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Throw Away Fics, Writing

Detoxing – The Hard Way Announcement (and Preview)

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Important: This is the 3rd last story of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 16th, 2026 with the first story of the new year!

Hi guys!

I am so excited to finally share this project with you!

Detoxing – The Hard Way is one of the first fanfics I ever wrote, way back from 2013. It’s a 3 way cross-over fic between Supernatural, Dexter and Heroes. It’s also technically the first cross-over I ever attempted.

As you guys might know, cross-over stories are usually longer than regular stories. That’s because there’s more characters to play with, more worlds to play in, and the new dynamics are also just a lot of fun!

This story is no exception and because it’s combining three shows instead of two, it became exceptionally long. The original unfinished draft of this story from 2013, is 130 pages. (Roughly 69,000 words)

Because of it’s size, I couldn’t upload it as a regular Throw Away Fic, but I also didn’t want to publish it as a book, either. In my head, Detoxing isn’t a book, it’s just… a story. This led to me going back and forth on the ‘proper’ way I wanted to share it, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

I’ve decided that I’m going to upload Detoxing next year (2026) as a Patreon exclusive, and it’ll be available to read by EVERY Tier! This means it won’t matter if you’re a Silent Supporter ($1), Rockin’ Reader ($10) or Spoilers! ($13) patron, every paying member will have access to this story!

So, if you haven’t signed up yet, or are still on the fence, now is the perfect time to check it out! Signing up before January will also allow you to follow along for the ride, right from the start!

Trust me when I tell you, this is not a story you guys want to miss!

I’ve also decided – partly because Patreon has post limits and partly because I want the story to be easier to digest – I’m going to be uploading the story in chunks/parts, instead of all at once. (This will be in addition to the regularly scheduled stories)

I’m going to make it it’s own Collection and tag, as well, so it’ll be easier for you guys to find, instead of having to scroll/sift through all the other stories.

As I said above, I’ve had this story rolling around in my head since 2013, and I am beyond excited to finally be able to let it see the light of day! I’m hoping you guys love it as much as I do!

And now, to get the ball rolling – and you guys excited – below is a preview of what’s to come!

Word Count: 629

C2C, SPN x Dexter x Heroes, TW: Torture (Semi-Graphic)

Dean flicked his eyes back over to the passenger seat, where Sam had gone unusually quiet. He noted his brother was trying not to squint, and had brought one hand up to clutch at the side of his head.

“Hey,” Dean used one arm to pat his brother on the shoulder, “You good?”

“Y-yeah, I’m-ah!”

The giant’s sentence cut off into a scream of pain and he pitched forward, narrowly missing cracking his head on the dashboard from doubling over.

“Sam? Sam!” Dean was pulling the car over to the side of the road in the next instant. He was out of his seat and ripping the passenger side door open before the Impala finished rolling to a stop, “Whoa, hey, hey, hey,” he brought  a hand up to place on the giant’s chest as he nearly came tumbling out of the car, “Talk to me.”

Sam took in a sharp breath, face scrunched up with pain. He opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out. He somehow found the strength to crack an eye open, and could do nothing but watch as the asphalt of the road gave way to a cement floor, that appeared to be coated in… plastic?

A man with reddish-brown hair wearing a black, rubber apron and elbow long gloves entered from behind a sheet of strung up plastic. He made his way over to the side of the room, coming up one side of a long table. On the table, lay a redheaded woman, who was completely naked, save for the thick sheets of plastic wrap that bound her. She wiggled, uselessly against her binds, twisting her neck around violently to see her environment. She stopped wiggling as she spotted the man.

“I-I haven’t done anything.”

“No?” The man’s voice was calm – oddly calm for the situation that was unfolding. He didn’t bother turning around as he unwrapped his tools, and pointed to the row of pictures that had been propped up at the other end of the room, “I think they’d beg to differ.”

“P-please.” The woman licked her lips, “I’m a good person.”

That got the man to spin around, slamming one hand down on the table next her, “No!” The word was barely more than a grow – all semblance of calm now gone – as he aggressively pointed toward the pictures, “A good person wouldn’t have raped, tortured and dismembered three little boys for fun!”

The man walked the short distance to the top of the table, pulling a small scalpel and eye dropper out of his apron pocket as he took his place behind the lady’s head.

“N-no! Please!” She started wiggling again as the man cut her cheek, more desperately this time.

He used the eyedropper to pick up some of the blood that was flowing out of the wound, before dropping it onto a small piece of glass. He tucked the fresh blood-slide into the pocket of his apron before walking back over to the table that held his tools.

He placed the eyedropper down as he shook his head, moving to pick up one of the knives, “Pleading won’t save you.”

“Sam? Hey, you with me?”

Sam let out a big breath as the asphalt of the road slowly came back into view, feeling the pressure in his head start to subside. He lowered the hand that had been clutching the side of his head, bringing it down to rub at his eyes, “Y-yeah, yeah, I’m with you.”

“Okay, good, good.” He felt the blonde clap him on the shoulder as the hand that was on his chest fell away. He slumped against the seat in exhaustion, semi-wild eyes taking a minute to find his brother’s worried face, “Was that a vision?”

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Writing, Writing Tips

Fire (PHSH Effect #35)

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Important: This is the 5th last article of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 19th, 2026 with the first article of the new year!

The time is here for the end of this PHSH Effect trilogy – just in time for Halloween! (Almost like that was planned…)

Since this is the last tutorial in this mini series of effects, you’ll want to make sure you’ve completed the first two so you have the appropriate base to work on today.

Step 1

The simplest way to add fire into a Photoshop picture, is to get some free images of fire from a royalty free site, and drag them into your current project. It’s a good idea to get a few different images, so the amount of flames, size, etc. is a little varied. Yes, we can (and will) be manipulating the images to fit them into our project, but it’s always easier to start with a picture that’s closer to the end result.

Alternatively, you can also always just screenshot the images above, crop and save them to your computer. (I recommend keeping a folder of stock images around, so you won’t have to go searching for them every time you want to create something)

Once you have the fire stock images you want to use, drag some into your current project so we can start getting to work. If you’d like, you can also rename their Layers to something identifying, like ‘Flame’ or ‘Fire’.

I also went ahead and moved all the previous tutorial burn/ember effects into their own folder, so we can start the project more ‘clean’.

Once the flames are actually in the project, hide all but one of the flame layers, and then re-size it to fit the part of the image you want it to be on. Also, change it’s Layer Mode to Screen. This will make it see-through, so we’ll be able to see the rest of our image through it.

My first flame picture has a reflection on the bottom, so I also had to Erase that from the image, before changing it’s Layer Mode to Screen. Since I was already erasing things, I also erased part of the background, since it stuck out a lot from where the flame was. You can do this too, if the flame pictures you’re using are similar, or, if they are already just the flame, feel free to skip this.

The flame picture I started with

The flame picture after I erased the reflection and partial background

 

Step 2

Next, we’re going to go up to the top menu, and click on Images – Adjustments – Curves, and then drag the bottom anchor inwards on the graph that pops up.

Sliding this anchor over will darken the blacks of the image so it helps to remove the background, without needing to spend time erasing around the fire.

This method might change the colour of your flames, as you see above. It’s also faster to use with things that have soft wisps like fire, smoke, etc. instead of the Quick Select/Erase Background method I usually use, because of all the soft edges. Erasing around a selection usually makes hard edges, which is why you go back over them with a softer Eraser, but that isn’t as effective, not only because it takes more time, but the Eraser is only one shape, and if you over-erase, it can give the image a faker feel.

Or it would, if the image you were overlaying the flame onto had a black background. As you can see above, mine does not, so I’ll have to go in with my Eraser tool and erase more of the black background, so it’s even closer to the flames.

I also haven’t completely re-sized the flame to fit my image yet. That’s because it’s easier to erase when the image is still big. Now that I’m done erasing the background, I’ll be zooming into my building and re-sizing my flame, to place it where I want to get ready for the next step.

 

Step 3

Now that we’ve got the flame background-less, we’re going to be Warping it so it looks like it’s actually coming off part of the subject. I didn’t really need to warp my flames on my building, since I chose a relatively square building with lots of straight lines.

But, since this is a tutorial, I’m going to show you how to do this part on a curved object, instead.

I did not add the embers or burns to the chess piece, because I was able to keep in on a dark background, and the Warping part for the flame is the important part, anyway. I did however, erase some of the left part of the flame, to get it a closer fit to the top of the chess piece.

So to use your Warping tool, you’ll want to right-click on one of the squares of box around the flame (the same ones that come up when you go to re-size it) and then pick Warp from the drop down menu that appears.

From here, click Warp, and you should notice the box is now a grid over the whole flame. Carefully, take one of the corners and drag it around, so it looks like the flame is wrapped around the curve of the object.

You’ll want to be careful not to over-warp here, as that can make the flame look fake, or, if you really over-do it, you’ll end up stretching the flame picture and it’ll just look distorted and weird, like bad pixel art.

An example of over-warping

 

Step 4

Once you’re happy with the warp job, we’re going to use our Smudge tool and again, carefully, drag the bottom edges of the flame, so it’s wrapped a little more around the curve/object. Make sure the Smudge tool is set to less than 100% Strength for this. Remember: you can always smudge more later, but it’s harder to undo a too-hard smudge. (Yes, even with the CTRL + Z/Undo options)

I personally used 50% Strength, and left the Hardness of the brush 100%, but feel free to play around with these values to get the best result for your image.

 

Step 5

After that, you just need to repeat these same steps on everywhere else you want to add flames to your image.

If needed, you can also go in with a soft Eraser to clean up any edges or weird bits on your flames. Then, once you’re happy with all the contouring/warping, you’re done! Don’t forget to Save the PHSH file and picture version of your new work.

As I said in the first tutorial of this mini-series, this effect will work on basically any picture, so you can light basically anything on fire!

Obviously some pictures will come out cooler than others. But, there’s never been a better time to explore, especially with Halloween only a few days away!

Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Throw Away Fics, Writing

Naive (Preview)

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Important: This is the 4th last story of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 16th, 2026 with the first story of the new year!

Written: 25.10.23

Words: 851

Wee!Chesters, 2025’s Halloween fic

“Uncle Bobby?”

The voice startled the father figure awake from his place on the couch. He snapped his eyes open and saw a costume-clad Sammy staring at him with those big, round eyes. He let out a yawn and sat up straight, “Dean still bitching about taking you out?”

Sammy’s brows furrowed at that, “What?”

Bobby shook his head, “I’ll get him,” he cleared his throat, before looking toward the stairs, “Dean!”

“Yeah?” The blonde came out of the kitchen in the next moment, beer in hand.

That got Bobby to his feet. He snatched the drink from the pre-teen while giving him a look, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Hey!” Dean’s mouth fell open as the drink was taken away and he defiantly stomped a foot, “You said I could have one!”

Bobby let out a chuckle, “Nice try.”

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Writing, Writing Tips

Embers (PHSH Effect #34)

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Happy October, everyone!

Are you in the spooky spirit yet? Not to worry if you’re not, today’s tutorial will get you there!

Like I said in the previous tutorial, the effect I’ll be showing you this week will be building on that one, so if you haven’t checked it out, now would be the time to do so.

I’ll even wait!

…

You back? Okay, cool!

Then let’s get started on this week’s tutorial: Embers.

This tutorial only has 4 steps but it is time consuming! We’re going to be painting in the embers by hand, so, fair warning. Also, I’ll apologize now for any (inevitable) frustration.

The finished product should be worth it, though!

Step 1

This week, we’re actually going to start in last week’s tutorial document, not a blank one. So, go ahead and open up your Photoshop file version of last week’s Burn effect. (It will be the .psd file, not the .jpeg or .png)

Or, if you prefer, you can create a new project and name it Embers, then drag and drop in your picture file of the Burn effect. Just keep in mind if you do this method, you won’t be able to change, add-on or alter the burn pattern, since it’ll be part of the image. If you end up wanting to tweak it, you’ll have to go through all the Burn tutorial steps a second time.

If you’re wondering: no, you’re not crazy. This is a different burn pattern from what I showed last week. If I haven’t mentioned already, I always do the effects at least twice: once when I’m experimenting/playing around, and the second time is a ‘live’ version I do when I write out the tutorials. (This is the one all the screenshots come from)

It’s the same picture and over-all concept, but if you ever notice the patterning doesn’t exactly match the tutorial pictures, this would be why. Also, despite my initials, I am in fact, not a robot, so I can’t replicate the patterning/brush strokes to look 100% the same between the versions. (Depending on the effect)

 

Step 2

On a New Layer, go to the Blending Options menu (right-click on the layer) and turn on and fill in the following values:

Inner Shadow:
Structure
Blend Mode: Normal (Make the colour a Light Orange, I used #ff8d03)
Opacity: 100%
Angle: 30 (Check the Use Global Light box)
Distance: 0px
Choke: 0%
Size: 3px

Quality
Contour: Make it the top-right to bottom-left straight diagonal White and Black option (the one that looks like this / )
Anti-Alias: Make sure is un-checked
Noise: 0%

Outer Glow:
Structure
Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 100%
Noise: 0%
Colour: Make sure the Solid square is selected (not the Gradient) and set it to a Red-ish Orange (#fe7801)

Elements
Technique: Softer
Spread: 0%
Size: 18px

Quality
Contour: Make it the same as Inner Shadow
Range: 50%
Jitter: 0%

Drop Shadow:
Structure
Blend Mode: Colour Dodge (Set the colour to Red, #fe0000)
Opacity: 100%
Angle: 30 (Check Use Global Light)
Distance: 0px
Spread: 0px
Size: 18px

Quality
Contour: Make it the same as the Outer Glow
Noise: 0%

If you have a check box at the bottom that says Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow, make sure it is check-marked.

If you’d like to preview the effects, you can do so by going over to your Brush tool and selecting one of the ‘grungy’ brushes from the list, and then – while using a colour of Pale Yellow (#f8ec92) – make some brush strokes on the image.

The ‘grunge’ brush options – I don’t know why they’re called that, but in my PHSH quest, it usually just refers to the charcoal, chalk and pastel brush options

Or, you can set a Solid Colour background to preview the effect, like I did below:

It may take some experimenting for you to figure out which brush you like best for the effect. I personally, ended up choosing a Charcoal brush. I also wanted to show you how using the brush differently will change the effect:

The furthest right pattern is what happens when I just clicked the brush once before moving to a different spot. (In my head, I call this ‘stamping’ because of the one-and-done method, but I’m not sure if it has a different name) The brush I chose also randomly changes directions, that’s why some of the pattern is horizontal and some are vertical.

The second in from the right is the same stamping method, but I did the brush strokes closer together.

The almost-solid yellow line is what happens when you use the brush normally. (Click and drag the brush in a direction you want, I made the line not-straight myself)

And lastly, the furthest left pattern is what happens when you combine the stamping and normal methods. For this one, I clicked and dragged in very short distances/spurts before moving on to the next part.

I want to emphasize here that there is no objectively ‘wrong’ brush to use. If you think it looks good and it works for your image, use it! There are a lot of different brushes you can experiment with, but I will say, as with the ash/burn effect, the ‘grunge’ brushes might work better than the plain round ones.

As I said above, I ended up using my Charcoal brush, but here is the effect with some different brushes:


Chalk Brush (I have multiples of these in different pixel sizes and slightly different patterns)


Star 26 Brush


Grass Brush (Apparently I have one of those?)


Sponge Brush Projection Brush


Soft Fur Brush (I’m pretty sure this is the brush I use when I make snow)


I have a range of brushes that are just called Spatter with the pixel size, this is a mix of the brushes in various sizes

and finally, here is what it looks like when using the plain Round brushes:

 

Step 3

Now that we’ve got the style and brush set up, it’s time to add the embers to your image!

To do this, select the appropriate brush Size and Hardness and start painting them in along some of the edges of the burn pattern. Try to think about how fire behaves – in most cases, fire takes the fastest path upwards, so if you chose a building, for example, you’ll want to add embers trailing up toward the roof. I’d also recommend zooming in (CTRL +) to your picture so you have better control over the placement of the embers.

If you’re not super impressed with how it’s looking at this stage, don’t worry. Most effects don’t look that great when you’re zoomed in. To check the actual progress, I recommend zooming out (CTRL – ) so you can see how the embers are looking in the picture as a whole.

If you’re still not happy with them even when zoomed out, you can use the Eraser tool to erase any parts that aren’t looking quite right so you can re-do them. (This is why it’s important we added the embers effect to their own Layer)

Depending on what brush and stroke technique you’re using, this part could take a while, so go slow and try not to get frustrated.

Also keep in mind, you can vary the Size and Hardness of your brush to help keep the embers from looking too monotone.

I actually re-did my ember trails a bunch of times because I just couldn’t get it to look ‘right’. One thing that helped me, was painting in the ember effect and then going back in with my Eraser tool to dirty up the lines and add a tapper to some of the trails.

 

Step 4

Once you’re happy with all your embers, to give it an even more realistic look, change the brush size and shape to one that is close to that snow one I showed above, then paint around the outside of some of the trails. This will make it look like some of the embers are floating off.

I did my floating embers on a different layer so I could easily erase and replace any I didn’t like without having to re-do the ember trails.

This also leads me to a very helpful tool when working with PHSH Effects: If you need to apply the same effect to a different layer, you can do so quickly by holding down the ALT key on your keyboard, then clicking on the FX symbol in the Layers Panel and dragging it to the layer you want to apply the effect to.

You’ll know if you did it correctly if all the Effect Text under the layer and the FX symbol transfers to the new layer.

And that’s it!

Because I didn’t do my char/burn layer super dark, I had to do my ember trails more subtly, so it looks like the building is just starting to catch fire, opposed to being in the middle of burning. I also took out the floating embers, because realistically, I don’t think there would be enough embers to have some floating up around the trails I made.

This means, my finished project, looks like this:

Which is the image I used on social media.

But, don’t worry – up next, I’m going to show you how to add flames to your burning image, so you’ll get to see a much cooler/less subtle version of the embers, just in time for Halloween!

Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Throw Away Fics, Writing

Kind of Proof (Preview)

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Important: This is the 5th last story of 2025. I’ll be taking the last half of December and first half of January off from posting. I’ll be back January 16th, 2026 with the first story of the new year!

Written: 25.10.07, 25.10.09

Words: 2,901

Hallucifer, C2C, 2025’s Thanksgiving

Sam bit his lip as he turned the info over in his head, sitting in the parking lot of a motel, this doesn’t make sense.

“What doesn’t?” At the look, Lucifer shrugged, “What? I can be helpful sometimes.”

“I just…” Sam let out a breath, before turning to half-face the passenger seat, “Why would something that can make itself look like anyone, try to get me to a second location to kill me? Why not try and kill me right there in the bunker? And,” He shifted in his seat, brows creasing, “How’d it even get into the bunker? That thing is warded against stuff we’ve never even heard of! How’d some run-of-the-mill shifter get in?”

“Is that why we’re here?”

Sam nodded, “There might be more waiting for me to come back, I couldn’t risk it.” He brought his hands up, bringing his fingers together before tapping the bottom of his chin, “I can’t believe another holiday- oh shit!” Sam leaned back against the driver’s seat, letting out a loud groan, “I left the stove on!”

“… So?”

“All the food! It’s ruined!” Sam closed his eyes and shook his head against the back of the seat, “Fuck.”

“I’m sure the food’s fine. Your brother said Cas was gonna take care of it.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t Dean, so the chances he actually called Cas are probably in the negative thousands.”

“Well… why don’t you call him.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Cas, you idiot.” That got the giant to crack an eye open, “He has his angel power back now, right? Get him to smite the shifters then go find your brother.”

Sam opened his mouth to rebuttal, but stopped himself a moment later, shit, that’s actually a good plan. Why didn’t I think of that?

“I mean, technically, you did.”

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Writing, Writing Tips

Burning (PHSH Effect #33)

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I know I’ve already showed you guys a way to Burn things in Photoshop, but, that was with the Burn tool, which is objectively the ‘easy’ way to add that effect to your pictures.

But, you guys have come a long way since the first few tutorials, and with Halloween coming up, I thought now would be a great time to introduce you to the more complicated way to burn your pictures. This way I’m going to show you allows you to be more precise in your burning, which can be extremely helpful if you’re trying to edit a more detailed photo.

Step 1

As always, we’ll want to start with a brand new PHSH document and an image. I didn’t want to complicate things too much for the purposes of the tutorial, so I chose a simple building.

You can, of course, choose whatever kind of picture you’d like: the image above, a different kind of building, an ex’s face, a car, animal, etc. Whatever floats your boat! This effect should work with any kind of picture.

Once you’ve selected the picture you want to use, we’re going to need to make a Group. To do this, go down to the Layers panel and select the Group icon.

Next, we’re going to need to make a selection of the subject of the image. There’s a couple different ways to do this, so I will say to do whichever one you’re most comfortable with. For me, this means using the Quick Select tool and dragging it around the picture until everything I want is inside the dotted lines. For my specific picture, that’s just going to be the front of the building.

Now, we’re going to add a Layer Mask to the Group. To do this, go down to the bottom of the Layers Panel, and then click on the square that has a black circle in the middle of it. (This is the Layer Mask button)

The Layer Mask should only take on the shape of what you’ve selected. If it doesn’t, deselect (or hit CTRL + Z to Undo the last action) and try selecting the area and creating the Layer Mask again.

If you’re also not sure whether or not you’ve successfully created a Layer Mask because the thumbnail didn’t come up, you can go up to the top menu and then select Layer, then scroll down to Layer Mask and click the Reveal All option. This should make the thumbnail show up in the Layers panel, if it wasn’t already.

Step 2

Once that’s done, we’re going to start adding the ‘burn’ to the picture, which means we’re going to be playing around with the colours.

Before we do this, I’d recommend making a copy of your picture as-is, just in case you mess up/don’t like how things turn out/get confused and need a reminder of what the original looked like.

First thing we’re going to do, is go to Adjustments (which should be sitting on top of your Layers Panel) and add a Black and White Gradient Map and set it to 90% Opacity. The Gradient Map should be the last button in the last row, and looks like a gradual black to white square.

If, like me, your Gradient Map turned your Layer Mask the wrong colour, don’t panic! It applied the last/current colour in your Colour Swatches. (The ones showing in the swatches on the left-hand side at the very bottom of the Tool menu)

All you have to do to change this, is click the drop-down arrow next to the gradient that showed up in the Properties box, and then click a black to white gradient from the list.

Then, we’re going to add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment (the sun looking icon in the Adjustments panel) and set the Brightness to -50 and the Contrast to 50.

Then we’re going to add a Curves adjustment (the 3rd icon in the Adjustment panel, that looks like an ‘s’ on a graph). The Curves adjustment values you change will depend on the initial colours of your picture, so if at the end things don’t look quite right, you can come back to this panel and re-adjust the values to see if it helps.

And finally, we’re going to add another Brightness/Contrast adjustment with the values of:

Brightness: -40

Contrast: 100

Once those are done, the picture should look like a higher contrasted black and white of the original.

Step 3

Create a new Group and name it something appropriate like Burn, Soot, Ash, Char, etc. And drop the first Group we made inside it.

Next, add a Layer Mask to the new group and fill it with Black. You might be able to do this by simply pressing CTRL + I on your keyboard. If not, you can Invert the colours by right-clicking and selecting the Invert Colour option.

Step 4

Now comes the fun part! We’re going to use any kind of Brush you want, and use it to brush the Layer Mask over any/every area of the picture you want to appear ashy/charred/burned. Make sure your brush colour is set to White, otherwise it won’t work.

You might find it helpful to separate the different areas of char into their own Groups. As long as you keep them all under the umbrella Char group, the brushing will work to uncover the black and white. Breaking them into different groups can be helpful if you uncover part of the mask where you didn’t want it and go to Erase. If it’s close to another area, you’ll end up erasing that part, as well, whereas if it’s in it’s own group, other parts won’t be affected.

Step 5 (Optional)

If you chose a picture with a smooth surface, (like a person’s skin) you can make the burn look more realistic by adding some texture to it!

To add texture, you can use any picture of a plain textured surface you may have, or, go to Filter – Texture and then click on the texture you’d like to add.

If using the picture method:

Place and re-size the textured image to fit the confines of your picture. You’ll also want to add it to whichever Group corresponds to the area you’re texturing. (Just so things don’t get confusing)

Once you’ve got it in the correct position, you’ll want to make it black and white. To do this, go up to Image – Adjustments – Black and White.

Next, you’re going to adjust the image’s Brightness and Contrast. The exact values will depend on the colours of your own image, but I’d recommend starting with a Brightness of -93 and Contrast of 100.

You’re also going to want to change the texture Layer from Normal to Overlay, so you can see the part of the image it’s over better. You’ll want to use Overlay here instead of Screen, because Overlay often darkens images, and Screen tends to lighten them. If however, they look the same to you, or if for some reason they are inverted (Screen makes the texture darker) use whichever one you prefer.

Lastly, you’ll need to repeat the texture overlay for every part of the image you darkened with the brush.

If you picked a picture that had a lot of texture already, like I did, you can go ahead and save your project once you’re happy with the results from Step 4.

And that’s it!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you’re looking at your finished image and feeling like something is ‘missing’, don’t worry – the next tutorial I show you will be an effect that builds on this one.

Like this tutorial? Check out more here!

Throw Away Fics, Writing

Finally Clean (Preview)

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Written: 25.09.24

Words: 1,107

NFF, Dark-ish, TW: Domestic Abuse (Aftermath)

“Y-you can’t be here.”

The corner of his mouth pulled up into a smirk as he stepped through the doorway, “Why not?”

“Because of the r-restraining order.” She swallowed hard and took a few steps backward, how did he find me?

“Pfft, please.” He waved a dismissive hand and veered into the living room, inspecting it, “You thought a piece of paper was gonna stop me?”

She did her best to ignore the sudden pounding in her chest as he stopped in front of the end table that was displaying all the figurines he used to make her hide, “I can have a dozen cops here in a second.”

“Yeah?” He cocked his head to one side as he picked up one of the cow figurines, “Neat trick.”

“A-all I have to do is scream.” She mentally beat herself up for the shake in her voice and licked her lips in a failed attempt to stop it, “There’s already a car outside.”

The chuckle that floated through the air next sent ice down her spine. He replaced the figurine before turning away from the small table – action allowing her to glimpse the knife that was tucked into his waistband – and he raised an eyebrow, “Do you honestly think if that not-so-undercover car was still there, they would’ve let me walk in?”

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Throw Away Fics, Writing

Cross That Line (Preview)

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Written: 25.09.11

Words: 1,260

Hallucifer(ish), C2C

“So, what?” Sam turned out of the salvage yard, starting down the road toward the store, “You’re just gonna…. leave me alone now?” He let out a humourless chuckle and shook his head, what kind of torture tactic is that supposed to be?

He hadn’t seen the devil in a couple days, but he knew better than to get his hopes up – there was no way his hallucination was gone. You can’t actually fix that kind of crazy, no matter what his brother said.

“I’m driving,” Sam made a left-hand turn and couldn’t help but flick his eyes up to the rear-view mirror, “You sure you don’t wanna pop-in right now and try to make me crash?”

The car remained silent as the giant completed the turn, but he was anything but calm. He knew Lucifer was planning something – he was the devil, after all – so he couldn’t relax. Couldn’t lower his guard until he knew what was coming. This tactic of not showing up was weird, but it wasn’t exactly send-Cas-a-fruit-basket weird.

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I post NEW stories every 2 weeks and have just under 200 for you to discover!

Throw Away Fics, Writing

Sleeping Alone (Preview)

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Started as a Song!Fic, based on the BC Jean version of If I Were a Boy. (Listen here!)

Started: 17.08.01

Worked On: 22.02.02, 22.03.04

Finished: 25.08.25

Words: 5,243

NFF, Dark-ish

“Didn’t I make myself clear last night?” Benny hissed into the phone, closing the bathroom door behind him.

“Oh, I heard what you said. I just thought I should give you a chance to change your mind.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Silly me, didn’t I tell you? That camera that’s in the corner of my bedroom? It was accidentally on during our ‘meeting’ yesterday.”

Sonofa- “What do you want?”

“Guess.”

He sucked his teeth, “I don’t have time for your shit, Nikki.”

“Oh, okay, guess I’ll just send the tape to your wife then. Have a good-”

“Wait,” he took a deep breath, damn it, “what do you want me to do?”

 

—

 

“I thought I was stuck with you all day?”

“Well,” he shrugged himself into a button up, keeping his back to her, new boulder of guilt settling into his stomach, “now you won’t be.”

“Great…”

He licked his lips as he heard the hurt in her voice, just one more lie. He breathed out a sigh as he started buttoning his shirt, what was I thinking, agreeing to her stupid demands? It’s always the ‘one more’ that gets you caught…

 Maybe he shouldn’t be doing this.

He shook his head, I have to if I want any shot at keeping her. He pulled his watch off the dresser before taking a breath, steeling himself as he turned back around to face his wife. He felt like he’d been punched in the gut when he saw her face. I swear, I’m trying to do the right thing.

“I’m sorry,” he closed the distance between them and pecked her cheek, “it’s not like I can not go.”

“I know.” She rested her head against the door frame as she sighed, “I was just looking forward to getting sick of your face today.”

He gave her a tight smile before moving passed her, heading for the steps, “I won’t be too long. One, two hours max.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

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I post new short stories every 2 weeks on Fridays and already have 150+ just waiting for you to discover!

Writing, Writing Tips

Naming Your Characters

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Aside from actually finishing a story, naming your characters is the next bane of any writer’s existence.

Not only are you expected to encapsulate their entire personality into one word, you also have to pick a name that’s unique enough it’ll make readers remember, but isn’t too far out there, lest it becomes a meme (like the ever popular Twilight baby, or Bubblewrap Cumberbun) and, it needs to be a name you actually like. (Yes, even if they’re your villain)

Picking the perfect name for a character can be as hard as naming your child, because… well, characters are essentially the same as your kids. They’re extensions of yourself that eventually become their own people with their own thoughts, feelings and opinions. And so when you’re there, looking down at them when they’re nothing more than a squishy little personality-less blob, it can be a daunting task to slap a label on them. Especially because it’s something they’ll have for life.

No pressure.

Now, I know there’s a ton of different articles out there all telling you they’ve unlocked the only secret ‘right way’ to go about naming characters. There’s everything from mundanefully helpful like looking up common names for the region/country you want your story to take place in, to the way out there, like feeling the name’s aura, or you should pick a certain name because Mars is in retrograde.

Would you like to learn the real secret?

There is no one ‘right’ way to name them!

What works for someone else might not work for you, and that’s okay. It’s called a process because there’s no one way to do it. Every tip others give you can help, but don’t think any one person knows the be-all, end-all of how to write ‘properly’. I don’t care if they’re professors who’ve spent their entire 30+ year careers unravelling the structures of the craft, or the most famous writers in history. No one person knows everything about writing.

No one.

You can take the tips they’ve collected over the years and use it to help your writing, but don’t you dare let any internet trolls – or your imposter syndrome – tell you that you aren’t a ‘real’ writer if you don’t follow what they tell you.

Yes, this even goes for the advice I give you here.

I hope to God you aren’t only following my advice. There are tons of things I don’t know! I just learned this year that ‘spaghetti westerns’ weren’t named because cowboys ate spaghetti, and that you can’t drink salt water even if you boil it first. I am an idiot!

And so is everyone else.

That’s what makes humans the crazy, weird, fascinating beings we are.

You know your characters best, and only you can pick a worthy name.

Doing things like using a baby name website or a random name generator can help your brain get unstuck when you begin to panic-spiral into ‘I need a name to keep writing but can’t think of one, oh my God just pick something already, it’s been 4 months!’ but you shouldn’t just pick the first name you see or one you generate.

Feel it out.

Does this name actually fit your character? Think about it! Let it roll around in your head for a few days, or weeks. Make your other characters say it. Does it fit in their mouth? Does it feel like an anvil that just completely kills the conversation, or does it flow? Does it fit with the other circle of friend names?

It’ll look weird if your story revolves around Molly, Michael, Millie and Gilbert, if that stand-out name doesn’t stand out for a reason.

It’s true, fiction can be whatever you want it to be, and rules are more like guidelines. However, if you are going to break certain ‘rules’, you need to know how it’ll be perceived by your audience. Most people will spend your story waiting for the ‘weird’ name reveal, and will become disappointed if you don’t point it out, or explain why it’s there.

It needs to serve a purpose.

Also, when naming a character, you can test out a few names. Just because you pick one doesn’t mean you have to stick to it! If you’re using a placeholder name, or a name you’re on the fence about, continue writing and re-assess. Now you’ve continued fleshing out the character, are you feeling like a different name would fit them better? Then change it! Hell, give them more than one name. Give them two, or ten!

Does the name you picked lend itself well to nicknames? Are you planning on making it a joke that the character’s legal name is one thing, but their much-preferred nickname is nothing even remotely close to it? Was their name a family relic, so they keep it as a tie to the family they’ve never known? Do they like their name? Do they hate it?

Did you even ask them?

That last part sounds a little crazy, yes, but it’s also effective. You sit there and hallucinate about people who aren’t real talking all day anyway, what’s one more imaginary conversation? Picture yourself asking them if they like the name you chose. What do they say?

How do they react?

Like this article? Check out more writing tips here!