🍨first pick is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (maximalist cover). started reading this book in my dentist's waiting room, but only got through like 20 pages because i was dreading my appointment ee. that was a full year ago, and i never picked it back up. UNTIL. right now!!
🍨next pick is A Dash of Salt and Pepper by Kosoko Jackson (food cover). Came across this via this post and the cover caught my eye, veryyy excited for this one!
🍨no movies (yet) because i don't usually watch them... but i will keep an eye out on the club members in case something intrigues me <3
hi salad! what are some of the things youve learned in your first year writing? tips?
In no particular order:
If writing was easy, everyone would do it.
At the same time, you have to love the struggle. Otherwise why are you doing it?
Try for consistency—as in, a couple sentences a day—but don’t get too hung up on it. Sometimes I go through long periods of reading only or doing other kinds of art. Making yourself anxious about it doesn’t help.
Take a walk if you can’t think of what you want to say.
I’m an outliner. I need to have a rough idea of what I’m doing with a story.
I’m also prone to underwriting, so I’m always trying to add details and emotional beats. It’s not the worst thing in the world to be sparse with your prose, but I also really admire people with vivid and lush writing styles; I think I struggle to let scenes breathe. Speaking of which:
Get a beta reader, ideally one who isn’t afraid to whack you. There is no faster way to improve than to work through edits and constructive criticism. Not everyone cares about that, which is fine; everyone has a different process or goals or whatever.
Beta read for other people. If you can read someone else’s work and pick out moments that don’t land, sentence rhythms that fall flat, pacing that drags, that will help you notice the same in your own work.
Beta reading is critical reading, which I also recommend and do a lot of. I often read books with a highlighter and pencil in my hand. The same goes for fics I really like—if I love something, I often download it and re-read it while annotating. Unfortunately now I’m just describing putting yourself through a creative writing class.
I’m a big believer in Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style: “Vigorous writing is concise.” This is true in every field (believe it or not, I get paid to write op-eds and policy papers, which is where I learned most of the fundamentals of writing), and it also applies to fanfic. Many fics are too long. SORRY! They are. As S&W say, “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.” Your words can tell something other than pure plot advancement, but they have to serve some sort of purpose. S&W have all sorts of tips that are incredibly useful in fiction. At any moment, the easiest decision a reader can make is to stop reading. The worst thing a fic can be is boring. You are trying to tell a story to your reader. Get their attention and hold it!
Along these lines, I’ve found that if something is boring me to write, it’s probably because the scene is unnecessary or could be shorter. This advice comes from the inimitable susiecarter IIRC.
Also, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is incredible even for fanfic writing. And I’m slowly working through Steering the Craft (thanks Freya for the suggestion!). Orwell, critiquing political writing, says that “As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.” I really do think this is true of fic too. Avoid turns of phrase that are fanfic staples. Don’t be pretentious in writing unless your style calls for it. Be concrete.
Read the types of stories you want to write and write the types of stories you want to read.
Part of putting your work out there is that people are going to have opinions about it. Nothing is for everyone. It’s your art; stand behind it. In other words, stop caring what strangers online think unless you are specifically soliciting concrit.
If you are writing from close third, everything on the page should be filtered through the character’s POV. If your character wouldn’t notice the high ceilings, don’t write about them.
Especially in kink or darkfic, you have to commit to the bit (another Freya tip). What is the meat of it? What makes it sexy? What’s interesting? Get grosser and more perverted and more honest. If you as the writer are flinching away from what you actually find iddy, why should the reader be interested? Why are you writing it if it doesn’t turn you on/make you sick/excite you/make you laugh/make you cry? Don’t let shame keep you from writing something real.
People on Tumblr love sharing information about themselves no matter how asinine it is. And I'm the same way. Everybody tell me what the last thing you drank was.
i need everyone to reply to this post and rec me ONE song. it can be a song that you've been really loving lately, one of your all-time favs, one you think i'd like, etc. BUT ONLY ONE. not an album, not an artist, just One song. it's a bit of a challenge i know.... but what is the ONE song you'd rec to somebody (me) right now if they asked (i'm asking). and you can tell me why you picked it if you want! again, doesn't have to be your fav song of all time, it can literally be a song you heard for the first time today and really vibed with. i'm talkin Anything too, any genre, any artist, any decade, lay it on me.
((this isn't for anything specific btw it's literally just me selfishly looking for some song recs bc i love discovering new music. all the songs will be going on my listen later playlist but srsly i need it to be One song each bc otherwise the playlist will be Too Overwhelming which is what happened last time i did this fdshfd))
this is such a slay i'm building such a good collection to listen to while i deep clean my apartment again tomorrow and the next day so if u haven't recced one yet pls go ahead !!
also...no one asked but.....if i was gonna rec One song to everybody right now it'd def be expectations by olivia rodrigo bc i've been listening to it nonstop during this v Difficult period of time and it makes me feel so much better genuinely lmao. like if u need a fun catchy get-up-and-dance and SCREAM IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS song with 80s vibes go listen to it rn
i actually think that what's being missed in the 'why does everyone love heated rivalry' conversation is just that it's good
it's well made, well shot, well directed, the music is interesting, the costumes are both thoughtful and subtly period accurate, the sex scenes are intentional and, again, accurate to what hooking up when you're like 18 actually feels like...the actors are of course attractive but they look like real people. the characters are varied and well fleshed out, the acting is really, really strong
so many shows and films shoot and then slot in whatever music kind of fits or could be licenced in the budget after time, but you can tell that the scenes in hr were shot with that specific music in mind. and the same intentional approach runs through the whole thing
it feels...so nice to watch a show that cares about itself
Nobody knew in advance that this show would become a massive international phenomenon. It was a mid-budget Canadian show (which means low budget by US standards) adapted from a Harlequin romance novel. The deal with HBO for US distribution rights was only signed a few weeks before it began to air.
But everybody involved treated it as if it was serious art anyway. Not just some little Canadian streaming show that might well disappear after airing. Based on a book from a genre that is usually ridiculed by people who consider themselves serious film people. The cast, the crew, the writer/director, the music supervisor, everybody. They all did their best work for love of the game.
A Friend of the Family by roadtripexpert - THEE jackie pike fic of my dreams. i read this and then i stared off into the middle distance getting emotional about women and how much i love women and their inner worlds.... has anyone else heard of women.....
ptb by cchapsticck - a really good stream of consciousness exploration of like... how race and autism interact with hockey's lack of bodily autonomy and how that plays out through violence and kink and sexuality, i guess. that makes it sound academic but it's really just what the inside of shane hollander's head is like to me.
the marble leaves the man by citrusses - ohhh ilya thinking how much he loves his beartrap his beartrap is so homey and cozy and it's proof somebody wants him, what a lucky boy he is he's never had a beartrap of his own before. his foot doesn't hurt at all stop asking about his foot.
skin still wet, still on my skin by IsvsWorld - I normally avoid genderchanged Heated Rivalry fic because I think it kind of strips the work of intended themes. this manages to expand on the themes. i cared about these characters as their own characters, not just shane-and-ilya-in-a-different-font.
with your fists for once by luminoussbeings - the intimacy of violence is the theme of the post i guess. i loved this take on ilya it felt really grimy and visceral and poetic
A Beginner's Guide to Light Weight Travel by noNic02 - did i mention i love women. SVETLANA!!!!! i loved her voice so much in this, sardonic and flighty and immature and fun and jagged and defensive and refusing to let anyone including the reader see her soft spots. and that ending. much to consider.....
HOLLANDER VS ROZANOV I by gone_girl - mein gott i really lost it at this one. like i fucking LOST it. i learned a lot about boxing, and beyond that, it just. oh my god. i felt like after i finished the movie atonement for the first time. like such a stunning aesthetically beautiful work of art that also made me feel like an empty old plastic bag.
Clean Sweep by YankingAwry - THEE ilya AU oh my god nobody has ever gotten it as much as this fic got it. i also absolutely fucking adore irina in this, she's such a whole presence. did i mention my feelings about WOMEN!!!
limerence by cloudsurfing - i haven't really delved into hanahaki before but i kinda gave it a go randomly and like oh my god. this was so good. i had so much fun. i mean it's upsetting but i had fun.
I'll Fuck You Forever, For Now by Anonymous - 🚬😑 can you come off anon i just wanna talk
this year's wine by Anonymous - THE BEST TO EVER DO ITTTT like for real my fav heated rivalry fanfiction ever written. ilya's voice is amazing, the author's style is amazing, the ability to create these little bubbles of reality is so stunning, the world feels so inhabited and full of these random side characters that are so lived in.
kianamaiart
izzy806
stormborns
amandla
dailybridgerton
ellievsbear
origamiaround
