Just Write Damn You

Writer blog, ideas, procrastination, prompts. Work in progress blog for @zerrat. Making fetch happen.

[inky-duchess]

[toastyglow]

grabs ur face

stop disconnecting from the thing ur making just because ur afraid it’s not good.  I know you don’t wanna get ur feelings hurt caring for a project that other people might not like but dammit that’s better than deciding not to give a shit and hiding behind self-deprecating humor and dispassionately trudging ahead!  fuck!

[rwby-rose]

writing multi-chapter fics be like

[midnight-octopus-deactivated202]

character: it’s like I said-

me, scrolling through to seven chapters ago, muttering under my breath: yeah, what DID you say

[attenashe-deactivated20190606]

things that always make me happy: serial commenters. there are three types

1) reading a longfic chapter by chapter, leaving an increasingly emotional comment on every chapter, descends into keysmashes near the end: outstanding

2) read one fic by accident, clicked the author name, now working steadily through the backlog and commenting on everything, I wake up to an AO3 inbox full of enthusiasm: precious beyond words

3) the longterm serial commenter whose comment begins with I don’t even know this fandom but because they have followed me from somewhere else: stunning. humbling. magical.

[fineillsignup]

these are all *chef’s kiss* and I want to add one more: 4) left a comment a while ago, comes back and leaves another comment on the same fic, telling you that they’re coming back to reread the fic: angels. blessings. lifesavers.

[rpepperpotshipssciencebros]

OK but real quick here: how many times can I comment on the same fic before it gets creepy???

[lauramkaye]

IT NEVER GETS CREEPY

[wip-it]

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*

Took a writing break last night, and took it a little slower today. Did some scene concept revisions, lots of changing the execution of a couple of scenes/dialogue exchanges as they felt a little off.

Had a hour or so of critically doubting the idea and my execution of the concept but fuck it it’s probably because the execution, as it stands, is *meant* to be rough because it’s a rough draft! Hard lesson to learn. A lesson I must learn.

[wip-it]

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*

Left chapter two in extreme draft format, to move onto chapter 3 for the same. Figure roughing out the first drafts will go a long way to balancing the world and character building!

Extremely tired tho. This week at work has been rough and it feels like I have no time.

[screnwriter-old-deactivated2021]

wholesome romance; dialogue prompts

‘‘i don’t need to be anywhere. just being here with you is enough.’‘ 

‘‘can i have your number?’‘ ‘‘at least –’‘ ‘‘let me guess, invite you out to dinner first?’‘ ‘‘i was going to say kiss me.’‘ 

‘‘[…] you know, I used to believe that. but then I met you. so perhaps something good did come out of it.’‘ 

‘‘i’m happy to be here with you.’‘ 

‘‘i loved you. i still do. i should have told you long ago, before i let you slip away.’‘ 

‘‘doesn’t matter if you’re a whole ocean away from me. we will always only be a heart apart.’‘

‘‘i grew to discover that love won’t always be enough.’‘ 

‘‘[…] but that doesn’t mean that your love was insufficient. doesn’t mean that your love wasn’t enough, or that you weren’t loved. you were. you’ll always be.’‘

‘‘home? where’s home?’‘ ‘‘you’re my home.’‘

‘‘it’s a trustful thing, to be so vulnerable. to let somebody into your heart when you’ve got it covered in wounds and arrows from those who swore to protect it […] i have trusted those, a bunch, who would throw me to the sharks would it benefit them. he isn’t one of them.’‘ 

‘‘i’m happy when i’m around you.’‘

‘‘when i’m around her, i feel like there’s no worries to be had in the world.’‘ 

‘’i wanted to kiss him. i’ve been wanting to kiss him for quite a while.’‘

‘‘a broken heart is a small price to pay when you’re not the one who has to pay it.’‘

‘‘i feel safe with you. i always have.’‘

‘‘but he worships her?’‘ ‘‘in ways beyond our imagination.’‘

‘‘did you think it would hurt? to love somebody who doesn’t love you back?’‘ ‘‘i think it’s just a matter of moving on.’‘

‘‘at least we have each other.’‘

‘‘i don’t want it to be this way. i don’t want to live the rest of my life, if it means ridding *nameofcharacter* of hers.’‘ 

‘‘you’re my best friend, and i love you.’‘ ‘’i love you, too.’’ ‘‘don’t look at me like that.’‘ ‘‘but i do. i really do love you.’‘

‘‘she’s not just some girl. she’s the only girl i’ve ever loved.’‘

‘‘and i know this, i’m never going to love anybody the way i love you.’‘

‘‘i don’t want another love if he won’t love me the way you do, if he won’t make me feel the things you do. and he won’t.’‘ 

‘‘you deserve everything. i hope i can give it to you someday.’‘ 

‘‘and i’m thinking that at this point, we’re so terrible that we deserve each other.’‘ 

‘‘you have never been second best to me. my heart has always been yours, even long before i realized it myself.’‘

‘‘i don’t see a future with anybody else. that’s why i’m here.’‘

‘‘we’re finally happy. and i’m not going to let anybody take that from us.’‘

‘‘i think you’re one of the most amazing people i’ve ever met.’‘

‘‘the things i feel for her, is unlike anything i’ve ever felt before in my life.’‘

‘‘you’re so good. the world doesn’t deserve it.’‘

‘‘you can’t deny that there’s something there. i’ve seen the way you look at him.’‘ 

‘‘you make him happy. i’ve never seen him smile like that with anyone before.’‘

‘‘just shut up and kiss me.’‘ 

‘‘i’d rather spend one, dying lifetime with her, than full eternity without her.’‘ 

[concerningwolves]

some mini collections of tips for writers

(based on things that yours truly notices as an editor-in-training. This list is in no way complete, and will probably be added to as I continue to find repeated mistakes) 

Dialogue

Use beats in your dialogue to break it up. Even “said” can make a very effective beat between lines. 

(No beats: “It’s not lethal. Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.” // Beats: “It’s not lethal,” he said. “Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.”)

Note how the break allows a bit of a pause for ~dramatic effect 

thinking of dialogue, use punctuation and distinct speech patterns! “Life, uh, finds a way.” is an iconic line anyway, but Jeff Goldblum’s signature verbal tic gives it character. 

It’s okay if characters stutter. Don’t let the condemnation of stuttering characters as “cringey” in fanfic put you off. (and on that note, fuck cringe culture. Seriously. It saps all the fun out of creativity and fun is important.)

Start! A! New! Line! Whenever! Someone! New! Speaks!!

DO NOT FEAR THE WORD “SAID” 

Setting & Blocking

 Use the landscape and settings around your character, and always, always remember a scene’s blocking. Where is everything in relation to your characters? Have you left someone holding a coffee cup for the last three scenes? Did you lose a character somewhere along the way? 

using the contents of a scene is also great for fight sequences. 

Similarly, large character casts are hard to keep track of so don’t be afraid to break them up. Sending someone off somewhere else can create some nifty little subplots. 

Keep a personal note of how time passes. Trust me, it’s incredibly helpful to you as a writer and also for future readers. 

Characters

Character growth does not have to be positive. Sometimes characters fail or suffer or get their motivations twisted up, and they finish the book as a villain rather than a hero. 

All that matters is that a character changes throughout the plot in a way that readers can see; the sort of change they go through is entirely up to you. 

scrap the idea that someone has to deserve a redemption arc. They probably don’t deserve it, which is the whole point. So don’t be afraid to make your villains seem completely irredeemable. 

and you don’t need to redeem your antagonists in order to make them complex, sympathetic villains, anyway. Sometimes people get so stuck in their beliefs that they can’t see another way and it goes too far. Not everyone comes back from that. 

Also, motivations and goals can absolutely change. That’s okay. You just need to have something that drives your character so that your readers are rooting for them. 

Protagonists don’t need to be heroic. How you define the protagonists and antagonists in your story is based entirely on the morality in your story-world, NOT the moral ideas in the real world. What counts as a complex protagonist in a world torn apart by biological warfare will be very different than one living in our world. 

Prose & Grammar

simple prose is just fine and you don’t need to fluff it up for pretty quotes.

Remember to vary your sentence structures and length. Start smaller and build it up, drawing your reader’s attention. 

“And” and “But” are very valid sentence starters that are great for communicating the tone of internal narrative. You’re allowed to tweak grammar if that’s helpful for telling the story, it just needs to be accessible. Test out what you’ve written on other people. 

Check that your tenses are consistent!! 

[judethecomedian]

Writing? Did you mean

[headspace-hotel]

The good thing about first drafts: you can put off figuring out worldbuilding details, character and place names, and other peripheral stuff to the second draft

The bad thing about first drafts: you can put off figuring out worldbuilding details, character and place names, and other peripheral stuff to the second draft

[wip-it]

Oh it’s Valentine’s Day this Sunday.

*rifles in panic through WIPs for something to post*

[oh-theatre]

Me: *stops writing* well that’s enough writing for now

Me: *later* Alright time to write!

Me: *staring at where I left off*

[ellatholmes]

it's always "oh you're writing? when will you be published and famous??" and never "oh you're writing? come sit down and talk to me about every aspect of it unprompted for 6 hours"

[cinnamonrollwhump]

[wip-it]

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*

I know it totally looks like I did nothing but I actually did write 2500 of new words!

I just also got rid of swathes of duplicated plot notes and other notes because seemingly thing’s plot is spread out between three fucking devices and around 20 different random documents between them. All of them are just slightly different and each have like this one detail I desperately want to include. Anyway. So the bones of the next chapter are there, so I know what I’m dealing with a bit more. Further work tomorrow!

[starspangledsteve1deac]

but like who started the idea that fanfiction writers are somehow bothered by enthusiasm for their work???? cause i see posts all the time like “do writers really want to talk with us about their fics? Do writers really want long comments? I dont want to bother them” and i just think its absolutely ridiculous????

ofc i want to talk to you about it, and would love to hear you go on about it. i took time out of my real life to write this stuff down so we could all share these characters!!! the idea that you’re bothering a fanfiction writer, a fellow nerd, is absolutely crazy

[mikkeneko]

Personally I attribute at least part of this to the shift of fandom onto Tumblr platform. Because of the way Tumblr works, multiple replies and reactions can get cluttered and overwhelming really fast, so leaving replies and feedback can be awkward. I have actually seen ‘tumblr etiquette’ posts going around scolding people for adding commentary onto posts when they reblog it! Actually discouraging  people from reacting and adding their own words!  If any of this attitude spills over onto fanfic posts and reblogs, no wonder readers are shy about adding their own words to an author’s posts.

Dear fans on tumblr: 

WE, THE AUTHORS, REALLY WANT TO HEAR YOUR COMMENTS. 

[whymanwrites]

“People will kill you over time, and how they’ll kill you is with tiny, harmless phrases, like ‘be realistic.’”

— Dylan Moran  (via quotemadness)