Shout out to everyone doing the hard yet necessary work of posting about fictional characters kissing online.

Miss Lasagna herself is finally here!!!

Inquit tags for fanfic writers

Inquit tags, ie, the said, asked, shouted when you’re attributing dialogue to a character.

In terms of advice on the technical aspects of writing (versus the thematic or structural aspects), I don’t think there’s any topic that provokes the amount of outrage and absolutism that inquit tags do.

Some people say never use “said.”

Some people say never use anything but “said.”

Some people say never use -ly adverbs in conjunction with “said.”

Some people say never use inquit tags at all, just put your dialogue adjacent to an action by the same speaker.

Frankly, anything that prescriptivist is bullshit.

Which is why I’m saying upfront that nothing is categorically wrong. You are the writer, you know what feeling you’re trying to convey, if “said” is what does it, or “said sadly” or “snarled” is what nails it, then fucking use it. Don’t ever, ever feel like you need to change the words that you feel in your heart, just to adhere to what some rando on the internet says you should nEVeR DO!!11.

So what I’m here to talk about today are not do’s and do-not’s, but the options available to you-as-a-writer, the best uses and potential pitfalls of each, so that you can draw from a larger toolbox and be more conscious of the writing choices you’re making.

Most of the example sentences here are self-indulgently taken from my fic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—context isn’t necessary, but the names you’ll be seeing the most are Robert (the main character and usually the viewpoint character), Gene (his love interest), and Mary (his best friend).

Keep reading

post 2 of 2 (1)

post 1 of 2

I think it's a shame we never got to see Charles's freak out when Edwin got kidnapped from the warehouse.

Did he rip the building apart ? Did he pick up cats to shake them down for information? Did he force Crystal to touch everything to try to find him?

Did he have a panic attack when it led to nowhere?

Did he lay down like Barbie?

What happened after they cut the cameras after s1

A rework of this for dearest @nix-nihili's birthday!!! happy birthday, babe, you’re a star❤️

Check out a complementary gif from the wonderful @every-moment-a-different-sound's here!

Eleven days after Charles dies, he coughs up what he thinks is blood—just an after-effect of death, nothing to worry about. He doesn’t tell Edwin.

It keeps happening, and though Charles doesn’t know any other ghosts who manifest their deaths quite like this, it’s not that far out of the norm, surely.

Before he knows it, it’s been happening for decades… and he still hasn’t told Edwin.

Edwin Payne & Simon | Dead Boy Detectives 1.07

hey (with an intention of biting u)

bring your chains and fall into my arms

Author: ​​ Cesare

Relationship: Edwin/Charles - Payneland

Rating: Explicit

Chapters: 2/2

Summary:

A Crooked Bowtie fic rec for fellow Bottom Edwin fans!

Lineart for a Payneland drawing inspired by the touching fic my love line seems entwined with death by @bitterdesert Hope to finish the watercolour version soon.

Been thinking about these scenes as I stare at them, trying to get the color consistent

And like

These two have been supernatural detectives for more than thirty years, and they've had to deal with the arcane rules of magic, the afterlife and the fae

And it strikes me that Charles would be braced for the worst of that going into actual Hell, no matter what he told the night nurse about being sure he could find his way

And this

feels like it could be so many things, but I'm wondering if it's a test. If he thinks Edwin being in love with him is so wildly unbelievable that this must be some kind of hellish trick.

And when Edwin gives an Edwin answer

bookishly knowledgeable and a little snarky, then Charles laughs, and I think it's with relief.

This is his Edwin.

It's only when Edwin calls him out for not taking the confession seriously

that Charles actually addresses what Edwin said, and then he replies with his whole heart, but he's still very careful, and very aware that they are still in Hell and need to get out without getting caught.

I just think he's barely able to process the information even then. There's so much going on.

first of all: irene your mind. i love all of this, pure genius

second of all: i am obsessed with the parallel this creates between charles and simon's "it's not real, you're just another trick", vs edwin immediately realising it's the real versions of both of them. sure, you could say charles has shown his impulsivity over the years and that edwin would come to expect it of him, but hell is a whole different game, and ofc the same doesn't apply to simon. i wonder if edwin has just never been tricked by hell like that, that he's so confident in what he sees, knowing that hell will always be straightforward about torturing him. or is it a skill he had to pick up in hell, one simon never learnt in a century, one charles will never have to pick up if edwin has anything to say about it?

third of all: why is it that charles only starts to doubt when edwin confesses to him, what is it about edwin's love confession that is either so out of character or so wish-fulfilling that charles has to check it's still his edwin and not a trick? what if orpheus didn't doubt that eurydice was there until she asked him to look back?

all of this to say, i love this interpretation of charles' initial reaction being to laugh it off (which i always saw as him being thrown and scrambling for the right thing to say), but what if, instead, it's him realising "all of this has been way too easy, and now i get to have this too? what if it was a trick all along?" and only edwin being his true self, the person charles loves and is in love with, can convince him that it's real, that he has to pour his heart out to edwin just like edwin did to him to make this right. and just another moment of doubt to convince him it's safer for edwin if charles doesn't love him back.

(also taking the time to plug @frogsondeckchairs' brilliant fic follow you to the end of time, which works with the reverse premise of charles actually being a trick of hell! <3)

Been thinking about these scenes as I stare at them, trying to get the color consistent

And like

These two have been supernatural detectives for more than thirty years, and they've had to deal with the arcane rules of magic, the afterlife and the fae

And it strikes me that Charles would be braced for the worst of that going into actual Hell, no matter what he told the night nurse about being sure he could find his way

And this

feels like it could be so many things, but I'm wondering if it's a test. If he thinks Edwin being in love with him is so wildly unbelievable that this must be some kind of hellish trick.

And when Edwin gives an Edwin answer

bookishly knowledgeable and a little snarky, then Charles laughs, and I think it's with relief.

This is his Edwin.

It's only when Edwin calls him out for not taking the confession seriously

that Charles actually addresses what Edwin said, and then he replies with his whole heart, but he's still very careful, and very aware that they are still in Hell and need to get out without getting caught.

I just think he's barely able to process the information even then. There's so much going on.