The Bright Sessions
PR's Tumblrdome
blake kathryn
Cosmic Funnies
untitled
Cosimo Galluzzi
almost home
🪼
noise dept.
shark vs the universe
RMH
art blog(derogatory)
EXPECTATIONS
ellievsbear
Cookie Run:Kingdom Official!
Phantogram Three
hello vonnie
No title available
Show & Tell
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
seen from Australia
seen from Ecuador
seen from Guatemala
seen from Colombia
seen from Ukraine
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Colombia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Philippines
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Colombia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Canada
@theladylatias
Intro Post 🌳
Minty | 30+ | she/her
A personal blog in which I may post about anything and everything... but most likely will have to do with my hobbies and interests! I am primarily a fanfiction writer who loves creating worlds, characters, and stories, so you may see a lot about my OCs!
people are confused “unsolicited criticism in fanfics is rude” with “fanfics are above criticism.” no one says fanfics are above criticism. what we’re saying is that, unless an author specifically asks for feedback and criticism, unsolicited criticism is rude, because unlike anything else that you pay to consume and therefore can rightfully be criticized, fanfics are free and they are someone’s hobby. authors are kind enough to share what they write as their hobbies with you for free. you don’t have to like these fics. you can click away from a fic you don’t like at any point you want. but—again, unless specifically and directly asked by an author—it’s rude to tell someone, who is kind enough to allow you free access to their house, their art, that their fics should have been xyz.
so no, fanfics are not above criticism. just like how a gift someone gives you is not above criticism.
but giving fanfics unsolicited criticism is rude. just like how it’s rude to tell someone that you don’t like the gift they gives you for free, out of kindness.
I feel compelled to disagree with this.
Harassing a person, and just going in to insult a person, is mean.
However by publishing a fanfic to the public you are agreeing to the possibility of a person reading it, thinking it is a poor piece of media, and telling you that in no uncertain terms. It being free is no magic pill to say "criticism only when asked for". The story is in the social sphere. By doing it you agreed to risking criticism from all and sundry whether you want it or not.
That is the nature of publishing.
A person can give criticism in a rude way (saying to someone "you suck, die" is incredibly horrible to say) but they are as justified in giving it as anyone else.
I mean, by nature of the internet, posting stuff online does open yourself up to criticism, and you shouldn't be surprised when it happens. But that doesn't make doing it any less rude.
Like the OP said with gift giving. You're ALLOWED to not like a gift someone gives you. And you can even tell them, "this gift is kind of lackluster, but I appreciate the effort." Those are things you as a person receiving gifts are allowed to do -- but it's also rude. It's social custom. There are certain things you should not say in certain situations because it is polite. And there is no reason not to be polite in a situation where there is nothing good to gain from being rude.
What does critiquing fanfic in the comments of that fanfiction actually do? If you critique a book that is published through actual publishing, critiquing the book serves the purpose of showing how monetarily valuable the experience was. You spent money on this book, and now there is a certain amount of enjoyability you must receive in order to make that purchase worth it. You are informing other people who may buy the book whether it will be something worth spending money on.
That transaction does not exist for fanfiction. This is someone who did something entirely because of their own enjoyment and is giving it to you because you might also have fun with it. To take that experience and then tell them "I did not enjoy this", even if you say it in a polite way, serves no purpose except the possibility of hurting someone's feelings.
Now, you can go to a friend and tell them about the specific fanfic you did not like. That's perfectly fine. Everything is open to criticism. But to go up to the stranger who is having fun on the internet, completely unsolicited, and tell them that they didn't do something well enough is rude! And again, there's just no reason to be rude.
The reason is honesty. If you tell a person that you did not enjoy their media, and tell them why, then you are providing them with honest feedback about their work. It is a data point for them to know how people recieve their work and whether it is considered of decent quality.
And I would say by virtue of it being on the internet such criticism is not unsolicited. It is inherently solicited by being shared online for all to see.
Criticisms can be fair or unfair, delivered meanly or calmly, but if I publish online I am quite literally asking for people to share their thoughts on my work (or if I do not want such criticism I can disable comments or the like).
Also a fanfic is not a gift given to one specific person. It is a piece of media that is shared with all. So comparing the 2 I do not see as correct. It is not a 1 to 1 analogy.
But what is the point of you giving "honest feedback" when it is not explicitly requested? Clearly, the person was happy enough with their work that they posted it to a public platform. By that point, people aren't normally looking for ways to improve it unless it's explicitly stated. By the time people are posting it, they aren't looking for editors. This means your critique serves no purpose except being rude.
"Honesty" is not something that is always needed. You don't have to share every thought that enters your head. You're not gonna walk up to every smoker and say, "That's bad for your health. You might get lung cancer" because no one asked you! Even though it's true, they might get lung cancer.
The gift giving isn't a 1 to 1 analogy because there is no 1 to 1 analogy for this type of social situation. The internet is a different place than in person interaction. But that doesn't mean you should just do whatever you want either. Social custom still exists in certain situations. The social custom of gift giving is that you accept the gift graciously, even if you don't like it. The social custom of fanfic posting is that if you don't enjoy it, you don't interact with it. Every other option is explicitly rude.
And no, posting on the internet is not asking for feedback inherently. That is an assumption you made, that clearly a lot of people disagree with, so there is no precedent for it being the case. Again, one should not be surprised if someone gives unsolicited feedback on the internet. Because people do things on the internet that are unkind all the time. And if one can not handle the possibility of that happening, they should turn off comments. But that being true about the internet does not make the unsolicited feedback less rude.
Posting about politics on the internet is controversial. If one posts about politics on the internet, someone is inevitably going to send that person death threats. If that person can't handle the possibility of that happening, they should not post about politics on the internet. But that does not make the death threats less bad. Just because something exists on the internet, it does not mean you can do whatever you want. That's social custom. Critiquing fanfic unsolicited, while certainly less serious than death threats, is not something that is productive for anyone involved in the interaction. So you shouldn't do it.
I already said the point - it gives information to the author about how their work is recieved. That is always useful for the writer as they learn how to get better. If considered and engaged with, even if the author disagrees with the critique, then it has added value and proven productive.
But more than that it shows engagement. It shows I was willing, and able, to read and respond. I cared about their work. I may not have had a positive opinion but I had an opinion. I would actually, in general, consider it a mark of respect that someone cared enough to offer a thought out criticism of my work.
"Dont like, dont read" is advice I would give to a reader to say "do not waste time on things you dont enjoy"
Also for my part, critiquing another person's media is something I personally find engaging both intellectually and when I consider anything else I choose to write.
This seems to me a difference in social circles (and possibly generations) though. I do not know about you but I am a Millenial born in the 80s so bring that experience (and expectations) into the internet. Because in my view by posting online I am engaging in a conversation - the opening lines being "here is my thing, want to read it?" with the built in presumption of "what did you think?".
That is the inherent conversation I see happening when you post fanfic. That is what I mean when I say that it inherently invites criticism.
It is a similar thing if I post a political opinion online. I am inviting people to engage with, and give feedback on, the material.
A death threat is different in Kind as those are unacceptable under all circumstances, and can even be illegal in some countries. A direct threat of violence is difference in kind from a person saying "that sucked" or anything resembling it.
Of course, they do want people's thoughts if they have thoughts. Everyone likes to hear what people have to say about stuff they worked hard on. The difference here is that they were not asking you to improve their work. And regardless of whether you think your thoughts are helpful, telling them they did a bad job when they did not want to hear that is RUDE.
Receiving critique on your art, including fair and measured critique, is difficult. Every amateur writer will tell you this. You have to be in the right mindset for it. Go to any college writing class, and you will see that even people who want and expect critique are scared of it. It can be really emotionally taxing. Sometimes, you just want to show off something you worked really hard on and not worry about what's wrong with it for a minute. That's usually what's happening with fanfic because it's hobby writing rather than an attempt at professional writing. Even taking it outside of fanfic, sometimes I will show a first draft of a short story that I wrote to my husband because I'm proud of the hard work I did and I want his thoughts and attention on it. But unless I explicitly ask for it, he will not critique the work. And I do the same with his writing. Because sometimes you just want to feel good about something before you go into a second, third, fourth, whatever draft.
Because receiving critique is difficult, receiving UNSOLICITED critique is the worst possible situation to receive critique. You are not in the mindset to get negative feedback. Usually, the unsolicited critique will just be ignored, which means it's helpful to no one. And you shouldn't do it. Worst case scenario, you've really hurt someone's feelings because they weren't prepared for critique. Which means it's helpful for no one and you shouldn't do it.
Take it from a fanfic writer who speaks frequently with other fanfic writers -- unsolicited critique from a random comment on the internet is never helpful or good. By the time we post it to ao3 or Tumblr or any other platform, we just want to share. You going out of your way to say "this is not good despite your effort" is not helpful for anyone.
Not to mention, fanfic writers are often young people putting their work out there for the first time. Their work is the most often in the position of receiving unsolicited critique because they are just starting to develop their writing skills. And sometimes, it's extremely difficult to tell the difference between an adult writer who can handle unsolicited critique and a teenager who is too emotionally attached to their work to take critique well. Your negative feedback could be the difference between someone continuing to write and giving up on it forever.
If a 12 year old showed you a drawing they worked really hard on, but wasn't very good, would you start critiquing it if they didn't explicitly ask? No! Because in that moment, the only feedback they need is encouragement to keep going. Is for someone to be proud of them. On the internet, you have no way of telling the difference between a 30 year old amateur writer who will benefit from negative critique and a 16 year old amateur writer who will never write again if they're told they didn't do well enough. And because you can't tell the difference, you shouldn't comment. Nothing is lost by not commenting. A lot could be potentially lost by giving negative critique.
YOU DO NOT KNOW THESE PEOPLE, what skill level or emotional state they are in. You are not in the social position to provide them with anything helpful. There is no reason to share your negative thoughts for the maybe chance that someone finds it helpful. Especially when it is far more likely that it will be hurtful and/or discouraging.
This is a very fundamental difference in opinion on what should be done/acceptable behaviour. Very different world views.
But to clarify a small point, for the sake of not being misunderstood, I am not going out of my way to critique. I would be commenting on a piece of work I had already read. I am already here.
Put simply though, I don't think negative critique is rude. I write myself, I sing and I do a whole bunch of other stuff. I do not ENJOY being told that I need to improve, or did something wrong. But I appreciate getting it and am glad to recieve it. Unsolicited or not. It does me good in the long run.
Moreover, I honestly hold that a refusal to give negative feedback to someone whose work I see as sub-par does not help them at all. Nor does saying "well done" or "great job" when they produce bad work. I cannot predict if refusing negative feedback to a writer will leave them unable to push themselves to do better, or if giving bad feedback will turn them off writing forever.
I will also add that I typically would try to present any criticism in a fair way. Priase what I like, criticise what I don't, and congratulate them on the effort.
You don't have to say "good job" on a fanfic that isn't well done. You just don't have to say anything negative either. There is nothing preventing you from following polite social customs. You may personally appreciate unsolicited feedback, but that doesn't mean most other people will.
"I cannot predict if refusing to give negative feedback will leave them unable to push themselves to do better, or if giving bad feedback will turn them off writing forever"
This is exactly my point. Because you can not predict this, you should avoid giving negative feedback. It is not your civic responsibility to improve other people's writing. It IS your civic responaibility to not be rude. Refraining from comment if you can't say anything good is usually better in most social situations. Again, if someone wants feedback so they can improve, they can ask for it!
Also, if your intention is to be encouraging of their writing, you can still give feedback that isn't negative. No one has been discouraged from positive feedback. It is only negative feedback or lack of feedback. And if you don't have anything positive to say about it (even something like "I liked this one specific line") then there will more than likely be other people that will give positive feedback so you don't have to worry about it!
Negative feedback is not itself rude. It is going up to people who did not ask and giving a negative opinion that is rude. That is rude in most situations outside of the internet as well. I don't know where you grew up, but I would say "don't tell people they're bad at something if they didn't ask" is fairly universal.
As a Fanfic Author myself, who has gone to college and had my work criticized as part of my classes, I 100% think unsolicited Criticism is 100% rude, undesired, and unnecessary. Why?
1. Because 90% of the people giving it without consent don't know what they are doing in the first place. Giving constructive feedback is a skill that people just don't have by default. It takes time, practice, lessons, and a certain level of eloquence that, if you actually WERE skilled in giving constructive feedback, you'd already know that unsolicited criticism is just as bad as walking up to some stranger in public to shame them for what they are wearing or how they chose to style their hair. Like Yes you can technically criticize people any way you want, but doing these things is incredibly rude and people will think less of you for it, full stop.
Just because people post their art online does not mean you get a free pass to be a jerk. It's the exact same in real life spaces--how a stranger express themselves is none of your damn business.
2. Unsolicited Criticism does not take into account the Author's choices in style and preferences. The very thing you decided to "critique" may very well be a stylistic choice they made consciously. In that case, it is a matter of personal preference, not a lack of skill, and criticizing as such becomes a matter of pure opinion/telling them that you don't like their opinions.
This is, at best, extremely unhelpful. At worst, you're once again coming up to a stranger in real like and criticizing them for hiw they are expressing themselves.
For example: I wrote a fic that was a criticism on fandom tendencies to unnecessarily villainize characters, and the way I did that was to make a character who was otherwise a total sweetheart in canon into someone purely malicious while remaining canon compliant. A person who might not be aware of that fact, who would want to give unsolicited criticism regarding my portrayal of that character, then, would be missing the entire point I was making. This tells me that the person giving criticism in question is not to be trusted because they somehow missed the fact it was intentional.
Editors and people with proper critiquing skills know how to work with the author, and address the problems the author themselves are bringing up. Giving constructive feedback is about taking into account where the author wants to improve and why, not just forcing your opinion of how Things Should Be Done onto them.
So. To be frank.
If you don't have the skills to know when to keep your mouth shut, then I don't trust you to have the skills for constructive criticism, full stop. It tells me that rather than having the author's skill and best interest in mind, you just want to selfishly have your voice be heard and your opinions known, without facing the pushback of being acknowledged as rude. Because if you actually wanted to help, you would know when your help isn't necessary, and you would keep your opinions to yourself.
So yeah. Unsolicited criticism, no matter how "nice" it is, is bad. Full stop, it's bad.
Edit: This post is written to discuss only art critique and technical skill, AKA Creative Arts Critique, and DOES NOT APPLY to Social Critique Ala fandom bigotry and such.
You are not immune to being bigoted and if someone is saying that you ARE being bigoted, take the criticism to heart and learn from it. Do not use my argument/arguments made against unsolicited Creative Critique as an excuse to perpetuate your own bigotry.
I know better than to think most people “just want to help” when they critique someone’s fanfic. They don’t. They just like the smug satisfaction of telling someone how wrong they are. And maybe a lot of people conflate that with “well, if I tell them, it’ll motivate them to improve.” But I can guarantee that for every person that gets motivated to be better, you’ve made 2 more people quit with this strategy.
I know perfectly well that even the most throwaway of negative comments can stick with you, gnaw at you, rot the thing that once brought you joy until you can’t stand looking at it anymore. It’ll always be colored with the idea that you are bad and why even bother trying to fix it?
Assholes like that made me lose so many fandom friends and acquaintances because the fear of being criticized made them give up writing forever. I will never forgive those people.
Meanwhile, the people who actually thought they wanted me to critique them and who I spent so much time crafting comments for never took any of my advice to heart. -_- (A huge part of why I don’t comment much anymore; I got burnt out a long time ago and never got that motivation back.)
If you’re actually in an environment where you want critique and will use it, great. But just browsing fan works and attacking random people just trying to have fun, under the guise of “but how will they improve?!” is exhausting. Just get over yourself and find a different hobby.
😈 You are not bound by the Hays code.
😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who are not punished by the narrative by the end of the story.
😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who win.
😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who make evil look fun and cool.
😈 You are allowed to make your fun, cool evil character the protagonist.
😈 You are allowed to glorify, romanticize and eroticize evil characters and villainous acts.
😈 You are not obligated to teach your audience a moral lesson.
I remember updating a fanfic way back when and getting a comment that was something along the lines of “[character] better not get away with what they did!” And back then, when I was younger, it worried me because, was I supposed to punish the antagonists appropriately? Would people be dissatisfied with the story if I just let the character get off scot-free?
Now? I realize that’s stupid. My character is totally getting away with it. (He redeems himself eventually, but for the purity police, I doubt they think any “bad guy” can ever redeem themselves, so it’s not like I can make them happy anyway.) And it’s not like criminals never get away with their crimes in real life, so you can’t even argue it’s “unrealistic.”
I’m not writing my stories to teach you morality. That’s up to you to figure out on your own.
AO3 Writer Affirmations:
I do not have to reinvent the wheel every time I write fanfiction
I do not have to make every chapter's word count above 1,000 in order for it to be good
It is okay if some things don't make sense
I can write whatever I want
I am writing this shit for free
If people don't like my stuff, they can block me. If they're being mean about it, I can block them.
The most important part of writing fanfiction is having fun
Writing fanfiction is supposed to be fun
I do not have to appeal to people
This shit is fun
I am doing this all for free, and anyone who objects can go eat wet sand and worms from the sidewalk
I can write the same thing multiple times
I can write the same thing as someone else
My chapters don't all have to be the same length
It's never to late to go back
I don't have to finish it if I don't want to
I can choose just to write the scenes I want to write
Hi, I'm not trying to accuse you of lying or anything about your Jenny Nicholson post, but do you have any proof of any of this happening? She is someone i really like and it would be a bummer if this happened, so I'm just genuinely wondering
No I totally get that. Again I've been a big fan of hers for years and this like giga fucking sucks for it to happen.
Twitter's search function is, unfortunately, extremely broken right now, because twitter is extremely broken. So all I've got are screenshots which I know some people don't love because they can be edited. These are straight from my phone though.
TekoOtter in the screenshots was another person who was disagreeing with stuff in the video and I was having a decent conversation with them and then all these people starting being very normal. This was all 2 years ago though so I don't really remember a ton of details.
These are a handful of screenshots of fans of Jenny's being extremely fucking weird to me when I was being pretty normal and correcting things that were objectively wrong in her video. The 2 big points were her apparently claiming the rooms had no emergency exits, and her saying "They wouldn't call me by my made up RP name, which means this was objective for everyone", where I was explaining that I was called by a fake name the whole time. "Nuke" is not my legal government name, shockingly. My full legal name is on my MagicBand from the ship and nobody called me that ever. I also was correcting people about the price (It was not Eight Thousand Dollars or 5k a night), and everyone told me I didn't actually enjoy my cool experience and was just coping because of "sunk cost fallacy". This one insane person in particular seemed to be uh, accusing me of being famous or something and getting "special treatment"? I'd never LARPed in my life before the Starcruiser and I was kinda just saying stuff like "I had fun on my larp vacation thing". If I gotta hear one more fuckin chud say "defending a billion dollar corporation" when I'm saying shit like "yes the building had fire escapes" i'm gonna lose it lmao. I was getting weird replies like this for about a week straight but stopped screenshotting them because it was fucking exhausting. I hope you understand.
Those are the kinds of "conversations" people have with you when you very normally and calmly are saying "hey that isn't true" or, god forbid, being lightly critical of a youtube video. I'm sorry I don't have screenshots of how I was speaking, which I know would really help. But I think I can safely say that these are not normal ways to reply to anyone under any circumstance? lmao
(the "belittling" that one person mentions is basically every other person besides Jenny Nicholson who went on the Starcruiser contradicting a minimum of like 80% of her claims, but apparently every other person is insane, and Jenny Youtuber Nicholson is the sole authority bc she made a long video)
At about 42:00 in her patreon-exclusively Halcy-Con video she has my tweet (with photos I took) up on her screen and discusses it for a while My twitter username is visible, but like only kinda? So it doesn't super count as "credit" in my opinion. She never reads my username out loud, or the usernames of anyone's photos/videos she uses. She just says stuff like "This person posted this".
I don't have access to the video anymore or her Patreon at all. I don't know if my comment is still visible, probably not. I didn't think to screenshot stuff because I didn't expect this insane email in my inbox, after I left a comment (replying to someone else) that my photos were used without her contacting me (again, not said in any kind of malicious way or DEMANDING CREDIT/MONEY or some shit).
and here is her rejecting my refund request for 2 fucking dollars
Lemme know what other fun behind the scenes nonsense you might wanna see. I don't really have a habit of saving the "dirt" on people (like some of the secondhand claims I made in my post) because I swear to god I'm not a drama-seeking weirdo. So sadly I don't have a lot of stuff. I don't regularly write or read "callout posts" or make google docs about people so I'm very unfamiliar with all of this (gestures vaguely) stuff.
Sorry this got very long. I have no idea if this is the kinda stuff you were requesting but uh, please "enjoy" it anyways?
I get in theory why people complain about het ships or whatever, I get wanting to watch queer media I really do, but I guess where y’all lose me is like. I saw some asshole on a post about Sinners complaining it was “hetslop”—this person was specifically doing so while also claiming Remmick was a queer character and thus they were justified in caring more about him than the Black protagonists. which is a whole other disgusting can of worms that has been well addressed by others at this point. but even in the absence of that part of the argument, like, no, i actually don’t think that a hunger for queer stories is an especially good excuse to deride and dismiss a piece of landmark Black filmmaking, especially as a non-Black person. I have a post that’s been going around encouraging folks to engage with more Native stories and characters, and I had someone come onto that post saying in the tags that they’d need these stories to be queer in order to care. and I just think that, you know, sucks! like obviously as a queer Native I also want to see more of those stories too. but idk how else to put it other than to say that Black people and people of color shouldn’t have to be like you in order for you to care about our narratives and experiences. and I think some of y’all are using this disdain for heterosexuality as a cover for your unexamined racial biases. it’s not okay to be racist to people just because those people happen to be straight, and you continue to be white before you are queer.
on an even more basic level than that, also, I simply just think some of y’all NEED to learn how to interact with media and storytelling without ships and fandom in mind. like if not being able to write fic about two men kissing is genuinely going to be a dealbreaker for you I think that’s actually something you need to work on within yourself because at that point I think you’re no longer really interacting with art and themes and narrative so much as just kind of playing with toys. which is, like, fine I guess. have fun. but it wouldn’t kill you to disengage from that from time to time. especially if would allow you to actually appreciate rich and deeply moving cultural stories from communities of color that you desperately need to learn how to see as human
Fandom culture has been getting increasingly narcissistic and it's defeating the purpose or art and storytelling. A piece of media is someone telling you a story. You can critique it, you can consider if the story is being told effectively, what it means to you, how it influences culture, etc. etc. You don't have to like it, and if you understand how to listen and how to critique you already know that engaging with a piece of media isn't about liking it, it's about thinking about it. But when you dismiss a story because it isn't what YOU want or it doesn't represent you specifically, you're essentially saying that you don't care about other people's stories, you want their experiences and perspectives to cater to you and you alone. You're saying that you don't want to listen, you want to hear the sound of your own voice issuing from everyone else's mouth. And the thing is, I don't know how to explain to you that you live in a society.
Stop breaking everything down into ao3 tag categories. People are trying to tell you about the way they see the world. They have so much more to say than the little boxes you want to sort their narratives into for the convenience of your personal consumption.
Some writing advices are meant to be ignored.
Advices aren't rules. They are simply meant to help writers, and they do help some. They aren't magical spells that work for everybody, everytime. There are times when these so considered "rules" need to be broken.
ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐
.✦ ݁˖ 1. Avoid Prologues
It's like saying avoid giving your first chapter a different name, because prologues are just the first chapters of your story in disguise.
The difference? Prologues are helpful to include a scene that happens either much later in the story, earlier than the story, or just a scene that the narrator didn't witness/doesn't know about. They keep your reader reading, because the work of a prologue is to set up a hook for the reader. Then what does this advice suggest?
Some writers believe prologues make the story boring or make the reader feel cheated (because it takes place at a different time, location, or different characters) but that is not always true. In fact, there is nothing wrong with having a prologue in your story. Treat it like an introduction to your story, but it's still a part of your story.
I've deleted or avoided prologue scenes in many crafts, only to realise later they were actually a better opening and created a hook for my story.
ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐
.✦ ݁˖ 2. Only write in active voice.
You can use active and passive voices as much as you want, no limitations. Active voice is considered better by many writers because it keeps the book fast paced, character centred, and... as the name suggests, active.
But imagine reading a book with only active voice. A lot of writers have different writing style and it doesn't matter what voice they use as long as the writing is clear and understandable.
I myself used to believe active voice was why my writing was feeling plain. It wasn't. Infact, making every sentence active in my draft was perhaps the worst descision I've ever made.
Active voice is suggested a lot for horror, mystery, crime, and other such genres. It keeps them fast paced and direct. But these genres also have various passive sentences in them. Passive sentences focus more on the object, or verb, i.e., what is happening, or to whom/to what it is happening. They reveal the subject in the end.
ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐
.✦ ݁˖ 3. Every scene must move the plot forward.
There is no problem with unnesscary scenes. They reveal character, or provide comic relief. Give your readers time to breathe instead of bombarding them with all the action-packed, mysterious or political argument scenes that lead in the direction of the plot.
However, I agree that having too many unnesscary scenes that do not contribute to the plot can lead to the readers slowly abandoning your book. The balance is important, neither extreme is correct.
ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐
.✦ ݁˖ 4. Plan everything before starting writing.
This is excellent advice for those who love planning, or depend on it for writing. However, this does not apply to all writers.
I spent months trying to find ways of outlining my book, but I ended up abandoning the technique altogether. I believe I am the kind of writer who prefers to let the story take it's own direction, or likes to move forward with only a rough idea or plot points in mind. You have to find out which path works for you.
If you are the kind of writer that what's to put characters in a room and experiment, you don't need to force yourself to outline.
If you're content with, or work better with only a few planned directions or a rough plot, go ahead. It isn't necessary to know every detail, and spend too much time planning than actually writing.
You need to find your way of writing, not mold yourself into someone else's.
ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐
.✦ ݁˖ 5. Read a lot to become a better writer.
You don't need to read a lot in order to write stories. Reading (especially your specific genre) helps you understand the way other authors write, analyse the structure, elements and characters, and even gain inspiration. However, reading is a hobby for the purpose of enjoyment so forcing yourself to read and analyse every detail in a story isn't really important.
I, as a writer, only read because I enjoy reading. Even though sometimes I do learn something from authors and their writing styles, my sole purpose isn't to make my writing better. I sometimes read different genres than I write. I sometimes don't read at all for months.
So believing that you can't be a writer without being a verocious reader is very false. You can read now and then, as much as you prefer, without needing to do it a lot.
ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐
And, that's the end. Hope this helped, because as a first time writer I remember following every advice, trying to make my writing better. Some helped. Some didn't.
And that's ok. Because every writer is different. That's why every story is uniquely beautiful. You don't need to worry because some advices don't work for you. You don't need to force yourself to become the "perfect writer".
And remember, there are no rules to writing.
"historians will call them friends" buddy you're looking at this because of historians
"do your own research" good luck with paleographic analysis of the sources then
Left-handed problem
Intro Post 🌹
Minty | 30+ | she/her
My side blog dedicated to my selfship/yumeship, which I have dubbed PhoenixRoseshipping! It pairs Chairman Rose (character from Pokémon Sword/Shield) with my Pokémon trainer OC/persona, Samantha Roiyant.
The storyline in which they interact takes place in an AU/rewrite of Sword/Shield, and somewhat crosses over into my usual Pokémon storyverse.
Sharing this once and then you don't have to worry about seeing it ever again cause all my unhealthy obsession selfshipping nonsense will stay there instead. xD
My side blog dedicated to my AU selfship/yumeship! I've been doing some writing exercises and headcanons in between my main project stuff, so if you want to see any of that, it'll live over there! <3
Be yourself as best you can whenever you can.
idk man sometimes i like it when video game writers are allowed to plan a series of events that happen in a specific order and affect each other in turn to become an overarching narrative, and i don’t mind trusting those writers to take me through those events in the order that is emotionally effective. i don’t really care if a game forces me to go through the forest area first before i can attempt the icy area because maybe there’s things that happen in the forest area that inform later scenes in the icy area. maybe we don't need more superficial player choice open world concepts if it comes at the cost of the ability to write a story with actual significant plot events and character development in each section
hi this drives me crazy
canon is what happens in the text. e.g. merlin tries to poison morgana
a headcanon is a fact that you have personally made up as an elaboration of canon. it is your invention. e.g. i think morgana and gwen had a teenage lesbian situationship before the events of canon. or, i think modern morgana would love evanesence.
an interpretation is how one reads the existing text. it is not an invented fact nor is it a headcanon, it is a reading. e.g. i think merlin tries to poison morgana out of misplaced self-hatred. or, i think that one line was delivered with suppressed malice and shows a nuanced relationship.
fanon is the general fandom’s accepted headcanons and interpretations that elaborate or recontextualize canon. e.g. merlin is a badass waif and morgana is a bitch.
these are all different words with different meanings.
Also, for an interpretation to be valid it needs to be based on the text. It cannot just be a vibe. One can disagree on readings of the text, but if someone comes with quotes and/or historical context and you just have vibes, then sorry, your interpretation is inferior and may in fact just be a headcanon.
Is this anything
Og picture under the cut
[OC X CANON APPRECIATION POST! 🩷✨]
REBLOG IF YOU LOVE AND SUPPORT OC X CANON!!
Hero of Time
