hearing that your characterizations are good is like. the best thing to hear as a fic writer.

my drafts keep growing…

real

Writing Advice that Will Save You from Crying over Chapter 3 Again

☽ Sometimes “writer’s block” is actually just your story being broken and your brain knowing before you do. Respect the vibes, go back. Something stinks.

☽ If you’re stuck in the middle, skip to the part you’re excited to write. Chronological writing is a suggestion, not a law.

☽ “Kill your darlings” is not about deleting every cool thing you love. It’s about not hoarding scenes like a dragon with dialogue you wrote in 2017 that doesn’t even make sense anymore.

☽ You do not need to write like your favorite author. You need to write like you, caffeinated and slightly unstable.

☽ Talking to yourself in the mirror as your character is not weird. It’s called method writing. You’re not unhinged, you’re dedicated.

☽ Aesthetic Pinterest boards and playlists are writing progress if they make you feel like a god again.

☽ You can write the climax before you finish Act 1. You can rewrite Chapter 1 thirty times and then delete it anyway. You’re not behind, you’re in hell with the rest of us.

You’re allowed to write stuff that’s not “marketable.” You’re allowed to be weird. Write the story that would make you feel seen. The niche finds its freaks.

☽ Beta readers are not gods. Take what resonates, ignore what doesn’t. If five people say your story drags at Chapter 8? Maybe listen. If one person says “make it all about the dog,” maybe don’t.

“You can’t love someone unless you love yourself first". Bullshit. (x)

“Thank you Rukia. Thanks to you, I think… the rain has stopped…”

Get these ai writing assistants out of my face!!!! I don't care if my writing is bad at least it is mine!!!!

Experience: Learning the right way to connect the dots.

This is the best representation of something I have been trying to explain to people for years!!!! Saving this to my phone so I can routinely pull it out when I need. 

This shit never made more sense than now

I despise Kai Leng and his pathetic faux foil role in ME3 so much. It would've been so much better if it had been the Virmire victim and honestly- it would've made the Cerberus storyline so much better. It would've turned "Shepard becomes an idiot every time some guy with a sword appears" into "Shepard is blindsided by seeing their friend back from the dead". It also works with the foils dynamic and more:

And even then, no Kai Leng and no Virmire victim would've been better than Kai Leng. Everything stays the same but that plot-armored jackass doesn't exist. Cerberus attempts a coup with regular agents, they steal the data from thessia with regular agents, they show up as regular agents on Horizon, etc. Because Leng doesn't work at all in the story. He doesn't.

Regardless of how well it was executed, the entire Cerberus plot line is supposed to be a "coming full circle" moment from me1. We had the indoctrinated Saren leading the indoctrinated geth (synthetic) in me1. We have the indoctrinated TIM leading indoctrinated humans (organics) in me3. We end up with a "showdown" between saren/TIM in which depending on how persuasive we were during our previous talks, they (now deformed by reaper tech) shoot themselves in the head.

Where does Kai Leng fit into all of this? He doesn't! He's just... there. He's got no room in the story.

Leng would have worked if he'd been an established antagonist since ME1. Someone who has clear motivations and a character arc of their own.

He could have been Shepard's old acquaintance, someone involved in Shepard's pre-service history, an old squadmate who presumably died or left feeling betrayed by the Alliance.

I think Kai Leng's role should've been filled evil clone Shepard, the one project Lazarus had for back up, Instead of making it a funny bit for the DLC.

Like, we'll see for ourselves clone Shepard was what TIM was trying to avoid for ME2, how he wouldn't have had the wits, the integrity to fight the collectors.

Also how cool would it be for Shepard to be beating the shit out of the mirror image of himself, over the theme of guilt of ME3? Instead of wasting the clone theme for the throwaway line "I can't wait to kill myself" they could've given Shepard a much better existential crisis. Man.

As fun as Citadel is (I'm in the camp that treats it like the post-Reaper Epilogue), it'd be interesting to see what a terrifying creature a Cerberus-loyal Shepard would be like. Every ounce of the same charisma, none of the morality.

How that confrontation ends might be interesting. Rick and Morty leaps to mind. The scene where Rick kills Rick Prime leaps to mind. Can you imagine how that would play out. A raw visceral moment of Shepard's PTSD, self-loathing and existential crisis reach a crescendo and its unleashed on this imposter's face. Hell, maybe even have an air of ambiguity by hinting Lazarus failed after all and Shepard really has been reduced to a product, the latest on a long production line. (Cylon Shepard confirmed?)

It could've led to a fantastic potential scene with the love interest or Garrus as Shepard's best friend (and a change from Liara) to sit down and hash Shepard's issues out. But alas, there's always fanfiction.

your discord pfp and your tumblr pfp are locked in a room together. what happens?

Two Kaiens in a room... would honestly drive each other bloody mad.

Day 1: Don't look back: Orpheus & Eurydice

Despite being long dead before canon, Kaien keeps showing up in lieutenant group spreads.

This makes some sense for the time before TLA when the position is vacant, but it continues after Ukitake promoted Rukia to lieutenant. He doesn't replace her, he's just there in addition to her.

Theory: in the story of Bleach, Shiba Kaien is supposed to be the ultimate lieutenant.

There are a few characters that are the story's embodiment of something - Rukia as the ultimate shinigami, Byakuya as Soul Society, Yamamoto as the old guard, Hitsugaiya as the new guard, etc - and when it comes to lieutenants, I think it fits for Kaien to be the ultimate lieutenant.

I don't think we see a single other lieutenant come close to, let alone surpass, what Kaien is said to have been as a lieutenant as a whole. All the other lieutenants have their strong point, but as a lieutenant Kaien was strong on all points. Leadership, charisma, talent, strength, kindness, intelligence, confidence and power; even political backing and moral high ground and noble blood. He had it all.

He was the pinnacle of what a lieutenant should be - someone literally a half-step from being a captain and fully ready to be a captain if needed.

Before I started watching the anime I've seen people saying that "The first and second arc have a lot of IR scenes added unnecessarily". I generally tend to like canon ships, so I decided to just pay attention and watch anyway.

I pick up a manga right before Hueco Mundo arc, take a look: and you know what? All the IchiRuki scenes I thought were filler are actually CANON. The Urahara-Ichigo talk? Canon. Renji looking at Rukia all like "I haven't seen her this happy in a long time"? CANON!

That scene where Ichigo is clearly upset and only Rukia is able to cheer him up? Sure is canon.

They have to gaslight the first-time watchers so that they believe the canon ships are more valid than they actually are. This is absolutely insane, btw.

I know I’m never on, but I encourage all of you to watch and share this video as much as possible. This is an Australian reporter covering the LA protests. You can see, on camera, the cop turn and purposely aim at her before firing. This narrative that it’s all the protestors is a clear lie.

Also I can't emphasize enough what a big fuckup this was for perception in Australia. This was a reporter for their equivalent of Fox News, and she was live when it happened. So they're trying to say she was caught in the crossfire now but even the Australian conservatives aren't buying it.

One: We don't have Fox news. Please don't insult the Australian News by comparing us to that drivel.

Two: Under the Geneva convention, that's a war crime. But its in America, so watch how he'll never be held accountable.

About Bleach ship wars

I’ve just found out Kubo said he was listening to the auditions for Kazui, which of course made me think to Bleach ships and I needed to get one thing or two off my chest.

I’m not even a IchiRuki shipper (I’ve always been more interested by the relationship between Ichigo and Uryū anyway), but it always amazed me how Ichihime fans can’t seem to understand why some people ship IchiRuki so hard. Their most common argument being “Blame the anime”.

If Ichihime fans want to blame somebody, it should be Kubo. He’s the one who, even until now, keeps promoting IchiRuki and focusing on them. If he had written Ichihime so perfectly, like their stans claim it, there wouldn’t be ship wars at all. After the Bount Arc, Kubo was involved in the anime and had all the power to develop his endgame couple. Did he do so? Nope, never. So stop blaming Abe because Kubo could very well do Ichihime fillers if he was interested in it. But he wasn’t and still isn’t. Probably never will. Doesn’t sell enough, I guess.

A canon couple doesn’t mean it is a good couple.

Shinichi and Ran from Detective Conan? Jinshi and MaoMao from The Apothecary Diaries? God, you can feel how much the boy fell in love for his girl, and how much romantic tension there is between the couples. It is literally thrown at your face. Ichigo? He has never shown love towards Hime, not in the romantic sense. Orihime loving Ichigo isn’t a golden ticket to have Ichigo love her back. If Kubo really planned IH from the start, as he said (my ass), I’m genuinely worried because the non endgame pairings (Ishihime and Ulquihime) had more chemistry than the canon pairings.

Do I think Ichigo should absolutely have ended with Rukia instead, then? As I said, I’m not a IchiRuki shipper, so no. I wasn’t expecting this couple, since they are from two different worlds and work perfectly fine as friends, soulmates or whatever Kubo think they are. What’s more, Ichigo not being an orphan (unlike Naruto, where I can understand the reason to make him marry and have children), I don’t see the need for him to absolutely have a wife and kids. He seems like the type who can live alone without any problems. You can be alone and still succeed and be content with your life. Or do people living alone means they all failed in life? Anyway, I still doubt the relevance of a time skip over an open ending; Kubo would have avoided many problems.

However, I understand why people ship IchiRuki: they have legitimate reasons to (Rukia’s name, drawings, symbolisms, etc.) IH has none of that, and Kubo can add as many IH scenes in cour 4 and listen as many auditions of Kazui as he wants, Ichihime will never be a great couple. Kubo developing IchiRuki so much and being surprised when out of nowhere he made a pairing he doesn’t care in the slightest canon will always be funny to me.

Besides, shipping aside, they all deserve better (especially Uryū, give my man all the love in the world, he deserves it). But as long as their pairing is canon, I guess Ichihime fans don’t feel concerned too much about the ending.