lintrense

the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be a part of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.

a lot of writing is sort of watching the film in your head like oh sorry can’t write the chapter yet i have to repeat hallucinate the dialogue first

Part of what's so compelling to me about Grace's breakdown after remembering he was forced into this is he must have realized Eva Stratt was right. He must have sat down on that cold floor swallowed the bile rising in his chest and sobbed bc she was right. It had to be him. He was the only one who could have saved Earth. She condemned him and he fought to live and it was just him. Not commander Yáo or pilot Ilyukhina. They were brave but now they are dead. And he has to find a way to be the hero, to be brave. Because there's nothing else he can do. He can't let his grief and anger swallow him because then everyone will die, but it also means he has to force down what's left of his ego and let her be right