SaucyWench's Writing Stuff

1.5M ratings
277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
yeahwrite
ceilidho

btw this isn't a vague/subtweet (post?) or anything but just so y'all know, there's a way to mark things as "inspired by" on ao3

image

you don't have to just put it in the notes!! very cool under-utilized feature

peachesofteal

This is an underutilized feature of AO3, and a great way to credit the work you might be taking inspiration from.

thebaconsandwichofregret

It's also useful because it will link your work on the work it's inspired by! A little section pops up to say "Works inspired by this one:" and a hyperlink at the bottom of the original fic.*

And then anyone who finds the fic that inspired you will have the option to read your fic too and anyone reading your fic has the chance to go read the fic you loved so much you had to write about it! Everyone wins!

*The author does have to approve that link, it doesn't just pop up on it's own, but in my experience as someone who enjoys gifting fic it's usually well received.

scifikimmi

PLEASE use this feature! Its so cool! And it is a great way to drice traffic to both the original and inspired by work since it automatically provides a direct link. You can also connect translations! Which is amazing! This is a super great feature on ao3!

shabby-blog
derinthescarletpescatarian

The problem with AO3 is that every online store's search function is bullshit by comparison

derinthescarletpescatarian

*me scrolling Steam or trying to buy wood from Bunnings* AO3 figured this out. What the fuck is wrong with you.

ericvilas

The ratio of "spam to people working at it" is p much the issue lol

derinthescarletpescatarian

Unless you're buying from Bunnings Marketplace (which I don't), there shouldn't be any spam. Everything there is stuff that Bunnings put there.

That's not true of Steam these days, of course, but spam isn't really the issue that bothers me here. AO3 doesn't police spam, unless you mean tag misuse. I should be able to go to Steam and look for "games in THESE gameplay genres (puzzle, walking sim, fps, whatever) and in THESE story/theme genres (cyberpunk, horror, etc), that are NOT in these gameplay genres or these story/theme genres, including single player games and excluding free-to-play games, online-only games and live service games," and I should be able to do that in one search by checking a handful of boxes.

fallenstarworkshop

I'm going to argue that Ao3 does NOT police tag misuse in any meaningful way except for maybe the Content tags (like Major Character Death, Underage, et cetera). Because they, like Tumblr, allow you to put anything you like, including running fucking commentary, in the Additional Tags section, which appears to have rendered the Additional Tags section basically useless for tagging purposes. A fact that continues to fill me with burning hate

derinthescarletpescatarian

I like the tag commentary, it hasn't impeded the functionality of Additional Tags for me at all. If the additional tags read enemies to lovers, coffee shop au, no beta we die like side characters, MC is such a silly goose, then I can include or exclude "enemies to lovers" or "coffee shop AU" just fine. I've never been in a situation where the commentary affects searching.

just-a-funny-little-brain

Fun fact! The additional commentary tags are what create the filterable additional tags. If enough people tag “MC is such a silly goose”, tag wrangler volunteers will know it’s a useful tag for users and will* make that tag filterable!

If it weren’t for commentary tags, you wouldn’t have filterable tags.

*probably, subject to various wrangling guidelines and if that fandom is actively being wrangled

sensitivehandsomeactionman
haveyouseenthisseries-poll
How Many of Tumblr's 101 Iconic Series Have You Seen?
This list was painstakingly put together thanks to Year in Reviews, Fanlore articles, Tumblr users feedback and my own memory as a user
List Challenges

How many have you seen?

0-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51-60

61-70

71-80

81-90

91-100

101! Holy shit!

This list was created consulting Year in Reviews, Fanlore articles, user feedback, vintage pinterest posts, and my own knowledge. Don't worry about not seeing the shows in their entirety, vote based on your judgement. Enjoy!

fandom life
tigerliliesandcherryblossoms
copperbadge

image
image
image
image
image
image

Crossposted with permission, this is an Instagram post from my friend at the ALA about what you can do to fight book bans that aren't donating!

Links include:

theliteraryarchitect
theliteraryarchitect

PSA: Writing a book can take a looooong time. If you've been working on your project for a year, two years, five years... you're not doing anything wrong. If you've written three drafts and thrown them all away, if you can only write a hundred words a day, if you put your book down for six months and pick it up again only to be baffled by what you've written... Congratulations. You're not inefficient or slow. You're just a writer. Welcome to the writing life.

sensitivehandsomeactionman
californiastatelibrary

Page 1 of press release with CA State Library Logo and title: "Get a new virtual bookshelf and access more than 300,000 eBooks and eAudiobooks."ALT

EDIT on March 27, 2025 at 1:40pm: After the launch of California’s Bookshelf virtual library earlier today, Palace has seen an influx of new users accessing The Palace Project app. Increased traffic has caused app slowness and outages that the Palace team is currently addressing. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to resolve these issues.

PRESS RELEASE – Every Californian with an email address and an internet connection can now visit California’s Bookshelf and access more than 300,000 eBooks and eAudiobooks.


Read the full press release here: https://www.library.ca.gov/uploads/2025/03/pressrelease-2025-03-26-californiasbookshelf.pdf

lazysaturdayonthebeach
wolfstarlibrarian

One of the coolest parts about being a fan of fanfic is you can actually contact the author. And they will respond. And then you can message them nonstop until they allow you into their lives and then you’re becoming their beta reader and suddenly you know multiple authors of all types of fiction books and fanfic authors who will drag out their deleted fics for you to read at a moments notice.

Anyway. Comment on fics and message authors. It’s absolutely worth it.

ekjohnston

And then you end up at their wedding or fly across an ocean to meet them for dinner. And once upon a time, when people asked you met you were obtuse about it, but now you can say "We both thought Mulder and Scully should kiss more", and it's only a little weird.

scyllas-revenge

@the-girl-with-the-algebra-book <3

fixyourwritinghabits
fixyourwritinghabits

Editing Part ????: Final Steps (That You'll Repeat)

HI THIS POST WAS SUPPOSED TO GO UP IN JANUARY. Uuuh things. Are happening. In the US. Alas.

ANYWAY, to wrap up our editing tips. Some of this you'll do on your own, some of it you'll need feedback on, a lot of it is going back and forth between various edits. It is a process.

Tone and Voice

In review, is your character's voice consistent? Do they remain solid as a character, or do they wildly change in how they speak and act in the middle of the book for no reason?

When it comes to tone, are you writing with a consistently used vocabulary and structure? I'm not talking about dialogue - does your story feel the same, no matter if it's in third person or first?

A tonal shift or word change might happen if you've been working a long time on a project, and that's just a matter of going back through the book to make sure things match up.

Tension and Pacing

Does the action rise and fall naturally? Are your characters given room to breathe when appropriate?

Have you resolved (or addressed) all your subplots? Did you leave any romance or relationships dangling? Are there any chunks of your book that feel like a side-quest that doesn't contribute to the rest of the plot?

How is your scene pacing? Like your book, your scenes can't be 100% tension - they need to rise and fall. Fights and action should build naturally. If you're dropping a character into a situation with no foreshadowing, or if they obtain some new nifty power without really earning it, you might be throwing the pacing off.

Again, this just takes going back over to see what little things you need to set up to make the pay-off worth it.

Line Edits

Hopefully you've saved this for last, I know you won't, I know I won't, but fiddling with the language is going to be better done at the very end. Look out for:

  • Overused Words and Phrases - I find with each project, I become overly fond of one particular word. It's useful and fantastic until it pops up a little too often, and then I need to work on changing it up. Same with phrases - if you're brain is like mind, it'll find a neat little turn of phrase and repeat that six or eight times when you only needed it once.
  • Hedging Words - Almost, nearly, not quite, seems, appears, etc - these words are perfectly fine in academic writing, but they weaken your descriptive work. Instead of saying "he almost hit me" for example, describe the motion and the character's reaction. If someone seems upset, how can you describe that through their body language?
  • Dialogue Tags - You can use fun dialogue tags, and you don't have to delete every -ly abverb attached to "said." However, as boring as it seems, keeping it simple with mostly using "said" and "replied" will do most of the job.
  • Re-Checking Sentence Structure - If all your sentences within a paragraph follow the same structure, your reader is likely to start to skim. Change things up with shorter sentences paired with longer ones. Chunk actions scenes with short, punchy sentences, make sure descriptive paragraphs don't have sentences that go on for way too long.

Feedback

There's no easy way to find a good critique partner. I wish there was. You can and should join writer's groups and offer exchanges, be they online or in person. Sometimes you can love someone's work, but you don't mess with them as a critique partner. It happens, keep trying.

When you do find a critique partner, it's always good to give them guidance on what you're looking for. Some good questions:

  1. Pacing - When did they put the story down? Why?
  2. Consistency - Was anything confusing? Did the character's choices make sense?
  3. Plot - Where there any twists that were too obvious? Did the stakes feel important? Was the plot satisfying?

A Note on "Predictable" Plot

There is a consistent argument about predictive plots versus originality, but thinking too hard about it may lead you astray. Certain genres have expectations - cosy murders will be solved, romance will end with the leads getting together, etc. Readers often go into stories wanting some predictability, because it's the journey of the story that matters the most. Making sure the story is engaging to read is far more important than trying to be original.

That said, you'll find in your second and third drafts that you will be able to put your own design on familiar stories. Treading familiar ground in the first draft is common, but when taking another crack of it, you can raise the stakes and make that ending much more satisfying.

Good luck!

fixyourwritinghabits

whooshingnoise asked:

What do I do when the characters have chosen to go somewhere that makes sense, but leads absolutely nowhere?

fixyourwritinghabits answered:

I know exactly what you mean, and fixing it is certainly not impossible. It’s pretty natural, especially if you’re a pantser, to have your characters end up in a situation that wipes out all the tension. (It’s easy to fall into this as a plotter too, so beware.) What you need to do is turn up the pressure in the plot, both externally and internally.

Possible Problem 1: Your Characters Are Too Comfortable. If your characters don’t have enough internal conflict going on, they might just not want to move forward with the plot. This is a really easy hole to fall into (for all the stereotypes of writers tormenting their characters, I find it’s much harder not to pull punches, especially with the first draft). Drive up that internal conflict within the characters and with each other. Laying down a subplot about an unrequited crush or a secret identity that implodes right when your characters feel safe can help get them going again. An argument between characters that causes them to do something reckless might be the catalyst you need.

Possible Problem 2: Not Enough Plot Tension. If your characters have lost steam, they may be in the wrong place. You may need to ramp up the danger by backtracking in the plot to lay down more external pressure to keep the characters going. A ticking clock fueled by the need to cure a deadly disease, a looming threat that’s on their heels. If your characters still end up in a spot that too easily solves their problems, cut them off from getting there! The pass collapses, forcing them through the shadowy woods instead.

Possible Problem 3: You Don’t Have the Next Plot Point Lined Up. If you’re pantsing and are stuck (or if your outline isn’t working), sometimes you just gotta take a moment to figure out where your characters actually need to be next and jump to that point. Sometimes writing out the next big scene will help you figure out how to build the connective tissue between them. Sometimes you will write “fix this later” and curse your past self into oblivion. We’ve all been there.

Possible Problem 4: You Might Just Need a (Short) Break. Truly stuck? Inspiration often strikes when you take your mind off the issue. Go for a walk, play a video game, try not to think of your writing issue for a couple of days. You’ll likely realize the solution in the middle of doing something else.

Now, all of these techniques are for writing a story or a novel. If you’re plotting out a game, you may just need to drop a Big Bad in the middle of things to force your characters into action. (Hell, you may need to do that for your novel too.) The most important thing is that no matter how clunkily you fix it, you can always go back and smooth over those rough parts with the power of hindsight.