Just Write Damn You

1) reading a longfic chapter by chapter, leaving an increasingly emotional comment on every chapter, descends into keysmashes near the end: outstanding

2) read one fic by accident, clicked the author name, now working steadily through the backlog and commenting on everything, I wake up to an AO3 inbox full of enthusiasm: precious beyond words

‘‘i don’t need to be anywhere. just being here with you is enough.’‘ 

‘‘can i have your number?’‘ ‘‘at least –’‘ ‘‘let me guess, invite you out to dinner first?’‘ ‘‘i was going to say kiss me.’‘ 

‘‘[…] you know, I used to believe that. but then I met you. so perhaps something good did come out of it.’‘ 

‘‘i’m happy to be here with you.’‘ 

‘‘i loved you. i still do. i should have told you long ago, before i let you slip away.’‘ 

‘‘doesn’t matter if you’re a whole ocean away from me. we will always only be a heart apart.’‘

‘‘i grew to discover that love won’t always be enough.’‘ 

‘‘[…] but that doesn’t mean that your love was insufficient. doesn’t mean that your love wasn’t enough, or that you weren’t loved. you were. you’ll always be.’‘

‘‘home? where’s home?’‘ ‘‘you’re my home.’‘

‘‘it’s a trustful thing, to be so vulnerable. to let somebody into your heart when you’ve got it covered in wounds and arrows from those who swore to protect it […] i have trusted those, a bunch, who would throw me to the sharks would it benefit them. he isn’t one of them.’‘ 

‘‘i’m happy when i’m around you.’‘

‘‘when i’m around her, i feel like there’s no worries to be had in the world.’‘ 

‘’i wanted to kiss him. i’ve been wanting to kiss him for quite a while.’‘

‘‘a broken heart is a small price to pay when you’re not the one who has to pay it.’‘

‘‘i feel safe with you. i always have.’‘

‘‘but he worships her?’‘ ‘‘in ways beyond our imagination.’‘

‘‘did you think it would hurt? to love somebody who doesn’t love you back?’‘ ‘‘i think it’s just a matter of moving on.’‘

‘‘at least we have each other.’‘

‘‘i don’t want it to be this way. i don’t want to live the rest of my life, if it means ridding *nameofcharacter* of hers.’‘ 

‘‘you’re my best friend, and i love you.’‘ ‘’i love you, too.’’ ‘‘don’t look at me like that.’‘ ‘‘but i do. i really do love you.’‘

‘‘she’s not just some girl. she’s the only girl i’ve ever loved.’‘

‘‘and i know this, i’m never going to love anybody the way i love you.’‘

‘‘i don’t want another love if he won’t love me the way you do, if he won’t make me feel the things you do. and he won’t.’‘ 

‘‘you deserve everything. i hope i can give it to you someday.’‘ 

‘‘and i’m thinking that at this point, we’re so terrible that we deserve each other.’‘ 

‘‘you have never been second best to me. my heart has always been yours, even long before i realized it myself.’‘

‘‘i don’t see a future with anybody else. that’s why i’m here.’‘

‘‘we’re finally happy. and i’m not going to let anybody take that from us.’‘

‘‘i think you’re one of the most amazing people i’ve ever met.’‘

‘‘the things i feel for her, is unlike anything i’ve ever felt before in my life.’‘

‘‘you’re so good. the world doesn’t deserve it.’‘

‘‘you can’t deny that there’s something there. i’ve seen the way you look at him.’‘ 

‘‘you make him happy. i’ve never seen him smile like that with anyone before.’‘

‘‘just shut up and kiss me.’‘ 

(based on things that yours truly notices as an editor-in-training. This list is in no way complete, and will probably be added to as I continue to find repeated mistakes) 

Dialogue

Use beats in your dialogue to break it up. Even “said” can make a very effective beat between lines. 

(No beats: “It’s not lethal. Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.” // Beats: “It’s not lethal,” he said. “Just highly dangerous with a good chance of being mutilated.”)

Note how the break allows a bit of a pause for ~dramatic effect 

thinking of dialogue, use punctuation and distinct speech patterns! “Life, uh, finds a way.” is an iconic line anyway, but Jeff Goldblum’s signature verbal tic gives it character. 

It’s okay if characters stutter. Don’t let the condemnation of stuttering characters as “cringey” in fanfic put you off. (and on that note, fuck cringe culture. Seriously. It saps all the fun out of creativity and fun is important.)

Start! A! New! Line! Whenever! Someone! New! Speaks!!

DO NOT FEAR THE WORD “SAID” 

Setting & Blocking

 Use the landscape and settings around your character, and always, always remember a scene’s blocking. Where is everything in relation to your characters? Have you left someone holding a coffee cup for the last three scenes? Did you lose a character somewhere along the way? 

using the contents of a scene is also great for fight sequences. 

Similarly, large character casts are hard to keep track of so don’t be afraid to break them up. Sending someone off somewhere else can create some nifty little subplots. 

Keep a personal note of how time passes. Trust me, it’s incredibly helpful to you as a writer and also for future readers. 

Characters

Character growth does not have to be positive. Sometimes characters fail or suffer or get their motivations twisted up, and they finish the book as a villain rather than a hero. 

All that matters is that a character changes throughout the plot in a way that readers can see; the sort of change they go through is entirely up to you. 

scrap the idea that someone has to deserve a redemption arc. They probably don’t deserve it, which is the whole point. So don’t be afraid to make your villains seem completely irredeemable. 

and you don’t need to redeem your antagonists in order to make them complex, sympathetic villains, anyway. Sometimes people get so stuck in their beliefs that they can’t see another way and it goes too far. Not everyone comes back from that. 

Also, motivations and goals can absolutely change. That’s okay. You just need to have something that drives your character so that your readers are rooting for them. 

Protagonists don’t need to be heroic. How you define the protagonists and antagonists in your story is based entirely on the morality in your story-world, NOT the moral ideas in the real world. What counts as a complex protagonist in a world torn apart by biological warfare will be very different than one living in our world. 

Prose & Grammar

simple prose is just fine and you don’t need to fluff it up for pretty quotes.

Remember to vary your sentence structures and length. Start smaller and build it up, drawing your reader’s attention. 

“And” and “But” are very valid sentence starters that are great for communicating the tone of internal narrative. You’re allowed to tweak grammar if that’s helpful for telling the story, it just needs to be accessible. Test out what you’ve written on other people. 

The good thing about first drafts: you can put off figuring out worldbuilding details, character and place names, and other peripheral stuff to the second draft

Me: *later* Alright time to write!

Me: *staring at where I left off*

Dear fans on tumblr: