[header img: the penname LadyKF surrounded by gold paw prints and blue and purple flowers]
Hey guys, it’s time for an overdue Pinned Post for all the mobile friends who can’t easily access my links!
I’m LadyKF, she/her though they/them is fine if you can’t remember! I am a fanfic writer, roleplayer, avid gamer, sometimes-artist and amateur coder - most of these things you’ll see here or over on my main blog @ladykittenfair or roleplay blog @talesfantastic.
The best places to contact me are through my ask here or through DMs on talesfantastic as I sometimes forget I have a “main” blog but almost always have my rp blog open. Really, I absolutely don’t mind you contacting me in either place! (Though please, if you’re not a fellow rp blog, don’t reblog from my rp blog unless you’ve asked or it’s tagged that you can reblog it!)
Main fandoms I’m into: DBZ, FFVII, FFIX, FFXV, Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Star Wars, Threads of Fate
Some places you can find my stuff other than Tumblr:
Ao3 as LadyKF
this is where all my posted fanfic goes. All of it, all fandoms, cowritten, etc. You will find mostly FFVII, with some Star Wars and an increasing amount of FFXV though there’s other bits scattered.
FFN, Pillowfort, Dreamwidth and Twitter links under the cut but I rarely use them.
FFN as LadyKF
I’m phasing this out, honestly. You’ll find my FFVII work there, but I think that’s about it? Ao3 is just superior in so many ways, and the platform is dying + not really getting interaction there, which is why I post
Pillowfort (LadyKF) + Dreamwidth (LadyKF)
I... tend to forget I have these, honestly. But there’s some interesting stuff there so by all means check me out there, just don’t try and message me because it is very unreliable. XD
//When your moot writes great but you suck at comments, ft That Scene from Mulan where he says "um, you... you fight good" except it says Um, you... you write good.
(Look at that smile~ Mulan says a mediocre comment is better than no comment!)
Having a moment watching old AMVs and a DBZ one about Vegeta to Hoobastank's The Reason, was where I started reflecting on the narrative and Toriyama's worldbuilding. Specifically, life and death, of which there's a lot.
I know Goku was supposed to stay dead, that honestly probably a lot of characters were, but with the mechanic of the Dragon Balls and the absolute howling of the fans.... that didn't happen. In fact it's more notable to say who stayed dead instead of who got a second chance and an old friend of mine remarked once on how much it had cheapened death.
I'm not going to dissect it right now it's late and there's a storm but I had a quote present itself to me. My brain was just chewing on all of the above and it spat out:
When dying means nothing, living for something becomes the sacrifice.
I'm not an artist but I am a writer and I was wondering if you had any advice you've found to be helpful when you're not feeling too great about what you're creating. For me I feel like I've barely improved despite writing often. Sometimes I feel like I'm going backwards...like I'm losing my skills if that makes sense
Dude, I'm going through something so similar right now so it's kinda hard to say 😭 I used to be pretty confident in my abilities to write stuff, but this past year+ I feel like dogshit whenever I think about it :/ That whole 'losing your skills' thing feels so real, I convinced myself that I'll never be able to write like I used to and that I should just quit :(
THat being said! This is just your brain trying to sabotage you! You're not getting worse, and you're not losing any skills!!! It might be hard to recognize, but your mindset can really influence how you perceive your creative process. So 'bad brain time'='bad art time'. You might feel like everything you produce is now shite, but that's only because your brain is in shite-mode!
I haven't found any surefire ways to break out of this tbh. But one of the things I constantly tell myself is 'no one is going to make this thing like you'. No one can write the story you want to write, or paint the picture you want to see, or create the thing you want to bring into creation. And it does motivate me, just knowing that I have a very specific vision that I want to see executed in a very specific way! Be your own hype guy! Be your own biggest fan! I'm sure you've got a special story to tell, and you're the only one who can do it, so get goin you funky rascal <3
I wasn't going to reblog this, I scrolled past it but it bugged me not to say something because I've been there. On my original works, I'm actually there a lot.
There's a couple things I have to say and one of them is WATCH THIS VIDEO from Ira Glass talking about the creative process and the gap between your good creative tastes -- what gives you the good ideas, what has the complex, beautiful vision -- and your technical skill.
The other thing I have to tell you is just. My experience. While not The Best fanfic author out there, I think I can confidently say I have a pretty good Voice as a storyteller, I know my way around a story. There have been people who enjoy my work.
The second is please view this tumblr post auriee/139955231381/how-to-improve-understanding-knowledge-skill for a fantastic explanation of why sometimes you go from being reallly confident to no longer being confident.
SIMPLIFIED TLDR:
Step 1: you have higher knowledge than skill and you know it. This creates insecurity, because as a beginner you're not great.
Step 2: your skill catches up to your knowledge. This is that sweet spot of confidence because yeah actually you're doing the thing decently.
Step 3: you learned new things, ++ knowledge. You DID NOT lose skill, but your skill is no longer equal to your knowledge. All you see is how much more you can improve, despite the fact that you're still decent at the thing. This creates insecurity and discouragement.
Step 4: You caught up! Skill and Knowledge are level, this creates comfort and confidence, you're actually pretty good at thing!
Rinse repeat. There is always a higher skill level, there is always more to learn. Remember: if you're insecure, it's because you've moved ahead in knowledge, and you're getting ready to level up! How cool is that?
The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve.
Soon, you'll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog's author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.
If a reblog doesn't add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn't lose notes just because people spread it quietly.
Past notes will stay on the original post — we're only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be... a lot.
This is just the beginning. More changes are coming as we keep building this out – stay tuned!
It’s very clear that you all have strong feelings about Tumblr and about this change. We hear you. The passion people have for how Tumblr works is one of the things that makes this place special.
As this rolls out over the next few days and you explore it, we’ll keep reading your replies and reblogs, so please keep sharing your questions, concerns, and ideas.
Your creativity has always been the heart of Tumblr, whether you’re the original poster or adding something brilliant in the reblogs, and nothing about this change is meant to limit that.
If you’d like to talk directly beyond the comments, leave a reply and we’ll follow up with as many of you as we can. We want to work with you to make Tumblr better.
Staring at a theme you really, really want to use and it has ridiculously tiny font?
Want to change that, but your theme editor doesn't include non-color tweaking?
I'm here to walk you through how to get to where you can edit your theme, and how -- specifically -- to edit your main text's size if it's not in the editing interface from the creator's setup.
NOW, BEFORE YOU TWEAK: SAVE THE ORIGINAL CODE SOMEWHERE! Reblog the post (never a bad time to support our theme-makers!), save the BIN file (just make sure not to turn the code-quotes /straight/ into text quotes /curly/ -- sometimes it's good to save it as a notepad or textedit -I think- on Mac) and then, only when you have it backed up, do you begin.
Now one thing I run into constantly when changing themes is that many fonts are TINY and those of us with impaired sight are squinting so hard we get frown lines. Mine was quite small! ...actually I think I've had to do this on all blogs that didn't come with a built-in font-size changer. There's usually a common place you can go for that, however.
For those of you who haven't done this before, here's the pipeline (WARNING: this is for desktop, I have no idea how to do it on mobile!)
On the left side of your screen where you have Home, Activities, Inbox etc -- somewhere towards the bottom (for me it's third from the bottom, idk if that can change?) you're looking for a link that says "account." Clicking it will open up a view to your blog, followed by all your sideblogs. I'll describe these images as we go in case they don't show up. Here we go:
So this is from the view of my rp blog, @talesfantastic, and @ladykf-writes is one of my sideblogs. So go from ACCOUNT and select your blog / sideblog whose theme you want to tweak. CLICK.
This opens up a big side panel on the right, and on the very bottom you're going to find the image below, which is a snapshot of the very bottom, and offers: Queue, Tumblr Blaze, Blog ettings, and Mass Post Editor. You want, again, where the arrow is pointing: Blog settings.
Blog settings opens up to where you adjust your header, info about you / a tagline etc. Good to tweak those, it also helps prove you're a real person; bots do not generally bother, though sock puppets will. It looks like this:
Now under blog name and address, you have a Custom Theme option. If you haven't already enabled this, you're going to need to in order to have a custom theme. From there, click Edit theme.
We're in.
I'll take a moment to point out that the theme editor that comes with my theme (for LadyKF-writes) does actually have a built in place for this, and I think this....
...was the default, which is... not great.
SO what we need is directly on the left. You have Exit -- leaving the customization page -- save, which you should do regularly -- and a custom theme section with "Edit HTML" <- jackpot.
Again, make SURE you have the original code. If you mess up, you will need it to start over clean.
Now, you're probably going to see something like this (viewing the guts of a HELLA lot of code nonsense.)
If this is intimidating, that's fair. What you want to do is hit CTRL + F (on pc) or Command + F (on Mac). That brings up this little buddy, a box in the upper left where you can type what you want.
And what we want is to input font-size. There will be a few of these, some in groups like --
(I stuck the code in the alt text.)
That's not what we want. What we want is standalone, and we'll find some useful things beforehand.
THIS is the layout for H1 -- your biggest headers.
If you want to change things there, you can! Including, you guessed it, font size. Just be sure to hit that "Update Preview" button to get a solid look at what it looks like before committing to it.
Now, what we want is under "posts" -- and it may simply be under p { or notated as "posts" on other codes.
There's a lot you can change here, specifically side eyeing the font family... but that's something for another day. Let's see that font-size. Ultimately I like it at 15 best, and I'll give it a comparison:
12 on the top:
And then 15, which I'm staying with:
See the difference? And that's so much easier on the eyes. Hit save (beside the update preview button!) and close out. You did it! Go out and save some eyes, people!
Any questions, hit up @ladykf-writes's ask. (Click here!)
SO, this is entirely non-canon as far as I know but that's why we call them headcanons.
Anyway.
Given Genesis' specialization as a swordmage I feel he would benefit from a team on some missions, to wipe out what's left / have his back, and also that, given his personality, he would want men that were "his" to have his back handling / verifying intel and the like. So my Gen has a small pack of Seconds that work independently, but are also called to have his back when he's on a particularly dangerous mission.
Because it's not that he can't handle it, he's a legend for a reason, but by having a little team behind him he theoretically won't run himself down and can therefore be in the field longer, which is what the President pushes Lazard for, I am sure.
Genesis' team is as follows (in alphabetical order, not capability, very detailed because I've been using them in fanfic a long time):
Fun aside: my Genesis is 5'10 flatfooted so they're all taller than him unless they all wear boots, in which case he might have an inch more to be taller than two of them. He is, alas, permanently shorter than Kythe.
Kythe "Chessmaster" Osborn = Born in Kalm, moved out before the bombing but lost family there; does not talk about his past. The only one of the three who had a traditional Midgar entry to SOLDIER, passing the testing smoothly and making it to Third Class, then a swift promotion to Second.
6'1, messy slightly longer than "short" strawberry blond hair, teal mako eyes, light skin that freckles spectacularly if he forgets sunscreen for any length of time.
Battle mage, materia healer though it's not on his file as a specialization; never loses his chill, strategic, gathers intel and crosschecks whatever they're provided, works with Genesis on planning complex collaborations as a team.
Earned the call sign "Chessmaster" for his constantly strategic thinking and the position as an intel specialist this provided him.
Leon "Dice" Silva = Born in the greater Costa del Sol area, one of the few in his family to leave it permanently. Entered the Junon Academy first, messed up on the paper portion of the test but made it on the second try. Superb chocobo rider and works with the stables in Midgar when he's not on missions.
5'11. Short black hair, darker mako eyes, warm brown skin.
Jack of all trades from melee to ranged, knows a LARGE range of weapons, including guns, pretty decent with materia, stamina for days; almost positive he has ADHD the longer I write him. Would make a great friend for Zack.
Earned the call sign "Dice" because his fighting style is very high risk / high reward, and in tough spots the team often uses the phrase "roll the dice" before cutting him loose.
Xan "Bishop" Harrison = Born in Costa del Luna (original to me location on the opposite coast to Costa del Sol). Fudged his forms, got in at 14 (back before that became standard later in the Wutai War.)
6'0, hair down to his chin with a blue-black color, a more intense dark blue mako eyes and deeply tanned skin.
Battle mage specializing in physics based materia like Earth, Demi/Gravity and Air; extremely intelligent, can be strategic but can also be impatient. Devastatingly thorough, tends to seek out weak points like a laser rather than going broad damage like a flamethrower on it.
Earned the call sign "Bishop" due to his ranged abilities as a mage, often preferring to fight from a distance and thus rarely being noticed by his opponents until it's too late for them to react.
Like, I need to write the actual story too but whenever I get stuck on Waltzing Through Time, in the case of what I'm working on today, (or Best in Class, or King and his Concubines, or--) I always get this little thought of side stories.
Waltzing Through Time is obvious, the way other Soulmates met. So far you guys know about:
Vin / Lu / Chaos
Veld / Anya
Benji / Drew
Lazard / Sephiroth / Tseng (Tseng being a VERY new development, established within the fic)
And there's others I have planned as well as others that are nebulous floaty things. I've thought about "how you knew they were your soulmate" in Dog Whistle, too, something a little less stressful probably XD maybe.
Best in Class... if I was really ambitious I'd write a series of made up academic papers but I have not written academically for YEARS, like, maybe... actually over a decade? it has been A Hot Minute.
But wouldn't it be cool?
I don't know. Side stories, man...
I know! You get to have a post about anything from any of my stories (seriously, the whole catalogue) something like a side story, unposted bit, behind-the-scene, a headcanon or something...
So what would YOU ask for? Some suggested questions:
give a small section of the next chapter of [fic that's in progress' name] -- state whether it should be from the next chapter, or later.
what side story idea interests you from what fic?
what was going on (elsewhere) during this part of [this fic]
what's some of my [LadyKF's] inspo I go to to write this fic?
here's a word / phrase / picture / song: what does it make me think of?
write a headcanon based off of a word / phrase / song / etc, bonus if you give a character related to it
i do not “delete sentences” when they start “hindering the plot” i COPY PASTE THEM into a SEPARATE DOC made just for keeping all my USELESS LINES that i will also NEVER USE so therefore i should JUST DELETE THEM but i DONT because id FEEL BAD if i did
Every snappy piece of unspoken dialogue, every brilliant bit of unused description, every fun scene that just. doesn't. fit. has made you a better writer for being written, and being acknowledged of being worth writing.
And if you don't use it then, you can use that specific turn of phrase later, elsewhere! This is infinitely easier if you keep a scraps doc like OP.
"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.
PLEASE do yourself a favour and check out this wikipedia-styled template for google drive, made by @ Rukidut on twitter
I decided to try to sort my ideas and whats canon regarding my ocs with this and ITS PERFECT. IT ALL FEELS SO CONRETE. and i sure as hell AM Going to continue to use this with every single OC I have until google drives is set ablaze- Just!!!!!!!!
Also; link directly to the doc, just copy the file and you have your own lil template!!!!
I had the great honour of drawing Esper for the Final Fantasy Charity Art Auction and Raffle. It was super fun, even i the intricate design on the clothes made me pull out my hair at times.
https://bsky.app/profile/charityartauction.bsky.social
All proceeds went to Doctors Without Borders, a charity I am absolutely behind.
