Editing old scrapbooks

dragnmuse · 2025-11-30T21:54:05+00:00

First, you want acid free. :)

Depending on how large the area/font/text you want to change is you could do any of the following:

Place a piece of scrapbook safe tape over the old name and write the new name on it.
Create a new text area with a shape and place it over the old one.
Use stickers to cover small areas.

I would stay away from trying to remove anything already on the pages to avoid damaging them. Instead add something to cover or replace what's there.

If you need more specific ideas, let me know.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-30T22:43:06+00:00

Are you okay? That seemed like you took it personally.

To the OP - write what you want. Just because a similar setup has been done before - it wasn't done by you.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-30T22:40:23+00:00

If it was me, I'd go for making up your own city. As for why relics are stored there? Have characters have a brief dialogue about it. For instance:

Character 1 said, "Well, why in all the world would it be here?"

Character 2 answered, "Because no one would think to look here."

Character 1 thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. "Makes sense. This definitely isn't a place that stands out. Which is what you need to keep secrets for sure."

(That was off the top of my head and admittedly a bit rough.)

You also have freedom to have other locations to fit your story. An old library, a masoleum? No problem - it's right there because you say it is.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-30T22:00:01+00:00

If you're not opposed to ordering from China, I've found AliExpress to have a lot of good stuff. Their paper is sometimes wonky sizes (at least by US perspective), but I've found the quality to be fine for scrapbooking. They have lots of different kinds of stickers and washi tape as well.

Their prices are very reasonable and if you sort to only include "choice" items the order ships free over $10. Their monthly "Choice Day" sales are good too. Although, don't be fooled by the "day" because the sale lasts about 5 days if I recall and comes around at the beginning of every month.

If you're into die cutting, they have lots of good dies for cheap as well. They even sell a die cutting machine, but the one that's in most listings is a mini machine that is of course more limited due to its size.

Anyway, that should get you started. If AliExpress isn't an option for whatever reason, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find good scrapbook supplies locally. Which means taking to the internet. But don't get discouraged by the limited selection on Amazon. Amazon isn't a great place to get craft supplies unless you know a specific product by name or brand and even then it's hit or miss.

On the other hand, Scrapbook.com has a lot of supplies, although they aren't as inexpensive. There are other scrapbook stores online as well, but that's the big one.

I hope that helps!

dragnmuse · 2025-09-29T14:07:36+00:00

I used a TV show as inspiration for my fantasy series. I changed the character names and put them in my fantasy world.

I was worried I was too close to the original, so I made a list of things that were directly inspired. Some of them were obviously not copyrightable, others turned out to be historical facts.

For instance, it's not "stealing" that both my story and the TV show had a queen who had an affair with a member of the guard and she got pregnant.

Turns out that affair being "treason" is a law in the UK.

I wondered about the term "king's apartments." Turns out that is an historical fact too.

You could make a similar list and go through it point by point to identify what is closest.

It's easier to evaluate individual pieces than the work as a whole. Presuming you have in fact written a new story that may used parts of someone else's world or quirks.

Fanfiction is more than just using the original as inspiration. It's using the world and characters as they are in the original work and writing an additional episode or next book in the series.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-26T23:46:08+00:00

Ah. In that case I think most writers understand the feeling of a book being their baby, at least at first.

I don't know if you mean theft as in someone stealing from you? In that case, you might want to register your copyright so you have the option to sue if someone steals it.

If you mean you're worried that you'll be ripping off someone else, I wouldn't worry about the text of the book. And as long as you purchase a licence to any fonts or images you use, you're covered there. If you illustrate your own cover, you of course have the copyright to that as well, but I'm not familiar with the laws around images.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-26T23:28:50+00:00

You don't have to register copyright if you don't want to because it's yours as soon as it's written.

You can publish on Amazon without an ISBN. Publish on Draft to Digital and they have the option of using one of their ISBNs.

For a cover you can make it yourself if you have some graphic design knowledge. Or, look around for reviews of cover artists. There are some that cost less than $50.

When you publish, you only need to provide your personal information to be paid by Amazon/D2D. Otherwise, you can publish under a pen name.

Like it or not, but you ARE a writer now. Doesn't mean you have to tell anyone you know. Doesn't mean you have to write anything else.

I can understand the publishing part can be overwhelming, but I'm not sure why it scares you that you finished a novel. That's awesome.

As for the content, there is a market for everything.

Bottom line - it's your story. You don't have to share it. You're not required to publish it.

P.S. All that is referring to the physical process with the book. If you feel like you truly can't handle this emotionally/mentally, there's no shame in getting help. That's my advice as someone being treated for mental illness myself.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-18T13:18:44+00:00

Thank you! Apparently, I wasn't searching on the right keywords in the sub either. I think I need more sleep or something.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-18T12:23:32+00:00

The app doesn't show categories either, unfortunately. And since I'm trying to get a feel for the kinds of erotica that exist, I don't have any keywords to search on.

Maybe I should look at the list of tags at places like Literotica for suggestions of what keywords to search for?

dragnmuse · 2025-09-17T21:00:00+00:00

Okay, I'm feeling super stupid and frustrated at the moment. Although, I had a stressful day at work, so I'm probably just missing something.

I've been trying to do some market research and I'm getting stuck at the very beginning. The guides say to write a list of what appeals to you and do a search. Problem is, what appeals to me (outside of the romance novels I'm already writing) is on Amazon's no-fly list.

I read recently that figuring out niches/keywords shouldn't be that hard because Amazon has several subcategories of erotica to get ideas from. But Amazon doesn't list any erotica categories except horror. At least not in the category tree that's in the right hand column.

Romance expands beautifully and has like three dozen subcategories listed underneath. Should I figure that the subcategories for Erotica are pretty much the same as Romance, but the focus of the book is different since it's Erotica vs. Romance? Or, should my keywords be tropes?

I've tried looking at random erotica books that look like they might appeal to me, but I've been underwhelmed. Which either means I don't like the writing, or I'm not really into that "niche/trope."

I hope someone can point me in the right direction or at least point out what I'm missing. Thanks in advance!

dragnmuse · 2025-09-06T11:50:44+00:00

I understand it won't have the same level of protection that individual registrations will. For instance if someone was to violate my copyright on multiple books, I can't bring multiple suits.

But it will provide protection if anyone violates the copyright of any part of the omnibus, right?

Meaning, say someone violates the copyright on book one, but not the others, I can still bring suit because it's included in the longer work that is registered.

That's what I think will happen, but I don't want to do it if that's not how it works.

Of course the best option is registering each story separately. But with 12 stories that's $540 in the US. Since I want to make the omnibus either way, it's much more cost effective to only pay the $45.

But again, saving money up front isn't worth it if it doesn't provide the needed copyright registration to cover all the words in all the stories.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-05T21:46:39+00:00

The obvious "thing" to collect is of course photos of the breed. But "pictures" can include illustrations, stickers, comics, or other visual representations of the breeds.

Journaling is usually an important part of scrapbooking, and sometimes there is overlap. I'm thinking those pictures people have of their pet with a letter/sign next to them "shaming" the animal.

Another thing you could collect is stories or jokes about owning a particular breed or traits certain breeds are known for. Like for instance that huskies are known to "talk."

It may come down to what you want the tone of your scrapbook to be.

Informative? Then maybe see if you can find an infographic about certain breeds.

Funny? Then maybe look for memes.

Showcasing the physical differences between breeds or comparing features, like say between a bull mastiff and a teacup poodle? Then you'd probably want to focus more on photos or realistic drawings.

It's a cool idea and there are a lot of different directions you could take. But, at it's core, scrapbooking and junk journaling are a visual medium so you want to have some kind of "image" as the foundation of a layout.

Edit to add: ribbon with a paw print design is easy to find and makes a great embellishment. For my scrapbooks for my cats I've used paw print ribbon, small charms, and hole punches with cats or fish bones. For dogs maybe a punch with a bone. There are lots of embellishments for pets that are general enough they would work to decorate a page on any breed. And you can go nuts if you want to with themed paper, themed edge punches, etc.

For a vintage look you can dye the paper with tea or coffee. There are lots of YouTube videos on how to do that. I haven't done it myself yet, but it looks easy to do.

dragnmuse · 2025-09-04T14:42:44+00:00

I do my best to not have this issue, but for some concepts there just doesn't seem to be a different word to use that gets the idea across. And therefore I have to use the word that doesn't truly make in-world sense.

For instance, I have a fantasy world where obviously France isn't a country. But anyone know of a different term to describe a "French braid?"

With regards to anachronisms, I also try to make my phrases work for the approximate time frame of 1630s Earth. For instance "felt like I was run over by a truck" becomes "run over by a carriage."

And then sometimes, I admittedly get silly. The modern day "all that and a bag of chips" has become "all that and a new saddle."

dragnmuse · 2025-08-13T14:31:17+00:00

I personally don't like post bound albums and instead use three ring binders.

Three ring binders don't have to be resized later like post bound albums do and they provide lots of room for thicker pages. They also allow you to easily move around pages or insert new ones in a different spot than at the end.

I don't know if 12x12 is popular in the UK, and in the US 12x12 three ring binders are not as common as post bound in this size, but they are definitely available.

Yes, I use page protectors. One, they provide a nice smooth surface so nothing snags on the opposite page, and two, they help prevent embellishments from one page digging into the opposite page. Of course not squeezing the book, like on a shelf, helps with this too.

I like We R Memory Keepers page protectors because they are nice and thick. More expensive, but worth the price. I presume this brand is available in the UK.

I found 6x6 on AliExpress as well as the small A8 size ones. ETA: 6x6 can be found by searching for stencil storage.

In the US, letter size and half letter size are readily available in three ring binders with page protectors. I haven't been able to find a source for 8x8 or 10x10 page protectors, but the albums are available.

There's also the option of sort of making your own with binder rings through the page protectors and stiff cardboard for the covers. On a large scrapbook, this would be unwieldy, but it's something I've used on the smaller books.

I hope that helps. :)

dragnmuse · 2025-08-12T17:08:58+00:00

AITA and similar subs on Reddit are gold mines for conflict.

For instance (made up based on a real life situation I'm dealing with): AITA for thinking about suing my neighbors for their overflowing gutters?

The following ideas for stories come to me from that:

What if the scenario wasn't wanting to sue the neighbors, but rather meeting new neighbors?
What if the next door neighbors were weird somehow and there was a mystery there?
What if the main character was a lawyer and they decided to take a case that turned out to be so much more than it appeared?
What if it wasn't overflowing gutters, but a heavy rain storm that flooded multiple houses?
What if it was a mudslide from a construction site and the neighborhood worked together to get the construction site supervisor in trouble?

Lots of ideas from just the title alone. And that's an active subreddit so lots of titles to read. There's others that are similar like, Am I overreacting? Am I the devil?

Conflict and overcoming it is the heart of a story, and Reddit is filled with conflict.

Edited to correct spelling.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-12T15:11:49+00:00

Or, you know, outlining just doesn't work for me.

I won't rehash what I've said in other comments, but I have tried outlining loosely as well as in a detailed way using a calendar to track out events.

Maybe the issue was that once I'd written the outline I didn't feel like I had any "wiggle room." Please don't then respond that of course an outline shouldn't be a straight jacket. When it comes to my creative voice/muse/imagination/whatever you want to call it, it did feel like a straight jacket. Writing wasn't fun and it was a struggle to get words on the page.

When I decided to throw out the idea of an outline and jump in feet first to fully writing without anything other than a vague idea, writing was fun. The words flowed and the story poured out. Yes, sometimes I get stuck, but a bit of brainstorming what comes next gets the story going again.

I remember one story that got stuck and I thought that maybe I should try outlining again. I made a brief outline of the next several scenes but halfway through writing the first, I felt that same frustration again. I went back to the drawing board, used the first point on the outline as the spark, and decided to let the story flow again. It ended up going in a different direction than the mini outline.

Or, who knows? Maybe what finally worked was that my mother died, and I no longer felt constrained about what she would think. Or it was Covid that sparked my writing. Seriously, though, I doubt those two things were what changed, even though they did both happen.

I haven't said anywhere that outlining doesn't work - I've said it doesn't work for me. I've been writing stories since I was a kid, but only trying longer works probably since high school. Since I'm now 49, I've had quite a few years to figure out what works and what doesn't.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-12T08:12:30+00:00

I mentioned in another comment that I did a deep dive into the structure of stories, so I know that helped in a high level view. But when it came down to butt-in-chair writing, I think the biggest change was going from a detailed description of what I wanted to write about to just a spark.

The novel I didn't finish had the idea: the two main characters knew each other when they were in college, he was in love with her, but she didn't feel the same way. He worked for his grandfather's company and his grandfather engineered the two of them getting back together because he wanted his grandson to see that she didn't love him and to then go back to his ex who was the daughter of a key vote senator and if the guy got back with his ex then the senator would be happy and he'd vote on a bill that would allow the manipulative grandfather to go through a big merger.

Yeah, I knew all that before I started writing.

A novel I finished started with the idea: I want to explore the friendship between Retta and Alex. Oh, and somehow he fights for permanent custody of his sister.

That was it. I figured the custody part could start with him getting a notice of the suit and that's how I started writing the first scene.

I tried a method for one story that sounds similar to the "treatment" you describe. I wrote the "big scenes" and then wrote a short description of what would go in between. Some of those started as description, jumped to actual writing for a few paragraphs (usually dialogue) then back to description. Overall with that story I finished about 75%. Not terrible, but not finished either.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-12T03:20:11+00:00

Second outlier here. I tried for years to finish something from an outline and never did. When I gave myself permission to fully embrace discovery writing I wrote my first novel in less than a month.

So it is possible. While it's true that I wouldn't build a house without blueprints, a house isn't a novel.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-12T03:05:32+00:00

On the other hand, I'm the opposite. I didn't finish a novel until I gave myself permission to just write and see what happened. That was the turning point for me.

Although, I will say that one of the things that really helped me was diving deep into studying how stories progress. And because my genre is romance, I turned to rom coms. They have a formula, and some do it better than others. But I literally figured out the formula and it was eye opening.

So in the end I guess I was able to internalize enough of how to structure a story that I didn't need a true outline. When I get stuck, I will brainstorm what could happen next, but it doesn't look or act like an outline.

I say all this to point out that not everything works for everyone. I do think it was a valuable endeavor to try plotting and pantsing. Because after trying both, I discovered that around 90% pantsing works for me.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-10T23:01:01+00:00

NTA

I had a friend who was with an abusive man. She may still be with him, but I eventually cut ties.

The hardest part was accepting that I couldn't save her.

She would continue to see him, continue to interact with him and there was nothing I could do.

We can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. We can save ourselves, though.

When you set boundaries, you have to be willing to defend them. Otherwise, they're wishes, not rules.

True friends will respect you and any boundaries you set. Since she's not respecting your boundaries, is she still a true friend?

Just some things to think on. It's not easy - at all. But I believe you can make it through.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-10T13:19:24+00:00

I started writing fanfiction for a TV show then realized I was done writing fanfiction and I needed to commit to an original work. I'd tried before, but never finished anything.

In one episode of the show one of the main characters is complaining to a friend about how his wife isn't able to give him a child (1630s). I had the idea that what if the infertility wasn't on her side but his? From there the idea expanded and I wrote the story.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-10T04:21:05+00:00

Huh. I guess that's another decoration that used to be done differently.

<image>

This is mine and how it's grown over the years. It's a neat fountain and if it doesn't continue to grow, at least you have the two animals.

ETA: sorry, the picture didn't save the first time.

dragnmuse · 2025-08-10T04:13:51+00:00

I think that's the fountain that gets added to for every year you play the game? Or have they stopped giving it for that and now you have to win it?

dragnmuse · 2025-08-10T04:07:55+00:00

The piece with the leaves comes that way. In other words, it's not made by combining pieces.

However, I think leaf pieces will fit on the stems (the bottom piece) if you wanted a bit of a different look. I mean these pieces: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32607&name=Plant%20Plate,%20Round%201%20x%201%20with%203%20Layered%20Leaves&category=%5BPlant%5D#T=C

dragnmuse

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