Wish that there was a way I could have saved one little moment,
Pull it out when I can, handle the pain and know when it's over.
I was so intact on the night I met you, now I'm making sad songs inside my bedroom, but I'm writing it down, getting it out here's to me hoping: Some day I'll come home and feel like no one's even gone.
Relationship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Original Characters
Additional Tags: mid-autumn festival, Baking, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Wei Wuxian centric, Minor Original Character(s), mooncakes, Caiyi Town, Cloud Recesses (Módào Zǔshī), Cloud Recesses Shenanigans (Módào Zǔshī), No beta we die like wwx, Kissing, Food as a Vessel for Grief, Jiang Yanli in flashbacks/thoughts
Lotus seeds tasted of home. They tasted of Jiang Yanli’s silver-bell laughter. They tasted like the whistle of an arrow through the air and the cheer as a kite fell. They tasted like toes in the mud, like fish darting around ankles, like dragon flies swooping in dazzling blues and greens.
They didn’t taste like Cloud Recesses.
Wishing to share food with Lan Zhan, Wei Ying makes Mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn fesitval.
I finally finished something I’ve been writing since I think July 2020? Anyway basically Wei Wuxian feels sad he can’t share spicy food with Lan Wangji so he makes mooncakes, but goes The Extra Mile making them because he is In Love.
A Non-Exhaustive and (In)Frequently Updated List of Resources I’ve Used while Writing MDZS/CQL/Untamed Fic
I did so much research for The Vermillion Ribbon that I decided to make a doc out of it. If I’m bored sometime (ha) I might go farther back through my google search history but for now this is MDZS specific and just what I used for TVR. I’ll try to update it periodically as I write other things, though, so it’ll get more complete.
In most cases, I go to Google and type in what I’m trying to find out. This might be a question - “were there barrels in ancient china” - or it might be an idiom - “origin ‘barrels of fun’” - or it might definition - “define pusillanimity” or it might be that I’m trying to find out if a reference is appropriate - “china mosquitoes” was a search to make sure there were, in fact, mosquitoes in China. Each of these searches only take a few minutes at most but doing them can really enhance a narrative.
Here are some other examples of searches I used to get utterly random pieces of information I needed - all of these produced the results I was looking for:
domesticated geese in china
traditional shanghai food
history of sandpaper
traditional peaked hat china
how to help someone who is having a flashback
parts of a day bed
wang yibo height
shades of green
is dumbfoundment a word
bland chinese food
flowers native to eastern china
how were ancient chinese homes heated
does chinese hair tangle
when do gentians bloom
popular alcohol in hebei
how does baijiu taste
history of use sinkers for fishing
does rain damage silk
what are the dots in go called in chinese
perception of snakes in china
do people kneel or sit cross legged at chinese tables
history of our understanding of cancer
common bushes near tianjin
necrotization vs gangrene
chinese formal letter opener
I’m including these so you see...basically if an issue comes up while you’re writing, and you’re not sure...just check. The information is out there. Looking at it gives the FBI agent spying on all your internet usage something interesting to read!
General Writing Resources:
Behind the Name and Behind the Surname (https://www.behindthename.com/, https://surnames.behindthename.com/) - definitely more a resource for Western names but if you care about name origin and meaning, extremely handy.
Encyclopedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/) - I use it much less often than Wiki but it’s still helpful sometimes.
Google Image Search (https://www.google.com/imghp) - not sure what something looks like? GIS is your best friend. There’s no better way to make sure you write a compel a description than to actually look at the thing you’re trying to describe.
Google Maps (https://maps.google.com/) - if you’re writing about a real place, it’s always helpful to be able to look at it, especially on satellite or street view.
Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/) - should you rely on it? God, no. But if you just need something basic and you remember you might get garbage back, it can still be helpful.
Online Etymology Dictionary (https://www.etymonline.com/) - an excellent source for word origins, especially slang (like if you’re trying to figure out if a word or phrase is time period appropriate).
Onomatopoeias (http://onomatopoeialist.com/) - need just the right sound? Here you go.
Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview) - this is the only writing software I’ve ever used and while I honestly don’t use it for writing fanfiction (I just write in gdocs and wing it), I still support it and I use it to organize my research for original projects.
Thesaurus.com (https://www.thesaurus.com/) - my preferred thesaurus. I use a thesaurus constantly - both for synonyms and antonyms - while writing and find it infinitely more useful than, say, the lists of words I sometimes see circulating as rebloggable Tumblr posts. If you find a word you’re not sure of listed, always check the definition before using it.
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) - maybe I should be embarrassed by how often I rely on Wiki but fuck that, because Wiki is an invaluable source for random obscure information. On major topics it’s sometimes unreliable but on most historical matters aside from those that are most fraught (ie, the causes of the US Civil War) you can generally trust that the information is reliable, and if you need more information the included references can help a lot.
Sources for Information on English Idioms (asterisk denotes ones I like best/use most):
The Free Dictionary: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/
*The Grammarist: https://grammarist.com/
Know Your Phrase: https://knowyourphrase.com/
Merriam-Webster “Words at Play” Blog: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play
Character Ages When Specific Events Happen: https://wang-xians.tumblr.com/post/190805604377/ages-of-wei-wuxian-and-peers-during-key-events
Character Birthdays: https://klashta-neali.tumblr.com/post/183922824954/tdp-and-mdzs-character-birthdays-masterlist-im
Character Heights: https://bigbadredpanda.tumblr.com/post/181326045966/mdzs-character-height-chart
Character List and Ship List (the only one of these resources I made…): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/3/d/1qtE4KXAcLfdEEBv-JHznf81Uoo8gZzrI_ID-kn9B6BU/edit?usp=sharing
Character Names and Titles:
A list of names and titles: https://bonibaru.tumblr.com/post/187163138846/mdzs-character-names-and-titles
Some info on who calls others what, and why: https://bigbadredpanda.tumblr.com/post/182713668731/hello-can-you-pls-explain-it-to-me-why-mdzs
Some breakdown on relationships relating to what people call each other: https://bigbadredpanda.tumblr.com/post/182811566041/hi-theres-something-i-was-a-bit-curious-about
Modao Zushi Fandom Wiki (https://modao-zushi.fandom.com/wiki/Grandmaster_of_Demonic_Cultivation_Wiki) - MDZS has one of the most exhaustive and well-done fandom wikis I’ve used to date.
Swords (these are images, with the name, of each weapon in Untamed):
What Each Character Calls Each Other Character: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NEL1WU6NU3rzuLgTjJYDDGNu2XW0DZLQYlJGJhcz9IU/edit?usp=drivesdk
What the Heck does Er-Gege Actually Mean: https://boat-full-of-lotus-pods.tumblr.com/post/182490910183/this-is-a-really-stupid-question-but-what-is-the
General History:
The Tiffany Problem: https://medium.com/swlh/the-tiffany-problem-when-history-makes-no-sense-703b86522627
Units of Measurement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement (includes multiple historical systems, sorted by era and with their metric equivalent)
