Canon is a box of scraps… well

Posted on May 14, 2019 by Sam

“Tony Stark built it [the arc reactor] in a cave! Out of a box of scraps!”

You take that box of scraps canon gave you and you build your Iron Man suit.

It’s how great fics are built 🙂

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Sam

bookwormchocaholic asked:

Journal, Backstory, Parchment, Critic. :~)

Ok got about a third of one of my essays first drafted so going to answer this 🙂 thanks for the ask! I love questions 🙂

journal: do you ever write just so you can enjoy something to read?
Erm … always? I don’t usually reread my own writing unless I’m revisiting the verse. Personally I feel egotistical reading my own work, I don’t know why, especially after some time has passed because sometimes I read it and I’m like – “I wrote this???” because it feels so foreign. Anyway, I’m rambling but I guess what I’m saying is I don’t tend to write anything I dislike. I write because I want to tell that story. I want that story to exist, it’s in my head and I need to make it corporeal. I need it to.. well like I said – exist! So yeah I write because I want to read that story.

backstory: how did you come to love writing?
I have stories in my head and I want to tell them. Writing is, for me at least, the easiest path to making those stories exist – to getting those stories out of my head and into the world. I mean it probably goes back to what I was encouraged in when I was little. My mum isn’t an artist, and she would have struggled to help me with that means of expression. Instead I read voraciously, I had a reading age of an adult by the time I was 8. So I had all those words in my head and that’s the means I used to tell my stories. It’s still the primary means I use because I’ve had over 20 years of practice now, it’s still what comes most naturally to me.

parchment: how often do you or your personal life influence your writing?
Probably far more than I think. It’s funny this is asked today because for my essay I’m doing an argument about perspective (post-structuralism, experience shaping people’s interpretation of stuff etc. ) when it comes to realism in fiction. It’s one of those topics that makes you think and my conclusion if you like, is it’s me that does the writing, therefore everything in the story springs from me and so even when I’m consciously trying to write something different from me, or my experiences, it is still based on my understanding of whatever this different environment/perspective etc. is. I’m shaped by my experiences and so my writing is shaped by me. I have no idea if that makes sense. Hopefully my essay is more coherent :p

critic: what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received about writing?
There’s the old standby “I can fix a bad page, I can’t fix a blank page.” (Nora Roberts) – I need to tattoo this on my brain to be honest. However while that is undoubtedly good advice I think the best piece of advice I’ve read is “Measure your worth by the dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures”(Elizabeth Gilbert). The reason why I like this quote so much is I beat myself up all the time. I feel like I’ve failed because I set goals and don’t meet them, I’m constantly frustrated because I want to do more and just can’t manage it. However, this quote is a balm because it’s basically like ‘so long as you keep trying and don’t give up then you are ok’ and that is advice I need. No matter how much I want it to be different I’m never going to be as fast, or as good, as I’d like, but the tortoise beats the hare – so long as I stay dedicated then I can have hope that I’ll get there. I need that hope in my life.

Posted on March 25, 2019 by Sam

I just read something interesting. It was in a James Scott Bell book, 27 fiction mistakes, and basically went like this:

“I advocate a weekly creativity time. Half an hour at least to just play in the fields of your mind. You could play The First Line Game where you make up killer first lines, or play The Title Game, or The Killer Scene Game. You can grab a newspaper and come up with an idea based on an article.

Come up with your own games, but the point is to play. Get your brain frolicking and it will get stronger and happier. Then when you’re working on a project, it’s a healthy partner for you to have.”

I do get very focused on my projects and as much as I love them, they scare the hell out of me. I have built them up to mean things and so it’s like pulling teeth. I don’t like taking time out for other things as I feel guilty but maybe I shouldn’t, maybe indulging for a short time isn’t a bad thing.

This reminded me of the question “what brings me joy?” and how I should think about whether projects bring me joy, and what I could do to help myself. I confess that this is why I haven’t decided what I’m writing for April’s Camp yet as I’m deliberating about what brings me joy and what matters, and why things matter to me – what feeds the soul essentially I guess.

Anyway I don’t know I just wanted to share this 🙂

WIP Wednesday

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Sam

Ok so the fic for AMR didn’t happen last month

BUT

I haven’t lost my chance a) I can write that fic one day anyway and also b) it’s a brand new month, with new prompts!

I do have an idea, I even have some notes for the prompt for this months AMR and I’m going to try and write it. We’ll see how that goes.

BUT

Let’s get upcoming for a minute here because while March is the same sucky mess as always April is Easter break. My uni rather ridiculously (I think anyway) has this four week gap in between Weeks 11 and 12 (and it’s a 12 week semester). So I’ll have all my major assignments to do over April to hand in on the final week afterwards BUT I won’t have any classes.

April is also Camp NaNo. I have rather stupidly opted to run two cabins this year again, the easy fun one for you guys, and then the stress-inducing nightmare for my region (I am seriously thinking of quitting as ML it’s too much). However, leaving aside admin logistics April is Camp, April is free of class – I can do writing in April (I hope anyway).

There are a few things I’m thinking of doing.

– Nightwalkers, the fic I’ve been talking about since June 2016 with all the tropes as detective!Belle goes undercover with Gold at a high stakes poker game to find a killer.

– Gold is a teacher, Belle is a single parent and that’s how they meet. I sort of referenced this in the recent trope rating. I don’t have much of a plot beyond their first meeting and then the idea that they become friends and it gradually blossoms into something romantic. I thought that might be nice for the teacher appreciation day in May which everyone was talking about the other day.

– Art! There’s a Rumbelle piece I have planned for this month which I need to get on with *side eyes self* and then there’s another Rumbelle piece that I want to do in April. I also have an idea for a Regina and Henry piece that I might see if I can have done for America’s Mother’s Day.

So yeah that’s the current state of things. I know that I’m the absolute best about talking about doing things, and then never actually doing them. However, it is my most sincere intention. 2019 has been unexpectedly and stupidly tough for me thus far, on paper the reasons sound silly but it’s how it feels and how it affects me and it’s been difficult. Anyway yeah I’m going to try my best! 🙂

#going to try my best#upcoming projects and stuff

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Sam

winterswanderlust asked:
Oh oh oh coffee shop au ☕️☕️

Thank you! 🙂