OfficialDevil

He laughs and walks over to the couch. Letting himself drop onto it the way he only does after 12 hour shifts. “I don’t think you even know you’re in a closet.” He says, putting his hands to his face and rubbing the exhaustion away.

You move to the kitchen and open the snack cupboard, removing 2 bags of chips and getting some drinks from the fridge. After that, you join him. “Your room has the only closet in the house.” You remind him as you hand him his favourites. He accepts them and puts them on the table. He still looks miserable, so you put on the TV and navigate to his favourite show. Then, when the intro doesn’t elicit a reaction, you hug him from the side, giving tiny pecks on his neck. Your hair and stubble nip at him, and the itchy sensation has him giggling in moments.

You grin. Mission accomplished.

He looks at you, amusement slowly sliding back off his face. “I could propose and you wouldn’t get it.”

You blink. “Propose what?”

My issue is that I can’t figure out a good equivalent to that kind of practice with writing ? Like idk. Do I do a bunch of object descriptions ? Do I do a scene with a restricted vocab ?? I don’t knowwwww

Grinding would be word sprints. NaNoWriMo was killer for this before their whole operation went to shit, but the good thing about that is that they never had copyright over the concept of writing fast. The numbers you go for can be a little arbitrary at first as you figure out what specifically works for you, but 15 minutes is usually the average from what I've seen? Maybe you can get 500 words in 15 minutes. Maybe you can only get 200. Either way, you're exercising the muscles that get ideas from your brain out onto paper.

Here's some other ideas I came up with for more specific exercises:

Wordsketching for Settings

Go outside (or stay inside?), practically anywhere. Sit down and angle yourself in a way that lets you get a good view of where you're at, and then pick the first things that jump out to you about the place you're in and describe them in 2-3 sentences. Then, figure out what you're drawn to next and write sentences about that. Make sure you add what you feel in that moment (Is the atmosphere uncomfortable? Is the place hot or cold? Humid?), what the place sounds like (People talking, or cars, or animal noises...), so on and so forth. This is very similar to the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, so you can even work off of that structure if you'd like, but this is specifically to help you get better at describing settings.

As far as fanfic is concerned, I think the genre as a whole skimps on atmosphere and setting a SHIT TON. If you want to elevate yourself, let the pacing of your work slow down for a second and dedicate some time to really orienting your blorbos in a specific space. It does a lot for the tone of the work, and... if you want to play ball with the big boys you need to start thinking about things like tone and atmosphere when writing.

Transcription for Dialogue

This can entail you writing down what your family says at the dinner table like a creepy weirdo, or transcribing movie dialogue or anything of that nature. The purpose would be to get used to how conversation naturally flows between two or more people (turn-taking, interruption etc.), and furthermore getting a sense of how human beings naturally talk to each other. I've written down things I've heard people say in public before for no better reason than thinking "Oh! I could totally see [X Character] saying that!". Whatever hangups you may have over this sick linguivouyeristic perversion are much less important than the tragedy of filling your work with Incorrect Quotes -style unreadable garbage. It's like eating your vegetables.

Wiktionary Challenges for Word Choice

Just spamming the "random word" button on Wiktionary will give you instances in every language Wiktionary has in its database, so this one requires a little more work to be helpful, but in lieu of that you can look through stuff like Categories or Thesaurus Entries!

Let's gather a few fun words to demonstrate.

Okay, this should be more than enough for some sentences describing a setting out in nature! Blunket is making me think this takes place at twilight... And I like alliterating, so let's mash it to make the semi-redundant phrase "blunket-blue" just for some flair.

The copse laid still. On the bank of the meandering creek, the rabbit flattened herself out against the soft grass, her luculent eyes darting back and forth over her surroundings. What she could see of the copse looked mostly the same: Twisting shrubs the color of ash, blunket-blue grasses, an invisible wind brushing over all that stillness and pressing flat everything it could. Her nose twitched. Until the last blushes of rose drained from the evening sky, the rabbit would keep herself fixed in that spot on the riverbank and wait.

I also recommend reading a scene, putting the text away, and writing it from memory. It helps make the point of the scene more obvious, and whatever is missing is probably the finesse your writing could use. It’s like drawing with a reference.

Okay, to keep a larger idea intact despite not having the time to write it immediately, you can write an outline!

An outline is akin to a sketch, it gets the broader strokes on the paper so you know where to follow along.

I’ve had outlines of one sentence ‘Character A gets stuck without comms, and only sends over bio data to crew after beating bad guy’

Outlines of a paragraph ‘Gang moves into town. They struggle with neighbourhood, and problems follow them to their new home. When they finally decide to move away, they uncover the corruption in the town, and rid themselves of their issues.’ (Poor example but eh)

And outlines of 7k words. I’m not including that here.

The detail and format is up to you, I tend to shorten things far more than this (I’ve written with stuff like ‘GaGiEntSchTour’ and that works just fine for me) But you can also make it closer to a summary, references. It’s whatever.

My issue is that I can’t figure out a good equivalent to that kind of practice with writing ? Like idk. Do I do a bunch of object descriptions ? Do I do a scene with a restricted vocab ?? I don’t knowwwww

Grinding would be word sprints. NaNoWriMo was killer for this before their whole operation went to shit, but the good thing about that is that they never had copyright over the concept of writing fast. The numbers you go for can be a little arbitrary at first as you figure out what specifically works for you, but 15 minutes is usually the average from what I've seen? Maybe you can get 500 words in 15 minutes. Maybe you can only get 200. Either way, you're exercising the muscles that get ideas from your brain out onto paper.

Here's some other ideas I came up with for more specific exercises:

Wordsketching for Settings

Go outside (or stay inside?), practically anywhere. Sit down and angle yourself in a way that lets you get a good view of where you're at, and then pick the first things that jump out to you about the place you're in and describe them in 2-3 sentences. Then, figure out what you're drawn to next and write sentences about that. Make sure you add what you feel in that moment (Is the atmosphere uncomfortable? Is the place hot or cold? Humid?), what the place sounds like (People talking, or cars, or animal noises...), so on and so forth. This is very similar to the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, so you can even work off of that structure if you'd like, but this is specifically to help you get better at describing settings.

As far as fanfic is concerned, I think the genre as a whole skimps on atmosphere and setting a SHIT TON. If you want to elevate yourself, let the pacing of your work slow down for a second and dedicate some time to really orienting your blorbos in a specific space. It does a lot for the tone of the work, and... if you want to play ball with the big boys you need to start thinking about things like tone and atmosphere when writing.

Transcription for Dialogue

This can entail you writing down what your family says at the dinner table like a creepy weirdo, or transcribing movie dialogue or anything of that nature. The purpose would be to get used to how conversation naturally flows between two or more people (turn-taking, interruption etc.), and furthermore getting a sense of how human beings naturally talk to each other. I've written down things I've heard people say in public before for no better reason than thinking "Oh! I could totally see [X Character] saying that!". Whatever hangups you may have over this sick linguivouyeristic perversion are much less important than the tragedy of filling your work with Incorrect Quotes -style unreadable garbage. It's like eating your vegetables.

Wiktionary Challenges for Word Choice

Just spamming the "random word" button on Wiktionary will give you instances in every language Wiktionary has in its database, so this one requires a little more work to be helpful, but in lieu of that you can look through stuff like Categories or Thesaurus Entries!

Let's gather a few fun words to demonstrate.

Okay, this should be more than enough for some sentences describing a setting out in nature! Blunket is making me think this takes place at twilight... And I like alliterating, so let's mash it to make the semi-redundant phrase "blunket-blue" just for some flair.

The copse laid still. On the bank of the meandering creek, the rabbit flattened herself out against the soft grass, her luculent eyes darting back and forth over her surroundings. What she could see of the copse looked mostly the same: Twisting shrubs the color of ash, blunket-blue grasses, an invisible wind brushing over all that stillness and pressing flat everything it could. Her nose twitched. Until the last blushes of rose drained from the evening sky, the rabbit would keep herself fixed in that spot on the riverbank and wait.

I also recommend reading a scene, putting the text away, and writing it from memory. It helps make the point of the scene more obvious, and whatever is missing is probably the finesse your writing could use. It’s like drawing with a reference.

She's fowl mouthed, and often screeches out of turn about nothing at all. By now the king often finds his temper flaring just when she enters the room, and he has half a mind to put down signs to keep her away from him.

He hasn't, obviously. He's pretty sure she can read.

His daughter has been ecstatic about her though, and that's what, unfortunately, really matters. She's constantly spoiling her, taking walks with her, having picnics and swimming in the lake. One time he spotted them in the fountain that was build by his grandfather in the garden, he tries not to think of what they might have done there.

The king looks as the girl wreaks havoc, guests chasing her as she runs and jumps and flaps her arms. Whether in panic or glee, he can venture a guess..

With a deep sigh he prepares to shout at the entire hall for peace, and then ask for the lover to return the trinkets to their rightful owners, but his daughter puts a hand on his arm. "Please, let her have this." She asks, looking far too precious for someone of marrying age. Is this the weakness of fatherhood? Staying soft for your little ones long after they've grown? Someone should have warned him.

He relaxes back into his seat. "Sweetheart, you know I'd give you anything, right?" He asks her. She nods, and gives him every piece of her attention. Which also means she probably didn't spot her girlfriend knocking a guest right over a seat, resulting in their ass in the air, and their head on the chair. "And that I want nothing more than for you to be happy," He continues. She nods, smiling.

Her lover runs past their table, the quick steps being the only warning before a loose feather gets stuck in his crown while his daughter gets several pieces of jewelry tossed in her lap, as the girlfriend takes off like an arrow and keeps running. Screeching the entire time.

"Then can I just ask if you're absolutely sure that you want to date a goose?" He asks, feeling the feather keel over and tickle his forehead as it dangles off of his crown.

How many words have you written this year?

How many works did you publish this year?

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

What work of yours has the most hits?

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

Favorite title you used

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

What work was the quickest to write?

What work took you the longest to write?

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

What’s your longest work of the year?

What’s your shortest work of the year?

What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Your favorite character to write this year?

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Which work of yours have you reread the most?

How many kudos in total did you get this year?

Which work has the most comments?

Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Did you write any gifts this year?

Did you receive any gifts this year?

What’s your most common category?

What do you listen to while writing?

Favorite work you wrote this year?

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

How many works did you publish this year? 4...

What work are you most proud of? My most recent is definitely the best. It's only one main plotline, there's a couple B-Plots that people with reading comprehension can follow but that aren't necessary, there's proper punctuation. It's good.

What work of yours has the most hits? 'Manaria, could you please do me a favor? Die for me' It's not even close.

What work got more feedback than expected? The one above here ^^^. People were far more interested and engaged than I am used to, though it changes per fandom.

Favorite title you used? I don't think I have a favourite, they're all pretty aptly named. I guess 'The Perfect Piece' has another meaning as it's a music themed fic, but the musician is performing against their will to be the 'perfect' whatever, and being only a piece can be considered an imperfection in itself.

If you use song lyrics, which artist did you use the most? I can't recall using song lyrics that I didn't make myself. Maybe Cavetown?

Pairing you wrote the most for this year? I don't tend to do shipping, I'm ace myself.

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Tie between Rae Taylor/Claire Francois and Sokka/Zuko.

What work was quickest to write? Unreleased: A quick insight to Caitlin Snow (Flash CW) in the months between the particle accelerator explosion and Barry waking up. Basically a couple missing scenes showing her mourning her fiance. Released: M.I.A. Mall.

What work took the longest to write? The one I'm publishing at the moment took 6 months (The Royal Oracle). Then there's one I left on a break that took half of this year and half of last year (Ariana Griande's no good bad day).

How many WIPs do you have for next year? Probably 2-4. Most of my WIPs do not survive long enough or are deemed to not be worth the investment of revising.

What's your longest work of the year? That would be 'Manaria, could you please do me a favor? Die for me', at 37k words.

What's your shortest work of the year? 'Bending Relationships' coming in at a modest 2,9k.

What WIP are you taking into the next year? Well, the one I'm uploading is finished, so not 'The Royal Oracle'. Instead it's likely I'm continuing 'Ariana Griande's NGBD' or a new fic centering a character I made for a oneshot that demanded a fic of their own and proceeded to blow my mind away with amazing politics.

What is your most common 'Additional Tag' tag? Oof, calling me out a little. 'Kidnapping'..

Your favorite character to write this year? I recently got a new favorite, but she's not beating out the hotshot of the rest of the year, so Pearlescentmoon!

The character that gave you the most trouble writing: Sokka, it'd been too long since seeing him when I started writing.

What's one pairing you want to explore next year? Not a specific pairing so much as a dynamic. Parent&Child, toxic as I can make it without making it obvious that it's doomed to fail.

Which of your own work have you reread the most? Probably 'The Royal Oracle'. I gave that thing multiple runs through for just one detail alone, and went down a list of things to check that way.

How much kudos did you get total this year? 290!

Which work has the most comments? 'Manaria, could you please do me a favor? Die for me', coming in with 45 comments total.

Did you write any gifts this year? Yes, 'Bending Relationships' (ATLA) was a gift to a dear friend.

Did you receive any gifts this year? Nope!

Did you do any collaborative works this year? Nope!

What's your most common category? A blank is most common, I don't tend to write shipping.

What do you listen to while writing? Most often it is nothing at all, sometimes I'll put on a 'Mock The Week' as you can zone out and not miss anything important.

Favorite work you wrote this year? My most recent, 'The Royal Oracle'.

Favorite line/passage you wrote? Even split between 'Beauty is everywhere where you dare to look.' and 'Note to self, milk chocolate and chocolate milk are not the same thing. Second note, boiling chocolate milk cannot be left untreated.'