Latest Posts by lokisbur - Page 3

having adhd and being a creator is like being on a timer. oh sorry you have this art idea? well you have approximately 12 hours to start it and 6 hours to finish the task or else you will lose interest and inevitably move on. oh you have an idea for a one-shot? well you’d better finish it in a day unless you want to banish it to your wips forever. ding dong bitch

Writing Accessibility PSA

Please avoid using long strings of characters as line breaks in your writing - these are not screen reader/TTS friendly!

Every ‘°’ will be read as ‘degree’ - can you imagine how long it takes to read out a string of 25? Let alone more complicated combinations of characters (eg. imagine listening to TTS read out ~*~ |°| ~*~ multiple times per line break)?

A good rule of thumb is to stick with short, 2-3 character line breaks (eg. I don’t find — or *** too egregious to listen to). Your readers can tell there’s been a scene change whether you use two or twenty em-dashes, but if you use twenty, some of us might have to listen for 30 seconds to read the next scene. If you’re more concerned about aesthetics, you can insert an image of your aesthetically pleasing line break with alt text simply reading ‘line break’ for accessibility.

Don’t feel bad if this is something you’ve never thought about before - now you know better and can make your writing more accessible moving forward!

I would like to invite any other screenreader users to add their own thoughts or preferences to this post. We’re not a monolith and there’s a variety to how different softwares interact with repeating character strings and images with alt text, so there’s bound to be some conflicting opinions on what I’ve suggested above. Let’s try to make the stories we share accessible for everyone :]

As we begin the month of October and many of the prompt fest such as Inktober, Kinktober, Whumptober, Flufftober, Podfic Fest, and all the others that will bring new content, a friendly hint:

Do. Not. Do. This.

Reposting artwork, fic, podfics, whatever without permission or credit is stealing. It’s also just a shitty thing to do at all times but especially right now in today’s climate with AI. I know it’s sad to lose content you get comfort from but this is not the answer. All it’s going to do is drive creators away.

We share our creations with love. Please don’t be an entitled asshole in return.

“why would you write fics for small, unpopular fandoms? you’re not gonna reach that many hits in fandoms not many people know about” ?? because I’m not writing fics for hits or kudos, I’m writing them for me because these characters are my blorbos and I have so many ideas, so much thoughts about them that my brain might explode if I don’t write them out.

I just had a discussion with my friend about fanfiction and how we tend to assume that women are the writers without any actual proof. Then I said, hey, I know fanfiction written by gay and trans dudes. But then I remembered, wait, I think I know one writer who just must be cis het based on his work. Anyway, all writers, be honest, who are you?

Please reblog if you're interested in the results.

I've finished backing all my fics on a drive.

If ever you do not have an AO3 account but still want to read my work, you can come ask me in DMs.

By accessing my work, no matter the platform, you are forbidden to claim it as your own, to use it without my permission and to feed it to any and all kind of AI.

You are however permitted to share the AO3 links, to have fun with any kind of inspiration it gives you.

If you ever are inspired and share the fruit of your fun, think about tagging me so I can see what you've done!

Oh fuck me

So hummm

You the work skin isn't downloaded when you download the cork, which means that I have at least two works broken lmaoooo

I have no strength at the moment to look further into it, but I guess I'll have to make a secondary file or look how I can change the work skin to make it work??? idk

Chapter: 1/1

Words: 933

Language: English

Fandom: 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Applies

Relationships: Klapollo, Klavier Gavin/Apollo Justice

Characters: Apollo Justice, Klavier Gavin

There are fics in there that I don't fucking remember writting it's wild

Editing Checklist

Editing Software:

StyleWriter 4 is fantastic. It’s an add-on for Microsoft word and has a 14-day trial period. It goes through your text, picks out “glue words”, misspellings, long sentences, homonyms, passive tense, shows your reading grade level, and more.

Editminion *FREE* checks for adverbs, weak words, passive voice, cliches, and homonyms among other things.

Pro Writing Aid is another online editor. It is mostly free, but offers more features if you pay.

AutoCrit offers free analysis for under 500 words, otherwise you have to pay for more text and more editing features.

Paper Rater offers a free service for editing, but it is designed for essays.

Formatting Checklist: This follows the general guide of formatting a manuscript in Microsoft word. However, some literary agents and editors have their own requirements.

Under the paragraph option, change the special indentation to first line at .5”. Change to document to double spaced.

There should be no spaces between paragraphs.

When showing a scene break, center # on a blank line.

Font should be easy to read. Courier New and Times New Roman are preferred at size 12.

All margins should be 1”.

Start chapters on a new page and put the chapter title 1/3 down the page. Write the chapter like so: CHAPTER ONE - CHAPTER TITLE. Press return 4 - 6 times before starting the text of the chapter.

For the header, put YOUR NAME/BOOK TITLE/PAGE NUMBER in the upper right-hand corner. Start this header on the first page of the first chapter.

The cover page of your manuscript should have your name, word count, and contact information in the upper left-hand corner.

The title on the cover page should be in all caps. Your name should be underneath in all caps. If you use a pen name, write YOUR REAL NAME (WRITING AS PEN NAME).

At the end of the manuscript, start a new page and write END.

Self-Editing Checklist:

Spelling:

If you are using Microsoft word for your word processor, use the spell check. After that, go through the manuscript line by line to make sure everything is spelled right. You may have used “form” instead of “from” and skipped it because Microsoft word did not see it as misspelled.

Printing out your work or viewing it in another way (such as a pdf on an ereader) helps find these mistakes.

Beta readers can find what you missed as well.

Use editing software to check homonyms or look up a list of homonyms and find them in your document using ctrl + f. Check these words to make sure you used the right spelling.

Grammar and Style:

First use Microsoft word’s grammar checker, but be aware that it is not always right. Check grammar girl if you are unsure.

For dialogue, you can always pick up a professionally published book and look at how the dialogue tags are used, where commas are placed, and when other punctuation is used.

If you’re in school and your English teacher isn’t too busy, have them take a look at it.

Look out for prepositions. Most of the time, you can omit these words and the sentence will still make sense. Beginner writers use a lot of these in their writing and it slows the flow.

Check for adverbs. You’d be surprised at how many you use in your writing, sometimes up to five a page. Using a few in narration is okay, but only a few. Delete adverbs you find, especially those that end in “-ly”, and rewrite the sentences in necessary.

Delete gerunds and forms of “to be” if writing in past tense. Instead of “were running”, write “ran”.

Check subject-verb agreement.

Use correct dialogue tags. People don’t bark their words. They shout.

Two digit numbers should be written as words (twenty-seven) while numbers with more than two digits should be written with numbers (123).

Avoid passive verbs.

Vary sentence length.

Show with the five senses rather than telling.

Most of the time, you can delete the word “that”.

Avoid using “unique” or “significant” words too often.

Consistency:

Make sure all your font is the same size and type.

Make sure you have no plot holes. Use the comment feature in Microsoft Word to track these plots.

Make sure your time line is consistent.

The tone should fit the scene.

There should be one POV per scene. Unless you’re a brilliant writer and can pull off third person omniscient.

Verb tense should be consistent.

Keep track of the details you release of people, places, and things. The reader will remember if in one chapter you say your protagonist has blue eyes and in another you say green.

Pacing:

The whole book should flow in and out of fast paced scenes to keep your reader interested and slow scenes to give them a break.

The middle should not “sag”.

Sentences should flow smoothly.

Plot:

Keep track of all your plots and sub-plots. Readers will remember them.

There should be a beginning, middle, and end.

Is the initial problem at the beginning of the manuscript?

There should be at least one antagonist. This does no have to be a person.

Is there enough conflict?

There should be a resolution.

All scenes should have something to do with plot.

The climax should be the most exciting part.

Character:

The protagonist should change by the end of the book.

Make sure all characters who come in contact with one another have some kind of relationship, whether good or bad.

Characters must have motivation for everything.

The protagonist must want something right from the start of the conflict.

The protagonist needs to be captivating. The readers wants to root for the protagonist. This does not mean the protagonist needs to be likable all the time.

The readers likes to relate to characters. Make sure your characters are diverse enough that readers can identify with one.

Know who your protagonist is. The main character is not always the same. For example, Nick in The Great Gatsby is the main character, but Jay Gatsby is the protagonist. This is important to know while writing your query letter.

If you can delete a minor character from a scene and nothing changes, then delete that character.

Sometimes you can make two minor characters one without losing any essential parts of the story. If you can, do this.

All characters react and act.

Each character has his or her own life.

Dialogue:

Dialogue should be believable. Read it out loud.

Don’t go overboard with phonetic spelling if a character has an accent.

Dialogue should be informal and natural. It does not have to be grammatically correct.

Prose:

Avoid purple prose. I’ve never met anyone with “emerald eyes” or “hair of fire” (except for the Flame Princess).

Don’t use too many adjectives.

Avoid cliches.

Other:

Don’t info dump. Pace information through dialogue and narration.

The first sentence should spark interest, or at least the first three. If it does, the first paragraph should be the same. And the first 250 words. The goal is to get the reader past the first page.

Let your story rest. When you’re ready to edit, start at the end. Writers tend to get lazy at the end of their story whether they are writing it for the first time or revising it after revising the rest of the story.

Make sure your manuscript is within range for your genre’s word count.

Can you imagine that buying a iPad and an ApplePen and Procreate would require me to spend at least an entire month at minimum wage for them ?

okay so I was talking with a friend about writing, and I was about to infodump about an au of mine over discord to them because I can't actually write out the ideas rn since ao3 is dOWN-

and they freaked out??? Apparently I'm weird for writing my works *in* ao3? Like I know people usually write in docs or something but I only feel motivated to write when I'm in the ao3 textbox HJLGFJGDH

So now I have a question for fellow writers on ao3:

Chapter: 1/6

Words: 996

Language: English

Fandom: NSR, No Straight Roads

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warning Apply

Relationships: NeonNova, DJ Subatomic Supernova/Neon J.

Characters: DJ Subatomic Supernova, Neon J. (No Straight Roads), Green | Eloni (No Straight Roads), Blue | Purl-Hew (No Straight Roads), the rest of the kids but they're not mentioned by name

This Google Drive AI scraping bullshit actually makes me want to cry. My entire life is packed into Google Drive. All of my writing over the years, all of my academic documents, everything.

I’m just so overwhelmed with all the shit I’m going to have to move. I’m lucky to have Scrivener, but online data storage has been super important as I’ve had so many shitty computers, and the only reason I haven’t lost work is because Google Drive has been my backup storage unit.

My partner has recommended gitlab to move my files to - it seems useful, and I can try and explain more about what it is and how it works when I get more familiar with it. I’m unsure if it’s a text editor, or can work that way. He was explaining something about the version history that I don’t quite understand right now but might later. I’m just super overwhelmed and frustrated that this is the dystopia we live in right now.

Chapter: 1/1

Words: 2168

Language: English

Fandom: Transformers: EarthSpark

Rating: General

Warnings: No Archive Warning Apply

Characters: Bumblebee (Transformers: EarthSpark), Nightshade (Transformers: EarthSpark), Twitch (Transformers: EarthSpark), Thrash (Transformers: EarthSpark), Mo (Transformers: EarthSpark), Robby (Transformers: EarthSpark), Jawbreaker (Transformers: EarthSpark), Hashtag (Transformers: EarthSpark)

Forgot to tell y'all

But I've finished that dang thing!!!!

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

God decided I wouldn't be able to properly create shit bc he knew that once I get the power it would be over for you bitches

It's that time again (the one where I feel like I'm just describing stuff without anything else)

You know, when you create a culture (or makes derivatives/dig further into other created cultures), it isn't cruel to dig into funerary practices.

You want to write a part where a member of the community dies and receives funerary practices ? Just because you want to expand further into the culture? Then go for it!

Death is a strong part of every single cultures. There are so many funerary rites, going from burials to incinerations.

So looking further into such an important part of life? That is perfectly normal to do and to want to do.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUURGH

What are hands even

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

Ok I added a little thing since it was the beginning side of the row

I think it looks ugly but well...

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

No idea how to fix that without throwing through the window hours of work.....

Oh god

So I missed a place I was supposed to do on the fourth fucking row on ten

But fixing it would means that I have to undo like.... At least five pieces and then redo almost the entirety of the freaking thing........

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

Tested the assembly with two pieces and ooooh boy hahaha omg

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

So I was like "haha, only 13 squares left"

BUT

I some-fucking-how misread the fucking supra detailed explanation and listing and read 72

But it's 72 not ending with the colour A

There's also 12 not ending with the colour B

So 84 total, not 72

So yeah lmaoooooo there's 8 more to do, fucking end me

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

Five colours left

I'm trying so hard to place them in a certain way so they won't be too close to others having the same end colour, not that it really matters sinc everything will be surrounded by white or azalée

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

Don't know where I'm at but I need 4 ending of each of those colours and then I can go to the putting it all together phase

So I have thrown myself into a huge project, which is to make a plaid for my mother

This is the finished plaid from the creator and all the squares, half squares and quarter squares I have to do.

I've done all that so far, which corresponds to the four corners, all the big borders, half of the small borders and one baby square.

I'm doing it using yarn my mother wanted, which is a mix of cotton and merinos wool. There's 10 colours total but I'm not using the same as what is shown in the pattern.

They need to invent writing for sleepy tired people curled up in bed eyes closed and dreaming

I'm sorry women, none of my fic pass the Bechdel Test

Making a drive folder and related spreadsheet of my fanfics so y'all can ask me to have access to them if you don't have an AO3 account (since I locked all my fics for registered users only)