I Don't Cry Very Often, Like I Genuinely Don't Remember The Last Time I Cried, But I Have Dealt With

You’re the villain and you know that, you just want the ‘good guys’ to understand why.

scavenger hunting

i’ve started to think about ao3 audience interaction as kinda comparable to doing a live reading in an intimate little bookstore, like kudos are everybody who stayed til the end and applauded, comments are everybody who waited to come up to talk to you afterwards, and bookmark comments are the little snatches of conversation you overhear outside.

this helps me feel better/less anxious about responding to comments with some form of thanks, because if someone walked up to me in person and said they liked my work right after reading it, i would compulsively say thanks. it also helps contextualize audience size in a healthy way i think, bc most of us naturally crave more attention on our fic, but if we were actually in the room with even like 20 people applauding and five people waiting after to tell us how awesome we are we’d be fuckin elated.  

this sounds really basic to say but i really love how cc!bad roleplays his character's flaws. a lot of qsmp characters have flaws that are born out of miscommunication or bad decisions, and qbad also has a good majority of those, but he also has so many flaws that are just very deliberate on the cc's end. and that's because these flaws firmly place him outside of cc!bad and into q!bad.

and it is SO important that cc!bad does this because he's made his character this powerful, ancient demon whos also strong/rich (i.e, his streamer plays minecraft well) and a heavy island investigator. it s so easy to make a character like that unfairly overpowered if all he does is choose the "correct" paths. aka what the chat wants him to do. what you or me would realistically choose to do.

so to compensate cc!bad makes his character messy! he doesnt choose the right path! he's terrible at communicating, he represses all his feelings, he lies all the time (mostly to his own detriment), he's horribly blunt, he cannot understand human morals, he's suspicious of everyone and acts suspicious himself, etc etc. there will be times where you're staring at your screen just wanting him to be open for once, and he won't be. and it'll hurt him. and that's good. even the little things, like how cc!bad will have q!bad overanalyze and overtheorize to figure out something that has definitely been spoiled for him on twitter...its all good roleplaying. cc!bad is only able to have a character strong enough to destroy cities if he has THIS many flaws as compensation.

I care about you. Just so you know.

Please do not abuse the anon function to say kind things to me.

Anon is for hurling abuse, insults and degrading remarks about my anatomy. By saying kind things you have revealed that you are in fact a plant, bot or fake account from which I have sent this message to myself to make me feel better.

Giving this website full of autistics obsessed with ranking and categorising stuff a poll option is like giving rats one of those buttons that makes cocaine

Tim, texting discreetly on his phone:

Tim: hey b

Bruce: What is it. I’m busy.

Tim: how busy

Bruce: Busy with Clark.

Tim: 👽 🍆

Bruce: Stop.

—

Tim: gremlin. r u back from your shonen tournament arc

Damian: I’m beating the Joker with a socket wrench.

Tim: owo

Damian: Please do not tell Father.

—

Tim: jason r u available

Jason: What do you want, goober?

Tim: i need help i brought Bernard up on a gotham bank gargoyle to see the city and he kissed me and my grapple fell but he doesnt know so im playing it cool but we’re stuck up here please come help me can you climb the gargoyle and lower a grapple to me so he doesn’t see please help i don’t want to look like an idiot i will do anything 😞😞😞

Jason: You’re stuck on a gargoyle with your conspiracy theorist boyfriend?

Tim: ye :(

Jason: LOL

Tim: JASON

Jason: Alright just play it cool. I’ll come find you. But you owe me one.

Terms every writer should know

Here’s a quick cheat-sheet to some common terms you may run into during your writing career!

Alpha reader: A person that reads the manuscript with the knowledge it is unfinished and provides content feedback & support (like a coach, mentor or friend).

Beta reader: A person that reads the manuscript for the purpose of finding plot holes, sensitivity issues, and provide feedback, pre-publication.

Back matter or End matter: Additional content at the end of a book, such as acknowledgements, author bio, afterword, etc.

Front matter: Content preceeding the beginning of a book, such as publication information, dedication, title page, table of contents etc.

House: A publishing house.

Developmental editing: Editing that helps develop the content of a book, point out logic, inconsistencies, and focus the idea.

Line editing: Editing that helps the consistency and concision of the author’s style, finds redundancies, and fixes grammar.

Copy editing: Editing that focuses on grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary.

Passive voice: In passive voice, the subject is the person or thing being acted upon.

Active voice: In active voice, the person or thing performing the action serves as the subject of the sentence.

Flash fiction: Extremely short stories, usually of up to 1,000 words.

In medias res: Starting the narrative from the middle of the story.

Deus ex machina: Term for a common trope where all issues are resolved by a god-like force, typically when one writes themselves into a corner and cannot resolve the conflict in any other way.

Head hopping: A common error in narrative perspective, where the writer gives access to internal thoughts of two or more characters within a scene.

Dialogue tags: Sentences that frame dialogue to let the reader know who’s speaking.

Story beat: A structural element of narrative that signals a shift in tone, plot, or character. Can be used for chapters, scenes, and outlines.

Pacing: The rate at which a story progresses.

Pinch point: An event in the plot that adds pressure to the characters.

Plot point: A major turning point in a story structure.

Logline: The story summary in one single sentence, much like a premise or an elevator pitch.

Synopsis: A detailed description of a story’s plot, for the purpose of sharing with literary agents.

R&R: Revise & resend: A changed or revised manuscript requested by agents or editors.

Manuscript: The main body of an unpublished book.

Shelf time: The time during which you set aside your project to come back to it with a fresh perspective.

Zero draft or vomit draft: A draft written by the author solely for themselves, used to get the story out on the page without external pressure.

Exposition: Where background explanation about the story, world, or characters is provided.

Subtext: The meaning behind the text, the dialogue, the plot, or the characters.

MC: Main character.

Motif: An image, phrase, or symbol repeated throughout the book for thematic significance.

Theme: The moral statement, argument, or question at the heart of a story.

Trope: A cliched story element, particular to certain genres.

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It was a dark and spermy night...

did not everyone get a lecture from their dad to have a firm handshake? like sir what am I supposed to do with this limp fish you just handed me