#ratc ask

[amber-dragonfly]

this fanfic shit is easy

JHLKADFSLKJHFHJAKSLJHK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Rezek said

Amazing job Harvey I'd read 200+ chapters jhkasdlkjhfkjhads

[amber-dragonfly]

Amber,, amber. Ire voiceclaim as Hermes from epic the musical. The part where he laughs in the middle of the song Wouldn't You Like. Do you get me

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 👁👁👁

I see it I see the vision I haven't seen that musical but Oooooooooo the laughs fits especially yea yea YEAAA I GET YOU MAGZ I GET YOU

I always pictured Ire's laugh as........frenzied and desperate. Like the most bloviated laugh its body can muster, straining its voice to try and convince someone, anyone, that its laughter is genuine rather than a plea. It has not laughed genuinely in all its life, in or out of Malice, and that's what I especially love about how it currently conducts itself ehehehehehehehehehehehe >:3

[amber-dragonfly]

hiii!! loved the new chapter :3

im not very good with saying how im feeling but do know i very much enjoyed it!!

anyways, my ask has less to do with your story, and more writing as a whole...

i really like your writing, and its very inspiring how you can update so regularly and still put out such quality literature, and its not even like 1k words a week or something.

ive recently (kind of) gotten over a *massive* writers block that lasted several years, and started writing my own fic again. im just having trouble staying consistent, and feeling like anything i put down is even worth it/makes any sense.

i assume you probably struggle with stuff thats similar, or have in the past, as nobody can be absolutely perfect.

so what advice would you give to those struggling with *too many* ideas, i suppose? or just any advice at all would be greatly appreciated C:

tysm and have a great day!!!

omg hi hi hi!!! Thank you so much! 💙

I'm so glad you're loving my silly little chapters :D

I'm glad you started writing again! Writer's block sucks and is a real hard hurdle to get over (similar to burnout), so here's the best I got for how I deal with similar issues:

Colossal yapping below the cut

When it comes to "too many" ideas, I've ABSOLUTELY suffered from that in the past. Both with too many ideas in general, and too many ideas for the story I'm working on. So lemme break out both lol

"I have so many ideas I want to start, but can't juggle them all or can't choose which one to really start on.

THIS one, this one right here, this is the bane of all creatives hjlkaskjhdf

I personally have an entire backlog of stories I want to write and develop, both before and after I started on RATC, and I think a big part of handling this is to, unfortunately, choose which project to put the most time in.

I've noticed the biggest burnout and writer's block stints I had was when I was working on multiple projects at once, trying to juggle them all and work on them enough to where I could put out something within a reasonable time frame.

This also can create a sort of decision paralysis of "okay I have 2 hours of free time today which of my ideas/projects will I put time to" and then as I'm trying to figure out which one I've already begun playing a game or watching YouTube or doomscrolling because the prospect of working on one project would give me this subliminal feeling that I'm "neglecting" my other projects to the point of abandoning them which THEN would lead to nothing really getting done

Before I started with RATC, I was trying to write a whole-ass original fantasy story, learning digital art, coming up with a script for a video essay, all sorts of assorted fanfic, and even drafting an idea for a video game. After a while of not really having anything I was confident in posting out into the internet, I had this moment where I went "alright, I'm just gonna devote a majority of my time to this ONE project, and if I have free time between them I'll dabble in other noncommittal side works".

And even then I forced myself to write at small-scale first. The origin stories of the main 4 were essentially my way of "dipping my toes" into this colossal fic. And due to the very nature of these origin stories they let me upload them one at a time so I could at least have something out there so that if I didn't want to fully commit at least I had written something and could go "okay this is good enough I can start on something else without feeling bad about shelfing it"

Fun fact: When I first began to draft Kobb's whole story in my head, it was originally going to be just Kobb being freed from the ice, Link having a talk with it, and then it betraying The Calamity and helping Link while he infiltrated Hyrule Castle. It was meant to be a sort of interesting "what if" scenario as a short self-contained story. But that's the beauty of writing, is that as an idea blooms it spreads further and further past where you thought you could even go. Once I had the premise of Kobb drafted I started thinking about the other monsters and how they could come to a similar defection, and then getting the idea of Malice and its bind on monster kind and giving a sort of harrowing background to the whole "monsters in a video game respawn just so the player has something more to do" and spinning it on its head. And then thinking of THAT made me build the whole story around the entire question of "why do we label certain fantasy races as pure evil? Have we ever just stopped and asked ourselves why the 'lowly lv.1 goblin' is never allowed redemption?"

I started out with something I thought would be a small project only for it to completely enthrall me and here I am 1.1 million words later jhaksdfjlh

But it took more than a few tries of putting all my focus into other projects before losing steam or realizing it wasn't what I wanted to devote THIS much time to. RATC is like the tip of the iceberg and below it is all my unfinished WIPs lmao. Sometimes I do lament my side projects and unfinished work collecting dust but I've become so engrossed in the story I've written that I feel like it's a worthy sacrifice to make and I would've burned out way faster had I tried to juggle too much at once.

"I have so many ideas for my story, but I struggle to fit them all and/or keep track of them"

This is also a very real bane of the creative process too and it's why my fic for the longest time only focused on the perspective of the main four monster protags.

My biggest solution for this was to draft out my story in both macro-drafts and micro-drafts.

Macro-drafts are essentially the whole story I have planned, but as roughly and flexibly as I can. Only laying out the most major plot points and how the characters get there.

Micro-drafts are done on a chapter-to-chapter level. This is where the flexibility in the macro-draft allows me to levy more ideas in the micro-draft, so long as they lead to the major plot points I've drawn out at the start.

This allows for so much flexibility and meandering with the story because you know where it's gonna end. I get more ideas than I know what to do with, but this drafting process LETS me figure out where to place where and how to get the story back on track.

A good example of this is the arcs where Link ventures out with one of the monsters to each of Hyrule's four corners. For each of these arcs I had a base outline: X happens with Link and the selected monster, Y happens back at the lab. It was essentially my way of practicing diverging the plot between multiple viewpoints as these adventures would all end with Link and co returning and being caught up with what happened while they were gone. It's where the story's the most episodic, but I really love it for what it does to establish the stakes and scope of the plot while ALSO creating all these little threads to eventually come back to later.

If we're not counting the split perspective between Rezek and Link/Mar'ska when it was captured by the Yiga alongside Riju, it wasn't really until Valry's arc and the Hateno Return arc where a chapter wasn't either solely focused on or directly involved with the monster protags.

Even the Yiga defectors I had planned to make their perspectives more uninvolved with the story and only coming to Sledge when it ALL hit the fan and then doing a debrief but I felt like I had enough time and room to just write it out and in doing so flesh out the characters more.

In this case of macro vs. micro drafting, it goes like this

Macro draft: Sledge fights alongside Wren -> Wren and crew have change of heart -> They're found out, someone gets taken and needs rescued -> they go to Sledge for help

Micro draft: All the bulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllshit I came up with in-between

Like you can see how these simplistic plot points led me to fit in EVERYTHING involving the whole crew from Donovan's fake love letter ploy, to Revan's suddenly adopting a child, to Cardina and Mallory's whole arc. Many of these moments I didn't have 100% planned from the jump, but because I allowed myself the room for these spur-of-the-moment ideas, I have the space to fit them in without sacrificing the greater plot or needing to derail it.

Here's a graph of what I'm talking about:

This is essentially my drafting process, as chaotic as it seems. Have a distinct beginning/end of how either the whole story or a given arc will go, have general ideas on where to lead characters, and make sure it can all eventually coalesce in the end.

You can't always fit every idea you want to into a story, but you'd be surprised at just how much you can if you give yourself the room for ad-lib.

Consistency/Burnout/Writer's Block

It's real tough to stay consistent. I still have moments where I go "what the fuck was I even thinking" in regards to my writing. It's hard to give a complete concrete answer that covers all nuances, but the biggest advice I have is that reading and writing is like a muscle. That's really how I've been able to write so often per week is pretty much the same way you practice for a marathon jakhsldfh

You can really see it when comparing my earlier chapters to recent ones. It definitely didn't help I didn't have a concrete outline back then either and had to lock in and go "okay we're not gonna be spending until Wednesday figuring out what to write" lmao. It certainly helps to read alongside writing so that you can learn from other authors different ways to block out a scene, dialogue, actions, etc. And the more you do it, the easier it gets to do.

Of course there's moments where the writing just won't happen and that's where you shouldn't push yourself or the burnout starts to happen.

What's really helped me with my longer chapters is not to have a tight "I need to hit x words today" mindset. I go in every week with a sort of "I'll get what needs to be written written, and if I still need more time I'll give myself more time" mindset.

The biggest and I repeat BIGGEST advice I can give is "write until you can't" (hear me out I promise).

What that doesn't mean is "push yourself writing until you feel physically exhausted" no. What I mean when I say "write until you can't" is that the very microsecond you feel that resistance, that tension, that "I'm not having fun rn this sucks" moment, that's when you gotta hang it up for the day (or until you feel ready to come back). Pushing past that moment usually leads to very little writing being done while running your mind ragged.

The amount of days where I write a single sentence or less and go "fuuuuuuuuuck I can't do this" is too high to count at this point hasldfjhk. And what's allowed me to keep up so much steam is that I let myself call it quits early. I'm confident that when I feel more energized I'll be able to lock in and go ham on the page. And if I have too many of those "fuuuuuuuuuck I'm not gonna make my self-imposed weekly deadline" days, I simply call it off to next week and just do what I can without the deadline. And sometimes there's been weeks where I think I had to delay the chapter, only to have a stint to inspiration in the eleventh hour. So there's absolutely nuance to it all, but it's more important than ever to pace yourself so that those moments of sprinting can happen.

Making writing feeling like it's worth it/makes sense

This one is usually "a writer is their own biggest critic", but there's also more to it than that.

In this modern age of the internet there's an unfortunate psyche that's developed around being seen by as many eyes as possible, and even tailoring your own creative work to being seen and liked by as many as possible. It's in part of why I like AO3 so much because of its complete lack of an algorithm. More and more it's become INCREDIBLY difficult to not tie your worth to the popularity/reception of your work, or to compare your work to others not by the substance but by how many clicks it's got. Imposter syndrome is very easy to develop when writing or creating, and if you're not careful a Mr. Beast will start to grow in your head.

To feel satisfaction in writing, the Mr. Beast in one's head gotta die.

It's why I need to emphasize to write for yourself, and your own satisfaction. No one can write a story like you can, so you gotta let yourself shine across the page.

It's like when your friend tells a story you've already heard before, but you let them tell it anyways because you want to hear how they'd tell it to you.

And there will be plotholes you couldn't foresee, or mistakes in continuity, but satisfaction in a story often eclipses any semantics that may come. If the characters you write make decisions that fall in line with their personality and ideals and goals, you can get away with a lot.

Hope all of this helps and I'm so happy you're here reading my silly little fic. Good luck with your own writing! 💙💙💙💙💙

[amber-dragonfly]

I've wanted to ask for a while about the creatures that much haven't shown up in RATC yet. I love the cast we have, but that's a lot of Bokoblins. Kobb, Amber, Starenday, Abacus, Hisstin, Fennel, that one at the stable whose name escapes me at the moment...

Yet there's no Keese, Octoroks, Froxes, Constructs, Talus and Pebblits, Evermeans, we haven't really seen too much of the Guardians, the Satori and Bubbulfrogs, literally all the Stalmonsters... there could be SO MUCH LORE with the Stals. Maybe they're the animate remains of actual fallen monsters as a kind of holdover until the blood moon can properly resurrect them? (That silver that Zayl shot back for revenge? The rest of Kobb's group? AMBERRRR?)

Are there any plans in the works for them?

Sorry for the late reply, was still recovering from surgery and I'm finally at a point where I can sit at my desk for longer than an hour jhalhfkjsd

But the short answer is: there's going to be monsters that won't be getting a major spotlight like the main group, and that's okay.

When going into writing major plot threads I don't ask myself "am I going to incorporate every little piece of the Zelda lore and characters that I possibly can?". Instead I ask "will adding this allow me to create a more compelling narrative without diverting too much from the main story?"

Don't get me wrong, I like lore. But the story I am telling with my characters will always be the #1 priority and also what I consider the most when thinking of what monsters to really include.

Which is why I've focused so heavily on the more anthropomorphic monsters in the first place. A lot of the other ones I've sort of glossed over more feel far more animalistic/instinctual if that makes sense. In how they're presented to us in-game the Bokoblins and Moblins and Lizalfos and Wizzrobes have far more anthropomorphic behavior with their camps and battlements and how they interact with each other and whatnot.

Really, the reason I picked the main four monster species as the focus is because they have a very striking similarity to other fictional fantasy races. Bokoblins and Moblins are very much a sort of stand-in for goblins and orcs, Lizalfos harken back to fantasy lizardfolk like Argonians, Wizzrobes as the sort of magical imp-like creatures, etc.

A big reason there's so many Bokoblin characters is by design. It's meant to challenge the notion of "there's always a FUCK ton of goblins in every fantasy setting and they're all 1HP cannon fodder". It's why I LOVE Starenday's introduction chapter so much because that's when it realizes that its perceived weakness was a literal façade set up by The Calamity to keep them despondent and docile from defection. Because they're forcibly sent back to the Malice upon the slightest injury this narrative of "1HP goblin" is entirely fabricated - just like how often that very same narrative in other traditional fantasies write goblins as these "weaker" creatures that the protags can slaughter by the dozens. I don't think this narrative point would hit as hard if there weren't so many Bokoblin characters that have tangibly PROVEN how unbelievably strong they can be after defecting from the Malice.

And out of all the ToTK enemies, Horriblins I saw as like.......striking gold (literally) as they're designed as a sort of cave-dwelling miner mole-ish monster is also quite common in fantasy and I could find so many juicy narratives to spin off of their major inclusion into the story.

Which is why I devoted so much time to Recksin as I saw a very compelling story I could tell with it, that being this sort of "invisible underclass" that militaristic structures both horribly repress and completely rely on to keep feeding their hunger.

The Stal as is I've felt are a sufficient...darkness lingering in the peripherals given the stakes I've set. They're essentially the logical end-point to The Calamity's cruelty, a deeper layer of torment and hell. It is the ultimate depersonalization, the stripping of the flesh and the skin and the mind to turn a sentient being into one that only exists for war and violence: a perfect soldier.

And as for the other monsters you mentioned, what Ganondorf talks about Moldugas is how I set up the more animal-like of the monsters.

With a hefty slap on the hide, the Molduga came back to its frenzied senses, roared, and took off like an arrow towards the south. The rumbling of the ground quieted as the battered dorsal fin shrank before disappearing with a puff of sand. The rippling of the ground could still be seen - nobody moving a muscle until it disappeared in the infinite desert horizon. Ganondorf turned to Link, his back still firmly planted in a small dune. "We could once tame those," he said in his deep soothing voice, "We could ride them as effortlessly as the seals. Now, the Malice only brings them to rampage. Another piece of our culture lost to my curse - surely out of spite." Slowly, Ganondorf walked over to Link, his eyes still drifting towards the south. "While they were still wild and feral without the Malice, they're victims of Demise all the same. Perhaps give as much pity to them as the others, hmm?"

I do have plans to expand on this somewhat with a few of the monster species you mentioned, but which ones I choose ultimately ends with what I think fits the narrative best.

Like I hate to shoot down any ideas, but I also don't wanna feed the expectation that I'll be covering EVERYTHING lmao

But thanks for asking! 💙💙💙

[amber-dragonfly]

oh yeah oh yeah,,, totally still adding stuff but 3 hours is good enough HHAJHJDF

I had such a good time drawing the cover too HEJHEJFHJ I remember back when I first started reading I used to draw all the monsters eyes because I didn't know how to draw the rest of them yet,,, idk what it is I just love drawing eyes KSKDJFHJ,,, and the sunflowers and lightning next to them are one image together too heheee

BUT EYEAH IM SO NORMAL,,, need to get back to doodling so I can ramp my motivation back up and keep drawing the three eternally disgruntled freaks [Runwhir Abacus and Ire]

I WILL be drawing Rezek and Kobb too,,,, obviously,, maybe I'll even draw them first since I'm better at drawing them KFSKDJFHDSKJ,,,,

for sustenance here is a Runwhir I had to leave for a bit to draw other stuff

idk if I'll ever finish it just because it took me a solid two days to even finish the lineart but GOD I love how it turned out even if it remains eternally unfinished KJDJHSKJFDJ,,, it was supposed to be a part of a triple whammy with Ire and Abacus angst as well but I was like holy shit this is way too much. so I'm leaving it be for a bit and hopefully I'll just come back to it at some point KHSKDJFSK

all that aside god I loveKobb and Rezek so much.. thye're so good they're so special you have no idea,,,

im insane

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THANK U THANK U I'LL GIVE IT A LISTEN AHEEHEE >:3

I LOVE THE RUNWHIR ART AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ANGSTY LITTLE THING

IT'S TRYING SO HARD IT WANTS TO TRY SO HARD

it was supposed to be a part of a triple whammy with Ire and Abacus angst as well but I was like holy shit this is way too much. so I'm leaving it be for a bit and hopefully I'll just come back to it at some point KHSKDJFSK

And yeah that's totally understandable!!! I can imagine that'd be a lot to draw especially with Runwhir being its huge ass self with so many details and the mane jkhasdhlkjfkj

I really love all the love you put into my silly little characters when you draw them :')

No matter what your art's always an absolute treat to see in my inbox or dash 💙

all that aside god I loveKobb and Rezek so much.. thye're so good they're so special you have no idea,,,

YEAAAAAAAA GODDDDDD JUST

THE PARALLELS

REZEK SLOWLY LEARNING TO RELY ON OTHERS AND NOT DOING IT ALL

BUT STILL NOT BEING ABLE TO HELP ITSELF IN TRYING TO DO IT ALL

BOTH OUT OF OVERCONFIDENCE AND OVERCOMPENSATING FOR ITS PAST

BUT THE OTHER MONSTERS HELPING IT WORK THROUGH THAT AND WHILE IT'S STILL A LITTLE TOO MUCH OF A BRAGGART IT LETS ITSELF GET HUMBLED AND ACCEPTS WORDS FROM OTHERS

It doesn't really fundamentally change in personality, it just has spun those traits into a much more positive light thanks to Kobb and Sledge and Zayl and everyone else

augh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[amber-dragonfly]

Amber help us

ALSDHHDLADJ I love how I'm summoned like an RPG move when it comes to name pronunciations ehehehe

In any case.........its pronounced Y-eights or "Yates" as you say. Like one long syllable :3

I'm 99% sure that's how Yeates is pronounced irl since I've heard it used as a last name before

I am dying at Yee-a-tees like you'd pronounced Socrates lakdjfkajfk

With Yeates I wanted it to be a more "Hylian" name derived from its old designation, hence why its name is like if you say E-8 very fast.

“Ehhh…how would my designation be pronounced in Hylian? That’s a good start…” All three leaned in closer and pondered in different poses. “Eh…Eel..Electric Eight , I’m pretty sure…” “Electric…” The Hylian word rolled off the tongue - just as much as their own. It was a perfect word for the elegant dance of sparks that came from those Wizzrobes. “Eeeeeee-lec-tric” “Electriiiiic!” “Eeeee…” “Eeee…eight…ate…” “E-eight…e-yeate…eyate…Yeates …”

Referee call...point goes to Harvey and Magz

[amber-dragonfly]

HELLO AMBER I BRING ART

Would this be Tulin and Ashen in modern au (platonically) hshdds

One cute and one traumatized birdrobe Ashen from freeing Recksin as well

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH JHKLDSAFLKJHADSF

ASHEN IS SO CUTE AND FLUFFY IN YOUR STYLE, KLEE

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ABSOLUTE BABYYYYYYYY

I'm fucking dying too jkljhaslkjh they absolutely would just be repeating stupid brainrot memes to each other if they were in the modern era jhkafdslhjk

It's probably for the betterment of Hyrule that Ashen and Tulin don't have access to an iPad and YouTube LMAO

This could also be Ashen whenever it's flying around

(just hope none of the responsible adults find out who taught Ashen to swear)

I can't get over how FLUFFY you draw Ashen here it's just a little tiny baby birdrobe that still has its baby bird feathers hkjasdfhlkj

AND THEN IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY THE RECKSIN SCENE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BABYYYYY ;A;

Its thousand yard stare there is............good god you did such a good job portraying that absolutely harrowing moment it was forced to go through........

Ashen I'm so sorry but you gotta go through some angst for the narrative you gotta I promise you'll be okay

These are so wonderful Klee thank you thank you thank you 💙💙💙

[amber-dragonfly]

AMBER YOU CAN'T JUST HINT TOWARD THE CICLICAL NATURE OF LIFE AND DEATH TO A RAIN WORLD PLAYER, AMBERRR

making me think about Gleeoks again and how they'd work and not even a dust particle of them in the chapter,,,, i'm too

EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

I haven't played Rain World but ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I love delving into the cyclical nature of life and death I loooooooooooooove it

And jkhasdjhlkflhkjafds I GET IT I GET IT I SEE THE CONNECTIONS JKASDJKGAADS

The way dragons are often portrayed as these nigh immortal beings often seeing as an emblem of change: how the dragons leaving or returning signifies beginnings and ends alike. Ohhhhhhh,,,,,

I don't wanna give up the game for what I have planned for the Gleeoks but...........FUCK I WANNA TALK ABOUT 'EM MORE SO BADLYYYYYYY

THANK YOU KRY <333