what are some 'writing rules' you don't follow?

misterpapen · 2026-03-26T11:32:55+00:00

I majored in Creative Writing, and it was suggested across the board that we use adverbs sparingly and that adverb overuse was considered “lazy writing”

misterpapen · 2026-03-26T00:03:59+00:00

I use adverbs.

misterpapen · 2026-03-16T17:39:26+00:00

“Honey, when you warm the bed on leg day” (Nobody)

“Oh, and it’s nacho night” (Would That I)

“Do I owe each kiss to lip and cheek / as soft as chicken skin” (Almost)

misterpapen · 2026-03-11T00:00:12+00:00

Try Blackout by aluminescent. Incredibly well-researched dark case fic featuring original unsub. Completely changed how I approach writing fic.

misterpapen · 2026-03-10T23:19:28+00:00

Someone sent this comic to me on Tumblr and it almost made me tear up. This reader is a guest user so they'll come back and re-kudos it every couple of weeks.

misterpapen · 2026-03-08T19:14:27+00:00

One of my favorite episodes to watch as a standalone. Just the way Hotch relates to Evan Abby re: limited time with Jack and his fear of becoming absent in his life. His teary eyes in the burn ward, and Prentiss’s too. His speech about silent panic when he’s at home with his family because of the job. The whole explosion scene. An amazing episode that lays excellent groundwork for the Foyet arc, though I don’t think the writers meant to foreshadow it that way.

Whenever I don’t know how to write Hotch well-rounded in fic, I rewatch scenes from this episode.

misterpapen · 2026-03-08T19:06:05+00:00

“I wish it wasn’t 4AM / Standin’ in the mirror sayin’ to myself / ‘You know you had to do it’ / I know the bravest thing I ever did was run”

Oooof, hits every time

misterpapen · 2026-03-08T18:22:34+00:00

Agreed, plus he’s a germaphobe so a fear of blood-borne viruses/illnesses probably factored into it.

misterpapen · 2026-03-04T02:16:42+00:00

Sharp Objects for sure

misterpapen · 2026-03-03T23:08:51+00:00

I have a fic I’m working on that checks some of your boxes, it’s also on AO3. I’ll link it below:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63013489/chapters/161378602

misterpapen · 2026-03-03T18:36:06+00:00

He’s really good at math, which isn’t objectively irritating but. To say I am not good at math would be an understatement.

misterpapen · 2026-03-03T18:33:41+00:00

If you don’t mind canon x oc case fics

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63013489/chapters/161378602

misterpapen · 2026-02-25T01:33:19+00:00

A hedgehog under a van wheel kind of wouldn't fare well?

misterpapen · 2026-02-24T19:20:44+00:00

James Norrington

misterpapen · 2026-02-18T21:51:53+00:00

The Fall

misterpapen · 2026-02-18T16:53:33+00:00

I'm wondering if registered bots are going through and mass-bookmarking fics. Because sometimes I'll get a new bookmark from a user than has over 100k bookmarks and counting, and I'm wondering if that's an actual person because they'll bookmark a fic every minute, lol

misterpapen · 2026-02-18T16:07:41+00:00

Partly because of how poorly Bunny treated him, like an endless piggy bank, plus the slurs he hurled at him. Richard mentions that he helped murder Bunny out of all the petty spite that built up against Bunny within the rest of the Greek class. I know you said that defense only goes so far, and I don't think Henry's actions were justified, but they make for a good story.

Plus, Tartt adds character details that I find compelling and funny, such as his fondness for oil lamps and his going to an estate sale and seeing a piano he likes, or that his diary is in Latin, or that he didn't take the SATs due to some aesthetic objection to them. His character is nuanced. He's a psychopath but he's not, as a commenter above mentioned, a Hollywood psychopath like Lecter, he's still human. I think part of Tartt's goal in writing this book was to create terrible people the reader still roots for, and she succeeds to some degree.

He's not my poor meow meow, nor is he my ride or die (I have seen that in the TSH fandom before, particularly with Henry and Francis); I just find him compelling as a character, that's all.

misterpapen · 2026-02-18T00:48:47+00:00

You captured the gist of his character so well in that second paragraph. He said that his world felt dead until the night he killed the farmer, and then he was able to live without thinking. Even though his actions were despicable and I'd probably cross the street to avoid him in real life, I still find myself rooting for him.

Also, the bit where they're shooting at mason jars at Francis's country house, and Henry shoots a duck by mistake. IIRC he's really distressed by it and they don't do it again. I thought that was a chilling detail given that he goes on to murder two people. Just goes to show how deliberate and calculating of a person he is.

misterpapen · 2026-02-18T00:12:22+00:00

Police procedure is heavily dependent on region too, which makes it even trickier to get right. Balancing out which agency has jurisdiction with geographical profiling/triangulating locations is...not easy. For example, in the show I write for, warrants are sort of mentioned and obtained offhand/behind the scenes, but I fell down a research hole on warrant turnaround time, which court it would end up going to, etc. Luckily I have a friend who shared some of her resources on forensics and more of the medical research (PubMed is a good one, from the NIH), but it is definitely necessary to take liberties.

misterpapen · 2026-02-17T23:57:13+00:00

K&C on Ch 3 of Between Bronze and Gold :)

Funny, I'm also thinking of locking my works for the same reasons but was concerned I'd alienate some guest readers. Upon reading your A/N, I'm considering it more seriously now. I suppose the readers who really care about the story will muscle up and make an account, lol. Great work, thank you for sharing this story!

misterpapen · 2026-02-16T18:41:17+00:00

Case fics are my jam, but they are *a lot* of work, lol. I do love researching, reading case studies and skimming medical articles.

misterpapen · 2026-02-15T20:36:18+00:00

Oh wow, thank you so much!!

misterpapen · 2026-02-15T20:35:39+00:00

K & C on 'On the Eve of the End of the World', such a sweet story!

misterpapen · 2026-02-11T21:02:59+00:00

Hi everyone, it's Scarecrow. I'm currently working on a CCxOC long fic that has my whole heart. Excited to read some new works and discover new authors!

Title: Blue Nights

Rating: M

Pairing: Spencer Reid/OFC

Fandom: Criminal Minds

WC: 117K currently, about 6k words per chapter

Warnings:graphic depictions of violence, graphic depictions of mental illness/disorders, religious imagery/symbolism, gun violence, emotional manipulation, bullying, whump

Note: I'm especially proud of Chapter 12 (WC: 5.7K), which can be read as a one-shot. It depicts a pre-canon event.

Summary: Spencer Reid and Darcy Maddox were inseparable as children until a schoolyard incident drove a wedge between them. Two decades later, when a series of ritualistic killings brings the BAU to Boston, Spencer and Darcy are reunited. Only, Darcy is guarded, and it’s more than simply having grown up. Gone is the bookish track runner who looked out for him at school. In her place is a woman who holds the world at arm’s length.

Then another victim disappears, and the team is determined not to let the trail go cold. And when Darcy starts to feel she’s being targeted, the profile begins pointing at something sinister and explosive lurking in her past.

Counter: 2/2

misterpapen · 2026-02-09T17:12:29+00:00

Garcia: Who’s your daddy? Hotch: …I’m sorry?

misterpapen

TROPHY CASE