Twelve's Writing Stuff

i think every publisher should have to institute a ban on books that fail what i’m calling the “little life” and “what else?” tests

I don't like this as general advice because it's basically uninterpretable outside of its context. What on earth is actually wrong with writing about your dead sister or your life? We don't know. Morrison's and Glück's students had more than we get here. Glück's student knows her own piece, has an easier time figuring out what weaknesses Glück saw in it, and probably got to talk more about it; Morrison's students had a lot more background statements to read her comments against. So the specific audiences of these remakes could make something useful out of it. But anyone reading this in Post Form is just going to project whatever they think Glück or Morrison meant (in the best case scenario they've read the authors' works but many won't have). So people aren't even really going to take away any good writing guidance except what they already thought, mutated by these memeified remarks.

important addition i forgot that not everyone might know. similar to how ao3 bookmarks work, you can also link to non-ao3 fanworks using this format. so, for instance, if theres some fanart on tumblr that inspired you to write the fic? you can link that fanart to your fic!

some of my OCs are trans but I don't know their deadnames. that's personal, they don't need to tell me that

Yes….yes GOOD this is the good stuff right here. I’m going to incorporate some of these ASAP ESPECIALLY the pushing the air but to clear it of your mistakes

draw women in post-apocalyptic world settings with armpit hair, leg hair, bushy brows and pubic hair ya cowards,, draw brown women/women with dark thick hair with arm hair and happy trails and sideburns and mustaches i’m sick of seeing silky smooth soapy clean make up wearing post apocalyptic dolled up women next to stinky sweaty crusty men with dirty nails and sweaty clothes and sweaty greasy hair and 3m long ugly beards

or, if you must depict women maintaining that shit, at least be interesting about it. I can actually buy someone shaving/putting on makeup if that’s their way of coping, something they do to tether themselves to the past or an ellusive feeling of normalcy. So show me the EFFORT put in, yeah? Show that woman risking a zombie horde because she spotted a fucking tube of scarlet lipstick and christ she hasn’t seen that color in five years but it’s what she wore on her first date with her now-dead husband. Show me the girl who is quietly starting to fucking lose it but covers it up with fanatical commitment to her appearance because if she gets these eyebrows right, maybe no one will notice how she stares at things that aren’t there. I find it completely plausible that some women would go to incredible lengths to maintaining their appearance, because they’ve been socialized all their lives to caring about it, because it’s a part of their identity. So show me how that part gets negotiated with once the world has gone to hell.

Official graveyard post

funniest part of reviving ocs i made as a kid is being like "yeah i always imagined them as a mature member of the group who really has their shit together" [checks their info] "what the fuck do you mean they were supposed to be fifteen years old"

You wrote about murder?? Murder is illegal?? You wrote about this dude killing someone and you didn't even say 'murder is bad' at the start of the book, wht wtf, wtf is wrong with you? I can't believe you condone murder, I can't believe you're pro murber, oh my fucking God don'ttalk to me when ou literally kill people, freak. I'm calling the cops, what the fuck, I'm shaking and crying.

people talk about their writer friends stealing their weird habits or borrowing backstories but what you don't know is that we will steal your house. layout location garden colour scheme décor the whole lot. i have childhood friends with entire abodes immortalised in my stories. i have people i met once who would be able to recognise ancient six-month lease domiciles from a decade and a half ago. i'm in your house i'm in your blueprints and i am taking the lot.

some people really do need to start reminding themselves that the answer to "why didn't the character just do [something entirely different]" is often simply "because then there wouldn't be a story"

opened my wip and didnt immediately write a thousand new beautiful and perfect words so i'm going to smash my laptop with a hammer

blorbo sickfic that turns into a possession fic halfway through

what does this meannnn