rex-luscus:

cthonical:

gallifrey-feels:

Fanfic authors: READ THE WHOLE FUCKING PAGE

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE LESSONS YOU CAN LEARN AS A WRITER. I SAY THIS AS A READER AND A PROFESSIONAL GENRE EDITOR.

This is really a thing I’m struggling to learn! I’m like a drunk at a party: if it’s on my mind, I have to tell it to you.

I would pedantically add, though, that you can totally write characters who confess deep dark secrets to near-strangers. However, people who do this, in my experience (I have, in fact, spent a lot of time in California) are covering up their actual deep dark secrets with a smoke-screen of apparent secrets. So Californians aren’t really the exception they appear to be.

(Also: in fanfic, sometimes we do shit we know breaks the “good story rules” because it’s fanfic and we want to. Just saying.)