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Submissions Closed

Hey guys. This blog regularly receives asks with submissions in them, despite submissions being closed. Please refrain from sending in submissions as asks, as they will just be deleted.

Sorry about the inconvenience!

#announcement

littleredwritinghoodsclub

Hello Campers!

It's July, which means camp Camp NaNoWriMo has officially started. If you're looking for fun and relaxing activities to boost your creativity than come join us in our writing adventure.

We have activities planned for every day this month excluding Tuesdays and Thursdays. Some will be writing prompts/sprints, and others will be more artistic like moodboards. If that sounds interesting then please join our server and follow our tumblr posts to see what activities we are doing each day!

If you're not part of the club already and are interested in writing with us, then check out our info post about our discord server here.

#promotion #writeblr

ao3commentoftheday

Do you have any advice and how to write a long fic?

I'll encourage long fic writers to add on in the notes, but as someone who tends to prefer short and medium-length fic, I'll tell you how I go about it.

Get a premise that you just absolutely love. You're going to be writing this thing for months, if not longer, so you want it to be something you're willing to spend a lot of time thinking about.

Embrace subplots. You'll have your main plotline that you want to see through from beginning to end, but you can also weave in some subplots here or there. The way I do this so that I don't get lost down a rabbit hole is that I always make sure that every chapter has at least 1 thing that moves the main plot forward and then if I want to spend 1-2K with some side characters doing something fun I can do that as well. Subplots can extend for the length of the full narrative, but they can also just last a chapter or three. If you're used to writing short fic, these might give you that familiar feeling of "completion"

A chapter is only as long as it needs to be. Don't get hung up on having a consistent chapter length. Don't get hung up on hitting some arbitrary number every time. Instead, figure out what the next part of your story needs to include and write however many words it takes to get that chunk across. Varying your chapter lengths is a normal thing to do and not something to stress about.

The next thing that I find important personally may or may not be relevant to you, but I find that I can't plot anything in much detail. If I get too into the nitty gritty with my plotting, it just feels like I've already written it. I need to keep it at the level of "And then A and B meet C and hijinks ensue." I can figure out the particular hijinks later. It's the characters meeting up that's the next important thing for me to figure out. Getting too far ahead of myself is a death knell for me in writing long fics, but there are other writers who swear by it. Test out different ways of approaching it and see what works for you.

As someone who tends to write more briefly, another feature that's common to longer fics is more extensive descriptions. People spend time painting visual pictures of the setting or the characters or the actions that are happening. Write the more bare-bones style that focuses more on dialogue (if you're like me) and then go back and read through what you've just written and see if there are opportunities to add in more detail. This can lead to some really interesting characterization choices and also help you out with worldbuilding.

When it comes to worldbuilding, you don't have to get it all on the page. You just need to share what's relevant for the reader in that moment and what is useful to lay out now so that it's already there in a future chapter. You can have an encyclopedic knowledge of how your world works in your head, but it's not actually necessary. No one is going to be quizzing you later - and if they do, you can always figure it out at that point.

Most important for me when I'm trying to get myself to the end of a longer fic, have a friend or a group of friends who are also into what you're writing - or at least willing to hear you get excited about it. Being able to get excited about your work is so important. It's like a bottle of water being handed to you on mile 10 of a marathon.

chocolatepot

I'm the opposite for point 4. I used to plot out longer stories/fics and outline with things like "chapter 5: they get more comfortable together" and then go ????? when I got to it.

Now I might put that in initially when planning out the basic structure of a fic, to figure out the pacing, but once I get to chapter 5 I stop and write a new outline just for that chapter. Something like:

Mary is sewing while Olive is working on a spell across the room

Thinks about mother and what she's cooking up

Tired, puts down needle - Olive notices

She asks Olive to show her what she's doing

Olive sits down by her (cute moment, Mary gets flustered by proximity)

Teaches her about spell, Mary thinks she's being very nice

Olive unbends and shows a little more affection

If I come to a note that just indicates mood or a general goal of the scene, it's too vague. I feel overwhelmed and like I can't write something this big. But an outline like this is a ladder that will help me climb the wall instead of staring at the top of it.

nire-the-mithridatist

My success rate isn't great with writing longer fics but I always want to/have one in my WIPs somehow, lmao. I find that it also helps to not write it alone. Writing in isolation is so very exhausting. Get yourself a friend who likes your writing and you can show snippets of your WIP to them. You can brainstorm plot points with them. Bonus points if you're their hype person in return, and you can organize writing sessions together. I'd never have finished any of the multi-chapters I finished if I didn't have friends to hold my hand through it. Anyway. Hope that helps!

sdwolfpup

I agree with a lot of the above (and especially nire's and chocolatepot's points), but one of the first things I always think when I see someone asking how to write long fics like this is: why do you want to write a long fic?

If it's because you have an idea that needs the space and time to develop, then cool. If it's because you want to challenge yourself and try out a longform format, awesome. But if it's just because you feel like you should, that somehow a long fic is more valid, then my advice boils down to: a story should be as long as it needs to be. If you can tell the story you want coherently in short form, with the emotional impact that you're aiming for, then do that and try to ignore the misplaced shoulds. A story is not better or more valuable just because it's long. (A sentiment I stand behind completely as someone who too often finds herself writing 100k+ fics.)

My advice for actually writing long fic is to remember and refine your overarching emotional arc(s) at all times and to resist the urge to throw in subplots just because you like them if they're going to mess up the pacing of your story. Pacing a long fic is critically important and intensely difficult, especially in the middle. Ask yourself what purpose each scene serves as you write it. If you discover that you're duplicating something you've already done, figure out whether it can shed new light on the characters or plot or if you might have to let it go.

(Also at some point in every long fic, I want to throw it away. Every single time. A few times I nearly have. Don't give in, that's just the monsters speaking. You can do this, just take a breath and take a break and come back to it later.)

icannotreadcursive

I think my biggest advice is don’t write a longfic just because you want to write a longfic. Write a longfic because the fic you want to write is long.

This is closely related to point 1 above.

But I very rarely plot out a whole story before I write it—I’ve conflicted with several writing teachers over it. I can’t do it in much detail at all and I usually can’t plan the end until I’ve already written the first third or so, I have to find the story as I write it.

This means I SUCK at predicting what length something is going to be with any kind of precision.

I can, however, usually tell if a fic is more a self-contained one-off (be it a one shot or a limited set of chapters) or something that’s gonna run for a while (either novel-like or more episodically serialized).

Either way, though, you kinda have to just let the fic become whatever length it ends up needing to be in order to tell the story you’re trying to tell.

If a story you expected and planned to have be a 50k+ longfic wraps itself up closer to the 20k mark, that’s okay! If you’ve written the whole thing before posting any (rather than doing it as a serialized WIP), then by all means take a couple editing passes, see if there’s places to flesh out details, add some scenes, explore some plot threads you didn’t pull on the first time through.

But don’t force it to double in length just because you want to have written something long. You’re gonna drive yourself nuts, make yourself unhappy with a perfectly good story, and probably end up with something that’s boggy and draggy for readers.

Let the story be the length it is.

For all you know the next one will run away and snowball epic lengths.

#writing advice

Tumblr URL: @mikeellee

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Language: English

Genre: Romance, drama.

Pairing(s) (if any): Shigadeku (Izu is a girl in this one. The age difference is 3 years)

Rating: M-it will have some blood and maybe sex but not at first chapters.

Warnings: this is a time travel fic where shig is throw back in time and has a second chance. However, while Shig did change he won't hesitated in kill. His mission is to prevent Izu's life to be miserable as canon went

Completed: No

Current length: one chapter ready yet

Predicted end length (If not already completed): not completed

Title : N/A

Bio: Tomura Shigaraki is throw back in time thanks to a whim, a suicidal attack of a NPC. It leads him to his past as Tomura is face to face with his family. His mission is to prevent Izu's life to be as miserable as it was in the "future" but as he goes...will his presence change the canon events?

What you wish the beta reader to help you with: aside grammar bc it will have some mistakes here and there...I want opinions on how the story goes.

Link: N/A

#story #submission #wmha #wenglish #mikeellee

ao3commentoftheday

Heads up for anyone who didn't already know: popularity doesn't equal quality.

Sometimes popular things are also quality. Sometimes quality things are also popular. But those are two different metrics on two different scales.

What you see as "good" will depend on which scale you value more in any given moment for any particular creation, and in the end neither popularity nor quality are what matters most.

What matters most is your own enjoyment.

writingwithcolor

What is Tokenism?

Tokenism refers to giving the empty appearance of inclusivity or diversity, often to avoid criticism. In writing, tokenism refers to adding minorities to an otherwise homogenous cast (think a cast of white male characters in the West) in name or appearance only, without putting in the effort to develop these characters.

The problem with tokenism is that token characters are forced to be the sole representation of their particular group. The consequence is twofold. First, undeveloped token characters often become platforms for stereotypes. Think the sassy Black friend, the smart Asian friend, etc.

Second, token characters often become creator mouthpieces. Many of us have heard someone excuse their racism by saying they have a POC friend. The token character, the proverbial Friend of Color, can be made to excuse or even promote biases about their race, ethnicity, or culture.

There is no inherent issue with having only one of a particular identity, or having a white protagonist and a POC best friend. The problem comes when you make the character a spokesperson for their identity and/or saddle them with stereotypes and cliches. To avoid tokenism, write the character from a place of empathy, make them three dimensional, do your research on their identity, and avoid stereotypes.

Further Reading:

See our #coding tag.

---

This Q&A is an excerpt from our General FAQ for Newcomers, which can be found in our new Masterpost of rules and FAQs. Check it out for more FAQs like this one!

-Writing With Color

writingwithcolor

WWC Rules | Guidelines | FAQ

Welcome to the WritingWithColor Askbox Masterpost!

Table of Contents:

1. The Ask Tutorial (Guidelines and Tips for a good ask)

Topic & Content Rules

How to Write an Ask We’ll Answer!

2. FAQs and Area-Specific Guides

General FAQ for Newcomers

FAQs by Topic

Specific Recommended Reading

3. Etiquette for the Blog and Asks

A Disclaimer to our International Readers

The WWC Code of Conduct

4. Moving Forward

Where we started

In the summer of 2014, bookworm Colette Aburime founded WritingWithColor, WWC for short, to help writers add diverse representation of People of Color (POC) to their creative works, with a focus on Western fiction. At the time, the majority white-run advice blogs were unequipped for POC-focused Q&A. Some even banned questions about writing POC outright.

Having a passion for reading, especially books that actually had a variety of BIPOC main characters, she felt compelled to bridge the gap in the writing advice world. Thus, WritingWithColor was born.

Since then, WritingWithColor has gained over 100,000 followers! We are committed as ever to help writers create more respectful, diverse, and inclusive works. With a changing and ever growing team of diverse moderators, we serve a broader demographic to promote thoughtful representation of marginalized groups that are not one’s own.

Where we are now

Generous donations from our readers have allowed us to purchase the domain writingwithcolor.org! With this, we can expand beyond Tumblr and make our resources independent and available for years to come. By revamping the old FAQ ahead of the website opening, we hope to touch base again with our long-time followers, welcome some new faces, and try our best to start everyone on the same page.

In the meantime, we’re sure you have noticed that the blog goes through cycles of inactivity and askbox closures. The most common reason for this is the backlog of questions. The second most common reason is moderator burn-out.

Asking these questions and fielding user feedback is taxing. All moderators work or study full-time in some capacity, and many of us also have households, partners and dependents. Establishing firmer guidelines will help us more consistently provide you with the feedback with which you have generously entrusted us over the years.

Important Notice:

To submit an ask going forward, you will be required to attest that you have read through the required portions of this Masterpost, which doubles as the WWC Terms & Conditions.

DO NOT share the askbox link, as we need all askers to read the Terms and Conditions before you ask a question. Sharing the askbox form link directly will likely result in questions being deleted as we can tell when people haven’t read the required material. Instead, redirect other askers to this post.

We’ve taken the feedback and critiques from many of you over the years about the time it takes to hear from us as well as issues over limitations in our responses. However, please do not use WWC for emergency questions, as answering asks is a time-consuming process.

If the above is clear, please stick with us as we provide you with our recommendations, tips, and guidelines when using the WWC askbox.

Next Section (The Ask Tutorial)

Twilight fanfiction

Tumblr URL: shegoesby-ann Fandom: Twilight Language: English Genre: Romance/ Fantasy Pairing(s) (if any): Edward/Bella Rating : T (light cussing) Warnings: none Completed: no Current length: 19 000 (6 chapters) Predicted end length: 15-20 chapters Title: to be determined Bio: A twilight rewrite that deviates from canon. The vampires are more true to original lore. The sunlight doesn’t burn them, but it reveals their true appearance- grey skin, black eyes, dark circles fangs. Bella is more fleshed out and is initially scared of him and wants to stay away from Edward, when she finds out what he is. What you wish the beta reader to help you with: Plot, any grammar you find that doesn’t work. I’m trying to add a slight horror element to Twilight, while staying somewhat true to the original. I’d also like to develop their feelings for each other so that it feels more natural and has more of a build up. I’ve got a lot of ideas but I’m not sure how to make them work, or what ones I should just scrap. Link: not posted yet

#story #submission #Wenglish #wtwilight #shegoesby-ann

Tumblr URL: tonhalszendvics Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Language: English Genre: General, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with Happy Ending Pairing(s) (if any): canon pairings, but only in the background Rating: T+ (see warnings; nothing is explored in depth enough to require a higher rating) Warnings: conversation about war, genocide, disinterest in the latter (or suspicion of such). Various forms of domestic violence, reference to sexual violence. Child abuse. Degrading terms for intelligence and looks, body shaming. Canon-typical xenophobia and racism. PTSD, anxiety, dissociation, panic attack, gaslighting. Underage alcohol consumption. Murder with no description, but the main characters actively contribute to that, and will think about it later. Completed: No Current length: 31k words/10 chapters Predicted end length: This is a translation. The og Hungarian will end up around 100-120k words, which means the English word count will be ~120-150k. Yes, I also find it ridiculous. Title: Butterfly Effect Bio (100 words max):

“The beating of a butterfly’s wings in the morning causing tornadoes by the afternoon.”

AtLA AU, where a small detail changed many lives. In one world, after that fateful Agni Kai, General Iroh was sent out of the infirmary and he let out his anger on his brother. In this one, he was far away, leaving two children to deal with the immediate aftermath.

What you wish the beta reader to help you with: This is a translation. My native language is not English, and even though I’m trying my best, I’m pretty sure some sentences/parts are… not as good as I’d like them to be. I’d like my beta to check my grammar and – if possible, but not a requirement – be open to talk about sayings and common phrases. I included a bunch lot of those in the original, and while I’m trying to find English equivalents with the same meaning, I’d like to “vibe-check” my final choices. Link: Butterfly Effect on Ao3

#story #submission #Wenglish #watla lok #tonhalszendvics

Tumblr URL: @notasimpleslater

Fandom: Wicked (Musical/Novel)

Language: English

Genre: Romance/Titanic Fusion AU

Pairing(s) (if any): Elphaba/Glinda

Rating: M

Warnings: mild sexual content, nudity, suicide attempt, angst, major character death, period typical homophobia

Completed: N

Current length: 1,131

Predicted end length: 10 chapters, minimum of 1,000 words per chapter

Title: My Heart Will Go On

Bio: There was one person that she met on the Titanic whom she loved very much, who would never have a photograph on the table, as there was none that existed. There were only a few mementos she had left of this person, and even those were starting to fade away. The person who changed her life forever, who saved her life…

Or,

The Gelphie Titanic fusion AU no one asked for, but I think we all need.

What you wish the beta reader to help you with: Grammar, tenses, historical accuracy, sensitivity reader for homophobia

Link: N/A

#story #submission #wwicked #wenglish #notasimpleslater

Beta Reader Form

Tumblr URL: jaimetout Age: 20 Language(s): French, English Original Stories: Y Fanfiction: Y Fandom(s): My Hero Academia, One Piece, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Legends of Neverland, most humour TV shows Preference: Romance, Humour, Refused Content: Poetry, song-fic Strengths: Sentence structure, flow, emotions Weaknesses: Grammar, Brit/American-picking Previous stories written (if any): The Bitterness of Cecilias - Genshin Impact, What the f*ck France - My Hero Academia, numerous one shots -My Hero Academia Anything else you want to say? I’m pretty open to whatever I read so I can beta anything except maybe if it’s a dead dove I personally don’t approve of

#beta #submission #benglish #bfrench #bmha #bone piece #bgenshin #bhsr #blofn

Tumblr URL: lofo-spot Age: 19 Language(s): English Original Stories: N Fanfiction: Y Fandom(s): Harry Potter, Teen Wolf, Hannibal, MCU, X-Men, DC(Batman/BatFam, Green Arrow, the Flash), House of the Dragon, My Hero Academia, The Witcher, Naruto, Supernatural, The Walking Dead, James Bond (Craig), Merlin, Percy Jackson, Criminal Minds, Twilight, The Hobbit, Shadowhunters/Mortal Instruments, Glee, The Magicians, Yuri! On Ice, Jujutsu Kaisen, The Umbrella Academy, FullMetal Alchemist, Omniscient Reader, MDZS/The Untamed, Hunger Games, Fate: Winx Saga Preference: Romance, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with Happy ending, Anything to lovers(enemies, friends, rivals, strangers, etc), Queer/LGBTQ+, Refused Content: Major Character Death that isn’t reversed(They are never revived or come back) Strengths: Research Weaknesses: First Time Beta Reader Previous stories written (if any): N/A Previous stories beta’d (if any): N/A Anything else you want to say?

I do best with being told what is expected of me. An outline or quick rundown of what someone is looking for me to do would be great.

writingwithcolor

Hey folks!

It has been a while! Well, we wanted to announce some big things coming your way!

WWC Askbox: Soft Re-Opening

Wednesday, Nov 1, 2023 to Thursday, Nov 30, 2023

In light of the recent attention WWC has received by the writeblr community, and the reception to our Guide to Academic Research—the mods have decided that we will temporarily reopen to your questions and test some important changes to the site! As you may have noticed, we've taken a much-needed break to catch up on our personal lives and restore our inspiration to answer the hundreds of Q&A that we receive.

Once the submission window is up on Nov 30, we will evaluate how our new system is going, tinker some more, and reopen once again once the construction dust clears.

New Rules and FAQ!

We are pleased to announce our new and improved Masterpost, which we hope will be a more centralized, more informative resource for those new and returning to WWC.

Brand-new FAQs, with new answers and content for further reading

Code of Conduct and other etiquette rules

The Ask Tutorial—a guide to writing a good ask that we’ll answer!

Moving forward, all followers are required to go through the masterpost to submit a question so they are aware of the new rules, terms & conditions.

Read the masterpost here and ask your question!

New Process

We're piloting out our own personal askbox via Google Forms. This will help us streamline the process and keep track of everyone’s questions.

We are also introducing the Deletion Log, a public, anonymous ledger that lets you know if your question (identified by a number code) has been deleted due to a rule violation, and what you can do to resubmit. Check out the Deletion Log here.

Want to submit an ask?

The below are topics of asks that we will get to right away, based on the mods who are currently active.

Black

Chinese

Colonialism

Iranian/Persian

Japanese (INCLUDING: Anime fanfic questions! Only Mod Rina will be answering anime questions, and only if she feels that the ask would make for an educational post.)

Jewish

Mixed race

South Asian: Hindu, Indian, Punjabi, Sikh (please remember that when asking about South Asia you must indicate region & time period)

Taiwanese

Writing/Publishing industry

Coming Soon: Writingwithcolor.org

We've made tremendous progress on writingwithcolor.org and are almost ready to show off the more permanent residence of WritingWithColor! However, it'll take a lot of time to fully transfer posts and links. To get the new look and all its benefits to you faster, we plan for a soft launch of the content. This will include back and forth linking between WritingWithColor.org and our home on Tumblr. We'll try to keep things seamless and your viewing experience on Tumblr shouldn't be too interrupted. Launch date is coming soon!

New Mod Applications

We still have some applications from our last call of mods and folks to respond to. So if you haven’t heard back, sorry for the delay, but no worries—we will get back to you as we start shaking the dust off our bones and getting back into Q&A. Once we are ready to invite more mods again, we'll continue our outreach.

A Special Thanks To You All

We want to thank you for your continued support, whether it’s been viewership, spreading the word about us, or sending us a tip that supports our domain and future projects for you all. The whole team really appreciates it. We will keep bringing you our best advice and guides on all things good writing with inclusivity.

Be well and keep writing!

~WWC

writingwithcolor

Updates to the Masterpost (11/7/23)

Amendment to Do Not Ask:

Non-questions that are just comments. If you have feedback regarding a particular post or want to voice your opinions, you may do so in the notes. Please note that all of our Etiquette rules apply.

Amendment to Restricted Topics:

Topics for which there are no active mods | Exceptions: multiple/mixed topics that include an identity group from the list below, and general topics like worldbuilding that a mod of a different identity may wish to speak to.

OK TO SEND: Topics with Active Mods (Updated 11/7/23) - Black - Chinese - Colonialism - Iranian/Persian - Japanese - Jewish - Languages/Linguistics/Conlanging/Names - Mixed race - South Asian: Hindu, Indian, Punjabi, Sikh - Taiwanese - Worldbuilding - Writing/Publishing industry - Mixed topic asks that include at least one of the above

Some of you may be wondering why we have put this rule in place after having accepted these questions for so long. The answer is simple: data bloat. In the past, we constantly experienced slowdowns and freezing applications—the backlog of asks that no one could answer kept weighing down the files we used to host the asks and our answers. By limiting submissions to asks that we can answer, we can keep our systems running more smoothly.

We will update this list on the Masterpost rules as new mods come in.

The above two rules will retroactively apply to asks sent before this 11/7/23 update. We apologize for the inconvenience.

-WWC

Hi all! I am working through the backlog of stories and readers we have in our submissions. If you need to update a story or profile, please send us an ask with the link to your submission (if it's already been posted).

If you are new to betafinder and would like to submit a story or post, please see the following link. :) Linky

If you have questions, please send us a message, as it is the easiest to respond to. Thanks!

#ANNOUNCEMENT #betafinder

writing-prompt-s

“When the Old Gods returned, they were surprised how easy it was to amass an army of followers. Turned out all they had to do was offer fair wages and good benefits, with reasonable deadlines and working conditions”

writing-prompt-s

A noble sentenced to die is allowed to choose their execution method. They ask to die in honourable combat against the king’s knights, armed with a wooden sword while the knights have real weapons. It’s been 24 hours since the execution started and the king is running out of knights.

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