Tostikat

In the story, he's in love with her.

“I can’t imagine—“ SHH. You don’t need to. Ask me. Ask me what I’m noticing. Ask me what it feels like. Ask about his voice, his habits, his hands. If you are curious about death, ask. If you have questions that seem inappropriate, no they aren’t. Let’s find out together. Because I certainly have no idea what I’m doing. I had one dad and he died and that has never happened to me before and will never happen again and I’m starting to walk down the road of holding that grief for the rest of my days.

By the way, my Dad had brilliant blue eyes I can’t quite explain the colour but they were like sunlight sparkling off the ocean and a smile that brought you pure joy.

⊹ standing too close. like just barely not touching. why are their shoulders breathing on each other??

⊹ conversations that sound normal but feel like foreplay. “pass the salt” has never been so loaded.

⊹ one of them says something flirty and the other freezes for 0.2 seconds like “oh.”

⊹ eyes dropping to lips and then—back up. with effort.

⊹ holding eye contact just a little too long. like... are they gonna kiss or duel??

⊹ unintentional physical contact that lasts one second too long and now they’re both broken

⊹ a hand on the small of the back. that’s it. that’s the tweet.

⊹ tension so thick that other characters start noticing like “hey are you two okay?” (they are not)

⊹ “accidental” sleepovers. “oh no there’s only one bed.” yeah. suuuure.

⊹ biting back a smile. biting back a moan. biting anything really.

⊹ one of them walks away and the other has to physically restrain themselves from watching the hips

You don’t need grand ideas or epic plot twists to write something powerful. Small, honest moments can be just as meaningful as world-changing events.

Happy New Year! ❤️

I’m honored that you asked me this question — thank you! My answer is a mash-up of things I’ve learned from classes, books, articles, literature, work, and probably a big dollop of life experience. Also, I don’t know much about RPGs, so my advice is limited to fanfic.

First, fanfic doesn’t need a plot. To my mind, one of the many wonderful aspects of fanfic is its flexibility. So you can write a scene or a series of (dis)connected scenes and that can be a fanfic. You can write dialogue-only or description-only. If you know what you love to write, consider leaning into that for enjoyment as you work to improve other skills that are important to your concept of what kind of writer you want to be.

Second, you asked about plot, so let’s go ahead and look at plot. There are lots of articles about different types of plots and how to choose one. I look at those articles and my brain locks up. It’s too much, too vast, too impersonal. Instead, for me, plot starts where everything else starts: character. What does your main character want, need, yearn for, desire, fear? What are your main character’s thoughts, dreams, nightmares? What knots their stomach, raises goosebumps on their skin, gives them the trembles?

And why can’t they have it?

Character arc — the way your character grows, changes, becomes better or worse (or both) while remaining true to themself — is, to me, inextricable from plot. Your character has to learn, to grow. Your character has to mess up, make mistakes, be an imperfect striver for … something. Their path toward that something is your plot.

If you outline (and that can be as simple as jotting down a sentence or two per chapter or per scene), then the character arc should be aligned with your plot (loosely or closely, depending on the work) and your character should have uneven growth (and other characters to interact with who also learn and grow and change). Life doesn’t have a steady pace, so neither should your plot. Stories need to breathe, which gives characters the air they need to doubt, to process, to question — and, hopefully, in the end, have gone on a journey (mental or physical or something else) that you, as the author, are gratified to have provided.

In other words, plot isn’t just what happens — it’s why what happens matters.

I eagerly want to let you know that this is VERY helpful and honestly, you give me a lot of motivation and courage to get into writing again. I was, too, looking up a ton of pages on writing, but my mind started to get very entangled in everything I read and it was quite overwhelming. your approach gives me a new and fresh perspective because I was really caught up in thinking i have to follow a shitton of rules. I'm ancouraged now :) I will totally save this and work through this while going on my writing adventure ☺️ And you're so sweet for writing you're proud of me! 🥺 ❤️

Here’s yet another reason why: You’re not qualified.

If you can even take the step of believing that such “help” would actually be useful, you’ve proven a fundamental lack of comprehension of what critique is supposed to accomplish in the editorial process. Namely:

If critique comes before a work is posted/published, the purpose of the critique is to improve the work. This follows discussions about editorial boundaries, critique scope, authorial intent, and so much more. Critique, like writing, is an art and a science. How will a given author best respond to a certain suggestion? What praise is essential for the author to hone a certain skill? How does a grammar quirk serve the work or why should the author be encouraged to conform to established norms? Needless to say, the person offering the critique and the author must mutually respect each other for this to function properly.

If critique comes after a work is posted/published, the purpose of the critique (e.g., a book review) is to advise potential readers, not “correct” the author.

Bottom line: Banging negative opinions onto someone’s posted work isn’t critique. At best, it’s rude and proves the “critiquer’s” ignorance of how actual critique is supposed to work. At worst, it’s an insult to the gift economy/community expectations on AO3 and can hurt authors. Be better than that, and either back button out or kudos and/or leave a nice comment.

Thanks.

You have no idea how many people lurk on your work. No idea how many times people go back to revisit your work. How big they smile when they simply think about your work. How fast their heart beats, how excited they get when they see that you posted something.

People are shy with their feedback. Sometimes it’s because they’re simply shy. Other times it’s because they assume you already know how great and talented you are. Could be both.

This lil one-minute clip (Mrs. Columbo, s2e4) is so so extremely important to me.

Fake marriage fic 💒