On the road to Season 3 - Day 116

Monthly reminder that Michael Sheen is 100% responsible for our obsession with that hand on the thin dark duke...

Master post : here

How I learned to write smarter, not harder

(aka, how to write when you're hella ADHD lol)

A reader commented on my current long fic asking how I write so well. I replied with an essay of my honestly pretty non-standard writing advice (that they probably didn't actually want lol) Now I'm gonna share it with you guys and hopefully there's a few of you out there who will benefit from my past mistakes and find some useful advice in here. XD Since I started doing this stuff, which are all pretty easy changes to absorb into your process if you want to try them, I now almost never get writer's block.

The text of the original reply is indented, and I've added some additional commentary to expand upon and clarify some of the concepts.

Some people are the type that joyfully write linearly. I have a friend like this--she picks up the characters and just continues playing out the next scene. Her story progresses through the entire day-by-day lives of the characters; it never timeskips more than a few hours. She started writing and posting just eight months ago, she's about an eighth of the way through her planned fic timeline, and the content she has so far posted to AO3 for it is already 450,000 words long. But most of us are normal humans. We're not, for the most part, wired to create linearly. We consume linearly, we experience linearly, so we assume we must also create linearly. But actually, a lot of us really suffer from trying to force ourselves to create this way, and we might not even realize it. If you're the kind of person who thinks you need to carrot-on-a-stick yourself into writing by saving the fun part for when you finally write everything that happens before it: Stop. You're probably not a linear writer. You're making yourself suffer for no reason and your writing is probably suffering for it. At least give nonlinear writing a try before you assume you can't write if you're not baiting or forcing yourself into it!! Remember: Writing is fun. You do this because it's fun, because it's your hobby. If you're miserable 80% of the time you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong!

Unpopular writing opinion time: You don't need to make a detailed outline.

Some people thrive on having an outline and planning out every detail before they sit down to write. But I know for a lot of us, we don't know how to write an outline or how to use it once we've written it. The idea of making one is daunting, and the advice that it's the only way to write or beat writer's block is demoralizing. So let me explain how I approach "outlining" which isn't really outlining at all.

I write in a Notion table, where every scene is a separate table entry and the scene is written in the page inside that entry. I do this because it makes writing nonlinearly VASTLY more intuitive and straightforward than writing in a single document. (If you're familiar with Notion, this probably makes perfect sense to you. If you're not, imagine something a little like a more contained Google Sheets, but every row has a title cell that opens into a unique Google Doc when you click on it. And it's not as slow and clunky as the Google suite lol) When I sit down to begin a new fic idea, I make a quick entry in the table for every scene I already know I'll want or need, with the entries titled with a couple words or a sentence that describes what will be in that scene so I'll remember it later. Basically, it's the most absolute bare-bones skeleton of what I vaguely know will probably happen in the story.

Then I start writing, wherever I want in the list. As I write, ideas for new scenes and new connections and themes will emerge over time, and I'll just slot them in between the original entries wherever they naturally fit, rearranging as necessary, so that I won't forget about them later when I'm ready to write them. As an example, my current long fic started with a list of roughly 35 scenes that I knew I wanted or needed, for a fic that will probably be around 100k words (which I didn't know at the time haha). As of this writing, it has expanded to 129 scenes. And since I write them directly in the page entries for the table, the fic is actually its own outline, without any additional effort on my part. As I said in the comment reply--a living outline!

As an aside, I don't think this is a necessary step for writing, but if you really want to be productive in a short burst, I do highly recommend going on a media consumption hiatus. Not forever, obviously! Consuming media is a valuable tool for new inspiration, and reading other's work (both good and bad, as long as you think critically to identify the differences!) is an invaluable resource for improving your writing.

People always say if you're stuck, you need to outline.

What they actually mean by that (whether they realize it or not) is that if you're stuck, you need to brainstorm. You need to marinate. You don't need to plan what you're doing, you just need to give yourself time to think about it!

What's another framing for brainstorming for your fic? Fantasizing about it! Planning is work, but fantasizing isn't.

You're already fantasizing about it, right? That's why you're writing it. Just direct that effort toward the scenes you're trying to write next! Close your eyes, lay back, and fantasize what the characters do and how they react.

And then quickly note down your inspirations so you don't forget, haha.

And if a scene is so boring to you that even fantasizing about it sucks--it's probably a bad scene.

If it's boring to write, it's going to be boring to read. Ask yourself why you wanted that scene. Is it even necessary? Can you cut it? Can you replace it with a different scene that serves the same purpose but approaches the problem from a different angle? If you can't remove the troublesome scene, what can you change about it that would make it interesting or exciting for you to write?

In conclusion: Writing nonlinearly is an amazing tool for kicking writer's block to the curb. There's almost always some scene you'll want to write. If there isn't, you need to re-read or marinate.

Or you need to use the bathroom, eat something, or sleep. XD Seriously, if you're that stuck, assess your current physical condition. You might just be unable to focus because you're uncomfortable and you haven't realized it yet.

And same to you guys on tumblr--I hope this was helpful or at least interesting. XD Reblogs appreciated if so! (Maybe it'll help someone else!)

There was only one thing I wanted out of this video and it provided exactly what I wanted.

#how long have we been holding on to this one?

i’ve had this queued for 365 days

Hey.

Hey.

You don't need to use a safety pin to thread elastic through that channel.

There's a tool for that, called a bodkin, which works better than a safety pin. There's even a variety of different kinds.

(source)

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tw: rape and the Neil Gaiman allegations

Before you get mad at me, really, listen to the podcast, all four episodes, yourself. Please.

I’m a rape survivor and when the allegations dropped about Neil, my heart broke and my brain did a little bit too. I believed the victims.

But I am really glad I still listened to the podcast, and I emphatically urge you all to listen to the podcast (or a bootleg bc the people behind it are disgusting terfs). Listen to it for yourself and see if you agree with the headline the podcast crew wanted you to accept without question. Listen to the alleged victims speak on it themselves—- because non-consensual sexual contact IS NOT the same as consensual contact someone feels weird about later. Again. Listen to what the victims say THEMSELVES, both to interviewer and in private messages with Neil, about the nature of their relationships. There is a whole portion where one of the women assures Neil in messages that their encounters were consensual. The same woman sends multiple messages to him, offering further sexual encounters with him, gushing about the sex they had, so on, so on.

To me, at this moment, it really seems like consensual experiences are being conflated with rape as a hit job on a famous supporter of trans people, by terf journalists. I have been raped and sexually assaulted, and I have had consensual sexual encounters that left me feeling gross later (impact play? No thanks!). I may dwell on all of them from time to time, but I would never equate the impact play to sexual assault because I consented to it.

In fact, it actually makes me furious that people are now going to hear this, know about this, and come to think this is just another reason to NOT believe women. I think reasonable people will hear the podcast and see it for what it is- a hit job. And genuine victims of rape will have that much harder of a time being heard and believed. Especially when going up against men of power.

Please listen to the podcast, HEAR THE ALLEGED VICTIMS DIRECTLY. I bet your feelings will change.

Me: OK, I'm tired. I can't stay here on Tumblr any longer looking at sketches or drawings of these two idiots kissing. I have a life. So it's late, I think I'll go to bed.

Also me at 0:45: Oh, I have seen this so many times. One more.

*by kloekap

That superhero who teleports better know what they're doing.

Are people forgetting that GO is not written by ONE PERSON BUT TWO. It’s mostly Terry Pratchett’s work. If you want to keep investing in GO, do it in support of him, who’s literal dying wish was to see it made into cinema.

Keep loving Good Omens for those like Terry, Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Jon Hamm, Douglas Mackinnon, and everyone else who helped bring it to life.

The show is a COLLABORATIVE effort. If you no longer feel you can support Gaiman, that’s valid. But don’t disregard the others in the production who did nothing wrong.

Husbands dragging a Tory together, stay together.

love how it says dt is "in a row" with her lmao

he told her to shut up once and she started arguing with a brick wall on a website he doesnt use

That's the official script. Yep.

new kind of guy dropped

he's unironically 100% correct and i will hear nothing against him

I blame this song.

Disclaimer still counts

I'M SO ✨PROUD✨ OF THIS ONE!😭🩷

• My jolly demon bold •

[Mermaid!Aziraphale x Pirate!Crowley]

(fully inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean 4, mermaid scene: best scene ever✨)

It's like AM 2:30 and I'm so tired, but also so DAMN proud of how well this turned out😭 I finally get how to draw water at night!!

Bye, I'm going to sleep🌛

I didn’t want to disrupt the post about hostile architecture I saw because it’s true that the main target is homeless people but I did want to mention that this architecture also hurts people who aren’t skinny. I want to preface this all by saying I am in no way trying to minimize how this impacts people experiencing homelessness I am just trying to add on to the discussion of how these are bad.

You think that someone who can’t fit into those weird little yellow seats is going to feel comfortable? No. It will only make them feel bad or excluded.

Look at this shit. It’s not good or nice.

It only adds to the ways fat people are made feel unwelcome and though we already needed to tear this shit down because it makes life a million times worse for people experiencing homelessness and so this isn’t saying this is why you should tear it down. It is saying that our society is fatphobic and that sucks.

This isn’t a side effect, hostile architecture is designed to drive EVERYONE who’s “undesirable” from public spaces. Homeless people are the biggest targets but also disabled people, fat people, elderly people, etc. Other things, like anti-“loitering” measures and increased presence of police and security, drive out even more people, especially people of color and teenagers.

You aren’t disrupting or derailing discussions by talking about your experiences, we NEED to talk about the ways that different kinds of people are declared “unwanted” and pushed out of society.

Yeah, we no longer have “ugly laws” on paper, but in practice and architecture, we still absolutely do. If anything, we’ve gotten worse and more hostile towards “ugly” (unhoused, disabled, fat, etc) people in the past ten years- and this is exacerbated in the USA especially by the way communities are built to be car-dependent and segregated by class and race.

what the hell is wrong with july 4 the “independence day”

My headcanon is that medieval Crowley has three roles. This is the famous Black Knight, Lady Crowley and the robber Black Snake. Robber is famous for creating a reputation for himself by never showing himself to anyone, simply because Crowley wanted to spend a couple of years as a snake)

𝐓𝐨𝐦 𝐇𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧♡︎