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that’s not what it means and you know it

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“Ossian’s Crossing“, depicting the poet’s last journey. Watercolour on hot pressed cotton paper.

Size: 8.5 x 6 inch, plus white border. Comes with ivory colour mount: 11.7 x 8.3 inch.

Now on Every Day Original✨ Painting process coming soon to my Patreon page!

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A meadow of forget-me-nots in bloom.

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HERON!!!

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It's Widdershins Wednesday! Nyree please, she can only deal with so much

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New to Widdershins? Read from the start of the comic!

Catching up? Read from the start of this story!

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Magical healing and comfort, but not just healing magic

A character with fire/heat powers massaging a knotted muscle with hot hands, being able to dig in nice and deep as the warmth relaxes the area

A character with ice/cold powers carding their fingers through someone's hair, soothing a headache

A character with hypnotic powers lulling someone into a trance and clearing their mind, easing their anxieties so they can hopefully get some sleep

A character with plant magic keeping a bouquet fresh and vibrant by their friend's bedside, knowing the colors will at the very least cheer them up and give them something beautiful to look at

A character with water magic combining it with a soft cloth washing away tears, sweat, or blood from another character's face

A character with electricity magic frantically grabbing someone near-death and shocking them, refusing to move until they hear their heart leap back to life and pulse under their hands

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a world without trans people has never existed and never will

prints

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Girl when I tell you my life flashed before my eyes

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Menace sibling

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That’s Mr. Dyke To You

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Fairytale

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Little ink warmup since its been a few days

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So, I tried to read Lightlark. I really tried. I couldn’t.

But I found something in there that actually might help a lot of writers.

I’m not going to give a ton of information on what Lightlark is, because, for the purposes of this post, you don’t really need it. Suffice to say that it’s a (in my opinion) very poorly-written book.

So, anyway. The advice.

There’s a scene at the very beginning of the book where the author is trying to set up the background, world, and characters. The protagonist is sitting in the greenhouse that she lives in, and her two caretakers enter.

It’s at this point that we learn the caretakers’ nickname for the protagonist: “Little bird”. We’re also given some information, both about the protagonist’s life and the way her caretakers treat her; We learn that they’re pretty controlling over her and sort of own her, in a way.

This sets up some pretty neat, if a little obvious, symbolism: The protagonist lives in a greenhouse - a glass dome - and her controlling caretakers call her a “little bird”. She’s a bird in a cage.

You probably didn’t need me pointing it out for you to notice that - you know how to read and, if you’re following me, you’re probably a writer. So, you’re thinking: Nice symbolism, I guess, but what’s the point of the post?

The point of the post is that the author immediately fucks it up.

After crafting this tidbit and putting it into her work, the author decides that it’s not enough; Surely her audience won’t notice that the greenhouse is supposed to represent the protagonist feeling trapped without being prompted.

So, she prompts us.

By literally saying: “She was like a bird. A bird in a cage.”

There’s your advice. Don’t treat your readers like they’re stupid. They’re not. Trust your audience to understand your metaphors and symbolism and underlying themes without being told. Or, at least, trust me when I say that this is about the most annoying thing an author can do.

It’s far better to have a subtle metaphor or choice of words go unnoticed than a less-subtle one be pounded repeatedly into the reader’s skull because the author treats them like they’re four.

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Local goat discovers joy of painting

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One of my favorite things about Put Baby In Pelican Mouth is that not only does the pelican have the intelligence necessary to speak human language but also knows how to lie, suggesting it has a theory of mind, yet not enough to understand that no one is going to put baby in pelican mouth.

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Please does anybody have the picture of the orange kitten sitting in front of old yellowed wood paneling and it’s smiling like this. The post where I saw it went something like “little kids before they learn how to smile in photos”