I think a big part of why I read way more fanfiction than books is that there’s just a hell of a lot less exposition
the first 10 pages of most books are always “these are the main characters and here’s some background on each of them and this is the setting etc etc” and it’s such a fucking hassle getting to the plot sometimes
fanfic is just like “fuck it you know all of this already let’s go”
That’s a really good point.
Same here but there’s actually a point here of well written exposition. Take AUs for example. Even in the most complicated, as-far-removed-from-canon settings we get at most a single paragraph before the actual fic where the author gives us a quick rundown of the rules for that universe. The rest we are left to figure out on our own and it works.
We’re not spoon fed every trivial detail when all we want is to get to the plot. Everything that’s important is said at the moment it is important, not sooner not later. Especially in long fics characters often take on such a unique characterisation that you get to know them all over again but the readers do so organically, in the situations that define those characters as they happen. Same with looks. The fic author generally assumes the readers know what the characters look like and don’t spend paragraphs describing them, and only bring it up when it fits the plot.
I’ve read a few fanfics from fandoms I’ve never been in and surprisingly it still worked out. I had generally a good idea of who these people were, what they did where and why and how they worked together.
Point is, if you’re a writer writing original fiction, pretend it’s fanfic and everyone knows your setting and characters already. That way you’ll only have to add a few details if and when your beta readers mention needing more information and chances are they won’t need a lot.
Point is, if you’re a writer writing original fiction, pretend it’s fanfic and everyone knows your setting and characters already. That way you’ll only have to add a few details if and when your beta readers mention needing more information and chances are they won’t need a lot.
Bolding this fantastic advice.
Reblogging for the next time I write something original.
This is brilliant. I do a shit amount of world building but been blocked for the past week worrying about details and stuff.
Remember: you can always add in revisions. You just have to write first.
So today started out dumb, but this afternoon was AWESOME.
I’m on the porch attempting to construct a railing for the stairs when I notice a weird noise. Like, a kind of droning or buzzing? And it’s getting loud. So I investigate. It’s coming from the neighbor’s yard.
It is a metric fuckton of bees. I have never seen so many bees in my life. It is a fucking swarm of bees, and I have been reading about bees because I got a wild hair a few weeks back about wanting a hive of my own, but haven’t yet convinced Husbandthing, and there is suddenly a SWARMING HERD OF WILD HONEYBEES IN THE NEIGHBOR’S YARD.
I see postings on the neighborhood page all the time for feral swarm collection, but I also know the guy in the house across the alley just set up a hive. “Hey I think your hive escaped,” I text him.
He calls me back about three minutes later. Turns out, the swarm he was supposed to get never came; the company went out of business and his order got cancelled, and he’d found out HALF AN HOUR AGO. And he says he’s got a friend who is a professional beekeeper, and he’s going to go pick her up and would it be okay if they came and got this swarm please please please?
So Bee Neighbor and Professional Beekeeper show up and immediately don bee suits. Apparently there is fierce competition for feral swarms, and the swarm in the neighbor’s tree is HUGE, and also twenty feet off the ground, and Bee Neighbor wants them very badly.
The tree the bees are in is in a yard belonging to neither of us, so we go knock on the door, but there’s no answer. I knock on the house adjacent to it, but that guy’s not home either. Finally, I text the neighbor on the other side of me to see if he’s got contact info for the property owner, who is incredibly shy and in three years has never made eye contact. No luck.
So…we trespass. We get my extension ladder, and Bee Neighbor climbs the tree while Professional Beekeeper stands on the ladder and walks him through the swarm collection. Turns out, you just shake the swarm into a box, and as long as the queen makes it into the box, the rest of the swarm will eventually follow. Bee Neighbor has never collected a swarm before (this is, in fact, his very first swarm of bees ever) and it takes the two of them the better part of an hour in the tree trying to shake the swarm into the box.
Bees eventually get into the box. Bee Neighbor gets out of the tree without dying, and Professional Beekeeper examines the swarm and makes pleased noises. At this point, the box is the neighbor’s driveway, and about two thirds of the swarm is still milling around the box all confused. Since the neighbor isn’t home and we can’t contact him, he risks coming and parking right in the middle of a huge cloud of bees. Professional Beekeeper doesn’t want to move the box too far away, because we risk the milling bees losing the queen’s scent and never going into the box. An equidistant point between the current location and Bee Neighbor’s yard is the top of my recycling bin.
So they put the box of bees on my recycling bin, and I text Husbandthing.
Now I have a box of bees that I am babysitting. They’re being all lazy and dopey and bumbling around. I think I might be in love. Bee Neighbor will pick the box up later tonight and put them in his hive, and then the bees will be MY neighbors too!!
THIS HAS BEEN THE BEST DAY EVER
#beekeeping #also we left a note on the absent neighbor’s door #hi sorry we trespassed #but as you can see from your security cam footage #there was a giant cloud of bees #and we came and got them #we figured you did not want a yard full of bees #and we will love them #yours very sincerely #the friendly neighborhood bee team [Tags by @sacrificethemtothesquid]
Spring comic. Spring is when I miss living in the woods in Wisconsin the most, cool plants, morel mushrooms, my mom pulling wood ticks off my head… just wonderful.
If you like my comic and want to toss some money in my hat here’s a link.
I don’t know anything about soccer or the world cup or whatever is going on right now. What I know is that a bunch of Mexican guys decided to go there on a fucking bus.
Not any bus, this bus:
Plane? No they took a month long ship trip to bring the bus with them, and then they drove all the way to wherever the fucking games are right now.
Just…
How much money did they spend on this???
Some of them quit their jobs to go???
Also one of the guys wasn’t able to go, according to him because “My wife didn’t let me” so his friends decided to print a life size cardboard cutout of the guy and bring it along.
True friendship.
I don’t care about soccer but I am crying at this bunch of fucking losers and how extra they are.
did everyone just forget about when bill was attacked by greyback and he had a ton of scars and mrs weasley was like “oh better call off the wedding” and fleur was like “why the fuck would we do that” and mrs weasley basically said that fleur only liked bill bc of his looks and fleur totally told her and was like “i love him no matter what he looks like” and she turned out to be really cool
I feel like fleur is underrated
what she said exactly was “i’m beautiful enough for both of us” and honestly when has anything been more iconic
Fleur is constantly shit on bc she’s pretty. Esp by Hermione and even Ginny. Fleur was a Triwizard Champion, deemed the most worthy in her entire school. She’s not stupid, and when Harry reminds the girls that she’s not an idiot, both Hermione and Ginny accuse Harry of only sticking up for her because he thinks she’s hot.
This smacks uncomfortably of the “girls bring catty and hating the pretty girl” bullshit.
Fleur never forgot that Harry saved her sister when he did not have to, and even at the time, she outright stated that she “deserved zero” points for allowong the Grindylows to stop her.
Fleur is part veela… It is literally in her blood. She can’t turn it off. And blaming her for guys being attracted to her is way to similar to “she’s asking for it”.
Mrs. Weasley, who is known in the fandom for taking in strays and loving everyone So Much, actively hated Fleur for over a year… With absolutely no concrete reason to do so. Ginny says that the only reason Bill likes Fleur is that “he’s always gone in for a bit of adventure”. And imho this is one of the cattiest, most insulting things ever said in the entire series.
Fleur is the Elle Woods of the wizarding world. She has had to fight against her looks every step of the way, to prove that she belongs at the table. That she isn’t just a pretty face. That she deserves the attention for her deeds or her words or her heart, not just because of her face. To not be objectified by everyone she meets, to make friends who care about her for who she is, not what she looks like.
I maintain this is why she chose Bill. He treats her like a person. And why she adores Harry. Harry has always treated her like a person too. He blushes when she kisses him, but he’s a 16yo boy, he blushes at everything. And when they first met, he was nervous around her… but he was also nervous around Cedric and Krum. It was because they were older than him, not because of a crush. Harry never once thought about asking her to the Ball.
At the Burrow, Harry doesn’t stare at her or clamor for her to kiss him, or get distracted and drop things because she’s nearby. That’s why she likes him. Nearly everyone else in that house is awful to her. It’s really not a surprise that she’s a bit snotty back.
Yes. Fleur is hella underappreciated, and I have Feelings about it.
Artisan Scribbles 