Dash

Dash

Part 2 of creating a short Fablehaven story using a single word prompt from a random word generator... I got ‘dash,’ hope you like it!

“’Thank you’ does not have a dash in it, Seth!” Kendra glared at her younger brother. She didn’t have to wait long for Seth to respond.

“Yes it does!”

“No, it doesn’t! And even if it did, blank tiles aren’t used for punctuation!” The small-but-fierce scrabble game in front of them only had a few words on it, and Seth had added a blank tile and the word ‘you’ onto ‘thank’ which Kendra had placed earlier.

“Fine, I’ll make the blank tile a space mark!” Seth snapped. “But either way I’m getting my triple word!”

“A space would be considered punctuation, too!” Kendra threw her hands into the air in annoyance. “Do you not understand how to play this game!?”

“I do, actually.”

“Prove it!” Kendra jabbed her finger at him, as Seth cleared his throat.

“Scrabble is a board game, where the aim is to create words using tiles, and getting points by placing certain tiles or getting certain bonuses. A player is only allowed to have seven tiles at a time, and must replace any tiles that they place. You can only build off an already existing word, and wherever the tiles are touching, a legitimate word must exist.” Seth bowed.

“That is an explanation of how to play, Seth! Not proving anything except that you know the basic rules! Everyone knows those rules, and its the ones you didn’t cover that you need to understand!” Kendra reached over to the couch behind her, grabbed a pillow, and screamed into it.

“You asked me if I knew how to play. I demonstrated that I know the rules. Therefore, I have proven myself!”

“Did you swallow a dictionary? Ugh, I hate lawyer Seth mode.”

“Don’t we all?” Kendra jumped in surprise, turning around to look the the doorway where Bracken was leaning, grinning.

“Bracken! Can you please help to settle this?” Kendra went and explained what was happening to the Unicorn, who came over and sat next to Kendra with his arm around her.

“Sorry, Kens, but I think that Seth wins the do-you-know-how-to-play argument here. But Seth, your sister is correct about the blank tile. It can’t be used as punctuation.” Bracken thought for a moment. “Do you have the letters ‘I’ ‘N’ ‘G’ instead? Put them at the end, and you can still get your bonus.”

“Yes! Thanks horse-man!” Seth shouted, pumping his fists into the air.

“Horse-man?” Poor Bracken looked so confused, Kendra couldn’t help but laugh. Soon, Seth joined in, and even Bracken managed a slightly confused smile.

“I think it’s Seth’s new nickname for you.” Kendra explained. Bracken nodded in understanding.

“I got that much, I just don’t understand where it come from. Seth, you deeply confuse me sometimes.”

“Hey!” Seth grinned and picked up the pillow he was sitting on, flinging it at Bracken.

“This means war!” Kendra jumped to her boyfriend’s defense. Half an hour later, the biggest pillow fight in Sorenson living room history was still going strong, and the scrabble game lay forgotten on the floor.

I don’t know why or how, but I found this photo... AND IT REMINDS ME SO MUCH OF SHIARA!

Honestly though, I love her so much... she’s so level headed!

Fablehaven Characters as Dogs

This is just my opinion! If anyone has any ideas, please let me know :)

Kendra- English Sheepdog

Seth- Irish Setter or a Black Lab

Bracken- Samoyed

Raxtus- Spitz

Warren- Toy Poodle

Dale- Irish Wolfhound

Grandpa Sorenson- Jack Russell

50 tips for (fanfic) writing

have fun

write whatever is interesting to you, even if it won’t be interesting to anyone else

appreciate kudos when they come, but don’t expect them

appreciate comments when they come, but don’t expect them

if you wish you could just write that one scene you have in your head, do that. you don’t need to create a 30K backstory for it first.

embrace one shots

embrace drabbles

embrace writing your story out of order

rough drafts are meant to be rough. if you can’t think of a word, put in a placeholder for it and keep going. 

try not to get stuck on the little things

it’s okay if your readers can’t see the picture inside of your head

some people work well when they have a posting schedule. some people work well when they don’t. it’s okay if you don’t know which kind of person you are, and it’s okay if the type of person you are changes over time.

if a rule you created for yourself isn’t working for you, get rid of that rule.

make fandom friends. even if they don’t read your fic, they’ll cheer you on while you write it.

cheer on other writers you know. you’ll be cheering yourself at the same time.

no trope or genre is better or worse than another one. they all just appeal to different audiences.

quality and popularity are not the same thing, although they do sometimes overlap

numbers and statistics will never tell you whether or not you’re a good writer. they will never tell you how valuable you are as a person. 

you belong in fandom if you want to be there

you’re a writer as soon as you start writing things

writing and posting are two different things. your story is still worth writing, even if you never plan to share it

you don’t need to apologize for what you write or what you post. 

don’t worry about taking up too much space. the internet doesn’t have a maximum size. 

keep your readers in mind when you’re tagging your content. how could they search for your fic? if you use a tag, will be a reader who loves that tag be satisfied with how much it appears in your story?

if you have a relationship in your fic that plays a minor role, tag it in the Additional Tags section instead of the Relationship section so that people who love that ship don’t get their hopes up

be cautious when looking at bookmarks on your fic. they aren’t “extra comments.” that’s a space where readers make notes for themselves and each other, not for authors. 

you don’t need to know everything about canon before you start writing fic

you don’t need to read fic in the same fandoms you write for

you don’t need to read fic at all in order to write it

love your work because sometimes you’re the only one who will - and that’s okay

if your hobby starts feeling like a job, you might need to take a break before you get burnt out

if you get stuck on a story, you can always start a new one

if you fall out of love with a story, you can always stop writing it. if you’re worried about your readers, you can always give them a bullet point summary of where you were planning to go with thing. for a lot of people, that’s satisfying and provides closure

if you get hate, report it

use the tools at your disposal to block hate before it can come in (limiting or turning off comments, limiting or turning off asks, blocking users, etc)

try replying to comments sometimes. it can be a lovely way to make fandom friends

don’t be afraid to reblog your own writing posts.

if you get stuck on your summary, just write 1) who the story is about 2) what they are doing and 3) what problem gets in their way

notice when your writing makes you smile. that moment is a gift. enjoy it.

notice when your writing makes you cry. that moment is a gift, too.

even if you’re disappointed in how your story turned out, there’s something in there that’s fantastic. find that thing and focus on it and feel proud.

some ideas are ones you want to write. some are ones you want to read. if you ever have too many ideas to deal with at once, give some of the latter ones away to someone else. 

sometimes the things you write will be really personal. be careful about putting them where other people can comment. they won’t know how personal it is for you, and you need to remember that comments aren’t about you, they’re about the story.

remember that you can write series as well as stories. if the story is done but you still have passion or ideas, start a new one in the same universe.

enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a story. savour it. bask in it a little while.

don’t feel guilty about abandoning a story. not every story gets finished, and that’s okay

you can have separate accounts for different fandoms. you can have one account with a million fandoms in it. do whatever works for you.

sometimes writing is more important than sleep - but only sometimes

it doesn’t matter if that story has been written before by someone else. it doesn’t matter if it was written by you. write it again.

only follow the advice that makes sense to you. the rest isn’t important.

Yeah boi a fable haven blog! I haven't read the series in years. My family listened to the full cast audiobooks when I was a kid, & we just read the first book again in the summer, with plans to reread the full series.

That’s so cool! Awesome that you’re getting back into the series, too!

Wow