Screaming into the void, together.

seeing the outrage and shock and horror that oh my god you actually write in that?? you mean you don’t ___??? will never cease to make my day

what is it about a font that makes it appeal to someone and not to someone else? 

how does the tiny curl of that b send some writers into the deepest distress?

idk. idk. but it’s kinda amazing.

lawful good: garamond neutral good: changing the font for each wip and/or draft (to a font that doesn’t suck) chaotic good: georgia, some serif fonts

lawful neutral: times new roman, sitka display true neutral: not caring about the font chaotic neutral: comic sans

“How could you kiss a water bottle?!” She yelled, “They’re notoriously spicy!” 

“I’m sorry!” Dan yelled back, his eyes filling with tears and face flushing with distress. “She was just so nice and the situation seemed nice and-” 

Dan stopped suddenly, his arms dropping to his sides and it was like the life drained out of him. “I cheated.”

“Yes.” Sarah responded, her face obscured by a waterfall of tears. “Yes, you did.”

The pair stood at an impasse, neither moving or looking at the other. Cars could be heard rushing past the abandoned house, the broken windows letting every sound of the outside world into this precious moment where their whole world was collapsing. 

“So this is it?” Sarah said after a while, her tears slowing down, and her big hazel eyes were lined by tear tracks and smears of eyeliner.

“This is it.” Dan said, finally looking at Sarah since his confession. The man took one look at his love’s–ex-love’s– face and it was like someone had stabbed him. “I’m so sorry Sarah, she really meant nothing to me, I don’t love her.”

“And you love me?” Sarah bit back. “You loved me so much that you kissed the only other girl in the world who would touch you?” Dan didn’t even respond to the jab, the knife just twisted in further. “I can’t believe I ever loved you.” Sarah said, her voice filled with tears but her face was dry and red. “I told you, I told you Dan Hudder, how every man I have ever loved lied to me and left me in the dust to pick up the pieces of THEIR MESS.” Sarah started shouting, “I LOVED YOU DAN! I TOLD YOU THE DAY THAT WE MET, THE DAY THAT YOU FINALLY SAID IT BACK, YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND EVEN ON THAT DAY WHEN YOU KISSED THAT BIT-” 

Dan suddenly launched himself at Sarah, grabbing her arm and dragging her to the ground behind the half-decomposed kitchen island. A flashlight beam lit up the wall just above the pair’s head and Sarah found her eyes unable to move from Dan’s “This doesn’t mean I accept your apology.” Sarah said. “I know,” Dan replied, “I will make it up to you, I promise.” 

(Brought to you by 'losing my glasses wouldn't make me prettier or dorkier or more badass, it'd just make me me without my glasses'.)

Taking someone's glasses off when they're tired, or to stop them working too hard.

Handing someone's glasses to them with their morning coffee.

Putting someone's glasses aside when they hand them to you before sleeping.

Taking someone's glasses off when they're asleep or nearly asleep with them on.

Asking to take someone's glasses off in the bedroom, before things start to get hot and heavy.

Someone taking their glasses off themselves in the bedroom, as a sign that things are getting hot and heavy.

Good Shit

I need to rant about this:

Also known as the best writing program ever! It's a full-screen writing program!

So you open it up, and it looks like this:

You're thinking, "Ok, so what? It's a screen with a picture. Whoopdie do." But it get's better! It's customizable!

See that "appearance"? Click it.

You can also use custom fonts that you have installed!

See that "music"? Click it.

If you drag your own music into the folder, like so:

You get this!:

But wait! It gets better!

See "typing sounds"? You can change those too!

Perhaps the best is - YOU CAN USE ANY PICTURE FOR THE BACKGROUND. It will automatically fade it for you!

Seriously, guys, this tool is wonderful. You can use it for:

Research papers

Novel writing

Play writing

Short stories

Homework assignments

Ranting about your friends when they piss you off

Writing your shopping list

It auto-saves. It exports to .rtf. Hotkeys from Word for italicize, underlining, and bold work. You can print RIGHT FROM THERE.

And the seriously best thing ever?

It fits on a flash drive. The entire thing with added music is maybe 131MBs.

The bestest thing ever.

It's free.

So a while ago I asked staff at AO3 why it was that I could post a work, update it with chapters, and have it appear no higher than tenth, ever, even with new chapters, on a busy fandom. I finally got an explanation. 

“If, however, your work is appearing below works that were already visible, it’s possible you’re running into an issue that occurs when a work is posted between 12:00 AM and 5 AM UTC - works posted during this time frame cause the system to believe the work has had a posting date set manually. (Normally you would do this by ticking “Set a different publication date” in the posting form.) This also applies to works that were initially saved as a draft on a date previous to the day they are posted. Works that have been backdated are assigned a default time of day, which may be earlier than the actual time you posted the work.”

So don’t post during that time. It just HAPPENS to be between 5 pm and 10 pm Pacific time so posting things after dinner is RIGHT OUT if you happen to live on the west coast of the US. That’s between 8 pm and 1 am east coast time.

So until they fix this (and it’s been going on a LONG time, they’re working on it but it’s a massive code overhaul, apparently) I’ll be posting fics OTHER times.  This means if you’re posting a long, multichapter work, posting the first chapter in the evening can screw up the entire rest of your posting. Posting a draft before posting for reals will also keep you from being at the top of the list. And this probably explains why some of my fics have done better than others.  What does this look like? Someone posts at, say, 4 in the afternoon my time. I come along and post around 8 pm, which is pretty typical for me, but it gets marked as “set manually” and given a time much earlier in the day, and thus appears behind everything posted that day. So it’s never on top, people start reading down the list, think they’ve seen everything that’s at the top, and don’t poke any farther.  So for writers, DO NOT POST BETWEEN  12:00 AM and 5 AM UTC. Google will translate, just plug in 12 am UTC and it will pop up your local time in most places.  For readers, realize this exists and that you’re probably missing something. Scroll back if it’s between those hours, and after those hours. 

Maggie Tokuda-Hall has an MFA in creative writing from USF, and a strong cake-decorating game. She is the author of the 2017 Parent’s Choice Gold Medal winning picture book, Also an Octopus, illustrated by Benji Davies. The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea is her debut young adult novel, which is due out on May 5th, 2020 from Candlewick Press. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, son, and dog.

What’s your favorite genre to write? Is it the same as your favorite genre to read? Let Maggie know, and/or thank her for her #CampCarePackage!

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you by Camp NaNoWriMo. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at nanowrimo.org!

VW Camper

“Basically guys suck.”

Stuck on your opening? Don’t worry! Once upon a time young writer Ollie gave us a list of three tips to help us write our first page stress-free:

Writing the first page can be complicated. After all, it is the first part that readers read. If it’s monotonous, they might not read it. The start is an essential part of your story, but it can take a while to write an opening page. Today, I have found some tips and tricks on writing your first page.

1. List some ideas out.

Listing some ideas is a helpful tool to use when we are writing, and an even better way to help plan. List some ideas. Are there any special catchphrases you want to use? What’s happening in your story at the beginning? What is your opening sentence? How do you want to start your story? You can try to list out some ideas with these questions, plus many other ones that may pop up in your head!