How To Write: Ethnicity & Skin Colour

Um…

Hey all! Becky here with a quick reminder that we do accept and post story submissions. We mods aren’t just promoting our own writing but others as well. The only major requirement is that you have a specific inspiration for your story or snippet and that you duly credit it in your submission. Check out our submission page for more info. Thanks for all your support so far and here’s to more great stories.

Helpful and Preventative Stretches for Writers, Artists, and Gamers 💪🎨✍🎮

If you type, write, draw, game, or generally use your hands a lot (especially if you’re prone to RSI or Carpal Tunnel!) try these stretches as both a preventative measure, and on the spot relief. Take care of yourself and your body, friends!

Start with hands up, fingers stretched out.  Stretch your thumb as far as you can over your palm. Hold and repeat 4 times.

Touch each finger to your thumb. Hold each for 30 seconds. Repeat on each hand 4 times.

Start with a fist. Open half way, hold for 2 seconds. Stretch fingers out, hold for 2 seconds. Repeat 4 times.

Start with one arm out, palm up. Pull your fingers back with your other hand. Hold for 10 seconds. Do the same with your other hand. Repeat 4 times

Start with arms up, palms out. Bend wrists down until you feel the stretch, but keep your fingers loose. Hold 10 seconds. Bend wrist upwards, until you feel it in your wrist and arm. Hold 10 seconds. Repeat 4 times.

friendly reminder that it’s okay to leave fandoms

friendly reminder that it’s okay to not be as obsessed as other fans

friendly reminder that it’s okay to like things casually, you can like a book/movie/show and never talk about it, it doesn’t mean you liked it any less

friendly reminder that books/movies/shows can inspire original stories and artwork and new hobbies as well as fanart and fic and fandom related hobbies and it is 100% okay to steal parts of a story and make it yours

friendly reminder that you can be any kind of fan you want, including not outwardly looking like a fan

how to trick writers into giving you more fanfic to read

For those of you who thought you couldn't write sex scenes. I promise, very little could beat these. (Worst part is my professor read these out to us in class.)

Bad sex award 2015: the contenders in quotes

Eight purple passages are up for the prize every author dreads, the annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award. Can Erica Jong beat Morrissey to the sweetspot?

Hahahahaha Morrissey I had no clue breasts could barrel-roll. This is some next level hentai shit.

I try not to post commissions on my main, because I know they aren't writing related, but look at the art my friend did!!

I'm so in love with how it turned out and so excited to run her in this campaign. My poor little, spicy firebender and cute little spark, Aki.

Thank you so, so much. This is my background and it's not changing anytime soon.

Please commission my friend! She's amazing and kind and awesome!

Got the honor of doing this little spicy fireflake for a DnD, ATLA themed. I present, Kyoko and her little fren Aki, from the Fire Nation! Thank you noodle, for supporting me. She was fun and I learned some things.

I still have commission openings if anyone is interested!

Kyoko and Aki belong to @sinedra

The first rule of writing is hoard notebooks

hoo boy, here comes some serious talk about fandom mentality.

I feel like there’s a huge failing on readers’ parts to communicate to fic authors how much they appreciate their works or how much it affects them, unless the fic is “fandom famous” for some reason. sometimes it gets translated into demands (which are awful literally do not demand updates from an author ever).

more often than not, it gets translated into silence, and coming from a writer, the silence is probably the worst. you never know if they like it, you never know what the reader actually thinks about it. or even if they read it at all. and it’s… heartwrenching, and nervewracking and you start constantly questioning yourself and wondering if you’re actually good enough or if you belong. and you start comparing yourself. to the people who are popular, to the people with huge followings, to the people who get questions and art and compliments up the wazoo. and you start wondering if you should have bothered writing at all. in some cases you start begging. and in some cases, you do worse.

and it’s terrible. a writer shouldn’t have to beg. a writer shouldn’t have to only get attention when they’re frustrated or upset. a writer shouldn’t have to doubt themselves every time they pick up a pen or open their laptop. a writer should never feel so unimportant that they consider deleting their work–and do. and then be subjected to questions of why they deleted it.

(which, by the way, is kind of a rude thing to do. it’s their content, and they can do with it whatever makes them comfortable. and more than that–why wait until it’s gone to just suddenly unleash your appreciation for it?)

if, at this point, you are thinking, “well, writers shouldn’t write for attention anyway! writers should be writing for themselves!” then you are missing a Very Huge Point about the intricacies of and emotions behind creating art. of course art comes from the self, but art is meant to be shared. with people. like you. art is created for people to talk back to, to engage with, to live alongside–and yes, that in turn bolsters the creator’s own securities and motivation. it’s also a sad testament to the fact that we as a people have come to condemn the notion that anyone, especially content creators, should want attention at all.

and that’s toxic, and an awful mentality to have. (it’s also atrocious marketing. but, that’s another discussion for another time.)

what I’m trying to say here is this: a lot of this could be prevented by one simple thing. if you read a fic you like, *speak up about it.* make some kind of sign. about whether you like somebody’s work, or whether it excites you. reblog it to share with other people, gush in the tags, leave a comment/review if it’s on ao3 or ffn. (authors read tags as much as artists do, trust me.) kudos and likes are fine too, but like with any other kind of art, they’re very invisible. be vocal, y'all. spread the love.

and above all, *tell the author directly.* send them an ask, write a comment, tag them in an appreciation post. I can’t stress that enough. you’d be making someone’s day, relieving some securities, visible or not, instead of being complacent in this system, this mass way of thinking, that only popular writers deserve attention, that it has to be earned through working yourself raw instead of asked for. it causes these cliques and hierarchies and ultimately people start or keep maintaining this idea that people who are at the top deserve to be at the top, and people who get ignored deserve to be ignored. (which I have, in fact, heard people say, and that’s… I don’t even have a word for that.)

I just. something has to give, you guys. we have to stop doing this. we have to stop letting this happen. we have to be kind to our writers before they disappear.

and yes, you can reblog this post. in fact, I’d highly encourage it.

WHAT TO DO AFTER FINISHING A FIRST DRAFT.

Revise a different draft.

Write a new piece.

Read a craft article. (LitReactor.com is pretty good!)

Read a short story or book.

WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T DO AFTER FINISHING A FIRST DRAFT.

Revise it.

WHY NOT?

You have to be as detached from a draft as you possibly can when you polish it. You have to be able to trim the fat from your baby and take out all those words, sentences and fragments that are stopping it from being a great story. I’m sure those words you used are beautiful and they sound amazing, but if they’re stalling the plot they have to go.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT TO KEEP AND WHAT TO THROW AWAY?

Read! The best way to know what a perfectly paced story is like is to read one. There’s no black-and-white, two-plus-two way to answer this, but this is what works for me:

Avoid adverbs, those words that tend to end in -ly.

Keep descriptions to a minimum. People are interested in your story. If they want to see what a place or person is like they go to Google images. If they come to you it’s because they want to be entertained.

Change passive voice sentences to subject-verb-complement sentences. You will get the same idea across in less words.

FINAL TIP

Try not to make changes on your first pass! If your word processor has a comment function use that to write the changes you need to make. If you read and edit at the same time you’ll be doing two things at once and you’ll get tired much quicker.

FINAL FINAL TIP

Enjoy yourself! You’re an artist. Write and revise for yourself. Love it.