Hey, I just wanted to let you know, your grace shepard fics have been keeping me cheerful through the bad days during lockdown - theyre a perfect escape, and I can read them over and over! I'm sure I'd be able to go on at length about all my favourite bits when I've had more sleep lol but I just wanted to let you know that your stories have been SO IMPORTANT to me and I cant thank you enough for putting so much passion and hard work into it!
I had to sit on this for a couple of days because when it first arrived in my inbox, I had a Lot of Emotions. Good emotions, but just ... a lot of them.
Things have been kinda rough on the creative front, lately. As in, I honestly do not remember the last time I spent five minutes writing and I kinda forget the last time I was really excited about something fun. (What is this ... fun?) I’ve been really run down and sad and burned out (like, nuclear-winter burned out). And because that’s the perfect breeding ground for self-doubt, I’ve also been wallowing in a lot of “maybe you were never that good anyway” and “maybe you’ll never write again” negative self-talk, all mashed up with a bunch of personal life/COVID life loneliness and blah.
So. Getting this note was a gift. I can’t thank you enough for it. It was exactly, exactly the medicine I needed when I had no idea I needed medicine at all. Thank you for taking the time to send it. Not only did it change my whole day--it really helped curtail a downward spiral, and I’ve felt better ever since I read it.
Grace and I are really looking forward to the Legendary Edition <3 Hopefully more fic (or dare I hope finished fic) will come of it.
Hey I just wanted to say I love your gage art so much!! All the art shows so much of his personality, I just, wow. It's so good 😍😍 you're great. Thanks for drawing the dirty raider man 💖
God you have no idea how happy this makes me! Messages like these are what keeps me going and doing what I do and I am so really happy that my content and ideas and silly art makes people happy! Thank you so much for this!
theres like 5 fanfics out there, but sure thing babe.
first off, there’s “Nervous System”, by archive user Carmendy. its a little nsfw, but not too explicit, and that’s not really the point of this story, in my view. it’s well written and the dialogue’s cute as hell, i’m a sucker for shy sam :p
next off, “Escape”, by BitterRenegade. disclaimer, its quite short, but i like it because of its bittersweet tone. leT MY KIDS WATCH DISNEY MOVIES IN PEACE U MONSTERS
right, shaking off my pent up angst, “Who’s Your Type?”, also by Bitter Renegade, is good if you like suffering forever. it slowly builds up from something innocent to something painful and if that’s not evil then idk what is, but it’s good nonetheless.
and lastly, to calm your nerves after the previous emotional rollercoaster, “Sleepless Nights”, by miinyuu, is basically sam comforting sara when she’s thinking too much, not being able to sleep. it is scientifically proven to be the cutest. sorry, pumpkins, i dont write the rules.
so there u go @get-bent-moose, hope these stories tickle ur weenus, my guy
Hi, could I get a match up please? I'm 21, straight, and my mbti is INTJ. I'm 6ft with brown/blonde hair. I have a terrible sense of humour (either dark humour or puns) and I'm always laughing at my own jokes. I love reading (mainly fantasy, comics or modern day twists on mythology) and telling stories (though I may be prone to exaggerate them for comic effect sometimes). I work for the police so can be very level headed in serious situations, and am very good at planning and intel work.
SEND ME A SHORT DESCRIPTION ABOUT YOU AND I’LL TELL YOU WHICH FALLOUT 4 CHARACTER YOU SHOULD DATE || meme - OPEN
Hello Madame Mayor Hancock. You both can enjoy laughing at each others stories and laying down the law in Goodneighbor.
And possibly a little Deacon? Inappropriate jokes and spy stuff, ya know?
Hi, I absolutely love your writing style and was wondering if you considered any other authors as inspiration?Also wondering if there are any books or authors that you recommend or feel have been important in the way you have developed your writing?
Thank you so much! And what an interesting question.
I’m not sure I can adequately convey how vitally important reading has always been to me. I don’t remember a time I wasn’t toting around a book. I consider countless authors inspirational. (Honestly, if whatever book I’m reading isn’t inspiring me on some level, I’ll probably put it down and never pick it up again.)
When I was a very little girl, I was obsessed (wait, who am I kidding, I am always obsessed with something at any given time)--anyway, I was obsessed with a few books that I still love, and that I feel probably had a more deeply lasting effect on my precisely because I read them when I was so small. Beauty, by Robin McKinley (I love all McKinley). The Singing Stone, by O.R. Melling. I still have both on my bookshelf. When I read them, I see the seeds that really started the climbing vine that eventually became my own style. Patricia A. McKillip is someone I came to a bit later, but whom I adore; I don’t think I will ever be as poetic as she is, but I don’t mind sitting at her altar and just basking for a bit. I only came across Megan Whelan Turner a few years ago, but have reread her books several times since then. She does things with POV and unreliable narration that sets a very very high bar, all while using words beautifully. My parents had a really huge collection of SF/Fantasy and I read... stuff way beyond what I should’ve been reading, from a very young age. My love of SF/F is pretty much a chicken and egg scenario in my head now. Having nerd parents helped ;)
It’s not just novelists. I’m not a poet, but I do adore poetry, and there are a few poets that just... reading their words is like hitting a tuning fork that resonates at just the perfect frequency for me: T.S. Eliot (coming as a surprise to probably no one), E.E. Cummings, Sylvia Plath, Keats. Shakespeare goes in here, too, for language, but gets a special mention because his stories are so rich and full and play with language so much. I have a deep and abiding love for fairy tales and mythology (especially Irish, British, Norse, some degree of Russian).
If you want a couple of fanfiction writers I find inspirational, I can do that, too? Both @loquaciousquark and @twigcollins were on my radar long, long, long before I became personally acquainted with either. I loved (and love!) both their work desperately, and was absolutely the shyest, bumbling, lurky fangirl about them. (Like, we could talk about how blushy and weird and stumbly I was when I actually started talking to them omg but it would just be embarrassing. Let’s just say there’s still a healthy dose of awe.) There are tons of other writers I adore, but I think quark and twig might get bonus points for just how unbearably awed-to-the-point-of-google-eyed-shyness I was about them. For me, the fact that they write fanfiction is secondary to the fact that they are both brilliant, have a gorgeous way with words and emotion, and are telling stories I’d want to read no matter who the characters happened to be. (And let me tell you: one day twig’s going to finish the original fic novel she’s writing and by God it’s going to be so good.) They both have style I know I can’t emulate because it’s theirs, but I can admire it. And perhaps learn from it.
Reading isn’t my only source of inspiration, though. My writing wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t listen to music all the time. A single lyric or phrase or chord or crescendo can inspire whole scenes. (I wrote a book when I was 17 and two scenes are still always vivid behind my eyes because they are completely and utterly married to a couple of Chopin’s nocturnes in my head. I hear the first few chords of music and instantly, there’s the queen turning away from the window.) Movies and TV, while not as huge a part of my life as they used to be, provide so many images along with their writing. I tend to be quite visual as a writer--I think in images and dialogue and emotion most of all--so film/tv/theatre have all influenced me a lot.
When I was young, I borrowed stylistically from the books I was reading (and tv shows I was watching) a lot. When I look back at those stories, I can often tell what I was reading because my words sound a lot like the other author’s words. That doesn’t happen anymore, really, mostly because whatever voice is, I think I’ve found mine? It did not happen overnight. At all. A lot of it is trial and error, I think. I feel like figuring out who you are as a writer is a lot like being a test tube in a centrifuge. You have to spin around a lot (sometimes violently) to see what separates out from the whole messy solution you started out with.
You start to realize the things that matter most to you. For me, plot is secondary to characters, always. If I don’t connect with the characters, it doesn’t matter how brilliant the plot is. I need great dialogue. I need a hint of the poetic in turns of phrase or the construction of sentences; I find stark Hemingwayesque writing unbearable. I gravitate to themes of hope and bravery and pushing despair to the very moment you think there’s no coming back from it and the blurry lines between dream and reality. I love love--romantic and friendship and familial. I need emotion that feels real, I need psychology that makes sense to me without handwaving. The more you figure out what matters most to you, the more you start seeking out books that scratch those itches, and the more your own voice as a writer firms up. My voice as a writer supports work that allows me to showcase all the things that are important to me.
And it’s not done. Of course it’s not. Like plants, writers change and grow. They flower. Sometimes they wilt. A new experience might inspire a whole new offshoot. And style might change a bit from project to project. I think my writing sounds a bit different to my inner ear when I’m say, writing Mass Effect vs Dragon Age vs high fantasy original work vs urban fantasy original work. There’s a certain Tara-ness, but the style (where style is word choice, sentence structure, etc) shifts to fit the tone of the piece.
As for books that have influenced my writing: I have a lot of good things (and a few not-good things, to be fair) to say about Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. It’s not for everyone, but it speaks a language that really works for me, and it has brought me back from creative despair a few times. Chuck Wendig’s posts about writing are always worth reading. Although I’ve never read a Stephen King novel (!), I did really enjoy On Writing, especially the anecdotal stuff. There’s a book called Seven Steps on the Writer’s Path that I’ve read and highlighted and read again a lot of times.
I think the best bit of advice I can give is this: Learn to really listen to yourself. If something bores you? Don’t do it. If you hate something? Don’t waste your time on it. Never ignore enthusiasm; it’s a gateway to love and creativity and excitement. Never take anyone’s words or experience as the whole truth--what works for some will not work for others, and that’s okay. Discovering yourself as a writer really is the journey of a lifetime. I know it’s hard, but try not to compare yourself to others--no two paths are the same, and a lot of times it’s like comparing apples and oranges and kiwi fruit and Stilton cheese. Some people adore all these things; some only like one or two; some like none at all. It’s better to think about what you like, and do that. Trying to please others--especially a nameless, faceless Audience--is just setting yourself up for disappointment.
Read a lot and write a lot, knowing that a lot of what you write will never see the light of day. Mistakes, missteps, sketches--these are all pretty vital parts of ~*becoming a writer*~, but hardly anyone talks about their necessity. I’ve definitely written more than a million words that will never see the light of day, but they weren’t wasted. I know myself better for having written them.
For the meme prompt thing, if you are still doing it, shakarian and things you said too quietly? I really love the dynamic between your Shepard and Garrus :) thank you
His world exploded in a flash of light and the sound of sirens. Or perhaps it was just his own head ringing; Omega didn’t, by and large, have a lot of vehicles with sirens. Not like they’d had at C-Sec, not like the orderly machine of service providers in Cipritine, not like the klaxons on the Citadel when Sovereign struck.
The strangest thing was that it didn’t even hurt. Not really. He’d had worse burns from a soldering iron, worse kicks to the ribs in the sparring ring.
No, the strangest thing was that he couldn’t move. He wanted to. Knew he needed to. Could feel the blood in his throat; knew he’d drown on if he didn’t spit it out. Couldn’t—couldn’t—
The sound of her voice saying—screaming?—his name brought him back. Enough to close his talons around his gun—the wrong end—enough to cough. Already drowning. Always was afraid of the water, always hated the cold—cold now, so cold, and his blood was worse than swimming—
He could hear her shouting into her comms, or maybe at one of the new people she’d brought with her. Already too far underwater—underblood?—to make out her words, he could still tell she was pissed. Scary when she was pissed. Didn’t ever want to—didn’t want to—
“Really... missed… you…” he said. Tried to say. Thought he said. Too quiet. Maybe it just came out blood. A blue cough. Her hand—he knew it was hers; no one else had a hand like hers—found his and squeezed.
“Stay with me,” she said. Commanded.
He’d never minded following her orders. Maybe that was the strangest thing. Out of all the strange things.
This order, though, he wasn’t sure he could manage.
The cosplay is looking amazing so far, id love to see the whole thing when it's finished? Also, I was wondering which bit you found/are finding the most difficult?
aaaaa thank you so so much 8D
I’ve already asked several friends to snap some pics of us; I can’t not leave the con without having any pictures taken, not when I have some Hyperion bros and everything (8
and aaaaaa oh man everything feels difficult?? I mean, this is a challenge but nothing I couldn’t conquer. Hmmm well I’ve never worked with 3 mm eva foam before but then again it’s turning out to be very nice and easy material to handle. But that’s one. It’s a challenge but nothing’s gone drastically wrong yet (8 . I guess I could say that getting the cell-shading right is the most difficult part? Like you can either make it look amazing or a little less amazing and since I’m aiming for as amazing as possible, it requires a lot of time and concentration o:
