me, holding a beloved fictional character: I love this boy
also me: I want to make him HURT
One Nice Bug Per Day
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open

shark vs the universe
wallacepolsom

Product Placement
dirt enthusiast

⁂

Kaledo Art
sheepfilms

No title available
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
AnasAbdin
tumblr dot com
almost home

Origami Around

oozey mess
Three Goblin Art
hello vonnie
occasionally subtle

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Bahamas

seen from China
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom

seen from United States

seen from Australia

seen from United States

seen from Türkiye
seen from United States

seen from United States
@this-iswhywefight
me, holding a beloved fictional character: I love this boy
also me: I want to make him HURT
Do you ever come up with sad scenarios of your OCs and then make yourself cry or are you normal?
Me, while I sketch the sad scenario out:
That feeling tho when you find that fic writer that just absolutely fucking
understands the characters to their core
writes so well they–just so–they just—their writing is—-THEY WRITE GOOD
shatters your bad mood with a new update
writes a fic that you can read over again and still clutch at your heart like HOLY SHIT I FUCKING LOVE–I LOVE THIS FIC
writes a scene that has you all giddy in public and that one random stranger asks you like “ooo you are smiling :) :) is that a boy :) you are talking to :)” and you’re like “no I’m reading a Everybody Lives/Nobody Dies AU, please leave”
understands and portrays the characters better than the people who make MOVIES with those characters
amazing. just amazing. fic writers are awesome
Chotronette ‘Aurora Borealis’ & ‘Celestial’ Haute Couture Gowns
It’s always my favorite character
if leilani’s style is american art deco, zarra’s is russian late imperial theater design
Hassidriss ‘Ashes’ Spring 2019 Haute Couture Collection
Writing fanfiction is cool, until you realise you are writing the fanfiction that you wish you could read, meaning that you can't experience the pure joy of reading a fanfic you have been dying for.
i’m supposed to be writing my dissertation but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
in case anyone was wondering, leilani’s entire aesthetic is “what if art deco were a person”
me while writing very niche fanfic: there’s literally no way that, like, anyone is going to read this. you are writing this for you and you alone. you must accept it. you must be zen about it. you must expect nothing except the validation that comes of being able to go back and reread it yourself when you’re in the mood for this kind of fic.
me after posting said very niche fanfic: (obsessively checks ao3 every thirty seconds)
ya girl em’s had a big week, folks. i passed my phd exams (so now i get to write a dissertation) AND got confirmed the first college course i’ll be teaching (in the fall)
hello data-collection and pedagogy anxiety, i’m sure we will soon be bosom friends
Good Types of Tropes For H/C
No Pain Killers Available
Gotta Stay Quiet To Avoid Discovery
Feverish Delirium And Mumbling
Cowboy Medicine: Whiskey Internally & Externally Applied
Huddling For Warmth
Desperate Hand-Holding
“Breathe, Just Breathe”
Protectively Cradling A Broken Arm
The Word ‘Winced’
Whimpering
“Easy, Easy There”
Being Carried; Bridal, Fireman’s, Two-Person, Doesn’t Matter- Being Carried
Coughing, or, God-Forbid, Sneezing, With Broken Ribs
Fainting
Waking Up Not Knowing Where They Are
Animal Attack
DIY Bullet-Removal
Field-Medicine in General
Blankets/Shirt Collar Shifting Just Enough To Have Bandages Peeking Out
Gentle Shushing
Needing Help To Drink From A Glass
Brushing Hair From Brow
Collapsing Off Of Horse
Dramatic Irony Injury Reveal (Audience Knows About It But Other Characters Do Not)
Frantically Feeling For Breath Or Pulse
(feel free to add on!)
- “…you stayed?” “Of course I did.”
-The comforting one watching the hurt one sleep and feeling incredibly ~fond~
-The hurt one waking up to see the comforting one asleep near them and feeling incredibly ~fond~
>8Dc
Stubbornly Standing Only To Have Their Legs Give Out And Being Hastily Caught/Supported
“We Still Haven’t Settled Who’s The Superior Rival–So…S-so Don’t You Dare Die On Me!”
The Worst-Injured Character Half-Conscious And Begging To Know If The Others Are Okay
Lips/Cheek-To-Forehead Temperature-Checking
Taking Off Shirts To Change Bandages
Smoldering Sexy Gentleness
Platonic Tender Gentleness
Waking Up Bandaged In Somebody Else’s House/Bed
Soft, Funny, Dumbass Comfort After Painful Hurt
The Rough Character Holding The Injured Soft Character Gently And Breaking Down Over Them
The Soft Character Holding The Injured Rough Character Protectively Close With The Spark Of Protective Rage In Their Eyes.
Holding Hands And Eye Contact To Endure Through Pain
Insisting You’re Healed Enough, Time To Make This UST Into RST
Insisting That No, They’re Still Too Hurt And The Audience Needs To Stew More
Amnesia Of Basically Any Variety–Funny, Tragic, Sexy, Infuriatingly Ill-timed
Loopy/Forgetful/Over-Affectionate On Pain Meds
I, As A Nurse, Can Tell What That Illness Probably Is From The Clinical Presentation In The Fic And I Am Living
hello! do you have any tips for capturing emotional depth in writing? you do it so well! everything feels very powerful, and i don’t want to say it’s understated, necessarily, but somehow the characters are never drowning in feelings even when they’re going through a lot. how do you do it?
cry? a lot? no that’s not it lol. this is such a hard question! i think that depth is in the eye of the beholder, and it changes all the time. so with the usual disclaimer that i can only speak from my own experiences…
don’t name the emotion. maybe it’s like explaining a joke, but this is the fastest way to cut the emotion out of a scene. “he was so angry” is never going to hit the way describing that anger will. and for that, you really have to be in the character’s head, and you have to be willing to share a little bit of yourself. any time i write about grief or anger or anything else, if it comes across as real it’s just because i’ve described how those emotions made me feel at some point. so i could say “he was sad” or i could think about the times in my life when i’ve been so upset about something that i couldn’t talk around it, and describe it that way.
it’s okay to let a character feel more than one thing at a time. we really rarely feel only one thing as people, so don’t forget to let your character go in and out of whatever they’re going through. moments of humor in moments of sorrow are a relief for the reader, and vice versa can make those mournful moments hit harder.
this is an aside, but listening to good music can really help, not because of the emotionality of the music but because song lyrics are the epitome of conveying emotion through showing rather than telling. the lyrics just accentuate whatever the notes are doing (i am an idiot, i don’t know anything about music theory, please don’t hurt me) and your writing should do the same: the emotion is already there, your job is just to describe it in a way that will reframe it for the reader in a way that will make it mean more to them, if that makes sense.
less is more with emotions. i’ve always been frustrated as a reader by stories that put in too much of it and stories that put in too little. if you let the character be completely taken by some emotion, it cuts down the mood and flow and gets repetitive enough that the emotions kind of get bleached out, if that makes sense? and on the other side of it are stories where i’m screaming at the author to just let them have a moment. i think it’s a balance you have to strike to satisfy yourself, first!
but most of all, this is one of those aspects of writing where the thing about “let the first draft be bad” is so important. you might just not hit it the first or second go round, or it make take days or weeks of teasing it over before you realize what the character is even feeling in a scene.
and last: sometimes it should be a surprise, to both the character and the reader, how they feel about something. like you know those times when you didn’t realize something was bothering you until it was done and that overwhelming relief? or alternately, losing something you didn’t know you cared about, and the associated grief. it really humanizes a character to let them not always be sure how they’re feeling. decide on the reaction first and don’t feel pressured to name the emotion at all.
i hope any of this helps!! and of course, i still love reading those stories where the angst is overwhelming and overbearing, or the characters don’t seem to feel any emotion at all. it all depends on what mood you’re in as a reader/writer and every rule is made to be broken. follow your heart with it!!
Me: out of the country doing fieldwork all summer
Also me: but what if I got feelings about 2.5-year-old fic and sent them to my girlfriend with no warning