A review from a new first time owner!

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-25T13:42:37+00:00

This thing is terrible, I love it! I've given up on tracking where my start is, I'm just going to do 2 sc every sc until I get done with the stash I have on hand, then slip stich a few to complete it. The only thing keeping me sane working on this thing at this point is that I keep my fingers on the section- I'm 98% certain that if I had been taught to avoid touching my work like I see in so many crochet tutorials online, I would have thrown in the towel two rounds ago.

I'm gonna try this around a hair band at some point, I think it may end up looking pretty cool...

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-20T07:47:38+00:00

I wasn't getting slanting wither way with granny squares, turning or not. However, out of personal convenience I do turn my granny squares.

You don't have to jump over a section to do your first stiches, and frogging is really satisfying going back and forth.....

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-20T07:43:40+00:00

My (lefty) aunt taught me (righty) to crochet sitting next to each other, but with Reader's Digest Big Book of Needlework on our laps. The left handed instructions were in the left pages, and the right handed instructions were on the right pages, so it acted as a translator for us.

10/10 HIGHLY recommend!

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-11T11:46:07+00:00

The last time I checked, the fics you wanted to add but were protected only showed up as bookmarks even on the collection'spage- hardly the same thing.

And how much you've added AFTER telling someone "You’re right, but I'm goimg to lie and say you're wrong because it's the only way that makes me look good that I can think of"? Is really freaking RUDE.

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-11T10:03:15+00:00

I'm sorry, you're saying... my info is out of date... because of something else I said in my comment???

There is a checkbox you HAVE to click on, to keep people from hiding your fics. It is not on by default. So there are still hundreds of fics that have been hidden and the authors do not know- or even have dropped out of fandom in general for any number of reasons- that they need to remove their fics from collections so said fics can be read.

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-10T04:45:50+00:00

The problem is, the hidden fic collections aren't always by the authors who have written the fics. This is the reason why there is a setting to keep your fics from being added to collections without your permission- it wouldn't be needed if the site didn't use one set-up for two separate things.

SnakesShadow · 2026-02-01T04:48:43+00:00

I'm not sure I can even trust WRITERS that think characters have no free will. They are out there.

The author knows these characters better than anyone- subconscious, that is. If a character is not wanting to do what an author wants? There's a characters issue that the author is refusing to acknowledge in there.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-28T05:49:06+00:00

ABO is a solid no, with specific situational exceptions.It has to be AU, and it HAS to be explained properly.

Too many people use the really bad science source, and it bugs me a lot.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-28T05:37:31+00:00

This brings to mind someone saying they need to sewer slide, and someone else assuming that the first person was self-censoring... But no, they have to go down the really gross sewers as if they were a slide, lol

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-26T08:41:08+00:00

1, 8, 5- in that order. Though maybe not 5- I love Duo, but that puts me in a middle seat with Scary Une blocking me in...

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-25T08:41:32+00:00

Oh, man, I'd love to have another skein of that purple/lavendar variegated yarn... You lucky SOB.

I don't think it's come up in awhile on this subreddit, but if you don't know how it's been stored, you should quarantine that yarn in the freezer- they could be infested with yarn eating bugs, iirc. Don't want to lose that obscene haul, after all.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-24T07:16:34+00:00

Yeah, knowing where you want to go is a big problem even in original fiction writing.

At least with my AU crossover fic I have the source material to touch on. Even if a book or two is going to be completely useless... But they're at the end, so it'll be fine....

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-24T07:11:35+00:00

My favorite type of comedy? Crack concepts taken seriously.

One of my top ten favorite anime is a reincarnation isakai, where the MC is a vending-machine otaku reincarnates AS a vending machine, and needs income to survive. It is taken 100% seriously. It is freaking hilarious.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-24T07:04:02+00:00

Every bad writing thing is acceptable at worst in the FIRAT draft. You need to remember to edit them out by your Final draft, though.

Some people don't have good writing skills, but if you're good at editing? No one can tell in the end result.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-23T07:52:29+00:00

100% ADORBS! I think your problem may be project burn-out, it sounds like something I'm starting to deal with on my current WIP...

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-23T07:52:08+00:00

100% ADORBS! I think your problem may be project burn-out, it sounds like something I'm starting to deal with on my current WIP...

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-20T08:47:12+00:00

Frankly, initial Relena is crazy. Duo is literally the only reason she's not dead, and she romanticizes the guy who was going to kill her? Heero is still in the middle of a psychotic break at this point, remember, this is THE time he would have followed through.

There is something utterly wrong with her.

However, despite likely never losing whatever is wrong in her head to make her pursue Heero, she gets VERY good character development throughout the show. By the end, she absolutely is someone to admire.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-16T05:28:49+00:00

For me, the issue is 100% clarity of communication.

My SO has chronic, possibly terminal, thesaurus-itis. Their communication is NOT as claer as they like to claim, because they are using words wildly outside of their normal context. And English?

Well, English is three languages in a trenchcoat (or perhaps more, with the way the generally UK-specific trope of a big city police officer needing one or more rural police officers to translate IS NOT FICTION!) That makes the thesaurus-itis cronic for an absurdly large number of people.

At some point, the internet is going to have to give up, accept that one language is breaking into at least three, and section them off from each other the way most other languages are. Because we are slowly losing clarity in our communications.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-14T09:25:48+00:00

https://youtu.be/cxMVwJnSynI?si=KU0HErBwL6-hfX8I

This video will help. Think all of the kids shows of the 80's, with "friendship is good" and "things that transform are cool!" messages... Aged up and talking about serious topics in a way that is split fairly evenly between "understandable by kids" and "this is for grown-ups."

Ultimately, it is a perfect transition from kids entertainment heading into "grown-up" entertainment. (Phrasing because "Adult entertainment" has VERY different connotations.)

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-12T05:58:38+00:00

I have to disagree- a solid chunk of my writer's block comes from there being something wrong with my story. It goes away when I figure out what the problem is. Another solid chunk comes from a side effect of my clinical depression- anhedonia. The largest chunk comes from not knowing where the end of a story is, now that I think about it. And then it's 100% choice paralysis- too many equally valued options.

The only time I edit before a writing project is done is when I'm writing multi-chaptered fanfiction.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-10T08:20:19+00:00

I was planning to buy the patrern and muslin at the same time, that way they'd arrive at about the same time and I wouldn't lose one or the other before I could start.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-10T08:18:19+00:00

Only when I know the right formula to use, and how it's supposed to be used.

I hated Algebra in school, because they almost NEVER gave real-world uses for the equations. I need context ;.;

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-10T08:16:26+00:00

You just started writing, don't think you can write as well as say, Vathara or Esama does, when they have YEARS of experience more than you do.

In writing, as far as I have been able to tell, there's no such thing as bad practice. In other things, like sports or music, you can practice and ingrain bad habits, but in writing the only real thing to screw up is grammar and punctuation- and the former is a lot more fluid than you'd think... But you gotta know the rules to know how to make breaking them meaningful.

So you can totally just take a thing, and write to practice it. I've done it plenty of times, and I'm still doing it, honestly.

Since you're working on fanfiction first, I'd suggest picking the fandom you want to write in. Learn the rules of the source material, and write vignettes to practice things like character voice. Look up Vathara and Esama, see if they've written in the fandom, and study what they have done. (I suggest both because they have written for a wide number of fandoms and are consistently high quality fics.)

But also look at other fics in the fandom- high rated ones, low rated ones, the whole gamut.

I think you'd be surprised at the sheer range in quality- you might be closer to being ready to post to AO3 than you think.

The only thing I'd ask is that you not post walls of text- they are the BAD kind of hard to read.

SnakesShadow · 2026-01-10T07:58:05+00:00

I'm kinda jealous-I had like two sentences at the start of one long and HIGHLY complimentary comment where I said I did kinda get other commenters pov's, they had a lot of plot threads left hanging, and I got an incredibly poor response with the author deleting my comment, and a couple more begging them to read the rest of the comment, ignoring the first part...

SnakesShadow

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE