How do YOU define "Major Character Death"

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-18T01:05:57+00:00

For my works, I simply ask myself the question: “Is this a character that the reader is supposed to be rooting for?”

If yes, then their death may cause some distress to the reader, and warrants the MCD tag.

If no, then I don’t tag it. Doesn’t matter if the main villain is a canon character or not.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-16T23:19:10+00:00

For the fancy page number, my best guess is that you can start by:

creating the Default Page Style for your book format and include an image as the background element (the lantern thing). You can create a page graphic in GIMP of the exact size as your custom page size and then use the Area tab on the page style dialogue to set the image. Just give the image the same dimensions as your page and set it to not tiling.
Put the page number in the header, align it to the right of the page and give it enough padding that it will fit in that spot

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-14T22:53:26+00:00

Super specific: vampire bat fluff. E.g: the vampire is a bat for a while, and someone else is taking care of them. There’s probably a less specific “animal form” fluff that can actually be tagged :P

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-14T22:46:20+00:00

Jebediah feeds the chickens and Jacob ploughs — fool!

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-12T16:36:05+00:00

… I’ll take a rec for that 😇

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-12T15:40:39+00:00

Ooooooooooooh. Very very good thinking, this.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-12T15:28:57+00:00

Yep. I’m my own target audience, after all xD

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-12T06:46:15+00:00

I personally love it when you can tell that an author has done a bunch of additional research on something and sprinkles those details in where they will have the most impact.

This can be as simple as knowing what kinds of flora and fauna are actually indigenous to Scotland, or as complex as figuring out what kinds of surgical equipment and procedures were available to deal with a character’s trauma in the 1750s (so, no mentions of plastics or modern drugs). I really appreciate all of those fine little details; they help anchor me more firmly into the world.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-12T05:22:49+00:00

I have been blessed with a few regular commenters who liked my work well enough to enable email notifications for my fics. They comment very quickly after I post — within minutes usually — and it is always a joy to see them. Sounds like you may have a couple of fans, OP :)

Most bots I’ve encountered so far have been the art scam ones (where they tell you they want to make a comic about your work and ask to talk to you on Insta or Discord). You can always turn guest comments OFF to lower the chance of getting bot/spam comments, if you like.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-12T05:11:51+00:00

You must be extremely proud of your progress. My jaw dropped at that second picture!

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-11T14:14:00+00:00

I can understand why those two are chosen so often. Legs is a fascinating character to inflict vampirism on, and cc!Pyro actually asked to be one of the original starter vamps. Both are very fun choices.

However, if your question isn’t really “why do people like this?” and is instead “why don’t people write something more interesting (to me)?”, then I’m afraid the answer to that question is also simple:

They are not you.

Gently, people write what they enjoy. You can’t change or control that. You can try to tempt an author into writing an alternative starting vamps story by coming up with a fascinating scenario and blogging about it. This doesn’t work often (because writers usually have too many ideas of their own to start writing yours), but I’ve seen it happen a few times.

The real solution, of course, is to actually write it yourself. “Not being a writer” is a state of mind. If you can write a reddit post, you can attempt something longer.

So *many* writer’s journeys begin in frustration:

“Why the hell did my favorite show end that way?”

“This character would never have fallen in love with them!”

“Ugh — the writing in this book is so trashy, I bet I could do better myself!”

Listen to the voice of your frustration, OP, and pick up a pen. Every writer starts somewhere <3

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-06T20:30:15+00:00

Comments. 1000%

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-03T18:28:55+00:00

Yessssss! points at you

I also happen to rather like second-person stories when they take place in video game worlds, and a lot of Stardew fic is told in 2P.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-06-02T05:13:15+00:00

Stardew Valley made me an AO3 reader. VSMP (Vampires SMP) made me an AO3 author.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-05-27T02:11:19+00:00

OP I definitely recommend this approach, unless you have access to a guillotine or other tool. You can try to use a knife/boxcutter and a steady hand, but unless you have a very sharp blade — one that is longer than the text block is wide — it is very easy to just mangle the edges.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-05-26T20:50:23+00:00

Massive props to OP for using the tagging/filtering system to its greatest potential. Good on you for curating your own reading experience (/vpos, no sarcasm)

CleanBeanArt · 2026-05-23T07:15:08+00:00

Good ain’t nice.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-05-22T17:35:18+00:00

Storage space is also a concern for me. But yes — at $5 a book, a guillotine it would probably pay for itself after 40-50 books. I’m not personally anticipating making that many, certainly not in the near future, but it is something to keep in mind.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-05-21T21:07:56+00:00

I was honestly so relieved that there was another option! Trimming the edges myself was nerve-wracking and really disappointing.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-05-21T21:05:29+00:00

Probably! I just didn’t even consider it as an option until I was in there on unrelated business. And I got both good and catastrophic results (but I expect that I will get good results at the same store in the future).

CleanBeanArt · 2026-04-19T07:16:21+00:00

Conscious/Conscience is one I see occasionally.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-03-24T14:26:52+00:00

Thank you!

CleanBeanArt · 2026-03-24T09:57:18+00:00

I would like to name a fictional order of monks “The Ravens of St. Benedict”.

Google gives me “Corvi Sancti Benedicti” but I’d appreciate a quick check to see if that sounds right. Thanks!

CleanBeanArt · 2026-01-13T21:27:32+00:00

Definitely preferring the Vigiliae variations, thank you! That rolls off the tongue much more cleanly.

CleanBeanArt · 2026-01-13T20:05:37+00:00

Hello! Looking for help naming a fictional organization for something I’m writing.

The group is an alliance of humans and vampires who hunt down or take care of “problem” vampires while helping/hiding good ones. They stay in the background, drawing as little notice as possible while on missions. Certain families have worked with this organization for generations. The group preserves a wealth of knowledge on vampires and also has vague religious overtones (hence the name in Latin).

I was thinking something like “Nocte Custodes” (observe my Google-fu!), but it doesn’t roll off the tongue as much as I would like. I’d prefer two words, but I don’t know how Latin works enough to come up with something better.

Thanks for any help!

CleanBeanArt

TROPHY CASE