Eskel My Beloved

"why is the character like that" >look inside character >it's the author's subconscious attempt to love themself

this is meant positively by the way. sometimes you love the character so much you end up putting a piece of yourself in it to learn how it is to love yourself without realising and thats ok.

Truly, I believe this.

Do I actually want to write this fanfic or do I just want to wallow in the delicious daydream like a pig in the mud?

Unfortunately I wish for others to wallow in my magnificent mud pit

thank you for the magnificent mud pits, fanfic writers

What if the real grief was the writing we didn't do along the way

all of my writing is actually just thinly-veiled fantasy about being seen at your worst and still being loved

Purple prose isn't the enemy boring prose is. yeah you can overwrite but you can also underwrite until everything feels flat. use weird words sometimes. get poetic about the wrong things. spend a whole paragraph on how light hits a window if it matters to the moment. literary fiction gets to be flowery why can't you? find your own level of extra. some readers want lean and punchy. some want lush and dense. write sentences that feel good in your mouth when you read them out loud. if it sounds like YOU that's style baby.