I7 Tweets #2

I’m pretty sure they never show in the anime how they got to class?? But I love the idea that Denki used to show up to UA in his skateboard before they stayed at the dorms, also idk I feel like Bakugo it’s his dad’s baby and he used to take him to class when he wasn’t busy like PLEASE

The Love & Peace collection (1995)

chaos club

Week two:

8- original(?)- just a journal entry, today

-im realizing that I tend to talk myself out of starting original works (or even long fics sometimes) bc i don’t have that much faith in my own abilities and the idea of writing things that are bad doesn’t sit well with me. they say the first step to solving a problem is acknowledging it though, so im gonna do my best to try to approach this insecurity mindfully and with kindness

9- fic- genin era sasuke, emotional/hurt comfort, kakashi doesn't know how to comfort a kid At All but he's trying in his own weird way (and Iruka eventually helps him out)

-this one opens with kakashi luring young Sasuke away from his empty compound with a trail of baby tomatoes (think Scully leaving a trail of cereal for Boo) and his trap/plan ends up failing so badly that it works in the end

10- fic- single dad bakugou/ teacher midoriya

-was rereading the partial draft and wrote more for it solely bc i want to read the end product lol

11- fic- bkdk fluff

-wrote a short practice thing bc i love the headcanon that Katsuki stares expectantly at Izuku when he wants a kiss and just waits for Izuku to understand

12- fic- inko-centric, implied eventual bkdk

-finally wrote the intro to my soul tangles idea! basically a spin on a soulmate AU (bkdk are the soulmates) but it focuses on inko and her interactions with mitsuki&masaru since their kids are both toddlers who need to be kept near each other for health reasons but the bakugou’s start as complete strangers to inko

13- fic- middle school era bakugou & izuku, fluff and humour, very nonserious

-basically bakugou gets a dog to help with his anger issues, izuku is afraid of dogs bc of a past event bkg was unaware of, and bkg makes it his mission to make izuku chill with his dog (who is named grenade) and ends up making himself chill with izuku

14- fic- on ao3 as probably not (also posted on tumblr) no quirk au

-this one's inspired by a username that caught my eye (but i misread) and was written while listening to velvet ring by big thief on loop (and not packing to go home from college). i really enjoy this one and its one of the few works of mine where i really like the platonic bkdk lens

I want to write at least a little bit every day in December so I’ve decided to keep a log and post it here to keep myself accountable! I’ll list whether it’s a fic or original, what it’s about, and a few of my thoughts about each project. posted weekly, I think :)

MHA tweets pt.9 (continuation of pt.8)

drew the sillies again

personally, i definitely think that these phrases stand out a lot more to the writer than to the reader, but if you feel like those comparison phrases are adding up too much or getting a bit clunky, I’d recommend experimenting with metaphors rather than trying to look for replacements for “like” or “as”

to a reader, something like “her smile was like the rising sun” is super easy to read and can do a lot of work communicating theme and mood and details about the character (or narrator, depending) but switching it up to something more complex like “her smile was akin to the rising sun” can make a reader pause and go ‘huh that’s a little awkward’ unless that’s the style of language you’ve been writing in the whole time

that said, i think the simplest way to cut down on similes if you have too many (or don’t enjoy how they affect the flow of your sentences) is to use metaphors. they can help cut down that barrier between a character comparing two things (e.g. her smile & the rising sun) and instead appeal directly to a reader’s senses or their understanding of the world, so that the comparison just becomes part of the scene itself

for example, I was reading Sally Rooney’s Normal People during the unit on comparisons for a writing course I took and some that stood out to me were how she described “rain silver as loose change in the glare of traffic” and how that rain “[whispered] on slick roof tiles”

the first quote is a simile while the second is a metaphor, but both of them are making comparisons (the first comparing rain & loose change, leaning on a readers visual reference for shiny coins and implying that the narrator thinks these two things are alike) while the second one compares the sound of rain to the sound of whispering by making it part of the scene description directly. rather than say “it was as if the rain whispered on slick roof tiles” Rooney broke down the barrier that similes sometimes put up by directly appealing to the reader’s senses instead (sound here, instead of sight) and that’s effective bc a reader can very easily understand what it means for rain to whisper without the author having to put in a lot of work looking for a natural way to say “the rain seemed as if it was whispering on slick roof tiles”

and sometimes similes just work better than metaphors. it really depends but, as the author, you get to choose what works for you and what doesn’t

these kind of considerations can be hard to remember when you’re in the middle of writing, too, but the editing phase can be a great place to turn some similes into metaphors (or to decide that you like all your similes and to leave them be!)

i know a lot of my writing involves me writing exactly what I mean, and then scaling it back in the editing phase so that I’m showing what I mean instead of stating it all outright- and in that process a lot of similes end up incorporated in different ways (either by using metaphors instead or by dropping the comparison altogether and leaning more on body language and or theme to draw out the ideas and impressions i want a reader to get) so maybe that strategy could work for you too?

i got a little long-winded here but I hope this helps!

As a newer writer, I'm struggling to use similes in more ways other than by phrases like "like", "seeming as", "as if" or other versions of these three.

What are some of the other, if any, ways to compare something to something else, to avoid a book turning mundane?

Hi! Can you tell me more about All It’s Worth? It sounds really interesting!

Hi, I'd love to! The story is still very much in the planning stage so apologies if my explanation of it is a little scatterbrained but thanks so much for the ask :)

All It's Worth is a mainly a story about Meric- a bitter and cynical son of farmers who lives in a small, outlying village, and Myre Halcyon- the much-hated black sheep of the current ruling family (House Myre) who is treated favorably only by his mother, the sole ruler, and has a single-minded obsession with the Kingfisher myth (a myth told by the Prophets (and that is central to their religion) which promises the appearance of water and the continuation of their civilization into a utopia).

aiw is set on a small planet that is mostly a sandy desert, with eight outlying villages, 5 internal towns, and the Court at its center, referred to as SeaPoint (a common phrase being "all roads lead to SeaPoint", since the city is arranged in a large circle). House Myre occupies SeaPoint, as its matriarch is the current leader, and the 5 towns surrounding SeaPoint all have strong cultural ties to the Houses that live there (Houses: Wayle, Ayke, Toyl, Eryr, and Ruyn). Members from each of these Houses hold positions at Court, but House Myre has been in control for a long time, hence each of the 5 towns creating a sort of identity around the bloodlines of their most powerful citizens. The outlying villages don't have as much of a stake in the House drama and tend to be much poorer (and much more religious) than citizens in the 5 towns and it's quite a trek to reach the outlying villages, so its mainly just travelled by the Prophets who bring water (via wagons) from SeaPoint to these villages.

Pretty much the only way that someone from one of the 8 villages travels to SeaPoint is if they pay for passage themselves, are a merchant of some sort (and thus, have wagons to use/ride in), or are told by the Prophets that they have a Calling (which is essentially a religious apprenticeship, and as long as the Called party does the job they were Called for well, their family is sent extra water from SeaPoint).

Meric and Halcyon find themselves at odds with each other pretty much immediately, largely because Meric thinks everything the Prophets say is complete bullshit that people only believe to make themselves feel better, especially when it comes to the Kingfisher (since his entire immediate community is made up of farmers whose livelihoods depend on water, and he understands that drought on their planet is imminent and inevitable). Meanwhile Halcyon buys completely into the myth and even takes it a step father by dedicating his young life to searching for this mysterious Kingfisher (while most people in the outlying villages simply take comfort in the idea that water will come and things will somehow turn out alright and most of the rich/powerful are unconcerned). Being from a rich family, Halcyon is also very ignorant of the threats/reality of drought and this further sours Meric against him.

Meric and Hal meet first when they're children and Meric's interactions with Hal result in a botched assassination attempt, and then for the second time when Meric cons his way into the central city as a Prophet and gets wrapped up in a surprise coup against the ruling family (by revolutionaries and a few, internal usurpers from the other Houses). Very much a wrong-place, wrong-time sort of scenario for Meric, where he's only spared because Hal had recognized him and tugged him aside to question him. Thinking that they're both targets (Meric for his deceit and Hal for his blood) they flee the Court together and try to evade detection. Forced to stick together for survival, they begin learning a lot of unexpected things about each other as well as their society and its creation.

The plot largely follows their interactions with one another (after the coup) as they navigate such a sudden change in their personal circumstances, with a focus on how they ultimately spur change in the other. But their interpersonal dramas and the secrets they stumble across also have huge impacts in the social/political landscape of the planet, seemingly by accident. Free will vs fate is something I want to play with a lot in this piece, so that it could be totally believable for a reader to think Meric and Hal's contributions to the old power vs revolutionaries conflict are entirely coincidence or entirely pre-destined/fate. Ideally, the reader would only get impressions of these big political machinations happening in the background while staying focused on the personal dramas of Meric and Hal.

I also plan to base a lot of my symbolism around things I've learned about the actual Kingfisher! The religious "temples" are underground, for one, and called burrows and because it can take a pair of Kingfishers 3-7 days to build a burrow, so 7 is considered a holy number and the burrows are always 37 steps deep. The blue of their wings is also the color of House Myre. One website even mentioned that many kingfishers can eat prey that seem too large to fit in their mouths, and this has a direct parallel to Hal and his relationship with another person at Court who had power over him as a child.

A lot of the inspiration for aiw honestly came from the song Empire Now by Hozier

Anyways, I think that covers most of the set-up? I have a few scenes visualized already but most of the later plot is still up in the air. This is already so long lol but I figured id also share the singular snippet i have written out for this! pls excuse the name placeholder towards the end

I. Dear Waterfox  Meric tugged at the bright, red cloth loosely knotted around his throat. The shadow of his movement stuck out oddly among the eerie line of his neighbors’, all of them dutifully pacing down the Burrow steps in silence. Torches on the left, shadows on the right, praise be the Carpal Reign.  Meric saw his mother’s shadow move before he felt her dirt-stained hands on his collar, readjusting the fabric.  “Don’t fuss,” she murmured. “It’s just for today.” Meric frowned and rolled his shoulders to be free of the touch.  “It’s uncomfortable,” he hissed back, inching a finger between the fabric and his skin to slide the knot away from the center of his throat.  The heavy thud of a hundred dusty Believers descending 37 dusty stairs in single file did little to cover the sound of their voices. Meric stuck out his tongue at the scandalized few who turned around with silent, chastising eyes. “It’s ceremonial,” his mother replied pointedly, no doubt forcing the words out from behind an appeasing smile. “To show that you are a child of the Prophets-” “Since when are you a Prophet?” Meric’s mother pulled on his ear, her shadow still leaning over his on the wall. Someone else’s wobbled with a poorly hidden laugh. Meric swatted her away again, eyes flicking away from the red, robe-clad Prophets scattered past the Burrow’s inner opening and to the rolling carts stacked high with waterskins along the back wall.  “Meric, so help me-” “I know,” he said, though he left his ceremonial nuisance askew. “I know,” he repeated, quieter and to himself.  The line continued marching forward until there was no one between Meric and Prophet -name-, who looked just the same as he had when he left for his travels four months ago and nothing at all like he had when he was seventeen and fun and the son of the farmer’s nextdoor.  Those fields were barren, now. No one left to till them.

omg ur writing is so good like how have i never heard of u before

-seafloor509 (im asking anon bc if i ask regularly itll show up as smth else and i dont want that)

(also u liked my ONE ONLY post so i came and found u and like ong ur writing is so t a s t e f u l)

thanks so much!! that really made my day :,)

and yes i remember your piece! i really enjoyed reading it. you have a strong voice and the atmosphere was really interesting

Writers' Resolutions

A bunch of resolutions for writers and people who want to try writing this year. It's in no way something you must do, these are just ideas how you can set out to improve your writing in the new year.

Try something new

Try to write something you have never written before.

Write something silly, write something serious, write in a different genre, try to write characters that you haven't explored yet.

Write consistently

Writing consistently will not only give you exercise to become a better writer, it can also keep your voice as a writer consistent.

If you have a first draft, write it down quickly and without big breaks inbetween.

Don't wait for inspiration

Waiting for inspiration to come can take forever. So don't wait for inspiration: search for it.

Make writing into a habit that comes natural to you every day, look up writing prompts, read a book you like, get yourself into the mood to write and do it!

Do your research

As a writer, you need to know about a lot of different things.

You can do research by reading books, listening to podcasts, watching movies, talking to other people, etc.

Take this year to learn something new and then tell your reader all about it.

Edit that draft

We all have that one story we wrote a while ago and then stopped at the first draft.

Take it and reread it and then rewrite it. You have a new perspective on it now and maybe this will be the year you turn your idea into a book.

Set yourself a goal

This explicitly doesn't have to be a goal about how many words or pages you write.

Your goal can be to finish something, to edit something, to write a few sentences every day, to share more of your writing or to publish something.

Don't compare

Try not to compare your writing with that of someone else.

Writing is about finding your own voice and telling a story that only you can tell. Also: other people's accomplishes don't diminish your own!

Write!

Whatever the outcome of your writing may be and whatever you want to do with it, if you want to publish it, if you want to share it with friends, or if you want to keep it to yourself: just start writing!

Do what you love to do.

To all my lovely writers, I wish you a great year, may everything work out in your favour!

- Jana