#how i write

[pinkertinn]

Found my canva outline I made for Tides of Fate 🤣 I should do this for more of my fics… they’d prob get done a lot faster.

Me: how many times have Claire and Leon canonically seen each other.. how many times can I squeeze in the sex??

[neversleepingever]

The terrible habit of writing away in my notes app and then having to bring those words into the harsh light of my Google docs and be like wtf is this, a new reader fic? Which chapter does this drabble belong to??

[frau-wilhelm-klink]

POV: Having no typos in your work when you proofread it (only to have them show up after it's been published) is like a cursed version of the Keebler elves, but for writers😂😭

[kogarashi-art]

Tell Me Tuesday Someday

Share behind-the-scenes commentary for some part of your fic (or artwork; this should honestly apply to that too if you want).

It may not be Tuesday anywhere right now, but it's Tuesday in my heart.

Saw this pop up a few times, with people sharing outlining stuff for their stories, and I thought it would be a good thing to do too. Except I've done that already, so instead, I'm going to link to those posts. Let's revive some older content.

From a year ago, a post specifically about how I outline:

Post by @kogarashi-art · 7 images

💬 0  🔁 4  ❤️ 12 · Writing Tips: How I Outline · (Or: How I turn a list of random ideas into a plot outline.) Saw this question pop up elsew

(Now updated with example images. People who want a little peek at some of my fic ideas might be interested in the screenshots.)

And one of the oldest posts on my tumblr (this was the seventh thing I posted once I started actually posting back in 2021), a look at how I write:

Post by @kogarashi-art · 10 images

💬 0  🔁 1  ❤️ 2 · How I Write: A Look Under the Hood · This month is NaNoWriMo, so in honor of that, I am totally procrastinating working on

This one might be extra interesting to some people because I used examples from my process for writing "What You Strive For."

This also seems to be a good time to mention my Writing Tips Masterpost, where both of these are linked but where I also posted other writing tips.

Tag! (No pressure.)

@handsignals, @himluv, @grand-crow, @sorcerousadventurer, @dags-over-caravans, @bronzeagelove, @chaosherald, @serialsforbellara, @necromanticsoul, @sandcastlekings, @redheadsramblings, @sapphireangelbunny, @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai, @wolfsong-the-bloody-beast, @hedwigoprah, @redaresss, @mushrooms-x-moss, @grand-crow, @davrinsleftpectoral, @blackwall-my-tiny-husband, @pixiedurango, @jukkaricity, @ladyofcrowsandcoffee, @brynriith, @lycheecatee, @the-archons-moustache, @rooks-dagger, @mama-qwerty, @jadeandroses

Tag list info here.

[crooked-wasteland]

The Existential Separation of Heaven and Hell

The first question to ask is why are the settings of Heaven and Hell? 

It is why this is a rewrite or fanfiction and not being drafted as its own fantasy world devoid from the lineage of Hazbin Hotel. While Medrano’s version could have been set anywhere, separate of questions about God and religion, mine cannot. In fact, the entire story hinges on this dichotomy of cultural perception and history through the lens of theology. 

The idea that He would help one person pass a test but allow an entire family to die in a freak accident disturbed me. That God was more concerned whether sex took place between married partners than he was with children being beaten, tortured, or killed by their own parents. That God insisted it was more important that I hated people who loved differently than it was to hate those who fantasized harm on others. 

But more than being a critique of religion as a construct, it is a tomb in which a part of myself is buried. I’ve spoken briefly about my background in religion. My relationship with religion is the focus of the design, as is the state of Hell being a meaningless continuation of current life.

These choices reflect my experience walking away from all the gods. Because, while walking away, I didn’t lose faith in my God at that time. Rather, I realized God has always ever been an apathetic observer to life itself. This realization resulted in me seeing God as morally bankrupt, not nonexistent.

I didn’t see contradictions in that God; I saw a chaotic continuity. It wasn’t something made of love, but a creature drenched in apathy and hungering for control. My nihilism wasn’t born from a void left by an absent God; it was born from the void I saw inside Him.

And that is a fundamental part of this story: My truth that God himself is an empty throne. He may sit upon it; he may not, but the outcomes are ever the same in his absence and his presence. 

Meanwhile, the origination of Hell as a human continuation of existence cut off from any god is to challenge you, regardless of your personal beliefs, to enter a world where nothing you do matters because you are cut off from that divinity. You are no longer required to keep striving for anything, no longer forced to seek sovereign approval. To confront you with that radical freedom to live purely free without consequence and be whoever you want to be. 

Will you become violent, cruel, debased?  When given no authoritarian consequences for your actions are you suddenly a demon, or are you simply you? 

I am of the firm belief that when faced with that ledge, what Camus would call “Absurd Freedom”, they quickly look away. There is an existential anxiety attached to that place, what Kierkegaard called “Angst”. Kierkegaard wrote, “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” The feeling of this concept is like standing on an edge over which you see nothing but darkness below. Would you have the fortitude to leap—or do you believe you would simply sink and become undone by freedom.

For all the misery and joy you have lived through to this point, regardless of whether it is great or comparatively small, is your sense of self so brittle that without the threat of punishment it crumbles? And if your sense of self crumbles under the absence of imposed weight, was it ever truly your self, or merely a self you were assigned? 

My position is akin to a Kierkegaardian ‘leap of faith’, but not toward a god. Rather, a leap toward the human spirit. My world asserts that, no, most of us would not suddenly abandon our humanity just because the divine scaffolding has vanished. In fact, I believe many wouldn’t even confront it – they would simply continue, propelled by inertia. 

This state of drifting inertia, of surviving without living, is not new. Many have written about it from varied perspectives: 

Albert Camus – What he calls a “refusal to revolt” or assert one’s own existence; continuing to live while pretending you don’t have to choose how to do so. Soren Kierkegaard – What he called the “aesthetic life”.  Living for a beauty defined by wanton pleasure, detached irony, and distraction is a refusal to confront the radical freedom of choice in the name of silencing the anxiety it brings. Friedrich Nietzsche – What he named “herd morality”: the values we’ve constructed out of fear of the unknown, the resentment of the other, or for a convenient comfort rather than our own initiative built from will. What many erroneously see as a disavowal of social responsibility is actually Nietzsche’s attempt at demanding personal responsibility for our social beliefs. Simone de Beauvoir – What she called “Bad Faith” or the rejection of personal responsibility by pretending the systems we live in weren’t chosen. Her philosophy asserts that there is nothing wrong with living inside these systems, but it is a wicked lie to say we couldn’t choose something else. Michel Foucault – What he metaphorically called the “Panopticon Prison” or the state of internalized discipline and self-regulation for the benefit of institutional control. Carl Jung – What he would call the “Unintegrated Shadow”. Jung, though a psychologist and not a philosopher, is included because his theories reflect the same “institutionalization” of the Self—one that begins within us and which many live their entire lives denying responsibility of. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – His philosophies compliment the rest by his mere definition of a “self”; not simply a thing, but a process in the same constant motion as the Solar System. You don’t exist on your own—you become who you are by being seen, challenged, and understood by others. His theory is hard to explain plainly, but think of it like this: You can’t understand a bird by looking at a feather. You have to see how that feather works with the wind and the anatomy of the bird’s hollow bones, and the motion of flight. The same is true of people—truth isn’t in the pieces; it’s in the synthesis. And that synthesis doesn’t have a clean ending; it can continue infinitely unless it is intentionally stopped short.  His definition of inertia, then, is the willful refusal to engage with the process.  Martin Heidegger – What he would call “Inauthenticity”, much like de Beauvoir’s Bad Faith, is a passive avoidance of one’s own truth. But where her philosophy focused on awareness of the self, he fixated on the awareness of time. Our pursuit of comfort and safety in the present is simply a means of ignoring that the inevitability of death gives urgency to life. We will die no matter what but living without agency is to act like we shall live forever. 

This is what defines the state of Hell. Not just what it is (a continuation of life without access to any god) but also why (to confront the material reality of the human condition we are living in). My Heaven and my Hell are a challenge unto you to radically accept the raw reality of life through fantasy. To travel through the valleys of the shadow of death without a god and without comfort and see how far you can go.

See if you can create divinity rather than hide beneath it. 

[draconisleostar]

hi! This might sound rude and I am sorry if it does, but why do you chose to write how you do?

I mean, reading other fics, people describe a lot and you don't tend to do that. Like the surroundings, the feelings of the character... Was there a reason for it? Also do you like read other people's work and get worried that there's is really different?

I DON'T MEAN THIS RUDELY I LOVE ZALDRITSOS I WAS JUST WONDERING

Hiyaaaaa! And oh boss, you’ve hit my weakness, my Achilles heel, the thing that will have me wrapped in paranoia and PRANG…

How I write…

So firstly, my place is an open space so please don’t worry about coming across as rude, you have a genuine question so I’ll genuinely answer

Ummm how to answer though? Ok, so, yes I totally over analyse my own work compared to others. I know that many authors write beautiful prose with long, admirable paragraphs that detail exceptionally

Which I love

But, and I preface this by saying that this is just me, I write using the specific method of close third person narrative.

I’m not gonna bore anyone with this, I know you guys don’t care that much, but essentially (could google the answer but cba) I write as if we are in the characters head. So for Zaldrītsos it’s Aerion and Kaerīnnon it’s Baelor.

This means we see through their eyes and are basically in their minds. We don’t get lyrical poetry half the time, we see what they see and think what they think. Whether that’s good or bad boss idk, I just do it that way

So yes, we literally only see what Aerion sees or hears or knows bc we are him he is us.. and same with Baelor… sorry if it’s not like other fics idk boss that’s just what we do round here

Anyways this was a boring rant but I hope it explains it, if anyone isn’t into how I write then you can just not read it hehe (no pass agg there just genuine!)

Anyways, thank you for the ask, feel free to ask anything there’s no limits here!

All the love 💫❤️

[weatherwrite]

You Want to Make a Fantasy World: Part XLIV - Individualism is for Fools and Herakles

We love stories about ubermensch that elevated themselves from the bounds of society, but for anyone that was not Herakles or Conan, this meant certain death. Other men trying to kill you, animals trying to kill you, starvation, dehydration, exposure, or even getting a cut turn septic, and not having the grit to saw your own leg off.

And then, even if you DID, no one to feed you once you've sawed your own leg off. Or passing out from blood loss from sawing your own leg off, and having no one to nurse you back to health.

You can last a week or two without food, a day to a couple of hours without water and salt, (depending upon conditions), an 4-5 minutes without oxygen.

There is a middle ground, however, people with a high enough position in society that they can flit off for a few months/years on an adventure.

I.e. Nobles.

The vast majority of adventure heroes are either nobles, or extremely close.

There are 3 or for major positions in The Shire. Hereditary Thain, Hereditary Master of Buckland, and Elected Mayor.

Frodo: Noble

Pippin / Peregrine Took: Son of Thain

Merry / Meriadoc Brandybuck: Son of the Master of Buckland

Samwise: Batman to Frodo, but goes on to be elected Mayor, for... basically the rest of this life. The only non-noble of the main cast.

Legolas: Son of the King of Sylvan Elves

Gimli: Distant royal

Boromir: Son of the Steward of Gondor

Aragon: Crownless King

Gandalf: Angel Incarnate

Every major character in the Iliad was a king or prince.

How about A:tLA?

Sokka: Crown Prince

Katara: Princess

Toph: Noble

Suki: Captain of the Guard

Zuko: Crown Prince

Azula: Princess

Aang: God Incarnate

Samurai Jack is the son of the Demi-God Emperor, Batman is the son of the richest man in New York Gotham City. Tarl Cabot is the son of a noble and isekaied back to his planet. John Carter is not a noble in practice, but in spirit he is.

Well, what if you want to start with a humble every dude?

Oh, that's easy. If a character's roots are stopping the story from happening, cut them.

Kill his family, burn down his home, exile him in disgrace, have the evil empire enslave him, isekai him to another planet. Without roots, even basic survival is impressive. There are endless hardships for him to overcome. It's incredibly easy to write a story like this. This is, unfortunately why, Isekai has become such an utterly lazy genre.

They isekai the main character, have him use his OP powers to rank up to the highest level adventurer in a week, and then sit on his fat stacks.

Wait, were we forgetting something? Boobs?

STRUGGLE. That's what you're forgetting.

Some of them bump into an interesting story in the first cour, and then completely forget about if for the boring rest of the story.