Author Archives: Sam

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whitesheepcbd:

still-searching47:

freifraufischer:

The selection of items in Rumple’s arms that no one comments on is hilarious to me.  Poor adorable David isn’t so bright…

But given I want to slap him over the cards thing…

I rewatched Skin Deep the other day (not on the official rewatch day unfortunately) and I had to fast forward through David mucking up giving MM her card. It was just too cringeworthy. I really didn’t like that whole subplot. Although at least David had an excuse for being so ugh – he was cursed. After all he had made his choice and wasn’t dithering about it before Regina sent him to the windmill and screwed everything up.

Gold though with the duct tape and rope. Do you think he just had so much of a reputation as the ‘town monster’ by then, that nobody blinked? Or do you just think that Sneezy and David don’t have much imagination?

I know he wasn’t cursed!Gold then seeing as he remembered, but it’s the closest we ever got really. Ah well there’s always fanfic.

When I rewatched it a couple days ago, I wondered if David did notice…I mean, you can see him looking at Gold’s purchases…and called Emma when he left the store. That would help explain how Emma just happened to be at that cabin in the woods to stop Gold from killing Moe French.

Oh wow!

That is a point. You know it literally never occurred to me how Emma got to the cabin at the right moment. I always assumed that she went looking for Moe French and someone told her that they had seen the flower truck driving up towards the woods.

However, David calling Emma and saying “Hey Gold was being weird at the store. He bought duct tape and rope and that doesn’t sound like a good combination for anything.” and Emma being all “I’ll take care of it.” and thinking to herself, dammit Gold, I told you not to interfere!

I like this theory because while oblivious Charming is fun, observant Charming who just keeps his mouth shut most of the time, because arguing wouldn’t be worth it, is much cooler.

Celeb look a likes

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I have this picture of Diego Luna on my dash as Cassian Andor and I just can’t shake the feeling that he looks just like another actor. Not a recent one I don’t think, in fact I have a suspicion I could be going back twenty years, but one I remember seeing in something at some point.

It is driving me absolutely mad because it’s on the tip of my tongue and I just can’t form the word, it’s like trying to catch wisps on a breeze. The resemblance is tickling my brain and I just can’t quite remember.

It’ll come to me eventually – I hope!

You know you are a writer …

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… when you are halfway through getting a meal (or doing anything really) and have to stop because this scene just popped into your head and it has to be written right the hell now. At least in rough form because the dialogue is good and you can see the faces, feel the emotions and while the picture is clear and not fuzzy, it needs to be recorded.

… when you have a picture in your mind and you aren’t sure whether it’s an actual scene you saw on the TV, or just something you imagined yourself.

… when watching TV often has no appeal anymore, because there is nothing that compares to the TV in your mind, of your own stories and ideas.

… when you can’t sleep at night because you want to be writing, but when you go to write, you just want to sleep.

I’ll stop for now. Anyone got any others?

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secularbakedgoods:

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I’m really sick of seeing writers who should know better say things like, “Tragedy is more compelling than stories where characters have a nice day and nothing bad happens!” without understanding why.

Tragedy is an effective story element when it’s a deviation from the norm. A character’s peaceful existence is disrupted by a catastrophic event that throws everything into chaos. The character now has to either develop so they can cope with the new status quo, or find a way to put things back the way they were. There’s a good story in that.

But when a character’s life is an unrelenting cavalcade of misery, another heaping dose of shit isn’t all that interesting. At that point, a compelling deviation from the norm would be said character having a nice day where nothing bad happens. And modern fiction is chock-full of misery porn, so by this logic, it’s no wonder the coffee shop AU is such a popular fanfiction trope.

Derek Hale getting a dog and putting his life back together is way more interesting than Derek Hale’s life getting worse for the 26th consecutive episode.

Creators like to hold up “everything is fine and nobody dies” as a sign that fanfic is bland and badly written, but if anything, it’s an indicator that mainstream fiction is bland and badly written. 

I don’t usually reblog this sort of thing but as a writer this resonates with me.

A story needs conflict. It’s not a story unless there is conflict. However, I watch TV and I sometimes think the writers don’t get it – conflict doesn’t have to be major world ending misery.

Barely anyone on TV is happily married or in a stable committed relationship. TV writers think happy = boring and then they kill one of the partners off, or they make them have an affair etc. However, conflict can be compelling and make for a good story and the couple can still be together and happy.

I mean what is conflict at it’s most basic form? Character wants something. There is something in the way of them getting it. Whatever obstacle or obstacles in their way form the plot – conflict.

“Everything is fine and nobody dies” AND “the story is still compelling enough to read” makes for better writing in a way, because you are potentially doing more with less.

What the conflict is within a story, depends on the genre. People watch/read things with certain expectations. Tragedy is necessary if that is what the genre conventions call for, but there is certainly a place for “nice day and nothing world ending happens” as well.

Just my two cents.

#genre conventions#happiness isn’t boring#nature of conflict

Your RCIJ Santa here! I love your ideas and they’re similar to some of mine so I’m definitely going to make use of them! I tend to write best to more extensive prompts so I’ve got some ideas and wrote about 500 words of introduction to set it up so far. So tell me more about what you love on the show — any other ships or characters you love? Any ships or characters you despise? What is it you love most about Rumbelle?

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Hey Santa *waves*

I will try and answer your questions. Hopefully the answers will be ok. I want to help you if I can but I don’t want to box you in, so please like I said last time take what you like from my ramblings, ignore what you don’t. What I want most is for you to have fun 🙂

I would up writing probably far more than I should and I am sorry for that. I was trying to answer your questions and I rambled on.

What I love on the show, what characters I love
Regina is my second favorite character, after Rumple. I know she isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, although I suppose in an AU her crimes against Belle wouldn’t be a factor. I like her snark and the half friends/half enemies thing she has with Rumple. They can verbally spar with one another and still be friends. In my headcanon they understand one another and respect each other and that doesn’t change whether for the moment they are working together, or against one another.

I don’t really dislike any character on the show. I have my clear favorites (Rumple and Regina) but I think everyone has their place. One of my frequent comments when I discovered the show was that each episode should be 3 hours long so everyone had enough screentime. I don’t begrudge screentime to anyone, I just want more of it to go around.

I don’t root for all the characters, there is some ‘love to hate’ because some characters are watchable but I despise their actions e.g. Zelena. She really should have stayed dead at the end of season three because there is no way to keep her around as a villain, it makes the heroes look inept, so they have wrecked her with this instant-redemption and now she isn’t the same character. It’s a bit like why bother? Some things are good but aren’t supposed to last. Zelena was a very watchable villain, genre savvy, fun lines etc. but she should have faced justice for killing Neal and for what she did to Rumple etc.

Generally I think season five didn’t do any of the characters any favors and actually to a slightly lesser extent season four. I don’t think I will ever forgive the show for the author plotline, I hate that concept more than anything else that the writers have concocted.

I like Neal and the estranged son angle, well I don’t like it because it’s sad but I like the motivation and layers it gives Rumples character. His death on the show has to be one of the most tragic TV deaths ever. I really wish he hadn’t died, or that they could have brought him back. It seems Rumple was more prophetic than he knew with his chilling “no more happy endings” because the right ending would have been a reconciliation, as time-consuming and difficult as it would have been with so many years of pain to overcome. No father should outlive their son, especially if their son died for them. I suppose that is what made it so tragic but quite how Rumple managed to go on afterwards, well him going a bit nuts with the mat seems quite restrained really.

I also like the idea of the Rumple and Henry grandfather and grandson relationship. We haven’t got to see that on the show really but they are family and family is what matters most to Rumple in my opinion, it’s his reason for everything. Although this would be a bit of a trick to include in an AU because of the age issue.

I have always thought that Rumple was probably early-forties when he became the dark one and got ‘frozen’. So if he’s early-forties then having a 10 year old grandson (Henry’s season 1 age) would be technically possible I suppose but not likely. I head canon Belle to be in her mid-twenties, so there’s about 15 years between them (no more than that) but you can do what you want of course.

Maybe Henry could be no blood relation, just Regina’s adopted son and Rumple is very fond of him? I do like the Regina and Henry relationship too. I’ve kind of left the Charmings out of this list, I don’t dislike them, they just aren’t as important to me I guess. Especially lately their hypocrisy, and their prejudices and their unwillingness to take responsibility for their own actions have really irritated me. They aren’t heroes, they just take care of their own, which I don’t blame them for but I wish they wouldn’t claim it was a more noble purpose than that.

What do I love most about Rumbelle?
“No one, no one, could ever, ever love me”
“You’re not a monster.”
“You were lonely, any man would be lonely”

He thinks he’s unlovable. He has put up walls and pushed everyone away. He believes that everyone will leave him, he think’s it is his fault. He has really low self esteem, he has bad self-loathing and then Belle is like a dream. She gives him faith in himself because she can see him for who he is, she can see his actions for what they are and not the negative light he casts on everything. She knows he’s not perfect, she knew him before she jumped in and loves him anyway.

It’s not one sided either because he gives Belle what she needs. He gives her respect, he lets make her own choices, “no one decides my fate but me”. He values her mind, her intelligence, her bravery, all aspects of her that everyone else wished she didn’t have because that didn’t fit the role that she was supposed to play. He lets Belle be herself and he loves her for it.

True their relationship on the show isn’t perfect because Belle has a bad habit of emotionally blackmailing him. I don’t think she realizes that she is doing it, saying that if he does what she wants then they “can be together.” and don’t think I’m blaming Belle because it’s not one-sided. Rumple does things he knows is wrong because he isn’t used to having to please anyone but him. He thinks he can have it all and has forgotten how to compromise.

Partly could blame the curse because having that darkness chewing on you has to have an effect but I am a big believer that people should take responsibility for their own actions. Rumple might be more prone to “being a man who makes wrong choices” because of the dark one but he is capable of making the choice. At least he can now, I think maybe at first when he took the curse it had more hold of him but I think he learned over the years to control it. It might give him a slight impulse control issue but he still knows right from wrong.

Also, Rumple is terrified of being anything less than perfect and doesn’t realize that Belle doesn’t need him to be perfect, she just needs him to be honest. He always thinks that he isn’t enough, perhaps because he struggles to understand what she sees in him. In his mind she is easy to love but who would love him? He doesn’t want to confide in her because he doesn’t want her to think him weak. Belle walks out to get space and that feeds his fear that she will leave him if he’s not perfect (abandonment issues) and the cycle just continues. Those two really need to learn to communicate.

————–

Again, I’m sorry if I wrote too much. I hope I answered your questions. Just use what you would like and ignore the rest. I know I keep saying that but I really mean it.

You haven’t said but if I am allowed to specify, considering it’s an AU and his name will be Gold not Rumple .. could Rumple be Nicholas Gold? That’s just what I headcanon for him (likely because I love Rush off SGU) and yeah. You can use a different name if you want. Please, do whatever you wish. I just thought I would drop this in here and then you can choose. I really don’t want to annoy you.

Anyway, again I hope this is all ok and please just have fun. I know I keep saying that too but I really do mean it. Fun is the priority.

Never Let the Pirate Babysit Alone

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woodelf68:

still-searching47:

Earlier @woodelf68 replied to my post season five character headcanon post and said:

“The
image of Hook being left to watch any kids is hilarious. Just imagine them
running him ragged and he is JUST SO OUT OF HIS DEPTH. File that under scenes I
didn’t realise I wanted to see, lol.”

and it inspired me. I took it as a prompt and wrote a little oneshot. It just wouldn’t leave me alone. This is set in the same verse as “He’s Behind You” which I posted the other day but about 18 months prior to that.

This isn’t actually really anti-Hook, just anti-Hook being competent looking after kids. I hope it makes somebody smile.

Keep reading

GUISE GUISE GUISE. READ THIS! READ THIS NOW.

That was more destruction than I even imagined. *Looks at fic in awe* I even feel sorry for Hook, he really was trying his best. 

@grace52373 @robertmarch82 thanks for the comments guys! Perhaps Emma has lost the upper IQ necessary for independent thought around Hook. It certainly seems that way sometimes.

@woodelf68 your enthusiasm is making me smile, thanks so much!

Yeah I felt a bit sorry for Hook. He was just inept not uncaring. I just couldn’t write him as uncaring because they are kids. I couldn’t let Emma leave them with him, if he would have been mean. She left them with him because she knew he wouldn’t hurt them. Although I’m sure she never imagined how incompetent he would prove to be.

My headcanon around the fic is Snow was still fretting about leaving them, so David allowed her to call Emma to check in, with the agreement that if everything was ok then they would continue with their evening. However, when they got Emma she was at the sheriff’s station “oh I left them with Hook, I’m sure they are fine.” and then Snow hangs up and looks at David “we are going home right now.” and David says “I’m sure they will be fine, Hook wouldn’t harm them.” and Snow says “that’s not the point.” or words to that effect.

Snow was barely comfortable leaving them with Emma and is basically looking for any excuse to go home. Then she gets there and the place is a disaster zone. David is going to be doing all the cleanup and sleeping on the couch for a week for suggesting it. Emma I think would be horrified in front of Snow but secretly find it hilarious and tease Hook about it for ages afterwards.

Hook just begs for them to tell no-one but Henry finds out and then everyone finds out and Rumple and Regina go full on sarcastic and snide comments. Belle finds him a book in the library and quietly, without fanfare, gives it to Emma because she is the logical one who thinks of the kids. Hook is bound to wind up looking after them again even though Snow has sworn “never again” and so for the good of the children, he needs some help.

Yeah I should probably stop thinking about this now. I really loved this prompt, it’s just so easy to spin the story around it.

—-

Spoiler alert. If you want to read Hook being spat on, sicked on and have poo thrown at him – by a baby – then this fic has that.

Anyone got any suggestions for tags? I was going to put this on AO3 and then thought better of it because I have absolutely zero idea how to categorize it. Maybe I will just leave it on tumblr as a prompt drabble. That would probably be safest.

Posted on by

lumadreamland:

once upon a wardrobe appreciation: 114/???

My heart broke for Regina in this episode.

“Neither of us belongs in the palace and neither of us can leave the palace.”

It’s the unintentional slights that hurt the deepest. Regina was left alone, ignored, nobody noticed or cared when she left the party. Her husband waxed on poetic about his previous wife, yes she was Snow’s mother and I’m not saying that he shouldn’t compare Snow to her mum, just that how it was done must have hurt Regina. It wasn’t done spitefully, it wasn’t done to hurt her on purpose. I don’t blame them for it, it was just a messed up situation but man her expression was heartbreaking.

I know she was manipulating the genie/mirror/Sydney but all good lies have an element of truth. Regina was trapped in that palace, in a life she never wanted – “I don’t want her life, I want a life of my own” and she was trapped there for years. Long enough for young Snow to become adult Snow.

And yeah Regina does have the best outfits. This show does wardrobe incredibly well.

Her expression kills me.

What untold stories are there in the ‘land of untold stories’?

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woodelf68:

still-searching47:

“Storybrooke is mine now. And I brought some friends. You know, I’ve been looking for a place like this for quite some time… A land where all the world’s lost and forgotten stories could play themselves out. And now that I have brought them here, that is exactly what they’re going to do.”
– Mr Hyde

So who do you think he brought with him? I’m guessing maybe Aladdin just simply because they haven’t done it yet. What else is left?

I’m thinking of writing a post-season five fic and so speculation would be very helpful. 

Doesn’t have to be a Disney cartoon. Or Disney at all, although for a well-known character from a live Disney show, you could use Zorro. Any book/character that’s fairly well known could be used – Captain Blood, The Three Musketeers, *insert favorite detective here*, Little Women, Heidi, etc. A character from Shakespeare! Look over your bookshelves, which made you wonder ‘what happened next?’

Thank you both!

So from you guys I have the options of:
– Paul Bunyon
– Aladdin
– Some Jane Austen.
– Zorro
-Captain Blood
– The Three Musketeers
– Are you thinking Agatha Christie detective? or Sherlock Holmes? or someone else?
– Little Women, Heidi
– Shakespeare

Then I googled and apparently in the show the storybook pages had:
– Gulliver’s Travels
– Don Quixote
– Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

I did some googling of my own and there are numerous other options from Disney’s catalogue though like you said it doesn’t have to be from Disney, just think about a story and ask “what happened next?”. Although with Jekyll and Hyde we do seem to be in the middle of that one, not the end and he said about the tales “playing themselves out” so maybe some of them from the land of untold stories aren’t complete.

I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter that much because the focus of the fic will be on the main characters – as it should be. I don’t really care about exploring new places and new stories, unless it offers development for the regular people. I was just thinking I should probably include something.

I will get plotting. For oneshots I just write, but for longer stuff I need an outline or I tend to write myself into a corner.

You guys have been very helpful! Thank you!

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mrgoldsdearie:

dr-rushs-glasses:

whitesheepcbd:

Belle fans….need opinions. For science. Actually, for a fic. For fic science.

Belle & Ariel are having a sleepover, trying to imitate what little Belle knows about the kind of slumber party that teenage girls are likely to have, including watching some sort of chick flick. Which movie should they watch? Preferably something with a sex scene (doesn’t have to be explicit, can be making out on bed & lights out) because the movie leads to the reveal that Ariel doesn’t know much about how humans have sex. 

Which movie should they watch?

Boost

Jawbreaker.

How about a classic? Something super old like ‘What Women Want’. It’s on netflix or it could even be on VHS in the library if the curse updated the catalog. There’s also Pretty Woman, another classic.

The Wedding Date, that’s another that has the kind of sex scene you are talking about.

Can you tell I don’t really watch romantic comedies? I know very little about them.

How are they watching anyway? That would probably change what they watched. Did Belle order dvds off Amazon? Did she borrow it from Ruby? Have they got netflix? Am I now overthinking this? Probably. I just like to help, your fic sounds good!

ETA: Bridget Jones Diary, how could I forget that one?

Is there such a thing as too much headcanon?

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I was just thinking. I have opinions of the characters, some of which have changed over time. However, after a while my opinions do get a bit fixed.

Each new episode I watch and if something happens which I think “that does not fit the character” then I either headcanon it, I find an explanation that makes it fit – so I keep to canon OR I just pretend like it doesn’t exist because “no amount of headcanon in the world can fix that much fail.”

In both of those cases, where I either find a reason and make it work, or ignore it, I don’t dramatically change my opinion of the character.

Sometimes the character does do incredibly bad things. Like Regina and her instant-love/forgiveness of Zelena. I just can’t even fathom it really, it does not compute, so for the most part I just completely ignore it. Watching characters do something that I can’t believe in, makes me feel like I’ve slipped into an alternate reality.

I did try and headcanon this with Regina basically projecting her own wish to be forgiven onto Zelena, sort of over-empathizing but really I don’t believe that. In my opinion it’s just the writers wanted to keep Zelena on the show and so had to make her good, which is an out of universe reason, therefore it ruins suspension of disbelief/immersion.

However, maybe that’s my fault. Maybe, it isn’t so patently unbelievable, it’s just I have way too much headcanon about Regina and actually the character in my head, isn’t the one on the show and maybe never was. It’s not just about Regina either but all the characters. I’ve tended to say lately that season five generally wasn’t kind to anyone but maybe I just had too much headcanon going into the season.

I remain unsure as to whether this is good or bad.

I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. As a writer I do try and remind myself frequently that we all blinded by how we see things. I write characters and I see them one way, but maybe readers will see them another. It’s all about what resonates with you and that’s different for everyone.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter because I can’t stop with the headcanon, I don’t do it on purpose, it just happens. This is just my random thought of the day I suppose.