A Writing Cheat Sheet: for linking actions with emotions.
As always, click for HD.
HEY, Romance Writers!
A few followers have asked for tips on writing romance into their stories or as the basis of their stories. Here’s a masterlist of sources (below cut) that may help.
General Romance:
Intercultural Romance:
Bad Romance:
General Tips for Writing Characters Love Interests:
Relationships in General:
Stereotypes, Archetypes, & Tropes:
Other Resource Lists
Does anybody else get legitimately worried when a fanfic author who was updating regularly just suddenly disappears with no warning? Like, is it a serious case of writers block or are they in a coma? Did they just up and quit? Was it me? Were my reviews not good enough?! Did they die 😳?! Were they kidnapped? Do I need to file a missing persons report? Excuse me officer, there’s been 13 weekly updates and now nothing for months! Find them! What’s their name?! Name!? I don’t know their name but they write 3k+ chapters and I need them safe and back in my life!
naughtylupine
Sir, that’s my emotional support fanfic author.
Officer: i’m sorry, but you can’t file this person missing.
Me: you don’t have all the facts.
Officer: which are?
Me: i love them.
So, painful story, but I’ve really needed to tell it for a while.
My best friend, the woman I loved for 13 years, was a fic writer in the middle of an especially long piece. She updated on a schedule and had for years. She had a small, but loyal following.
And then she died out of nowhere. One day we were laughing, the next she was in a coma, 3 days later she was dead. She hadn’t been ill and to this day we don’t know what took her. She was just gone.
I knew she had friends all over the world so I went into her email to see if I could find addresses and notify people after a week of blind grief. In her inbox were about a dozen concerned messages from her readers. I cried. I cried and cried and I responded to all of them, telling people she had passed.
And the messages kept coming. Those people spread the word and message after message came in, most of them addressed to me now, as I had given those original readers my contact info. There were words of comfort and grief and just every emotion imaginable in that scenario. I wrote back to them all, thanking them and comforting them.
For months after she died, during the worst of my grief, I had those messages. I had those people. And they had me. I really think I might not have made it to the other side without them.
So, the fact that you care? That you think of them? That these authors who became a presence in your world are missed when they aren’t there? It means something very real. On the off chance that the author did die? Anyone who has seen this post will find comfort during the loss of their friend or family member, knowing that you all exist. That they aren’t alone. That you CARE that the world now lacks their loved one.
So, yeah. I’ve seen this post and ones like it for years and wanted to share this story. I finally could today.
Thank you, every person who reblogged this post. People like you are the biggest reason I’m alive today.
Source: crowzley
Writing a fic ‘late’ in a fandom is OK.
What is ‘late in a fandom’? It’s after the first heady flush of media excitement. Six months after the standalone movie or book comes out, a year or more after the series ends.
We get inspired by late canon: the behind-the-scenes book, the deleted scenes, a revealing creator interview. We get inspired by fanon and meta. We get talking to that one - one! - person who likes our ideas.
Sometimes a fic even needs to be written late in the fandom. After thinking and creative ferment, worldbuilding and character development. ‘Late to the fandom’ is a good time to take risks. To do the dark AU, focus on the minor character from stage left. It’s also a good time to offer up tropetastic fun.
Whatever you do, you will get readers who appreciate that you are writing. Because for every writer considering writing ‘late’ there’s a hundred fandom members wanting some fresh content.
Writing a fic ‘late’ in a fandom is OK.
Fanfiction isn’t written for you, it’s shared with you.
captainarwenpond221b
BLESS THIS POST
theartofforensics
[words to read and write by]
lordhellebore
Everyone needs to remember this - writers as well. It’s okay to just write whatever you actually like and not write what people want you to.
Commenting fanfiction is the easiest thing in the world once you start doing it.
I leave a comment on every single fic I read. Sometimes when I read published books I go and leave a comment somewhere the author can find it. Granted, I literally majored in ‘leaving comments on fics’ (English Education), but once you start doing it it just becomes second nature. Now you’re gonna go to the Ozymandias school of leaving comments:
Problem: I can’t leave kudos again.
Beginner: This is a second/third/fourth Kudos
Advanced: This is my second/third/fortieth time reading this, I still love it so much. Here are a few new things I noticed. I like the way you personally do x, y, z compared to other authors I’ve read (in this ship/genre/fandom).
Problem: I don’t know what to say :(
Beginner: Just list what you did to read this fic. “I stayed up late reading this”, “I read this on a crowded train”, “this kept me company while sick”.
Advanced: X,Y,Z parts made me get butterflies, and I had a physical reaction to this part of the story, I squealed outloud when characters did x,y,z. I blushed at this part. I laughed out loud here. Whatever.
Problem: I’m embarrassed to leave a comment (what if I annoy the author?)
Beginner: Short answer: you won’t EVER annoy the author (unless you’re needlessly mean) But to start, be generic, you don’t have to spill your soul in the comments section. “I liked this” “I enjoyed reading this” “nice fic”.
Advanced: This really meant a lot to me that you wrote this. This is something I feel like I’ve always wanted to read. This fic hit me in all the right places. Etc.
Problem: I don’t know how to express myself/my experience
Beginner: My beginners go to is to highlight a line, put that in your comment and say “i liked this” or to identify basic emotions you had while reading and comment those “this made me happy” “this part made me sad” “i almost cried” “you made me laugh” Advanced: “Highlighted line” This line made me smile because it has to do with character development/it’s really romantic/it’s so unique/it’s moving. Sometimes I don’t highlight a line at all, I just talk about the stuff I’ve noticed were unique to the fic. “I love the way you did this particular thing with this character”.
This? This is an amazing post. This is the Captain Awkward of commenting posts—it addresses all your fears directly and gives you actionable scripts for each one.
One of my readers always leaves a string of hearts as a comment. That’s good! That’s enough!! Just fucking comment!!!
types of fic titles
- title is a literal description of the story (”5 times x did y”, “first kiss”, etc)
- perfect formatting, title is evocative of the story’s main themes
- song lyrics
- 3 feet long all lowercase (overlaps w/ song lyrics)
- one word. only one.
- title seemingly has nothing to do w/ the content of the story until it gets dropped during a high-tension dramatic scene 70k words in, making you feel like the world meant for you to be born in time to read it
This is ‘really bad pun’ erasure!!!
If you can’t think of anything to say about a fic, writers also like to know:
- what time it is
- how long you’ve been reading
- how many chapters you’ve covered in the last 24 hours
- what you were late for because you were reading
- the woeful few hours you have left to sleep
- the emotional outbreaks you’re experiencing
- the inappropriate place you’re having said outbreak
- the general public’s reaction to your outbreak
- how much phone battery you have left
I’ve had the joy of quite a few of these comments! I love them!
[Image Description: Tags reading “fight with linens, you trying getting a fitted sheet on a bed when you’re gay and useless”]
The AO3 Tag of the Day is: Fitted sheets are homophobic
Yes, please Paul. We need this in our lives.
How the sweet hell do we make this happen. I would watch ten hours of these dorks. How do we help you do this Ghost Dad???
Ghostbusting Girlfriends
There is no heteronormative explanation for a photo shoot of just these two.
Something I think is neat and really cute about fanfic is that there’s a personal version of each character in it? Like, each writer focuses on different traits and qualities and even though there can be a hundred fics with the same character, they’re really not exactly the same.
So even if you and I are writing a fic with the same characters, they can still be uniquely different despite having the same core and they’re each dear to us personally as our take on the person.
I don’t know, I just think it’s cute that each writer cherishes these characters in personal and unique ways.
This is the heart of the Two Cakes rule
It really is.
What’s more, every reader who’s read more than one version of a character has their internal perception of that character enriched by the versions of that character written by those authors.
And those are the result of every version of the character in every fic the authors have read.
It’s a massive progression towards complexity and realism for the character in the minds of the storytellers.
In a way, it’s Infinite Cakes.
i want to write the kind of short stories you read in english class that are on this weird level of surrealism that they still haunt you years down the road
Me when I heard they’re doing another Ghostbusters:
Me once I realized it’s based off the original, not the all woman reboot:
so do you have any specific thoughts about Useless Lesbian Abby, because if you do I'd love to hear absolutely all of them
okay so Abby is both Useless and REALLY BAD WITH FEELINGS and I can’t really pick apart which one makes her do what so I’m just going to list my most recent headcanons.
Times when Abby would specifically be a useless lesbian would be:
- when Erin happily pops up at her side and kisses Abby on the cheek
- because she Can because they’re Dating and that is super awesome in Erin’s book
- Abby’s brain stutters and there’s a pause in what she’s doing. Every. Time.
- (Erin figures this out and starts doing things to trigger this reaction on purpose which is bad because it means things escalate from cheek kisses to Erin actually sucking on her earlobe??? and !!! ffs Erin you can’t do that! especially when Abby’s got screwdriver out trying to tweak the ghost trap)
I am positive Abby’s brain stalls out the first time Holtz slung her arm around her or kissed her cheek because Holtz shows affection at random and with no clearly defined boundaries or purpose so Abby never has any idea what Holtz means by these gestures
- because Erin was just being a gushy friend (*cough* obliviously queer *cough*) but Holtz definitely likes girls so…???
she’d ask but Holtz just kind of stares at you blankly over these kinds of questions because she’s not entirely sure what you’re asking and she definitely doesn’t know how to verbalize what she’s feeling so she just… doesn’t.
Holtz says “we’re dating” to someone one day when they ask about her and Abby and Abby’s like ‘uh okay’ and rolls with it.
- she still doesn’t ask for clarification or initiate anything herself because Holtz has boundaries Abby can’t really read so it just seems best let Holtz set all the rules
- (…yeah… let the person who can’t wrap their head around society’s nonsensical rules and unspoken guidelines… set the rules of your relationship…… I did mention Abby is super bad with feelings, right?)
Sometimes that box of feels Abby keeps buried deep inside cracks open in the middle of the night and she spends too many hours obsessing over whether she has a girlfriend or a friend. But by morning the feels are locked away in a new box and she just Carries On with things.
There’s finally some communication between Abby and Holtz when Erin and Patty come into the picture because it is very obvious very quickly that Holtz is gaga for Patty.
- “so are you… so then are we…?”
- Holtz has a brief panic “ARE WE BREAKING UP BECAUSE I LIKE PATTY?” D:
They get it straightened out. Their relationship is exactly what it’s always been and they are dating.
- Though it doesn’t really look like dating to some people
- like Erin. Erin is really Bothered by them saying they’re dating.
Abby is cool with Holtz and Patty. Patty is cool with Holtz and Abby once things are explained to her.
Erin is very much Team That’s Not What Dating Means
- goddamn grammar nerd over there (for very good reasons given her history with people not believing what she says but still)
It takes her a long-ass time to accept that ‘dating’ can be defined literally however you want to define it.
also turns out she was more bothered by the idea of Abby dating someone than their definition of dating
- partially because she’s left out of this whole ‘they’re all dating each other thing’ – hello middle school flashbacks
- but mostly because it makes her feel less important to Abby and she very much wants to be Important to Abby because HAHA guess what Erin has romantic feelings for her
- “say wut”
Abby’s mind completely goes blank when she hears Erin confess this.
- Seriously it’s just crickets in there. Because Erin, her best friend in the entire world, the super, 100%, always had crushes on asshole boys, heterosexual friend that she’s basically been in love with since they were sixteen years old – is suddenly saying she has romantic feelings for her
- *crickets chirping*
It takes a long-ass time for Abby to wrap her head around that one. It takes even longer for her to stop being so damn affected by Erin’s casual romantic touches and gestures
U S E L E S S L E S B I A N A B B Y Y A T E S
Ghost Rap Celebration: A Study
(aka Abby Yates and Erin Gilbert are super gay for each other part 2/?)
Abby and Erin are psyched they remembered every word and choreography to their old high school presentation. During the clapping and cheering, Erin moves closer to Abby, arms out, and then she reaches for her –
*reaches*
– like she’s got too many feelings for her physical self to handle alone and she needs to touch Abby to know that she’s right there with her in that moment
Abby immediately meets her hands like it’s the most natural thing in the world and can you even imagine the number of times they held hands over the years??? can you????? ugh
Then Abby makes things 10,000% worse by curling her fingers and actually clasping Erin’s hands
@ god why
Erin continues to move closer because she’s still caught up in the feeling of triumph and Happy. Abby loves it until her heart starts thumping like a jackrabbit because Too Close! Too Close! Face-to-Face and far too Close while holding hands! MISTAKE!!
And she retreats away again. Resumes the happy clapping as if it will cover the sound of her pounding heart while internally FREAKING OUT like ‘did she notice? She didn’t notice. It’s cool, we’re good. This is just friends stuff. Erin didn’t notice anything else. Everything’s cool.’ And she’s half relieved, half gutted by that, and half pissed at herself for even still being in this battle of feels. (but Erin remembered their entire presentation!!! how can Abby not still be in love with her????)
In conclusion: Abby and Erin – painfully and cluelessly (respectively) in love with each other since 1990.
Bonus:
Holtz totally caught that gay shit
She caught it and she’s really happy about it
*now kiss*