CassieQ

Insta-love sounds super boring to me. I love writing about characters falling in love, so much so that I will stretch it out as long as I can sometimes. I would actually let 3 and 4 go, because that kind of thing does happen in real life, but it's hard to write about it well or in a convincing manner and so so many people do it wrong. One or two will definitiely stop me in my tracks though. I don't care how hot of a character you are, I have better things to do than to listen to you ramble about your looks.

He'll need to be careful for sure. Thanks for commenting!

I wrote various things growing up, but the first thing I remember being an actual story was when I was in middle school and I wrote a story about a girl trying to get inside a pyrmaid with a cursed mummy inside.

I agree that a character needs to be a character first of all. No-one wants to be known as "that transgender girl" or or anything like that. Representation is great, but I think it is important that it needs to be part of a well-developed character, rather than their defining feature.

I like this as much reading it a second time as I did the first. These guys are so adorable.

This was a tough one. The only thing I can think of that I require in all of my stories is plenty of dialogue. Other than that, I tend to like to mix things up.

Whoa, this takes me back!

Thank you. I need all the hugs I can get.

Thank you, that means a lot.

Unfortunately my Dad will not go to AA or any other group. He is the type who thinks he can tackle this problem on his own. I am considering Al-Anon on the advice of my therapist.

He will not go to AA.

It's starting again. The sobriety. I talked to my cousin over the weekend about what my Dad has been going through. And how my Dad is courting sobriety again. For the record, the longest my Dad has been sober has been two years, and that was when I was a child and my Mom threatened to leave him and take myself and sister with her. He threw out all the alcohol in the house. Another time was when I was living in Atlanta, out of college and working at a bookstore. My Dad went through some of his worst years in Atlanta and one day I noticed he wasn't acting like his usual drunk surly self. I remember being so concerned about his shift in personality that I told my Mom I was worried he was going to commit suicide. She laughed a little and told me he had quit drinking. I don't remember how long that one lasted, but it wasn't long. He quit temporarily when the tests for his heart came back. Once he saw that his heart issue remained despite not drinking, he started back up again. Now here we are again. He always stops when he has a consequence for drinking, but then he inevitably starts back. I wish I could be more supportive, but I just can't. I can't. It hurts too much. It hurts to see the man that my father could be. I love my Dad, my real Dad. He is charming, has a great sense of humor and is fun to talk to and hang around with. I can see the man my Mom fell in love with. I can see the man I would like to have in my life. But he never stays. Eventually the drink wins and the drunk comes back. The drunk is mean, stupid, surly and hard to get along with. I remember looking at the drunk and wondering how on Earth I can be related to him. My Dad came over this weekend to help me with some stuff around the house, hanging up some blinds, putting up some shelves, etc. It was...nice. But I need to keep my distance. Need to. Because I can't get close to him only to lose him to the drink again. I can't stand it. I can't.

Epilogues are fine, but I don't see the point of prologue unless it is for a specific genre. I think sci-fi and fantasy stories do well with them as a way to ground the reader into the type of world they are reading, but as far as other genres, I don't see the point. Like @MacGreg said, it's better to weave information into the story itself when possible.

Romance and Drama are my happy places when it comes to writing, and while I am open to trying new genres, I don't feel like writing Romance has gotten "stale". It's a large genre and there is plenty of room for a writer to be creative and have lots of new ideas. While exploring new genres are fine, if it's something that I am not excited about writing about, it is going to show. I write what I like and I like romance.

I was thinking that I didn't have a lot of wealthy people in my stories, then I went back and checked and there are characters who are pretty well off in like 9 of them.

For a long time I always had a female character of some kind in my stories, usually a friend or a sister. I have just now started to write stories without it. It's weird.

I write a lot during my lunch breaks. I work a physically and mentally demanding job 8-7 so I'm usually too exhausted to write at nights, and I try to cram a lot of writing into my days off as well. I love doing it so I try to make it a priority.

But did you use the first line?

Thank you for reminding me how hot Jodie Foster is.

I had a lot of guesses with what was happening with Leia in NTS. I loved it. If someone gets it right, more power to them, but I'm not going to rewrite a story because of it. That feels like cheating!

I like seeing how different people react differently to the events in this story. I am solidly on the side of cheating being a deal-breaker, but so is being emotionally unavailable to your partner. Eric should not have cheated and should have broken things off with Brian when he started falling for someone else, Brian should have been more attentive and loving towards the man he was planning to marry and listened to Eric's extremely valid frustrations. Both were in the wrong. Brian is trying to fix his own issues, and Eric did a very mature and generous thing in confronting Brian's clueless ass to make things work for him and Timothy. They are all moving in the right direction and I have hope for both of them. I appreciate your comments, they were very insightful.

Interesting point. I think both Eric and Brian were working from anger and disappointment when they say things they don't mean. Eric and Brian's relationship was definitely a mess, especially near the end, I hope his relationship with Timothy is healthier. I like that moment where he asks for another kiss too. Timothy is adorable. Thank you so much for commenting, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I am very easily distracted (ADD yay)! so I try not to watch television while writing, however the Internet is another story. To avoid being distracted, I usually listen to music (classical and jazz are my favorites for writing) or try to get away from my computer a while to write long hand.

Gotta love a good zombie story!

I usually don't title my chapters until I am posting them on GA. Then I usually go with something significant that happened that chapter. However, I am bad about naming stories and occasionally chapters, after song titles, it's a habit I'm trying to break.