Monterey Bay Aquarium
Not today Justin
roma★
DEAR READER
Jules of Nature
todays bird
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Show & Tell
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cherry valley forever
if i look back, i am lost
we're not kids anymore.
Game of Thrones Daily
$LAYYYTER
ellievsbear
Discoholic 🪩
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Kiana Khansmith
Sade Olutola
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@weminence
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
This is my piece for the Candlenights Exchange put on by @thecandlenightszone for @johnchurch
It's the first piece I've finished in awhile and I really like it all things considered. Hope you enjoy too!
WE HAVE GOT TO START LOVING THE PROCESS MORE THAN THE PRODUCT AGAIN
I want you guys to all start making a bigger stink about Tumblr's Age Verification Horseshit.
Like they tried to change Reblogs and people rightfully got up in arms, this is a LOT worse. In order to have access to any sort of thing dubbed mature, and We haveALL seen what they think is mature, Everything from a black and white photo of a black woman's arm, to posts about IUD recalls, to a nude painted by a 17th century artist, to anything involving the word Trans; you have to send your personal information to a third party site that WILL get hacked, and you will be doxxed. And they can say "Oh shit, well it wasn't us who sent your name address and gender identity to Moldovan teenagers, here's a couple extra minutes in the ball pit.
That's bad enough!!!!!!!! But the entire idea of needing permission from state authorities to access anything labeled mature by our friendly AI overlords is some fucking Boll shit. Die Gedenken Sind Frie baby. This is all a reaction to people getting uppity about their lowly lowly rights and is being propped up by the same bad actors tht have made life unlivable. Fuck that shit.
"Well it's only being rolled out in Brazil and UK" Yeah, to start. "Well they're being forced to do this by laws." YOu know it's always really funny when these tech giants (Or whatever you call owning tumblr dot com) get really antsy about laws considering they pick and choose which ones they abide by.
This is a breaking point and it's going to be very interesting to see how we proceed from here.
basically I think that if your protagonist doesn’t want to fuck someone so bad it makes them look stupid, then there probably isn’t enough energy in your story. “Fuck someone” isn’t literal btw—they can want to uncover the secrets of their parent’s death, they can want to prove their worth, they can want a donut from one particular bakery—it can be anything so long as they want it so bad that they’ll make decisions that make any sane person go “are you a moron??”, with little to no forethought, or even tons of forethought and this is still the option they chose. Because they want to fuck that thing so bad.
wait isn’t that just giving your characters a motivation???
You’d be surprised at how many people fail to give their characters motivation, and so write a story that’s less good than it could be.
It’s surprisingly easy to come up with an incredibly cool plot and characters without giving the characters enough motivation to make it actually compelling enough to read or even write. If you have a cool af idea that you somehow just can’t bring yourself to write, ask yourself what the main character wants, and how is that driving their decisions?
They need to want it so bad that it makes them look stupid. They need to impulse-buy a half-broken spaceship by mortgaging radioactive land, because they’re just that desperate to prove themselves more than a discarded scrap of a far greater history. They need to want their home and their people safe so much that they’ll risk their own soul to march across hundreds of miles of unknown and terrible danger to throw a cursed ring into a volcano. They need to love someone so much, and need them to know it, that they’ll blurt it out in the middle of a press conference or royal ball, or surrounded by enemies with a garrote at their throat or about to be frozen in carbonite or in the middle of a storm-tossed sea battle between pirates, British Navy, and the undead—or, they need to love someone so much that they’ll swear fealty to an evil emperor and kill a bunch of friends and children for the power to save them. They need to be so balls-to-the-wall insane in at least one regard that the plot isn’t just happening to them, they are in some way causing the plot.
Also keep in mind! When it comes to character development, “WANT” is NOT the same as “NEED”! Sometimes a character knows what’s good for them, what will truly often make them happy, but more often they don’t. They want the acclaim and adoration of the crowds, but really they need the recognition, acceptance or love of one particular person—and maybe that person is their own self. They want to avenge the loss of their loved one, but really they need to accept the loss and move on. A refusal to accept what they need is usually going to get in the way of what they want—and sometimes they figure it out just in time to go forward and climactically achieve their goal, or maybe they double down on their character flaws in a classic display of Greek tragedy!
"Fuck someone” isn’t literal btw
As an Aro-Ace who was very uncomfortable with your post until this point: THANK YOU!
Also, one caveat: there is one rare type of story where the protagonist cannot become stupid over what they're after. This is the detective story where their character is in many ways a placeholder for the audience to try to solve the puzzle (as opposed to more thrilery types of detective story) and the detective's internal motivations are basically irrelevant because they are in many ways a framing device.
Ironically, ACD Sherlock Holmes, who most people would immediatley think of for this sort of always detached detective, does not always fit this caveat protag type. He can and has done stupid.
But like, okay, genuinely. Because this is a thing I'm struggling with.
How do you write a protagonist where the thrust of the story is that they don't know what they want?
Because I have that experience, and I want to capture it well.
@lizardywizard I'm just essentially throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if anything sticks here, but, some options:
the character's want at the beginning of the story is to find out what they want, so they'll try anything once
they do a bunch of dumb shit chasing the feeling of wanting something, no matter how fleeting, in case THIS is The Thing
they have something they think they want at the beginning of the story that turns out to really be something else
throw a character at them that DOES want a thing and is dragging them into said hijinks whether they like it or not -- especially if not, then their initial Want is "get me the fuck out of here" (possibly with a side of "but also I need to rescue my friend from themself" if it's too easy for them to otherwise just nope out of the plot XD)
I guess elaborating on the point above: give them circumstantial wants until a bigger want grows out of them? Like, throw them into Situations, so they want to resolve the situation or discover a temporary want within said situation, and go from there.
gonna be real with you but a lot of detective characters become stupid over their desire for justice, vengeance, or personal issues, and it makes for a meatier story
So - youse all know by now I have planted my flag on a hill called 'no one piece of writing advice is ever 100% applicable in all circumstances,' right? Even when it's genuinely good advice - like 'what do they want (and what's stopping them)?' is absolutely worth asking.
But, when you're sat there staring at a character who is coming into the space of the story crunchily fucked up in some way which is flattening their ability to want things, or rendering 'what they want' so abstract or orthogonal to what's actually happening that it isn't providing the driving energy...
...then one alternative which might be worth trying on for size is 'what lie(s) are they telling themself (and what's really true)?'
Still obsessed with Arthur Conan Doyle’s letter to Bram Stoker gushing about how wonderful a book Dracula is, but particularly how it makes such a good template for leaving fic comments, so I’m gonna to a BREAKDOWN:
Just say you loved reading it - “I am sure that you will not think it an impertinence if I write to tell you how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula.”
Comment on a detail of the craft or structure that impressed you - “It is really wonderful how with so much exciting interest over so long a book there is never an anticlimax.“
Comment on how it emotionally affected you - “It holds you from the very start and grows more and more engrossing until it is quite painfully vivid.”
SHARE YOUR BLORBO FEELINGS - “The old Professor is most excellent and so are the two girls.”
Show appreciation for them as an author - “I congratulate you with all my heart for having written so fine a book.”
Next time you don’t know what to say on a fic you enjoyed, just use the ACD method~
MEN WHO NEVER LEARNED HOW TO BREAK
𒁍 “I don’t talk about it because nothing good ever came from me doing that.”
𒁍 “I learned early that pain was just something you carried quietly.”
𒁍 “No one asked if I was okay. They just assumed I could handle it.”
𒁍 “I don’t remember the last time I felt relief, just less pressure for a moment.”
𒁍 “I didn’t grow numb overnight. It happened slowly enough to feel normal.”
𒁍 “I don’t feel angry. I feel hollow.”
𒁍 “I don’t know how to explain how bad it gets without scaring people.”
𒁍 “I learned to lock things away so deep even I can’t reach them.”
𒁍 “I learned that needing anything was dangerous.”
𒁍 “I don’t know how to ask for help without hating myself for it.”
𒁍 “I don’t explode because that would mean someone would notice.”
𒁍 “I keep going because stopping feels worse.”
𒁍 “I don’t know who I am without the weight. I just know I can’t put it down.”
𒁍 “I don’t talk about the thoughts that show up when everything’s quiet.”
𒁍 “I learned to survive by turning myself off.”
𒁍 “I don’t trust happiness. It feels temporary and suspicious.”
𒁍 “I don’t cry because I don’t know where it would end.”
𒁍 “I learned that pain was normal and rest was weakness.”
𒁍 “I don’t know how much of me is left under all this control.”
𒁍 “I keep everything locked down because once it breaks, it breaks for real.”
𒁍 “I’ve been holding my breath so long I forgot what air feels like.”
𒁍 “I survived by becoming someone I don’t recognize.”
𒁍 “I don’t feel broken. I feel used up.”
𒁍 “I don’t know how to be human without armor.”
the first rule of writing is that there are no rules. the second rule is to save your work every 5 minutes because technology is a fickle god.
Rule #2 will embed itself into your brain the first time you lose a chapter to the Blue Screen of Death, or a power outage.
The pain of that deep cut fades, but never goes away.
Source: : Me.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one that added 35k extra words to the projected length of this fucking story ahgeilahgleiag
It's crazy how many people use Death of the Author to mean "separating the art from the artist" when it's actually not supposed to have anything to do with who the author is as a person and is supposed to be about the idea that the author's interpretation of their own work should not be seen as the definitive, correct opinion on that work. Like you're not supposed to invoke Death of the Author when JK Rowling devotes her entire life and fortune to transphobia, you're supposed to invoke it when Trent Reznor says Closer by Nine Inch Nails isn't a sex song.
dear god we don't talk much but please give me the strength to start that project, the determination to start that project, and the fortitude to start that project. thanks
finishing the project is another story im turning to the devil for that one. there's no other way.
🕳️ What to Write When You Have No Idea What Happens Next
aka: you’re staring into the creative abyss and the abyss is not only staring back, it’s asking for a rough draft
hi writer. welcome to that fun little liminal space in your project where ✨absolutely nothing✨ makes sense. you wrote the last scene. you know you’re not at the end. but suddenly your characters are just standing there like NPCs waiting for a quest marker and your brain is doing the spinning beachball of death.
so. what now?
let’s break down some actually useful strategies for when you hit That Point™️. not vibes. not ✨manifest your way out✨ energy. not the “just keep writing” slog. here’s what to do when your story is refusing to tell you what happens next:
———————————————
zoom out: do a “scene audit” ———————————————
you don’t need a full outline to do this. take five minutes and sketch a bullet list of every scene that’s happened so far. not just what happened, but why it mattered.
like this:
MC lied to their boss (sets up stakes re: trust/power)
antagonist shows up at cafe (establishes tension + location crossover)
best friend gets suspicious (emotional complication, adds pressure)
this gives you a birds-eye view of what you’ve set in motion. often you’re stuck because you’ve lost sight of the threads you were pulling, your own story has momentum, you just need to feel it again.
—————————————————————
try “ghost drafting” (aka fake writing) —————————————————————
open a doc. start typing what would happen, if you were writing. super casual. something like:
“okay i think the next scene is maybe them at the train station?? or wait--maybe we need to see the fallout of the argument. i don’t really know what x character wants rn but i think y might be planning something…”
this trick works bc it removes pressure. no fancy prose, no perfect structure. it’s literally you telling yourself what might happen. and weirdly? your brain will often finish the scene for you without asking. (the number of times I’ve ghost drafted myself into 800 usable words… witchcraft.)
——————————————————————————
pin your characters to a corkboard and interrogate them ——————————————————————————
not literally. (unless you're into that. i don’t judge.)
but seriously: when you’re stuck, it’s often because your character has no immediate goal or emotion. pause and ask:
what does this character want right now? like, in this moment?
what are they trying to avoid?
what’s keeping them from getting either?
character-driven scenes are rarely static. even if it’s just an awkward dinner or walking to the store, someone’s always trying to do or hide something. if everyone in the scene is just reacting or waiting, you’ve got fog. bring in the fire.
—————————————————
don’t skip the “boring” stuff--weaponize it —————————————————
sometimes we’re stuck because we think the next scene is dull. like “ugh i guess they just… travel to the manor” or “they regroup at the safe house.” but these slow beats are GOLD if you embed purpose.
try giving the “boring” scene:
a time limit or interruption (they’re hiding but someone knocks)
a secret (someone is lying about something small but important)
a reversal (what they expected is the opposite of what happens)
even if it’s a quiet scene, layer it. conflict isn’t just yelling or action. it’s discomfort. it’s misalignment. tension between what’s said and unsaid.
—————————————————————
when all else fails: write the next emotional beat —————————————————————
strip it back. forget plot. forget pacing. ask yourself:
then write that. a monologue. a journal entry. an outburst. a line of whispered dialogue.
sometimes it’s not that you don’t know what happens next. it’s that your character hasn’t processed what just happened, and until they do, the story can’t move forward.
✨✨✨
the void is normal. getting stuck doesn’t mean you failed or picked the wrong idea or that the muse packed up and left for a better writer’s house. it just means your brain needs space to regroup.
writing isn’t linear. stories aren’t built in perfect lines. they loop. they stall. they circle back. and that’s okay.
if you’re in the middle of nowhere, here’s your sign to sit on the side of the metaphorical road, open your weird little notebook, and write anyway. write wrong. write messy. write ghost drafts. the path shows up when you start walking.
🕳️ you got this, writer.
tag me if you end up crawling out of your stuck scene with a little victory paragraph. i’ll bring snacks for the next one 🧃✨
P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:
✦ A free (and actually helpful) guide to leveling up your first 10 pages ✦If you're unsure whether your opening is ✨doing enough✨ to hook re
i personally love reading successful author wikis that all have a line in common akin to "write constantly, daily, even if it sucks; editing and inspiration comes later" because my immediate response is "ah! i should do that too" and then wait for the one night during the new moon only if it's rained in the last three days and if i've had enough caffeine to write
I'm going to have to say this multiple times, but you do not have to use Generative AI to create background characters, locations, or plot ideas. There are hundreds of writing generators out there lovingly crafted for free by folks who want nothing more than to give you tools for writing. Please just search for them.
You do not have to use the Unethical Thieving Machine That Burns Down A Rainforest to help you write. There are so many resources out there that will strengthen your writing, not weaken it. You owe it to yourself to do better.
Truly I hate to do this to you all but; you can watch all the videos and read all the blogs in the world but you cannot learn to sew without at some point picking up a piece of fabric and fucking it up. No tutorial exists that will stop you at some point ruining this poor piece of cloth. The visceral act of holding a project and wondering where you went wrong is the only way to learn sewing; you cannot escape it. I’m sorry
the author's barely disguised longing for a kinder world
“I need to write I need to writeineedtowritei—” hey. slow down. it’s okay to take breaks and let yourself reset. Your stories don’t disappear just because you take care of yourself first.
