My Tiny Writbler

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

"So you're the best of the best?"

Why is the mountain range square. How did the mountain range form. Why is there one singular volcano in the center. Why does it act like a composite volcano but have magma that acts like it’s from a shield. If it’s hotspot based volcanic activity why is there only one volcano.

If you’re following, say, twenty writeblrs, and one does each of the following:

deletes their blog because writing was a phase they’re out of

deletes their blog because they’re merging the content with their main blog

goes on temporary hiatus

goes on permanent hiatus (especially accidentally)

changes their icon and URL such that you accidentally unfollow them

changes what they blog about such that you purposefully unfollow them

doesn’t post often, because they only post original fiction

doesn’t post often, because they’re not as into writing

has a drastically different time zone from you

has the same time zone, but uses Tumblr completely differently

…you might see, on any given day, only ten writeblrs on your dash!

That’s just the nature of writing. People can’t drop original writing daily, and most people aren’t obsessive about The Discoursethetic of Writing. It’s a difficult hobby to really sit down and do consistently, let alone also dedicate an entire separate blog to. Most people do not get invested in blogging-about-writing on a daily basis permanently. It is far more common, in my experience, for a blog to eventually go on extended hiatus than it is for it to stick around. I maintain this blog consistently, but very few of the people who were around when I got here are still here in the same way. I am a professional writer– meaning, I get paid to do it– so Tumblr is my professional social media. I’m not surprised most people can’t dedicate that much time to what is often a thankless, effortful, and time-consuming hobby. (It’s also, as others said, mid-“Holiday Season” and post-NaNo and mid-COVID and etc.)

Tumblr has many fandom circles, though, and there’s likely a group of active writers right next door to you whom you haven’t met yet. I’d never seen you around before, but Tumblr delivered me this post on Explore: Hello! Nice to meet you! So, the good news is that this problem is easy to solve. I follow the #writeblr intro tag, tag writeblrs in my activity for tag games, participate in events, chat in the Welcome to Writeblr server, and try to be loud when I like something. You can also always make a new writeblr intro/promo post and openly state that your dash is dry. Right now the Twitter Exodus is lending us a lot of new blood! If you keep reaching out, you’ll build a circle that can last even when some of the fringes fall off.

Actually funny. Not making jokes at other people's expense, not the butt of the joke, just villains that have absurd senses of humour and top-notch intentional comedic timing,

CHARISMA!!! Please, can we have more charming villains, villains that can sway a crowd, villains that get away with things because their too polite, too well-spoken, too funny to possibly to evil.

Respected. Villains whose villainous deeds have led them to success and made them widely respected members of society. To be clear, this isn't respected person who is secretly evil. No. I mean, the bad things they've done are the reason they're respected.

Let them win. Let them win because their plan succeeded. Not because the protagonists fucked up, not by pure luck. Let them earn their victories.

Supporters! Lots of them. The more powerful your villain is, the more supporters they are going to need. If the evil king is unpopular with everyone he's not going to stay king for long. He needs allies, lots of them, especially if he's a tyrant.

Knows how to play the game. Manipulative villains who say whatever they have to to get their way, chose their allies and enemies carefully, bribe and blackmail, play the victim, the hero, or even the innocent when it suits them. Make it hard for your protagonists to convince anyone they are a villain at all.

Cold Steel. Give me villains that don't get angry easy, that laugh things off, that kill because it's efficient and for no other reason.

Clever and creative. Strategists who always have a trick up their sleeve and problem solvers with personal flare.

Show other characters reacting with fear. Nothing rams home how terrifying a villain is quite like watching other powerful characters fall to their knees--fast--when they walk in the room.

Irredeemable despite their tragic backstories. For the love of god people, tragic backstories do not justify a villain's actions. You can have empathy for what they've endured while still expecting them to take responsibility for what they've become.

Unconventionally attractive. Take this however you want. I, for one, would like to see more tortured bad boys who aren't white and shredded. But also, villains whose attractiveness lies in how they talk, their body language and facial expressions, and their outfits. Why do y'all think smirking is such a popular word??

Love. Let them love their spouses, their children, their friends. Not in an abusive way either. Let them have healthy relationships with their still living wives, daughters, sons, comrades in arms etc.

the writing process: