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roomwithanopenfire · 20 days

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Six Sentence Sunday

Happy Sunday everyone!! Thanks for the tags @blackberrysummerblog and @artsyunderstudy!!

This week I’ve done the big three: writing, editing, and ignoring my wips, with perhaps a bit more of the last one than I’d like. Most of my writing this week has been for an exchange fic for a different fandom, which I finally finished the rough draft of. Cue the celebration. However, even if I wanted to share anything from that, I can’t, it must remain hush-hush, but I am getting pretty excited to share it (and way more excited about receiving my own exchange fic back, this whole thing is very fun).

I’ve written less than 300 words on my COBB this week, and none of them are good, but I have gotten some editing done of Proof of Life. I can’t share any more snippets of the next chapter though because I’ve shared too much already. So instead, I figured I’d do a bit of a process post this time around, because I always love reading those. Check that out under the cut! (and i'm sorry this is long, i still have not learned brevity)

So my editing process isn’t too crazy, and is brought to you almost entirely by google docs comments. I also use the word ‘editing’ very loosely to encompass rewriting, revising, and proofreading. Sometimes editing means completely rewriting a scene/section, sometimes it just means switching around a couple of words or cleaning up a sentence.

Mostly, I try not to take everything so seriously, because I know that I could edit something forever and ever and never post it if I let myself get too carried away. So I try to keep everything pretty chill. So here’s my steps I go through for each chapter that I edit.

Step One: Reread the whole chapter. While I do this, I’ll leave comments on big picture things. “Maybe move this scene into the next chapter” or “The dialogue in this scene feels stilted” but I don’t add a lot of comments at this point. Once I’m done with this I’ll copy over any comments I had on the first draft or the beta reader copy over into the ‘draft two’ document.

Step Two: COMMENTS. Again, my fics are brought to you by google doc comments. I like to go through from the bottom up, reading scene by scene and leaving comments on pretty much every single sentence.

A lot of the time (read: most of the time) these are really vague like:

And sometimes these are more detailed like:

And occasionally these are compliments

Step Three: Once the whole chapter is filled with comments, I go through scene by scene (in whatever order speaks to me), and rewrite, edit, or fix sections. This part I find really fun, because I’m taking parts that aren’t good yet and I’m making them better. I love fixing things and getting rid of all the comments. It typically ends up being a lot of rewriting, but I always finish a scene feeling better about it then when I started.

For example, here’s the draft one vs. draft two version of a snippet from the first chapter of Proof of Life. This is one of the scenes I pretty much rewrote. Others look a lot more similar to their original versions.

Original:

Edited:

Step Four: Then before I post a chapter, I’ll read through the whole thing and sometimes find smaller bits to fix. Then I’ll run it through a grammar checker and ignore half of their suggestions in the name of ✨style ✨.

Overall, I feel like I have a pretty basic editing strategy and I’m really pleased with it. Even though sometimes I feel like more robust edits would make everything way better, it’s a good mix of fixing things but not spending too much time on it. I remember I spent like a month on editing the very first fic I posted at that was only 6k words. If I kept doing that for everything, I'd never post anything at all. With fanfiction, I know that y'all will be nice to me even though it's never perfect <333

Tags and Hellos!! (I'm unsure if we still need the spaces, but i've been burned too many times lol)

@you-remind-me-of-the-babe @m1ndwinder @facewithoutheart @run-for-chamo-miles @raenestee

@onepintobean @prettygoododds @noblecorgi @hushed-chorus @angelsfalling16

@thewholelemon @monbons @shrekgogurt @brendughh @hertragedyconnoisseur

@beastmonstertitan @valeffelees @horsesarenotdeer @drowninginships @supercutedinosaurs

@fiend-for-culture @rimeswithpurple @cutestkilla @alexalexinii @ileadacharmedlife

@arthurkko @rbkzz @skeedelvee @bookish-bogwitch @brilla-brilla-estrellita

#one day i will make a short wipsday post #today is not the day #listen to all my ramblings everyone #look at my screenshots #i just love the sound of my voice #proof of life #my writing #editing #six sentence sunday #carry on fanfiction #snowbaz

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sapphicseasapphire · 10 months

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ANOTHER WIP COMIC UPDATE BECAUSE PROCREATE SAYS I’VE SPENT OVER 30 HOURS ON IT AND I’M TIRED

It’s 12 pages. I finished sketching all of it. I plan to finish it tomorrow. (But that’s not written in stone, please don’t hold me to that.) For color, I’m just doing it monochrome because I’ve spent OVER 30 HOURS on it already. Except for Sky’s scars. Those can be red. And um… other super secret things that I won’t reveal right now because I want at least some of it to be a surprise.

I have so much to say about this scene oh my goodness!! I’ll spare the rant but I hope you can tell my love for it by this comic’s existence in the first place. I know it’s not at all accurate to Linked Universe, but I started this comic just for fun (I’ve never made a comic before!! This has been a little experiment!) and I don’t know all that much about LU, other than the fanfics I read. By the time I started taking it seriously, I was in too deep to redesign the Links, lest I spent another 30 hours on it.

Ahhh and here I go, rambling about things that don’t matter. For any of you reading this that are not Illeg, go check out their fanfictions! Literally all of them. They all have my whole heart.

I realize I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the time I’ve spent on this so far, but I promise I’m not unhappy! Not at all! It’s been such a pleasure to draw so far and I can’t wait to post the finished project! (Hopefully tomorrow!)

(Tap on the image for better quality. And zoom in. I beg of you.)

@illegiblehandwriting1

#wip #comic wip #the chosen and the champion #I think I finally got that tag right #I’m sorry I don’t know what this is either #linked universe #lu sky #lu wild #the legend of zelda #fanart #my art #I’m so tired #sorry #actually more of a ramble than an art post #did I ruin it by coloring it?#it feels like I ruined it by coloring it #I’m going to burst into tears

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therealvinelle · 1 year

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If you were kicked out of the cullens.. would you join the Denali? Or is eating people by yourself preferable to an eternity with Eleazar and being expected to woohoo unwilling humans

(Anon is referring to this post.)

My thoughts on the Denali.

No. God, no. I'd rather be on my own if them's the ropes.

Presumably, I wander around trying to improve my control, wanting someone to talk to and feeling miserable on my own but refusing to resort to the Denali and too proud to come crawling back to the Cullens. Knowing I likely wouldn't survive an encounter in the wild, I make a point to keep my distance from other vampires as well. Can't join the Volturi, I've spent too much time contemplating Aro's love life and relationship with his dead sister for that.

(Regarding the Cullens: it's not that I'm too proud. However, if things with them got to the point where they kicked me out, then... going back isn't going to be an option. Getting kicked out by them, having Carlisle give up on me and tell me to fuck off, would mean something so extreme happened that going back isn't an option and there would be no point in trying.)

A few years go by, I write a fuckton of fanfiction, watch every anime known to man, and my control gets better but my loneliness gets worse. Eventually I trust myself enough to enter human spaces, dropping by the library to read books or visiting a clothes store so I can wear actual clothes that fit.

And here's the trouble: I really am hopelessly lonely.

Humans fear me, yes, but I do exchange words with some from time to time, even for something so little as asking where to find my size in shoes.

These tidbits are the only social interaction I've had for years. (Animals, after all, flee at the very sight of me.)

I begin to feel strongly about these interactions. If it's the same librarian I ask about Christie novels every time I visit that particular library, I mourn when he has found the book I wanted because now the conversation is over. Just as I mourn the end of every other interaction I have, because exchanging words about the weather with someone who's instinctively afraid of me can't make a person less lonely.

But I increase my exposure to humans, because without that I have nothing. And if I have nothing, my resolve not to kill humans will crumble.

It gets worse, and however much I try to stop myself I start thinking of the humans I speak to as potential vampire companions. Not even just the humans I speak to, but humans who look particularly kind, or interesting, or- anything, really.

After all, isn't Carlisle perfectly happy being a vampire? Weren't Emmett, Esme, and Bella? Wouldn't I be, if I wasn't so damn lonely?

Being a vampire, doesn't have to be a bad thing at all, not if you're fit for it. And you will be free of age, disease, financial problems, free of everything.

There are humans, I know, who would prefer life as a vampire.

And if I can find one of these, ascertain to the best of my ability that vampirism would suit them, that they would follow my diet as well and stay with me...

That last bit is crucial, but the most difficult one. It requires, after all, that the human be one that likes me, that will choose to stay with me (all of these conditions do) and who will accept vampirism when it is offered, but I won't know what their choice is before I present it. At which point, the Volturi law would dictate they turn or die.

It's a catch-22, and there'd be no way to know for sure about a person anyway, plus I would be turning someone with the expectation they could fix my life. Obviously I'm being a bit silly, time to get off this train of thought and back to normal. Ahah. Ahahaha. (Me trying and failing to be casual about this).

I do not get back to normal.

Instead, what I do is... start vetting people, for lack of a better term. I start analysing everything they say and wondering to myself, how seriously did he mean it when he said he dreads his thirtieth? Did she say she's tired of everything because she's tired of everything, or was she just saying it?

I get lonelier.

I imagine it all comes to a head when I find a viable candidate.

Someone will inevitably seem like that perfect person, someone that I really like and would love to talk to all the time, someone who is moral and principled enough that I trust they would want to follow the diet, someone who doesn't have kids, no partner, perhaps not a lot of family or friends at all tying them to this life.

I've already memorised their routine, I know when they get off work, when they're alone, when no one would notice if they were snatched away in the dead of night.

I even have a long period of telling myself I'm not actually going to do this, ahaha, there are so many reasons not to after all. Heavy, convincing reasons such as "I shouldn't" and "but it's wrong, Vinelle. Dirty and bad and wrong".

These reasons become flimsier every time I tell them to myself.

In the end, I man myself up in a split second decision, and I go for it.

I have no doubt this goes terribly for me. Perhaps my companion stays with me and perhaps they even do the diet, but I took their humanity away so they could fix me, and that can never be the start of a healthy or happy relationship.

In the end I come crawling to Carlisle, "I went a little funny in the head out there in the desert, sir."

"Nonsense!" Carlisle says, "you didn't lose control once!"

Carlisle is truly proud of me, I exceeded his every expectation.

But there is still the question of the other Cullens hating my guts after whatever set of circumstances led to me being kicked out in the first place, and now that I've proven I won't kill people if I'm let on my own there's even less reason they should have to be stuck with me.

A vote is held, I lose the vote.

I end up wandering the world on my own again, and I eventually lose my companion as they either die or leave me. Vampire Vinelle goes a little more funny in the head this time.

#isekai #twilight #twilight renaissance #twilight meta #twilight headcanons

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hexenmond · 1 month

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Webcomic Wednesday: The Witch Door

Well, I've been thinking about this the whole day now, and I'm almost frustrated that I can't seem to put this into words so easily. What's great about The Witch Door? Well honestly, what isn't?

I thought about Anni's other comic (Transfusions) and how I'm finding that easy to sum up – vampire BL with explicit scenes. I mention those few words and most people will have a fairly good grasp of what to expect and whether they might like it or not. (I personally hesitated a long time before reading it, because this is actually NOT something that's right up my alley. Turned out to also be good though.)

For The Witch Door, I can't seem to find an easily digestible handful of descriptive words like that. I feel like it is very much the sum of all of its intricate details, and it doesn't fit any simple bill. So I'll resort to reviewing my favourite bits about it…

It has great characters

Seriously, all of them are well thought out and engaging, not a single dull person among them. I love all of them so much that I have actually put ALL of them in my fanfiction (except for the Lintukoto people as they belong to the main canon storyline, which I'm not touching on). That includes Ulriikka, the fluffiest plot device ever.

Tangential to that: it has great representation

There's young people. Old people. Thin people. Fat people. Light-skinned people. Dark-skinned people. Live people. Dead people. Bird people. Ummm… a cat who is definitely also people. And other assorted… humanoids? And oh, sexualities for every letter of the alphabet!

The worldbuilding is intriguing

I'd roughly call the setting "urban fantasy", but that could mean so many things really. In a world much like the one we know, there are witches with differing magical abilities, some powerful, some almost mundane, but most importantly there is this one simple, cool thing that opens up so many possibilities, and that is the concept of the Witch Door: each witch has a special door that can lead to any other witch's special door. So even though our protagonists live in Turku, we have already spent an afternoon in New York and one in Kyoto, without anybody breaking a sweat.

… but it's also kinda slice-of-life

I really love the way that protagonist Katariina – non-magical, bog-standard human who works as a nurse – accidentally stumbles onto her neighbour's secret (he's a witch with a witch door), but her life's still lifing, so it's not all just magical discoveries and fun and games from then on. More like her world gets expanded, but that also means that on top of her own, mundane everyday problems she now learns about things happening in the magical community that are possibly even more concerning, and even less actionable. Katariina deals with all those new experiences with curiosity, wonder, compassion, delight, and occasionally overwhelm, and she feels so real for that.

It's about friendships

The more I think about it, that might be what I love most about the comic. We meet a whole bunch of people and all the relationships and interactions are just gold. At the heart of it, there's a lot of people caring about other people in quiet, everyday ways. Everyone is allowed to have their own struggles, and people are so supportive of each other. And there's also snark and banter, delicious!

I nearly forgot: It also has villains!

I do feel I've managed to avoid spoilers in all my rambling here, so I won't say too much about the antagonists. Just this: they exist, they are still a bit of a delightful mystery (we're in chapter 12 as I am writing this), and I fully believe they are just as complex and well thought out as all the other characters. I love to hate them.

Conclusion

If I've managed to pique your interest, why not take a look at the 6 page prologue? And then take the plunge into a completely different kind of mystery with chapter 1 🙃 where we're introduced to both of our protagonists separately, and then to the magic of the fluffy plot device.

Or, if you're unsure about whether reading this comic will bring joy to you and you don't want to just take the plunge and check it out (which I can relate to!), feel free to ask me questions about it!

#webcomic wednesday #the witch door #reading recommendations #i'll admit it's not wednesday here anymore but *shrug*#friendship is magic #kinda applies here i think

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thenightwinggraveyard · 3 days

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how i find banger fics on AO3

tips and tricks by yours truly

are you an avid ao3 reader like myself? do you ever find yourself at a loss for what to read next and unable to find anything worth your time? well worry no longer (hopefully!), because i'd like to share some ways i filter through the endless amount of fics to find ones i like;

SORT BY KUDOS

while doing this isn't foolproof and it leaves underrated fics out of the equation, it is generally a good starting point. most fics that have a lot of kudos, do so for a reason after all.

2. EXCLUDE WHAT YOU DONT LIKE

this is a feature i wasn't really utilizing until recently, but it has saved me so much effort. when your on a fandom, tag, or pairing, you can exclude whatever ticks you off and make finding a good fic easier. for example, sometimes i go on my favourite tags, like time travel, and find that it is mostlyyyy clogged up with harry potter or mha and im just not feeling it that day; well i simply exclude it.

3. MAKE NOTE OF/JOT DOWN WHAT YOU'D LIKE

what i mean by this, is whenever you think about a specific character or pairing/dynamic, fandom, etc.. during the day or when doing something else and find yourself craving that content, a good idea would be to write that down for later on your notes app or something, and specifically search for it later on. otherwise, sometimes when faced with the damning ao3 search bar you forget everything you like and your entire personality. ive certainly been there.

4. MARK FOR LATER

whenever you see a fic that you don't really feel like reading at the moment, but know you could like, you can hit the mark for later button. i find it much easier then having endless numbers of open tabs that you cant sort through.

5. SEARCH COLLECTIONS

i like to go to my favourite fics i previously read and look through the collections that have that fic saved to them and browse. i have a collection of my own where i save my fav fics if you feel like checking that out!

6. SEARCH THROUGH OTHER MEDIA

going on tiktok or tumblr and searching the #fanfiction or #fanficrec tags can be a lifesaver. better yet, when you find tumblr masterlists of recs.

7. CHECK OUT AUTHORS OTHER WORKS

this ones self explanatory; if you really like a fic, try checking out the authors other works in the case that you find them just as good.

8. ASK FRIENDS!!!

you dont no HOW much i bombard my friends by asking them for recs, and ive found some really good ones through them. you can even ask mutuals, anyone on discord if you have it, etc...

LASTLY,

9. BE PICKY

this one is a bit redundant but its something i often find myself wishing i had done earlier. if your reading a fic and something about it just isnt right for you, be that the writing style, the chracetrization, etc... don't feel like you need to continue. theres nothing wrong with just dropping shit when it gets too boring or when its not tickling your fancy, otherwise you may end up putting so much time into a work that leaves you upset/frustrated, and thats no fun. seriously, i have spent hundreds of thousands of words on fics that left me hating my life and not because of how good it was written ill tell you that.

#ao3 fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic recs #ao3 #fanfic #ao3fic #sorting through ao3 #ao3 stuff #archive of our own #fandom #fanwork #ao3 tags #reading #ao3 reader

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hacked-by-jake · 7 days

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I did read your fanfiction idea post. And I didn't like. Because I feel idiotic with my idea, but still want to share it. Yeah. Let's go

And❗️ SPOILER WARNING❗️

A bunch of people thought that the way Adam was acting in his phone call reminded them of Jake, right? He's probably not gonna be Jake, but let's dive into that for a moment

Sometime after he had to go on the run, maybe around 3 years ago, Jake came to Redlog for some time. He met the group there under the name Adam (I forgot his last name)

Since then he has always spent a little time in Redlog whenever it was safe, told the group that he just had a job that needed him to travel a lot.

Fast forward, after the mine incident, Jake doesn't immediately even have time to contact MC, he just tries to get away.

He goes to Redlog in hopes to get Adam alivr again and as his cover. There he plans on contacting MC, but something happens. He finds something, figures out something (don't know what). Endangers himself again.

And he doesn't want MC to be in danger with him. So he tries to fix it. But it doesn't work out. (Hence the tarot card) It's too late, whatever the danger was, it found him. And he knows the only way to get out of that is his MC. The girl (or boy, I'm a female so that's easier to type rn) that dove into a kidnapping case without a second thought.

So he sends Eric MCs contact. He tries to call her, but the signal's already too bad.

The second time he calls her, Jake realises she wouldn't know his face. He doesn't get himself to tell her his name. But he also knows he needs her to keep going. He wants her to know that he survived the mine. Hence the "It'll seem impossible without me" blahblahblah.

I'd want MC to realise who Adam is xD And then, when they finally see each other again, hug & kiss & tell each other it's going to be okay. All while Eric stands there and is like "Eeeeh what?"

To be honest, I don't understand at all why you're feeling idiotic about it. This is such a cool and interesting idea! I had to giggle so hard when I read the last part. We sure need Eric to react to that, pahaha. Simply genius.

Also making the connection with people feeling like Adam is Jake and how he met the group and how MC gets involved is very thrilling.

I mean, you could do it this way or you could also say, something goes incredibly wrong and some of Jake's enemies find out about Jake and MC's relationship thingy. So Jake wants to deal with it himself and wants to solve this. He goes to the Greenside but it goes wrong and his enemy already planned to involve MC so Jake's enemy sets up everything, the tarot card etc to drag MC into it and to hurt Jake even more.

But enemy dude wasn't aware how incredibly good MC is and messed up with involving them because MC will definitely find Jake.

And I mean, imagine we would also bring the Duskwood characters into that. I mean, if MC has contact with the group again and Hannah and Lilly ask MC if they know where Jake is... And maybe MC already knows that Jake was kidnapped or whatever.

Should MC lie to his sister? Can they even lie or is that too obvious. All of this. And maybe enemy dude even find out about Hannah and Lilly and boom. Everyone is involved and ahhhh, the party is too big. xD

No, seriously, it's a very interesting and great idea. It sounds very logical and super exciting.

And I mean, it's a whole plot. It's amazing.

And no need to feel embarrassed or whatever, I really love it. And I thank you so much for sharing it with me and us. I really appreciate it. And I'm sure many others will like the idea as well! 💚

#cute mv anon #moonvale fanfiction #moonvale spoiler #moonvale headcanons #moonvale theories #hbj mv answers #duskwood jake #moonvale jake #moonvale adam #duskwood jake x mc #moonvale jake x mc #hbj mv x dw answers

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uncannyalien · 3 months

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Asking some AU comp competitors & supporters:

- Are there any AUs you weren't familiar with that have recently caught your attention, or that you would like to learn more about?

- What are some AUs/fanworks that you enjoy, and would encourage more people to go check out? (Doesn't have to be in the comp!)

Oh Stars, where do I begin?

The server of the competition is full of so many creators, many of whom I have never met or known of their AUs before(I'm still quite new to the fandom), and it's been great engaging with all of them!

I can't list every single AU I wanna learn more about, there's too many!

I'm very intrigued by Aberration by probablynotarutabega whom I'm going up against in the coming bracket, and I literally spent some time today reading what they have available so I could get to know it better! I hope we're at least able to team up!

There's also the Revelations Timeline AU by idk im just here now who has a really cool insight into how the Krang and the magic system works in their AU! I'd like to say we've become friends over this little time

Of course I have to talk up some of my friends AUs!

Minecraft Isekaid by songdrop (who has teamed up with Mitosis by Varian_dislikes_cheese) is a really cool AU about the rise boys getting stuck in Minecraft but as they explore things are not quite how they know. They're incredibly talented at art and storytelling and have so many ideas it's absolutely insane!

There's also the Soulmates(Evil) AU by Evan that's heavy Mikey angst and it's wonderful to see the other characters beating up MeatSweats

Oh dear this is gonna be long isn't it ehe. There's just too many to count!

The Employees is done by multiple folks and follows a collective of OCs that work for Senior Hueso

Minor Interference by bambiraptorx is on my To Read list where the turtles accept Draxum's offer of training with him

As for ones that are not in the competition I have many suggestions:

Clean up Crew also by songdrop, a small fic that's part of his like, 6 AUs in one universe the guy's an idea machine!

I discovered A Mirror's Reflection by ratsistryingtheirbest here on Tumblr as just a "what if" post and I may or may not have sort of dared them into making it. And it's really good! A rise Future AU where Leo, Mikey, and CJ are sent to another reality post-apocalypse where their brothers survived. And won the war.

The Nexus Heir by ItzCoffee is a fun AU where Leo gets manipulated into Big Mama's care

I'm not particularly one for fics that have romance/shipping or the Next Generation trope, but Little Warrior by NovelistServant is a proud exception for me. This is an AU where Future Raph gets sent back in time with a baby CJ and things sure do happen. Prepare to cry, prepare to laugh, prepare to cry again but happy this time. I've read it twice

A Tale of Spirits by unorthodoxx recently updated and I'm so excited with where the story is going. You like turtles? You like ATLA? You're gonna like this one

And last but certainly not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't shameless plug my own AU: Remember Forever. I've written plenty of stories before but this is my first fanfiction and it's the longest project I've had so far. It's a post-season 2 pre-movie rise AU where Mikey discovers an alien(that is definitely not my self-insert) and shenanigans ensue. You can of course learn more at my masterpost which is pinned on my blog and by giving it a read! I'm trying my best to write some fluff while also acknowledging that these characters have Gone Through Things.

There are so many more AUs than these that I've mentioned so seriously go check everyone out! Thanks so much for the ask and I wish everyone a great time in the competition!

#tmnt au comp #tmnt au competition #tmnt au competition 2024 #remember forever au #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #writeblr #ao3 fanfic #unpause rise of the tmnt

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shallanigans · 19 days

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So, you want to write fanfiction? Here's some advice from someone who spends too much time on ao3, Part 1:

Hey everyone! This is a bit of a deviation from my usual shitposts. I was looking at the "#writers on tumblr" tag today, and I got inspired to post this after some interesting discussions. I'm someone who has read a lot (and I mean A LOT) of fanfic, as well as written some myself... so I thought I'd make this little (no, I lied, it's Very Long) post with some writing tips that I find personally meaningful for those of you who may be getting started or want to try something new.

My qualifications? Honestly, because I said so. This is just my opinion. Feel free to ignore, disagree, hate, ask questions, whatever. I'll be discussing some common fanfic writing advice and what I think about it, as well as giving some general pointers.

Disclaimer: What is "good writing?"

Good writing is effective writing. There is no one way in which everyone should write. Effective writing compels the reader; it makes them interested in your story, keeps them turning the pages, makes them click that "next chapter" button and stay up all night to finish your 500k epic. Some people achieve this through flowery, descriptive prose. Others do so with their quick wit and snappy dialogue. Others write all their fanfictions in second person epistolary format only and make you cry harder than you ever have. The first thing to know is that 1) tastes vary and 2) confidence matters. Find your voice, and be proud of it. If you feel that what you are doing is working for you, and you love it, then keep at it. Someone has already made every "writing mistake" and made it well. Don't fall into the trap of getting bogged down with 674835 contradictory tips and being too terrified to write at all. The only real writing sin is being boring.

Furthermore, this post is for fanfiction specifically. A lot of this advice might be useful for traditional fiction, but it's not a 1:1 carryover. A lot of fanfic advice will be irrelevant for traditional fiction, and vice versa.

That's all fine and dandy, but what do I do?

Good question. First, let's break down what makes a fanfiction effective. Most people searching ao3 for a story probably want:

A compelling premise

With in-character characters

Good spelling, formatting, grammar, and syntax

Stylistically strong writing

A coherent plot

With a certain degree of wish-fulfillment sprinkled in (this is fanfic, after all)

In this series, I will be mostly discussing elements 2-6. Number 1, unfortunately, comes down to "don't be boring," and I can't tell you how to come up with an idea that's going to hook your reader. However, assuming that you already have The Coolest Idea Ever, and you only need the reader to see that, then here's what you can do:

Effective Summaries

No, seriously. Tell people what your fucking story is about. One of my favorite stories on ao3 has the worst, vaguest one-liner of a summary I've ever seen. It is a gem, and if it hadn't been for a friend's recommendation, I would have never read it. You may think that your epic out of context quote from the paragraph you spent hours perfecting will make people care, but it will probably just confuse them. This is likely to be the most controversial thing I say today, so I'm starting off strong.

When I say effective summary, I mean a summary that will tell people the basic premise of the plot while also making them want to learn more. I don't mean something fancy. I mean something like:

When Blorbo started his new tech development job at Tumblr, he never expected to have Blorbette for a boss. She is smart, cold, calculating - and, to his horror, totally irresistible. In order to win her heart, he decides to make her jealous by fake-dating his colleague and frenemy, Blorbinson. But he soon finds that there is more to his mysterious friend than meets the eye. Could it be that the real Tumblr sexyman has been next to him all along?

That's a pretty standard summary for a relatively long fic. It's nothing fancy, but it tells the reader what the story's about. Now this same summary, in the hands of someone who refuses to inform the reader about the premise of the story, would probably say something like:

His eyes are the color of spring.

You can get away with that kind of stuff more often in a one-shot, but best practice is always to tell your reader what the story is about. Say to your reader:

Blorbinson's eyes are too easy to get lost in. Blorbo cannot find his way out.

If you MUST include a quote from your story, then do it alongside your informative summary, in the much-loved format below:

"What do you mean Welcome to Nightvale is winning the contest?" --- In which things get heated at Tumblr dot com, and Blorbinson's the one making Blorbo get all sweaty.

I can already hear you arguing. You say to me, "But there are people who choose quotes that are both pretty AND informative! But writing anything is better than writing nothing in the summary!"

True. My response to the first point is this: if you had mastered that skill, you wouldn't be here. A simple, to-the-point-summary is almost never going to make the interested reader scroll past your story. You know what will? An out-of-context block of text about how much Sans Undertale loves the player from chapter 3, paragraph six.

To the second point, I say: obviously. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't seek to improve. No one is perfect. I'm certainly not. But you're doing yourself a disservice by spending so much time and effort on the content of your story and then fumbling it on the home stretch. If you take pride in your work (and I'm assuming you do, because you posted this story for a reason), then make like a chef at a five-star restaurant and start caring about presentation. It goes without saying that there shouldn't be any typos in the summary.

A note on tagging: I will make a separate post on tagging your stories appropriately. This is a writing-related rant.

Now, onto characterization:

If you're one of those people who thinks that there's no such thing as "too OOC," congratulations. May you enjoy fanfiction free from the shackles of the narrative. Tag appropriately and have fun. If you're like the rest of us haters, you probably want to keep your characters as faithful to canon as possible. Yes, even in an AU.

I've included this wonderful addition because entryn17 said it better than I ever could have. There's difference of interpretation, and then there's Severus Snape deciding that James Potter was actually just misunderstood.

Being "in-character" is an elusive ideal that we all strive for, but no one can quite tell you what it means except for "the vibes." The way I like to define it is this: If you asked yourself the question "Would He Fucking Say That/Do That/Feel That?" and the answer is "yes, absolutely," then it's in-character. If the answer is "absolutely not," then it's out of character. If the answer is "maybe?" then your goal is to move that needle firmly into the Yes camp.

To do this, you must first determine what is making you unsure. Is it the dialogue? Is your stuffy Edwardian speaking like a Gen Alpha well-versed in Cocomelonese? Is your overconfident flirt stammering and stuttering through a conversation? Often, the content of what a character is saying agrees perfectly with the source material, but the how doesn't match it. Beta readers can help with this, as can going back to the source material to study a character's speech patterns in canon. You don't have to get it perfect. Just make sure it doesn't stand out. Would Snape perhaps say "Come over here!" in a much wordier, snarkier manner? Maybe. Maybe not. But he sure as hell wouldn't say, "Yo! bring your ass over and check this out!"

Actions and feelings are a bit trickier. There's always some leeway in personal interpretation here, and most of the time your reader won't question this very much so long as the rest of the story keeps them engaged. One OOC action or thought is easy to brush off. Ten, not so much. Read up on the wiki pages for whatever you're writing, go back to the source material, and maybe get the opinion of a willing beta reader. Ultimately, if your characters start feeling like featureless puppets subject to your whims rather than people with established personalities, you might want to go back and revisit what made them stand out to you in the first place.

Keep things consistent within your story. Especially in AUs and canon divergence fics, there are certain character traits that are malleable. Maybe Draco Malfoy wouldn't have been such a dickhead if he'd had caring adult mentors in his life. So, justify that within your story. You don't necessarily need to keep the characterization faithful to the canon, but you do need to convince the reader that their beloved character has a reason for their behavior. Keep things consistent. Whenever a character deviates from their canon behavior, make sure there's a valid explanation for it in your narrative.

Don't fall for the trap of confusing canon and fanon. Fandom is like a game of telephone. Someone writes one story of Blorbo adopting a cat, and suddenly he's the biggest cat person in the universe. The poor author who posts about Blorbo's canonical love of dogs gets trashed for writing OOC. You can't prevent people getting mad at you, but you can always grin smugly and go to bed happy with the knowledge that you were right. Someone will love you for it.

SPAG

Ew! It sounds like something your dog spit up. Spelling and Grammar might be boring, but they're necessary. You shouldn't break the rules until you know the rules. One day, you will write a run-on postmodern epic to rival the worst of Wallace's page-long sentences. Today is not that day. No one wants to open a story only to be greeted by a massive block of text, a lack of punctuation, and a heretofore undiscovered form of there/they're/their.

In the modern age, we have many tools at our disposal to clarify our SPAG doubts. Dictionaries! Spellcheck! The weirdos on those Substack forums! Oh, my. If you wrote your story at 3AM directly onto the ao3 editor, perhaps take a moment to run it through some kind of spellchecker before posting. Microsoft Word has a pretty good one, but Grammarly and other such software can help you if that's not available. There's also nothing quite like a beta reader. There are people in this world who love picking apart every comma, period, and quotation mark, and they'll be happy to do it for you. I am one of them, and I volunteer. There are many of us.

Here are some SPAG mistakes common in fanfiction.

1.Your/you're, they're/their/there, "could of," and "lie" vs "lay."

"YOUR" means that something is yours. You possess that thing. YOUR story is going to be great if you fix the grammar. "YOU'RE" is a contracted form of "YOU ARE." If you fix your grammar, YOU'RE going to be a great writer.

They're: Shortened form of "they are." They're going to the beach. They're very nice people.

Their: They possess a thing. A thing belongs to them. They're going to the beach in THEIR car.

There: Related to a place. You are going to be THERE. THERE are many pretty horses in the field.

"Could of" does not exist. It is an incorrect way of writing "could've," the shortened form of "could have."

The verbs lie and lay are tricky ones. You (a person) LIE down on your bed. You LAY an object down on a surface. However, the past tense of LIE is LAY. I know! Who invented English, am I right? Blorbo LIES on his bed in the present tense. He LAY on his bed in the past.

The past tense of "lay" is "laid." Blorbo LAID down his water bottle.

2. Run-on sentences.

Sometimes, when we're writing, we get a little excited. We have so many thoughts and we never know how to end them. You might think the solution here is to just keep throwing down commas, but you'd be wrong.

Run-on sentences can be effective if used intentionally, but a lot of the time, they're not. The period isn't your enemy. In general, you want to make sure your sentences have a subject, a verb, and an object, and that they end when you've finished your thought.

Blorbo was the most beautiful of all the tumblr sexymen. He really liked to show off his sick gains at the gym. He had a hot wife and an even hotter side piece.

This writing isn't very exciting, but it's correct. Contrast that with:

Blorbo was the most beautiful of all the tumblr sexymen, he really liked to show off his sick gains at the gym, he had a hot wife and an even hotter side piece.

Finish your thoughts. There are ways to connect independent clauses (a group of words that can work on its own as a sentence) correctly, like the semicolon; the semicolon is a great piece of punctuation. There is also the em-dash. Sometimes, you really need to add clarification to a thought — you really want to emphasize the second part of what you're saying. Em-dashes also work like a cooler version of parentheses — because who uses those, am I right? — and can help you seem like a chic and seasoned writer. Don't overuse them, though. I know you want to. And no, I don't heed my own advice here.

Look, these rules aren't intuitive. I can't possibly go through all of them in a way that's easy and digestible. There are smarter people than me who have written all about it, and I use incorrect punctuation all the time. Misplacing a comma isn't going to be the end of the world for your story, but at least give it a once-over with a beta or spellchecker to fix the worst of it. At the very least, make the reader think that run-on sentence was totally on purpose.

3. Paragraphs

Make sure your paragraphs stick to a single theme or thought. Fanfiction writers love to have one-sentence paragraphs for the impact, but you don't need to do that. Just keep them coherent. For example, if you're writing about Blorbo's weekend, you might say,

Blorbo loved Saturdays. On Saturdays, the world seemed to sparkle and sing with the whole of the city's shared happiness over not having to work. He would wake up on those mornings and leap out of bed while singing a jaunty little tune. Then, he'd text Blorbinson a string of heart emojis and plan to meet up for their weekly ice cream date. But Sundays — oh, how he hated Sundays! Sundays were the day before Monday, and he'd always spend so long worrying about going back to the office that, by the time he decided to do something, it would be dark outside already.

Each of the paragraphs above, clumsy as they are, have a clear idea that starts and ends within the same paragraph. If you talk about Blorbo's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday all within one paragraph, your reader will be confused!

On the other hand, if you make every single paragraph one line, your reader is going to resent you. You have unwittingly made them take part in a bad action thriller. One-line paragraphs are supposed to be impactful and create suspense. When writing, a good tip is to consider the word "impactful" a synonym of "sparing." See below:

Doesn't it suck? Not to mention all that scrolling!

3. Dialogue

Right off the bat, I'll say that the best way to learn how to format dialogue is by reading books. Not fanfiction. BOOKS. They have been checked by an editor, so you know you're getting the real deal. Generally, well-formatted dialogue achieves an engaging and seamless conversation between your characters. Poorly-formatted dialogue forces your reader into a game of Who's Who?

See for, instance, the following abomination:

"I can't believe you cheated on me with Blorbette!" Blorbo had been crying about it for a week. His tears would soon erode a riverbank down his cheeks. Blorbinson sneered at him, "I can't believe you ever thought this was real." "I was only with you for the tax benefits." No! How could you? Blorbo said. Blorbinson laughed a wicked laugh and looked at him. "My heart is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Love isn't real!"

Did you follow that? Because I sure didn't. Generally, here are the rules of dialogue:

Start a new line for each character that speaks, and keep a single character's dialogue within the same paragraph.*

Use dialogue tags to CLARIFY who is speaking. Note: I said clarify. If it's redundant take it out. I will write more about good (not merely correct) dialogue in a follow-up post.

Put a period after or before an ACTION tag in dialogue, but a comma before a SPEECH tag. The reason you do this is that ["Here is an example line of dialogue," he said] is a complete sentence, but ["Here is an example line of dialogue." He looked at his watch.] is TWO sentences. The quotation marks are merely to indicate speech. Whether or not something is a sentence is determined by the content of what the writing actually says, not by any punctuation it may have.

Use quotation marks to indicate speech. If you want to quote something within quotation marks (in American English), you put it in single quotes, like so: "And then he called me 'a lost cause who's doomed to be single forever.' Can you believe that?"

By following these rules, we get the much nicer:

"I can't believe you cheated on me with Blorbette!" Blorbo had been crying about it for a week. His tears would soon erode a riverbank down his cheeks. Blorbinson sneered at him. "I can't believe you ever thought this was real. I was only with you for the tax benefits." "No! How could you?" Blorbinson only laughed a wicked laugh. "My heart is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Love isn't real!" Blorbo said.

Obviously that's still pretty bad, but now it's readable. Formatting your dialogue properly will fix a lot of problems with your story, make it clear who is talking, and make the reading experience much nicer for everyone.

* An Important addendum: sometimes, characters will speak for a long time, and you'll want to split up their dialogue into paragraphs. To do that, you start the dialogue in quotation marks, but you leave them open until the character is done speaking, like so:

"My favorite thing about Blorbinson was that he always knew just what to say. He had this magical ability to always tell when I was sad, and he showed up with ice cream every single time. It always made me feel better," Blorbo said. "I can't believe our relationship is over now. I should probably tell you all about how that happened. "I walked into my house one day to find another pair of shoes by the door, where Blorbinson's usually are. I knew Blorbinson would never wear those shoes, because his style is more boho-inspired. Anyway, my worst fear was confirmed when I walked into the bedroom and found him there with Blorbette! My two loves, betraying me so callously!"

This is common in fantasy stories where you need to impart some deep lore knowledge on the reader, or for characters who like to talk a lot.

4. Verb tenses (edited after posting, in true fanfic writer fashion)

Us writers tend to have very strong opinions about verbs. You could even say things get a little bit... tense sometimes. Ok, but seriously; whether you write in past or present doesn't matter. What matters is that you keep things consistent.

Nothing takes the reader out of a fanfic faster than abrupt tense switches in the middle of the narrative. If you are writing in a specific verb tense, stick with it.

Don't say:

Blorbo is never sure what Blorbinson is thinking. He watched him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stares at his computer. Blorbo knows he's in love the minute Blorbinson looks back.

DO say:

Blorbo was never sure what Blorbinson was thinking. He watched him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stared at his computer. Blorbo knew he was in love the minute Blorbinson looked back. or Blorbo is never sure what Blorbinson is thinking. He watches him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stares at his computer. Blorbo knows he's in love the minute Blorbinson looks back.

When we write in past tense and we want to talk about events that happened prior to the narrative, we use the past perfect. When we write in present, we can use either simple past or past perfect. This one's kind of iffy. As you write more, you'll get a sense of what "sounds correct."

Ultimately, your choice of verb tense is personal opinion and what you feel best fits your story. Just make sure that you keep whatever you choose consistent. A beta reader can help you with this.

And that's it for Part 1!

This post dealt with some technical, basic things about fanfic that will mostly be useful to new writers. I will be going more in depth about making your prose stronger at the sentence level in Part 2, where #4 is getting an entire post. It'll probably be even longer than this one. I hope it was able to help someone!

#fanfiction #writers on tumblr #writing tips #writeblr #writing #creative writing #I make long posts about things that no one cares about series

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yanderechagny · 27 days

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Ramble card!! Ramble about anything and everything and literally whatever. :D

AHH I'm so sorry for not replying to this yet, especially considering all the exhaustive replies I used to give, but lately my motivation is down the shoes and I haven't been doing much if not playing videogames when I can and doing stuff for school because we're doing our finals and I'm trying my best to have good grades <:3

I have several things I want to talk about mainly since they've been in my mind for a while now,, although they may be controversial statements considering the actual state of the gothic literature fanbase on tumblr at least, but I don't really care considering I don't use this social much,, In general I'm more active on discord, because I have my own server and roleplay there.

1. Most of the reading keys the fanbase on tumblr uses when it comes to Jekyll and Hyde are extremely boring, especially when the novella has many holes (as in: parts which Stevenson purposefully left up to interpretation, so like 90% of the book) which have to be filled by the viewer, and see them constantly rotate around LGBTQ+ is kinda disheartening in a way(?) while I do personally think that there is more to Jekyll and Utterson's relationship especially in the musical, I don't get why the only relevant thing about the whole product has to be the fact that a character may be potentially gay— I genuinely never saw any interesting portrayals of Jekyll and Hyde as a piece of media set in the victorian era, because they always revolve around queerness. Comically enough, these are the same people who complain about The Glass Scientists for things which are present in their own interpretation too. I don't know, maybe it's because I have a 180 degrees view of the product, but I really hope that someone will make a fanfiction where the queer coding is actually a subtone and not the whole thing. I want mad scientists, not Heartstopper.

2. I don't really know how to put this into words because my head is spinning about POTO lately and my thoughts don't really have a coherent string, but I personally think that Raoul is a very interesting character, at least in the way the videogame portrays him; it's very interesting how he immediately gets suspicious (although for a good reason) and angry the moment he finds out that there is another man in Christine's life, and actively tells her that he will do anything in her power to make sure that she will be her own and, basically goes insane the moment he isn't close to his loved one— I think he follows the yandere archetype perfectly, and that he has a lot of parallelisms with Erik; they both are possessive and actively attempt to isolate their loved ones, and both have this intense fear of getting abandoned by Christine, which eventually becomes reality. In a way, I feel like Raoul was afraid that the angel of music is better than him: what we know about Raoul is that he severely lacks musical talent, nothing really interesting happened in his entire life, arguably doesn't know Christine that well considering that they spent an entire decade apart and only met again when they were around 17-ish(?) and, Raoul was busy with academy, not to mention that he is a viscount, but yet people laugh at his face because he is known as the Black Sheep of the Chagny Family. He has to fake his brother's signature to get what he wants and apparently he has also done it several times before, considering that he is pretty skilled at faking signatures. People don't take him seriously, and Raoul will always be the imperfect shadow of his brother, who like everyone else in the 1800s, has a façade of perfection, to the point where Raoul thinks that the only reason he was ever enrolled in the military + he was getting sent to that expedition in the Arctic, is because his brother wanted to kill him over inheritance. Not to mention, that he has never gone to Philippe's funeral, his justification being that he was not worthy, and he never made an attempt to look for his two sisters who were desperately looking for their baby brother. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Erik. He is Christine's teacher and has seemingly been spying and has been with her ever since she joined the opera populaire, he managed to make her shine when she seemingly didn't have any musical talent (although through guilt tripping/manipulation), and definitely knows a lot about Christine, considering how he toys around with her so that he can obtain what he wants. Not to mention that he has immense musical and academic talents and he is seemingly self-taught, he is an architect, able with the punjabi lasso, built a torture chamber and a whole underground house, has a gas which makes people faint, is intimidating and actually taken seriously and he actually gets through his threats, and IS one. Compared to him as a pretendant for Christine, Raoul is quite literally a loser, half of the man that Erik is. And in the end, if we choose to make Christine go away and make Raoul understand that he was basically forcing Christine to make an immediate choice through similar means which Erik used, in a way, Erik won over Raoul again— Christine will never be wed to a man and, like we see in her 40s she's traveling the world and doesn't have any male suitors, no earthly matters distracting her from her passions. That's the thing, Erik wins depending on the choices which we make Christine do in the game, and Raoul just proved to himself that no matter what he does, he will never be someone special in the romantic way for Christine. Just...imagine how all of this must feel for someone who's so frightened of abandonment and losing his favorite person, getting replaced— Raoul's reaction wasn't anything grand, and I think that was out of apathy. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel that moment, and it's very sad. Raoul and Christine are star-crossed lovers, and that is referenced in Christine's design itself, with her hair fading into a starry night.

#the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde #jekyll and hyde #phantom of the opera #mazm phantom of the opera #raoul de chagny

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roseburning · 4 months

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I want a Good!Tom Riddle that is NOT Tom X Harry!

I recently read Chamber of Secrets for the first time and, as someone who watched the movies first, I was genuinely surprised about how much I relate to Ginny Weasley!

Tom Riddle is incredibly charming and, just like little Ginny, I completely fell for it (even though I knew he was Voldemort all along). I just couldn't help it, he plays the role of the sweet, innocent Golden Boy too well!! I genuinely felt sorry for him when he started blushing while talking about the orphanage he lived in 💔

Obviously it's just a facade, a mask he wears to manipulate people and not his real self. I'm not at all trying to somehow justify the actions of Lord Voldemort. I'm just saying that, like Ginny and Harry, I fell for him.

But when I decide to search online for Alternative Universes where he was actually this prince charming with a heart of gold (*hyperbole*) that he pretended to be, I only found disgusting Tomarry smut.

I do understand that this is a crack ship that shouldn't be taken seriously, but damn, I must say I'm deeply disappointed and sad. Apparently, Tom Marvolo Riddle can only be "good" when the author wants him to fuck Harry James Potter.

And those fanfiction don't even base his "good side" on what we actually see him performing in the book, but apply the most generic and cliche 'cold, no feelings boyfriend and only y/n can made him love again' personality, but y/n is just called Harry.

I'm deeply mad at this fandom. Tom Riddle could be such a layered and complex characters if we consider his Golden Boy Persona as real, or at least something he's trying to be.

I know that J.K. Rowling dives more deep into his past in later books and I currently only read books 1 and 2, but from I could see, good!Tom Riddle (canon based + a bit of my headcanons): Comes from a negligent (possibly abusive) household that he much rather not go back to;

Tries to be the perfect boy in school, in a desperate quest for acceptance;

Tries to do what he judges right, even if it hurts other people or himself, it's for the greater good;

Does not have actual friends because he can't bond with people (and some people think he's just a show off);

Is a Teacher's Pet because he subconsciously wants validation;

Spent 5 years trying to learn more about who he and his mother's family are;

(Probably has a pet Basilisk — who might or not have killed Myrtle);

Gets along better with snakes than humans, because he doesn't need to try so hard around them.

Speaks Parseltongue in his sleep.

I'm fully aware that it also sounds very cliche, and I the need to say that as I, myself, don't ship Tom and Harry at all, I'm not here to hate this ship or on its shippers. “Ship and let ship.„ You do you, guys. I can understand how the whole Dark Mirror situation could have been appealing to some.

I just wanted to vocalize my frustrations about this damn ship basically monopolizing the "Good Tom Riddle" tag on Ao3.

I'd love fanfiction recommendations about it if you have some <3

(I also think we should talk about more about the friendship between Tom Riddle and Ginny Weasley, but this is a talk for another post. Anyway, if you got some platonic recommend for them, I'd love to read! <3)

For the love of Merlin, fanon is not canon and this doesn't justify Voldemort's actions at all.

Love ya!

#chamber of secrets #tom marvolo riddle #tom riddle #Good Tom Riddle #Anti Tomarry #ginny weasley #Harry Potter #ao3 fanfic #fanfiction recommendation #AU #alternative universe #Ao3 #headcanon #harry potter headcanon #tom riddle headcanon #golden boy tom riddle #charming tom riddle

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thefoolsbullshit · 1 year

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Hello for today's scheduled fanfiction post I'm here to say something, for the love of the gods please if you're writing a fanfic that's x reader PUT THE GENDERS GENDER IN THE TAGS

I have found so many x reader fics that I had to just go into the story itself to see if it's what I was looking for and y'know what we need more male reader fics! I seriously just want a silly goofy x male reader fic about a character I like not to be catfished into clicking on a x female reader fic.

I in all honesty just want to see more x male reader fics because the amount of x female reader fics is too much at least when compared to x male reader, now why am I taking time to type this out? Because I literally just spent like 15 minutes trying to find one to read AND IT WAS ALL FEMALE READER I just wanted a silly little fanfiction to read because I'm bored and now I might just make a silly little fanfiction that's going to be utter shit because I HAVE DECENT WRITING SKILLS but I CAN'T WRITE FANFICTION TO SAVE MY LIFEEE

Anyways thank you random internet person for reading this if you did, I question why anyone would actually read this post but hey why not?

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korka-mindlore · 10 months

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Writeblr (re)intro !

Hi, hi! I've had a writeblr before, but left after remaking my entire Tumblr account. Got a bit busy, but missed the community so much that I wanted back in <3

-About me-

Korka or Corky - whichever you prefer

adult

undergrad majoring in two foreign languages and their respective literature :>

I've been writing for about as long as I've known of myself, but only started taking it seriously in the last 5-6 years, and only in the past year or two did I really start figuring out what I want to write, so my style is still unpolished and I still consider myself in my "finding myself" era

major procrastinator and experiencer of what I think is executive dysfunction; I will try my bestest to be active on here, but I might take a week or seven to read a single excerpt, though not for lack of interest or trying!! Nevertheless, please tag me in your works so I won't lose them in the dash :3

-What I write-

prose, short story lover, but I have about three WIPs that would be about the length of a novel(la) (that planning stage sure is planning)

literary movements I draw inspiration from the most are the romantic period (especially gothic) and symbolist movement, as well as the spirit of avant-garde's experimentation and pushing boundaries

my biggest role model is Charles Baudelaire :>

genres I like to stick to: fantasy, horror, horror/dark fantasy, recently tried experimenting with social satire, but we'll see how that goes

I feel most comfortable in fantasy and historical, but I love writing horror the most

I love worldbuilding and writing body horror/gore the most, but describing body language and appearance is something I desperately need to work on

I'm a planner and a perfectionist, so it might take some time for me to intro my WIPs properly, but I'm more than happy to talk about my OCs in the meantime :>

I have four WIPs in varying stages of planning, all still practically nameless:

a historical (time-travel) coming-of-age WIP meant to be about the length of a novel-novella (skeletal stage, planning out characters and main plot points)

a fantasy political intrigue WIP of a similar length (planning stage, details need to be ironed out before I can work on it, but i have an outline, sort of)

(and the spin-off horror fantasy collection of short stories WIP set in the same world) (skeletal stage, planning out the characters and the storylines)

a satirical WIP on the "tiktokification" of the arts, mainly literature, and anti-intellectualism (newest, researching stage; I know nothing about this yet beyond the core message and idea, but I'm looking forward to developing it)

-What I'd love to read-

genres: horror (especially dark fantasy!!), fantasy, "cheesy" romances, historical!!!!! I'm not too picky on genres, but if you mix horror in it, I'll love it even more

details: ngl those hyper-specific fantasy academy settings in coming-of-age stories hit different, detailed worldbuilding is everything to me, best-friends-to-lovers? chef's kiss. enemies-to-lovers? even louder chef's kiss. Morally ambiguous characters, morally questionable protagonists, I just love when the cast is formed of imperfect characters where you can't with 100% certainty say "x is evil" or "y is good". Make me think !

I also love reading poetry, though I'm not the best at analysing it and understanding particularly deep analogies, I love poetry that deals with abstract feelings, interpersonal relationships and personal philosophies <3

-I don't know how to end this :> -

A bit more about what i love writing/reading:

I'm from a Slavic country and dislike the way Slavic characters get written in western media, so most of my OCs are Slavic and I love to see a fleshed out Slavic character

I love body horror as an allegory for bodily autonomy and beauty standards. It's fun as horror, too, but as an allegory - very fun to explore

In general, I'm weak for a good symbol

And on me:

I spent most of my time in the last few years writing fanfiction, but so eager to focus on original fiction, too

I tend to write on-and-off, I'm either busy or tired, and sadly can go months without any progress :< I hope this changes as I get more settled into life

But! I've taken a recent liking to just making OCs without any particular WIP attached to them, so I'll probs talk about them if nothing else :)

I just missed the community of a writeblr a lot, so I'm hoping to make friends on here ! ^_^

#um i hope this works as an intro #i think i got everything lmao #writeblr #writeblr intro #i kept putting off finishing this (see: procrastinator) but when i opened my drafts all i had to add was the final two paragraphs

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