A Thot In My Head

The 5 Stages of Grief-- I Mean of Plotting a Book

(And a masterlist of blog posts that help along the way)

All plotting styles are different and these are just the 5 stages that I go through and think are most common.

I will be updating this with links as new posts are published, so bookmark this post if you find it helpful!

1. That little idea

The little idea can come from literally anything. That’s the beautiful thing about a creative mind. The idea is also usually very, very tiny at first. It’s a character or a setting or a bare-bones plot or a prompt. But it’s an idea!

Prompts Masterpost Using an Image as Inspiration

2. A bigger idea!

This is where you flesh out the little idea. I braindump (i.e. writing down every little idea I have pertaining to the story, including plot points) during this time. This is also a good place to figure out the central idea/question/themes, and important characters.

The Ten Genres 50 Character Name Ideas OC Names of the Day #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 How to Make a Story File (w/ template)

3. Setting the stage

Now is the time to flesh out your worldbuilding, characters, arcs, and relationships.

How to Make a Story File (w/ template) When You Have a Large Cast of Characters The Anti-Villain: A Study in Motivation My Personal Character Files: The 6 Box Method (w/ template) Some Worldbuilding Categories ½ Some Worldbuilding Categories 2/2 Worldbuilding in Detail Vol. I: Flora and Fauna Worldbuilding in Detail Vol. II: Religion 7 Worldbuilding Tips Little Quirks and Habits for Your OC Words to Describe Dress of a Character (Semi) Master List of Character Motivations

4. The Worst Puzzle Known to Man

Now you’ve got to start arranging the plot points you have into a cohesive-ish order. I find this is also the time I get tired or bored of my story, so I’ve included my post about beating writer’s block. Because, as we know, it can happen well before you even start writing. 

Tips of Writer’s Block 5 Better Ways to End Your Story Raising Stakes

5. 5 Seconds to Launch

A working outline should be ready for you to work from now. You’ve ordered the plot points, filled in the gaps, your characters and their relationships are ready to go. While I have a “working title” from the get-go, this is when I settle on the final title.

5 Ways to Find Your Novel Title Gillian Flynn: A Closer Look at Two-Word Titling Some Titling Formats and Examples

Reminder: I will be updating this with links as new posts are published, so bookmark this post if you find it helpful! Please let me know if any links are incorrect!

maybe he needs someone who show his strength again and again. just to know he do care

COCKS AND HOW TO DRAW THEM

This is my 3000th post, and rather than have it go by without a passing glance, I will instead use it to help YOU, MY LOVELY FOLLOWERS, by giving you references for and tutorials on how to draw a whole lotta dicks.

TUTORIAL 1 BY onta TUTORIAL 2 BY krisCrash DRAWN REFERENCE SHEET 1 BY itsbaru DRAWN REFERENCE SHEET 2 LIVE REFERENCE SHEET (on the various states of erection) FROM wikipedia

All of this is obviously very NSFW, so take a quick glance around to see if anyone’s within peeping distance of your monitor before popping these babies open.

And, of course, ENJOY.~

(VERY LATE EDIT: Sources provided by Tokitoide.)

some color for these lovebirds🚲

“And you have fixed my Life – however short. You did not light me: I was always a mad comet; but you have fixed me. I spun round you a satellite for a month, but I shall swing out soon, a dark star in the orbit where you will blaze… Someday, I must tell how we sang, shouted, whistled and danced through the dark lanes through Colinton; and how we laughed till the meteors showered around us, and we felt calm under the winter stars. And some of us saw the pathway of the spirits for the first time. And seeing it so far above us, and feeling the good road so safe beneath us, we praised God with louder whistling; and knew we loved one another as no men love for long.”

— Letter from Wilfred Owen to Siegfried Sassoon, November 1917.

The ministry: you two were like brothers

Albus: oh, we were more then brothers

A minister: *uses the memmory wand thing*

This pops up:

The ministry: ….

Albus: ….

The ministry: …

Albus: ….can I got back to teaching now or???? Cause that *points at the memory* that’s just gonna keep being more vivid

@wearywanderer

mentioned you on a post

“Unpopular Marauder Era Opinions”

@deathdaydungeon you say all the points I make about Eileen are easily countered, but don’t actually counter them? The quote you posted only compares him to James, a little boy prince. Even Ron Weasley would appear neglected in such circumstances, but that doesn’t mean there’s no love. Poverty doesn’t equal neglect/abuse

Sure - I can counter them with equal headcanons if you require it:

By the age of 10, Snape, although living among mugles with a muggle father: Knew EVERYTHING about his wizarding ancestry and wizarding culture, hated muggles and refused to befriend them, had been taught magic (both light and dark) by his mother, and had house pride to rival any pureblood child living among wizards. This doesn’t show neglect AT ALL.

By the age of 10, Snape, although living amongst Muggles with a Muggle father, had read through his mother’s old schoolbooks, which taught him everything he needed to know about wizarding culture.  Petunia knows who the ‘Snape boy’ is - he was known around Cokeworth for being an oddity.  With his weird clothes and unexplained magical outbursts, no child was keen to befriend him.  In addition to the way his father behaved, it’s no wonder he started to hate Muggles.  

Eileen didn’t speak much about the wizarding world, but when he finally asked her about her Slytherin scarf, she told him that all Princes had been in Slytherin.  His desperation to be a legitimate wizard caused him to aspire to be in his family’s house.  There’s nothing to indicate that Eileen taught Severus any magic, aside from Sirius’ comment.  It’s possible, but it’s equally possible that Sirius’ statement is retrospective justification for his own abominable behaviour.

Snape’s mismatched clothes in the muggle world were not a sign of parental neglect but were a sign of Eileen’s poverty and especially her total disreguard for muggle culture, because although she’d lived among them for years, she still dressed HERSELF and her son just like most pureblood wizards did when they tried to mingle with muggles. Read the chapter on World Cup in GOF to find plenty of examples of wizards dressed mismatched just like Snape and his mother.

There is nothing in the series about Eileen dresses, and her regard/disregard for Muggle culture.  She was happy enough to marry a Muggle and live with him for at least a dozen years.  The examples in GoF are not particularly comparable - they discuss mismatched clothes; not a child wearing his mother’s blouse, or his father’s old coat, or jeans that he has long grown out of.

More importantly, the whole point of GoF is that the witches and wizards are trying to fit in but fail because they don’t understand.  Barty Crouch Senior passes flawlessly.  Harry and Hermione could/would (in the future) pass flawlessly because they grew up in the Muggle world.  So, either Eileen has disregard for both worlds (disregard for Muggles by not wearing the right clothes and simultaneous disregard for the magical world by risking the statute of secrecy by having her son dress so oddly) - or it’s an example of their abject poverty and neglect.  Moreover, Eileen doesn’t attempt to transfigure the unsuitable clothing into something more appropriate.  Nor does she trade the clothes at a second hand shop, or manage to adapt the clothes via Muggle means - this failure is what points towards neglect.

Snape started his first year at Hogwarts with brand new robes and was able to mix in with the crowd. He got his mother’s textbooks which they’d been studying together before school even started. Which is why he was ahead of the pack what with all his knowledge of the dark arts. Not a sign of abuse and neglect.

There is nothing in canon that states Severus had brand new robes.

There is nothing in canon that states Severus was able to mix in with the crowd.

There is nothing in canon that states he got his mother’s textbooks.  It is an assumption based on the publication date of the Prince’s Advanced Potion-Making book, but in that very same book (HBP), Slughorn says:  “You can use ingredients from the store cupboard today, and I’m sure we can lend you some scales, and we’ve got a small stock of old books here, they’ll do until you can write to Flourish and Blotts…”  

What’s to say Severus didn’t obtain his second hand book from a different source, instead of his mother?  Or what’s to say he obtained it with her blessing - maybe he stole it?  You could even argue he decided her rejection of the magical world meant she wasn’t worthy enough of it, so he just took it from her belongings because he - as a wizard - had real need of it…

There is nothing in canon that states he studied magic with his mother.

There is only Sirius’ comment that makes such a claim about him being ahead of others, which I’ve already countered.

Eileen accompanied her son to platform 9 ¾ and put him on the train, well dressed and well prepared for school like all the other loving parents in the history of Hogwarts. Stop it with the Snape was unloved narrative.

Eileen accompanied her son, but the rest of this is unknown.  We know from Dumbledore meeting Tom that there’s a fund for those in need - for all we know, Hogwarts provided for Severus.

Eileen made sure that Severus was so well prepared for school, she failed to explain to her son that Slytherin wouldn’t welcome Muggleborns.

(Also, sorry, I started this in the same vein as your own post, with headcanons, and then turned into a ‘this isn’t canon’ rebuttal instead.  I’m still sick, what can I say.)

Simon Snow fancast

@rainbowrowell​I I accidentally found real life Simon :D

p.s. That’s Owen Lindberg he poxed with moles too (both face and body), but editors tend to photoshop them out :(

Baz sweater:

MOLES:

Summer is officially over…but I’m reminiscing the warm, lazy days. Here is a scene with young Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black, and Severus Snape intermingling…enjoying the sun on the Hogwarts lawn. This is a commission for @thessakenway who asked me to illustrate her OT3 in a beautiful way. 

Some details to note: I was asked for all three to be interacting/touching in a very subtle way. I paid a lot of attention to their body placement in order to best convey that naturally. Narcissa is lying on Lucius’s chest, about to touch his face. Lucius is looking at Narcissa, one arm under and hand around her waist. Snape is not third-wheeling; Narcissa is fingering his tie, and Lucius has a pinky looped around Severus’s hand. All three are fully clothed, but the sexual tension is there if you pause to look…hidden in plain sight.