PROTIP: Whenever You're Feeling Discouraged As A Creator, Think Of The Absolute Worst Popular Media You've

“I wanna write”

“So write”

“... not this scene though”

my favorite genre of fictional character is like "i am terrifying to almost everyone, i'm very good at killing, i can endure anything, i've become exceptionally good at playing into my reputation, and if you try to give me positive social interaction i will react with confusion and cower in a corner like an abused animal. and i may try to shoot you. but there is also a chance i may imprint on you like a feral dog receiving its first loving touch! good luck."

writing tip #3434:

writing is only one component in the process. another major component is crying

fake idgafer. i saw tht haunted look in ur eyes

When all of my blorbos are my own ocs so I can’t consume content about them unless I make it

*starts caring for people and their feelings* they didnt teach this in evil clown school

best storylines are the ones where the wildest most off-the-wall shit occurs, one thing after another, unrelenting, and then at the end you realize it’s been happening over the course of like.. just a week. everyone’s been having a HELL of a week in that universe. that shit was happening on a thursday. of all days.

Ok I’m writing now (lying)

THEME 7: Unite

Syncs with your mobile theme colors and mimics the new in-dashboard blog view for a consistent look across platforms.

Live preview (temporary) | Static previews: index page, permalink | Code

Features:

Appearance options (show/hide header image/avatar/title/description, title font options, and background/text/accent colors) synchronize with mobile settings

Optional: Featured posts section, updates section, and blog member list in sidebar (require some HTML editing; see under the cut for instructions)

Unlimited custom links, plus a highlighted link under the title

Optional second palette

Customizable post width and font size

Optional search bar, like/reblog buttons, date/timestamps, tags (plus a show tags on click option), and Archive/Random links

Responsive

Supports new post types/pinned posts

And more!

For help, check my theme guide, or feel free to send me an ask. Theme credits and an HTML editing guide for the special sections are under the cut.

All of the below instructions assume that you've gone to your Customize page, then opened the "Edit HTML" menu.

Again, if you have trouble making your edits work, feel free to send me an ask or a DM for help.

Note for HTML beginners

Every bit of text or code is wrapped inside "tags", which have arrow brackets on either side. For example, a paragraph is placed inside <p> tags. Every element has an "opening" and "closing" tag; the closing tag looks just like the opening tag, with a / after the opening bracket. The content inside one section is bracketed by these; for example, a paragraph would look like this:

<p>Text here!</p>

In the above line, <p> is the opening tag, and </p> is the closing tag. Tags of this sort can be placed inside each other:

<p>Some <span>special</span> text.</p>

Note that the "span" tags, both opening and closing, are both inside the "p" tags. You don't want a misordered set, like "<p>Some <span>special text.</p></span>". The opening tag nearest to the start should also have its closing tag nearest to the end.

It is extremely important that while editing the HTML for your theme, you make sure all opening tags have a matching closing tag. If you have a <div> tag, but no matching </div> tag, this might break the theme.

Featured posts

This section fetches the 3 most recent posts from a chosen tag on your blog. To select the tag:

Ctrl+F to "EDIT YOUR TAG HERE".

On that line, there will be a link inside quotation marks, ending in "tagged=featured".

Change featured to the tag of your choice; for example, "tagged=photo". This tag can include spaces, such as "tagged=my writing".

Save and ensure your posts show up as intended.

By default, the tagged posts are fetched from your blog, but you can change this so that the featured posts are from a different blog:

Ctrl+F to "EDIT YOUR TAG HERE".

On that line, there will be a link inside quotation marks, starting with "https://{Name}.tumblr.com".

Change {Name} to the blog username of your choice; for example, "https://starlightthemes.tumblr.com".

Save and ensure your posts show up as intended.

Be careful not to change any other parts of that section. The code for fetching the posts from blogs is easy to break.

Updates section

The updates section has two editable parts: the title, and the actual updates.

To edit the title:

Ctrl+F to "EDIT HERE: UPDATES".

Scroll a few lines down, until you find the line reading "<h2>Latest updates</h2>".

Change "Latest updates" to say whatever you want. Make sure the text stays inside the <h2>...</h2> tags. For example, if you want the heading to read "My activity", that line of code should read "<h2>My activity</h2>".

To edit updates:

Ctrl+F to "EDIT HERE: UPDATES".

A little under this line, you'll see a template, with the outermost tags reading <div class="update">...</div>. If you're adding a new update, copy this template.

Scroll a few lines down, until you find the line reading "<!-- all updates below this line -->".

Now, for each update, paste the template once over (two updates are present for you to start with), and edit three things: -> "3-LETTER MONTH HERE": The first three letters of the update month, e.g. "Jan". -> "2-DIGIT DATE HERE": The two-digit version of the update date, e.g. "01" or "31". -> "UPDATE TEXT HERE": The actual text that'll show up as the update.

Make sure that all the updates are separate- the starting <div class="update"> and the ending </div> of two updates shouldn't overlap.

Make sure all your updates are above the line reading ""<!-- all updates above this line -->".

Save and make sure things look how you want them to.

Members list

To change the title of the members section:

Ctrl+F to "EDIT HERE: MEMBERS LIST".

Scroll a few lines down, until you find the line reading "<h2>Blog members</h2>".

Change "Blog members" to say whatever you want. Make sure the text stays inside the <h2>...</h2> tags. For example, if you want the heading to read "The gang", that line of code should read "<h2>The gang</h2>".

Scroll further down, until you find the line that reads "<h2>{lang:Group members}</h2>". Again, change this to your chosen title, such as "<h2>The gang</h2>".

The actual members list can be customized in two ways. One, for group blogs, you can have it automatically fetch the blog members' main blog names/titles/icons. To do this, turn on "Members list" and turn off "Custom members list" in the main theme settings.

The other option is to manually add any group members and their icons/links. This will also allow you to add customized names and descriptions for each member. To use this option, turn on BOTH "Members list" and "Custom members list". Then:

Ctrl+F to "EDIT HERE: MEMBERS LIST".

A little under that, you'll see a template with the outermost tags reading <a class="member" href="//BLOGNAME.tumblr.com">...</a>. If you're adding members, copy this template.

Scroll a few lines down, until you find the line reading "<!-- all members below this line -->".

Now, for each member, paste the template (two members are present for you to start with) and edit three things: -> "BLOGNAME": Next to "href" in the <a> tag, and next to "src" in the <img> tag. Change this to your member's username, such as "starlightthemes". -> "MEMBER NAME": Takes the place of the username. This will show up in bold at the top. -> "MEMBER DESCRIPTION": Takes the place of the blog title. This will show up at the bottom.

Make sure that all the members are separate- the starting <a class="member" href="..."> and the ending </a> of two members shouldn't overlap.

Make sure all your members are above the line reading ""<!-- all members above this line -->".

Save and make sure things look how you want them to.

Theme credits: Layout/design/icons by Tumblr, Style My Tooltips by malihu, NPF photosets plugin by codematurgy, dark/light mode toggle by eggdesign, custom audio posts by annasthms, scroll to top script by Fabian Lins

Preview header image from Only Vector Backgrounds.

characters who have an unwavering sense of duty my beloved