Imagine being a patient of Hannibal’s but you just received actual therapy and then took his advice and you’re thriving, but then it comes out that almost all his patients killed at least one person I’d start wondering what was so wrong with me that he didn’t try to harness the dark urges within me, why wasn’t I worth shaping into a furry killer or some unsettling little freak with psychosexual tendencies? I’d need extensive therapy after.

dat depressing sunday feel

Hi, here’s some new hi-res phone wallpapers made from my recent art! As always, they’re free for personal use ♥ (For folks on mobile there’s a link to the full-size files in my FAQ!)

Writing advice you're not going to like.

People sometimes send me Asks wanting writing advice.  I suck at it.  I don’t really know how I do the writing, or how one should do the writing, or what one should do to get better at the writing.  All I can ever think to say is “write a lot of stuff and you will get better at the writing.”  Which is true, but hardly a bolt from the sky.

Well, as it turns out, I do have one piece of Legit Writing Advice, and I am going to share it with you, right now.  If you were in any of my writing workshop groups at a con, you’ve heard this advice already.

Warning: you’re going to fucking hate it.  But if you do it, you will thank me.

If you have a piece of fiction you’re serious about, something you might want to actually shop around, or just something you really are into and want to make it as good as you can…do NOT edit it.

Repeat.  DO NOT EDIT.

REWRITE.

As in, print out the whole fucking thing and re-enter it, every word (or use two screens).  Retype the whole thing.  Recreate it from the ground up using your first draft as a template.  Start with a blank page and re-enter every. single. word.

I hear you screaming.  OH MY GOD THAT’S INSANE.

Yes.  Yes, it is.

It is also the most powerful thing you will ever do for a piece of fiction that you are serious about.

Now, let’s get real.  I don’t do this for most things.  I don’t do it for my fanfiction.  But if it’s something original, something I might like to get to a professional level - I do it.  You absolutely COULD do it for fanfiction.  It’s just up to you and how much time you want to sink into a piece.

You can edit, sure.  But you WILL NOT get down to the level of change that needs to happen in a second draft.  You will let things slide.  Your eyes will miss things.  You will say “eh, good enough.”

The first time I did this, on someone else’s advice, I was dubious.  Within two pages, I was saying WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN DOING THIS ALL THE TIME.  I was amazed at how much change was happening.  By the time I got to the end, I had an entirely different novel than the one I’d started with.  When you’re already re-entering every single word, it’s easy to make deep changes.  You’ll reformat sentences, you’ll switch phrases around, you’ll massage your word choice.  You’ll discover whole paragraphs that don’t need to be there at all because they became redundant.  You’ll find dialogue exchanges that need reimagining.  Whole plot points will suddenly be different, whole story arcs will reveal their flaws and get re-drawn.

You cannot get down to the fundamental level of change that’s required just by editing an existing document.  You have to rebuild it if you really want your story to evolve.  You will be AMAZED at the difference it will make.

It will take time.  It will seem like a huge, Herculean task.  I’m not saying it’s easy.  It isn’t.  But it is absolutely revolutionary.

Try it.  I promise, you will see what I mean.

*PSA: Tipsy!Lori wrote this post.  In case you couldn’t tell.

maybe i should try this with my comic scripts.

This advice is real.

I reblogged this earlier on kind of a “that sounds interesting. might work, might not, can’t see it being drastically different but whatever I should try.” kind of note

I’ve got a short story due today at 5, so I decided to do this and completely rewrite the first draft.

OH. MY GOD.

This is legitimate. It’s let me completely gut scenes I was unhappy with, rewrite them entirely differently and not feel any loyalty to what I used to have.

It’s taking a long time. It’s a commitment. But heck so is writing.

This is great. Do this. It’s amazing.

I may just try this…… on I day when I have some self discipline.

So I was re-watching Hannibal (again):

And I can’t believe how stupid I was to not have noticed this sooner. In the first episode, GJH asks Will, as he lay dying:

Honestly, I didn’t know what Will was supposed to see, right there, right then. Actually, I remember, during my first time watching this I was a bit preoccupied with all the blood and cannibalism and such, so I didn’t pay it any attention. 

But now I noticed Hannibal, in TWOFL:

Will is again asked the question. See? And I find it entirely fascinating, because in the first episode, Will had just shot a man to death, something that felt so repulsive, shameful and wrong that it tormented him for a long time, while in the last episode, he had just killed a dragon with Hannibal.

They had bit and clawed and pierced unto the dragon under the light of the moonlight and Will, bathed in his blood, fell in the arms of the man that had been inside his head for ages. The man who had seen him, seen something in him, when Will had been living a lie, under the morals and expectations of society, when he was living in complete denial of who he was, lost and alone.

In the first episode, Will was asked if he saw how exhilarating murdering someone was, if he felt the power it gave him, if he understood the adrenaline and the sick satisfaction ending someone’s life provided.

But Hannibal’s question gives another meaning. He asks Will if he finally sees himself for who he really is, if he sees himself the same way Hannibal has always seen him. 

In conclusion, nbc’s Hannibal is probably the strangest take on the “Accept and love yourself as you are.” trope that ever has graced our screens and I thank Bryan Fuller and everyone else who was involved in its creation.

Tanaka doing the prays

Do you believe a man could be so obsessed from a single encounter?

Project update

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Peachy🍑 & Aesthetic 🌸

Whatever he was gonna find in his quest for Hannibal, that’s what he was gonna find. Wherever that was gonna take him, whether it was apprehending him, killing him, running off with him, forgiving him, anything, it was all okay. He just had to go on a quest.  -  Hugh Dancy, The Wrath of the Lamb Audio Commentary