Latest Posts by briashard - Page 8

Oh hey btw: If you're starting your second draft of something and you're having a hard time editing out the useless fluff that doesn't lead the story anywhere, consider changing tactics: Condense, don't cut.

"Kill your darlings" is bullshit, you shouldn't throw out things that spark joy, just put them into good use or somewhere they're not in the way. Combine scenes, characters and locations. You've got two beloved but unimportant background characters with only a vague scraping role in the story? Combine them. Have just one, who now has the traits, speaking lines and the role of both of them.

You've got a Super Important But Boring scene, and a scene that doesn't progress the story but was basically just you indulging in describing a wonderful location? Combine them. Have the characters have that Super Important Conversation in the pretty rose garden or the lovely bookshop you wanted to include.

You've got two really cool locations that are in the same city but both only show up once, and it feels like a waste to indulge in describing them in detail? Combine them. The smoky tavern and the smoky witch's brew shop are now working out of the same building - the witch and the tavern keeper are now married.

If you feel like you have too much description or too many characters, don't throw anything out before you've checked if you have an empty shelf to put them in. Give the Cool Character Description to a previously nondescript character who only shows up to tell the protagonist the One Important Thing. Make the Cool Location You Described For Three Pages But Which Only Shows Up Once show up again later.

How does it feel to be the most galaxy brained person on the group therapy website

The Author's Darling

So I follow a lot of people who post a lot about OC/self-insert positivity. And that's genuinely great. I love people's OCs and self-inserts. But occasionally, I will see someone, in an attempt to Defend The Honour of OCs and self-inserts, defend a particular kind of writing mistake. And that pisses me off, because it does everyone a disservice.

There are plenty of people who write OCs and self-inserts who do not make this writing mistake, and equating the two is unfair to every OC writer who works hard at their craft. There are also plenty of people who write canon-character-only fanfic or original fic who do make this mistake-- and that hurts both them and their potential readers.

The mistake I'm talking about? Writing a sort of character I'm going to call an Author's Darling.

I'm going to talk about what Author's Darlings are, why they're bad, how you can avoid writing one, and what an Author's Darling isn't. I put a cut in this post, because it's long.

What is an Author's Darling?

An Author's Darling is a character who cannot fail at anything that matters to the author of their story.

What this looks like in practice depends on the author-- different authors prioritize different things. Some authors think their Darling should be stone-cold badasses and never lose a fight. other authors are fine with their Darlings getting knocked out every time they try to throw a punch, but would be very upset if their Darling got rejected romantically.

Plenty of characters succeed at most things they try. Superman wins most of the fights he takes on, but he's not necessarily a Darling. But if you look at a character and you can say, "oh, this character would never lose a fight", or "everyone loves this character and would never get mad at them"? You've got an Author's Darling on your hands.

And- especially in fandom- a character can be a Darling in the hands of one author and a perfectly fine character in the hands of another. Steve Rogers/Captain America is an example of a character who gets Darling-ified a lot. Captain America is supposed to be a shining example of The Best that humanity has to offer- he's virtuous, strong, brave, and oh so pretty. It's easy to fall into the trap of making him incapable of failing at whatever you want him to do, whether that's "punching a lot of Nazis" or "supporting Bucky in his recovery". But a lot of writers manage to thread the needle and write Cap as the lovable, flawed person he's supposed to be.

Why are Author's Darlings bad?

Well, two reasons:

Writing an Author's Darling is a really good way to give yourself writer's block, especially when it comes to the plot. If your character can't fail at anything important, this means that it's really hard to build tension. If your character is going to automatically succeed at anything that's important to the plot, all you're writing is "and then they win, and then they win, and then they win". It can get pretty monotonous pretty quickly, especially if you're writing genre fiction. You can run out of ideas, or your inner critic can go "this isn't how stories work???? the FUCK???" and block your creative flow. If your character can't fail at anything- important or not- it's hard to come up with a good story for them at all. You know how sometimes you get a character rattling around your head but you can't get a plot for them at all? One of the first steps in fixing that is making sure you're not writing an Author's Darling.

Writing an Author's Darling makes people not want to read your work. Now, look. I know everyone says "you should write for yourself, and screw anyone who says otherwise!" But let's be honest here: it sucks to spend hours working on a piece of writing, post it, and then get, like, 2 hits and no kudos, or 1 tumblr like from your friend who likes everything that crosses their dash. It's incredibly demoralizing. Author's Darlings are one of the big factors that make people stop reading a story. As soon as a reader gets the sense that the protagonist can't screw up- that they're "too perfect"- the tension in the story is gone. There's no reason for them to keep reading, because they know the character's just going to Press The Win Button And Win. So they'll click out without saying anything, and you'll wonder why no one's reading your fic.

What isn't an Author's Darling?

This section is haunted by the ghost of Mary Sue. If you're reading this list and you're new to fandom/young, you might wonder why I'm calling out certain specific things; this is a fandom war you missed, don't worry about it.

An Author's Darling is not a character of any specific gender. Male, female, and nonbinary characters can all be Author's Darlings.

An Author's Darling is not necessarily an OC. In the current fandom climate, it's way more likely that a Darling will be a 35-year-old canon male character the writer calls "babygirl".

An Author's Darling is not necessarily a self-insert, but it's really easy to make a self-insert into a Darling. There's a reason people recommend that newbie writers avoid self-inserts- it can be really hard to write a character based on yourself that screws up something important. It takes a lot of vulnerability and courage to write, and it's not something you want to show everyone.

An Author's Darling is not an "overpowered" character or a "cool" character. Your character can have sixteen katanas and do air dashes and still not be a Darling- and your character can be a powerless human in a superhero setting and be the biggest Darling to ever Darling. Having "too many" powers or standing out "too much" in the setting is often a symptom of a Darling- if you don't want your character to fail at anything important, and being The Coolest Person In The Room is important to you, you're going to make your Darling overpowered and good at everything. But it's not the thing that makes an Author's Darling bad.

An Author's Darling is not a 'perfect' character, or a character without flaws. There's a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram, don't get me wrong... but you can load up a character with "flaws" that don't matter to you. A lot of dudebro male writers, for example, will make their Darlings emotionally constipated, mean, and Bad At Relationships. These genuinely are character flaws... but these writers don't give a flying fuck about the character's relationships. They're happy to let their Darling fail at this stuff to prove he's FLAWED!!!- but try and make them write a fight scene their Darling loses, and they'll break out in hives.

Why should I care? Writing is supposed to be fun, and writing characters failing is not fun for me.

Writing is a craft. It is no different from knitting a sweater, making a stop-motion film, or trimming a bonsai. There are ways to do it well, and there are ways to do it poorly.

It can be fun and rewarding to knit a shitty sock with holes in the heel where you forgot how the pattern works and weird lumps in the calf. It is more fun and rewarding to get good enough at knitting that you knit socks you can wear.

Similarly, it can be fun and rewarding to deliberately write stories about overpowered Author's Darlings that are boring to read for anyone who isn't you. But it is more fun and rewarding to get good enough at writing that you write stories other people will want to read.

And you know, maybe you don't care about that. Everyone needs a hobby that they're bad at and have no interest in getting better at; it keeps you humble. Maybe writing is yours.

But plenty of writers do care. And tarring every writer who writes OCs and self-inserts with the same brush- the brush of "this is supposed to be fun! we're writing deliberately bad things! yay!"- is an insult to anyone who writes OCs and cares about their craft.

If you want to write well, you should be aware of what an Author's Darling is, and if possible, you should try to avoid writing them. If you don't care about writing well, that's fine- but please avoid implying that every OC or self-insert character is badly written in this particular way.

I really do think an important component of activism is to make sure your motivation is based on a desire to help/improve things for the people being harmed by a system, and not hatred for the ones doing the harm. both for mental health reasons, and because either way you're training your neural pathways and it's gonna turn out a lot better for literally everyone if the question on everyone's mind after achieving a goal is "how/which people can we help next, what's the next step for improving things" and not "who do we need to attack next."

I'm not saying don't be angry, there are a lot of good reasons to be angry right now and it makes for an excellent kick in the pants, just don't define yourself by it or it's gonna poison you and potentially do collateral damage.

Are you currently published or publishing a novel in 2023? Are you a writeblr or active writer on tumblr?

Hey everyone! I want to dedicate two months in 2023 to reviewing the published works of indie and self-published authors of tumblr. The current state of the publishing industry frustrates me as both a consumer and future author, but I see the imaginative works of so many fellow writers through this app and hope that we can collectively shine a spotlight on the talent showcased here. My reviews will be posted across social media platforms and shared on all major book review sites (like Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Indigo).

I do not want free ARCs or copies of your work. I personally believe it’s important for us to increase the book sales of smaller, debut authors so they can find a larger audience. I will pay for all of my copies, as I have the means to do so.

I do want you to please reblog this post and share the title, link, genre, and description of the book you have published or will be publishing in 2023.

Feel free to use or adjust the below sample template, or respond with your own.

Please reblog and boost!

Author name:

Relevant social media: (any social media you would want potential readers to seek out)

Book title:

Genre:

Word count:

Summary:

Trigger warnings:

Publication date: (if known)

Are you existing in a depression nest right now?

Checking in on my depression nest buddies out there. If you're currently burrito-ed in bed or peeking out of the blankets like a couch goblin, keeping up with the mess is probably the last thing you want to do. However, if you can muster up a tiny bit of energy for a few minutes, taking care of your immediate environment or yourself a little really can make such a difference. Can you try one, part of one, or more than one of these?

Clear some dishes/trash from the immediate area

Take a shower and/or change your clothes

Clear some stuff off the nearest flat surface (nightstand/coffee table/etc.)

Change out your bedding

Put 5 things near you away

Eat something and have some water

If you can only do one or a small part of one, that's great! Every little bit helps you get through and makes things easier on yourself once you're coming out of it. Be kind to yourself and remember that taking care of yourself is important and worthwhile.

A really important concept to grasp is that just doing to smallest thing you can will help.

Need to change and wash your sheets but you can’t being yourself to do it? Just change the pillowcases. Just make the bed. Just wiping off the crumbs is enough.

Need to read a paper and do a write up? Just read the paper. Just listen to the paper through a screen reader. Just skim the sections and the first line. Just read the abstract.

Need to clean a mountain of dirty dishes? Just clean the big things. Just soak the things that need to be soaked. Just gather all the dishes into the sink.

The real key here is that you might just get that one small thing done, but likely what will happen is you’ll finish it and realize ‘hey that wasn’t so bad, I’m already here, what else can I do?’ And you’ll end up finishing the task.

But again, even if you just do the one small thing, that’s worth celebrating, it’s worth being proud of, because it was hard, but you did it. Sleeping in dirty sheets is better than sleeping on dirty sheets with crumbs. Reading the abstract is better than reading nothing, and gathering the dishes is better than leaving them out.

reminder that it's never too late in the day to do something nice for yourself!!

couldn't get out of bed until 5pm? that's okay! there's still time to make yourself a nice meal or drink!

too stuck in executive dysfunction to do anything you wanted until 7pm? that's okay!! you can still start!!

sometimes it can be difficult to do things until later on in the day and that's okay!! you're still allowed to do something nice for yourself, no matter how late it is <3

Liz Fosslien  

Crazyheadcomics

guys we’re not being cringe to keep out the twitter users. we’re being cringe to keep out the ALGORITHMS, the CAPITALISTS, the INFLUENCERS. twitter users are welcome as long as they agree this site is UNMARKETABLE

(via zu2ym6d86r0a1.jpg (JPEG Image, 1132 × 992 pixels))

i hope you did at least one thing for yourself today. whether that's brushing your teeth, drinking a nice cup of tea, taking a break to listen to your favorite song or reading your favorite poem. it doesn't have to be grand to be meaningful. it is so important to stay close to what brings you joy and purpose in life. ❤️

STOP SCROLLING!

You are doing such a good job handling all of the difficulties in your life! You are handling things way better than you think you are. You are here today. Give yourself credit for that.

That’s it. I just wanted to let you know that. You can continue your scrolling now🍀🕊

“Thoughts on one of the hardest things: banishing the imagined bad faith reader from your writing process” by Melissa Febos on Twitter is hitting really hard today.

I know so much of the pre-election messaging is like VOTE!!! VOTE!!! IF YOU DON’T VOTE YOU’RE A MONSTER!! and that can get tiring after so many elections. So I want to take a moment after this election to say: so many of you clearly did get out and vote, despite not always having the most inspiring options, and with SO much on the line 18-29 year olds specifically helped win some of the most important and impactful races across America. So from one of the many “just vote” scolds on the internet: thank you!!

wish list for people who don’t want anything

aka possessions which are just possessions, but which have noticeably improved my quality of life: for when people ask you “what do you want for your birthday/Christmas/graduation” and you instantly transform into St Francis and pledge fealty to Lady Poverty because your mind went blank

nice. new. sheets. I cannot emphasize this one enough. if you’re still using the same sheets you had in college, you should probably get new ones. get yourself some 100% bamboo rayon sheets—they’re silky and perfect for summer and great for sensitive skin! or, if you’re cold all the time, flannel sheets!

kitchen knives. or even just one really good kitchen knife.

new curtains—blackout if you are a creature of the night like I am

fleece lined anything, but especially sweatpants and hoodies. wool lined socks are also good. if you don’t have the option of coming home after work and putting on an entire outfit that is loose and fuzzy, you should change that, because you deserve that option.

cookie sheets with a layer of air between the top and the bottom. the bottoms of your cookies will never burn again.

kitchen scale!!! no more leveling off flour with a knife and getting it all over the table!! now all your measuring is just shoveling stuff in and out of bowls like you’re at the beach. baking is both more accurate and also way more fun.

coffee bean grinder. if you want to upgrade your coffee experience, this is a great one-time purchase. just-ground beans have a much better flavor than pre-ground.

CDs!! ask for a gift card and expand your physical music collection! or a collection of the DVDs for your favorite show!

forgot to post this here but i was messing around trying to find a good inking style so enjoy a nightwing headshot <3

also feel free if you want to color it just tag and credit me as the ink

Attempting to get my students to fucking come to class

Sometimes when you've been sad or in pain for too long, you get used to it. And after a while, when you're no longer in that state, you have no idea how to deal with yourself. You might even miss the sense of self you had before. In such times, ask yourself to be strong. Do not give in to the past for the sake of habit. Make being happy your new normal.

Hey

If your anxiety, depression, or executive dysfunction is making you scroll endlessly on your phone or laptop

Stop

It’s okay, I’m not mad. It happens to everybody sometimes. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? But it’s time to get up now.

Don’t worry! You don’t have to do that

One Thing,

just get yourself a glass of water for now, or brush your teeth, or pet a cat.

After you’ve done that, maybe you could make yourself a nice cocoa, or open a window. If you’re feeling really crazy you might finish a homework problem, or respond to an e-mail, or wash a dish.

But no matter what, if you get up then you’re moving forward, and I’m

super proud of you!

I know you’re having a difficult time, but I’m really glad you’ve made it this far, and I love you!

Have a nice day my friend, I’ll see you soon, but right now it’s time for you to get up.

Hey I challenge you, if you’ve been struggling with something physical, trouble at work, relationship complications etc, give yourself the night off. I’ve titled myself your friendly manager and this is your approved time off. You have the night to not think of or acknowledge those things. Just be you, be at peace, get some rest, eat some food. Have a night for just you and your thoughts

Reblog to put one of these in your mutuals’ pocket when they’re not looking

Reblog to give the person you reblogged it from the energy to do one (1) chore or maybe many

namratazakaria

Unfortunately this is a time to figure out who gets to have a relationship with you or not. I encourage y'all to talk to your partners or people you've been interested in about roe v wade and bodily autonomy rights if you haven't already. If they don't support roe v wade, then they don't support you.

I'd like to remind everyone that seeing such a radical push towards the right and towards facism is a sign of fear. 60% of the US wants abortion rights, many Russians don't want war with Ukraine, I'd like to think all people in the UK want to be able to critique their government. We have the numbers on our side and the next generation is much more progressive and the people in power know this but they're hoping we tear each other apart before we see this. We're going in the right direction, the government just doesn't reflect this and if anything is trying to combat it.