#tools tuesday

What is an image description? Just as the title suggests, it’s a description of a piece of visual media. Think of it like you’re on the phone with your friend and you just saw a hilarious sign or cool thing in a store that they should absolutely know about, so you describe it to them over the phone. It is communicating visuals through words.

This description can go in the main part of the post and/or in the alt text of the image itself. Alt text is text that is coded into the image itself, so that screen readers will read out that text rather than nothing or just the word “image.”

The best practice on tumblr is to put a detailed description in one place, and a shorter, simpler description in the other. That way, it can be used by everyone.

This is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart! Accessible posts make everyone in your community able to connect and share the joy of your fandom.

Creating image descriptions or alt text for your visual media (images, videos, gifs) helps a wide range of people: those with low vision, those who use screen readers, those who have issues interpreting visual media, those who have trouble reading text in pictures, those with bad internet, and many more. There’s a huge audience who just doesn’t get to understand or interact properly with your beautiful art without the interface of description!

Creating descriptions can also help you, the creator. You can communicate mood or subtle details that are important, shaping how your piece is interpreted. You can introduce new people to your beloved media, gaining a larger audience of appreciators. And you can even learn something about your own work. After all, by describing something, you study it more closely.

Not sure how to make an image description? No problem! There are lots of guides out there that go into detail! A few are linked at the end of this post. You might see conflicting information in some of them regarding formatting; that is because there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Different screenreaders can interact with the same text in different ways.

The most important part is trying. An imperfect description is better than no description.

TL;DR: A basic description should have the media type (photograph, illustration, etc), the subject’s name (if available) and short physical description, and a summary of the action. If there are any words, they should be transcribed exactly, or converted to plaintext but keep the wording the same. When putting an image description in the main body of the post, start the description with an indicator (Start ID, etc) and finish with one as well (End ID, etc).

Links to guides that explain the process better than I can:

Veronica With Four Eyes - a resource for low vision assistive technology filled with practical tips for visually impaired students, their families, and educators that align with the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC). Written by Veronica Lewis. This linked article is about image descriptions.

General guide for image descriptions by can-i-make-image-descriptions - Basic, easy to follow.

How to Create Image Descriptions by antimonarchy - More detailed with great examples.

Starting out with image descriptions by normal-thoughts-official with additions by askablindperson- well laid out explanations of image description vs alt text, where to place it, and why.

Image description resources by kurapikas-dangly-earring, with additions by others - Further resources and tips.

image description basics and resources by 2boldlyqueer - goes into the whys of image description, as well as basic guidance and links to further explorations of the topic. Tags at the end of the post link to many image description dedicated blogs

Can’t do them yourself, for whatever reason? I want to make my posts more accessible, but can’t write IDs myself: a guide by anistarrose

I (the event runner) write a lot of image descriptions, so I’m happy to answer questions or direct you to more resources if you need them!

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Yes I know it's late again ^^;; sorry, I wanted to add new resources.

This Tools Tuesday is all about tagging, for when you’re ready to post your finished work on Archive of Our Own or any other site that uses tags! AO3, as the most popular fic posting site, will be the focus.

To begin: what are tags? And why do we use them?

Tags are keywords used to describe a fic or post. They can serve a variety of functions, but at their core they tell a viewer what to expect when they click in. On some sites (like Tumblr), they are at the bottom of the post or in the body of the post (like bsky). On AO3, they are the third thing seen, after title and author.

As seen in this handy infographic from SummerofSpock on tumblr, tags on A03 fall into 5 rough categories: Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme.

[full image ID in ALT text. Infographic titled “Tags are Tricky…a quick and dirty guide” with tag example lists in the categories of Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme. Each box is a different pink, in a gradient. End ID.]

source: https://summerofspock.tumblr.com/post/698388759652319232/mostlyinthemorning-i-kind-of-suck-at-tagging-so

Not every fic might use every category, and there are certainly tags that overlap categories. There’s also what I consider a 6th category, which is Author Commentary (no beta we die like xx, character needs a hug, why did i do that much research for a single paragraph, etc).

All of that aside, why should you use tags?

They help readers find and enjoy your fic! The two main uses of tags when searching is Seeking and Avoidance.

Seeking is when a reader really wants to read a particular thing, like they want fix-its only or just Modern AUs. Once they narrow it down to fandom, these are the tags they’ll type into the search bar. If your work isn’t properly tagged, it won’t show up, even if it’s the epitome of a Coffee Shop AU and that’s the term they search. Generously tag so readers can find you!

Avoidance is excluding a fic from consideration due to a particular theme or topic. Maybe their pet just died, so any mention of Animal Death is out. Maybe they are really tired of a particular ship, or are narrowing down for a rarepair. On AO3, there’s a section in the filter bar for excluding tags (see below, boxed in blue). Readers can eliminate what they don’t want to see, which is wonderful! They can select exactly what they want; not every fic is for every reader. Generously tag, so readers can be selective!

[ID: the Archive of Our Own filter bar Exclude section. End ID.]

Still unsure how to tag your work? Or stuck on other aspects, like ratings and warnings? The Fanfic Author’s Guide to Metatext (As Used on Ao3) by Eiiri is an incredible, in-depth explanation of everything contained within the metatext (tags+warnings) block on an AO3 fic. I — this event’s mod — use this text as part of my determining for rating guidelines, and I have found it extremely helpful for tagging my own works. View in full on tumblr and AO3 at these links

full text in post:

Eiiri's Workshop — The Fanfic Author’s Guide to Metatext (As Used on...

AO3 version, from which you can download as a pdf, epub, or other format:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30986561/chapters/76535018

Additionally, this event requires certain tags be honored and present as needed, primarily common content warnings or hot topics. See the rules post for more information. These tags at least need to be present in any promo post that are applicable, though tagging the fic itself is always good practice. After all, tags are like the ingredient label of a fic.

Still not sure what to tag and want more inspiration? This post from @/insanitysilver has great links to further help, as well as an example of a tagged fake fic!

~

Have a question not answered above? Is there something important I missed? Want to see a post about tagging for Tumblr, Twitter, or another site specifically? Start a discussion in the replies and reblogs! Thanks for participating, and good luck with your wip!

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It’s the first Tuesday of the event, so it’s time for a Tools Tuesday! Tools Tuesday is a weekly part of the Finish What You Started event where I share various resources I have found to help everyone complete their WIP. Have a resource you want to share? Send it in a message and I’ll take a look!

Today is about motivation to start and setting easy goals to keep the momentum going.

Starting a project can be the scariest part. Good news! If you’re participating in this event, you’ve already completed that step! But finishing is daunting, especially for long projects with no end in sight, or ones that you’ve struggling with for a long time.

When you have a big project, especially one that you may have started and put down years ago, it can be intimidating to pick it back up. Give yourself a few minutes to review what you already have done. Read through the last part you wrote, read your notes, check the pattern, etc. If you need to, make notes about what you have, where you remember you wanted to go, and what is inspiring you now. That scene you got stuck on might make sense now, or you see another angle you could draw that tricky pose from. You could even go in a whole new direction.

Be kind to yourself if you feel stuck. You can’t intimidate or yell yourself into productivity!

When you’re ready to work, it can help to do some warmup stretches, especially for artists and sewists, but writers, musicians, and others craftspeople benefit from a good warmup stretch too! I plan on doing a Tools Tuesday later about both writing and drawing warmup exercises. And stretch during breaks! This is a stretch guide I keep on my phone, to remind me to loosen up. made by @/tizzymcwizzy

[basic ID: an infographic of a pink figure demonstrating a variety of hand, arm, and upper body stretches. End ID.]

If it’s not distracting, set the mood for your work with an applicable playlist or soundscape. Make sure you won’t be interrupted or distracted during your work time by silencing notifications and minimizing other windows. Let yourself focus on this one thing.

When you do start, set a small goal. It can be word count based or time based, whatever makes sense for your project. Make it very achievable: maybe just five minutes or 100 words. The thrill of reaching that goal can help carry you through another 5 minutes, another 100 words. If you struggle just to get through that goal, congratulate yourself on making your session goal! You can go do something else now. Decreasing the pressure on yourself can help get creative energy flowing. When you make your goal consistently, you can up it, but not too much.

There’s a famous anecdote that whenever author Terry Pratchett sat down to write, he set a goal of 400 words. Whether he wrote more or not, he did his 400. By the time of his death, Terry Pratchet had written and published over 40 novels. For myself, I like to set session/day goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals. That way even if my progress isn’t linear, I can see myself approaching where I want to be. Incremental goals can feel really good! But if holding yourself to a number doesn’t help, find what does.

If you want help from others also working on wips, come join the discord! We have a space for accountability buddies to help keep you on track and a place to write during timed sprints, as well as many resources. This link should not expire!

What is an image description? Just as the title suggests, it’s a description of a piece of visual media. Think of it like you’re on the phone with your friend and you just saw a hilarious sign or cool thing in a store that they should absolutely know about, so you describe it to them over the phone. It is communicating visuals through words.

This description can go in the main part of the post and/or in the alt text of the image itself. Alt text is text that is coded into the image itself, so that screen readers will read out that text rather than nothing or just the word “image.”

The best practice on tumblr is to put a detailed description in one place, and a shorter, simpler description in the other. That way, it can be used by everyone.

This is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart! Accessible posts make everyone in your community able to connect and share the joy of your fandom.

Creating image descriptions or alt text for your visual media (images, videos, gifs) helps a wide range of people: those with low vision, those who use screen readers, those who have issues interpreting visual media, those who have trouble reading text in pictures, those with bad internet, and many more. There’s a huge audience who just doesn’t get to understand or interact properly with your beautiful art without the interface of description!

Creating descriptions can also help you, the creator. You can communicate mood or subtle details that are important, shaping how your piece is interpreted. You can introduce new people to your beloved media, gaining a larger audience of appreciators. And you can even learn something about your own work. After all, by describing something, you study it more closely.

Not sure how to make an image description? No problem! There are lots of guides out there that go into detail! A few are linked at the end of this post.

The most important part is trying. An imperfect description is better than no description.

TL;DR: A basic description should have the media type (photograph, illustration, etc), the subject’s name (if available) and short physical description, and a summary of the action. If there are any words, they should be transcribed exactly, or converted to plaintext but keep the wording the same. When putting an image description in the main body of the post, start the description with an indicator (Start ID, etc) and finish with one as well (End ID, etc).

Links to guides that explain the process better than I can:

General guide for image descriptions by can-i-make-image-descriptions - Basic, easy to follow.

How to Create Image Descriptions by antimonarchy - More detailed with great examples.

Image description resources by kurapikas-dangly-earring, with additions by others - Further resources and tips.

Can’t do them yourself, for whatever reason? I want to make my posts more accessible, but can’t write IDs myself: a guide by anistarrose

I (the event runner) write a lot of image descriptions, so I’m happy to answer questions or direct you to more resources if you need them!

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Happy Tools Tuesday, everyone! Today’s topic is especially for all the yarn and fabric crafters participating and sharing their progress in the discord!

Just like with any other medium, it can be easy to get into the flow when working on a physical craft project, and totally lose track of time - only to reap the consequences of cramped muscles and aches. That’s why setting a timer can be a great strategy. There are many guides online about different work-break timer strategies; my personal favorite are these Pomodoro timers from How To ADHD, which have break timers built into the video (and no annoying clock sounds except when the timer is about to end)

(though I admit, I also have a habit of “timing” myself by watching episodes of a show, then forgetting to stretch in between!)

Figuring out what balance of time will depend on you, your mood, and your project. But sometimes, “taking a break” is too nebulous a concept. What could a break entail?

The annoyingly simple answer is: it varies! The long answer is figuring out what works for you.

I try to remember to check in with my body during a break and address basic needs I neglected while focused. Ask yourself:

Are you hungry?

Are you thirsty?

Do you need to use the bathroom?

Are there any physical aches?

Are you curled up oddly?

Do your eyes feel strained?

Addressing 1, 2, and 3 are simple but easily forgotten. For 4, I have shared a sheet on some common stretches previously, but there are a wealth of stretches, yoga poses, and exercises recommended for knitters, crocheters, and sewists.

As with any exercise, be aware of your body and mindful to not hurt yourself!

This video has some hand stretches not covered in previous posts here.

And here’s a full playlist of yoga moves put out by the yarn brand Lion Brand, aimed at knitters and crocheters. Many of the moves are designed to be done from a chair, so you don’t even have to get up if all you need to do during your break is stretch!

Many back stretches covered in that playlist also help with 5, posture. If you find you’re curling uncomfortably over your work, or that your hands regularly ache after crafting, perhaps it is your tools that need to step up their game. A little support can go a long way.

I often crochet with a pillow on my lap, to keep my hands up in a comfortable, relaxed position, and to keep me from leaning too far forward. A rolled up blanket or long plushie can do the same job. Ergonomic shaped needles and hooks can help if your hands cramp when working or you find you have to tightly grip the tools. Likewise, supportive gloves or wrist braces can aid when repetitive motions make your wrist ache. For needlework, elevated stands can bring your work up to a better height and make it so you don't have to always hold your hoop. Brighter lighting or magnifiers make seeing stitches easier.

There should be no shame in using assistive devices! Do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself while you create!

For 6, eye strain, we can forget this can be an issue even when not working at a computer. The 20-20-20 idea (look at something 20ft away for 20 seconds after 20 minutes of close-up focus) goes for reading a book or doing crafts as well. Anything where you’re staring at something right in front of you for a long time can make your eyes ache. I really liked this video that goes over ways to mitigate eyestrain from a computer, as well as some exercises that I regularly do myself when I feel my eyes get sore.

Adding additional lighting can also help prevent eyestrain. If you find the light gives you a headache, try swapping the bulbs for something of a different color (warmer/cooler), or changing where the source sits to better light your workspace. Sometimes I wear a visor when working with bright overhead shop lights. Recently, I discovered I have a sensitivity to certain colors of lights, so I have started wearing tinted lenses and it really helped with eye soreness! (If you feel like bright lights or certain types of lights give you migraines, you may find some benefit to researching Irlen Syndrome.)

As always, these tips are just my personal recommendations that you can use as starting off points for finding what works for you. Your breaks don’t need to be structured to be beneficial. Moving your body in a change of scenery to get a snack might be all you need. Or you could start a load of laundry and work while it’s going, which gives you a timer and a different physical task to do during your break when it’s ready to be hung/changed to the other machine.

Do whatever works for you, just please take care of yourself! We artists might suffer for our art, but creating art shouldn’t make you suffer.

Got any tips or resources? Or a tool that helped you craft more comfortably that you think others should know about? Share it in the comments or reblogs!

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(Apologies for late posting!)

With our first Finished It Friday just around the corner, this Tools Tuesday is all about creating a promotional post for your work once it’s finished! This is mostly fanfiction-specific with a nod to visual media at the end. Most of the time, art, videos, and gifs can be enjoyed in-site, so they do not need a promotional post to encourage fans to click away.

This advice is entirely based around what I have noticed I tend to click on, and the promo posts I like the look of/want to emulate. You can have your own style of post, to showcase your unique work; communicating what it is about is the goal no matter what the format is.

For Tumblr, a long text limit means you can go into detail! The easiest way to include everything is to copy/paste the metatext from the AO3 block. I like to remove information that feels extraneous, like chapter count for one-shots, the language, hit count, etc, as well as any duplicated tags like characters who are also in the relationships tags. I also like to reorder the information to put more pertinent information first. Include the full summary, plus any additional information you feel should be included like if it was written for someone or for an event. I like to put those after the summary with a little break.

Archive of Our Own has a built-in export feature to make these! I did not know about this until recently. On your work's page, click the "Share" button at the top between the "Comments" and "Subscribe" buttons. There is an option for posting directly on Tumblr, in which case it should open a new window with the information pre-arranged for posting but still editable by you. There is also a Twitter option, but not other social medias, so you can use the HTML code provided to fill your post. Unfortunately, the HTML coding does not work for bsky posting, so I recommend writing an original post with a link for it; I do not like how it formats it for Twitter posting, so I do not recommend that option and the Tumblr option is too long for bsky. See my thread for posting on bsky here.

There may be other programs to pull this information, but I don't know about them.

I have heard that Tumblr doesn’t favor posts with links, but I also know that it’s easy for a reblog to get loose from a chain, so I like to keep the link to the fic in the main post.

Basically, include information someone might search for. Make it interesting to look at for the most curious clicks, but don’t make it a mystery.

Here is a generic example:

[Link] Title by Author Fandom: Fandom Name Relationships: Character A & Character B, Character C/Character D Rating: Rated Archive Warning: Warned Category: Gen Additional Tags: Setting Tag, Canon-Related Tag, Minor Content Warning, Trope, Trope, authorial remark, fandom in-joke Word Count: #,### Summary: This is a summary. It summarizes the fic. Finished this during the Finish What You Started 2026 Event!

For both art and fic, when posting, make sure to include the proper fandom tags! General fandom name tags, ship specific, and character specific are all appropriate (as long as they appear in the work) and should be included. For this event, make sure to include #IFinishedWhatIStarted2026 so it can be found for the Finished It Friday collection posts.

For visual media specifically, please include alt text and/or an image description for your piece! Even a short one helps everyone enjoy your work, and it is more likely to be spread if it is accessible. Remember to tag for flashing lights or eyestrain if applicable.

For bsky formatting, see the thread here. Every site is a little different, so utilize those differences to your advantage.

What techniques or formats have worked for you in the past? Do you have any tips I haven’t included? Sound off in the notes and reblogs!

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It’s the first Tuesday of the event, so it’s time for a Tools Tuesday! Tools Tuesday is a weekly part of the Finish What You Started event where I share various resources I have found to help everyone complete their WIP. Have a resource you want to share? Send it in a message and I’ll take a look!

Today is about motivation to start and setting easy goals to keep the momentum going.

Starting a project can be the scariest part. Good news! If you’re participating in this event, you’ve already completed that step! But finishing is daunting, especially for long projects with no end in sight, or ones that you’ve struggling with for a long time.

When you have a big project, especially one that you may have started and put down years ago, it can be intimidating to pick it back up. Give yourself a few minutes to review what you already have done. Read through the last part you wrote, read your notes, check the pattern, etc. If you need to, make notes about what you have, where you remember you wanted to go, and what is inspiring you now. That scene you got stuck on might make sense now, or you see another angle you could draw that tricky pose from. You could even go in a whole new direction.

Be kind to yourself if you feel stuck. You can’t intimidate or yell yourself into productivity!

When you’re ready to work, it can help to do some warmup stretches, especially for artists and sewists, but writers, musicians, and others craftspeople benefit from a good warmup stretch too! If you’re on the discord, check the general resources channel for wrist stretches. And stretch during breaks! This is a stretch guide I keep on my phone, to remind me to loosen up. made by @/tizzymcwizzy

[basic ID: an infographic of a pink figure demonstrating a variety of hand, arm, and upper body stretches. End ID.]

If it’s not distracting, set the mood for your work with an applicable playlist or soundscape. Make sure you won’t be interrupted or distracted during your work time by silencing notifications and minimizing other windows. Let yourself focus on this one thing.

When you do start, set a small goal. It can be word count based or time based, whatever makes sense for your project. Make it very achievable: maybe just five minutes or 100 words. The thrill of reaching that goal can help carry you through another 5 minutes, another 100 words. If you struggle just to get through that goal, congratulate yourself on making your session goal! You can go do something else now. Decreasing the pressure on yourself can help get creative energy flowing. When you make your goal consistently, you can up it, but not too much.

There’s a famous anecdote that whenever author Terry Pratchett sat down to write, he set a goal of 400 words. Whether he wrote more or not, he did his 400. By the time of his death, Terry Pratchet had written and published over 40 novels. For myself, I like to set session/day goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals. That way even if my progress isn’t linear, I can see myself approaching where I want to be. Incremental goals can feel really good! But if holding yourself to a number doesn’t help, find what does.

If you want help from others also working on wips, come join the discord! We have a space for accountability buddies to help keep you on track and a place to write during timed sprints, as well as many resources. This link should not expire!

This Tools Tuesday is all about tagging, for when you’re ready to post your finished work on Archive of Our Own or any other site that uses tags! AO3, as the most popular fic posting site, will be the focus.

To begin: what are tags? And why do we use them?

Tags are keywords used to describe a fic or post. They can serve a variety of functions, but at their core they tell a viewer what to expect when they click in. On some sites (like Tumblr), they are at the bottom of the post or in the body of the post (like bsky). On AO3, they are the third thing seen, after title and author.

As seen in this handy infographic from SummerofSpock on tumblr, tags on A03 fall into 5 rough categories: Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme.

[full image ID in ALT text. Infographic titled “Tags are Tricky…a quick and dirty guide” with tag example lists in the categories of Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme. Each box is a different pink, in a gradient. End ID.]

source: https://summerofspock.tumblr.com/post/698388759652319232/mostlyinthemorning-i-kind-of-suck-at-tagging-so

Not every fic might use every category, and there are certainly tags that overlap categories. There’s also what I consider a 6th category, which is Author Commentary (no beta we die like xx, character needs a hug, why did i do that much research for a single paragraph, etc).

All of that aside, why should you use tags?

They help readers find and enjoy your fic! The two main uses of tags when searching is Seeking and Avoidance.

Seeking is when a reader really wants to read a particular thing, like they want fix-its only or just Modern AUs. Once they narrow it down to fandom, these are the tags they’ll type into the search bar. If your work isn’t properly tagged, it won’t show up, even if it’s the epitome of a Coffee Shop AU and that’s the term they search. Generously tag so readers can find you!

Avoidance is excluding a fic from consideration due to a particular theme or topic. Maybe their pet just died, so any mention of Animal Death is out. Maybe they are really tired of a particular ship, or are narrowing down for a rarepair. On AO3, there’s a section in the filter bar for excluding tags (see below, boxed in blue). Readers can eliminate what they don’t want to see, which is wonderful! They can select exactly what they want; not every fic is for every reader. Generously tag, so readers can be selective!

[ID: the Archive of Our Own filter bar Exclude section. End ID.]

Still unsure how to tag your work? Or stuck on other aspects, like ratings and warnings? The Fanfic Author’s Guide to Metatext (As Used on Ao3) by Eiiri is an incredible, in-depth explanation of everything contained within the metatext (tags+warnings) block on an AO3 fic. I — this event’s mod — use this text as part of my determining for rating guidelines, and I have found it extremely helpful for tagging my own works. View in full on tumblr and AO3 at these links

full text in post:

AO3 version, from which you can download as a pdf, epub, or other format:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30986561/chapters/76535018

Additionally, this event requires certain tags be honored and present as needed, primarily common content warnings or hot topics. See the rules post for more information. These tags at least need to be present in any promo post that are applicable, though tagging the fic itself is always good practice. After all, tags are like the ingredient label of a fic.

Still not sure what to tag and want more inspiration? This post from @/insanitysilver has great links to further help, as well as an example of a tagged fake fic!

~

Have a question not answered above? Is there something important I missed? Want to see a post about tagging for Tumblr, Twitter, or another site specifically? Start a discussion in the replies and reblogs! Thanks for participating, and good luck with your wip!

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