A WASTELAND OF ETERNAL LOVE

hi-i-i-i-i! name's vika or nick, pronouns are it/its or they/them (i also use neopronouns! fae/faer/faers/faeself and se/sun/sens/sunself), age's 25 || this is my blog for everything related to the glorious dghda tv 2016 show, everything else goes to @urlocallesbiabs-reblog-sideblog here's a link to my about page in case it doesn't display properly: https://urlocallesbiab.tumblr.com/about

[urlocallesbiab]

so tomorrow i'll clean this mess up and return this blog to it's Pristine DGHDA-Only condition (by reblogging everything onto @urlocallesbiabs-reblog-sideblog and deleting the posts from here)

honestly it's been SO weird and awkward reblogging stuff on here! i'm glad to go back to my comfy cozy sideblog

if you've liked this preview of the bullshit i'm up to on the daily, go follow me on my (freshly newly reinstated and brought back from the grave) sideblog!

[takemebacktowheniwassane]

omg guess what I’ve brought you!!!

MORE DIRK GENTLY!!!!

who’d’ve even guessed it?

crops!

I’m gonna tell future generations this was mystery incorporated

[protecticarus]

never not absolutely loving the interaction in episode 4 with farah going “i just assumed you’d been his assistant for years” and todd asking “why’d you think that?” only for dirk to scream “todd! push my bum! make me go up!” right then and todd having to sigh and go “right. no, we just met. and i hate him.” and then proceed to go push dirk up a fence anyway.

[takemebacktowheniwassane]

they mean a lot to me ok

[protecticarus]

dirk gives compliments freely, once described todd as “perfect”, is generally excitable and british, so i feel like he’d have a long list of pet names to call todd (love, darling etc).

todd on the other hand is awkward and emotionally shut off, so i feel like pet names wouldn’t come naturally to him. at the same time he does call amanda "sis" (which i'm pretty sure no sibling in real life actually does), so nicknames/other ways to address someone he cares about isn't completely unheard of.

so my question is: if we decide that todd would in fact occasionally call dirk a pet name (or even just something other than "dirk"), what would it be?

i'm imagining dirk's excessive pet names and endearments prompt him to use one random one himself and once he sees dirk's starry eyed reaction, he knows he has to learn to add that to his regular vocabulary.

but which pet-/nickname could come out of his mouth without feeling too awkward and ooc? would "babe" be the most common, go-to guy endearment? anything very flowery or symbolic doesn't feel like todd (like "honey" and “sweetheart” are cute af but i can't imagine him saying those unironically). or would it be something descriptive of dirk? (sunshine?) or a nickname rather than a pet name? (what’s a nickname for dirk?)

thoughts?

[disneyprincessdxminatrix]

I like what you said in the tags about Todd just calling Dirk “man”, affectionately, and maybe with a tone that implies he means it as “my man”. Not exactly the cutest thing to call your partner, but I agree with the other people in the reblogs that Todd is just not the kind of guy to use cute nicknames

[protecticarus]

right! being earnest kind of feels uncomfortable for him but he’d totally let genuine fondness bleed into something like “man” or “dude.” i can also see him fondly saying “that’s my guy” when dirk does something silly.

[plasticonobandana]

good morning to people who aren't psychic, hotel employees who just got fired, punk drummer girls, competent and badass women, psychic vampires, lovable assassins, electricians who don't really know what's going on, rockstars from the 80s who went missing, fbi himbos, police officers who probably should've just gone for a doughnut instead, time traveling inventors, girls disguised as dogs and dogs disguised as girls and sharks disguised as cats, and, last but not least, people with cool jackets

[plasticonobandana]

good afternoon to star crossed gay lovers, feuding siblings, men questioning their place in the universe, people with extreme dissociative daydreams, wacky forest witches, inanimate objects, colourful beasts, bisexual police officers, fed up moms who turned evil, people separated from their friends, prisoners who negotiated their way to positions of power, and the boy

[plasticonobandana]

good night to fans of tv shows that were cancelled

[pinnedwings]

one of the most difficult things about deciding you want to write a fictional doctor (of the non-who variety) is writing actual medical scenes. we all know that medical dramas are notoriously cliched, and i for one fully understand how unimportant factual accuracy can be to the emotional importance of a scene. sometimes you don’t have to get it write for your story to work. i have a disclaimer on my blog that i myself am just a layman, but i like to at least know what i’m writing about! in the interest of being as accurate as i can, i would like to spread that love around. here’s a list of medical fiction/fantasy writing resources i’ve found!

surgeonsblog

article i found this from^ (w/even more resources)

redwoods medical edge

^article where i found that

this article is short/basic/doesn’t link anywhere else, but i found it very helpful anyway

supposed to be good but to me, seemed difficult to navigate. (dp lyle)

this on the otherhand, is the jackpot (novelmalpractice)

tumblr blog centered around this topic

this is more about the common pitfalls/anachronisms of medical fiction but still helpful

writing medical scenes: useful links by paul anthony shortt

the last one im going to include is an article by a doctor about common mistakes in popular medical shows, i liked this one

tagging who liked the interest check on this @hesjustcarter @prodigiumamare @frankengeeks

[yassifiedgollum]

Another writing trait I don't like: overuse (tbh most use) of bolds and italics. The reader should be paying enough attention, and the sentence should be clear enough, that you don't need them. And I don't like the tone they create; they make the text sound breathlessly awed by its own idea, which is annoying in proportion to how mundane the idea is. ("What's happening right now?" vs "What's happening right now?")

I prefer not to use italics unless they're emphasizing a specific distinction (ex. "I said we should put it there" vs "I said we should put it there"). But as with "it's not X, it's Y," You don't need to do this unless the thing you're distinguishing from is actually a likely misunderstanding for the reader to have.

[sanrio-stud]

there should be coming of age stories for people turning 30

[mylittleredgirl]

i was thinking this morning about how i categorize fanfic authors that i enjoy like AKC breeds and decided to share my rubric with you:

the specialist: this author has a favorite kink or trope and has written 80% of the content in that tag. you know exactly what you’re getting. they have A Brand™️. no matter what other traits they display, dedicated rare pair authors belong here.

the chocolate box: essentially the exact opposite. this author will try anything once. they have 80+ works in the fandom with no discernible pattern. the shortest one is 268 words and the longest is well over 100k. this breed of author may or may not be related to:

the renaissance fan: they’ve written three things in your fandom: your favorite fic, your notp, and a bizarre crossover with a show you’ve never heard of. you hit “expand fandoms list” on their author page and have to scroll down twice to reach the bottom. whenever you curse the fact that you can’t legally commission fic writers, this is the author you’re thinking about.

the horn dog: they’re here for one thing and one thing only. if someone’s dick is not in another character’s mouth within 500 words, they apologize for it in the author’s notes. they have one (1) g-rated fic.

the rookie: this writer is usually young, new to fandom, or just got a beta-reader for the first time. their fics are a little all over the place, quality-wise, but you’re excited whenever their name pops up because their unique voice gets stronger every time. you feel a personal investment in their development, like you’re an old man reading the local high school sports page and saying “this kid’s the one to watch.”

the live streamer: the most prolific author in the fandom. their works are all over the front page when you sort by kudos. you have no idea how they generate this much work, and have seriously wondered if they have access to an extra-dimensional time portal. their stories are usually un-beta’d and the characterization varies wildly, but their best works are inspired and you’ve read them 30 times.

the cryptid: this one comes out of nowhere every two years, drops the best fanfic you’ve ever read, and disappears. fifteen months after you left a three paragraph comment about how they changed your life, you get a message in your inbox that just says “thanks.”

the novelist: we talk about “filing off the serial numbers” when someone reworks their most popular story to pitch it as an original novel; this author somehow does the reverse. their fics are excellent, usually long-reaching multi-chapter AUs that have almost nothing to do with the on-screen characters except their names. i’d like to extend my personal thanks to this breed of author because it’s the closest i get to reading an actual book.

the reunion tour: this author wrote some of the most popular works in the fandom, but either moved on to k-pop or burned out when canon took a turn for the worse. they put out one new thing a year, often an old draft that’s been haunting them from under the floorboards. their last six author’s notes all say they never thought they’d write this pairing again and “this will probably be the last time.”

who did i miss?

[zukkaphoria]

was it casual when i spent two months searching for you after knowing you for two weeks

[spiribia]

as a writer you will have a specific deck of vocab words you like using a lot and when you read other peoples' work you will see a very clear spread of different vocab words on their end. this is why you need to read, to collect other writers' words like it's a card game

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Be honest: Have you ever loved reading fanfiction for a pairing you don't actually know, without any intention to ever read or watch the actual source material?

[garagepaperback]

this might be too massive of a question to answer but what advice do you have to people wanting to improve their writing? how do you come up with the prose you write? i think i’m a good writer but im very literal. my brain would never think to make some of those comparisons or string those specific words together.

disgustingly the only way i have found to improve writing is to keep writing ugh.......

also i know this is not what you're asking for but i think saying cleanly what you mean is the most impactful writing to me. i have to stack three mirrors inside a milk carton to get an eclipse view bc i can't name the shape of the moon - in a real way i just think living is like this. i don't kiss someone and know it as my mouth on their mouth. the kiss is world-blending warm connection crux and i think i'm just trying to translate that? i think we experience a lot more than words allow for, i guess, and usually the the colloquial cloak doesn't feel like enough.

songs are good for this. i don't read a lot of poetry but poems for sure help snip the more surface connections and see what else is under there. when i put a metaphor down i make myself find the reasons for it. chest is a pit - how deep? empty or full - does a pit want filling or is it happier without? cement sides because he's at least fortified the hole, or dirt sliding into mud, is there water at the bottom? why not a well? does he have no bucket to retrieve the feeling with or is he just ignoring the option?

gaze like a sun - what's the sun for? we don't really notice the orbit or situation with gravity, is he noticing that? if so, it doesn't work. if it lends light gives life but too much is a genuine threat, that works better. if he doesn't notice it aside from the fact that it quietly decides when the day begins and ends, that works. if there's a cover of clouds around it sometimes, shocking and delightful when it's suddenly clear, that really works.

the hard part i think is knowing when to zoom in and zoom out. i still do not know this ::) but yeah. writing forever. just continually writing. trying to understand the feeling/tether/character instead of the event

[quietwingsinthesky]

what’s the point of giving your character severe trauma if it doesn’t make them an asshole to work with. not in a cute way. they should be a fucking cunt. they have to make problems on purpose. they have to lash out at their friends without even being provoked, just because they’re having a bad day and they want to hurt someone to cope with it. on purpose. they have to want to hurt someone on purpose. they can regret it later, but they can’t just say something mean on accident, it has to be calculated and cruel and so, so intentional.

[clockworkcheetah]

this is what happened right

[hychlorions]

generally you shouldn't write run-on sentences because they get confusing and it doesn't give the reader a break. that doesn't apply to me though my run-on sentences are fun and understandable and they have a rhythm to it that makes you want to keep reading