Spiderman Is So Fucking Funny Dude Saves Like An Entire Country And Then He Goes Home At The End Of The

Today I learned

okay im on anon but only because this take is too hot but; ben is the most shippable loser because everyone is in love with him. mike is a close second but only because the losers met ben first and were already in love with him when they met mike

i sent murryn ( @pattyblumuris ) a screenshot of my inbox yesterday to show her a different ask and the first thing she said was “the second anon [this one] is right and should say it” like before even responding to what the screenshot was about and that pretty much sums up how i feel about this! ben 🤝 mike always (also while we’re on the topic. i KNOW bike is hanbrough but if i ever say bike there’s a 50/50 chance i’m talking abt ben/mike bc their other real option is. men. which is worse i think... recently i’ve been playing with benlon as well)

richie teases ben like. constantly. partially bc he has no filter at times but also partially bc he’s constantly craving ways to express affection whilst deeply afraid of being vulnerable and so he wraps up his truth and affection in amusement, presents in a way that’s easier for him to swallow. and sometimes he thinks ben’s the bravest of them all, because he cares so genuinely and openly and earnestly, and that’s kind of mind-blowing, even if it’s corny. anyway richie’s constantly slinging an arm over his shoulder, flopping down with his legs on ben’s lap when sitting in the grass in spring time, dramatically fake fainting into his arms bc he knows ben will always catch him (yes this is a scene in the fic i’m currently writing don’t @ me those of u with access to the google doc)

genuinely don’t let me talk about denscom i simply won’t shut up. something i will always thank the muschietti films for is denscom rights. the first time i saw ben on the back of silver in chapter one?? showstopping. and chapter two is so funny with the love triangle bc i swear mcavoy’s bill spent more time giving ben Looks than he did looking at bev (like hanbrough rights but also bill @ ben in the cistern > adult bill @ anyone other than mike all film). anyway ben sits in bill’s heart from the moment he sits with eddie when bill has to go run fill up his inhaler and sometimes they just sit together and sketch things (ben sketches designs. bill sketches ben)

stan and ben are so different at first glance that sometimes it surprises people who don’t know them how much they love each other. but ben sits patiently with stan, listens to him talk, listens actively and intently, and cares. richie is stan’s best friend, but ben’s the one stan goes to when he wants to exist quietly in a space. they’re very good at making space for each other. richie’s also the one ben goes to when discussing the mathematics and physics of architecture, but stan’s the one he talks his ideas out with, the one who listens and thinks and frames things in the context of what they’re useful for, in the context of what’s real. (stan takes a little bit to warm up to ben, but one day ben just. it’s something so small, so simple, but they’re outside, and richie and bill are fucking around, and ben just moves stan’s sweater out of their path of chaos. stan doesn’t ask him to, and ben doesn’t even move his own stuff—he’s just thoughtful enough to show care to stan’s belongings, and stan just. loves him in that moment)

eddie’s a bit of a motormouth, but even though he’s just listed off twenty three reasons why they shouldn’t help ben (ben counted), he gets supplies and immediately sets about to patching him up anyway. when ben doesn’t even know eddie, not really, he sits with him, has his back when bill goes to fill his inhaler, is a constant target for bowers and his cronies and yet stubbornly sticks by the side of a vulnerable boy he barely knows. eddie doesn’t love widely, but he loves fiercely, ferociously, completely, and that is how he loves ben. (ben loves more gently, in a way that isn’t cautious but is careful, like he knows how delicate hearts are to hold. one day, when ben waits at the altar as richie walks alongside the woman he loves, eddie stands at his side. eddie’s love is an unwavering force, and it’s what ben wants at his side that day)

bev loves bill like he’s an escape, like he’s an answer. bev loves ben like breathing. she’s spent her life looking for exits, and ben makes her feel safe enough that she finally learns how to stand still. he’s endearing and lonely and alone, he’s soft and gently courageous, he’s a constant target who throws himself immediately into the crossfire for her. she loves him at eleven, thirteen, sixteen, forever. january embers and a smile to herself at the edge of the bathtub, sure, but also: the way he grins as he hums to his music, his hand in hers as he helps her to her feet, the good natured way he rolls his eyes at richie’s ribbing. she buys sweaters several sizes too big, just so they can share them. she’s a little in love with him years before she’s a lot in love with him, and he’s the kind of selfless that never fails to take her breath away, because she never got to see that much of it before she met him

when ben meets mike, it’s a fight, but they’ve always felt like peace to each other. they’re the ones to say wait a minute, let him speak — they’re the ones to trade smirks when richie and bill make indignant noises after the ben and mike team up with bev to prank the other two — they’re the ones to bring easy smiles when meeting new people, earnest and genuine and so fucking funny at two am that stan literally cries from laughing when they’re studying for exams in their final year of high school. they love each other immediately, trust each other wholly, and the others just, like, shrug, because... yeah. they’re a little in love with both of them too. they totally get it

Writing a First Draft

I’ve seen a lot of advice posts that encourage writing a “bad” first draft, or saying that the point of the first draft isn’t to be “good” just to be done, but I have yet to see any examples of what that actually means (which is unfortunate because for a lot of first-time writers that may just mean that their best effort on a first draft isn’t “good enough”), so that’s what I’m here for! The ultimate advocate of ugly writing, babey! Let’s write some “bad” first drafts!!

Forewarning that this is going to be difficult for you perfectionists out there (same hat tho!!!), but really, if you’re looking to finish a first draft within a reasonable time frame (and not continue to rewrite the beginning 50 times to get there, only to be disappointed when the next scenes aren’t as “good” as the beginning), then this really is the way to go. Perfectionism comes in super handy in later drafts, but it’s a real burden in the first draft, and I really really relate to that. What I find that helps keep my perfectionism in check while I’m drafting is to keep a separate Word doc open (or a notebook and pen at hand) to jot down new ideas or things that have changed throughout the draft. Putting a page number down next to the notation will save your life as well. Your future self will thank you!

Okay, so let’s get into it! You have an idea, and you need to get that first draft out before you lose motivation or move on to a shiny new WIP idea. What’s that first draft going to look like?

Write the scenes you’re excited about first. If you’re someone who, like myself, needs to write things in chronological order, then write these scenes in chronological order - but! if you have the conclusion figured out, then write it now, yes, even before that one bit in the middle you’re not sure about. Is it likely that some details in these scenes will change as you keep writing different parts of the book? Yes! Do it anyway! Anything you write will be helpful for later drafts, so write those scenes!!! Plus, if you start with what you’re excited about, you’ll want to keep writing even after they’re finished, because your brain will just keep generating other super cool ideas for those in-between scenes. And yeah, there will definitely be filler scenes to write, but you can probably worry about those in the next draft.

If you’re on a roll, don’t worry about punctuation, grammar, or spelling. I mean it! If those red squiggles in Word bother you, turn them off (they’re really only semi-helpful for editing, and we’re not doing that right now). If you write faster and think better using “internet grammar” (minimal/excessive punctuation, no capitalization, weird spelling, etc.), then do that! If it helps you get words on the page, it’s worth doing.

If you’re not on a roll, try putting some space between what you’ve written and what you need to write. For me, that frequently means hitting enter (even mid-sentence if I suddenly get stuck), typing “monkey,” and then hitting enter again, as many times as it takes for my brain to reboot and remember what the hell I was going for. If that means I have a chain of 20 monkeys in the middle of a paragraph, so be it. They get to hang out there until I come back in draft two and delete them. 

I’ve also written “uhhhhhh” and “oh fuck now what” several times in a first draft. It happens. It’s easier to write in a way that mirrors your thought process, so just do what works. Use memes in your prose to keep it moving - it’ll make future you laugh when you go back through on draft two!

Don’t be afraid to change major pieces of plot - but don’t you dare go back and rewrite earlier pieces to match! Let’s say you’re at the end of act one and you revealed some tragic detail about your MC’s backstory, but now you’re in the middle of act two and you’ve realized that it no longer fits your idea of MC and you no longer want it to be true. Simply make a brief note of it and keep writing like that scene in act one never happened. Deleting, rewriting, and repurposing are all for later drafts! The goal on the first draft is literally just to reach the end - and it’s inevitable that you’ll find and change the story along the way.

Forget about foreshadowing. No matter how detailed of an outliner you are, the fact is that in the first draft you really don’t actually know what’s going to happen yet in your book (see point 5). So forget about trying to foreshadow. Spell out what’s happening plain as day - because the first draft is just one long exposition dump to aide you in future drafts. If you get halfway through and a sudden twist or weird piece of backstory jumps out at you, write it in as if you had foreshadowed, even though you haven’t yet. Make a note of it, and maybe even note where you could foreshadow this in the next few drafts, but keep moving forward. 

Changing perspectives is fine even if it goes against how you know you want your final draft to be. If you have a scene in mind that you know you need to include, but you have no idea how MC would react during it, but you know how your side character would react, write the scene from the side character’s perspective. You can think about MC’s POV in that scene later - again, the point is just to get it written, so if switching POVs gets you through the scene, do it.

Ultimately, this is what people mean when they say your first draft is going to be “ugly.” It’s going to be a little (or a lot) messy. But that’s okay. The struggle of the beginning writer is realizing that your first draft is not going to look like anything you’ve read before - because those are final drafts. And to the gifted writers who breezed through school (like I did) by submitting their first draft essays for grading - that’s not going to work here. Every time you rewrite a piece, it gets better. If you try to make your first draft perfect, you will just end up frustrated and disappointed at the time you wasted, because you’ll end up reworking 80% of it or more in the subsequent drafts. Your writing style will change and improve, and your knowledge will grow, and every time you revisit a draft, that will be reflected.

So write that ugly draft. Insert so many author’s notes mid-paragraph that you look like an early 2000s fanfic writer. Contradict previous scenes like you’re constructing the most elaborate Winchester Mystery House -esque draft the world has ever seen, complete with paragraphs that lead to nowhere and mysterious monkey chains cutting sentences in half. 

And then, in the second draft, make it look as though the first draft never happened.

my favorite thing to do right now is imagine the hargreeves children on saturdays from noon to half past noon

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”

(the avengers + defining moments + schools of ethical thought)

richie performing his own material like *goes off script every 5 minutes*

“Before you know it it’s 3 am and you’re 80 years old and you can’t remember what it was like to have 20 year old thoughts or a 10 year old heart.”

— This is the scariest fucking text post I’ve ever read (via fuckinq)

Give yourself an extra big hug today!

Artwork by Maeril

WAIT. Not to be controversial but. What if I just enjoy life for what it is right now instead of stressing about what I’ve yet to get out of it. What if I choose to enjoy this time……I know that once it goes, I won’t get it back from anywhere

i’m gonna say it.

there is nothing wrong with you for liking cartoons, comic books, cosplays, dolls, nickelodeon, cartoon network, superheros, disney, fanfiction, video games, drawing, basically anything that is label to be “kids stuff.”  life is too damn short to be boring; who the hell wants to just be into things are acceptable by adult standards. 

enjoy the things that make you happy, and if it’s something that people view as immature and childish you should not be ashamed. you are fine the way you are.