Writing is hard.

main blog: shrububbly | writing resources blog: shrubby-g Ko-Fi: shrubble

[imagination-overreaction]

I just started to write an idea I've had for a while about humanity and cave paintings, and (as I'm sure everyone does) as soon as I read about a handprint from 67,800 years ago I burst into tears

[vihyura]

truly

[snowflakeb0ttles]

[sagethegremlin]

[taraxippos]

Had been thinking about this post (which is a fake excerpt from an imaginary narrative written to mock 'tumblr prose'), and how most "no actually this is good" comments are highlighting how the construction of individual sentences is interesting, how some of the language is evocative, how it Goes Hard. Because that post is written badly in a very thoughtful manner that focuses on core structural issues rather than going for low hanging fruit of poor technical proficiency with the written word, it is not bad in the most "obvious" of ways. So I think this is a legit learning opportunity, but also I don't want to dunk on anyone so instead I will just preach to the choir of My Followers.

But yeah like to be more constructive than just going "lol tumblr prose bad", really the issue in Large part that characterizes "tumblr prose" (which to be clear I don't think is a discrete thing and at most is a combination of several writing tendencies influenced by the medium of Online) comes down to the lack of real contrast in Any aspect of narrative construction, and an obsession with being quotable and constantly being at 100% of Going Hard (which go hand in hand).

In that post, the character voice is indistinct from that of the narration, and the characters quote one-liners that look Meaningful as excerpts and are borderline nonsensical as dialogue. There is no more than the faintest, most generic hints of characterization; these people exist as vague concepts to say deep words for the reader. The sentence length has little variation from its staccato beat, and so it is awkward to read and fails to complement the action or accomplish anything with the pacing (save for the slight slowdown when the torturer feels all that damp animal electricity). The timing is awkward and exaggeratedly dramatic. The description is a flowery kind of tryhard visceral and seems avoidant of describing anything too directly ("something dark and arterial" where there's nothing being accomplished by conveying uncertainty about what is currently gushing out of the injured character and the simple use of "blood splashed across the stones" would actually be 10x more effective), in a way that does disservice to what is supposed to be a torture scene, and leaves it weightless and ungrounded. In fairness to the people saying "this is good", that is MUCH easier to say when reading this fake excerpt as the standalone piece it actually is, but this kind of writing Cannot function in an actual narrative and is not what an excerpt from well constructed narrative fiction is going to look like basically ever.

It reflects a lot of very typical amateur writing issues that just about everyone has to grow out of (the minimal diversity in sentence length, simulated non-attention to scene pacing and timing), and issues common to fanfiction-influenced writing on social media (allergy to paragraph lengths of more than two sentences, little to no description of the characters or setting because, in fanfiction, the reader already knows their physical characteristics and mannerisms and it doesn't need to be lingered upon, Unlike In Original Fiction). But this particularly hits on an issue I think is semi-unique to narrative writing in the social media milieu, which is a focus on being quotable. This may not even be a conscious impulse at all But It's There. This kinda apparent terror of any moment not being as beautiful and hard hitting as possible (or for comedy, any moment not being A Joke). Everything "Goes Hard", so nothing actually does. A lot of "tumblr prose" type writing is less a narrative, more a string of quotes loosely assembled into narrative that vaguely gestures at things like Plot and Character. It substitutes depth for Suggestions of depth by utilizing stock symbolism without building it into the narrative, and by gesturing at weighty contexts without actually engaging with them. There can be little contrast or effective use of tone, pace, description when your story is a series of Hard Hitting Quotes.

I'm reading Watership Down right now and I think it's a great novel overall and can work as an example of how important it is to utilize contrast in your writing.

This segment is the lengthy first description of the titular down, which the rabbits are now encountering for the first time:

Adams is slowing the pace here to introduce us to the setting of the next segment of the book. The average sentence length is very long and keeps us lingering in the sensory detail, while still varied and thus smoothly readable. This new place is introduced by simultaneously conveying its physical description in vivid detail and conveying its feeling and character, and getting the most out of every described feature to do so. The thorn trees are "wind stunted". The air is "scented". The language takes on a very flowery character and heavily utilizes simile and metaphor. Woodland is "tumultuous with evening", sunlight filters through grass "like a wind" to the small creatures below, in contrast to laying "like a gold rind" on the hill when seen from a distance. This grandiose description is heavily functional and conveys both exhaustive physical detail and a feeling that this place is beautiful, awe inspiring to something like a rabbit, and full of life, though not without quiet hints of danger. It hits because Not Everything In The Book Is Described This Way. It means something that we're lingering like this and stopping to get a sense of this place on every possible level, and moving away from more direct, simple prose to convey the feeling of the place in depth.

This segment describes the rabbit Bigwig being found caught in a snare:

The prose here here has the opposite approach of the first excerpt. The language is concise, direct, and brutal. It only veers slightly away from the literal to describe Bigwig's voice as 'bubbling out' from his mouth, both conveying that the saliva and blood in his mouth is literally bubbling as he speaks, and implying the unsettling way his voice sounds as he's being strangled. The sentences are much shorter on the whole, as fit for the pacing of a tense and rapidly changing scene, and the pace closely complements the action - "There was a pause" not only conveys That There Was A Pause but interrupts the rhythm of this segment; the moment of uneasy stillness is echoed in the act of reading itself.

The scene this is excerpted from is extremely effective and does in fact Go Hard, it's well constructed in of itself but its effectiveness mostly lies in its place in the narrative. It's the culmination of a long, tense buildup as the reader becomes more aware that something is deeply Wrong about the place the rabbits are in, and the payoff is effective in being blunt and visceral, which hits because Not Everything In The Book Is Described This Way. Nothing about these excerpts are particularly quotable because that is actually not what good narrative writing is about.

[glitchedoutpxie]

How to use Em Dash (—) and Semi Colon ( ; )

Since the ai accusations are still being thrown around, here's how i personally like to use these GASP ai telltales. 🦄✨

Em Dashes (—)

To emphasize a shift / action / thought.

They're accusing us—actually accusing us—of using AI.

To add drama.

They dismissed our skills as AI—didn't even think twice, the dimwits—and believed they were onto something.

To insert a sudden thought. Surely they wouldn't do that to us—would they?

To interrupt someone's speech. "Hey, please don't say that. I honed my craft through years of blood and tears—" "Shut up, prompter."

To interrupt someone's thoughts / insert a sudden event.

We're going to get those kudos. We're going to get those reblogs—

A chronically online Steve commented, “it sounds like ai, idk.”

Semi Colons ( ; )

To join two closely related independent sentences / connect ideas.

Not only ChatGPT is capable of correct punctuation; who do you think it learned from in the first place?

Ultimate pro tip: use them whenever the fudge you want. You don't owe anyone your creative process. 🌈

[patchworkbugs]

Commission me pretty please <3

I take paypal & cashapp, if you want to inquire about another form of payment lmk ^^

You can also email me about inquiries at [email protected]!!

[patchworkbugs]

Reblogging this in light of recent events!! ฅ՞•ﻌ•՞ฅ

I recently had to take my darling daughter (my dog) to the vet a couple times, and it cost an arm and a leg. I'm going to have a lot more medical expenses for her in the near future and I cannot currently afford the treatments she needs. If anyone was considering commissioning me now would be the time! I also highly appreciate anyone sharing my commission info, thank you <3

[feefal]

Funguary 2026! The drawing challenge where we draw fungi during the month of February. This will be the last time I’m hosting this event, which is bittersweet… So join in on the fungi fun one last time, so we may end it with a bang✨ Event starts Feb 1st

In order to join, create one art piece centered around mushrooms per weekly theme. Drawing daily is a lot of pressure, so I thought we’d keep it chill this time by only doing one a week. This will give us more time to flesh out our character! Ive written down species suggestions, but please feel free to draw whichever shroom you fancy!

The only official rule is to honor fungi as your almighty deity. Oh, and to use tags #Funguary & #Funguary2026

Can’t wait to see everyone’s shroom creations! Will be stalking the tag and reblogging creations, as per usual❤️

[icryink]

WELCOME TO CRINGETOBER 2025 !!!

as per usual the list is here one month in advance! no rush to get to all the prompts, feel free to skip around or be slow, no hard rules except to have fun! and your regular disclaimer, none of these prompts are really “cringe” they’re just things commonly considered “cringey” by popular culture

I go into more depth on the prompts here, so go ahead and check it out! Feel free to send asks my way with any remaining questions :)

Also, check out Cringetober merch here! And find me on Patreon, Ko-Fi, or Buy Me a Coffee to support!

I’m super proud of the list this year! I hope you all enjoy :) I’m looking forward to October to see everyone’s awesome art!!

[ruvithebiggestnerdlol]

CRINGETOBER TOMMOROW. CRINGETOBER TOMMOROW!!! (I NEED. to participate in this.)

That means I can't participate in inktober (NOOOOOO UGHHHHH)

[no-nut-kinkvember]

Welcome to No Nut Kinkvember 2025.

You see these prompts? No Nut Kinkvember is about turning these prompts into a sex thing. How you turn them into a sex thing is entirely up to you, along with what kind of sex thing you turn them into, and creativity is encouraged.

Where and when will No Nut Kinkvember be hosted?

No Nut Kinkvember will be hosted on Tumblr and AO3 during the month of November. There will be an AO3 collection to add your works to, created a month before the event in October, and if you @ this blog in posts they will be reblogged. There will also be a submissions box open that you can submit posts to.

The Tumblr tag for this event will be #nonutkinkvember2025, which I will also be looking at for posts to reblog, so make sure to tag your works!

What are the rules?

THIS EVENT IS FOR ADULTS ONLY. MINORS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE.

This event is writing only, because I find that easier to moderate. That being said, if you want to draw out prompts on your own and share them in your own spaces, feel free! The tag will also allow art. I just won't host it on the Tumblr blog.

Any and all kinks are allowed. Just make sure to tag all kinks present in the work, and add warnings as applicable in a typical AO3 submission.

Do not harass people for their submitted work, for any reason. Yes, this includes for their kinks.

This is a universal fandom event! Anyone of any fandom can join. OCs are welcome too!

If you want to submit a fully original work, I'd recommend either posting it to a different site than AO3 and linking it in a Tumblr post, or just submitting the link through the submissions box of this blog. If you share your work in a Tumblr post, or use the submission feature, you still need to tag your content with all kinks present in the work, and any warnings as applicable.

If your writing is self-contained in a Tumblr post, as opposed to linking from somewhere else, please add a read more at most after an introductory paragraph or two.

Submission entry will start on November 1st and will close on November 30.

More rules will be added if/when the need for more rules arises. If more rules are added, I will edit this post and make a new post detailing the new full list of rules and specifying any additions.

Again, I'll be checking the #nonutkinkvember2025 tag too, and I'm excited to see what everyone does for this event! :]

The ask box will always be open, so don't be afraid to drop by in the meantime!

[ink-flavored]

50 Question Multigender OC Ask Game

Does your OC have multiple genders? Are you desperate to talk about them? Look no further for an excuse than this game! Fifty unique questions that encourage you to get to the root of your multigender character’s relationship with their gender, their society, and more! Remember to send an ask to the person you reblog it from to make sure everyone gets to play!

Which multigender identity is your OC? Do they have more than one? Nothing specific?

Which genders does your OC have? Do they label them all?

How would they personally describe each of their genders?

How many pronouns sets does your OC use? Do they correspond to a specific gender?

If they have multiple pronouns sets, do they like all of them to be used, or are they okay with people picking one?

Do they have multiple names? Do they correspond to a specific gender?

Do their genders fluctuate, or are they all their genders all the time?

How did they discover their multigender identity?

What was their first “hint” that they were multigender? Was it only obvious in retrospect?

Did they ever officially “come out” as multigender? To everyone at once, or a few people at a time?

Did it take them a long time to pick through which genders they resonated with?

Do they still identify with their assigned sex and/or gender at birth? How strongly versus their other genders?

How does their multigender identity impact their sexuality? Do they use multiple labels for it?

Do they prefer masculine (man, male, boy), feminine (woman, female, girl), or neutral (enby, enban, kid, person) terms to be referred to with? A combination? Something else entirely?

Do they use any “conflicting” or “contradictory” labels (cistrans, manwoman, girlboy, fagdyke, lesboy, turigirl, etc.)?

Which honorifics or polite titles do they prefer to be called (Mr./Sir, Ms./Ma’am, Mx., etc.)? None at all?

Do they plan to transition socially? In which ways?

Do they plan to transition medically? In which ways?

What’s their realistic “transition goal”?

If anything was possible, what would their ultimate transition goal be?

Do they present differently depending on which gender they’d like to be perceived as? Do they not care, and wear whatever they want?

Do they have genders that they identify with more than the others?

What do they want strangers to think about their gender? Do they care?

Is their society welcoming to multigender people?

Do they know many other multigender people?

Do they have a community that supports multigender people?

How has their culture influenced how they experience each of their genders?

Does their culture enforce a gender binary? How does that impact them as a multigender person?

Does their culture impose strict gender roles on people? How does that impact them as a multigender person?

Do they have genders that aren’t recognized at all by their society?

Do they often have to explain what being multigender means, or particular genders they have?

Are they often frustrated with how multigender people are perceived in their society?

How does being multigender impact their sex life?

How does being multigender impact their romantic or intimate relationships?

How does being multigender impact their professional life or career?

How has being multigender impacted their relationships with their family?

How has being multigender impacted their relationships with their friends?

Does their religion or other spiritual beliefs impact their multigender identity?

If they’re a system, how does that interact with their multigender identity?

If they’re intersex, how does that interact with their multigender identity?

If they’re neurodivergent in some way, how does that interact with their multigender identity?

What do they love most about being multigender?

What’s the most difficult part about being multigender for them?

Have they experienced transmultiphobia? (read about transmultiphobia, and its similarities to biphobia)

Have they internalized any transmultiphobia and/or transphobia that made it difficult for them to discover themself?

Are they determined to remain in the closet about their multigender identity?

Do they fear discrimination or rejection if they were to come out?

Are they not ready to accept their multigender identity yet? What’s keeping them from accepting it?

How long were they/have they been in denial about their multigender identity?

Wild card! Mention anything else you want!

[thewritingrealm]

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

[ezzydean]

# my favourite part about this post # is that nowhere does it say to reblog this # but we’re all reblogging it # because if we have to suffer # so do other writers

[thefoundationproject]

Boop

[caffeinewitchcraft]

This post is committing crimes (see y'all later lmao)

[xphaiea]

bark beetle patterns

[writingwithfolklore]

Don't Mess Up Your Character Introduction

Your characters only get one introduction, and from that very first moment, readers will form their opinions and impressions of that character. Once they have, it’s incredibly hard to change their minds, so you have to make sure that you make the right first impression.

In my last novel (currently querying right now!) I had a beta reader come back to me to say that he really didn’t like my female protagonist. However, in his notes on the actual manuscript, there were several parts he highlighted because he was very sympathetic to her—so why didn’t those parts sway him? It was because they came too little, too late. He’d already formed his thoughts on the protagonist as a person.

I heard recently that Finding Nemo’s flashback that the movie opens with was initially later in the film to explain why Marlin was such an overprotective parent, but test audiences really hated him, and by then, all the tragedy in the world wouldn’t convince them otherwise. Instead, Disney moved the flashback to the beginning so that we started the movie sympathetic to him, and were able to overlook or understand his more annoying/frustrating traits.

I’m saying that right out of the gate, if we’re meant to root for them, you need to show us why. If we’re meant to hate them, you also need to show us why. Don’t hold onto your cards, don’t keep secrets too late, because once we form an opinion on someone, it’s difficult to change.

When that opinion does need to change (such as when you’re pulling off a villain redemption arc), it typically takes the entire story and genuine character growth to do.

See my post here on why we root for a character.

[twirld]

Elisabeth Bathory by Agostino Arrivabene

[oc-loving]

how would your oc respond to the statement "tell me about yourself"?

[imagination-overreaction]

9. Has any of them had to be saved from the brink of death? Were there any consequences after?

One that comes to mind is my necromancer, Adrian. In his setting (modern fantasy universe, which I'm just calling the Fae World for now) necromancy is a practice that is somewhat stigmatized, regulated, but still readily taught. Adrian is a professor of necromancy, and it was during a practice session with one of his grad students that he very nearly died.

Magic in general requires a lot of focus, necromancy especially because of how the magic draws out one's own energy and body mass: without concentration the flow could stop or, in this case, start going far too quickly. Adrian's student got distracted--by no fault of their own--and he had to step in and stop the process before they were killed. He succeeded, his student was unharmed and everything was stopped, but the magical draw focused on his arm. It was gone, dead and withered on the spot, before either of them even had the thought to call an ambulance.

Adrian has a rather eccentric personality, and he takes this experience as more of a lesson than anything. Later on, he does start using magical prosthetics--an enchanted limb capable of independant movement and sensation--but this is not without its own drawbacks. The prosthetic can "feel" but it's still prone to being uneven, with sensations either being too dull or painfully heightened (and it only does so much to help with phantom pains), and the issues are somewhat similar with movement as well. All things considered, the consequences are pretty much what one would expect after losing a limb.

As with nearly every character I have so far in this universe, Adrian serves as a sort of worldbuilding focus point. I find it much easier to build out magic, social, and political systems when I have some Guy to dunk into situations relating to it.

Thank you so much for the ask!

[creation-help]

Torturing your ocs ask game :)

(Delightful, I know. But we all do it sometimes)

1. Which of your ocs do you most often imagine sick? In what ways?

2. Which of them do you most imagine injured in other ways?

3. Who do you put through the most emotional turmoil?

4. Which oc has been tortured? Through what means?

5. Which of them has the worst luck?

6. Who goes through the most relationship conflicts? (applies to any relationships)

7. Who do you put most into stressful situations or other drama?

8. Who ends up in survival situations the most? How do they fair in them?

9. Has any of them had to be saved from the brink of death? Were there any consequences after?

10. Has any of them had to be revived / brought back to life? How did this affect them?

11. Who is afraid the most? How does this effect them?

12. What kind of health repercussions has your oc experienced through intense stress? How do they manage them?

13. Who cries the most often? What are the usual causes?

14. How does your oc cope?

15. To cap off what kind of hurt/comfort scenarios do you put your oc in?

This can be about canon story events or simply rotating scenarios for fun!

[paradoxicalpaldeann]

hello writers.

how do you write your fic / original story / whatever the hell

one document, dedicated planning section and writing section

one document, planning is randomly scattered throughout the chapters

one planning document, one writing document

one planning document, individual documents for each chapter

some ungodly cacophany of random notes and chapters via an app like Obsidian

same as above but actual content is in a dedicated location you can find

"my obsidian vaults are organised, actually" you are lying but okay.

results/wildly nuanced answer in tags/like i'd tell YOU, skeleton boy!

Voting ended onApr 29, 2025