Today I discovered this writer’s tactic to face her fear of rejection and failure, and it’s honestly very inspiring?! This kinda rewired my brain and I feel everyone should read and think about it.
You know, it’s really hard to get a large number of notes on sterek creations these days unless you have a huge following built across many years to begin with, because it’s post show and so many people are leaving the fandom behind or aren’t as involved, so I just wanted to say to every sterek creator who is struggling with believing in themselves and keeps comparing their few notes to older works that have thousands of reblogs that I appreciate you SO much. You are amazing and talented and inspirational and you help make my day feel warmer and brighter and more hopeful. I’ve been struggling with a lot of shit in my life and sterek is one of the very few things that keeps me going, and you, as stereks, are as essential as our ship. Getting to enjoy your creations is a blessing and you can bet that that 40 note post you made has made at least one person feel joy, and that has infinite value. Don’t give up on our fandom and don’t give up on yourselves. We’re always going to be as great as we’ve ever been, even when we aren’t as prolific as in our golden days. Sterek is eternal. Thank you for creating with me. ❤
i was doing shitty pencil sketches for practise today and it occurred to me that the writing equivalent of art studies is just little word exercises. nothing that requires a plot or characters or a motif (although if that’s what works for you, go for it), just quick 5 minute exercises like we used to do in middle school, e.g.:
describe 15 things that are purple (or 5, or 25) without actually using the word “purple”
time yourself! how many words rhyming with “gate” can you name in 3 minutes? hard mode: they have to be more than 2 syllables
describe something (a flower, a forest walk, a sword) without using one or more key senses
list as many different uses for a bobby pin as you can. think outside the box: what if the bobby pin was made of rubber? the size of a steamboat? ultra reflective?
think of the most cringey self-indulgent juvenile story idea, the one you thought was so good when you were 11, and write it! even better, write it badly!! add communism, man-eating mermaids, a magical girl who’s secretly the alien heiress to the universe – whatever makes you happy
word jumbles! crosswords! word finders! find them and do them, as easy or difficult as you want
write something (a description, a poem, a saying) in nothing but emojis
find a book, or a tv show, or a comic that you love and write fanfiction. take characters from a crime drama and stick them in a high fantasy. take the cast of an action adventure and dump them in a coffeeshop. gritty sci-fi? now it’s a sitcom. tearjerk romance? sports anime! go nuts!!!
most important thing: DO SOMETHING FUN FOR YOU. if you don’t let yourself have fun writing, it’s going to become a chore.
ok but like when did self-sacrifice become synonymous with death? writers seem to have forgotten that people can make personal sacrifices for the greater good without giving their lives. plots about self-sacrifice and selflessness don’t always have to end in death. suffering doesn’t have to be mourning. you can create drama and emotional depth on your show without killing everyone. learn to explore the meaning of living rather than dying
Death. Is. NOT. The. Only. Way. To. Advance. The. Narrative.
Fun things to sacrifice for your loved ones in your free time that don’t include death and actually set up for a whole new season of high level drama:
– humanity (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) – memories (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) – love for that special someone (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) – emotions (mostly applicable to sci-fi/supernatural genre) – rank/position/ – yourself/your brain/your skills (give yourself over to bad guys and become their brainwashed agent so your loved ones live) – years of bloody ruthless traditions to make way for peace (hi lexa and fuck jroth tbh) – freedom (includes that of speech/mind/will) – your grandpa’s fortune – hell even material possessions have that girl sacrifice her goddamn house so they can pay off her gf’s student loans or whatever juST STOP KILLING CHARACTERS TO FURTHER YOUR PLOT
Other things to sacrifice:
– your most sought-after goal
– a strongly-held belief or conviction
– your own chance at happiness
other fun things to sacrifice:
-a finger -an eye -10-20 years of your life -some of your vitality or dexterity -your ability to magically see in the dark -your proficiency in battle axes -your good looks -your memory of the man who killed your wife -everything but your head
hey here’s a great thing to sacrifice to advance the narrative:
– your revenge.
because revenge plots have been weirdly enshrined, especially in the action genre, and imo if you can’t concieve of your action hero giving up on revenge for the greater good they’re not much of a hero are they.
theproblemwithstardust 