#writing help

Skin: Peace of Mind: A03

If you struggle with imposter syndrome, anxiety, or find yourself constantly checking stats and comparing your work to others, you are not alone. It is so easy to let numbers steal the joy of writing.

I made a custom AO3 site skin to help reclaim that joy, as a way to help out a friend. Think of it as a complete "digital blindfold." It hides the pressure of the numbers so you can just focus on the pure love of creating. I'm using it myself now, and it has been such a relief. I know there may be others like it, but I wanted to help my friend immediately, so I came up with the code myself.

Here is exactly what this code does when you apply it:

Hides individual work stats: It completely erases the count for Hits, Kudos, Bookmarks, Comments, Word Count, and Chapters on search results, work pages, and bookmark lists.

Hides the Statistics details: It blocks the main stats page.

Erases the Kudos list: You won't see the list of usernames or guests who left kudos at the bottom of any work.

Hides comment metadata: It hides the header info of comments, removing the focus from comment counts and dates, allowing you to just focus on reading the actual messages if you choose to open them.

Basically, it turns AO3 back into a quiet, pressure-free library where you can just write and read without a single number grading your worth.

I know the title is bland-- but hey! Give me a chance. This is my first time giving writing advice so I thought of starting with a topic I consider myself to be actually good at. Characters.

Since the ai accusations are still being thrown around, here's how i personally like to use these GASP ai telltales. 🦄✨

Em Dashes (—)

To emphasize a shift / action / thought.

They're accusing us—actually accusing us—of using AI.

To add drama.

They dismissed our skills as AI—didn't even think twice, the dimwits—and believed they were onto something.

To insert a sudden thought. Surely they wouldn't do that to us—would they?

To interrupt someone's speech. "Hey, please don't say that. I honed my craft through years of blood and tears—" "Shut up, prompter."

To interrupt someone's thoughts / insert a sudden event.

We're going to get those kudos. We're going to get those reblogs—

A chronically online Steve commented, “it sounds like ai, idk.”

Semi Colons ( ; )

To join two closely related independent sentences / connect ideas.

Not only ChatGPT is capable of correct punctuation; who do you think it learned from in the first place?

Ultimate pro tip: use them whenever the fudge you want. You don't owe anyone your creative process. 🌈

⟢ "You're not afraid of me." - "Should I be." - "Most people are." - "I'm not most people." - "No. You really aren't."

⟢ "I've been alive for three hundred years and you're the first thing in a very long time that felt like a reason."

⟢ "What are you." - "Dangerous." - "To me specifically." - "...no. Not to you. Never to you."

⟢ "I don't have a heartbeat." - "I know." - "That doesn't bother you." - "Your hands are warm. Nothing else matters."

⟢ "I've watched civilizations fall. I've watched everything end and begin again. I have never once felt like this."

⟢ "You should run." - "From you?" - "From what I am." - "What you are is currently making me coffee. I think I'll stay."

⟢ "I'm not human." - "I know." - "You've always known." - "Since the beginning." - "And you stayed." - "And I stayed."

⟢ "I've done terrible things." - "Before me." - "Yes." - "Are you going to do them again." - "Not if I can help it." - "Then we're okay."

⟢ "You smell like—" - "If you finish that sentence I'm leaving." - "—home. I was going to say home."

⟢ "I've been pretending to be human for so long I forgot what it felt like to just... be. Until you."

⟢ "What happens when you get angry." - "You don't want to know." - "I'm still here aren't I." - "...yes. You are."

⟢ "I can hear your heartbeat." - "What does it sound like." - "Right now? Terrified." - "Right now? Yeah." - "Of me." - "Of how much I—yeah. Of you adjacent things."

⟢ "You're immortal." - "Yes." - "What do you do with someone like me." - "I don't know. I've never wanted to before."

⟢ "I've eaten kings. I want you to know that before this goes further." - "Noted. Were they terrible kings." - "Mostly." - "Then we're fine."

⟢ "I don't know how to do this. Any of this. I've never—" - "Neither have I." - "You're human." - "And you're not. We're both figuring it out."

⟢ "Stay." - "I always leave eventually." - "Stay anyway." - "You'd age. You'd—" - "Stay with me anyway."

⟢ "I can feel everything you feel." - "Everything?" - "Every single thing." - "That's—" - "Overwhelming? Yes. Worth it? Also yes."

⟢ "You're the most dangerous thing I've ever encountered." - "I'm making you soup." - "The most dangerous thing I've ever encountered is making me soup and I don't know what to do with that."

⟢ "I've loved people before. I've watched them die. I swore I wouldn't do it again." - "And." - "And then there was you. And I'm apparently a fool regardless of how many centuries I've had to learn better."

⟢ "What do you want from me." - "Nothing you haven't already given." - "Which is." - "Everything. You've already given me everything and I don't think you even noticed."

⟢ "You make me want to be something worth being."

⟢ "I will still be here long after you're gone. I want you to know I've already decided that's worth it. You're worth the grief of it."