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it’s almost halloween…… vampires…… my window will be open………..

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my god, there is never any time to recover from the world

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If you’re ever stuck between me and another person, don’t pick me. I’m good.

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“As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin

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two moods of doing structural revisions on your manuscript:

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I’m also obsessed with Nesta and Cassian having the creepiest child known to man and them being like this is totally normal what do you mean? Like this baby reaches for knives early on. This little baby is the one who wants the creepy cursed doll. This child says ominous things and everyone’s like… okay! Only Lucien is the one whose like actually this makes sense. Half of Nesta and half of Cassian was bound to be chaotic. He never wants to babysit though.

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sometimes I’m like, hmm, I feel like I might be a n.est/a girlie because I connect with her healing journey, but then my mother makes a cruel, cutting comment out of nowhere to me when I’ve been nothing but kind to her and my husband has to encourage me to distance myself from toxic family members even though I’m trying my hardest to keep us together and do everything I can to make everyone happy, and then I realize I’m in fact a Feyre girlie 🥲

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“Just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

— Unknown

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there was this really interesting theory on tiktok last year about how in a lot of women-centric fantasy, only “good girls” get to keep their powers. i think about this in relation to the SJMverse soooo much because it happens with a lot (all) of her characters.

the video has been deleted (it’s blank in my bookmarks 😭) but to paraphrase the theory, OP magical female characters get placed into two categories:

good girls: selfless, savior complex, puts everyone especially her man first, often modest/humble, scandalized when they have to wear sexy clothes for a plot point, only fuck when presented with one bed or similar situation (they need to be seduced)

bad girls: selfish, proud, difficult to get along with, vain, seductive/DTF

feyre is a good girl. she puts everyone else, especially her male partner, before herself. she is a little more selfish at the beginning of the books, but she undergoes a lot of character growth by acowar/acofas. in acowar i think it makes her compelling because she’s so recklessly brave, but by acofas when she’s wearing herself to the bone doing charity work she’s become a bit of a martyr. she also is forced into wearing sexy clothes (by rhys) and they don’t do anything sexual until there’s, of course, only one bed. she’s so OP her powers eventually get nerfed for plot reasons (nesta, elain, and other side characters need a chance to shine, so feyre gets pregnant, shielded, and now has a baby to protect so she probably won’t risk herself for a while), but her powers are still there. she’s just choosing not to use them or put herself in harm’s way because she’s now a mother.

nesta and amren are bad girls. because they are selfish, proud, difficult to get along with. we don’t know much about amren’s sexual history but we know nesta made her way through velaris and jumped right into bed with cassian—not for love, but for a distraction—once she was confined to the house of wind. (i know feyre claimed her one bed moment with rhysand was for a distraction as well, but she wasn’t really in the same place as nesta where sex was an active self-destructive coping mechanism for her. and she later admits to rhys she was lying about wanting distraction to protect herself.) and yeah amren gives up her powers for the war and nesta gives up her powers for……a wider pelvis.

because bad girls can only be redeemed by sacrificing their power. good girls will gladly sacrifice their power and lives, but they are always spared. bad girls may offer their lives too (as amren did, and in TOG so did aelin), but even if their lives are spared they never get to keep their power like good girls do.

(and of course OP men get to keep their powers.)

so many authors seem to think the only satisfying resolution to a difficult woman’s character arc is making them give up their power to save someone else. personally i think it’s so tired. give us a stone cold bitch who doesn’t have to nuke herself for a new pelvis!!! please authors i am begging you

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You have so much time to figure things out. You don’t need to have it all together in this exact moment.

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Tl cleanse he’s living happily ever after in his perfect palace in his perfect city with his perfect wife and baby and family rhysand the man that you are no one will EVER be you

First art by jessdraw.s on ig , second by virtual_bunny on ig, third by lexaarts_ on ig, fourth by god on the bible

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remembering that to get better you have to try, unfortunately

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okay but why do people think that scenes that progress the story and scenes that flesh out characters are incompatible

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Writing great friendships

Some of the best chemistry/relationships in fiction exist between characters who are/become friends. Here are some tips for making friendships come alive on the page:

1. Banter

One of the most interesting aspects of fictional friendships is the way the characters interact with each other whilst important plot points are occurring.

If your characters have easy banter, teasing one another without missing a beat and managing to bounce off each other even in the toughest circumstances, it will be clear to the reader that these two are/should be good friends.

Friends know each other well. They know the other’s character so well that they can easily find something to tease each other over. However, this also means knowing which topics are off-limits.

If you want to write a good, healthy friendship, your characters shouldn’t use humour/sarcasm as a way to hurt the other. It should be good-natured and understood as such from both sides.

Different friendships will have different types of chemistry. Some friends may tease each other with facial expressions. Others may already anticipate a snarky remark and counter it before it’s been spoken. Others will have physical ways of goofing around. 

Some friends might not tease each other at all. Banter isn’t necessary; it’s just a good way to make your characters come alive and make their friendship one that is loved by readers.

What’s important is chemistry - the way they automatically react to each other.

Think Sam and Dean in Supernatural or Juliette and Kenji in the Shatter Me series.

2. Mutual support 

Unless you purposefully want to write an unhealthy/toxic friendship, your characters should both be supportive of the other. 

This means that, even if one is the MC and the other the side-kick, both should be cognisant of the other’s feelings and problems, and should be considerate in this regard.

Few things will make your MC as likable as remembering to check in and be there for their best friend even when they are in the thick of a crisis.

You need to show your characters being vulnerable in front of each other and being supportive in ways that are tailored to the needs of each friend.

So, if one of the characters really responds to physical comfort, the other should know to give hugs/rub their back when they’re not feeling well. Similarly, if one of them doesn’t like being touched and responds to material comfort, have the other bring them ice cream and join them for a movie marathon. Whatever works for your characters.

What gets me every time is when a character is falling apart and won’t listen to/be consoled by anyone but their best friend (but this is just personal preference).

3. Knowing the other’s past/family life

This really only applies to characters who have been friends for quite a while.

Good friends know each other’s backstory - the highs and lows and mundane details. They know they layout of their family home and they probably know their family members well.

Friends will often talk about these things, only having to mention a few words for the other to know what they’re talking about i.e. “The ‘09 Thanksgiving disaster” or “You know how Uncle Fred is”

This will instantly make it clear that your characters are close and have come a long way together. 

Perhaps there are issues at home/trauma from the past that the other character will immediately understand. So, if one character appears with a black eye, their friend might know that the father was probably drunk the night before and got violent. Or if the character has a nightmare, the friend might know that it was about childhood abuse etc.

This can also apply to good things i.e. if one of the characters gets a nice note in their lunchbox, the other might know that their grandma is in town.

Whatever works for your story should be used to indicate the level of unspoken understanding the friends have.

4. Being protective

Few things will make your readers love a friendship more than the friends being fiercely protective of each other (in a healthy, non-territorial way).

Has someone hurt one of the characters? The other should be furious and want to exact revenge. Does someone say something demeaning to one of the friends? The other should defend them immediately and vehemently.

This can also take on a humorous twist if one of the characters starts dating someone. The friend can make extra sure that said date is sincere and promise to exact vengeance if their friend is hurt.

This can also be a great plot device, since it could explain why the MC’s best friend joins the quest/goes along on the journey. Perhaps this is the main plot point: a character seeking to protect/avenge their friend.

If you want to go in a toxic direction, this can be taken too far i.e. a friend who never lets the other spend time with anyone else/stalks the other/is patronising etc.

5.  Common interest(s)

Even if the two characters are vastly different, there should be something that keeps them together besides loyalty.

This is especially important for characters who become friends throughout the course of the novel.

This doesn’t have to mean that both of them go hiking every weekend or want to become pilots one day. It could be something small, like a love of cheesy movies or a shared taste in music. Maybe they both enjoy silence/don’t like other people. Maybe they are both social justice warriors, but for different causes. 

This could also be common characteristics instead of interests. Perhaps both are very ambitious/funny/social.

There should just be some factor that ignited the friendship and brings the two of them together.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a big part of your story, but you should at least have it mentioned to make the friendship appear more authentic.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment if you would like a Part 2. Follow me for similar content.

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you guys have got to try living . its ugly but theres no other option

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I don't know why solitude would be a balm for loneliness, but that is how it always was for me in those days,

Marilynne Robinson, from Gilead