Harry Potter Fanfic Writers' Guild @hpffwritersguild - Tumblr Blog

Hi writers, bit of a bittersweet announcement today.

After some deep thought and many, many rounds of discussions amongst the mod team, we've made the decision to sunset The Guild at the end of July.

The long and short of it is that life got a bit bigger and busier for all of us than we'd ever anticipated. New jobs, new moves, new humans - and of course, doing all of that when the doing is harder than it's ever been before. With all of that going on, running a server like this to the standard that it deserves to be run is next to impossible. We don't have the bandwidth anymore to run, let alone build, the workshops we had ideas for. The changes we had planned to implement to make the server easier to navigate have been in limbo since last winter - it's disappointing for us that we couldn't swing everything we'd wanted to do, but it's also just not fair to all of you.

To that end: we will be continuing with the archival project, to move our resources off Discord and onto Ao3 and our Tumblr. We will have this completed before the server closes. We will also be having one final WAT in July as a send off on July 10-12. Hopefully this gives everyone the time they need to connect with everyone they want.

And on a personal note... I love the community that we've built here, and I'm extremely sad to see it go. And I'm incredibly proud of the work we've done, and the work all of you have done. I hope you are too. I hope that all of you can carve out some new pocket in fandom or writer space that will work for you the way it should. I hope that your pillow is always cool, that your socks never bunch up in the toes, that they never run out of your favorite treat. I hope life is kind to you.

Thank you so much for your support and your stories over the last five years. Take care of yourselves.

-LP

#hpffwg events #hpffwg workshops #server update

writingwithfolklore

Your Punctuation Tells a Story

If you’re ignoring punctuation in your works right now, I promise, you are missing out on so much additional storytelling. Punctuation’s primary purpose (say that ten times fast), is to clarify your message. It’s the difference between,

“My parents, Jack and Jill…” (My parents, who are named Jack and Jill). And, “My parents, Jack, and Jill…” (My parents plus someone named Jack plus someone named Jill).

However, it also has the amazing ability to create tone and give the readers subtle hints at what they should be feeling in any situation. See:

“I washed the dishes, cleaned the floors, and made the bed while he walked the dog.” (We are all productive in this household.) And, “I washed the dishes, cleaned the floors, and made the bed. He walked the dog.” (I do so much more than him.)

One period can mean the difference between a casual tone, and something that holds tension.

Here’s another example:

“Cheryl said she’d be here, so she’ll be here.” (Cheryl made a promise, so I’m confident she’ll follow up on it. Holds a bit of defensiveness, as though the speaker is talking to someone doubting Cheryl.) And, “Cheryl said she’d be here. She’ll be here.” (Repetition and short sentences holds a sort of anxiety—speaker is trying to convince themselves that nothing bad has happened to Cheryl)

But this isn’t just true of dialogue. We can imbue tone through punctuation in description alone. This is one of my favourite descriptions from Jack Spratt Investigates the Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde:

“The years had been charitable to Mrs. Spratt, and despite her age she was as bright as a button and had certainly not lost any of her youthful zest. Jack put it down to quantity of children. It had either made her tough in old age or worn her out—if the latter, then without Jack and his nine elder siblings, she might have lived to one hundred ninety-six. She painted people’s pets in oils because ‘someone has to,’ collected small pottery animals, Blue Baboon LPs and Jellyman commemorative plates. She had been widowed seventeen years.”

Feel how that line at the end lands especially heavy after the chipper, short sentences and crisp punctuation of the description that came above it? Fforde ramps up the pacing in punchy lines throughout the beginning and middle, just to land a blow beneath our ribs at the end. A masterclass.

Play around with punctuation in your writing—see how you can change the tone, and how tone and pacing walk hand in hand (or run) to get their intentional message across.

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(Psst... Did you know I launched a website?)

Head on over to www.gatesannai.com (or click here!) for exclusive blog posts, updates on my work, and pictures of my dog.

While you're there, consider signing up for my newsletter too :-) It helps a lot in my aspiring author journey. I really appreciate it!

#writing tips #writing advice #Punctuation #editing

coelasquid

Sometimes we’re unsatisfied with a thing we made because when it only existed in our head, we saw all the things it could have been and when it’s done we know all the things that it isn’t, but we can’t see the way it expands into a million new things when someone else unpacks it in their head.

#writing positivity

sourdough-seal

me writing the worst paragraph of my life knowing that a sexier, more hydrated version of me will fix it later

#writing memes

duckprintspress

25 hours a day, 8 days a week, #gpoy.

#writing memes

chimso-writes

Worst Writing Advice I've Heard

Show, don't tell (you're supposed to show AND tell)

Your chapter 1 is really important (it's not if you never get past it)

First person is the worst pov (ANY pov can be terrible, it all comes down to how you write it)

You have to be published to be a writer (straight up bullshit)

Real writers write every day (yeah and so do the ones who get burned out and stressed a lot)

Kill your darlings (ALWAYS MISUSED. it means remove anything that doesn't serve the story, even if it's Shakespeare level writing)

Your main character has to be likeable (No, they have to be interesting. That's good enough for me)

Read a lot (debatable. Personally, I read a lot more when I was younger than I do now. Don't only read, consume different mediums like movies or shows. They're stories too)

Writers' Block isn't real (Ummmm....)

Never use X word in your book (also straight up bullshit. Do the fuck you want. That's what editing is for)

Your first draft will be 'terrible' (I believe your first draft will be messy. Not everyones rough draft is terrible)

#writing tips #writing advice

hottestthingalive

someday i will post this fic and then its all over for you fools. i mean not now. or any time soon. but someday it will happen

#writing memes

duckprintspress

Writing Quick Tip: that v. which

Determining whether to use "that" or "which" in a sentence can be a challenge. Sometimes, it's obvious...

If you're discussing what option to pick from among multiple options, "which" is correct.

Ex: "Which hat should I buy?"

If you're indicating/identifying a specific, finite object, "that" is correct.

Ex: "I will buy that hat."

However, it can appear more confusing if the sentence is more complex, or phrased unusually. But, it's not actually more confusing - there's a quick, easy rule to help determine when to use which option (use "which" there because we're talking about multiple options!). In complex sentences, that/which usually are used with clauses. If you can remove the clause without altering the meaning or reducing the clarity of the sentence, then "which" is probably correct; otherwise, "that" is probably correct.

Ex. 1: "I will buy the hat that is green."

Explanation: this sentence specifies, with a clause, that I am specifically buying the green hat. If that aspect of the sentence is removed, then necessary information is lacking (the person I'm speaking to will no longer know which hat I mean!). Grammatically, this is called a defining (or restrictive) clause - it's a clause that defines the thing being described, and marks it as "this specific thing (as opposed to any other thing)."

Ex. 2: "I bought the hat, which is green, to wear to school."

Explanation: the clause is an interjection which is not necessary to convey meaning, it simply add flavor. If it's removed, the essential point of the sentence (that the hat was purchased to wear at school) remains. Grammatically, this is called a non-defining (or nonrestrictive) clause - a clause that isn't necessary to define the thing, and when removed won't have a major impact on the reader's ability to know which thing is being described - "I'm interacting with this thing (and, coincidentally, this thing has this trait)."

So, just remember: if the clause is essential to conveying the full meaning of the sentence, use "that." If the clause can be removed without impacting the sentence's meaning, use "which."

Have a writing or grammar question? Feel free to drop us an ask any time!

#writing advice #grammar

write-on-world

Well put. (Source: Writing About Writing Facebook page)

12b6

as a lawyer who’s been practicing for six years now I can say with certainty that this 100% applies to lawyers

johanna-swann

Me: My writing is so bad. :(

Meanwhile at Disney: Somehow, Palpatine has returned.

autumngracy

sleepymccoy

Me: but what if I'm not the best person to talk about that?

Professional public speaker I'm talking to: you're the person they asked, so they think you're the best person right now. Are you really gonna disrespect them so much as to doubt yourself?

make sure to follow your favourite fanfiction authors on tumblr to get such important updates as, "i'm Thinking about the fic really hard, i swear" "hashtag #notwriting" "im going to commit mass murder if i have to write" "theoretically if the next chapter came out in five months--"

#writing memes #writing positivity

ao3commentoftheday

ao3 but make it tumblr - site skin

I've had several people over the years tell me I should make a site skin that makes AO3 look like tumblr. Well, I learned the float property and now here you go!

You can get these two colourways over here on github. No promises, but I might update with additional colourways in the coming days. As always, I've included instructions for how to apply a site skin if you've never used one on your account before.

I've seen some folks use the title "work is published Wednesday" and I like it, so I'm going to drop it at the end here.

#resources #ao3 resources #ao3 site skins

writercultureis

writer culture is mapping out an idea as comprehensively as possible, but the moment you sit down to write, the idea mutates and takes a whole new direction like it has a mind of its own

#writing memes