 days I hope to complete the following:

1.  COUNTED WORDS for NaNo: Up to (and no more than) 50,000 words for a single story idea that is split up as follows:

- Up to 25,000 words of detailed story outline, preferably as a clear defined main story conflict with a beginning-middle-end, plus one or more interwoven sub-stories/side-stories with their beginning-middle-end. This outline needs to feel like a good first draft.

- Up to 25,000 words of test scenes, dialogue, and epic exposition dumps as suggested by or inspired by the outline ... or to test out ideas that I’m not sure about because I need to make a choice. This collection of test scenes can try out alternatives (which is my normal mode of operation) and do not need to cohere entirely.

I expect that the first few days will be slow (mostly uncounted words -- like filling out worksheets and coming up with ideas) but that I will “catch up” during week 2, 3, and 4.  Also, no requirement to hit 50k because I don’t want a big mess.

2.  UNCOUNTED WORDS during NaNo:  Normal side-planning that goes into anything vaguely long: analysis of themes and ideas, worksheets for ideation and planning, character sheets, setting sheets, timelines and flow charts, maps, research notes, etc. But, with two big exceptions: 

- If anything that I want to research takes more than 15-20 minutes, I make a note of what needs to be done and I put it off until after Nov 30th. 

- Any kind of careful organization of notes, plot charts, etc., needs to be put off until after Nov 30th. Luckily, I have a lot of infrastructure I can use but making things tidy is too much work for right now, especially when I need to bang words.

---

While I literally showed up to Nano this year with nothing but a steaming mug of coffee in my hand, I am not starting from absolute nothing. There is a world I have been meaning to build that might get used. But it might not. TBD.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

All I know is that I need something fresh and shiny and new with no pressure and lots of limits.

Also, the big dark just set in and I probably won’t see the sun again for a while. The weather is rapidly turning nasty. And I won’t be going anywhere this Nov so, time to write (and game and do other things too).

Okay, back to finding a potential idea to play with and expand!

1, 3, and 17 for the writers asks? 🖤

Ooooooh, thank you, thank you! I love ask games :) Most of this is under the cut because... I have never met concision.

1.) What font I use depends on what I am writing and whether it is for fun or for work. Most of my work/academic projects have to be in Times New Roman, and so I tend to use it from the jump, so that I know where I am re: page counts. But for creative/low stakes projects, I don’t care and will typically use the default font. This bleeds into 3, but a lot of my indifference comes from the fact that I write a lot in notes apps because I like to have something that syncs between my phone and my laptop and that lets me work without a constantly updating word count (to keep me from worrying about it too much).

3.) Oooh, okay. I don’t know if this question means “ritual” as in a ritual for each writing session or ritual for the entire writing process, but I’ll try and hit each because... well, I’m pretty sure they are both cursed, haha.

Overall process:

- Get a Big Idea about what I want to write. This is usually very vague and leans on a theme or unresolved question. E.g., how can I resolve X and Y contradictory ideas? How can I realistically get tragic character to happy ending? What would legacy mean to this character?

- Receive incredibly detailed vision of a single scene from the muses. Often, but not always, the opening scene. Write this down.

- Think on where I want to end up with the characters, enough that I have some sense of how to answer the original question/theme. This is the ending point for the work and, once I have it, I go in and try to outline what needs to happen to get there.

- Write individual scenes, usually following the outline. If I have a really good understanding of how I want the work to go, I can write them in any order/order of interest or inspiration. If I have a more loose understanding of the work, then I try to go more or less in chronological order, so that I don’t contradict myself or mess up the character arcs.

- Edit. This can either be just fixing grammar errors or it can involve reworking and reordering entire scenes.

- Post!

Cursed because: 1) My outlines are really vague with single sentence descriptions for entire scenes and so if I put down a WIP and come back to it it’s like trying to do a puzzle with only half the pieces. 2) I have no idea how long it will take and so your guess is as good as mine as to when I will post next. I cannot write chapters weekly. The best I can do is edit things that are prewritten.

Individual writing session:

- Wonder around or do something else while thinking about the WIP or idea. A lot of my ideas are just like, idly floating around in my brain all day while I go do actual work.

- Figure out how I want a scene or piece of dialogue to go.

- Write down anything specific immediately, if struck by inspiration. For this reason, I do a lot of writing in the notes app because if I am out on a walk and I think of a line I like, I just write it down.

- Take time to actually sit down and write what I have in mind. I don’t edit during a first draft and if I get stuck, I take a quick pause.

Cursed because: 1) I’m using the notes app like a word processor, which I know it is not. And if the work gets too long/complicated, I have to switch it over to a Real Word Processor. 2) I don’t necessarily listen to music, though I am usually always listening to music. But I don’t have a dedicated writing playlist. I don’t even always listen to something that relates to the piece. 3) The amount of research that goes into any of this is wildly inconsistent and varies based on my mood.

17.) Okay. I will refrain from writing a literal book because this is already long, but I will add in some Lore(TM) from the two WIPS I have going right now.

Untitled Steddy Hands WIP

Probably not a huge shocker that the messy throuple dynamics got me... But this one is essentially an unofficial sequel to a series of inspired follies that follows Izzy (and the rest of the Revenge crew) after the Ed/Stede reunion. Essentially, Izzy wants to leave post-Stede reunion but stays because, rightly or wrongly, he thinks that they need someone on board who won’t hesitate to kill. Cue Izzy moping around on the Revenge and (reluctantly) starting to bond with the crew. Until Stede ends up killing for Izzy and sending Izzy into a bit of a crisis. (There was an excellent post that first gave me this idea, but I can’t find it right now...)

A lot of what will be left out or left to implication focuses on the Kraken era and reunion. I don’t know if I have a completely definitive narrative outlined for this, but I imagine that the Kraken era was really bad - to the point where Izzy knows that things are fucked, and that he has a lot of internal conflict around Stede’s return. And Stede has spent some time on his own and so he is mildly more capable than where we leave him at the end of S1. Lucius’ survival will likely be handwaved, but this is probably an “alive in the walls” situation pre start of the fic.

This will make it in, haha, but I am currently rather enamored with this exchange:

"Well, then," Bonnet says, gesturing broadly to the space in front of them. "Lead on, MacDuff." Izzy rolls his eyes, but steps forward all the same. "That's not the line." He doesn't look back as he ducks through the doorway to the masthead, but he can imagine the way that Bonnet’s expression must pinch as he calls back, just a step behind. "I'm sorry?" "That's not the fucking line." Izzy steps up and leans forward on the rail, shifting to favor his uninjured arm. "It's 'lay on, MacDuff,' not 'lead on.'" At Bonnet’s continued puzzlement, he adds. "McBeth is baiting him into a fight, not asking for directions." "I didn't know you read Shakespeare." "You didn't ask."

as they kiss consume (working title)

This is my endless Black Sails WIP, haha. I know where it’s going, I am just incredibly, unbelievably slow in actually writing it. (I think part of it is that it requires walking around in Silver’s mind and he is constantly trying to evict me...) The short version is that it’s an alt. version of S3 where Miranda lives, following alternating viewpoints. Through a long series of events, Thomas and Vane are stuck on the plantation together while Silver, Flint, and Miranda are in Nassau as Woodes Rogers arrives.

A couple Lore Thoughts about it are:

- Thomas often references classic literature and he has a Cassandra-like-quality to him in that characters tend to follow the role of whatever comparison he first makes for them. (E.g., Vane as Sampson)

- I have a London era anecdote that probably won’t make it. I saw a cute old comic about a husband finding out about his wife’s lover because the lover tied her stays with a different knot than he had in the morning and... anyway, I think that Flint flirted with London-era Thomas by tying Miranda’s stays with increasingly complicated knots during their affaire.

Sorry this is so long!!!

Here's the full comic I did for @rqgzine, based on a scene from episode 152! It was also my first time helping mod a zine and I'm incredibly proud of everyone involved <3

Image description below the cut:

[ID: A three page digital comic.

Page one:

The first panel shows Hamid and Cel riding horses side by side towards the viewer and away from Shoin's lighthouse, following a dirt trail with tall grass and shrubbery on either side. They are turned towards each other and smiling. Hamid is a halfling wearing a dark purple suit vest with a white collared shirt, a green cloak with gold accents, and gold cuffs. He has brown skin with draconic scales on his cheeks, short slicked back dark hair, and dark eyes. Cel is a half elf with the tip of their right ear missing, wearing a long gray-brown coat, a light blue shirt, and goggles on their forehead with green lenses. They are pale with blue eyes and have blond hair with white streaks that stands upwards. Cel says, "Hey there, little buddy!" Hamid replies, "Hey, Cel, I just wanted to-"

The second panel shows a close up of Cel on a solid storm-gray background and forcing a smile as they say, "Oh it's another heart-to-heart. Love these. Great."

In the third panel, Hamid scratches his cheek with an index finger and gives a slight smile, “Yeah, I know you already had a chat with Zolf. I just wanted to see what you’re thinking about doing next, I guess.”

In the fourth panel, Cel pauses with the horse’s reins in their hands and starts to look a bit sad, then they say, “I-I’ll be honest, little buddy. I think I’ve got a lot to think about.”

The fifth panel shows Cel in a similar position to panel four, but more distraught. The background is a solid dark gray.

The sixth panel has Cel in a similar position to the previous two panels but they’re distraught and talking with their hands. The dialogue balloons swirl around them and the background is nearly black. “I spent years keeping my village safe, and not fighting back. I could- I could maybe have gone in there… and probably have died. But I could have followed them. I could have gone back and maybe… I could have ended this a long time ago, if I- if I had…”

Page two:

The first panel of page two shows Hamid looking concerned, “...That would’ve been a huge job for one person.”

In the second panel, we see both Hamid and Cel. Cel leans over to correct Hamid with eyebrows raised and a hand pointing to their chest as they say, “Yeah, I can be a huge person.” Hamid smiles and thoughtfully holds an index finger to his chin and says “That’s true.” Cel adds, “I can be very big.”

For the remainder of the page, we see an image of a distraught Cel grasping the reins and looking down overlapping three panels. The first panel shows silhouettes of kobolds locked in cages, and the text reads from Cel’s dialogue, “And I- all that time, he was hurting all those kobolds. And all those people I was scaring off, I was so confident that they were leaving…” The next panel shows the silhouette of a person with a sword and a person with a syringe flanking the silhouette of a brain in a sphere with blue veins on it, and the text continues, “They were going back to do more terrible things. And so I don’t know if looking after my village is enough, but…” In the final panel of this section, the background is black with only the text, “Little buddy, I am old. I have seen a lot, and getting involved has often hurt people more than… … Not getting involved… is good. Y’know? It’s very easy to become the monster when you get involved. And I’ve been the monster before, little buddy.”

Page three:

In the first panel of page three, Hamid’s eyebrows are furrowed as he says, “I know what you mean, I’ve had to-” Cel has a determined smile on their face as they hold up an index finger and says, “I cannot overstate how literal I am being when I say I have become a monster.” Hamid replies, “Oh. Uh. Okay.” Cel adds, “Morally, as well, that’s complex, but I mean quite literally.”

The second panel shows Hamid looking down pensively, “I just know that what we’ve been through, there’s been a lot of costs. I mean, I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost family…”

The third panel is a close up of Cel’s side profile, the dialogue between their head and the dark background behind them, “Yeah that’s all stuff I Don’t wanna do again, either, y’know? If you’re mates with mercenaries, you- well you don’t go to a lot of funerals, usually, because there isn’t much to bury. Lots of memorial services and lots of not knowing. But maybe I don’t have that much of a choice.”

The fourth panel zooms out to show Hamid and Cel on their horses walking to their right, the grass and clearing sky behind them. Hamid says, “For me, despite everything I’ve lost, I would do it again because I believe what we’ve done has mattered. But I can’t make that decision for you. I just want you to know that whatever you decide we’ll be there to help.”

The fifth panel just shows Cel with a soft smile looking towards Hamid, touched.

In the sixth panel Cel has a genuine smile as they point towards Hamid’s chest. Hamid looks down at their finger in slight surprise. Cel says, “I just want you to know that whenever I refer to you as ‘little buddy,’ I’m not referring to the size of you heart.”

The final panel shows Hamid with his hand splayed on his chest, his eyes big and shimmering like he’s about to cry, and flowers of emotion behind him. He is so moved by Cel.

End ID.]

Forgive me Father, I have no awful headcanons for you, only a general question on comic making. How do you do it, writing-wise/how do you decide what points go where, how do you plot it out (or do you have any resources on the writing aspect that you find useful?) Not to get too bogged down in details, but I attended a writer’s workshop and the author in residence suggested I transfer my wordy sci-fi WIP into graphic novel script, as it might work better. (I do draw, but I don’t know if I have it in me to draw a whole comic—characters in motion? Doing things? With backgrounds? How dare, why can’t everyone just stand around looking pretty)

I was interested but it quickly turned into a lot of internal screaming as I tried to figure out how to compress the hell out of it, since novels are free to do a lot more internal monologuing and such compared to a comic format (to say nothing of trying to write a script without seeing how the panels lay out—just for my own sake, I might have to do both concurrently.)

As an aside, to get a feel for graphic novels I was rereading 99RM and was reminded of how great it was—tightly plotted, intriguing, and anything to do with Ashmedai was just beautifully drawn. I need more Monsignor Tiefer and something something there are parallels between Jehan and Daniel in my head and I don’t know if they make sense but it works for me. (As an aside, I liked the emphasis on atonement being more than just the word sorry, but acknowledgment you did wrong and an attempt to remedy it—I don’t know why that spoke to me the way that it did.)

I thought Tumblr had a word count limit for asks but so far it has offered zero resistance, oh well. I don’t have much else to say but on the topic of 99RM, Adam getting under Monsignor’s skin is amazing, 10/10 (about the Pride picture earlier)

wow tumblr got rid of the markdown editor! or at least in asks which means the new editor probably has no markdown....god i hate this site! anyway...

Totally! So first, giant thank you for the compliments! Second, I have a few questions in turn for you before I dive into a sort of answer, since I can give some advice to your questions in general but it also sounds like you have a specific conundrum on your hands.

My questions to your specific situation are:

did the author give any reason for recommending a, in your words, "wordy" story be turned into a graphic novel?

is the story you're writing more, like you said, "internal monologuing"? action packed? where do the visuals come from?

do you WANT it to be a comic? furthermore, do you want it to be a comic you then must turn around and draw? or would you be interested in writing for comics as a comic writer to have your words turned into art?

With those questions in mind, let me jump into the questions you posed me!

Let me start with a confession...

I've said this before but let me say it again: Ninety-Nine Righteous Men was not originally a comic — it was a feature-length screenplay! And furthermore, it was written for a class so it got workshopped again and again to tighten the plot by a classroom of other nerds — so as kind as your compliments are, I'm giving credit where credit is due as that was not just a solo ship sailing on the sea. On top of that, it got adapted (by me) into a comic for my thesis, so my advisor also helped me make it translate or "read" well given I was director, actor, set designer, writer, editor, SFX guy, etc. all in one. And it was a huge help to have someone say "there is no way you can go blow by blow from script to comic: you need to make edits!" For instance, two scenes got compressed to simple dialogue overlaid on the splashpage of Ashmedai raping Caleb (with an insert panel of Adam and Daniel talking the next day.) What had been probably at least 5 pages became 1.

Additionally, I don't consider myself a strong plotter. That said, I found learning to write for film made the plotting process finally make some damn sense since the old plot diagram we all got taught in grammar school English never made sense as a reader and definitely made 0 sense as a writer — for me, for some reason, the breakdown of 25-50-25 (approx. 25 pages for act 1, 50 for act 2 split into 2 parts of 25 each, 25 pages for act 3) and the breaking down of the beats (the act turning points, the mid points, the low point) helped give me a structure that just "draw a mountain, rising action, climax is there, figure it out" never did. Maybe the plot diagram is visually too linear when stories have ebb and flow? I don't know. But it never clicked until screenwriting. So that's where I am coming from. YMMV.

I should also state that there's Official Ways To Write Comic Scripts to Be Drawn By An Artist (Especially If You Work For A Real Publisher As a Writer) and there's What Works For You/Your Team. I don't give a rat's ass about the former (and as an artist, I kind of hate panel by panel breakdowns like you see there) so I'm pretty much entirely writing on the latter here. I don't give a good god damn about official ways of doing anything: what works for you to get it done is what matters.

What Goes Where?

Like I said, 99RM was a screenplay so it follows, beat-wise, the 3-act screenplay structure (hell, it's probably more accurate to say it follows the act 1/act 2A/act 2B/act 3 structure.) So there was the story idea or concept that then got applied to those story beats associated with the structure, and from there came the Scene-by-scene Breakdown (or Expanded Scene Breakdown) which basically is an outline of beats broken down into individual scenes in short prose form so you get an overview of what happens, can see pacing, etc. In the resources at the end I put some links that give information on the whole story beat thing.

(As an aside: for all my short comics, I don't bother with all that, frankly. I usually have an image or a concept or a bit of writing — usually dialogue or monologue, sometimes a concrete scene — that I pick at and pick at in a little sketchbook, going back and forth between writing and thumbnail sketches of the page. Or I just go by the seat of my pants and bullshit my way through. Either or. Those in many ways are a bit more like poems, in my mind: they are images, they are snapshots, they are feelings that I'm capturing in a few panels. Think doing mental math rather than writing out geometric proofs, yanno?)

Personally, I tend to lean on dialogue as it comes easier for me (it's probably why I'm so drawn to screenwriting!) so for me, if I were to do another longform GN, I'd probably take my general "uhhhhhh I have an idea and some beats maybe so I guess this should happen this way?" outline and start breaking it down scene by scene (I tend to write down scenes or scene sketches in that "uhhhh?" outline anyway LOL) and then figure out basic dialogue and action beats — in short, I'd kind of do the work of writing a screenplay without necessarily going full screenplay format (though I did find the format gave me an idea of timing/pacing, as 1 page of formatted script is about equal to 1 minute of screentime, and gave me room to sketch thumbnails or make edits on the large margins!) If you're not a monologue/soliloque/dialogue/speech person and more an image and description person, you may lean more into visuals and scenes that cut to each other.

Either way this of course introduces the elephant in the panel: art! How do you choose what to draw?

The answer is, well, it depends! The freedom of comics is if you can imagine it, you can make it happen. You have the freedoms (and audio limitations) of a truly silent film with none of the physical limitations. Your words can move in real time with the images or they can be a narrative related to the scene or they could be nonsequitors entirely! The better question is how do you think? Do you need all the words and action written first before you break down the visuals? Do you need a panel by panel breakdown to be happy, or can you freewheel and translate from word and general outlines to thumbnails? What suits you? I really cannot answer this because I think when it comes to what goes where with regard to art, it's a bit of "how do you process visuals" and also a bit of "who's drawing this?" — effectively, who is the interpreter for the exact thing you are writing? Is it you or someone else? If it's you, would you benefit from a barebones script alongside thumbnailed paneling? Would you be served by a barebones script, then thumbnails, then a new script that includes panel and page breakdowns? What frees you up to do what you need to do to tell your story?

If I'm being honest, I don't necessarily worry about panels or what something will look like necessarily until I'm done writing. I may have an image that I clearly state needs to happen. I may even have a sequence of panels that I want to see and I do indeed sketch that out and make note of it in my script. But exactly how things will be laid out, paneled, situated? That could change up until I've sketched my final pencils in CSP (but I am writer and artist so admittedly I get that luxury.)

How do I compress from novel to comic?

Honest answer? You don't. Not really. You adapt from one to another. It's more a translation. Something that would take forever to write may take 1 page in a comic or may take a whole issue.

I'm going to pick on Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo spent a whole-ass book in Notre-Dame de Paris talking about a bird's eye view of Paris and other medieval architecture boring stuff, with I guess some foreshadowing with Montfaucon. Who cares. Not me. I like story. Anyway. When we translate that book to a movie any of the billion times someone's done that, we don't spend a billion years talking at length about medieval Paris. There's no great monologuing about the gibbet or whatever: you get to have some establishing shots, maybe a musical number, and then you move tf on. Because it's a movie, right? Your visuals are right there. We can see medieval Paris. We can see the cathedral. We can see the gibbet. We don't need a whole book: it's visually right there. Same with a comic: you may need many paragraphs to describe, say, a space station off of Sirius and one panel to show it.

On the flip side, you may take one line, maybe two, to say a character keyed in the special code to activate the holodeck; depending on the visual pacing, that could be a whole page of panels (are we trying to stretch time? slow it down? what are we emphasizing?) A character gives a sigh of relief — one line of text, yeah? That could be a frozen panel while a conversation continues on or that could be two (or more!) panels, similar to the direction [a beat] in screenwriting.

Sorry there's not a super easy answer there to the question of compression: it's a lot more of a tug, a push-pull, that depends on what you're conveying.

So Do I Have It In Me to Write & Draw a GN?

The only way you'll know is by doing. Scary, right? The thing is, you don't necessarily need to be an animation king or God's gift to background artists to draw a comic.

Hell, I hate backgrounds. I still remember sitting across from my friend who said "Claude you really need to draw an establishing exterior of the church at some point" and me being like "why do you hate me specifically" because drawing architecture? Again? I already drew the interior of the church altar ONCE, that should be enough, right? But I did draw an exterior of the church. Sorta. More like the top steeple. Enough to suggest what I needed to suggest to give the audience a better sense of place without me absolutely losing my gourd trying to render something out of my wheelhouse at the time.

And that's kinda the ticket, I think. Not everyone's a master draftsman. Not everyone has all the skills in every area. And regardless, from page one to page one hundred, your skills will improve. That's all part of it — and in the meantime, you should lean into your strengths and cheat where you can.

Do you need to lovingly render a background every single panel? Christ no! Does every little detail need to be drawn out? Sure if you want your hand to fall off. Cheat! Use Sketchup to build models! Use Blender to sculpt forms to paint over! Use CSP Assets for prebuilt models and brushes if you use CSP! Take photographs and manip them! Cheat! Do what you need to do to convey what you need to convey!

For instance, a tip/axiom/"rule" I've seen is one establishing shot per scene minimum and a corollary to that has been include a background once per page minimum as grounding (no we cannot all have eternal floating heads and characters in the void. Unless your comic is set in the void. In which case, you do you.) People ain't out here drawing hyper detailed backgrounds per each tiny panel. The people who DO do that are insane. Or stupid. Or both. Or have no deadline? Either way, someone's gonna have a repetitive stress injury... Save yourself the pain and the headache. Take shortcuts. Save your punches for the big K.O. moments.

Start small. Make an 8-page zine. Tell a beginning, a middle, an end in comic form. Bring a scene to life in a few pages. See what you're comfortable drawing and where you struggle. See where you can lean heavily into your comfort zones. Learn how to lean out of your comfort zone. Learn when it's worth it to do the latter.

Or start large. Technically my first finished comic (that wasn't "a dumb pencil thing I drew in elementary school" or "that 13 volume manga I outlined and only penciled, what, 7 pages of in sixth grade" or "random one page things I draw about my characters on throw up on the interwebz") was 99RM so what do I know. I'm just some guy on the internet.

(That's not self-deprecating, I literally am some guy on the internet talking about my path. A lot of this is gonna come down to you and what vibes with you.)

Resources on writing

Some of these are things that help me and some are things that I crowd-sourced from others. Some of these are going to be screenwriting based, some will be comic based.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud: I think everyone recommends this but I think it is a useful book if you're like "ahh!!! christ!! where do I start!!!???" It very much breaks down the elements of comics and the world they exist in and the principles involved, with the caveat that there are no rules! In fact, I need to re-read it.

Comic Book Design: I picked this up at B&N on a whim and in terms of just getting a bird's eye view of varied ways to tackle layout and paneling? It's such a great resource and reference! I personally recommend it as a way to really get a feel for what can be done.

the screenwriter's bible: this is a book that was used in my class. we also used another book that's escaping me but to be honest, I never read anything in school and that's why I'm so stupid. anyway, I'd say check it out if you want, especially if you start googling screenwriting stuff and it's like 20 billion pieces of advice that make 0 sense -- get the core advice from one place and then go from there.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: many people I know recommended this. I think I have it? It may be in storage. So frankly, I'd already read a bunch of books on comics before grabbing this that it kind of felt like a rehash. Which isn't shade on the authors — I personally was just a sort of "girl, I don't need comics 101!!!"

Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate: this has been recommended so many times to me. I cannot personally speak on it but I can say I do trust those who rec'd it to me so I am passing it along

the story circle: this is pretty much the hero's journey. a useful way to think of journeys! a homie pretty much swears by it

a primer on beats: quick google search got me this that outlines storybeats

save the cat!: what the above refers to, this gives a more genre-specific breakdown. also wants to sell you on the software but you don't need that.

I hope this helps and please feel free to touch base with more info about your specific situation and hopefully I'll have more applicable answers.

Every Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series to date has had its own distinct look and feel, from the sitcom-derived pastiche episodes of WandaVision all the way back to the grim-and-gritty, dimly lit street narratives of Jessica Jones and Daredevil. Marvel’s Loki has been one of the MCU’s more distinctive-looking series, though, from the dimly lit, industrial-brown corridors of Time Variance Authority HQ to the vivid neon city of Sharoo on the doomed moon Lamentis-1.

Series director Kate Herron confirms that some of these designs were directly inspired by classic science fiction, while others were more personal experimentation. We sat down with Loki’s cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, to break down what went into designing some of the most striking and memorable sequences from the series’ first three episodes.

This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.

EPISODE 1: TIME THEATER INTERROGATIONS

Autumn Durald Arkapaw: Kate [Herron]’s sensibilities led me to get the job in the first place. We shared those sensibilities, around noir films and more moody thrillers, so we were already on the same page as far as lighting and tone. So when it came to the Time Theater, Kasra [Farahani], the production designer, did a fantastic job of creating a space that had a lot of opportunity to feel textural and moody, and create symmetry. I’m big on symmetry. I like to frame center-punched, keeping in mind the architecture of the room, and framing for the architecture and the people at the same time. Stanley Kubrick does that very well. A Clockwork Orange obviously came up in our discussions. Some of our main references were David Fincher’s Zodiac and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and the original Blade Runner, in terms of creating spaces that feel strong and weighted, with the people in them placed in a way where the conversation feels very heavy, so you’re paying a lot of attention to the lines, and where your eyes are drawn.

We did some lighting changes above, in the Brutalist ceiling. The lights move, so when we’re cutting back and forth, you see the lights change on the actors. We’re trying to time those movements to the dialogue. The editing was fantastic with that scene. We shot a good amount of coverage, and [series stars Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Owen Wilson as Mobius] play in that space a lot. So we’re trying to always keep it interesting, every time they go back there, changing up the lighting and the projections. That’s probably one of my favorite spaces in the show.

And then the acting, obviously — they’re riffing off each other, and you’re in the room with them and feeling the energy. It was very exciting. That scene was up front in our schedule, so Owen and Tom were getting to know each other in general. We got to watch that happen before our eyes, and it was very comical.

One of the most noticable things about that space is the harsh, rectangular overhead spotlights — Tom Hiddleston starts his interrogation under a spotlight, and when he gets angry, he moves himself back under it. How did you discuss that kind of blocking and framing?

The thing with Tom is, he’s a genius. He’s just a fantastic actor, The amount of things I could say about how amazing he is on set, and character-wise, the list goes on and on. You can introduce marks and let actors know where you’d like them to be for a shot, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where they’ll go. Some actors like to be more freeform. But with Tom, I wouldn’t have to say “Stand under that light.” He just knows, and he’ll play off that because of the space. He walks in, sees how it’s lit, knows our agenda, and uses that in the character.

So there were certain moments where he asked, “Is this what you’re thinking?” or we would have a discussion. But mostly, he uses the environment around him to tell the story as well, and he took in that lighting as part of the character. Actors know how they look in certain types of light. He’s very good at that. So he played with that in that space, for sure.

When we pull back and take in the whole room, the lighting feels punitive — the striped shadows are noir-movie standards, like light coming through blinds, but they also feel like prison bars. Is that something you discussed?

We never talked about prison bars, but in designing that space, Kasra was thinking about what that space was — being arrested, and being judged. It’s a claustrophobic space. Loki is slightly free to communicate and move around, but the walls and ceiling are concrete, there’s this fake light coming in, because obviously, in the TVA, there’s no day or night. You can see the light moving above, but there’s no sun there. It’s just moving at certain moments.

I had an idea, after seeing the latest Blade Runner, where Roger Deakins moves the lights around: Why don’t we have the lights move? It’s not easy to have big tungsten light sources above a ceiling set move like that, because it takes heavy motors. But my gaffer and key grip are amazing, and they figured out a way we could move the lights without causing shadows between each of the sections of lighting. It looks all like it’s moving at the same time. That took a lot of thought, getting those lights to move, and not just creating shafts of light that fade in and out. I think it helped a lot, because it’s very subtle. You’re only going to see it as they’re sitting. You’ll see sometimes the light moves from Owen’s shoulders into his eyes at the right moment, when you get lucky in the edit, and catch it at the right moment. It was great to have the resources to actually do stuff like that.

EPISODE 2: THE ROXXCART VARIANT PURSUIT

I’m a fan of green. If we’re designing a clinical environment, or a shopping mall, and we’ve got overhead fluorescents, I like to use cool white fluorescents that have kind of a green kick. I’m a big David Fincher fan, and there’s an undertone of green in his setups that I appreciate. So Roxxcart is a bigger shop that is now closed down, and Kasra outfitted it like a big-box Costco-type place? That wasn’t a full set — we went to this big warehouse, and he made it feel like that kind of store.

Above the space where we shot in, there were a bunch of fixtures. We completely removed those and put in our own tubes. They were RGB, and we could fade them and turn them off and on to our liking, flicker them, make them red when we wanted. When they’re cool white, I appreciate that green kick. I did a lookup-table color correction as well, to give it that tone. It’s meant to be clinical, but make you feel like you don’t know what’s at every turn. And we’re keeping lights on or off depending on which way we’re looking. Kate was a big fan of that space being very dark, with pockets of light. Our antagonist is supposed to come out of the darkness as people change identities.

We’re also trying to make that space look bigger than it actually was. We’re creating depth with light. That was a bitch to shoot — we had so much rigging. My team was amazing. If you go into a space like that, a Target or something, you’d think “The lighting here is not that big of a deal. It’s just overheads.” But being able to control all those overheads and make them different colors and flicker them takes a lot of rigging, with a dimmer board and the programming. In the editing afterward, it really does feel like a space that’s a lot bigger than it actually was. The red sequence is one of my favorites, for sure.

The camera is below waist level a lot in that sequence. What are you communicating there?

I always like to shoot low! It’s just how I see things. Some of my favorite films are detective thrillers from the past, Zodiac being one of those. I’ve always just loved shooting below the eyeline. Obviously there are moments in features I’ve shot where I want to be higher, because it’s more emotional or romantic or something. But in this kind of story, where you have these amazing spaces, and you have multiple characters you’re trying to frame, all facing off and being strong, I’m just a bigger fan of seeing a ceiling than a floor. It’s an appreciation I have, as far as it feeling more mysterious. When a character is looking more mysterious, and you’re not trusting them, you’re trying to figure them out, I love that kind of framing. It’s amazing.

EPISODE 3: FIGHTING TO REACH THE LAMENTIS-1 ARK

That sequence has a great backstory. I did a lot of prep with Kate. We started prep in Los Angeles before we ended up in Atlanta. We knew that sequence was coming up. but in the script, it just says “Okay, so they end up at Sharoo, and then go on.” The description of that sequence went through an evolution, with the filmmakers discussing things, building the set, and collaborating, so early on, we spitballed about what we thought that could be. Having the support of Marvel and being able to build, and being able to do great stunts, we went bigger.

With the sequence as it evolved, Children of Men was a big reference for us. Kate was really interested in that feeling. She wanted to be with the characters the whole way. We tried to figure out, should the camera be handheld? Should it be Steadicam? We ended up with Steadicam. We looked at some previous oners, because we wanted this sequence to feel like a oner to the audience. Obviously, there are cuts in there, but we seamed certain shots together so the audience wouldn’t feel as though we cut. The intention was to feel like you’re on the run with Loki and Sylvie, racing to the ark, building up tension. You’re there with them as they’re fighting.

My husband’s a DP, and he shot True Detective season 1. That oner in True Detective was something we looked at as well, because it’s just one of those great oners that feels real and has those kinds of textural elements. We did pre-viz, we did rehearsals in the space, prior to shooting there. We went there a couple times and did camera rehearsals. We had an amazing Steadicam operator who I’ve worked with on my last four projects and features. He’s very in tune with my eye, and he’s great with those kind of moves. Kasra understood that we needed certain paths to go down, to help us get from point A to point B, so it feels like a run, it doesn’t feel like people keep entering the same space. Obviously, it’s hard to build really big sets where you can go very far. So he did a great job of knowing what we needed, and then adding stunts, and figuring out how we could feel like we were turning corners whenever we’re moving into different spaces.

How big was the physical space? How much of what we’re seeing there is digital?

Shiroo was very different from Roxxcart. At Roxxcart, we had blue at the end of the aisles, so they look like they’re going on a lot longer than they are. But we traveled to that space. It wasn’t built. Shiroo was built on a backlot. That was a set we had full control over, to build to our liking. Above a certain point, as you’re looking up at the buildings, that’s VFX. But we built the actual buildings up to a certain height, and then beyond that is a digital extension. As far as the depth as well, beyond a certain part of the street, it’s a digital extension. Obviously, the ark is an extension, and we’re using the explosions as cues to do a lot of lighting cues. But it was a very big set, a gorgeous set. It has a lot of texture.

Kasra had the idea of painting a lot of the set in black-light paint, which I’d never seen before, and putting black lights everywhere. Also, we had a bunch of units on top that lit the set for the moon color and those sources, and we had VFX helping us stitch it all together. We had to shoot the sequences and look at the overlays on set to make sure we were creating matchups that would work in the final edit.

For me, that’s a very successful collaboration of in-camera elements — that whole set was real — and having explosions on set along with lighting cues, and then the effects to seam it together and do the extension above and the depth. So everyone really had to play like a good chunk of that. But they’d be effects overall, I think taking what we shot and making it feel like something that big, you know, the buildings are falling. Obviously, we didn’t drop buildings on people. There’s some foam stuff. That was really fun. We shot all that stuff at night.

The camera work in that sequence is some of the most dynamic movement in the series. What was the most difficult part about coordinating that sequence for you?

Rehashing it now, it was the prep. When we were actually there in the space with Tom and Sylvie, running through all of this stuff, it really made sense by that time. We’d been pre-vizing it and reworking it and massaging it for so long that ultimately, once we got on the set and had to follow them with the camera, and the energy was going, and we had the extras there, it all fell together. I think one day, we even wrapped a little early, because we’d just nailed it. When you’re prepping those types of shots, in your mind, you’re always like, “This is gonna be hard, it’s going to be difficult to seam these together, I like perfect headroom.” And you also want it to feel real, and people have to jump and fly and tumble into the frame. But on the day, our execution ended up being pretty good. So that was the most surprising thing to me, because it was kind of a pain in the ass prepping, because there are so many elements. And we’re doing six episodes, so we’re always working, trying to chase the next prep. But it really fell into place nicely.

FAQ

Part 2

Q: How many contributors will there be in this zine?

A: Our goal is for this zine to have between 10 and 20 contributors. 1-3 of these contributors will be guests, and 3-5 contributors will be creating merch. We will be accepting between 7-15 artists (including merch), and 2-5 writers. However, these numbers are subject to change depending on factors such as the amount of interest we get for the zine, the number of applications we receive, and how many pages the zine will be.

We may also ask page/merch artists to volunteer a few small spot illustrations in case we have a written piece that does not fill a whole page.

Q: What are guest contributors and how are they different from regular contributors?

A: Guest contributors are personally invited by the mods to make a piece for this zine. Guests will skip the normal application process. They are also permitted to ‘choose first’ which position they would like to fill if they are an artist (writers only have one position). Guest acceptance will not affect the total number of contributors we are accepting for a position, except for cover, as we can only accept one cover artist (Ex: if we have 3 merch positions and a guest wants to do merch, we will still accept 3 merch artists from our applications for a total of 4).

Q: How will applications be judged?

A: For page artists, we are looking for strong figure/character drawing skills, a good understanding of light, color, and shadow, and good compositional skills. For merch artists, we are looking for strong figure/character drawing skills and a keen eye for bold, eye-catching designs. For writers, we will be looking for your ability to write engaging short stories within our word count limit (1.5k-2k), strong SPAG (spelling, punctuation, and grammar), and strong characterization of the TF2 characters, especially Spy.

Of course most importantly, we’re looking for people who love Spy!

Q: What are you looking for in portfolio submissions?

A: This answer will be separated into three sections, one for page artists, one for merch artists, and one for writers.

Page artists - Portfolios should be no longer than 15 pieces. Please include at least one example of how you draw Spy, either in your portfolio or in the 3 best pieces section. This may be a sketch, but it should be in the style that you will use in our zine.

Merch artists - Portfolios should be no longer than 15 pieces. Please include at least one example of merch that you designed. This sample does not need to be physical. Please include at least one example of how you draw Spy. This may be a sketch, but should be in the style that you will use in our zine. These may be included in your 3 best pieces or in your portfolio.

Writers - Your 3 best excerpts should be no more than 2k words long. Please include at least one sample where Spy is a featured character. This should include dialogue, thoughts, and/or descriptions of him, so we may understand how you characterize Spy. Your portfolio submission may include longer works, but individual works should not exceed 3k.

Q: What is the word count for writers? What type of fic can we produce?

A: For our zine, we will be aiming for a maximum word count between 1.5k and 2k. If we receive a high amount of interest for longer fic, we may extend the word count up to 2.5k. Unfortunately, we cannot extend the word count any greater without cutting down on the number of contributors we accept into the zine.

You may create poem(s), short fic (one shots), and any other form of writing that will not exceed 3 printed pages on 6 x 9 in paper.

Q: Will you permit artists and writers to collaborate on pieces for this zine?

A: Yes we will! Artists and writers should find a partner BEFORE the first check-in, and make sure you can work together for the entire duration of the zine. We will expect collaborating artists and writers to facilitate their own communication, and approach mods if issues arise.

Page artists who choose to make their page illustration in collaboration with a writer will have their piece placed on the same spread as the first or last page of the written piece. Page artists also have the option to create spot art for their writer, independent of their assigned page illustration.

Q: If this project is for charity, how will contributors be compensated for this project?

A: Contributors are guaranteed to receive the digital zine for free. Under the most ideal circumstances, all contributors will receive a free copy of the full bundle with free shipping and customs/tariff assistance. We will scale contributor compensation with how much money we can make during our preorder period. We will begin by offering the free digital zine, then the free physical zine, then free shipping, and merch pieces one by one based on cost. Our goal is to be able to make a meaningful contribution to charity, so we will set aside at least $100 (USD) to donate.

Q: Will mods be allowed to participate in the zine?

A: Mods can sign up as pinch hitters and may sign up as a contributor if not enough applications are received for a particular role. Mods may also apply to the zine, but they will be judged alongside other applicants. If a mod ties with another applicant for a space, the non-mod will be chosen over the mod, to keep participation fair. A mod joining the zine will NOT affect the number of applications we accept (Ex: if we have 15 page artists and a mod wants to contribute page art, we will still accept 15 artists from our contributor applications for a total of 16).

SWTOR: New player help: Contending with bugs

It's not a bug, it's a feature! It's working as intended! As you play SWTOR, you will notice that...things don't always go as expected. Here are some helpful tips for new players (and more long term players too) to try to help handle some of the most common bugs you will find in the game. 

First thing: report the bugs you encounter. If nobody knows something's going wrong, it can't be fixed. 

Everyone including free to play players can now use the in-game bug reporting system. How? 

1. Go into your chat box (usually at the upper left of your screen and type /bug)

2. This should open a window that will allow you to type a short description of the bug you are seeing. Describe the bug. Make sure you mention 1) exactly what you were doing and 2) what was not working. For example: 

"During the introduction scene for the flashpoint "This is Way Too Long," the character "I Don't Like You" does not have a head." 

3. Press ' submit.' 

Keep in mind that you will not get a response or any direct help from a bug report. This is to let the developers know what is not working in the game, so they can hopefully fix it. 

2. Wait a little while after there's a new patch or game update

When there's a new game update or patch (you will know because you have new files that will automatically download when you launch the game), don't jump right into the new content with your favorite best character. Wait. It's hard, I know, but wait. The general trend over the past few years has been that new patches and updates always have bugs, and sometimes they're doozies. 

It helps to have a "me first" character or two - perhaps a clone of your main - to wade into new content on the first day or week if you really want to see it. That way you can see the new content without being completely angry that it's messed something up for your characters or isn't running quite right. 

3. Keep an eye on the Bug Reports section of SWTOR.com and the SWTOR Twitter account. 

Even if you are not a subscriber you can still read the Bug Reports forum (I would not recommend the rest of the forums, though). There's usually a running list of known bugs for each patch listed at the top of the page. Also keep an eye on the SWTOR Twitter account. You can read it without being a registered Twitter user, and it will let you know when the game is going down for maintenance or an update. 

4. If you are facing a bug that is making it impossible to complete a quest you need for story progression, you can reach out to SWTOR customer service for assistance. If you are a subscriber, press the little gears icon at the top of your screen, choose "customer service" and then "request help." If you are not subscriber, you can reach support at [email protected]. 

SPECIFIC STRATEGIES FOR COMMON BUGS

1. Help! My abilities bar got unlocked and I cannot get it to lock again!

When this happens, all your abilities will 'float' or move from their placements, which understandably makes it hard to fight. How to get around this: 

1. When you are NOT IN COMBAT, press CTRL+U. All of your abilities bars/maps/etc. will vanish. Don't panic. This is the way. 

2. Press CTRL+U again. Everything should come back. It may take a moment. Wait. 

2. Oh no! My character's stuck in a rock!

Or on a cliff, or under a box, or up a tree. We've all been there. Go to your chat box (upper left, usually).

1. Write /stuck in the chat. This will either move your character to a place where they aren't stuck, or it will kill them and put them back at the nearest medical base. 

2. What's that? Stuck isn't working, or you just used it and it needs to cool down? You can try using Quick Travel to travel to a nearby medical base. 

3. Still nothing? Try porting to a stronghold, your ship or the Fleet. 

4. Try logging out and logging back in. 

3. What? I can't click the blue thing. 

This bug has shown up all over the place, where an objective will be lit blue, but unclickable. I've found a few places where nothing I do makes this work. 

1. Try changing instances. 

2. Try logging out and back in. 

4. This is a great cut scene...why is it freezing?!

Several years ago this bug was so severe in the Sith Warrior and Imperial Agent stories that only customer service could resolve it. It seems better now, but here are some ideas. 

1. ESC out of the scene. Now try to start the scene again by clicking on the NPC /objective/whatever is the scene starter. 

2. Can you guess? Log out and back in. 

3. Close the game and try re-launching. 

4. Try lowering your graphics settings in the game. Don't know why this works, but it did sometimes. 

5. My character is frozen in a weird pose. 

Just laugh at it, take a screenshot and share it with your friends so they can laugh. Typically this will not affect actual combat and will go away on its own eventually. 

6. I want to romance Lana Beniko, Koth Vortena or Theron Shan in KOTFE...but I've heard things about the romance vanishing. 

There are two general ways the romances in KOTFE get borked:

1. A patch happens before the romance is locked in (chapter 9) and all the player's flirts from chapters 3-8 are reset. The game thus forgets you were trying to romance Lana and you don't get the romance dialogue option in chapter 9. I've also heard of Koth and Theron romances vanishing, but not as often. The solution is to NOT play through chapters 3-9 of KOTFE when there's a patch happening. My general tactic is to play those chapters straight through, and not stop until I get to chapter 10, to make sure the romance is locked and won't be interrupted by a patch.

2. The player misunderstands the really poorly framed dialogue wheel in chapter 9. There's a moment, pictured below, where the camera faces Theron Shan, and there are choices that say "I need to see one of you" and "I need to see one of you" [flirt]. IT IS NOT JUST REFERRING TO THERON. If you are flirting with Lana or Koth and want to lock in their romance, DO NOT CLICK ON THE FIRST CHOICE (which is helpfully lit up here for your reference). YOU NEED TO CHOOSE THE [FLIRT] HERE, as well as the [flirt] in the conversation when you are alone with your companion of choice.  

When your actions or conversation choice will start or end a romance, from KOTFE onward, you will receive a pop up warning that looks something like this. 

Caption: This choice will begin a romance with Lana Beniko. Are you sure you wish to proceed? CONTINUE - CANCEL Once you have this scene, MAKE SURE you finish chapter 9 entirely so your choices don't get wiped out in a future patch!

7. My companion is stuck in place and won't move. 

There you go, charging into the fray...there's your companion, lingering awkwardly at the threshold and not participating. Oops. You can usually wake them up by sending them away and then bringing them back. Easy ways to do this include: 

1) Send them to sell junk (press N. Go to your companion who is with you. Press the little icon near their name to get them to sell the junk. Depending on the legacy perks you have purchased they will be gone for between 5 and 30 seconds)

2) Summon another companion, any of them, and then summon back the one you want. 

3) It didn't work? Sometimes companions do seem to go on strike and you will probably just want to summon another to continue playing. This is a good reason to remember to have more than one companion at high influence, if you can, so you can switch as needed. 

8. My companion keeps falling over. 

Sternly tell your companion it's not time for a nap. Kidding. They really don't care. Any time is nap time. The steps in #7 should work to wake them up again. 

9. I'm trying to loot something and it's telling me "out of range." 

First, are you sure it's your loot and not some other player's? If it's yours, you can sometimes pick it up by walking away and then returning. Other times, look for someone else nearby to loot. I've on occasion found things unlootable, which is frustrating. 

dialogue analysis

a quick little guide for someone on my discord server on how to write effective dialogue without sounding forced beneath the cut. excerpts are from eternity, a zhongli fic of mine.

excerpt one (its kind of long i apologize):

“i hope i am not intruding,” zhongli states, turning the book in his hands over and resting it on his lap, pages downward. he leans forward, gently grasps his teacup (black tea, you noted, looking at its contents) and stirs it with an ornate, white iron spoon, cor lapis embedded in its handle. “the tea was merely a precautionary gesture. if you do not wish to drink any, please do not feel obligated to.”

you feel a faint heat rise to your cheeks, embarrassed at the thought of seeming like you were ungrateful for his kind gesture. he likely just wanted the tea for himself and did not wish to be rude, you told yourself.

“i- it’s not that,” your voice stammers in a soft tone, worried about your noise level within the quiet aisles of the library. “i just did not wish to have the hardworking service staff unnecessarily cater to me for something i did not place an order for. however, i appreciate the gracious gesture and am no longer perturbed by the action, knowing that it was something you called for. i appreciate the hospitality.”

the brunette quirked an eyebrow upwards and hovered his lips above his golden-and-white teacup before blowing softly on the liquid. you noted the geo elemental insignia molded into the bottom of the mug, seeming to glow the same color as his eyes.

“is that so?” zhongli’s words had an aura of amusement interwoven into them, entertained by your dissertation-length explanation. you nodded, feeling your face burn with bashfulness, and quickly redirected your gaze to the book at hand.

“pardon my interruption, but what is the book you are reading? you seem to be quite enthralled by it.”

the book held an illustration of a shirtless man holding a fair maiden close to him in front of the ocean, about as cheesy as you could get for any book cover. you weren’t sure how you were going to survive this conversation.

“it’s called… um…” you trail off, speaking in an even quieter tone than before. “love on the sea of clouds.”

analysis:

action verbs to describe people speaking that i used, in order:

states, direct description

stammers, descriptions of voice

no direct description, describes the attitude his voice holds

absolutely no description. it’s obvious who is speaking.

trail off, describing how the words are altered

“i hope i am not intruding,” zhongli states, turning the book in his hands over and resting it on his lap, pages downward.

this uses a direct descriptive verb to describe zhongli’s manner of speech. he’s stating his wishes, then performs an action. 

“i- it’s not that,” your voice stammers in a soft tone, worried about your noise level within the quiet aisles of the library.

the reader character is stammering, so rather than saying “you say”, i describe how her voice is wavering in surprise. descriptions of vocal inflection and tone can always be used in place of direct description words.

“is that so?” zhongli’s words had an aura of amusement interwoven into them, entertained by your dissertation-length explanation.

this one describes the attitudes of the words spoken, but makes it clear who uttered them. yet, it’s not a direct action sentence on anyone’s behalf.

“pardon my interruption, but what is the book you are reading? you seem to be quite enthralled by it.”

it’s obvious zhongli utters these words as he had set his book down and is no longer reading, therefore a descriptor isn’t used. descriptors aren’t always necessary, especially if it would interrupt the flow of the scene.

“it’s called… um…” you trail off, speaking in an even quieter tone than before. “love on the sea of clouds.”

interrupting her sentence to put the descriptor further describes her embarrassment and gives the reader a moment to pause and connect with the reader-character’s bashfulness at the situation, along with giving a slight punchline to the lighthearted scene at hand.

with these examples down, there’s a few ways i would describe dialogue!

1. direct descriptive words: instinctually, these are what you will want to go to the most. “zhongli says”, “childe murmurs”, “you yell”, “diluc screams”, etc. etc. these are your typical noun/subject + descriptive verb. there’s absolutely nothing wrong with these and they’re what you SHOULD be using the most. there’s nothing wrong with using says/said, especially if you add a little extra after the sentence, and it’s actually the easiest way to ensure your reader doesn’t get distracted by your prose while reading. however, using only these will get kind of stale so we continue on.

2. descriptions of inflection/tone: for me, personally, these are what i usually end up doing if i realize i use “said” too much. like “his words are jovial”, “his tone softens”, “your words are lighthearted”. they describe the intent and emotions behind the words, indicate that someone is speaking. pretty straightforward but one of my faves! it becomes really obvious when these are repeated.

3. nothing: if it’s obvious who is talking, don’t feel like you need to put anything. BUT if you do go this route, you REALLY have to make sure its obvious who is talking. this can be incredibly jarring if not done properly.

4. actions: another obvious one. example: “i am not sure why you’re bothering me,” he flips a page, gaze fixated on the book in his hands.

if someone says words then you describe their actions directly after or why they’re saying the words, then the “he says” is obviously implied.

a great way to break up dialogue heavy sections is by adding internal thoughts and descriptions of the character’s actions in between. doing such things makes it a lot more immersive and a lot easier to keep track of who is doing what.

i hope this helps??? :3

Sick of This

 A/N: Modern AU inspired by a random piece of dialogue from TW2 (Roche’s Path) in Vergen when Geralt and Zoltan speak with Yarpen and Burdon (I think). We hear a story about how Geralt took care of Triss while they were travelling together and she had a horrendous illness. I’m working with hybrids of these characters, but primarily drawing on game dynamics with a bit of book influence for Yennefer and some Netflix influence for Triss. 

Summary: Geralt and Yennefer are in town for a an important political dinner when Geralt learns that their friend, Triss is down for the count with a terrible stomach flu. With some time to spare, he visits her, intending to stay a short while, but her condition worsens to the point where Geralt feels he can’t leave. Internal and inter-personal conflict arises as Geralt vies to skip dinner in favour of caring for a friend in need. tl;dr: Going through a relationship rough-patch (again) and realizing you might have feelings for a close friend makes for a difficult night.

Characters/pairings: Geralt x Triss; Geralt x Yennefer; Yennefer x Istrid; Jaskier

Warnings: Infidelity, verbal abuse/toxic partnership, detailed descriptions of vomiting/severe nausea/stomach pain.

MASTERLIST

Triss looked down at the illuminated screen of her phone: “In town for a few days,” the text read. “Long story. Yen has a work thing. Anyway, let me know if you want to grab a drink.” The number didn’t belong to a name in her contacts—but then again, Geralt’s number never did. Every few months, he’d get a new pay-as-you-go so that old clients wouldn’t try to contract him under the table. It only took two calls from the same tight-assed, penny-pinching hypocrites who’d tried to low-ball him on his first case to make him realize an ever-changing phone number was a good idea. So: burner phones. As a nice added bonus, it made it harder for the Redanian Secret Service to keep tabs on him which meant a little more… investigative freedom when push came to shove. The few people he ever contacted regularly—Triss, Yennefer, Eskel, Lambert, Jaskier (Vesemir didn’t text)—never bothered putting his number in their contacts. By the time they got around to updating his number, he was changing it within a few weeks anyway. Besides, he insisted it was safer for all of them if they didn’t have his name in their phones in the first place. By now, everyone knew that if they got a text from an unknown number, there was a 99.9% chance it was Geralt. 

The toilet gurgled as Triss returned to the sofa with a groan, scrunching her knees up against the pain in her stomach. She checked her phone again: “Only if you’re free, I know Foltest keeps you pretty busy…” She rolled her eyes and replied, “Thanks, Ger. Ordinarily, I could use one right about now, but I’m feeling pretty sick. Think I should stay home </3” She smiled weakly as the text fwiipped its way up the screen. Too bad she was laid up. Would’ve been nice to see him. Her friends always said he was too grumpy and moody to be any fun, but Triss always thought of him as being quite mellow and calming to be around. He never imposed expectations on their time together, unlike her other friends who were always scheming, gossiping, or bitching about their bosses. Just easy conversation and a few good laughs as they caught up on the past few months or years or however long it had been since they last saw each other. 

She checked her phone again and fired off a few brief “not today, babes, sorry, I’m just so sick” texts before her mouth started watering again and she headed into the bathroom: a routine by this point. A few girlfriends had offered to keep her company with rom coms and ginger tea, but she was already feeling so exhausted and it was only 1pm. Besides, Triss wasn’t sure she was prepared for anyone other than her cat (who was hiding under the bed) to see her like this: tawny cheeks flushed with fever, tight brown curls haphazardly bunned on top of her head in a pragmatic attempt to keep them out of the toilet and away from her face, frizzy ringlets falling loose down the back of her neck… and she was acutely aware that she smelled of sickness. Her body’s best attempt to rebalance itself meant that her underarms would overpower even her best deodorant. IF, that is, she cared enough to put any on which she Did Not. She was also, like any sensible woman in her current state, not wearing a bra. 

Nope. Today was a day of horrendousness. Her phone pinged. “You need anything?” 

“A new body might be nice. If you happen to see one that would suit me… 😝” 

The fwoop! came in before her screen went dark: “LOL, I’ll see what I can find. Any preferences?” 

Triss smiled despite the pain in her stomach. “Hmmm I did always want to be a physiotherapist. Oooh! Or a gymnast!” Fwiip!

Fwoop! “Still at your same place? I can send it by courrier. Should get there before 3:00”

Triss was trying hard to come up with a witty enough comeback, but her head was starting to ache. Hmmm. Yes, body, I would love to hydrate you, but you keep rejecting everything I put inside you. “Ugh,” she groaned again and made her way to the toilet. When she got back a few fruitless minutes later, she checked her phone again. Nothing. She just replied, “Thanks, Ger. BRB, going to go die now. When the courier gets here, just tell him to transfer my soul into the new body. I’ll leave it under the Welcome mat.” The TV flipped on as its owner began the endless Netflix Scroll of Indecision. She finally settled on Blue Planet for the 50th time hoping that slow-moving sea blobs would be soothing in some way. 

It didn’t. Another excruciating hour of bathroom visits every ten-to-fifteen-minutes had her googling ‘pressure points to relieve nausea’ by 2:30. She had just pinched a spot on her wrist between her thumb and forefinger when she heard a soft knock on her door. “Ugh, no, GO AWAY! LEAVE ME TO DIE IN PEACE!” she called out from her nest on the sofa. It was too late. The she heard the door brush against the spongy beige carpet as someone poked their head inside, “Triss?” It was Geralt.  

“Oh gods, no, Geralt, stay back, save yourself!”

He gave a low chuckle and Triss already felt a little better. How does he always manage to do that?  “I don’t have a new body for you, but I might have the next best thing. Permission to enter?” 

Triss let out a rueful groan, “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She heard him step in quietly and toe off his shoes as the door closed. A second later, he came around the corner with a Rexall bag in hand. He’d been to a barber recently, and his silvery hair was looking more stylish than usual—cut shorter on the sides and stylishly swept back from his face. Paired with his dark-teal flannel shirt and grey denim jeans, Triss thought he looked unusually striking. 

Geralt tilted his head sympathetically at the sight before him. Triss was bundled on the sofa in an oversized sleep shirt and sweatpants, fuzzy socks bunched around her ankles, and what looked like any and all home remedies gathered around her: hot water bottle, cold pack, three mugs of tea (ginger, peppermint, and chamomile by the smell of them), a glass of ice water, a barely-touched bowl of chicken broth, a mangled bag of oyster crackers, and a thermometer. 

“You’re really down for the count, huh? Got a fever?” before she could object, the back of Geralt’s hand was on her forehead. It felt cool and refreshing against the dry heat of her face as he assessed her condition. “Meh. Could be better, could be worse.”

“I could’ve told you that,” Triss retorted with a halfhearted smile. “Ugh… sorry, um, I have to…” she pointed towards the bathroom and Geralt raised his hands (‘say no more’) as his friend scuttled exhaustedly around the corner. He busied himself with watching manta rays gliding through the open ocean until he heard the toilet flush and Triss emerged again, looking ragged and a little sheepish. “Sorry,” she said, pouring herself back onto her nest of blankets and stuffed animals. 

Geralt shrugged, “No need to be, you’re sick. Here,” he reached into the pharmacy bag and brought out a box of ginger Gravol tablets and a medium-sized bottle of Cherry Punch Pedialyte—she was allergic to most over-the-counter cold and flu medication.

“Geralt, you didn’t have to do all this for me. How did you even know I had the stomach flu?”

He looked over her shoulder at her laptop which was still open to the page of various nausea-relieving pressure points, “Hm. You should have this stuff around anyway,” he paused as Triss swallowed heavily and went to the bathroom again. It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to take care of herself, her mother had been a nurse practitioner for heaven’s sake. Still, Geralt was never one to leave a friend in need if there was something he could do about it. A particularly visceral sound drew him from where he was perched on the arm of the sofa. Triss was crouched on the bathroom floor, shivering with her forehead resting on her elbows over the toilet bowl. She spat. Geralt sat on the edge of the bathtub. “How long has it been like this?”

“Since about... 10am,” she managed to get out before her entire body heaved. Geralt instinctively reached out to place a hand on her back. She didn’t object. She never objected to these little shows of affection from Geralt. There was always something reassuring about them, and it felt particularly nice to be reminded that she wasn’t alone just now.

Geralt rubbed slow circles across her back as he coaxed her through retching and dry heaves. “You know you could've just asked.”

“I know but—”

“Stubborn?”

“Uh-huh,” Triss admitted, sitting back on her heels and flushing the mostly-empty toilet. “Besides, the last thing you need is to be taking care of a gross friend right before getting ready for a fancy business gala.

“You clearly don’t know just how little I’m looking forward to this evening,” Geralt grumbled, passing Triss a cool glass of water to rinse with. 

“Not looking forward to talking the talk, Mr. Slick P.I.?” Triss’s eyes gave a twinkle as her freckled cheeks pulled into a cheeky smirk.

Even when she’s a mess she still finds a way to light up. Geralt furrowed his brow at his own thoughts. Where did that come from? “You know how it is, all this high-society stuff, rubbing elbows, laughing at tasteless jokes. It’s just not me. But Yen—well…” he sighed heavily, “I dunno. She’s right in that it’s a good way to get the information we need, stay visible to the right people but… I shouldn’t be talking to you about this. I know she’s your friend.”

Triss raised an eyebrow, “Oh, go on. Trust me, there’s nothing you can say about Yennefer of Vengerberg that will surprise me. Besides, you’re my friend, too.” 

“Hm.” Geralt stared down and fiddled with his crossed thumbs. “Lately I can’t get anything right. I’m always asking the wrong questions, or I’ll try and talk to her about something I want us to work on and it’s never worded the right way and then it just turns into a fight which is what I want to stop doing in the first place. And then I’m either too sensitive or not sensitive enough and… it’s like she has a set of rules inside her head she won’t tell me about. Feels like it’s harder than it should be. But who am I to know?”

“I’m sorry, Geralt. Yennefer can be so unfair sometimes. I don’t think she understands how much she can push against the people she cares about. It’s one thing to be a friend, at least I can take a breather every now and then if I need to. But it’s different for you. You don’t like taking time apart.” Triss offered an apologetic smile before groaning and leaning back over the toilet and Geralt’s hand took up its place on her back again as he worked her through another round. 

Geralt’s phone rang as Triss flushed the toilet. “Sorry, it’s Yen. I should take this. Be right back. Yen? Yeah, I’m with Triss, got a stomach thing, I stopped by to bring her some...” his voice disappeared around the corner as he went into the bedroom. Triss couldn’t make out their whole conversation, but it sounded tense. The phrase, “...just trust me to dress myself, I’m not a—,” came through the drywall. Triss sighed sympathetically. It certainly hadn’t been smooth sailing for the two of them. Geralt had his own flaws and foibles in the romance department—he could be callous and insensitive in favour of honesty at times, and never shied away from pushing buttons—but Yennefer was mercurial, brazen, rash, and brutal; all excellent qualities for a powerful and influential chief advisor. But as much as Geralt was his own handful, she’d never known him to willfully hurt someone he cared about, and was quick to apologize when he did. 

When Geralt came back, Triss was trying to push herself to standing. He caught her as she swayed on her unsteady legs. “Whoa, whoa, Triss, easy. Here, sit back down, wait here for a second.” Triss did as she was told and settled miserably back onto the bathroom floor. Geralt immediately returned with two blankets before disappearing again. A few minutes later, he returned once more with a tea tray on which was balanced Triss’s laptop, a small glass of Pedialyte on the rocks, the pack of gravol, and the box of oyster crackers. 

Triss let out a soft giggle, “What is this?”

“You need to try and get something in you. Might not be pretty at first, but if you don’t get some fluids soon, you’re going to be in bigger trouble.”

“Really. I had no idea. I can take care of myself, you know… sorry that was,” Triss sighed. “It’s been a long day

Geralt hunkered down next to her on the floor on top of a throw pillow, “Hey, I get it. But that’s not why I’m here. Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to. So take this, with a sip of this,” he handed her a blister pack of the Gravol and the glass of Pedialyte, “and let’s see if you can keep it down.” 

“Cherry Punch. How did you know this was my favourite?” Triss could no longer hide the fondness that was welling up despite her unrelenting discomfort and growing exhaustion. Geralt gave a muted smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “How’s Yennefer?”

The lines on Geralt’s face became more pronounced, “She’s… fine.” Triss tilted her head (‘really?’) and Geralt relented, “There’s a chance Istrid will be there tonight.”

“The head of the Archeological Association? I don’t get it, what’s he got to do with you and Yennefer?”

Triss could guess the answer from Geralt’s pause. His words merely confirmed it, “They have history.” 

“You don’t think that Yennefer will—I mean, she wouldn’t—”

“She has. She doesn’t know that I know, but…” Triss’s heart sank. “I don’t know why I’m waiting for her to tell me. Guess I don’t want her to feel like I went out of my way to find her at fault—which I didn’t, by the way. I found out by accident.” 

“I’m sorry, Ger.” The weight of Triss’s head against his shoulder brought Geralt out of his daze and he looked down at the messy updo of mahogany hair. He smiled again, a delicate, private, unconscious thing that sparked from an unconscious uplifting somewhere in the middle of him and pulled the corners of his eyes. He thought about ignoring it, not wanting to have to go digging inside himself for what it meant. Instead he wrapped an arm around Triss’s shoulder and pecked a chaste kiss to the top of her head. 

“How’re you feeling?”

The answer to that question proved complicated. Triss’s spirits were a bit better thanks to Geralt’s stubborn-yet-easygoing caretaking. But the introduction of contents into her contrary stomach was yielding less-than-desirable consequences. Painful cramps persisted between more frequent bouts of vomiting—which by this point was mostly dry-heaves followed by the occasional expulsion of bile. Meanwhile it was 5:30 and Geralt’s phone beeped a notification. He checkecked the screen with one hand while he soothed Triss with the other: Where are you??? Yen. Who else could it be? He’d have to call her.

“Geralt, go! Really, I’ll be fine I promise. You’ve got to rub elbows and laugh at bad jokes, remember?” Triss propped herself up on wobbly elbows over the toilet bowl, not trusting the wave to be over. 

Geralt was already dialling. Triss heard the faint echo of her friend’s voice on the other line as she answered with, ‘Where the HELL are you?’ 

“I’m still with Triss, Yen. Things aren’t looking good here, she’s just gotten worse. If I can’t—Yen, listen if she doesn’t—if she doesn’t get any fluids in her I’ll need to take her to the hospital.” Geralt pulled an apologetic face and Triss gave him a reassuring wave that she’d be fine if he stepped out for a minute. “Yen, please, I thought we talked about this, please don’t use that tone, it makes me feel…” The conversation continued, though this time in the living room: “I know this is an important night for us to both be there, Yen, you’ve been reminding me for the last month, but I can’t just leave until… what’s that supposed to mean? That’s not—no, hang on, that’s not fair, Yen… Well if you already don’t believe me I don’t—Okay, then you tell me what I’m supposed to say! I’m tired of this, Yennefer, I am so. Exhausted trying to figure out exactly what to say in order for you to not react like this every time I… can I finish?...”

Geralt was pacing back-and-forth now, and Triss could tell from the tone on the other end of the line that Yennefer wasn’t backing down anytime soon, “Geralt, if you don’t leave Triss’s apartment and come back here and get dressed this instant, I swear I will—”

Geralt paused outside the bathroom door for Triss to flash a wilted thumbs-up as she tried to drink more Cherry Punch Pedialyte, “Or you’ll what, Yen? Count to ten and then chuck me in the coi pond? I—you know what?” he moved back into the living room, “No, you know what? How ‘bout this: I’m staying here with our friend who needs help, and you can go to this big event, embarrassment free, and do what you do best without the big idiot holding you back. Whatever needs to get done at this dinner tonight, I bet you’ll do better on your own than worrying about me screwing something up.” 

Triss heard his phone flip shut followed by a heavy sigh before his sock feet padded back into the bathroom. Unfortunately, just then, her suspicions about not being finished proved correct as her mouth, once again, began to water. Thankfully Cherry punch wasn’t nearly as bad coming back up as other flavors were known to be. In less than a second, Geralt was there with a warm hand and a blanket around her shoulders. They didn’t talk much over the next little while as Geralt continued his attempts to soothe Triss’s stomach enough to hold something down. After an hour, Triss finally was able to rest a little, albeit still in quite a bit of pain. But with the toilet no longer an ongoing necessity, the sofa once again became a viable option. Geralt scooped up the blanketed bundle and carried her back into the living room to continue their journey under the sea, complete with cold compress and bendy straw.

By 7:30 Triss hadn’t needed the toilet at all in the last hour, and some of her stomach pain was starting to diminish. However, she was still shivering and achy, and not interested in food. She kept insisting that Geralt had time to meet Yennefer at the gala, that she would be perfectly fine on her own, but Geralt wasn’t convinced. Showing up now would not only put Yennefer in the awkward position of having to save face by not murdering him in cold blood in front of a dozen or more foreign dignitaries, but it would also mean having to face Istrid who, if he wasn’t already, would doubtlessly be very interested to hear Yennefer’s thoughts on a great number of things before the night was over. Geralt didn’t trust himself not to do something he’d regret—or at least that Yennefer would regret.

Another hour in and Triss was starting to perk up: minimal stomach pain, and she was making a decent dent in her Cherry Punch. Geralt decided it was time for a little chicken soup. He made a freezer pizza for himself and cracked a beer while he warmed up a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle, ladelling out all the broth into a mug for Triss so she wouldn’t be tempted to eat more than she could handle. Geralt had only one goal for her tonight: keep everything down. If she could do that, then he had at least been able to do something for her. If not… Geralt tried very hard not to listen to the voice that said, ‘then you’re no use for anyone’ in the back of his mind. Thankfully, Triss finished her broth without concern and he didn’t have to worry about that voice for the time being. Instead, he settled a little deeper into the sofa cushions as Triss resumed a comfortable spot against his shoulder. 

After another little while, a miracle happened: Triss started to have fun. That characteristic sparkle came back to her eyes, and the two friends quickly began to actively enjoy their evening. They watched The Fellowship of the Ring and took a drink of beer or Pedialyte every time Frodo had a dramatic closeup, was stabbed, or rolled his eyes for dramatic effect. Geralt microwaved a bag of popcorn, and Triss cautiously had a few oyster crackers as they laughed and caught up. Finally. It may not have been the original vision for what drinks and casual hangs would look like, but it was good. It was nice. Relaxed, and pleasant. Easy. Geralt’s mind wandered as the Fellowship fled the Balrog, and he didn’t notice the little line his thumb was leaving on Triss’s blanket as it traced up and down her shoulder. He also didn’t think twice when she shifted, half-asleep, to lie her head in his lap and his hand moved to the curve of her waist. It wasn’t until he looked down in the direction of soft snoring that he was reminded exactly who was lying in his lap. 

His initial thought was, ‘shit,’ as he slowly removed his hand from her waist, not wanting to wake her, but also not knowing what to do. It was suddenly all so intimate, though he didn’t quite know why. As he watched her, peacefully asleep in his lap, he realized he didn’t want to break away. Didn’t want to wake her to adjust to a more ‘appropriate’ orientation. He touched her shoulder again. That was nice. That felt… nice. She stirred, and Geralt wondered if she was comfortable as he brushed a tight ringlet behind her ear. She smiled in semi-consciousness and his heart sang. This was bad. This was very very bad. He reached for the remote and flicked the tv off. It was after midnight, and high time everyone went to bed. Alone. 

That was the only option. Right? In theory, no. There was another option, and a significant part of Geralt wanted to go with that one, stay in this soft warm place where everything felt easier… where he felt happy. But a louder part of him knew that wasn’t right, wasn’t fair; that even if he was unhappy—even if Yennefer had spent the night with Istrid (Geralt tried not to think about that). The bottom line was Triss felt well enough that he no longer needed to stay with her to make sure she was alright. That was why he’d come. If he stayed for other reasons, it wouldn’t be fair to anyone. End of discussion.

“Triss,” Geralt murmured, rousing her as gently as he could. 

“Hmm?” Her eyes fluttered open to see Geralt staring down at her. She didn’t remember lying down in his lap, but she must have just before she fell asleep. “Did I fall asleep on you?” 

Geralt’s eyes crinkled, “Hm. Yeah. You were pretty out of it.”

“Ah, shit, I’m so sorry!”

“You needed the rest. Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s passed out on me, and you’re significantly easier to deal with than Lambert.”

Triss bunched her blankets around her shoulders and shivered sleepily, “You should go. Yennefer’s probably waiting for you.”

“Hm. Yeah, probably,” Geralt heaved himself off the sofa as Triss released her hair and gathered her nest to head to the bedroom. Geralt waited until she was bundled in bed. “All set?”

A little smile peeked over the tops of the covers, “Mmmhmm, thanks.”

“Need anything else?”

“No, I’m good. Goodnight, Ger.”

“Goodnight, Triss,” Geralt flicked off the light. In the entranceway, he paused with his hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath, and left, locking the door behind him and putting the key back in its usual hiding place. Enough now. Done. He was determined that whatever he had felt, whatever warm, unexpected thing had bubbled to the surface, would forever exist behind that locked door, frozen in time. A blip. The important thing was nothing was acted on. Not really. At worst, they wandered into a grey area by accident. These things happen. The key now was not to dwell on it, to move forward. 

Geralt’s stomach soured as he slid his keycard into the slot of room 622. The lock clicked open as the little light on top flashed green and Geralt turned the handle, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. He toggled the dimmer switch next to the door; the lowest setting would give him enough light to get changed without waking up—Yen? The bed was empty, still freshly turned-down, with his pre-approved evening attire laid out as he had suspected. He fucking hated that tie. He put the suit back in the garment bag from whence it came and checked his phone. Nothing. No texts, no missed calls. Might still be out. It wasn’t unusual for these events to turn into afterparties which was where most of the juicy information was gathered. He hit speed-dial. 

“Hi, Jaskier? It’s—yeah, hi. Listen. Are things still going over there? I just—hm? Yeah, she’s doing okay now. Took awhile for me to get anything in her, but no hospital visit so… yeah, she finally got to sleep just as I was heading out, made sure she was hydrated and had a little something… I’m sure she’d appreciate that… Actually, that’s why I’m calling, I just got back and she’s not in, I was wondering if you knew where she…When?…Okay…No, archeology… Mmm no, they’re very different fields. Nevermind, thanks, Jas…Yeah, no it’s, um, I just wanted to make sure that she was okay. Didn’t want to bug her in case she was in the middle of—something. Yeah… Well don’t let me interrupt that. Okay, all the best. Go get ‘em tiger. ‘Night.” 

Geralt tossed his phone on the bed and flopped heavily on top of the duvet and rubbed a hand over his face.

“Goddamnit, Yen.”

__________________

@the-space-between-heartbeats 

@just-a-sad-donut 

@oxenfurt-archives 

@thirstyforred 

@titaniafire 

@belalugosisdead 

@lonelygayz 

@awkward-turtles-world 

@iloveyouyen 

@criminaly-supernatural

@friendlybelladonna

@enkelikauneus 

onginnen

  in which the Eclipse begins and ends       1 severally, where each of them respectively begins, and ends, and where they we give       2       begins   begins and ends, and where it cuts the Longest Night begins and ends. thus       3 begins and ends in different Places, according to the Letter it is joined to .       4   one Stroke 305 Begins, and ends,       5 but the precise manner how it begins and ends, rises and falls       6   where M de- the twilight begins and ends       7 In the small circle       8                                                                             deficient; the action begins and ends often before the conclusion, and the different parts might change       9 It is very imperfect; it begins and ends abruptly, •       10   begins and ends in one day Electriz , sf . electress ta ! k nonsense       11       his understanding of this passage ; on the contrary, begins and ends       12   never perfectly so ; in this all our knowledge both begins and ends ,       13 begins and ends in August for the part within the Walls, and in May for the part without.       14   that it begins and ends       15 that human life begins and ends       16   ideal begins and ends       17           ends begins       18  

sources (minus many from almanacs)

1 ex Astronomical Lectures, read in the Public Schools at Cambridge; by William Whiston (1667-1752*)... Whereunto is added a collection of Astronomical Tables... for the use of young students in the university. And now done into English. (London, 1715) : 173 2 ex Lancelot Carleton, A Letter, to the Revd. Mr. Joseph Slade, Lecturer of the Parish Church of St. Laurence in [R]eading. (Reading, 1727) : 3 strikeout/correction in source 3 ex Joseph Harris, The Description and Use of the Globes, and the Orrery. To which is prefixed, by way of introduction, a brief account of the Solar System. Second edition (London, 1732) : 119 shorthand marginalia at page 78; plates not (or only partially) opened, e.g., Plate 2 between pages 24 and 25 on Harris (1703-64), see wikipedia in a well-written entry by (evidently) geopersona 4 ex Short-hand, adopted to the meanest capacity, wherein the rules are few, plain, and easy; the characters not burthensome to memory; and the hand shorter & more intelligible than any other extant. Together with the principles on which it is founded; also An Alphabetical Praxis, &c. By Henry Taplin. (London, 1760) : 2 5 ex “Night the Seventh. Being the Second Part of the Infidel Reclaimed. Containing the Nature, Proof and Importance of Immortality.” in Dr. Eduard Young’s Klagen Oder Nachtgedanken : Über Leben, Tod und Unsterblichkeit, mit Konstruktionen und Erläuternden Anmerkungen Erleichtert von. G. F. Herrman... (Leipzig, 1800) : 359 6 re “The wind bloweth where it listeth...” in answer to the question, “What is the nature of the new-birth?” ex Jonathan Crowther (1760-1824), A True and Complete Portraiture of Methodism; or, the history of the Wesleyan Methodists. (London, 1811) : 173 7 cross-column OCR misread, entry on “Atmosphere” (ATM), in Pantologia : A New Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Comprehending a complete series of essays, treatises, and systems, alphabetically arranged, with a general dictionary of arts, sciences, and words: the whole presenting a distinct survey of human genius, learning, and industry. By John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, and Newton Bosworth; assisted by other gentlemen of eminence, in different dpeartments of literature. Vol. 1 (London, 1819) : 615 8 ex Epistle IV, in Traduction de L'Essai Sur L'homme de Pope : En Vers Français précédé d’un discours et suivie de notes, avec le texte Anglais en regard, par M. De Fontanes. (Paris, 1822) : 214 9 ex “General Observations on Shakespeare’s Plays” (here, Merry Wives of Windsor), in The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., A New Edition in twelve volumes. With an essay on his life and genius, by Arthur Murphy. Vol 10 (of 12; London, 1823) : 197 10 error in preview snippet, ex John Brown, ed. and comp., The Historical Gallery of Criminal Portraitures, Foreign and Domestic : Containing a Selection of the Most Impressive Cases of Guilt and Misfortune to be Found in Modern History. vol. 2 (of 2; Manchester, 1823) : 45 Volume 1 (different — NYPL — holding), with some nice scanning errors, here 11 cross-column OCR misread, at “Efeméro, sm. a thing, which,” in Henry Neuman, Diccionario portátil español-inglés (Paris, 1827) : 117 12 ex Sermon on Confirmation : By William Meade (1789-1862), D. D., Assistant Bishop of the Docess of Virginia. Preached in Winchester, on Sunday, Dec. 12, 1830. Third Edition. Alexandria, D. C., 1833) : 84 on William Meade (1789-1862), see wikipedia see also Sermons addressed to Masters and Servants, and published in the year 1743, by the Rev. Thomas Bacon, Minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. Now Republished with other Tracts and Dialogues on the same subject, and recommended to all masters and mistresses, to be used in their families. By the Rev. William Meade. (Winchester, Va., 1813[?]). Oberlin College Library copy, at archive.org in which a dialogue between Mr. Jackson and a slave of Mr. Wilkins, whom he comes upon during a walk, reading the Bible, pages 141-156 (145) 13 ex “On Abstract Ideas,” in William Hazlitt, Essays on the Principles of Human Action, on the Systems of Hartley and Helvetius; and on Abstract Ideas. (1835) : 165 14 ex Muncipal Corporation Boundaries (England and Wales), “Report upon the Proposed Municipal Boundary and Division of Wards of the Borough of Newcastle-upon-Tyne” in Reports from Commissioners (House of Lords) Vol. 46 (1837) : 335 15 ex Speech of John Sergeant on the Judicial Tenure : Delivered in Convention of Pennsylvania, on the 7th and 8th of November 1837. (Philadelphia, 1838) : 39 16 ex George W(ashington) Burnap (1802-59 *). Lectures to Young Men : On the Cultivation of the Mind, the formation of character, and the conduct of life : delivered in Masonic Hall, Baltimore. (Baltimore, 1860) : 77 17 ex Bertrand du Guesclin, Connétable de France et de Castille, par Émile de Bonnechose, edited with introduction, commentary and map by Stanley M. Leathes. (Cambridge, 1895) : xv on Bertrand du Guesclin (c1320-1380), see wikipedia 18 carved out of these Practical Questions — “begins and ends at what point ?” “begins and ends where ?” in W(illiam). G(eorge). Knight, his Practical Questions on Locomotive Operating (Springfield, Mass., 1913) : 190

—

on the word “begins” —

The usual form in Old English was onginnen, perhaps “to open, open up,” and comparable to OHG in-ginnen “to cut open, open up.” It is odd — unfair? — that “ends” might be a noun, but not “begins.” There is however “The hard begin, that meets thee in the dore” in Spenser’s Faerie Queen (III, iii, 21).

The OED has an obsolete verbal sense “to entrap, ensnare” (here); no surprises in Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary (here).