I Should Be Working Right Now

Because a lot of people have asked me how I write so much and so fast

Write every day. Deadass. Not a joke. Not a throwaway tip. One sentence. One paragraph. One page. You have to work the writing muscle every day or it gets weak. You lose it. Use it or lose it. This is non-negotiable. Literally one sentence. It will trigger another one every time so just write one. Even if you delete it later, getting the practice in helps. It's all about repitition.

No idea is a bad idea. It's just not fully formed yet. No sentence is a bad sentence. It just hasn't been revised yet. Never tell yourself something is bad. Shift the mindset to everything can be improved. I find myself getting better with every fic and every draft.

Get used to writing on your phone. You have to be able to write whenever the ideas strike you if you want to write a lot and write well. So use your notes app or Google Docs or whatever. But get used to writing on your phone. Your thumbs will hurt. That's okay. Write waiting for the doctor. Write in line at the bank. Write on the bus. Write literally anywhere. Stop waiting for the perfect mood to strike or the perfect time or the perfect environment. Write when you think of something.

Always be thinking about it. And in tandem, let yourself be bored. Stop doom scrolling. Take a walk. Listen to music and think about your next scene. I'm literally ALWAYS planning a scene if I'm not actively focusing on another task.

Read. Read all the time. And don't just read. Think about it. Analyze scenes that work. Analyze why they work. How characters are developed. Do this with all forms of storytelling. Movies. TV shows. Graphic design even. Why did it hit so hard? How did they manage to so efficiently convey character traits?

Observe people. Your friends. Screenshot text conversations—use them later. Coworkers. Family. Strangers. Analyze different personality types and how they play off each other. Become trauma informed. Understand how people's pasts affect their behavior now. If you write romance, learn about how different parenting styles affect how people approach romance. Look into attachment theory. I'm not joking. Make psychology a hobby. Read about it. Take a class. Understand how people behave and WHY. This will make your character interactions more realistic. Also, go outside. Touch grass and talk to people.

Understand yourself and your own biases. Journal. Deconstruct your own personality. Figure out what's bleeding onto the page. Keep it or discard it.

Talk to people you know about their jobs and hobbies. Learn about them. Keep a list. A bank of stuff like this to use for side characters. It helps flesh them out and build out your world. It's okay to steal traits from people you know. It will always be more genuine to give characters hobbies and jobs you know about than try and make them up. If you have to make them up, utilize Tiktok and search "day in the life" videos for the type of person you're writing about.

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

I was on the phone with police the other day describing someone and he was over here talking *over* dispatch to give me details I already knew... because I had paused.... to give dispatch time to type.... and I guess he thought I didn't know???

Like man I appreciate the spirit but I literally taught YOU how to do that, do you think I forgot??

Like I bequeathed unto you my Stone of Power and in doing so lost all arcane wisdom???

and while I USED to think it was because I was a girl and they thought girls were stupid, I have come to understand that really, it comes from more of a benign and congnitively youthful void where "other people know things that I don't" and "sometimes things don't make sense to me because there are things I am not yet aware of"

and this can be directed towards anyone they haven't subconciously identified as a Wiser Authority

Because if "people who might know more than me" is an unspoken category that applies only to Professors, Guardians, Role Models, and Peers- and NONE of those hypothetical persons LOOKS like "girl", in their head, they aren't treating girls like they're dumb- they're treating girls THE EXACT SAME WAY they treat EVEYONE ELSE...... who isn't more intelligent.

No wonder they're always so blind to it! They're looking for a big solid block that says "BELIEF THAT WOMEN ARE STUPID", and they're COMPLETELY MISSING the big, empty hole where "BELEIEF THAT ANY WOMEN MIGHT KNOW MORE THAN ME" should go

I was driving through Vermont with a friend, and we pulled over at a tiny shop offering Maple Items. We were on the state highway, not the interstate, so "pulling over" meant "squeezing my tiny car into a parking bay the size of a broad highway shoulder."

As we got out of the car, an older woman emerged from behind the building where she had been pruning her roses. She introduced herself as Tammy.

Her shop offered the promised variety of Maple, but also a number of small antiques and a plethora of dog figurines, plaques, and clearly-hand-stitched garden flags.

A huge purple ribbon hung on the wall behind the register, along with many pictures of small dogs. This was no county fair ribbon. It was the size of my torso. The material had the soft sheen of actual silk.

As I placed my purchases on the counter, I asked, "Do you... Breed dogs?"

Yes. She does. She has bred Yorkies for the last 40 years. Her mother bred Yorkies before her. The purple ribbon was from her national championship winning Yorkie.

You may be expecting that the infodump was going to be about Yorkies.

It was not.

It was about 40 years of drama in the Yorkie breeding community. Where – you must understand – the judging at shows is often about who you're in with, not about the dogs. This is especially true when Tammy's opponents win anything.

And Tammy's mother! Well. Phyllis has been on the Yorkie scene since Yorkies were invented. Because of this, many women of equally venerable age hold deep grudges against Phyllis. The sort of grudges that result in episodes of Midsommar Murders.

This led to deep injustices against Phyllis on the part of judges and prevented her dogs from winning so often she retired from the scene. Judging is all about who you're friends with, after all.

After 20 years in hiding, Phyllis – the One True Queen of Yorkie Breeding – hatched a plot. She may have been out of the show circuit, but she was still breeding dogs. She entered an absolutely perfect bitch in the national competition, but sent her with a handler rather than go in person.

None of the usurpers knew who this dog belonged to, and in dog-breeding circles this Does Not Happen. This could have resulted in further injustices, but Phyllis was crafty. She knew this tournament was being judged by a man from the UK, who knew naught of the drama in the US Yorkie Empire.

With these advantages – and being the best dog there – Phyllis's bitch won the highest honor at the show.

Incensed by this insult to their ill-gotten supremacy, the other owners descended on the handler after the show, demanding to know for whom he was working.

"Phyllis," said he.

The name of the overthrown queen evoked horror in the usurpers.

"PHYLLIS!? She's still ALIVE!???"

Yes, Phyllis yet lived, and this bitch – the dog, not the woman – went on to mother Tammy's current dogs. One of whom, Lucy-Fur, is the reincarnation of Tammy's sister (also Lucy). This is certain for two reasons.

Firstly, Sister Lucy absolutely went straight to Hell upon her death, and Lucy-Fur the dog is positively as evil as Sister Lucy was.