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@drarrymicrofic’s prompt: love letters
drarry microfic
when draco found out it wouldn’t be long until harry would no longer wake by his side, in his arms, legs a tangled mess, under their covers anymore, draco could’ve sworn he wished the world ended right then. though, his grief wasn’t a lone man’s pie. in fact, the rest of the wizarding world sorrowfully cried too. money for harry’s chemotherapy was being swept off ruthlessly on one end, while draco’s nightmares of the potential death of his love came along on the other. it all seemed like a sick joke. just as their first anniversary as a married couple came around the corner, harry’s oesophageal cancer popped up like a twisted surprise. draco wouldn’t have guessed, though, if harry hadn’t complained of chronic chest pain or difficulty in swallowing—he just thought it was some kind of act in preparation for their first anniversary. like some kind of ongoing skit with a huge curveball to shock draco on the huge day with. though, he would’ve liked it if was kept that way. because as the days went by, the realization that harry just might not make it alive seemed to creep its way noisily–like a broken record–straight into draco’s head. it was quite the matter for him, of course. he never would’ve imagined things to fire back at the very last moment. heck, he didn’t imagine harry of all people to suffer oesophageal cancer. and it was as though harry wasn’t the only one with the short end on the stick, because draco’s mind seemed to slander him in the mud on the other end too. he started seeing visions, as though he was delusional and couldn’t differentiate between reality and what was in his mind. so, whenever draco walked around their now-empty apartment, he would vision a flicker of harry, trapped in their bed, yelling for help, crying and pounding on the sheets, but whenever draco ran to him to aid, harry would sink and disappear into the bed, leaving draco surrounded in his sorrow. draco did tell his mind healer about all of these visions though, and she did suggest draco try to pen his thoughts down. having lost her own child to the ruthless, hunting monster that is cancer, she confessed that writing her feelings down did help for her to visualize them to work on. and draco thought this was a pretty damn genius idea, except he had a little twist to it. instead of making the letter all about himself and what he called his “oh so poor little miseries”, he decided on writing love letters to harry instead. this way, he would give harry as well as himself something to look forward to every day, compared to usual days where he would stride into harry’s ward with his eyes and nose as though dipped in red paint, tear strains a never-ending pour. and so he did. draco poured all his love he would’ve given harry into the form of letters. he figured that writing was indeed his forte, as he elegantly scorched the paper with his undying love for harry. and it did pay off, because at the end, the flashing smile harry gave him after he was done with the day’s letter made draco’s heart soar, as though he fell in love all over again. soon enough, about three anniversaries later, harry managed to beat his oesophageal hell of a cancer and even came home with two boxes filled with four years worth of daily love letters from his husband. as heavy as it was, though, how could he complain? life and love were truly a mystery, and he was only blessed to have explored all strange corners of them with draco all along.
my heart goes out to anyone with cancer. you are so strong and i believe that you have the fight to beat it. you are so fucking amazing and i literally love you🤎🤎🤎🤎
I salute writers that Soldier on with only their own ambition fueling their progress. Dont get me wrong i love writing just for myself, its what I've been doing since i could even form sentences, under disney covers with a torch late into the night. I'm a new writer, at least a publcily posting one and let just say, i never relaised how much comments and kudos mean to authors. Only just posted my stuff and I'm biting at the bit waiting for some feedback. Even negative. These words, ideas and characters have only exsisted in my head until now, and i need a morsol of approval just so i know that i wasn't ruminating on crappy ideas. Filling notebooks up to brim when only I'd ever read them was somthing, but it never prepared me for the feeling of putting work out into the stratosphere only to have radio silence echo back.
Wanted
Hello guppies, want to see my best, and coolest stories?
Wattpad is the place I put my good stuff!
You can even ask for a story made to your taste because let's be honest, sometimes you can find a good story about some obscure idea you have in your head and in my opinion those are the best material. Anyway <3
This is a story I write over on my Wattpad.
A poor boy of the century gets a bounty on his head that could make anyone a billionaire! The world is set aflame with passion to catch the chance of a lifetime. Why is a poor boy wanted for so much? What did he do? Will he survive? And where do is sign up for a chance to catch the man?
What ascent being has given this young blood a new life and freedom he could only dream of in a distant past?
Will are main man rule the world, hell the universe, or will he just do his job and not do anything cool at all?
All day every day
Me to my characters whenever I'm writing a new story:
REMINDER
THE POINT OF A PLOT TWIST IS TO ENRICH YOUR STORY, NOT OUTSMART YOUR READERS!!!! SPRINKLE IN YOUR FORESHADOWING!!!! LEAVE CLUES!!!
(im not saying to spell it out/make your plot twist cliche or boring. we are going for a "how did I not see that coming" vibe)
TRUST YOUR READERS
i swear, TRUST THEM!
Leave gaps for the readers to fill in. Don't spell everything out. Leave things up to interpretation. The gaps are pockets for people to put fanfiction/theories/ideas into.
I'm not talking about "this doesn't make sense"
I'm talking "insert your ideas here"
You paint me with your words and my tears end up washing them away.
3 of the worst story beginnings (and how to fix them)
Big no-no’s for story openers!
Now, don’t get me wrong - every type of story beginning can come out really well if you write it well, a skilled writer can make your typical wake-up-morning-routine-with-the-hero sound super interesting, but 9 times out of 10, this is not the case.
Especially if you are JUST starting out on your writing journey, I’d highly recommend to test out an unexpected opener for your story instead. Think of what makes your hero different, and HOW their normal is different than someone else’s.
#1 Waking up
Your protagonist wakes up to their alarm, tries to turn it off and drops the clock or breaks it. They get up and get ready for their day, typically while describing themselves in the mirror and telling us about their daily routine. Yawn. Pun intended.
✔️ The fix: If you’re going to start with a character’s wake-up routine, show us why it’s interesting. What’s different about their routine that could take your readers off-guard? Do they get up in the middle of the night? Inside a bunker? A submarine? If their routine is just like everyone else’s, there’s no reason to show it.
#2 Traumatic flashback
As soon as we open the book, we’re thrown into some kind of important and emotional moment of your protagonist’s life that happened years ago. The problem? We aren’t familiar with the protagonist yet, so we’re not going to care what happened to them.
✔️ The fix: Save the big important flashbacks for later. If you immediately hit with the biggest punch, then what is there to work up to? If you’re starting with a flashback, make sure it’s one that paints the character’s internal conflict well and makes us root for them.
#3 Exposition
Commonly found in prologues and first chapters, when we learn all about the story world, its history, the relationships between the characters in this scene, and their backstories. Also known as a surefire way to bore your readers before they’ve even started reading.
✔️ The fix: Subtext. Train yourself to think through subtext, and trust that your readers are smart enough to pick up on it. When we start the story we don’t care about the fascinating things of your world and complex backstories. We want to get to know who the characters are, and let them slowly reveal all the puzzle pieces through the book.
My final piece of advice is to focus on creating questions for your readers to wonder about, and resist the temptation to answer those until later chapters.
Did you hear I’ve got a Youtube channel? Subscribe through [the link here] or below, and watch my latest video about Creating Complex Characters!
Thanks, this is exactly what I needed :›
How to keep writing with ADHD
Having ADHD as an aspiring writer can be really difficult and frustrating.
I just want to add a quick disclaimer that I have not been diagnosed with ADHD myself, but I have worked with several clients who struggled with this, and done some research online to compile a few tips you might be able to implement in your writing! (I will also link to some articles I read at the end of this post).
So let’s go!
Turn off the internet This popped up as one of the most common pieces of advice for ADHD writers. Eliminating distractions can be hard, but turning off your wifi altogether might help with at least a few of them. Train yourself to disconnect when it’s writing time, and see whether this affects your productivity positively!
Delay the research This can be really difficult if you’re writing historical fiction, or anything set in an area that requires some level of prior knowledge to write about. But, wherever possible, if you can save yourself pausing to research whether a certain item or word is plausible for you to use in that specific moment, then you should. Leave it, make a quick note that that’s something to research later, and keep going.
Test out radical changes Something that came up as a common downfall was losing interest halfway through the project, or dropping it after the first chapter. If you find yourself losing interest in the project, maybe try out making a radical change to a part of your plot, one that might inspire you for the story once again. Of course, make sure that this change fits in with the rest of your story as you begin to implement it.
Succinct & clear goals This is something I recommend to any writer or artist of any kind! Keep your goals as clear and small as possible. The more specific you are with a goal, the less overwhelming it will feel. Think of breaking down a big goal of “I’ll finish my book this year” into “I’ll finish 5 chapters this month” or even “1 chapter this week.” Go as small as is comfortable for you!
A fine line between plotting & exploring This is an issue that comes up very often for writers who have a tendency to get bored with their projects if they don’t keep some element of surprise to it. I’d recommend finding a good balance between how much you plot out, and how much you allow yourself to discover along the way. Find your most important plot points, and let your creativity fill in the gaps!
Tools to help you out Stay on task - browser extension that checks in on you at timely intervals to make sure you’re working on your chosen task Ommwriter - atmospheric simple writing program, with typewriting sounds & ambience Stayfocusd - browser extension to block time-wasting websites Nanowrimo.org - community challenges, self-set goals, achievement badges, progress tracking The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression - a book to help with expressing emotion in a show-not-tell way
Further reading from some ADHD fiction writers themselves:
The ADHD guide to writing https://booklaunch.com/the-adhd-guide-to-writing/
Tools & tricks for writers with ADHD https://larawillard.com/2018/03/02/tools-tricks-for-writers-with-adhd/
Feel free to share your own advice in the comments below to help out other authors!
London, two. A poem from my book, 412, available now. If you’d like to have your own copy, follow the website in my bio (@harrybpoetry). ———————— It’s been a while but I’m still writing poetry! I’m currently sitting on a lot of new material and it’ll probably turn into another book. I imagine I’ll upload some of it eventually but not right now. In the meantime, I’ve been working on a new format for uploading my work. I hope you like it as much as I do. ———————— Poem: Your buttoned sleeves, my tattered jeans, the day you had to leave to travel overseas. Now the distance widens with every passing second, the world won’t understand, just like you and my northern accent. ————————— #poet #poem #poetry #instapoet #poetsofig #poetsofinstagram #writer #writers #writersofig #flower #poetryporn #instapoem #text #cutepoem #poetrysociety #poetrylovers #writersnetwork #creativewriting #typewriterpoetry #wordporn #writerslife #poetryisnotdead #wordsmith #typewriterseries #writerscommunity #typewriter #spilledink #writingcommunity #writings #instapoets (at Durham, Durham) https://www.instagram.com/p/B14SbWiAiLT/?igshid=ap73wgq65jj9
One-to-one. From 412, my debut poetry collection, which is out now via the link in my bio. 📦📖 Seeing my friends get back into their creative passions during these troubling times is super inspiring! I hope everyone is doing well, make sure you keep washing those hands. ☺️ . . . . . . #poet #poem #poetry #instapoet #poetsofig #poetsofinstagram #writer #writers #writersofig #flower #poetryporn #instapoem #text #cutepoem #poetrysociety #poetrylovers #writersnetwork #creativewriting #typewriterpoetry #wordporn #writerslife #poetryisnotdead #wordsmith #typewriterseries #writerscommunity #typewriter #spilledink #writingcommunity #writings #instapoets (at Durham, UK) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-UlgoogiVK/?igshid=1bvei35fsmar6
different hues. a poem featured in 412. my debut poetry collection, 412, is out now and available via the link in my bio. stay cosy.