absorbingpurse92

“what are you writing?”

“it’s a….story.”

“oh cool, what’s it about?”

“…uh…”

“So what are your hobbies outside of work?”

“How did you spend your time during lockdown?”

This is a lovespoon. They’re found in several cultures worldwide, particularly in Scandinavia, but most famously in Wales (that photo is a Welsh lovespoon) and, from at least the 17th century, they were given as gifts by a suitor to his intended lady. They’re supposed to be carved from one block of wood, and decorated with various symbols which have slightly nuanced meanings, all basically a variation on ‘you’re rad, want to get wed?’

Because marriage in poor, rural parts of Wales was often more akin to cohabitation at the time (i.e. you didn’t really have a big ol’ legal ceremony, you just sort of said ‘we’re married now’ and shacked up together) a lovespoon could act as a wedding ring of sorts; you’d put your goshdarn heart and soul into carving it and you’d give it to the dame you sought, and if she accepted the spoon, then you were essentially wed, or at least bound together in a meaningful way. It’s assumed that they were initially supposed to be at least somewhat functional, because people did in fact eat with wooden spoons back in the day, but they’re now purely decorative. And hoo boy, can they be decorative. These are some of the ones on display at St Fagans Museum:

Nowadays, they’re generally mass produced, and tend to look more like this:

“He leant tensely against the corridor wall and frowned like a man trying to unbend a corkscrew by telekinesis.”

“Stones, then rocks, then boulders which pranced past him like clumsy puppies, only much, much bigger, much, much harder and heavier, and almost infinitely more likely to kill you if they fell on you.”

“He gazed keenly into the distance and looked as if he would quite like the wind to blow his hair back dramatically at that point, but the wind was busy fooling around with some leaves a little way off.”

“It looked only partly like a spaceship with guidance fins, rocket engines and escape hatches and so on, and a great deal like a small upended Italian bistro.”

VermilionSunrise posted.

Sandor is walking with his very pregnant daughter.

He is grumbling quietly, “and to think I thought I liked this fucking cocksucker.”

“Daddy be nice,” she whispers quietly squeezing his hand. "You've known him since we were babies."

“Exactly, I thought he was ok. But noooo! Tosser has the nerve to knock-up my daughter before he marries her,” he grumbles.

“It’s been months. Get over it dad. Anyways that will be remedied soon enough,” his daughter responds quietly but smartly.

“Sansa doesn’t even care, she’s just excited for her first grand baby. Baby probably end up looking like that tosser of a dad too.”

“Dad be nice,” she replies pleading.

“This is as nice as I get,” he says sternly but looks at her gently. “We can turn around right now... you can move back home.”

“Dad,” she repeats scant patience remaining. She looks up to her groom who is reaching for her hand.

“Don’t think I’m done with you yet... boy,” he quietly growls at his soon to be son-in-law. “You’re not getting off this easy.”

He places his daughters hand in the tosser’s and reluctantly takes a seat next to his wife.

“Honey,” Sansa says. “I can’t believe our baby is all grown up.” Sansa squeezes his hand in hers.

He is still glaring at the back of the grooms head, hoping the punk can feel his eyes boring into his skull.

Sansa nudges him with her shoulder. She smiles up at him and leans in for a kiss. “Be nice,” she whispers against his lips.

“Why?” He grumbles but kisses her and squeezes her hand.

“That lovely boy is going to be our grand baby’s dad,” she whispers.

Winter's Gift

Beauty of the Dawn

Reunion

Wild at Heart Bedding

Wild at Heart

The underpants thief

Always have back up of your stuff.

Distraction-free software that helps you write do exist.

Pasting your text from google docs onto AO3 will make it look funny.

There’s a script☆ that solves that problem.

Feedback (or the lack thereof) is never what you expect.

Learn to write for yourself in the first place.

Not everything you write will be the best fic ever™.

You can’t control how people react to your stuff.

No self-deprecation. Seriously.

A good summary attracts people. (No “I suck at summaries” there!)

Punctuation and structure are so important.

Don’t be afraid of using a character’s name. That’s why they have one.

Get a beta reader if you can.

It’s YOUR story and only you can tell it.

DO write that 9861th coffee shop AU for your fandom.

Anything is an AU.

Researching is good but don’t let it keep you from writing.

Tag your stuff accordingly.

Advice you see around aren’t supreme rules set in stone.

You’ll learn more about your style as you go.

Don’t compare your writing to others’. Especially “famous” fic writers.

Perfection doesn’t exist. Stop striving for it and just write.

A rough draft is better than NO story.

It’s okay to move on from an unfinished work to a new one.

It’s okay to not write 200K words in an hour.

Any length of writing is okay. Just focus on telling YOUR story.

Slumps and writer block are common.

You can always improve your writing if you want to.

Read lots and notice what you like in other people’s writing.

If you’re not having fun take a step back.

Set up a sideblog for writing on tumblr.

Tag your stuff accordingly. (both on AO3 and tumblr)

Follow spaces for fanfic discussions like @ao3commentoftheday

There’s no consensus about ANYTHING regarding fanfiction.

You can’t please everyone but you can please yourself.

Some people out there are rude and can’t be reasoned with.

Fanfiction is NOT your job. Don’t feel guilty for “not updating in months”.

Publish your stuff because you want to share it.

Everybody write crappy fics. Write yours.

Game soundtracks (instrumental) are great to play while writing. 

There’s always somebody out there waiting for your fic.

Many times you won’t hear but they exist.

Have fun. Indulge yourself. Treat yo self.

Writing is the best thing but also the worst.

Jot down those ideas. You won’t “remember later”. Seriously you won’t.

Inspiration often hits you when you CAN’T write.

It also often leaves when you can write.

Everybody hates and loves writing. That’s the life of a writer for ya.

Even your fave fic writer can feel ehh about the fic of theirs you LOVE.

Starting from the middle or the end IS a thing.