Part 5 Now On Ao3

Part 5 now on ao3

The thing that helped me go from "no motivation to write" to being on track to have written 200K words of fiction in one year was unlocking

the power of spite

by reminding myself that writing cozy stories of successful queer romance where nobody dies and everyone gets a happy ending will really piss off the fascists.

Update: some co editors are helping create a less stressful work environment

Genuinely, there is no worse part of the writing process for me than revising the first draft. (I always print my first drafts because it helps me see what's there rather than what I think should be there.)

And getting into writing novels has made it SO MUCH WORSE. This fucker is 258 pages, God help me.

Also!!!! Adverbs are useful in describing body language meant to convey emotional context: Aspen stopped themself, holding up their hands apologetically.

Just saying that they held up their hands gets rid of the emotional context - you can hold up your hands angrily, or aggressively, or sarcastically. They're also a lot more useful for conveying sarcasm without just saying the character is being sarcastic: “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Becks asked sweetly from the doorway.

So yeah. Vary your parts of speech, but also

I know adverbs are controversial, but "said softly" means something different than "whispered" and this is the hill I will die on.

I have an appointment next Monday about starting HRT.

My name and pronouns aren't changing. My gender identity hasn't changed. I've just gotten worn down by the impossibility of being myself in a world that only wants to see me as "Cara's mom", and which reads me as female even when I'm wearing my pronouns on my fucking face.

I'm annoyed and sad that this version of me that I've worked so hard to learn to like is going to go away. I'm particularly sad about losing my voice. But as mad as I am about the impossibility of getting read as my gender, doing nothing is still a choice, and that choice is taking a severe toll on my mental health.

I'm looking for a new middle name that starts with A, because I wanted to make Agamemnon my middle name, but my husband doesn't want to have to write it on parenting forms and shit (which honestly, fair and reasonable), so it's going to be my SECOND middle name and I need a reasonable and normal Anglo first middle name.

Snippet from Book 2: Since his mom was out, Corey sent her a text saying that he was heading to Yulia's, then messaged Yulia to say he wasn't feeling well and was staying home that evening. With any luck, he'd be back before they found out he'd lied to both of them.