#it's a problem I'm writing a longfic about it
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As fun as it is when people write the Emperor as someone who has his shit together and functions as An Excellent Specimen of a Mindflayer, this alien mastermind who can act like a mentor for illiThav, I have a fondness for the Emperor as like
this absolute wreck of a person.
Mindflayers are supposed to stay with their colony for like 20+ years to learn All The Things Mindflayer and we know Ansur stole him away long before that (I think he said 12 or 13 years). And then put him through what was meant to be cult deprogramming, but probably was just an unfortunate mixture of torture (mental isolation and I can see a measure of starvation added to it) and instilling every insecurity known to man. Guilting the squid not to act squiddy wasn't very effective on the long run, but it sure must have been traumatizing - might even be the reason why the Emperor made such a decisive cut between his old and new identity. We don't know how long Ansur tried before he gave up, but probably quite a few years, dragon sounded like the stubborn sort.
So we have 1. possibly not fully socialized/introduced to the culture in its fullest and 2. some years of being forced to act as close to his old human personality as possible to placate Ansur. 3. continued social isolation where he only interacts with humanoid races, often indirectly at that.
So I like the idea that as the result of all of that he's not really pretending when we meet him properly, he's Just Like That. Not the part about being on top of things, gods know people wrote stories about how he talked his way out of all sorts of nonsense with pure bullshit, he could probably sell beachfront property in the Hells if he tried. Just, his personality and mannerisms as an ungodly mixture halfway between illithid and human, he's just the weirdest squid. Not human anymore, no, but acting and thinking overall too human compared to other mindflayers and he might not even be fully aware of it because he's been isolated from his kind for the last several hundred years. Even post-Absolute he might not know how weird he is, I somehow can't see the elderbrain reintegrating him into the colony when he's clearly defective. Say thank you to Gortash for being curious about his business rival or the Emperor would be past tense.
Anyway, I really like Weird Squid Emperor and I want to put him in a room with Omeluum so nerd squid can take notes and be amazed at this trashfire of an illithid, I think that would be a cool scene actually.
#baldur's gate 3#balduran#the emperor#bg3#sorry about the random rant this squid moved into my brain and refuses to leave#it's a problem I'm writing a longfic about it
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the only thing better than an akechi palace is forcing akechi to experience the horrors of his palace :) With Friends
#he is going to have such a Time#I guess for context for anyone curious. I was working on an akechi palace au for about a year but something about it Was Not Working#to distract myself I wrote a one shot about sumi saving akechi in the engine room that turned into a two shot that turned into a longfic#long story short I decided fuck it and took a break from my palace au completely to focus on code violet#then tactica came out and watching toshiro forced to experience the horrors of his dungeon world made me go. hm.#what if instead of it just being aki/the thieves in his palace. they bring akechi along too......#I think this was the problem I think I've solved everything guys <- lying. there are so many other issues to solve#but seriously I think this was the big thing it was missing. I'm gonna have to change A Lot but it's gonna be worth it#sera writes#rbts
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Saf...
I know it's been done, probably a million times, but...
harringrove roommates AU, idiots in love, and everyone ELSE can see it but they're both absolutely oblivious until an outside throws the word boyfriend at them forcing them to reevaluate.
and go, would it be so bad? everything would remain the same, only there would be kissing now and other stuff.
and then maybe they would decide to pretend they still have no idea to see how long it would take Max and their friends to notice...
that was my 2.20am thoughts.
going to bed now
ily
LOL also yet again, your one thought is like a whooooole enchilada longfic, my friend. And I have so many of those cooking. But I was inspired to write a little snippet of this. Consider it a slice of their weird little life.
---
"I think I'm going to go on a porn fast."
There's no reason for Robin to give him that look. They talk about everything. He helped her check herself when she had an ingrown hair that she thought was an STD, for God's sake.
"What?" Steve frowned.
"A porn fast." She looked absolutely disgusted. He was talking about less porn, what was her problem.
"Yeah. Like 30 days, no porn," Steve shook his head, "I just feel like I'm doing it too much, you know. I'm gonna get carpal tunnel."
"Are you going to move out?" She smirked.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"What it means, Dingus-"
She paused when Billy waltzed in and pulled out one earbud, tiny shorts hiked up so high they were basically underwear, glistening from his workout.
"Have you seen my water cup?" Billy's chest was heaving, a drip of sweat sliding down the center of his chest towards his happy trail.
"You mean your basic white girl cup?" Steve rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, whatever, Pretty Boy. It's huge and it stays cold as fuck," Billy leaned in to where Steve sat at their tiny breakfast nook, and smirked, "I've seen you steal a sip."
"As if," Steve scoffed, "Robin he's obsessed with one of those huge Stanley cups."
"That is a basic bitch move," Robin shrugged, "He's got you Billy."
"Yeah he does," Billy licked along his lower lip, "You've seen it. C'mon, baby, tell me."
Steve sighed, "I washed it, because you never do. It's over there."
Billy snuck in close for a kiss on the cheek, and heat washed over Steve's body, probably from Billy standing so damn close after lifting. He was like a furnace, and Steve had fallen asleep with him enough on the couch to know.
"Thanks, Pretty Boy."
Steve watched Billy pop in his air bud, and assemble and fill his cup for a moment, shaking his booty to whatever his dumb workout mix was, only to be brought out of it when Robin pinched him.
"Don't know how you're gonna do a porn fast with your fucking boyfriend doing a playgirl shoot all around your apartment."
Steve's mouth fell open, "He's my roommate."
"Yeah. And you stare at him and jack off all the time because you feel sooo normal about that."
Steve kicked her weakly under the table, not even able to speak. He wasn't that way about Billy. Couldn't be. That was his roommate.
Later that night after Robin had gone home, he was curled up on the couch next to Billy's furnace of a body.
"Have you even had a sip of water all day?" Billy asked, eyeing Steve's diet coke.
"Yes, I have," He hadn't, "chill, you water obsessed freak."
Billy shoved the clear straw of his enormous silver cup in Steve's face, "Drink."
There shouldn't be something stirring in his stomach when Billy said shit like that. There shouldn't be...
"Good Boy," Billy said in a low laughing voice.
Billy wasn't his boyfriend. Nor was he porn.
But God help him, Steve was realizing he wanted him to be a little of both.
#asks#Harringrove#Billy Hargrove#Steve Harrington#Billy x Steve#Steve x Billy#oh my god they were roommates
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things I would like to know about fellow writers
thanks for the tag @tellmeallaboutit
Last book I read: I've read so few published books lately but the last thing I read cover to cover and enjoyed thoroughly was Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker (a collection of fantasy short stories).
Greatest literary inspiration: Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tanith Lee, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Mitchell, Ted Chiang
Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write: Rugan/Gale/Tav set in Heart: The City Beneath AU (stares at @littleplasticrat with big eyes)
Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me:
Tav as a Chosen of Jergal who cannot meaningfully die until their quest is completed (as a bonus: Came Back Wrong).
Oathbreaker Knight/Paladin!Tav. Possibly an oathbroken Paladin of Eilistraee (Oath of the Ancients). How do you fuck an eldritch concept? I guess we're going to find out. (Psst, Bloodborne fandom knows how.)
I just really enjoy exploring the fallout of the awfulness of Tav's quest even in my smut whoops.
You can recognise my writing by: Extremely Sweaty Feelings, where I place my commas incorrectly (but I am trying to follow Proper Grammar Rules more now that I beta for others!)
My most controversial take (current fandom): Handwaving problems with Magic often removes stakes in story and combat. I'm more interested in less glamourous, low-magic story settings. Approaching it from a "high tech/low life" angle is also cool. I guess that's why the NPCs and factions like the Zhentarim appeal to me.
This probably isn't controversial, but I hate how people need to self-censor and deliberately untag themselves if they want to voice an opinion on their own blog about any of the Origin companions, especially Astarion. That's why I don't even interact with that part of BG3 fandom and I'm not interested in writing for it.
Top three favourite tropes: Enemies to Lovers, "One Flesh, One End", Theory of Narrative Causality (Once Upon a Time)
What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): Two
Share a random frustration: I want to write a longfic that hits a 5 act structure. I am deeply terrified of abandoning it halfway. I know that most of the fear is simply because haven't written one successfully before, but I have no idea how it can be done. No one is forcing me to write this; I have 2k worth of notes and outline staring at me right now.
no-pressure tagging @omgkalyppso @say-lene @orlesianapologist
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I was following a 100k longfic for a while and the recent few chapters have started to become a bit... preachy? I remember this was discussed here before about how some fanfic just reads like blatant moral messaging and this is exactly what's happening to what I'm reading. I'll try not to name the fandom (knowing that OTNF readers tend to guess it anyway) but the gist was originally an accidental time-travel fic to an alternate universe when the protagonist's parents are alive, and these parents also deal with the immense trauma the protag has because of canon events.
And it was really good for all of forty chapters until the last four chapters began a pivot towards the protagonist's dad, who works in that universe's equivalent of the police, and begins some very long-winded justification for why he's going to quite his job now and that actually the cops are stupid and corrupt and he's been too blind to see this all along, and acab, et cetera. It takes over the plot in a way that is uncomfortably preachy, especially since it's reflecting real-world issues into a universe where these issues arguably don't exist (I say arguably because you can argue that universe has cop problems, but they're structured so differently that repeating the exact same talking points over feels like blatant messaging rather than an interesting plot point). I don't want to talk about my own viewpoint on this issue because my problem with the fic isn't about whether I agree with it or not, but how out of nowhere and preachy the turn of events is. I'll probably still read it, but it feels like an unnecessary tangent, especially since the author seems to have done this repeatedly with other issues earlier in the fic. Again, I don't have a problem with the message, I have a problem with how it's been tossed into the fanfic either as an aside (like the author just wants to prove a point), or it completely hijacks the original narrative.
Sorry for the long rant, but just, ughhhhh. I need to let my frustrations out somewhere.
--
Bad writing is bad writing, even if the politics are good.
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hi! this is maybe very out of the blue, but - i'm reading 'our feast is but beginning' on ao3, and in a comment on part one you write something about the urca gold being a cursed symbol and that it makes zero economical sense. idk really what i am asking but maybe - do you have posts on hand that deal with that? or would you write down some of your thoughts on that? it sounds really interesting! thanks (:
OOOH I'm so excited to talk about this -- it is actually going to come up more in the final chapter of that series, and it comes up as a major plot point in longfic, because I think its a really great example of how in some ways Black Sails is Just a Story. Which is also to say: none of what I'm saying here is a criticism of the show. The Urca Gold is Pirate Treasure writ large, it serves its function in the narrative, we don't actually need to think about the real world implications of stealing it.
But IF, for instance, you were a fanfic writer and kind of a history and econ nerd, and inclined to 'well actually' stuff, then you might see a couple problems with the gold as a solution for a free and independent Nassau. I think of them basically as problems of scale and form.
Let's talk about scale first. Basically, if you are going to steal and not die, you have to make a few calculations.
If you can steal something big, run away and live anonymously ever after, good for you! No problems. (This was Silver's initial plan. He was smart.)
If, however, you are going to steal openly, and maintain some sort of defended home base (see: bandits, organized crime, pirates) you have to ensure it is not worthwhile for people to come get their stuff back. This is why, as a pirate, it behooves you to have a reputation for extreme violence, and also a remote hideout. Merchant ships have insurance, the right people quietly profit from the fencing of pirated goods; nobody actually wants to die, so piracy is cost of doing business, and the world carries on.
The Urca gold is in a completely different class of stealing. This isn't holding up a truck; it isn't robbing the bank. It's robbing the Federal Reserve. Five million Spanish dollars, in today's money (yes, there are issues thinking of it this way, but the point holds) equals somewhere around 250-300 million US dollars.* There is simply no way that it is not worth Spain's (or England's) time and resources to go get it back. The cache they were fighting over at the end was one share and it was enough to cause all that trouble. The full amount would be worth sending a good chunk of your navy for, and the fact that this did not happen immediately requires some suspension of disbelief. Anyway.
Flint's theory seems to be that it's enough money to allow the pirates to defend Nassau against that threat, and basically establish themselves as a rich colony the empires won't fuck with. This is treated by the show like a reasonably serious proposition. So why does it fall apart? You can buy anything with that kind of money, can't you?
Now we get to the problem of form. Gold is only useful if you can exchange it for stuff you need. This is a problem for the pirates on two different fronts, defense specifically and trade in general.
In terms of defense, the pirates would need, very quickly, enough ships and guns to fight at least one imperial navy. But only the major powers were capable of manufacturing those ships and guns. Even if the pirates bought up all they could in terms of well-armed merchant ships/found a corrupt governor or two to buy guns and powder from, it would always be a losing battle because no matter how much money you throw at them, the powers that make warships are absolutely not selling you any. Why would they, when they can use them to come take the gold instead?
So, if the pirates aren't going to live long once they have this gold, can they at least spend their last months being filthy rich and enjoying themselves?
Not really.
We see Jack's crew members getting huge shares, everyone else on the island taking payment to help with defense when the time comes, as well as Jack paying laborers exorbitant amounts. So there's plenty to go around right?
This is how inflation happens. If we all suddenly have twice as much gold, but there is no more actual physical stuff, almost instantly the stuff will cost twice as much. This problem at least theoretically could be corrected by increasing trade. [Also, realistically, people would leave. But let's say they're staying for belief in the pirate republic reasons.] Because in the wider economy of trade in the Atlantic money is still valued normally, you can just import what you need.
And, maybe. This is more plausible than the rest.
But that sort of correction takes time, and given the whole 'war with civilization' situation, there can't be legitimate and sanctioned trade. It's pretty hard to get enough illegitimate goods in for an economy to prosper --- especially because if you're relying on black market trade during wartime, notoriously there ends up being price gouging and then you're back to square one with inflation.
In conclusion: the show does not get bogged down by this, as it shouldn't. It's fine. But yeah, the gold is fake and makes no sense, and Flint and Jack especially are borderline delusional about what it can achieve for them.
*This is actually not as impressive as I wanted it to be, once I started looking up reference points, eg, how much outstanding student debt is there? how much money does besos have? how much is defense spending? Did y'all know we should fight capitalism and eat the rich?
#they all would have been better off if it had been a tenth as much money#this is also making me think about the scale of revolution issues#killing some magistrates is fine and useful#sacking boston is for real a bad plan#black sails#anon ask#i'm having a great time thank you for the ask I love these#ps new chapter will be out soon!#maybe a week or two
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I saw in the tags you mentioned spideypool fic recs 👂 I'm listening
breaking the DC streak to go to Marvel because fun fact I've been into DC for six months and into Marvel comics for eight years so
anyway a majority of my spideypool bookmarks are from 2015 and I have no idea if most of them are any good which is an interesting problem to have but I still have a solid list for y'all
Say Anything...Except That - I was following this from the first chapter and I'm now mutuals with the author which was very fanboy moment for me (if you're seeing this, hi!). it has a lot of old school fanfiction.net quirks to it which might be a bit difficult to swallow if you've only been reading fic for a few years, but honestly I think this fic is really good and holds up to this day. it's been a while since I read it last but iirc Deadpool has to protect Spider-Man or Peter from assassination attempts and there's a lot of pining involved. also mattfoggy ended up having a nice arc because this was 2015 and Daredevil had just aired (this is technically incomplete there's one chapter left but if I had to reread it multiple times when there were only like ten chapters you can handle it)
under attack - more fics by people who are wayyy too cool to have followed me back and yet somehow did? anyway this is part of stackthedeck's team red slash series (ELITE ship fyi) but this one is spideypool focused and has some nice fluff. fighting as flirting idk what else to say it's golden
#NoPlaceLikeHome - do y'all know ask-spiderpool? you should it's one of the best blogs on this damn website and a must-read for spideypool shippers. anyway this is that version of spideypool's first time together which is cute :D short and sweet basically. sciderman has a lot of fics for the spiderman fandom in general and their ask-spiderpool au in particular and they're all worth reading
Dissonance - another longfic that took half a decade to write about deadpool protecting spider-man from harm. I actually don't know why this trope is so good peter really can defend himself but there you go
Perfect Enough - ohm y gOD this fic series is so good. this au hinges on such a tiny difference in peter's history but it makes ALL the difference. anyway in this world basically nobody has a functional secret identity anymore except for spider-man. meanwhile, wade wilson and peter parker start dating. so much plot, two separate longfics each around 140k, good luck this CONSUMED my life
speaking of consumed, rippling - this is part of a series called Into the Multiverse and is based on the Spiderverse film so it's Peter B. which I LOVE (spideybpool FUCKS). the series spun out of the authors' other series and it is, in fact, a pain to read the main entries in the series without reading the other serieses which means that I did spend two weeks doing little to nothing except reading deniigiq's work, but a. it was worth b. this one can be read as a standalone! wade jumps in front of a bullet for peter b and he angsts about it I love it
finally ahem speaking of Peter B, did you know I've been writing spideypool fic since 2015 and I wrote one specifically for spiderverse? I'm a mess (but I'm the mess that you wanted) is really a mix of spiderverse and comic canon like, five years into the future, and deals mostly with like, depression and suicidal ideation on Peter's behalf, but hey there's also a plot AND a happy polyam ending which, what else could you want really
anyway sorry the list isn't longer I didn't bookmark so many of my favorite spideypool fics and now they're lost in the void forever :/
#my team red or defenders folder is massive but so much of it is just daredevil#randomly I have five separate fics saved for jessica jones/matt murdock and I don't even know their ship name#anyway I accidentally clicked post instead of schedule so have fun with this like three hours earlier than intended#spideypool#spideybpool#marvel#marvel comics#spiderverse#fic recs#marvel fic#gail speaks#ask#anonymous
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Hi Kin. I wanted to ask, how did you manage things like writer's block or creative burnout while writing JTTA? I'm midway through a longfic now and it's kind of exhausting. I feel like I'm whining but I barely get any comments or asks or anything.
hi anon! honestly i'm not sure if i was the right person to ask this, because i... kind of didn't? as in, i didn't really have these problems - boring answer, i know!
i got lucky because i hit a sweet spot where the base story and characters were strong, but with just enough gaps in plot, worldbuilding, development, etc. such that the momentum of filling everything in carried me through the whole process. but there were definitely a lot of occasions where i sat there thinking "okay i have no idea what to do now"
in those cases, often i had to just step back and ruminate on it for a little while - i've pretty much constantly got little ideas bouncing around my head, and sometimes they hit each other like snowballs and form into more fully-fledged plot points, scenes, dialogue, so on. i try to keep track of these in notes apps, personal discord channels, etc, and dip into them if i'm stuck on something!
not sure if your fic is for obey me, but this could still apply even if not - with all the pop quizzes and devilgrams that put the characters in a bunch of new contexts, it's helpful seeing how that character's static vs dynamic traits persist/change depending on them, and often that'll give you inspiration as well. depending on what you've got available, you could browse through source material, or brainstorm aus, whichever you enjoy most
i'm really not sure HOW i've stuck with obey me for so long, but somehow it's just stuck with me. i don't remember being so invested in it before jtta, so that's probably why, but i just really love these guys, and i suppose that's why i never burnt out of it? i think it was also because i knew what story i wanted to tell, and i really wanted to make sure ik got her happy ending, and that carried me through as well
seriously, though - do take breaks. every writer's mileage varies, so take a step back whenever you need to. writing fics should be fun! sometimes it does feel like a chore, and it becomes more like 'the only thing i hate more than writing is not writing', but it happens to all of us. sometimes you've just got to rest until your second wind comes along
in terms of comments and such... yeah, it's a tough one! the unfortunate thing is that a vast majority of readers - even if they really enjoyed your writing! - won't leave a comment. don't take this as a direct reflection on your writing! often the reader can't think of what to say, is too shy, or quite simply forgot
again though... i'm not sure if i'm the best person to ask for advice here! i started publishing jtta without much expectation for an audience, given the genre of game it's written for, so any attention was more a nice surprise than anything. i suppose that, later on, when the fic was more well-established, i did start holding some expectation of response - and it really is tough when you don't get as much of one as you were hoping for
i've seen people talking about how the ask culture on tumblr has died down a lot in recent times, so i'm sure you're not the only one feeling like this! all i can suggest is trying to find more friends (mutuals?) and... networking, i guess? i've seen advice saying to share your fic within communities of writers, too
i can't honestly say if these things'll work, because i'm very bad about interacting with a wider fandom in anything - i usually keep to myself, so often i don't have much of an expectation for how and when people come chat. as in real life, i'm only a chatterbox when approached first haha
i'm not sure how helpful this has been, but i'm rooting for you! if you'd like to share your fic here, please do - though i understand if that's something you'd rather keep to yourself as well.
creating things is a joy - it might take some searching to find a circle, but the beauty of the internet is that you will, somewhere out there! wishing you the best ^^
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re sterek i feel crazy and you might be one of the only people to understand you see i love sterek but it seems like it's literally for reasons no one else does like. they DO hate and disrespect each other they have personalities and histories that clash horribly and neither of them know how to communicate at all?? derek would be triggered four times per conversation with stiles and never say anything they would have the worst most embarrassing cringefail thing going on and everyone would suffer as a result and yet no one writes them like this. instead they're like doing aftercare and shit. sad
i do love when they interact. it's so fun. i love a good old fashioned back and forth suicide baiting. in many lights. they are mac and charlie esque. by transitive property. this might make them jeff and britta esque? what i'm saying. wht i've said before. is that they're capable of being either end in the "oh i'm gay but he's not my boyfriend because i can do much better than him" "oh really. then why don't you, mac?" mac and charlie fake their deaths also very sterek to me. stiles saying ummm derek i think you can crash the car yourself i dont think i need to be in there. and then derek rams a car straight into a brick wall and stiles goes oh holy shit when derek forgets to jump out and instead stumbles out concussed and covered in blood. go to the pawn shop and purchase. one. a grenade. two. poppers. three. a wedding dress because derek can't stop talking about how said it is to be a wedding dress in a pawn shop. again i've said all this before. very much an ESH print this out and show a therapist. but 2012 was not ready for this dynamic. so instead longfic is all HEAVY stiles angst and also derek is there and has never had a problem in his life and is playing bemused and or sympathetic to stiles' gay disaster. and short fic is all. stiles calls derek sourwolf. fill in 5k around this. boo hiss. boo hiss!
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just... thinking about my life tonight. feeling very (pleasantly) surprised with where im at rn. kinda heavy in the stuff it references but very positive overall
this time last year, i believe i was still getting high like... all the time. and that'd been going on for many, many years by then. most of my time in college i was getting high as soon as i got home.
and i don't really resent it - frankly, it helped keep me alive through some very rough times. but at the end, i didn't feel alive, either. just sorta... moving but absent. it was getting to the point that i didn't recognize myself. couldn't keep any friendships bc i was so scared of fucking up bc i knew i was living in a haze.
eventually i just hit a wall with it. started tapering off, expecting to pick it back up, but i just... never did. at the time, i didn't know if i'd ever write again, if i'd ever get my creative energy back, or if i'd lost it all.
(note: i'm not telling anyone what to do, i'm not judging, nothing like that; this is just my personal relationship with substance use)
but the thing is... here i am? the fact that i've written so much is remarkable in and of itself, like i feel a huge sense of pride and satisfaction with that, but the fact that i've written so much, that it's good, that it's the kind of nuanced, deep, complex writing i've always been scared to do... and all this after i thought i'd lost it all? that's like... it's hard to even believe sometimes.
but here i am. and things are still hard, of course. in a lot of ways, the underlying problems that i started using drugs to cope with are still there. but it's different now, because i know enough about myself, about life, about coping mechanisms, about focus and perception and all these things, that i can approach life differently even with many of the same burdens. and it's just... wild to me.
i'm writing fic. in fact, i've been writing a minimum of 500 words a day for over 100 days - well over, really, but i wasn't always tracking it. i'm writing one of the biggest fics i've ever written, and easily the best and most cohesive longfic i've ever written. i'm learning to draw??? like where tf did that come from? but it did, and i'm here, and i'm letting myself engage with it lightly, without undue pressure. trying to learn to not see the problems, trying to learn to trust the process, and overall just... engaging with creative outlets for the sake of engaging with creative outlets. i'm rping with my friends! i'm doing an exchange event for the first time in my life! i'm just... interacting and engaging in ways i haven't been able to for so, so long
and i'm talking to people! i'm beginning to open up and learn how to socialize again! sometimes it's awkward and i feel like i've fucked up but i'm accepting that part of it, too. being human is messy, communication is messy, all of it is... but it's worthwhile, too.
idk. there was a huge stretch of years there that were just... empty. before that, so much that was incredibly painful. and after that, still a lot that has been incredibly painful. things haven't necessarily "gotten better," but i've still gotten better.
just really thinking about that tonight. it's nice.
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Hey! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember you mentioning a few times that you use Scrivener to write? I have been thinking about switching my writing software in the future (I mean I like Word but I don't like the subscription model at all and would like to avoid it in the future lol). If you want, would you mind telling me a bit about what it's like to actually use? I want to learn a bit more before I would commit to anything ^.^"
Sure! I'm always glad to spread the gospel of scrivener!
So here's what my workspace looks like at the moment (there's a bit of a graphic torture scene on there rn but you don't have to read that):
As you can see, there's a lot of tabs and such. It's not organized like a typical word processor. With stuff like Word, every discrete document needs its own file. You can either put Chapter 2 right after Chapter 1 in the wip.docx, or you can create wipchapter1.docx and wipchapter2.docx. Not so with Scrivener. All of my Death Note fic is in the same project — whether its a oneshot or a longfic, I just have to open up that file to write it. As you can see on the left, I have a bunch of different documents for each chapter of Metempsychosis, along with a few documents for snippets, cuts and notes. You can sort those documents into folders as well. It's SO convenient to be able to tab quickly between chapters and notes without having to scroll or open like 17 different files. But if you do need to open different files...as you can see at the top, I've got a bunch more projects open, each with tons of their own documents. If you open an existing project from the File menu, it'll open in a new tab in the desktop you're using. This makes it insanely easy to navigate between projects and navigate between different documents within projects.
There are tons more features, too. Like, on the right is synopsis and notes — you can add a synopsis to each document and write notes about what you're writing. You can also add comments. You can also set project word count goals, either daily or for the project, and set deadlines. Your progress will then show up in a satisfying yet unobtrusive little colored bar at the top as you write. You can open your documents in a notecard view and rearrange them into color-coded timelines — great for stories with multiple points of view. And I don't even use all the features Scrivener has to offer, there's many more.
There are downsides, however. The way the documents are all in the same file makes exporting a lot more complicated. It's still possible to, say, save a single document as a PDF, but it's not as simple as it is in other word processors. Also, it doesn't divide your text into pages. (At least, not by default — there might be an option to have it do that, I don't know). This can be great for workflow, but it means that you can't do stuff like page numbers or headers. There's also the fact that, simply by virtue of not being Word or Google Docs, it's not going to slot well into any professional, class or collaborative work because you're not using the standard file format. This also means that, if you're submitting your creative writing professionally, working in Scrivener will create some problems you'll have to solve. I don't use Scrivener for any of my journalism or class work, just creative writing.
It's also pretty much impossible to get collaborator comments and feedback without just like, putting your text into another word processor. Scrivener does have a function to sync between devices. I recommend avoiding it. It's janky as hell and for some reason uploading an ace attorney fic to that sync function caused one of the documents to contract all of the between-paragraph spaces upon opening the file. No idea why.
So, in conclusion, Scrivener does not work very well as an all-purpose word processor, but it's not trying to. It's trying to be a good workspace for creative writing, and it does a very good job at that. Also, it's a one-time payment that's sometimes on sale, so that's nice.
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Fanfic Friday!
I still don't completely understand it, so this week I'm just gonna reflect on things that happened while writing this arranged marriage longfic, some of which I posted about on here and some of which I didn't.
I gave up on the Soup Paragraphs that were haunting me and realized I can introduce them later if I must.
I got in some "let go and let god" practice when I realized I don't have to get every little throwaway detail right, especially when it slows down my progress/makes writing miserable.
My therapist wants me to see about applying this Free Yourself skill in my non-writing life, to which I say I know you are but what am I
Characters put themselves in situations without my input and it was great!
Ceremonies are hard to write but at least I now know what Ed and Stede would be like if they were kids in a school play.
I started watching Rome again after thinking about it last week in the wake of the cancelation (I've had it on DVD for years). Still problematic in the way something made in 2005 will be, but otherwise it holds up incredibly well.
I've also stopped caring as much about all the people using the world's problems as a bludgeon against OFMD fans and the campaign to to save the show. For all the reasons other people have already articulated well but also, on a personal note, because of what this show has done for my relationship with writing.
I won't get into too much detail but suffice it to say I have a lot of baggage around writing, because of all the "gifted" nonsense of my childhood and my MFA experience as an adult. I don't blame anyone per se, but unhelpful social frameworks were unhelpful. Let's just say that when Pop-Pop said "if you were ever good at anything go do that" to Ed, it didn't not remind me of feeling obligated to do something that used to be rewarding but isn't anymore because it's what you're "supposed" to do. Anyway.
I wrote three short (<2000 word) fics between seasons 1&2, the first fic I've felt like writing in over a decade. It was liberating as hell to write again in a low-stakes environment, and with blorbo motivation to power me through the difficult parts. I never, ever thought I would write anything longer than 2000 words, but for the past (several?) weeks now I've been alternating between two drafts in tropes I can't get enough of, the shortest of which is around 10,000 (admittedly unedited) words.
The other is longer, and every time I work on it I keep having to break shit up so the chapters stay under 5000 words. This is unprecedented for me, and I've wanted to share it so much that I'm running out of shit to post on WIP Wednesday that won't reveal the plot or require too much context. I've never been in a fandom as creative (and creatively inspiring) as this one, nor have I every written so much in a single fandom before.
My relationship with writing wouldn't be healing like this at all if it weren't for this show and this fandom, and in particular I want to highlight the freedom in embracing the "David Jenkins School of Historical Inaccuracy." In fact, I've been keeping a running list of AO3 tags for the fic I've made the most progress on, and there are several "David Jenkins School of ________" tags, including Archaeology, Theology, and Comparative Politics. Thanks to seeing DJ's philosophy at work it's now possible for me to move on from certain details when I get stuck because they're "inaccurate" for the setting or whatever in a way I never could before. Now I feel empowered to move on from tricky details by asking myself:
Is it funny?
Is it related to the plot?
Is it character-building?
And if the answer to all of those is no, then so is the answer to question 4: "does it matter?"
Assuming I finish these longfics they'll be the longest creative pieces I've ever written and beyond the longest works of fiction I ever thought I would write, and for that I'm eternally grateful. Even if the world we live in is a crumbling disaster. Especially if the world we live in is a crumbling disaster.
#ofmd#our flag means death#renew as a crew#save ofmd#fanfic friday#WIP it good#edward teach#ofmd meta#fandom meta#writing process#writing woes#fic writing#arranged marriage AU#ancient rome AU (sorta)
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Beta needed! 🥺
Got one! Thanks for all the reblogs!
I'm looking for someone to beta read a Good Omens longfic. It's over 110k words and still unfinished, it's mpreg (well, m-shaped-being-preg), it's Explicit, and it's Ineffable Husbands post-S2.
I've been writing for A While, and SPAG isn't a significant problem area for me. What I need help with is making sure the ineffables and co. are IC, wrangling plot and subplots and some OCs, working in a bit more humor, and maybe leveling up my writing style a bit. Ideally, I'm looking for someone who will very gently, kindly, and lovingly rip my writing apart and then help me put it back together again, but I'm flexible...except about the gentle/kind/etc. bit. Like all writers, I am but a delicate flower, lmao.
Some more details under the cut:
Rough Summary: In an attempt to postpone the-end-of-everything-for-realsies-this-time, Aziraphale gets Heaven on board with the idea of the Second Coming starting out with a baby who's born and grows up on Earth instead of the whole Instant Judgment, Just Add Jesus Thing. Thinking that there's no way in Heaven anyone will ever agree, he also volunteers to be the one who carries and raises the child...which has exactly the result all of us in Fanficland expect.
He goes back to Earth because pregnancy sucks, Crowley's protective instincts kick in as soon as he finds out, various things happen, some demons want to jumpstart the next war, etc. etc.
Content notes: Male-presenting angel pregnancy with some semi-forced pregnancy elements, detailed pregnancy symptoms and grossness and the like, an ftm human OC who was previously pregnant, brief mentions of transphobia, panic attacks, Aziraphale grappling with his loss of faith in Heaven and God, discussion of abortion, acts of violence against a pregnant angel (he's fine, kid's fine), threats of taking the kid away and giving them up for adoption (he gets to keep them—I'm a happy ending kind of person)
Anyone interested? 🥺 I know this is a biiiiiig ask, but I'd really appreciate some help. Thank you! 💖
(Reblogs also appreciated 💖)
#good omens#aziraphale x crowley#aziraphale#crowley#ineffable husbands#reblogs appreciated too!#beta needed#beta request#beta reader needed#aziracrow#azicrow#crowley x aziraphale#mpreg
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You might have answered this before, BUT I’m a recent follower and curious ok!! Generally speaking, what is your writing process like? I’m genuinely so impressed by how many different fics you’ll have going simultaneously and they’re all updated SO frequently. AND THEY’RE ALL SO GOOD?? Like do you have vague plans/outlines or drafts that you expand on/edit? Your accountability post will mention writing a few thousand words and then there’s an update the same day and it’s written so well lmao it blows my MIND bc it seems like you just come up with the plot on the fly and then casually write a lil masterpiece after work like it’s nbd. All of this to say I appreciate your work so much ♥️
<3
So uh, to start off with, I'm guessing when you say you recently started following me, you're probably just reading my HRPF fics? I SAY that/ask that because I've bounced through a few fandoms and I kind of go back and forth between being VERY prolific and finishing up projects and kind of... losing steam.
To be fair to me and not to scare anyone off, before this year I have, for the last decade and change, been juggling two full time jobs, part time work, childcare and a lot of volunteer work PLUS trying to write so like, I'm cutting myself some slack on abandoned projects. Because I'm finally down to 1 full time job and 1 part time gig that is only during the summer. I will ALSO say, in December I switched meds for my anxiety/depression so I'm on a new dose, new meds for the first time in 5 years and I do think that's been really impactful in a positive way.
SO, exposition and TMI out of the way:
I wish I could say I had a really clear process that I follow every time, but I don't want to lie. I create docs with notes - I'm thinking about including those as an epilogue chapter on the fics I'm currently working on, if anyone is interested in my scribbles aside from myself and my beta - and SOMETIMES I create outlines. A lot of the time, I will write a chapter or two and THEN create the outline? That's what happened with Gold Rush, but also with Gold Rush, I have already deviated from the outline like... a lot.
I'm trying to be way more chill with myself than I used to be. I was in this deep grind of forcing myself to be productive because that's where my value was (@kangofu-cb is a real one and has been trying to beat this out of me for years. Beating with love). And I'll be honest, being kinder to myself and putting less pressure is, like, so far, so good.
I usually have about, like... a dozen or so fic ideas in my head at any one time (@dwisp can attest to the DAILY messages of 'hear me out' as can @kangofu-cb), but I uh, I really feel 4 long fic is my simultaneous max.
I also have a problem with like, so if you DO want to read some of my not HRPF stuff, I think a good primer is the WinterhawkHood month I did in October with a fic a day, and the consistent issue is: I feel like I'm really good at creating a premise and that premise wants to exist beyond 2-5k. So longfic is probably the format to best tell the stories I want to tell, but, like, writing shorter fic is a lot of fun? That also does NOT answer your question.
Oh! MUSIC! It's so so so so important to my process. I used to put on specific artists, like really get into a singular vibe for a fic. But these days it's just my routine sleepy sad girl playlists (name coined by a former assistant and like she wasn't wrong). Which also probably explains how much sad sack Leon there is in my current fics. I should probably like, get some new playlists going...
Uh, in terms of like, my style/my ideas... so my professional life is theatre adjacent, and I think because of that, dialogue and THE INCITING INCIDENT are really important to me. So usually any fic idea forms around the kernal of the meet ugly and some choice words.
Like, for Gold Rush, I absolutely started from the idea of Leon being a bitch to the press and getting a text from an unknown number/Matthew and it just grew from there.
For Playing Favorites, I absolutely wanted to have former camboy Vince realize his new... work colleague??? Adam Larsson knew he was a former camboy. Which is funny because that moment happens in the middle of the fic (which I AM going to update again soon, y'all might vote consistently for Gold Rush in the polls but this weekend I think it's gotta be some love for my two Lars&Dunn fics).
For Northern Attitude, that inciting incident is, uh, about to occur in ch4 that I'm currently working on. And it's. Well. Yeah. So I got the idea for that 'scene' if you will first and then figured it out backwards?
For Wildfire that, too, has an inciting incident that has yet to make it into a chapter. But she's coming soon.
So really, only Gold Rush started as the beginning as far as ideas went for me? That said, I still START at the beginning when I write. I used to scribble down scenes and then piece them in, but I honestly found it constrained me more than anything else and I'm aware that doesn't make much sense.
I feel like this entire answer is a total nonanswer of me just blathering away. I hope at least part of this is what you wanted and uh... sincerely? Thank you for asking. It means a lot and like, my process is weird and inconsistent but I do genuinely love to talk about my writing.
#wow#talk about yourself more#no but thanks for the ask#this was a lot about me#sorry to anyone who def did not want to read this
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As a longfic writer I can say burnout on the story happens more than people think. So how do I get past it to continue on? Simple, I work on something else for a bit. That's why I have a buffer of chapters ready to post for my longfic.
So what do I do when I'm burnt out from writing in general? I take a break.
Do I feel guilty? Yep...but I also have to remind myself that I'm just a person and I'm writing my story for fun. I remind myself that I have no problem waiting when others have to do the same. Hell, I have one fic that I am subbed to that is listed as 'Discontinued', yet I still hope to one day see that 'New chapter has been posted' notification. I can only hope that's how my readers are (and if someone chooses to stop following, I have to remember that it was their choice and had nothing to do with me personally).
Now being burnt out doesn't mean I stop thinking about my stories. It just means I don't have the energy/brainpower/time to convert them from ideas into coherent sentences on a page.
It also doesn't mean something little doesn't suddenly come along and fill my head with brainrot. (where do you think all my WiP's come from?)
Why am I writing all of this?
1- Because I can.
2- Even though I am suffering a bit of burnout, 'A Symptom of Being Human' by Shinedown is making me brainrot hard about the relationship between longfic AU Atem and Bakura.
3- I felt like sharing that with everyone.
#random stuff#longfic writer things#so many scenarios in my head atm#i need to find ways to make them into something coherent#brain is also screaming because it wants to work on new tkb chapter#but the blinky line boss is just too hard to beat atm
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Clarissa oxenfree for the character ask game? still love how you write her :]
General opinion/How much I care about them: she's like! My second favorite Oxenfree character! Right after Alex! I think a lot of this has to do with Avital Ash having an incredible voice and bringing a lot to the character but it's also bc her role in the narrative is so much juicier than the other NPCs. She's such a bitch to Alex, but you see a lot of warmth she shows to the people she cares about (Michael, Nona) and the duality there is so interesting. Plus she's so fucking haunted and she dies so gruesomely so many times and the ghosts want her soooooo bad and I think that's neat
A ship I love: I mean personally when it comes to the stuff I write it's Alex/Clarissa all the way. But I like her past relationship with Michael a lot too
A non-romantic relationship that I love: Clarissa/Nona friendship is sooooooo cute. They love each other! Clarissa salvaged Nona's birthday! They came out to this dumb fuckin island party together! Also I think Ren/Clarissa would have been fun to see more of - friend downgraded to creepy neighbor was a really fun line
The NOTP: uh idk. The only ppl I really see her shipped with ever are Alex, Michael and Nona and I'm basically fine with all of those?
My biggest headcanon about them: she is bi and she usually goes for bad boy/aloof types so Michael was an outlier for her.
An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: (if I have none in my WIPs I'll make one up on the spot!) So there was this one longfic idea I really wanted to write for a while that was post-game Off The Island. Alex and Clarissa, having been the biggest targets of the ghosts are still dealing with aftereffects that the others aren't and they're basically hiding it from everyone. It manifests in different ways - Alex is possessed by the spirits of the Kanaloa victims. She slips into their memories, is influenced by their personalities, experiences hallucinations, etc.
Clarissa's haunting is bodily, trauma she suffered on the island echoing out across timelines. She wakes up with bruises, spits out bits of glass, you see her from the corner of your eye and her neck is fully broken, you blink and she's fine (ngl part of the point of this was just to give me an excuse to do a little bit of horror). Alex and Clarissa realize they're both dealing with a similar problem and team up to figure out how to help each other. They also have weird guilt ridden UST about it. Actually this last week I was going through some old WIPs and found part of this fic I think I could post as just a standalone so look out for that this weekend/early next week.
Something that makes me think of them: (a song, a character in another fandom, an animal, anything) "Some are Lakes" by Land of Talk is THE Clarissa/Alex song for me, it's just 100% vibeologically correct. But when it comes to thinking about Clarissa on her own I think she'd be a cold wave/dark wave type of girlie. Cold Cave, Tempers, Light Asylum, etc
#ty for giving me an excuse to talk about clarissa oxenfree! i love Clarissa Oxenfree!!!!#clarissa oxenfree#tee hee hee [twirls my hair]
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