UnapologeticallyJily

Enemies to friends to lovers with a hefty load of academic rivals for perfect Jily. Loyal to a fault (I’m looking at you Snape), so talented that Voldy tried to recruit her and her husband to his side AND with him managed to defy Voldy 3 times (apparently pretty unheard of as he immediately narrowed the July baby couples to two!).

Fearless and fought in a 20:1 outnumbered war against the wix right wingers, canon described as close to Sirius Black and probably all the marauders (not just James’ wife), then died trying to save Harry.

Where do you think Harry “no need to call me Sir, Professor” gets his sass from, huh??? Certainly not his dad, who had no sassy comebacks for Lily’s “I’d rather go out with the giant squid” “arrogant toerag” type banter. Slughorn described her as cheeky…

She definitely called Voldy Tom to his face (take it from me, I know), with an unimpressed sneer…

Leyton reminds me of this quote

but instead of flirting and sex, it’s like affection and any real warmth or passion or actual feeling.

Physically they do everything right, they do everything you should do and yet I never believe that they, as the characters, are in this deep love,

particularly when they had other scene partners where they actually vibed

They actually seem caught up here:

This looks like playing at being caught up

- THEY LOOK LIKE TWINS -

which is the thing, affectionate Leyton scenes always felt put on, like look we’re affectionate and in love, instead of it being exuded

like I’m more willing to believe this as something organic and as something they do

over this which just looks SO put on

and chemistry is important just in general but it’s particularly necessary with Chad because Chad looks like a dick, like he just has that look it’s actually difficult for him to look sincere and sincere about looking sincere there is a reason he was originally supposed to play Nathan and there’s a reason why he played Nathan so well in that role reversal dream episode. His chemistry with Sophia allows him to look sincere

but with Hilarie he either looks bored, like he’s trying too hard, or just insincere, like his eyes here, there’s no emotion in them, you look like a psychopath, Lucas, you look like you’re just saying the words but are actually dead inside

and Hilarie isn’t really giving anything either, she just doesn’t look like she’s playing a demon on supernatural wearing a meat suit

like even here, he widens his eyes to make it more sincere but it gets kinda killer-y

he doesn’t have to try for that extra thing with Sophia

like hate or love this comparison but at least angsty Leyton, which falls flat

should have Jonsa energy

and for video reference, when Lucas and Brooke talk about why she wants to be student council president and Brooke explains her motives and they share that gaze after talking about courage

I believe that Lucas is listening to what she’s saying and he feels something about it and he feels something about her and they connect in that moment before Felix comes in.

Peyton going on that rant about art needing to mean something

This is like a seminal Leyton moment, Peyton is supposed to be unburdening about how she doesn’t think her art matters and Lucas is supposed to quietly SEE her, like see her soul “your art matters to me” and when she stops, it’s supposed to be this kind of stunned moment where omg-I-can’t-believe-I-just-said-everything-I-was-afraid-to-say-to-him and Lucas is supposed to be moved but Chad looks bored and Hilarie looks like she’s focusing on her speech and instead of this rush of emotion, it just sounds like badgering, they’re just trying to keep up with the scene. 

1.) Don't actually delete content from your WIP unless it is minor editing - instead cut it and put it in a secondary document. If you're omitting paragraphs of content, dialog, a whole scene you might find a better place for it later and having it readily available can really save time. Sometimes your idea was fantastic, but it just wasn't in the right spot.

2.) Stuck with wording the action? Just write the dialog then revisit it later.

3.) Stuck on the whole scene? Skip it and write the next one.

4.) Write on literally any other color than a white background. It just works. (I use black)

5.) If you have a beta, while they are beta-ing have them read your fic out loud. Yes, I know a lot of betas/writers do not have the luxury of face-timing or have the opportunity to do this due to time constraints etc but reading your fic out loud can catch some very awkward phrasing that otherwise might be missed. If you don't have a beta, you read it out loud to yourself. Throw some passion into your dialog, you might find a better way to word it if it sounds stuffy or weird.

6.) The moment you have an idea, write it down. If you don't have paper or a pen, EMAIL it to yourself or put it in a draft etc etc. I have sent myself dozens of ideas while laying down before sleep that I 10/10 forgot the next morning but had emailed them to myself and got to implement them.

7.) Remember - hits/likes/kudos/comments are not reflective of the quality of your fic or your ability to write. Most people just don't comment - even if they say they do, they don't, even if they preach all day about commenting, they don't, even if they are a very popular blog that passionately reminds people to comment - they don't comment (I know this personally). Even if your fic brought tears to their eyes and it haunted them for weeks and they printed it out and sent it to their friends they just don't comment. You just have to accept it. That being said - comment on the fic you're reading now, just do it, if you're 'shy' and that's why you don't comment the more you comment the better you'll get at it. Just do it.

8.) Remove unrealistic daily word count goals from your routine. I've seen people stress 1500 - 2000 words a day and if they don't reach that they feel like a failure and they get discouraged. This is ridiculous. Write when you can, but remove absurd goals. My average is 500 words a day in combination with a 40 hour a week job and I have written over 200k words from 2022-2023.

9.) There are dozens of ways to do an outline from precise analytical deconstruction that goes scene by scene to the minimalist bullet point list - it doesn't matter which one you use just have some sort of direction. A partial outline is better than no outline.

"unreliable narration" doesn't just mean lying all the time, and it gets a little lame to watch people (most of whom are d/b shippers) claim that's the case. the book's opening lines aren't "they could have been making this shit up!" – they're "some [interviewees] were more forthcoming than others...on matters both big and small, sometimes accounts of the same events differ. the truth often lies, unclaimed, in the middle." there were probably details that characters left out on purpose, but why would everyone, especially after having not spoken in years, have agreed to completely lie about everything? billy tells his grown, adult daughter about cheating on her mother repeatedly, about missing her birth during his addiction, about the deep attraction he felt for daisy. people are so desperate for their ship to have been physically canon that they disregard these details and claim that he was just protecting julia's feelings (again, she's like forty at this point??) or that he and daisy agreed to leave out their apparently torrid affair (which especially falls apart after tjr released the bonus pages, where camila explicitly tells daisy "don't try to sugarcoat anything on my behalf" and daisy promises to do so). it does a disservice to whatever shreds of nuance or subtlety the book had, all traces of which the show decided to throw out the window in favor of cw-level drama and clunky character arcs

GRAND STAIRCASE ENTRANCE