fanfic writer habits i've had to unlearn when trying to traditionally publish original work

a list in no particular order in case you're curious

got questions? want examples? have thoughts? what other things have you caught yourself doing, or notice when you read through your old stuff?

I never wrote a lot of fanfic but I still did a lot of these things - I think they're common in fanfic because fanfic is typically written by people without a ton of training in writing, who are writing for the emotions and the vibes.

Not to say there's not incredible fanfic. There is. No shade on fanfic or fanfic writers.

But. (See what I'm doing?) Fanfiction is typically written in a much more casual tone than literary fiction, or even works such as romance novels or YA adventure novels. There's a sense of closeness between the reader and the author that's heightened by the ability to easily communicate with the author via author notes and comments. In most published works, the author steps back, and the work is expected to fully stand on its own.

My biggest issues I had to work on were, in no particular order:

and, most importantly,

EVERYTHING MUST SERVE THE BEAM.*

What is the purpose of the story? The thrust? The drive? Everything, from sex to banter to action, must serve that purpose. If it doesn't, it doesn't belong. This one rule has helped me get rid of saggy middles and strange rabbit holes.

*for those who haven't read Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, the Beam is the metaphysical structure upon which the entire world hangs. To serve the Beam is to keep the world turning. To oppose the Beam is to try to ravage and ruin the world.

behavior modification, part eleven

<previous, masterlist here

content warnings: EXPLICIT NONCON (touch & forced orgasm), adult language, creepy/intimate whumper, forced nudity, muzzles, restraints, stress positions, shock collars, dehumanization, humiliation, emotional manipulation, noncon kissing, implied future noncon

Thanks to @darkthingshappen for letting me run a few things by her!

part eleven, jack's consequences

“Now, you’ll stay this way until I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson.” 

Still can’t calm the crap down

so I better kick it up a notch for Alfred, then

Shattered #10 - Happy Birthday, August! Part II

Previous / Masterlist

CW: kidnapped whumpee, captivity (kinda), defiant whumpee, whumpee thinks caretaker is a whumper, forced to kidnap references, vampire caretaker, unwilling whumper, forced to be whumper, ALOT of self-loathing and fucky thoughts and guilt and all of it, weapons, adult language, mentions of blood, brief mention of vomit/nausea, reference to toxic/abusive family dynamic (if I've missed any, please let me know! <3)

Part two! A long time coming! The final part should drop in the next few days/this week! :D thank you to the amazing @whumpcereal for her AMAZING beta on this 🥺🫶

---

August has always dreamt of cake on his birthday, the warm scent of sugar and butter taunting his vampiric senses like forbidden fruit. The cake would be chocolate, of course. Every human loves chocolate; it must be the tastiest thing on Earth. This year, there would have been one hundred and thirty candles, barely fitting on top of it. And August could blow them all out and make his birthday wish. Just like the humans do.

But if the flickering flames on his imaginary cake could really grant his wishes, he wouldn’t wish for chocolate. With a single puff of breath, he’d wish to rewind time and erase this horrific day out of existence. Or, perhaps, he’d wish for a clean slate - a life free from the regret that eats him alive. But above all, he would wish to finally be happy - whatever that means. But where does August get the gall to wish for his own happiness when he is the catalyst of another’s misery? 

He stole a human being tonight. He crept through the streets, snatched them from where they slept and locked them away. He’d lurked in the shadows and all, like a true monster. As far as the human is aware, they saw the stars for the last time this eve and they’ll never feel fresh air stream through their lungs again. August could see it the moment their eyes first locked - the human feared the blood coursing through his own veins was his no longer, that he had become nothing more than food.

the kennel, part seventeen

part of the kennel. masterlist here.

content warnings for: heavy mental manipulation, aftermath of noncon, nudity, references to mouth whump, captivity, extreme dehumanization, human trafficking, parent whumper

part seventeen, a part of it

It takes longer than Annie thought it might to get Will clean. 

It isn’t like she’s never cleaned up the rescues before, but it’s been a while since–well, since her father’s hurt one of them this badly. 

hm

You know those music boxes with the ballerina figures?

That but with a tiny whumpee having to hold a ballet pose as long as the music plays

Especially if they have to stand fully en pointe :) I know from experience that even holding demi pointe for a long time is torture

the kennel, will & his dad reunited

part of the kennel. follows will's rescue; master list here.

content warnings for: graphic descriptions of bodily injury and scarring, med whump, mild body horror, references to mouth whump, references to past noncon, hospitals, absent parents, unconscious whumpee, aftermath of captivity, adult language

after will's rescue, the fragile cry

“Mr. Cartwright?” 

Brian looks up, blinking at the woman in front of him. She wears a navy pantsuit, and her dark hair is tamed into a tight, perfect bun at the nape of her neck, and maybe he would think she was attractive under any other circumstances. 

But this woman is here because of Will. She’s Brian’s handler, meant to keep the news of Will’s recovery underwraps until the Bureau is ready to put out a press release. Until they know what they’re dealing with. 

Brian Cartwright hasn’t seen his son in 293 days. 

He isn’t supposed to keep track–the counselor he’s been working with says that it isn’t necessarily helpful to watch the time so closely–but Brian can’t help it. He keeps a running tally of the days in the corner of his desk calendar. Sometimes, updating the long line of hatch marks is the only thing he remembers to do when he goes into the office. They don’t expect much from him, of course, and they won’t fire him; no one fires the guy whose son has been kidnapped. 

Intro Post

Howdy folks!

I'm Ruben (or Ruby, either is fine) and I'm tentatively stepping a toe into writeblr/whumpblr. I've been on this hellsite for ages and writing for at least as long, but decided to make a new blog to specifically upload writing. I haven't shared my writing online in a long-ass time, so I'm a little rusty.

This blog is DEFINITELY 18+!

Writing Masterposts

My current upload schedule is a bit all over the place. Feel free to send asks, prompts, requests, and I'll get to them as soon as I'm able!

The content I usually write typically includes:

Some whump blogs I'm loving rn (off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting!):

@kabie-whump @emmettverse @echo-goes-mmm @secretwhumplair @whumpzone @whumpcereal @sowhumpshaped

A little about me: I am a bi/pan trans guy, I'm autistic and chronically ill, and I'm from the US. I've just recently gotten back on tumblr after several years off. I'm not great at the whole "social" aspect of social media, but I'll do my best to interact with the community.

Uh . . . intro posts are hard; don't judge my writing skills from this alone. I swear I'm only an idiot sometimes.

Attention Whump Community!

Clogging disability tags is a massive problem that we need to address. Many tags, especially those surrounding permanent injuries, paralysis, vision loss and certain illnesses have become unusable due to being flooded with unrelated things. Yes, that includes your writing. Those tags are not for you. It's isolating, frustrating and depressing to try finding a community and other people who share your issues but all that comes up is whump, fandom shit, gifs, headcanons, etc.

I'm newly paralyzed. I have looked at many tags surrounding paralysis, trying to find support, a community, anything of people struggling with the same thing. Nothing. There's barely anything for us in the general disabilty tags. I am BEGGING you to understand and recognize how AWFUL it is.

So, I have a proposition. A tag you can and should use exclusively for disability content in whump writing. Not any other tag surrounding disability, lest you'll clog it up.

#disabled whumpee

It's tempting to use more specific tags, I get it. Due to being in the whump community myself I know #medical whump is already a tag. You have those tags. Use them. Don't use the disability tags. Don't clog up the few spaces us disabled people have.