Hi Tumblr folks 🔥I wrote a thing!

Cor Cordium

Rating: M Wordcount: 11k Tags: Marauders Era, Canon Compliant, Post-Sirius Black’s Prank on Severus Snape, Angst, Pining, Kissing, Hopeful Ending, Spells & Enchantments. Dark Magic, Blood, Restraints, Complicated Relationships,  Summary: Hogwarts, 1977, after the Prank: dark magic happens at dusk.

“Remus, at first, thought Sirius was oddly misplaced in the Hogwarts library, his restless energy stifled, like a flame snuffed before it could burn, a spell reversed before it hit, but now, after a few months of this routine – it’s also strange to associate someone so unpredictable with a routine – he realises Sirius quite fits here.”

Keep reading on ao3

The most intriguing fic I’ve ever read

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

THIS

hm. im REALLY against any variation of “this rule is true in any context” because it defeats the point of creativity, but this is good advice for a) beefing up your descriptions and b) communicating emotional tension (eg, the MC has not admitted or processes this feeling but you want to show them having it)

That said, sometimes you would want to just state the character’s opinion. (& maybe contrast it with their actions, the situation) or use a shorthand when it’s like an introductory side detail. 

What I like about it though is that it’s NOT stated as a “don’t ever do this in any context” rule - it’s not a rule, it’s a challenge. Don’t ever do this for the next six months and see how it changes your writing. Not never do it again, just try it and then you can go back to using them but you’ll probably do it way more sparingly because you’ve built up other tools to use instead of those words.

fanfic speedrun: write the scene you want to write and skip the rest of the fic

(same goes on the reader side of things)

I’m seeing people on this post who think that what I’m saying is, “Write out of order, starting with the things you enjoy most.” And while that’s fine advice, it’s not actually what I said.

What I said was, “Only write the thing that’s fun, and don’t write the rest.”

Write one shots. Write drabbles. Write ficlets. If you have 5 interesting scenes but you can’t figure out how to tie them together into a fic, then write 5 separate ficlets, post them in a series, and when you get another idea for that series just plop it right in there and rearrange the works into the right order.

You don’t have to write longfic to write fanfic.

I love one shots. One shots are awesome. One shots don’t fuck around. One shots are a hit of pure, distilled fandom straight into the veins. They know what they’re here to accomplish and by God they accomplish it with as little extraneous bullshit as possible. Sometimes you don’t want a 30 chapter slow-burn epic five course meal; it too much. Sometimes you just want to down a double-expresso one shot of your favorite character and ride that high for the rest of the afternoon.

What about like, oneshots that need context? i.e. how a ship got to be a ship, what events led to X and Y

Write that as your summary, then do the thing. You don’t actually need to explain in detail. For example:

Boom. Done. How they met and fell in love and got married doesn’t matter. How Big Bad found them or what happens next doesn’t matter. You can write those things another time, if you ever want to, but for now you can just do the part that you want.

And if you never want to write more? Okay. You don’t have to.

Just write that scene. Your readers can imagine the rest.

“hi, I’m not from the US” ask set

given how Americanised this site is, it’s important to celebrate all our countries and nationalities - with all their quirks and vices and ridiculousness, and all that might seem strange to outsiders.

1. favourite place in your country?

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

3. does your country have access to sea?

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

5. favourite song in your native language?

6. most hated song in your native language?

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

11. favourite native writer/poet?

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

27. favourite national celebrity?

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

FIC REC TAG MEME

• A fic you love without knowing the source material: the light that the fire would bring by @slytherco

• A fic with a premise that shouldn’t work but it does: much like Liv said on hers, all premises have the potential to work, so this is a hard one. I'm going to go with El laagh l'è frècc by @hp-shessocold because it's just such an out-there unique AU that I adore with my whole heart.

• A fic you’ve reread several times: er... Sardines by @shiftylinguini 😳

• A fic you still remember many years later: definitely Yours to Keep by @dracoismytrashson (it counts as 'many years later' because i've not been reading Drarry for long and my memory is shit so anything before mid-2020 that I actually still remember definitely had an immense impact)

• A comfort fic: Through the May Air, Over the Ocean by @tsauergrass

• A cathartic fic: The Weather Inside by @ebp-brain

• A fic you’d print and put on your bookshelf: Far From The Tree by aideomai

• A fic you associate with a song: Burn the Witch by @lettersbyelise

• A fic that inspires you: Every Breath You Take by @ohdrarry

• A fic that brought you onboard a new ship: Black Forest by @bigblackdogfic and @ruinsplume

• A fic you wish could be a movie: The Last of What the World Left You by @xanthippe74

• A fic that led to you making friends with the author: A Room Up There (And You In It) by @the-starryknight (same as Liv, ha!)

• Free Space: which i am using as 'the fic that left you in such a state you had to immediately put yourself to bed': Last Offices by @tackytigerfic

• A fic you’ve gushed about irl: Running on Air by @tinyhistory

• A fic you associate with a place: Unseen by @jackvbriefs

• A fic that made you gasp out loud: Who We Are In the Shadows by @quicksilvermaid

• A fic you found at the right time: Breathe You In by @shealwaysreads

• A fic that you would read fic of: In Every Universe by @skeptiquewrites

• A fic that made you laugh out loud: My Saviour Won't Stop Texting Me by @fw00shy for this year's @lcdrarry

• A fic with a line (or two) that you’ve memorized by heart: Can't Fight this Feeling by @writcraft

• A fic that gave you butterflies: Telling the Bees by @cibeewastaken

• A fic that embodies something that you value in life: The Lesson of You by thecouchsofa

• A favorite AU: Holding Out by @bigblackdogfic (more canon divergence than AU but that's just semantics, right?)

• A fic you stayed up too late to finish reading: Open For Repairs by @drarrytrash

• A fic that made you feel seen: Full Circle by @lqtraintracks

Escape into Fanfic! : Reveals

Hope you all enjoyed your travels through reading! Below are the author and title reveals and make sure to check out the list of Drarry travel recs from @thedrarrylibrarian

Lots of Love,

The Wolfstar Librarian

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Highland Fling [+podfic] by @picascribit

Sirius leaves behind all he knows for a backpacking trip through Scotland. He discovers something about himself and how wonderful love can be.

🇬🇧June, and Other Natural Disasters by @montpahrnah

The boys escape to the beach after graduation and find their own summer romance.

🇮🇹El laagh l'è frècc by @hp-shessocold

An Italian officer, Remus, catches Sirius with his pants down trying to escape. Things can only go up from there.

🇺🇸There Were Strangers Watching -orphaned account

Two oblivious pining idiots head off to Vegas for fun, but end up married and have to figure out what to do next.

🇫🇷A Promise by @kattlupin

Remus and Sirius luck out when they find themselves seated to someone charming on the plane, but will it develop into something more or be a fling for the summer?

🇮🇹Primavera by @quoththethestral

Sirius is backpacking his way through Europe when in Florence he happens upon a man reading a book in English, and decides to befriend him. What develops next will all depend on their timing.

🇺🇸 Valentine, Texas by @thisshipsailsitselff

What was meant to be a pit stop in a dusty Texan town, could end up being a lifetime if Sirius can worm his way into Remus’s heart.

🇪🇸Peregrinitos by Chromat1cs

Two flamenco dancers find each other and break new ground in Madrid.

🇩🇪where are we now? by @miraxb

Remus and Sirius were long-lost friends until a night out in Berlin brings them back together.

🇺🇸You’ve Got Love by @cruisinwritealong

Remus is doing everything he can to keep his mother’s bookstore afloat. A new mega-bookstore and its hot owner are exactly what he doesn’t need right now…or maybe it is.

🇦🇶Rourke by @smodernlife

Sirius is a wildlife filmmaker who heads to the ends of the earth for his project, but ends up finding so much more than wildlife.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿That Summer Was Good to Us by @mooncat457writing

Summers in Wales were ideal. Sunny, windy, warm without being sweltering… and the perfect time for Remus and Sirius to explore the feelings they’ve been dancing around for the better part of a year.

🇬🇱Indiana Lupin and the Search for the Conqueror by nerakrose

Remus meets Sirius in Greenland and together they make a real discovery that has their competition fighting chasing them to the end.

Reblog if you are a fanfiction author and would like your readers to put one of your fic titles in your ask + questions about it

FanFic Ask Game

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

C: What member do you identify with most?

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

H: How would you describe your style?

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Q: How do you feel about collaborations?

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

Y: A character you want to protect.

Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate?

Wasn’t gonna post anything from my sketchbook here (and save it all for my next sketchbook tour video), but I feel like this is worth sharing lmao

This kills me because he actually looks 21 here. He was so young.

Surprise 🔥 I wrote this fic for my beloved @rsfiresidetales​ 🔥 I love this fest so much because it always inspires me to write stories that are a bit out of my comfort zone. 

The darkness within

Rating: T Wordcount: 3,2K Summary: In Grimmauld Place, darkness abounds.

When Remus steps into the gloomy hallway, mindful to avoid the troll leg on his left, all the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling sway like ghastly swing chairs, suddenly brought to life by a gust of wind from outside. Both the gas lamps and the overhead chandelier are put out and covered in dust, leaving the portrait walls in half-darkness – even if in the dwindling afternoon hours Grimmauld Place could look less gloomy with some light, Remus is glad that the unlight and the eerie silence let him reach the staircase without waking up the portrait of Mrs Black.

Keep reading on ao3

Posting: Day Nine

TITLE: He Said I Was His Friend A glitch in time. RATING: G WORD COUNT: 639 OTHER TAGS: Friendship/Love, Ghosts, Canon Compliant, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders, Time glitch, Pre-Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death READ IT ON AO3: He Said I Was His Friend

TITLE: The darkness within In Grimmauld Place, darkness abounds. RATING: T WORD COUNT: 3264 OTHER TAGS: Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Tenderness, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Sad with a Happy Ending, Mental Health Issues, References to Depression, Spells & Enchantments, Dark Magic, POV Remus Lupin, RS Fireside Tales READ IT ON AO3: The darkness within