where there's a quill, there's a way @tontonguetonks - Tumblr Blog

*clang clang* FREE EDITS *clang clang*

Hey everybody, you'll never guess what happened. AI killed my job!

So now's as good a time as any to follow a new dream: Freelance fiction editing.

As such, I'm opening up limited spots for FREE editing projects. Got a novel drafted but can't afford hundreds or thousands of money for edits? Let's spite capitalism together with a free exchange!

~You receive: Free proofreading, line editing, and/or developmental editing from someone with limited fiction editing experience but lots of non-fiction and journalistic editing experience and a heap of enthusiasm for writing!!!!!! Stuck on something or unsure how to make your themes come through stronger? We can work through that together!

~I receive: Experience, feedback on how I did, and maybe a recommendation or testimonial if you feel like it.

Please only apply if you can't afford to pay an editor! Fiction editors are also struggling right now and many aren't in a position to offer services for free.

I will edit anything from a lengthy novel to fanfiction to comics, in any genre (including smut!). Fantasy and sci-fi are especially welcome. My only restriction is NO GRAPHIC SEXUAL VIOLENCE please. There's nothing wrong with writing it, I just can't personally handle reading it.

Message me for more info! The world's fucked but we can and should always make art.

If you don't need editing but want to help a fellow weirdo out, reblogs are appreciated.

Writing!!!!!!!!

smitethestate

This probably goes without saying but I will never use AI to edit your work, my work, any work, fuck AI forever and ever until the sun explodes!

totallysilvergirl

Everyone blethering about how AI is the way of the future while looking the other way as it eliminates jobs for actual thinking humans can fuck ALL THE WAY off at a high rate of speed

That goes double if they patronize and despise those who hate gen AI with a nuclear capability

arecaceae175

Hello! I noticed that some of your fics on Ao3 are tagged "Screen Reader Friendly," and I wondered what makes a fic screen reader friendly. Is it just about formatting, or does content matter too?

Hi, thank you so much for asking this question!!! Disclaimer I am not visually impaired so all of this information I have learned by seeing blind or visually impaired people talk about this issue.

It’s primarily formatting! I’ll list everything I do to try to make my fics accessible here.

Line breaks!!! Use the ao3 line break code instead of adding a bunch of symbols. This is the biggest thing I had to change once I realized my fics were not screen reader friendly.

HOWEVER some screen readers won’t pick up on the horizontal line, either. Another good option is to use a short series of symbols, for example: “~~” or “- - -“

Basically, just don’t use more than three symbols in a row. I used to use “~~~/\~~~” with a delta symbol in the middle to look like the triforce, but a screen reader would see that and say “asterisk asterisk asterisk delta asterisk asterisk asterisk” which is pretty annoying lol

Most screen readers don’t differentiate between regular text and bold/italics. It’s fine to have those in your story, but if the bold/italics significantly changes the plot or the implications of a sentence then it is not screen reader friendly

Screen readers can’t describe a line break that is just an empty space. For example, in one of my fics I have a character reading a note, and I have an extra ‘return button’ space before and after the note to make the note distinct from the rest of the text. To make that fic more screen reader friendly, instead of just an empty space, I wrote “[Line Break]”. That way, a screen reader can say “line break”, and readers still recognize it as a line break

If you have any sort of chat fic (AND this goes for hashtags on tumblr too!) with screen names, be sure to distinguish the separate words in the screen name. You can do this with by capitalizing the first letter of each word like this “ScreenNameHere” or with dashes in between each word “screen-name-here”. That helps screen readers and also people with things like dyslexia who have trouble distinguishing words if they aren’t capitalized or separated in some way.

Screen readers can read image emojis like this smiley face 😁 because they have embedded alt text, but they can’t read text emojis as an emoji, like this one “:D”. If you use any of those in your fic, add a description like this: “ :D [Image description: text emoji of a smiley face with a big, open mouthed smile. End description].”

Also, this one doesn’t have to do with a screen reader, but if you have an image embedded in your story, keep these things in mind:

Be sure to describe the image so anyone who is blind or visually impaired can still experience the image. I don’t think it’s possible to add alt text to the actual image, so I usually put this below the image: “[Image ID: description of the image. Note the important details, but be as concise as you can. /End ID]”. Including the image description instead of some sort of alt text is good for DeafBlind people who can’t see the image well enough but don’t use a screen reader.

Some blind or visually impaired people don’t use a screen reader and instead zoom in on the text. If an image is embedded in the story, be sure it is sized correctly. If it isn’t, it can make scrolling sideways to read zoomed in text more difficult because it makes the webpage much wider than the text itself.

Not all my fics have the screen reader friendly tag because 1. There might be a few I haven’t updated yet, and 2. I didn’t include the tag on fics that have weird formatting or are accent heavy. For example, in Kinship I wrote Twilight’s dialogue to represent his strong accent, and those kinds of things with apostrophes and half-words don’t come through well with a screen reader.

I personally don’t think it’s good practice to include a ton of apostrophes or shortened words to distinguish an accent. Even for people not using screen readers, it’s hard to read. For me, if I see a fic with things like that, I won’t read it. Maybe try having a few words that the character’s accent comes through on, or write something about their heavy accent outside of the dialogue.

The “Screen Reader Friendly” tag isn’t an officially recognized AO3 tag yet, but the more people who use it, the sooner it will be!

Those are all the things I can think of right now. If anyone has any other tips to add, please do so!!

tontonguetonks

So glad this post exists! My day job is to reformat publisher’s titles to be accessible to folks with print disabilities (this includes those with low vision, who are blind, have dyslexia and/or other neurodivergencies, and folks who struggle to physically manipulate a book).

I’d like to eventually put together a masterpost for folks who are interested in accessible publishing and how they can create born-accessible fics from the beginning (let’s make my job obsolete, yeah?).

Does anyone know if such a post exists already? I would love to consult with folks who use screen readers, magnifiers, audio, etc., who can give feedback and suggest improvements.

Ultimate dream: create an organization or task force dedicated to creating a catalog of accessible fics and take requests from readers for an accessible format of a fic! There are organizations who do this already in traditional publishing—it would be amazing to have something like it for fic readers and artists.

#AccessiblePublishing #AccessibleFanFiction #ScreenReaderFriendlyFanFiction #Born-Accessible #Accessibility #PrintAccessibility

eemamminy-art

Announcing DecembAlex! This is the creation of me and @usernamemybeloathed , when we saw the various other 'tober events but not one for our favorite troubled sports boy!

The event begins December 1st! Use the tag #decembalex25 or @ me if you like! Make whatever media you like, whether that's art, fic, music, etc.! It's all fine! :3

eemamminy-art

This is in basically two weeks!! I already started sketching some ideas for it, I'm really excited c: I love that sports boy

eemamminy-art

Oh yeah, I probably should mention! There's an ao3 collection for anyone posting fics for this event! I'll go back and add it to the original post too, but here:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Remember that other media can go on ao3 too! I'm doing a mix of art and fics so I will be posting both into the collection for example :3

usernamemybeloathed

Guys there's a collection for your fics!!!

mental-leaps

Games in “Cabin Pressure”

If you get bored on your upcoming trip to your holiday destination, why not try some of these time consuming fun games instead?

1. Brians of Britain (e.g.: Blessed / May / Eno…)

2. Name dropping of as much musical numbers in the cabin address as possible (e.g.: Fly you to the moon / Come fly with me…)

3. Books that sound more interesting with the final letter knocked off (e.g.: Of mice and me / Three men in a boa…)

4. The seven deadly sins

5. The Travelling Lemon (Hide a lemon in plain sight inside the plane. Find it, retrieve it, hide it again)

6. Rhymes for flight (e.g.: bite / kite) (“We hope you’re enjoying the flight. On your left we are just coming in sight of Swindon or Stroud - all covered in cloud. And it’s matched the same thing on the right.”)

7. People who aren’t evil but have evil sounding names (e.g.: Russell Crowe / Agatha Christie…)

8. Yellow Car (When you spot a yellow car you say “yellow car”. For a more elaborated explanation go here: “How to play Yellow Car” by Arthur Shappey)

9. I came through customs and I had to declare… (e.g.: Jelly from New Delhi / A tunic from Munich…)

10. Departure - Arrival rhymes (e.g.: Kent to Brent via Stoke-on-Trent…)

11. Beat the Manuals (No-one but Martin can play that! So don’t even try that one.)

12. Conversations with words of one syllable only

13. Q&A Film double bills (e.g.: Who framed Roger Rabbit? - Gandhi!…)

14. Fizz Buzz (For any number that’s a multiple of 3 you say “fizz” and any number that’s a multiple of 5 you say “buzz”. Uncomplicated version: instead of odd numbers you say “fizz” and instead of even numbers you say “buzz”. To make that easy version more complicated: when someone says “fizz”, you have to say “buzz” - when someone says “buzz” you have to say “Have a banana”. Then when someone says your name, you have to say “fizz”)

edit - thanks to murphyfiveanddime (I thought of this while brushing my teeth this morning):

15. People who should have been arch enemies (e.g.: Anna Wintour and Donna Summer / Vivienne Westwood and Clint Eastwood))

and the classics: Simon says and Passenger Derby (but you can only play PD if you are flying an airplane and be in charge of the off-switch for the seat-belt signs - which is ever so unlikely!)

tontonguetonks

reblogging… for reference.

0x1-deactivated20220826

if you found out that your dad has 120k followers on tiktok what would it be for? what would your dad's tiktok niche be

tontonguetonks

tales of his time as a submariner

fr he will infodump your ass off if you even so much as whisper ‘submarine’ at him.

haven’t been here in a hot minute.

*sneeze*

dusty.

where are the SDV fanfiction discord servers pls i am dying

#sdv #stardew valley #fic authors

Missing Stairs

New year, new challenge. I'm hoping to battle the urge to delay posting anything because it isn't perfect by posting a chapter a month in 2024. If all goes well, by the end of the year I'll have my first longfic out there in the world! Regardless of its quality ^^'

Summary: Draco is fresh out of Azkaban. Harry is his parole Auror.

Read it on AO3!

#drarry #drarry fanfiction #auror harry #draco

lateforcakes

happy ofmd renewal day! here is my little witch with knives in her feet adoringly laying on her new gay pirate flag catnip toy

tontonguetonks

#thought someone stole my cat for a second there #shit from my drafts folder

Found this in my drafts, with zero idea of when I wrote it or wtf I was thinking.

It's on the snowiest of days that Harry finds himself missing Hedwig the most. The sound of the wind rattling the window pane yanks him out of his melancholic daydreaming and he turns to find a snowy white owl, large, glassy yellow eyes boring into his soul. It takes him a moment to realize that there really is an owl at his window. He crosses the room and throws it open, snow and chill wind whirling in behind the creature as it lands on his kitchen table. Attached to its leg is a tiny, round package wrapped in plain brown paper. The owl holds out its leg to Harry, and he feels a pang of guilt twist in his stomach. This owl's attitude resembles Hedwig's too much.

He digs out a small handful of owl treats from the bag beneath the window and spreads them out onto the table before freeing the bird.

At first, Harry wonders why anyone would send him a Snitch when he unwraps the package until he sees a tiny clasp along the Snitch's mid-line. He opens it, and inside is a tiny rolled up piece of parchment. He spots a bit of emerald green ink and a familiar as script before a sound at the fireplace distracts him.

Draco tumbles out, soot in his dishevelled hair. He's wrapped up warm in a knit scarf that was a gift from Mrs. Weasley last winter. He doesn't stand, but kneels, and Harry bites back a sob when Draco pulls out an identical Golden Snitch box.

"Yes!" Harry cries, darting across the kitchen and into the sitting room before Draco even has time to ask.

#drarry

prokopetz

The reason most people are bad at offering cogent criticisms of other people's work is because they're evaluating those works on the basis of The Thing They Would Make, not The Thing You Would Make. Indeed, a great many people don't understand that those are different things, interpreting The Thing You Would Make as a defective or incomplete version of The Thing They Would Make.

This gulf of understanding is not an impassable one. Learning to correctly identify the author's creative goals with respect to a particular work, and to formulate criticism in terms of how best to achieve those goals, is a skill which can be cultivated. In its proper place, it can be a hugely valuable skill – there's a reason many authors will tell you that a good editor is worth their weight in gold.

Unfortunately, developing this skill will not make you any less prone to being a hater. Learning how to correctly identify other people's creative goals simply means that you'll graduate from picking at specific choices to saying: "I understand this work's goals, and those goals fucking suck. I hate everything that this chooses to be."

annerb-fic

This is why a good beta is so hard to find. And also why many writers don't make the best betas (me included). A beta really has to be able to disconnect themselves from both 1) "how I would do this", and 2) "what i would enjoy reading."

It's really hard to be able to put all that aside and just help the author write the story the way they want to write it, and to help them meet their goals whatever it might be. To disconnect yourself enough to be like, "okay, what are they going for? how might their style best serve this type of storytelling? what questions are actually going to be useful here to help push them further on their own path? what way can I say things so that they can hear it and that it won't hinder their progress in any way?"

You betas are amazing mythical beings and I appreciate you all so much.

tontonguetonks

excellent beta advice! saving for later

kyuini-deactivated20241112

"Look at those colours."

"Don't tell me you've never seen a canola field? They're everywhere."

"They look amazing."

tontonguetonks

it’s amazing how i can look at a piece of fanart and immediately know what fic inspired it 🥰 this is BEAUTIFUL

kohiandie

✨ these comics are from a popular drarry fic called eclipse by mijan! for anyone new here, the context is that draco has a phobia for bodies of water, & with his consent, harry tries to help him overcome it. harry initiates by taking off his shoes for him when he sees draco stiffen up & it kinda tumbles into this tender moment where draco feels braver helping harry undress if harry can help him with his own clothes.

its a very sweet metaphor for the themes of the fic where draco is still a bit pathetic and slow at disavowing his parents’ views (although clearly wanting to) but, by contrast, feels braver helping harry escape voldemort. and it is through helping harry through his adversaries that slowly has draco proving to himself that he is capable and ultimately, more himself, when offering to do good. anyways!!! im smitten by this fic as you can tell.

hope you enjoy my little rendition of it!

you can see the wips for this as well as other fun content on our patreon! all support goes towards funding us creating & our 501(c)3 cat rescue!

tontonguetonks

i’m so happy to see this fic getting some love, and even more for fanart! but i was also like ‘i don’t remember this part’ until i read the description XD forgot about that. it’s been years since my last reread

kdrm

let’s start discourse

shoes on in the house who cares vs shoes off upstairs vs shoes off at the door. tag urself and where you’re from or/and the main culture u follow at home

tontonguetonks

team house slippers! leave your shoes at the door, please. it’s hard enough to keep the floors clean with two cats 😘🇨🇦

20 Questions for Fic Writers (tag)

Thank you @Vukovich for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

37. 36 under tontonguetonks, and one under anonymous

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

11,768

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Nothing Like a First Kiss; Your House; Coffee and a Croissant; Because You Made It; Harry Potter: The Boy in Heels

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

As many as I can! The engagement is so satisfying, and returning to comments when I’m feeling down is a great way to boost my mood.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uuuuhm, probably Your House? But even that ending is hopeful.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Nothing Like a First Kiss?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

None so far!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Occasionally. I think the only smut is from Your House and it’s hella cringy. And getting re-written.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope! Read ‘em occasionally, though.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! One podfic, though, for Harry Potter: The Boy in Heels by PhenomenalAsterisk :D (This made my year!)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not! That would be awesome to do one day <3

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I am Drarry trash.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Sadly, my anon one. Which is why it’s in the anon collection ^^’ I love the premise, but I fell into the trap of biting off more than I can chew and trying to shove too much plot in and lost much of my inspiration.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I write better when restricted by a word count. I tend to spotlight sensory details or dialogue when I’m on a word budget.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Too many Scrivener files for the same damn story. Too many versions of the same story, written all the different ways. I get lost.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I’ll include it when necessary? I do love a French-speaking Draco, but my French is Québecois, and his… isn’t.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

InuYasha. No, none of it is published. You’re welcome.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I love almost all of them! But I think the most satisfying one to look back on is Coffee and a Croissant because writing it for @cupofsquirrelfan has been a joy <3

Aaaah I am bad at the tagging part of tagging games. Apologies if you've already been tagged! @phenomenalasterisk; @cupofsquirrelfan; @flintandfuss