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A Little Bit Of Everything

@missperfect-thisisfalse

Mainly slash (MCU, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Hannibal, etc) and whatever catches my fancy. Because as what else are you supposed to do at 2am?
I'm currently on AO3 under the name SabTheFangirl, but I haven’t written anything in forever but my bookmark collection is pretty impressive!! Lots of love!

ao3 comments will be like “i like this line of your fic” and my reply will be like “fantastic thank you here’s my entire thought process about how i ended up with that particular line and also an outline for another fic i have and fifteen resources i used to research 1980s politics” and nobody asked for that chill

i asked for that

No we 100% asked for that.

Definitely asked for that, and also here’s the other three dozen lines from your fic that I liked and the outline for the fic they inspired me to write plus some extra character meta that at this point is only tangentially related to your fic but was definitely inspired by those 1980s politics resources and -

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Yep.

This is literally how I made most of my fandom besties.

Listen…

Fic Commenters: If you ever want to make a comment going on depth about a part of a fic that stood out to you, but think “does the author really want to read all this?” The answer is YES! YES WE DO WANT TO READ ALL THAT!!!!

Fic authors: If you ever see a comment that makes you want to explain your thought process behind your writing, and you think “does the commenter really want to read all this?” The answer is YES! YES WE DO WANT TO READ ALL THAT!!!

Me: * faces even a tiny bit of inconvenience*
Me: Guess it's time to drop everything and go read fanfics. I don't make the rules. It is how it is.
Me: *proceeds to read for 4 hours straight*

My friends: talk about how many books they read in a month

My friends (ask me): What about you, read any book recently?

Me (sweating profusely, looking at probably 30 tabs of AO3): Uhm…Do fanfics count?

.

.

I have been reading about four books for a month now and haven’t finished them, yet I read approximately 50-100k words of fanfics every day. Am I weird or am I weird?

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I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF

This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.

I would enjoy some good luck from the potato.

I need some luck right now, so all hail the Lucky Potato. Do your magic, Potato. I respect you so much I am capitalizing the "P" in Potato.

I reblogged the lucky potato a couple months ago. Now I have a great new job, earning twice what I earned before. I can't believe it really worked!! I never thought I would be one of the people reblogging it with the success I had with it! Thanks, lucky potato!!

my writing fundamentally changed forever ten years ago when i realized you could use sentence structure to control people’s heart rates. is this still forbidden knowledge or does everyone know it now

?????? *raises hand* I’ve been writing for years and don’t know this trick by these words! do tell?

Okay, so a few people have asked for me to cite the dark magics at them, and i’m super happy to share because it’s my favorite thing ever. 

so, let’s see if i can explain this the same way that i learned. read a sentence out loud. you come to a full stop when you hit the period, and you take a normal, breath. but, when you hit a comma, you take a slightly longer pause. and when you hit a dash - you take an even longer pause. 

this is a natural rhythm that we pick up when we’re first taught to read; we do it without even thinking. but when you start to think about it, you realize that it can become a tool.

think of your heartbeat. a period is badump. a comma is badump-dump. and a dash is thump badump. one breath. a longer breath. two breaths.

that means what you read automatically affects the rhythm of your breathing and your heartrate. which means that you can control the amount of physical tension your reader feels… by altering your punction and your sentence structure.

for fast paced scenes, you use short sentences. a lot of hard stops. mostly periods, with just a few comma’s thrown in for the full breath. your reader’s heartrate accelerates. their breathing is slightly and unintentionally, on their end, quicker. you hit the dramatic ending of the scene - and your reader’s body phsyically feels the gasp, the breath of fresh air, of these longer sentences.

now, read that paragraph again ant take note of your natural pauses, and how it subtly affects your breathing. 

the same thing can be said of comma’s and dashes. while they can be used as a breath of fresh air, they can also cause a new line of tension as they lead your reader to hold their breath. during this section, you should use longer sentences; breaking up the harshness of the pauses by using variations of punction. read this paragraph out loud from the start and take note of how long you go between pauses and full breaths. 

and then, comes the biggest trick.

the hard stop.

the paragraph.

because while the periods, commas, and dashes are variations on a short stop, the paragraph is a hard stop. you take a full breath. you pause for a moment, then move to the start of the next paragraph.

which means you can create an entirely new sort of dramatic tension. read the sentences that are in bold. see how you take a naturally longer pause at the end of each paragraph?

see how it makes you feel? 

how it makes you breath different? 

how doing it once, twice, or three times creates a different line of tension? 

this little magic trick can be used to cause a reader’s heartrate to speed up during a fight or chase scene. it can be used to cause their breathing to slow down during moments of dramatic tension, sorrow, or softness. and it can be used to create hard breaks that add a new level of physically felt emphasis to your written work.

i hope these examples make sense! it’s my favorite writing trick!

THIS. when i write i think about my paragraph breaks/sentence length all the time, first time i encountered this kind of advice was this quote which has stuck with me for years since:

anyway i really like your advice/demonstration on just how effective pacing can be if you manipulate it well - it’s really great for this kind of writing style, especially if you want to get up close and personal with whatever POV you’re writing in, to feel how the character feels through the rhythm of how they’re experiencing the moment

everyone has a ship thats just: theyre perfect. they hate each other. theyre married. they havent spoken in 15 years. they have date nights three times a week. theyre divorced. theyre pining, its unrequited. its requited. theyre starcrossed. theyre meant to be. theyre doomed by the narrative. they love each other. theyve never held hands. they wont stop making out at parties. they cant look each other in the eye

tbh the best way that i explain to other people what it feels like to live with an anxiety disorder is the one time when i had to get a fingerprint and background check done for a job and i, someone who has never received so much as a speeding ticket my whole life, spent thirty minutes panicking that i would fail because i might secretly be a criminal and have no idea 

Op is denying us the fucking golden replies to this tweet omg
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rnlaing

When i had breast reduction surgery, i got into the OR and got put on this table that looked like a flat crucifix (arms out so they could get to the girls), and i said ‘god, don’t nail me down’

they put the mask on my face and the nurse said ‘no jesus treatment today’

and the last thing i said to her was ‘jesus with some big ass titties’ and then passed out. 

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Post complete. We can all go home now