@cameoninja / cameoninja.tumblr.com
The devastating difference between how much time it takes to write something vs how fast people read it lol
you're falling in the trap!! it will be read by many people, many times, and it will live on in their memories. and maybe no single other human will match you in time spent dedicated to your story, but as a collective we will outlast you. acts of creation only grow when they are shared
This. Writing is not like dinner. It can be consumed many times
Armors that look like skeletons gotta be one of my favorite genders
John 'Soap' MacTavish x reader
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Chapter 3: Beyond the Grave
Warnings: Swearing, f!reader, afab!reader MNDI. smut, p in v, mostly fluff.
dividers by: @cafekitsune
"(Y/n), get away from the fire."
It's that way Johnny growls out his demand that has you jump. You take a step back, pouting with a stick and marshmallow in front of you.
You and Soap had returned from home after a grocery run not long ago, and you passed by the marshmallows with a gleam in your eye.
Not having to beg too much, Johnny agreed to set up a fire in the backyard. The only condition he gave you was that you weren't allowed to tend to the fire. No putting in wood, no cutting wood, no starting it, no nothing.
Nothing bad happened from a fire in the past, but he knows fire. Soap can handle it.
"I just wanna-"
"I said no."
You can't help the glare you send his way, and much to both of your surprises he holds the look right back.
In any other case he wouldn't start fight over this, but he was very adment. "Oh?" You whisper. "You said no?"
"That's right."
"Oh well, I guess it's settled huh?"
“Oh my god you’re a writer? Can I read your stuff?”
One thing I've unfortunately learned from gardening, hiking and wildlife ID groups on Facebook is that the average person has no idea that "invasive" specifically means when something non-native is ecologically harmful. A whole whole lot of people think it literally just means a "pest" in any context at all, so I catch people in the USA describing our own hornworms, poison oak, even raccoons as "invasive." They just hear news stories about "invasive wildlife" and that it's damaging something and all they think is "oh, this term means when an animal or plant inconveniences me and is hard to get rid of."
I can fully see how that mental connection works and it's really not all their fault. The word does not on its own really tell you how it's meant to be used. That, and a lot of people just don't understand the difference between what matters for the ecosystem and what digs up their store bought unnatural flower cultivars.
This is unfortunately not just a mental connection people are making in their own heads, it's a word that is used wrongly all the time by sources that seem "reputable."
When I first started out learning about plants, there are SO MANY plants I thought were invasive that I only much later learned were perfectly fine important native species, simply because gardening and horticulture websites and books will call EVERYTHING "invasive."
I thought common blue violets were invasive for a while. I thought CATTAILS were invasive.
Another common error is labeling something invasive correctly, but failing to tell the reader that there is a nearly identical native species that in many areas is significantly more common.
"Weeping willow is invasive in North America!" ...and we have at least a couple dozen NATIVE willow species. A lot of people don't know that there's more than one kind of willow.
I think not fully explaining the “why” is another problem. Like:
Dandelions are non-native and non-invasive (to the US). They come in with other pioneer species and don’t choke anything out, and bees love them.
Earthworms are invasive (to the US), because while they’re great little composters, they eat forest duff, which many native American forest species need in order to live. Earthworms aren’t a pest or a bad species IN THEIR ORIGINAL ENVIRONMENT, but they’re (sadly) bad news in the US.
Hornworms are native, and technically an important part of our ecosystem, but they’re also a pain in the ass if you want to grow good tomatoes. That doesn’t mean they’re invasive, it just means you have to figure out a way to live with them.
*Small correction with earthworms: They are invasive in the northern half of the USA, along the area where the glaciers reached their greatest extent during the Last Glacial Maximum
In the Southeast, there are native earthworms, and the environment is not disrupted by earthworm presence.
In New England forest or North Dakota prairie, earthworms are bad, in Tennessee or Georgia they would be fine.
Callsigns are ALL like this. I know in movies everyone's got cool callsigns, but you have to EARN a cool callsign. Most people's are like, commemoration of something real stupid they did, or, like, "Carrots" bc "he ate carrots weirdly." This database is a treasure trove:
this is also how the clones get named in star wars
I think one of my favorite things about writing fanfic is that you can just... keep going. Write as many different endings to the story as you want. As many different AUs. You can write the same scene a hundred times and change what happens every time.
It's the most freeing feeling, that I don't have to choose.
“Many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. And it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘What do I care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ Yes, evil often seems to surpass good. But then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. One morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. And so I must still have hope.”
— Vincent Van Gogh
“If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning.”
- Vincent van Gogh
That post about 30 year old coming of age stories?
I’ve been thinking about it all morning. What would the plot points be for that? What makes a 30 year old coming of age story?
Old folks sound off in the comments
A few ideas:
Obtaining a diagnosis for a health condition (mental or physical) and finally getting treatment and recontextualizing your life.
Student loan forgiveness kicking in, suddenly you can afford to live. That one small change snowballs into something big.
Starting over after the end of The Big Relationship you thought would define your life. Engaging in a new hobby/social group that adds context to how small life felt in that relationship.
You find yourself with a pet you have to care for, which teaches you to care for yourself.
You take a class somewhere that unlocks skills you didn't know you had.
In limbo between leaving the job that used your degree and finding the job you know you actually want—either your "calling" or something that pays well, is low-stress, and you will be treated well.
You've settled the wild and restless needs of your youth, as well as the mistakes you made or opportunities you missed, and you realize the first 30yrs were training wheels. Your real life is just starting.
The necessity of moving on from a long time and beloved mentor.
The sudden desire for quiet, and the loss of friends who still prefer things loud.
The birth of a child.
“i want him” i say about the most deranged, vile, downright monstrous fictional men ever created
If there's one piece of advice I can give to fic writers who feel discouraged by the "content creation" culture and lack of community engagement in modern fandom, it's to try writing for an audience of one.
And I don't mean write for yourself!
Find one weirdo friend that enjoys sharing ideas with you, and write fanfiction for them. Get to know their taste, and tailor your writing to it. One person who will message you while reading your stuff and want to discuss it deeply and dig into and challenge your ideas - they will give you more creative satisfaction than a hundred vague, vacant comments of praise.
Maybe some other folks will end up reading and enjoying your work! If they do, they will probably have more in-depth things to say, too, because you'll be writing deeply on a specific set of concepts, not creating broadly palatable, derivative, marketable drivel meant to appeal to a large audience.
And if no one else reads it, you'll still have that one weird friend.
If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...
Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?
Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?
Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?
Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?
Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?
Thank you so much for this!
