#$10 per essay rate

[literaphobe]

random but that episode where it’s revealed to ms bustier that chloe’s been having sabrina do all her homework for most of their lives -> i truly do not believe that they were trying to make fun of chloe for having a learning disability. in fact I don’t think they were trying to assert that she had any sort of disability at all, to me it was more so commentary on like. corruption. aka how the Rich have so much money and power that it ends up shooting themselves in the foot and they and their children and generational wealth pushes out people who don’t apply themselves. because if you can buy up the inventions of smart poor people, why bother being smart yourself? many easy irl examples that parallel the situation here but yeah I felt marinette standing up being like hey why the fuck are we going out of our way for her is essentially them saying we shouldn’t make excuses for how the 1% operates, and give them concessions when the 99% who actually need it get overlooked. obviously you don’t have to interpret it that way but ngl take one look at astruc’s retweets (or idk the state of society) and tell me he wasn’t trying to make a comment about capitalism

[selfshipstation]

Self ship writing and fake video essay commissions for Mahmoud!

Mahmoud Jehad is hoping to get himself and his family out of Gaza and continue studying. His father is sick, and his brother is undergoing treatment. His home and personal computer have been completely destroyed. To top it all off, his fundraiser is very low on funds.

I’ve chosen it out of a list of other Gaza fundraisers low on funds to spotlight. In order to raise funds, I’m doing self ship commissions!

At a rate of $10 USD per 500 words, I’m willing to write you

1.) A customized fanfiction featuring your S/I and/or F/O

or

2.) A letter from your F/O

But that’s not all. There’s also:

3.) A fake video essay about your S/I and/or self ship! For $50 USD per 5 minutes of video, I will take on the role of a fan of the source in a universe where your self insert is canon and talk about them and/or the relationship between them and your F/O! Should the focus be on character development? Plot? Themes? Why they are totally cute and should be canon? You decide!

(Note that I’m not as experienced in making videos as I am in writing.)

If you’d like to commission me, DM me. You’ll need the following:

1.) Proof (a screenshot will do) that you’ve donated at least $10 USD if it’s a writing commission or $50 USD if it’s a video commission to the following fundraiser:

2.) The F/O you want to feature and what source they’re from. If it’s an OC, let me know either any information about them you think is relevant or where I can access information about them (ex: a tag on your blog).

3.) The S/I you want to feature and either any information about them you think is relevant or where I can access information about them (ex: a tag on your blog).

4.) Any requests for the work itself. Either what scenario you want for a fanfiction, the reason the F/O would be writing you/your S/I a letter, or the topics you want me to cover in the fake video essay.

Keep it to one source material per commission, please! Crossovers would take more time.

Note that I’m more familiar with some sources than others. Suggest an F/O, and I’ll tell you if I can write or talk about them. I may be willing to write for sources I’m not familiar with, but they have to be on the short side. I won’t have time to watch the entirety of Doctor Who, for example.

Even if you’re not interested in a commission, I would appreciate if you reblogged this. I’ve noticed I don’t get a ton of traction from the tag alone; most of my notes come from someone with more followers than me reblogging something!

And, of course, you don’t need to request a commission in order to donate. Anything you send is extremely important!

[centrally-unplanned]

In my list of orphaned projects is a big damn essay on the fertility transition , which I never wrote. I had this in the docket for almost a decade, back when worrying about fertility rates was still a hot take. But alas the ship has sailed, everyone is talking about it now and has written it all out already, and I have mountains of projects, so I will just outline it quickly, sans graphs and footnotes. Maybe doing that will incentivize me to write up a full one someday, and it also gets my cohesive viewpoint out there.

The Future Is Exowombs & the Global Fertility Transition

The Trendline

The fertility transition has long roots - going back to 19th century France, originating in metropoles like Paris and culturally exporting itself to the countryside.

It seems broadly linked to material prosperity in ways that are load-bearing, one implies the other.

It is a 'sticky' cultural transition - once a country begins to move towards lowered TFR it never recovers outside of temporary blips.

It is not related to "western" cultural norms or specific contingencies of religion or ethnicity - those can matter at the margins, but rarely make a huge difference.

Starting in the 1990's, following sharp increases in A: global economic growth and B: global cultural diffusion/global monoculture, a trendline that used to be reserved for wealthy countries has rapidly accelerated, affecting countries at almost every income level. The fertility transition is now fully global.

The Cause

The primary driver of this phenomenon is the positive realization of desires - and by that I mean it is not something forced on people due to a lack in their lives.

It is not primarily caused by growing singleness; the number of people having any kids at all today is lower but overall pretty similar to the number of people who did a hundred years ago. It makes a marginal difference but not a huge one.

It is not linked to money, or housing prices, or other economic issues - fertility rates do not notably change with income levels or other price factors. At the margins, sure, but not at relevant ones.

It is not linked to specific technologies like contraception. People have understood how to prevent pregnancy for centuries - though like many things they do contribute at the margins. Additionally, you can’t uninvent them.

It is by a large majority linked to the death of large families. It was previously common for there to be families with 5 or more children, sometimes way more. 10+ children was not that rare in the past.

These families were disproportionately engaged in agricultural production; cities have always been fertility sinks.

In a world of manual household labor, rural living, low rights for women, low economic opportunities for women, and high death rates for children, these large families made sense. The 'opportunity cost' of the endless pregnancies & sicknesses was low (economically, not gonna handwave the immense personal toll)

All of these reasons have vanished. People want to have families, and love their children. But enduring multiple painful pregnancies, putting your career on hold, and spending huge chunks of your lifespan on child raising no longer tracks. The experience of having ~2 children is superior, along almost every metric, than the experience of having ~5 children for most people. This is what I mean by positive desires - the family structures of the past were built on misery and necessity, and will not return willingly.

The Problem

Many will point to the economic & social consequences of the Fertility Transition. They are very real, particularly at sub-1.0 fertility rates. If you are South Korea today, you have no plan for how your economy will truly support itself 50 years from now - you will vanish as a country in a few generations.

The focus on nearish-term crises also misses the opportunities lost - economic growth is premised on specialization, and specialization is premised on scale. A smaller world is a poorer world per capita, and a less innovative world, problems which have compounding effects. The difference in the long term is orders of magnitude.

But, far more importantly than any of that, is that we are nowhere close to the capacity of the earth to support humans. Supporting double or even triple the current population of the earth is trivial; a 10-fold increase would be quite easy, particularly once innovation is factored in. Being alive is a good of worth incomparable to anything else - the 'future' is literally defined by it. Time only meaningfully passes through the eye of one who can behold it.

The Failed Solutions

Money cannot buy lifespan or reclaim lost time - all attempts to throw money at the problem of fertility can help at the margins, but won't change the fundamentals. Some people want to have 2 kids, but can only afford 1. Or are prioritizing a career, but will work part time to have 3 kids. But the current policy crop of tax benefits or subsidized child care has not found a way to make someone truly want a larger family size, just mitigate gaps between desire and ability - and only barely.

Could radically larger amounts of money solve this problem? A professional career track in giving birth, 100k+ salaries for full-time mothers? I am open to the idea - but society isn't. The fiscal transfers needed are too radical for the current political environment, no one is proposing this.

Immigration was frequently proposed as a stop-gap, but its a 90's idea, premised on the idea that the Fertility Transition was a western problem that other countries did not face. It is not and never was; as every country's fertility declines, immigration becomes a zero-sum solution.

Turning back the clock on cultural change is A: impossible, the material logic of modern industrial production broke the need for it, and culture is downstream of material constraints. And B: its barbaric - if your answer to humanity's obstacles to greater flourishing is to condemn half of it to misery, we are better off dead.

So population levels will either stagnate or decline - unless something intervenes.

The "Future" Aka Getting Rationalist On Main

Exowombs, aka artificial wombs, allow you to grow a human child outside of the need for a person to incubate it. The baby (hah) step they let you do is strongly lower the cost of having a child; this is time & health given back to a mother, it will make having larger families easier.

But that won't fundamentally, shift the reality - that most people only want 1-2 kids, they don't want to raise more than that. However, with exowombs, you don't need to; you can make children outside of a family's desire for one. You can do that pretty trivially, actually. A society, if committed to solving its fertility issues, could mass-produce people with exowombs. Which would be very good to do ethically, because living is good and I personally don't think kids at orphanages should be euthanized to end their suffering, they are fine.

If some society, somewhere, did this, they would rule the world in a few generations. No one else is solving this problem, and meanwhile the human capacity to live on Earth is being woefully underutilized. Before natural human growth would solve this eventually - now it seems that will never happen, so anyone who actively tackles the problem wins. They literally win the future, by being the future.

Now, no one is going to do this soon - proposing this idea is not my point. Exowomb research is harshly regulated or illegal everywhere, modern society hates the idea of this kind of experimentation. We are, in so many ways, allergic to the idea of solving this problem. It doesn't even have to be exowombs, maybe we do the salaried mothers idea. My point is just the illustration - the future where there is 100 billion people dwarfs any current trendline future. That hypothetical dominates the worldline space, because arriving there organically seems to have faded away. The fact that we are not going to take that future, that it is probably gone now, is really, really sad.

But of course there is the other solution, the reactionary specter - instead of the technological solution, we choose the social one, of cultural regression and expanded reproductive control. I am not so worried about this, personally? Because I think it would unsustainable and result in a lot of bleed to liberal societies. It should not be taken lightly though - in a world where everyone has 1.0 fertility, and the social and economic consequences are becoming dire, I wouldn’t discount the willingness for radical solutions. I myself prefer the technologist side. But I think odds are we don't get either, just the long decline.

TL;DR - don’t let the Mormons win. Build exowomb factories.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the national average maternal mortality rate is 22 deaths per 100,000 live births. Missouri’s average maternal mortality rate is about 10 times higher. In 2020, 85 Missouri mothers died. Related: We had a lot riding on Amendment 3 in Missouri. It was our attempt to overturn Missouri’s cruel abortion ban. I am a woman and I have daughters and granddaughters. I also believe that every person should have the right to make decisions about their own body. We all deserve bodily autonomy.

I helped with the work and hoped for the best. Missouri was the first state in the nation to completely ban abortion after Roe fell. Our AG at the time, Eric Schmitt, couldn’t get in front of cameras quick enough to sign away the rights and the bodies of Missouri women and girls. The abortion ban had no exceptions for rape or incest — it claimed to have an exemption for “the life of the mother” but you and I know that exemption doesn’t work. Candi Miller, Amber Thurman, Josseli Barnica, and Nevaeh Crain prove that “life of the mother” exemptions are worthless. These women died because they were denied the care they needed. Some of these women lingered in anguish and pain while left for dead…in a hospital where they could be treated. They were denied abortion care. Legal care that has saved the lives of countless women since 1973.

We had to gather 180K signatures to put abortion on the ballot. We gathered over 380K signatures. It was on the ballot in November and it won. Missouri women and allies fought and won back bodily autonomy. We won! Can you guess what happened next? The Missouri GOP immediately vowed to overturn the will of the people as soon as they come back into session in a few weeks. Crazy right? They must not understand how constituent-led ballot initiatives work. You can’t just undo what the people have done…right? Right? Wrong. Let me take you for a little walk down memory lane in Missouri politics. If you’ve read my essays for a while, you know that Missouri has had a GOP supermajority for 22 years. Over two decades. You might also remember me saying that Missourians haven’t elected a Democrat to a statewide position since 2018.

However, in that same time period, 2018-2024, we expanded Medicaid and passed an anti-gerrymandering initiative called “Clean Missouri.” We voted down Right to Work. We passed both medicinal and recreational weed. Missourians voted for a higher minimum wage and guaranteed sick leave. We legalized sports betting. We legalized abortion. And then we elected a Republican Governor and a GOP supermajority into the House and Senate who plan to unravel the initiatives we voted for. What in the actual hell are we doing? Why are Missourians voting for progressive initiatives and then voting for those who will not honor their vote? What is going on? A lot. I have a difficult time explaining it myself and I live in the belly of the beast. Rural Missouri.

[...] Mary Elizabeth Coleman also said she would do everything in her power to ensure Missourians have “another chance” to vote on abortion. Another chance to vote on what we just voted on? What does she mean? She means that Republican lawmakers in Missouri have already pre-filed bills to overturn the will of voters. Just like they did with Clean Missouri. Republicans won in that instance and Clean Missouri, our anti-gerrymandering initiative, was overturned. That is the same way they plan to overturn the abortion amendment we just passed. Missouri citizens must gather thousands of signatures to put an initiative on the ballot. Lawmakers do not have to collect even one signature to oppose a constitutional amendment and put it back in front of voters. But, here’s the absolute dirty truth: lawmakers can trick voters by using inflammatory rhetoric or by using “ballot candy.”

[...] They won’t stop even when we force their hand. They won’t stop even when we take it to the ballot and win. They will never stop eroding our rights and our vote. The best thing we can do now is alert everyone we know about what the Republicans have planned for the abortion amendment. Talk to your neighbors and friends and relatives. Overturning the will of the people? It’s baked in here. It’s a red state tradition.

Jess Piper is on fire with her calling out the Republican obsession of overturning the will of the people, such as the Missouri GOP brazenly trying to overrule the will of the voters who voted for abortion rights-protecting Amendment 3.

[vidreview]

VIDREV: "Short Seasons Are Killing TV" by Captain Midnight.

[originally posted august 29th 2024]

Captain Midnight is one of those creators i don't really follow because the vast majority of their work (mostly Big Corporate IP analysis) doesn't interest me, but every once in a while they'll come out with something that's EXTREMELY relevant to my interests. this one caught my eye because i've been on that "the streaming model is really bad for television" grind since 2018, and i'm always curious to see how mainstream perspectives on this stuff are evolving.

i'll just say at the start that this is a pretty good video. most everything i've watched by Captain Midnight has felt at the very least on the right track, if not always entirely on point, and the lack of cutesy overly familiar Content Creator-isms are a godsend from this type of channel. it makes for a bit of an odd duck for a full VIDREV, because i'm not here to discuss the shortcomings of what was said, but rather to take a closer look at what wasn't said.

in short, this is a video about how the now-standard 8 to 10 episode TV season in a post-streaming world has strangled much of what makes the medium unique, and he points to how many of the top-rated streaming shows are older titles with a hundred or more episodes as evidence (though he leaves out that streaming rights to shows like The Office have been the subject of contentious bidding wars in the past, a fact that would only strengthen his argument). he hits a lot of my personal favorite talking points: streaming tv is worse at good individual episodes, the idea of "filler" doesn't really make sense when applied to american television, the serial episodic structure lets you get to know characters better over time. near the end he pulls out the Netflix Marvel shows Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, each of which had a 14 episode first season that felt somehow overlong, despite their characters being literally tailor-made to support serialized week-to-week stories. these, he says, were an important early example of how the prestige streaming model encourages movie-like storytelling instead of TV-like storytelling. these are a good points, many of which i've made myself across my recent informal series of video essays about modern television writing practices.

but on the other side of all that analysis, Midnight's conclusion leaves something to be desired. here's the closing paragraph that jumped out at me, with my own added emphasis: "I love serialization on TV and I always have, I just think it can often be used better within the scaffolding of episodic stories. and for a while there it felt like TV was getting better and better at melding the two together into something truly interesting and special. but somewhere along the way that progress got lost, and many in the industry ended up thinking that serialization and short seasons were the shortcut to quality." take a good, long look at those bolded statements, and consider how important they are to Midnight's argument. after 17 minutes of wide-ranging and generally pretty good analysis of specific shows and recent trends, these three generalizations quietly paper over a gargantuan blind spot in order to get the script over the finish line.

first, "for a while there." for a while there refers to the internecine years between the dawn of the Netflix streaming era in 2011 and the eventual Wall Street-ification of all the media companies by 2018-19, when there was a big shift away from purely serialized television towards the more expensive "prestige" model we're so accustomed to now. what were the causes of this shift? what was actually going on "for a while there"? well, the 2007 writer's strike increased the writer's royalty take from home video sales, and gave them more bargaining power with networks. for this and a million other reasons, a lot of post-2007 shows saw a diminished episode-per-season count from 23 to 16-18. this was a huge boon to writers who now had more time to work on fewer episodes, meaning the quality of each individual episode shot through the roof. it helped that everyone coming into showrunning capacity at this period had years of experience working in the sitcom/cop-drama mines, developing a hunger for a show that could tell a continuous narrative within an episodic framework. with this new higher-quality television spreading away from cable-only networks into broadcast, suddenly everyone was talking about "the golden age of tv" and hyping up the medium as a place for nuanced, artful storytelling. Netflix saw where the wind was blowing and invested heavily into this trend, selling the idea that on streaming, there's no need for a set episode-per-season count for every show, no need for every episode to come in at a set length, no need to avoid more controversial adult topics for advertisers. of course, they very quickly reneged on that promise and have since become everything they promised not to be, but whatever. as Netflix succeeded, other networks decided they wanted to eat the streamer's lunch and develop their own services, making big deals with established names that made for great marketing. this meant a wave of well-publicized high-profile investment that pulled triple duty with audiences hungry for more mature media, creators hungry to make more mature media, and investors with dollar signs in their eyes. perhaps you can guess whose interests are the ones that actually matter in this equation.

but then after all that investment and quality increase, Midnight says, "somewhere along the way" the trend shifted, and "many in the industry" adopted the streaming model as the artistic ideal. now, hold on, wait. who in the industry? do you mean writers? directors? producers? executives? these roles each have wildly different relationships to the medium and to the stores of capital which allow it to be produced, and putting them all in a single consensus-bucket together as if they're all the same thing is wildly misjudged. you know what happened "somewhere along the way"? studios and streamers (and their increasingly powerful Wall Street backers) realized that favoring streaming over home video meant they didn't have to pay those costly royalties that were so painstakingly won in the 07 strike. you may recall that apocalyptically low streaming royalties were a major point of contention in the 2023 writer's strike. (the irony of Netflix starting as a DVD rental service is lost on no one.) like every service that emerges out of big tech, streaming was tailor made to break unions and steal profits without looking like that's what they were doing. they sold a big loud exciting bill of goods, got everyone to invest before regulators could catch up, made themselves an essential part of the creative economy, stole absolutely everything that wasn't bolted down while no one was looking, and left all their traditional unionized competitors scrambling to make up the shortfall. if this sounds familiar, that's because it is THE business model of the post-08-recession world. you might call it platform decay, or if you're Cory Doctorow you might call it "enshittification," but i'm gonna cut out the middle man and call it what it is: the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. it's the enclosure of the commons in microcosm, the natural process of enclosure and monopolization inherent to an open market. as is always the case with their loud proclamations of innovation, tech has invented nothing new here. it's pretty much just What Capitalism Does.

we do not need bloggers to reinvent Marxism from first principles to understand what's happening. Marx already did that for us.

another key factor for understanding what happened "along the way" comes with the development of Mini-Rooms. instead of creating a crew of staff writers experienced at multiple levels of production who work for months together to write the scripts for a single season of television, streamers like Netflix would assemble small rooms of relatively inexperienced writers paid slightly above intern rates under the guidance of maybe one experienced showrunner that were only given a few weeks to pump out scripts to please investors. this has led to shows that often feel samey, rushed, and terminally inconsistent. now, instead of writers having more time to work on fewer episodes for the same (or greater) pay, they have less time to work on fewer episodes for worse pay and virtually zero royalties. this coincides of course with cost-cutting measures across the board in streaming, with producers desperate to decrease time on set wherever possible and eating the cost of breaking union regulations because Economies Of Scale Are Fucking Absurd, meaning everyone on a production has less time to do their work, which inevitably means that their work is worse. and with TV seasons being so drastically shortened, and the gaps between seasons so drastically widened (not to mention the expectation that few if any shows will make it past season 2 (because union contracts get a pay bump at season 3)), there are fewer opportunities for young filmworkers to gain experience, build connections with fellow filmworkers, and hone their talent pool over a period of years. a show isn't just its writers, directors, and stars after all, it's an entire business operation employing hundreds if not thousands of people. for a filmworker in the 90s or before, getting a gig on a popular show could be life-changing because it was one of the rare Hollywood situations that was relatively dependable for a long stretch of time. those kinds of jobs are increasingly rare, and the alternatives are starting to look more and more like undignified freelance work than a real sustainable career.

all of these factors and so many more have had the downstream effect of making the entire industry less stable, burning out promising young talent instead of developing it, discouraging others from trying to break into the industry in the first place, and lowering the baseline quality of popular media so the viewing public sees it as less valuable. perhaps you can fill in the blanks on the ensuing race to the bottom.

this is not the result of a creative consensus. this is not something that "many in the industry" just sort of randomly changed their minds about "somewhere along the way." this is an economic trend driven by economic forces far beyond the purview of any single working person's decisions. maybe you can find interviews that suggest otherwise, maybe there were lots of writers excitedly extolling the virtues of streaming media over traditional forms-- but those people are no less vulnerable to marketing hype than you are, and why should they have been more educated about the economic realities of streaming than we were? we are, all of us, simply reacting to systems in motion, trying our best to make sense of them, searching for the silver lining that keeps us from going insane at the instability of it all. this is why it's so important to have a materialist framework for your analysis-- without that anchor you're just judging by vibes, trying to divine an explanation from consumer trends and missing the forest for the trees. look not to the words of any given writer or actor or producer, but instead to the money, to the actual flow of material power. look at the victories of organized labor, and the resultant retaliations by organized capital. Midnight's thumbnail loudly states that "WE BROKE TV," but "we" didn't do a damn thing. our consumption habits didn't do this, the creative preferences of writers or directors or showrunners didn't do this-- it was rich people with lots of money who saw an opportunity to make even more money and took it, damn the consequences.

here's my problem with consumer-side criticism. it tends to see a hard dividing line between those who make media and those who consume it, and thus generalizes all of the makers into a single heterogeneous mass that can only be understood in the vaguest possible abstract. without a materialist economic framework for understanding the flow of power in these systems, consumer-side criticism can only go so far before it crashes headlong into a big scary Marx-shaped wall. there's a door to the other side only a few feet away of course, but it's rare for a critic in this mode to walk through it because I guess they see the business side of things as irrelevant or overly complicated. like, we're here to talk about the contents of media in a very layman's death-of-the-author sort of way, to judge trends on their own merits and not rely on outside sources to skew our perspective. this is fine when the scope of your analysis is relatively small, but as soon as you start asking questions like "why isn't [thing] as good as it used to be" your consumer-end framework fails you utterly. i'm not saying Captain Midnight is a uniquely craven paragon of this particular misstep by the way, in fact on the whole i'd say he's better about this than many. this is an extremely widespread problem for a generation of critics brought up after The End Of History, when trickle-down free-market hokum was adopted as Natural Law, leaving them only the empty feelgood individualist babble of neoliberalism to interpret the world. but it's not an insurmountable problem! i've yet to meet a commie my age that didn't start in that bubble and have to work their way out of it. i certainly made my share of embarrassing neoliberal apologia before finding the immortal science! it is the process of a lifetime to unthink these blind spots, and i point them out in all kindness in the hopes that others might avoid such mistakes in future.

and frankly, everyone is asking these "why is [thing] bad now" questions because it's begun to affect every facet of our lives. it's not just movies and television shows, it's basic web services, it's the USPS, it's the healthcare system, it's jobs and housing and education, it's everything. what is it, precisely, that you want to fix? you want to see better movies and tv shows? how do you propose to make that a reality, beyond "i hope that creators/audiences adjust their habits accordingly"? to my mind, this notable tension is a perfect opportunity to point people in the direction of an actual systemic cause, and thus an actual systemic solution. do not stop your analysis at "shorter seasons are bad and i hope they stop doing that" when you could help your audience think about these things in terms of class, labor, and solidarity, by giving them an illustrative example they might apply to their own working life. there is no fix to this macroeconomic trend in reform, no union so strong it can put a lance through the heart of capital's lust for profit. maybe bringing all this up in a video would feel too political for a lot of creators in this space, but the politics are gonna do what they're gonna do regardless and it's gonna be your problem (and your audience's problem!) sooner than later. i'm not saying every video essay should be a dedicated Marxist polemic, that would get old real fast, just that the current liberal individualist framework lets the real perpetrators off the hook and limits our ability to imagine better futures. if you want to feel like your fluffy unimportant media analysis is "justified" at a time of war, genocide, and crushing economic disparity, you might start by using them to normalize a more collective, materially-grounded way of thinking about the world. it's the little things that add up most in the long run, and you'd be surprised how easy it is to make "too political" into "too important to ignore" with a little strategic frog-boiling.

that's my opinion, anyway. this is still a pretty good video essay and i think you should go watch it. i'd also recommend Midnight's review of the Borderlands movie and the interminable nostalgia of modern Marvel movies for a bit of good fun.

[final note: at the start of the video, Midnight mentions that Adam Conover also released a video about the harms of streaming television at the same time, but that it goes in a very different direction. i'm gonna give it a watch and see how it stacks up by comparison. i expect that it will have a more materialist framework (since Conover actually works in the industry) and correctly identify where the problems lay. i also expect that he'll fall flat when it comes time to talk about solutions, because like Cory Doctorow he's invested in the anti-monopoly line, which fundamentally believes that if you just break up the monopolies then capitalism will be fine actually. i guess now i'll put that theory to the test, and if i find anything interesting i may end up writing about it.]

[suspendingtime]

20 Questions for Fic Writers!

I've been tagged by @stars-of-kyber and @andthebubbles. 😁 So although I feel barely qualified, I guess I best do this...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

7. 🤗

I started about 2 months ago, so... and yes, they're all Kanthony. Initially just started as a way of contributing to Anthony Week 2023, and I didn't even expect that I'd actually do all 7 days.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

13,370.

Currently ranging at 661 to 3,779 per fic. Rookie numbers!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

So far, just my beloved Bridgerton.

But there have been a couple other shows that have tempted me...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Astride  - 166

Nursery  - 118

Hunt - 105

Yours - 94

Temptation - 88

Having published a handful with various ratings, it's quite interesting to see the kudos, bookmarks (private vs public), and subs ratios! Much to think about.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes.

Why... I sort of have a need? Idk, when I see a comment it's hard to just leave it hanging there and not to reply. Like irl if someone looked at something I made and verbally commented on it... and I just stared back blankly not saying anything. 😐 This is how it feels to me on the receiving end at least haha. And my replies saying various forms of 'Thank you!' is probably quite repetitive, but hey ho.

Plus comments give you that lil hit of dopamine; from both povs as a writer or reader. Being on the reader side for most of my Ao3 activities I tend to comment on most of fics I read, I can't help it - I must tell you what I loved about it and why, and there's a pleasure in reciprocating that back too. Look, now I've written half an essay on the subject, gaaah. (I've not been on Ao3 as much as I'd like to recently, and because I opened it to scoop out the stats for some of the questions above I can now see that I have some unreads... and the need is happening.)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm *thinking really hard*, I don't think any of them have an ending that is all that angsty. If I had to choose, maybe Temptation?

The pattern I've shown so far in my posted works is that it's gonna be 90% fluff. Though that is liable to change. 😆

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Nursery?

I'm not sure, cause they've all ended on a pretty optimistic note so far. But that one has Kate and Anthony with a few of their kids, so it's the furthest on the Kanthony HEA timeline.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet...

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Ummm 👀 I may have dabbled in some smut.

What kind... hm, the kind where both people are panting for each other, and end up caving because they literally can't hold their horniness in anymore (this totally explains why I went feral for Bridgerton S2, ha). Another pattern I seem to have is making Anthony a submissive man puddle.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not yet, but I do have some crack ideas I may explore.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, I very much doubt it.

How often does this happen to people?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I'd certainly be all for it if anyone ever wanted to translate any works of mine. 😊

If I was proficient enough to write in other languages, then I would probably try publishing the different versions from the get go.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Kinda?

Nothing formal, but there was a lengthy comment thread on Reddit some months ago where myself and another user went back and forth re-writing the script for that stormy library scene 😅 (not so much re-writing what was already there, bar the last few lines, more of a continuation in a universe where Kate hadn't fled).

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Must I even answer this? Kanthony, c'mon now.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There's only 1 work that I have, where I've actually started a chapter 2. And I have all the faith that I will finish it. ✍️🤓

Other potential WIPs, that are currently just posted as one shots, only exist in my head... who knows if they will see the light of day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

This question feels illegal to be asked.

I have no idea, I'm very new to this whole writing thing. At least in terms of fiction, so I'm not sure what I'd consider my strengths to be. I feel like I need some more practice before I can get a real sense of this?

I would say that dialogue usually comes very quickly to me, and it's having to fill in the bits around it that takes more brain muscles. So that might indicate something.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything apart from the answer to the question above.

But really I think it's remembering that there is a world outside of the main couple happening, and trying to describe the details there. Also other general 'setting the scene' stuff like clothing, weather etc etc. I usually just want to jump straight in with some random dialogue.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

On writing it... no thoughts; not done it yet!

If I needed to for some unknown fic reason in the future, I'm sure I'll be apologising profusely in the author notes for trusting Google translate and probably butchering whatever language it is.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Still just the one so far, Bridgerton. 😌

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Hunt 🥺🥹 I was a lot of feels, and just very indulgent tbh.

I also really enjoyed my shortest one, Obedient, which was in 2nd person (hadn't done that before). The writing of that one was just really fun and I idky but I've reread it quite a bit!

__________________________________________________

I'm woefully looking at my Ao3 bookmarks (which has grown exponentially since joining Tumblr), full of things that I've not got round to reading yet. So I'm tagging partly based on stuff hanging out on top of that pile: @islemeadow, @ladykettlechips, @hydriotaphia, @eleanor-bradstreet, and the smut aunties @colettebronte & @fayes-fics 😋 (if y'all wanna do it, ofc. I tried to find those who hadn't been tagged/done it yet, sorry if you've actually already done this and I've just not found it).

[gatsby-system-folks]

Hi besties

I didn't feel like deleting this commission post. Thankfully, the friend who I opened commissions to help has stable housing now. I'm not saying commissions closed, I'm just busy lol.

Illustration:

Some examples of my work

I'll also do relatively short comics. This is a snippet from my webcomic. A sketch is $10, colored sketch is $15, lineart is $10, colored lineart is $15. Shading or lighting on anything will add $10. I'm not separating character art and landscape art, both have the same rate, but something with more than 5 characters or something set in a city (or otherwise densely populated/elaborate area) will be a little more ($5 for every character above 5, and an extra $10 for an elaborate scene). Comics are the same, each page (not each panel) will be treated as a piece.

Writing:

I'll write for ocs, and from:

Homestar Runner

Rise of the tmnt

The Usagi Chronicles

Gorillaz

Good Omens

Undertale/Deltarune

Homestuck (and its affiliates, such as pesterquest or friendsim)

Venom

Moon Knight

Treasure Planet

Hellboy

Doctor Who

Our Flag Means Death

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit

The original 6 Star Wars movies

The Spiderverse series, itsv and atsv

The Davina skit from Rab C Nesbitt. (I see yall shipping Davina with Mrs. Robinson and I love yall)

If something's not on this list, you can still ask, and if I've seen whatever the media is I'll probably write it. On the other hand, if i haven't seen all of the content for the medias listed above, I'll have to do some research so it might not be the best work (ie the only reason I'm limiting this to the first 6 star wars movies is because I haven't seen any more than that)

I'll do ships between canon characters or between ocs, I'm not comfortable doing x reader content at this point. Also.. they don't have to be ships lol I also do just. Fics.

Some examples of my work:

I'm gonna keep it simple and do $20 per thousand words, but there's not a minimum word count. That's $0.02 per word lol. When you describe the fic ill give you an estimate of how many words I can do it in, and we can adjust. If the fic goes more than 150 words over the final estimate then it's flat-rate (as in the price doesn't continue to climb)

Poetry

Any subject really. I'll add examples of my work when the website I post on is fixed. Poetry is twice the price of fic

Editing:

Keep it under 5,000 words for now. $8 per hour. I'll edit fic, essays, etc.

Worldbuilding:

If you need help figuring out a magic system, how pipes connect your city, weird biological facts about your aliens, or even just where to put the castle parking lot, I can help. Same rules of fic writing and editing: if we chat worldbuilding for an hour, it'll be $8. If you want a 500 word summary of your new worlbuilding, that'll be $10. The text of the chat of course is free, you can pause your time of course, and whatever time I spend writing the summary isn't double charged. So an hour of chatting+ a 500 word summary would be $18

What I won't work with, in any format

Heavy nsfw- light is ok

Incest, pedophilia, noncon etc

Hate, bigotry, overly political work, bullying

Torture

Glorification of not good things. Depiction does not equal glorification

Case by case: real, living people. Context below.

What I won't draw, specifically:

Gore

abuse (such as beating, verbal, emotional)

Self harm

Everything is case-by-case, if something makes me uncomfortable I'm not going to do it. You may not put my work into an ai scraper of any kind. Also I'll say it again, depiction does not equal glorification.

Context on real people: I mean if you want me to just draw a picture of Margot Robbie that's most likely fine, or write about the wacky secret society that Laura Ingals and St. Patrick were running that's probably fine, or if a real living person appears in the background that's probably fine (I see you good omens fans having Crowley and Hozier hang out at a bar), but I won't write shipping for real, currently living people, nor will i make them the mc of a story. I'd prefer not for dead people either, but that's not a hard rule. Once again, case by case.

[concerningwolves]

Updated 10 February 2024

About

I've been editing in a non-professional capacity for about five years (usually volunteering to edit other writers' work), and I passed The Publishing Training Centre's Essential Copy-Editing course with a Merit in early 2022. I'm an Intermediate Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.

As well as being an editor as the "day job", I'm also a self-published author who writes in the SFF playground. I genuinely love editing, and I especially want to work with fellow self-published writers, whatever the genre and in whatever capacity your writing is published. Full details about my services (and my non-editing ventures) are all available on my website, along with testimonials from previous clients.

Services and Rates

I provide proofreading, copy-editing, and sensitivity reading services. There's more detailed information about what each service entails on my website's editing services page.

The rates are:

Copy-editing: typically between £0.01 to £0.02 per word

Proofreading: typically between £0.008 to £0.01 per word.

Sensitivity Reading is £20 per hour (for d/Deafness, sign language representation, and autism)

My usual editing niche is fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. This includes short stories/short story collections, poems/poetry collections, illustrated children's books, fanfiction, memoir, genre fiction (novels, novellas, etc), and personal essays. I'm fine with editing erotica and horror, and can work in any age range from children's to adult. If you're unsure, just ask either through my askbox here or via work email – advice is always free :)

I'm happy to do a sample edit for free (usually about 500–2,000 words or the first chapter, depending on the type of project). The usual payment plan is 1/3 upfront and the remaining 2/3 on completion, but there may be some flexibility depending on the type of project.

If you're interested, email editing@arthompsoncentral.com or fill out the contact form on my website. If you're considering for a later date, or even if you're not interested at all, a reblog would be super helpful in boosting my services <3

[thehorrortree]

Deadline: December 31, 2023 Payment: $0.07 per word Theme: Character-driven fictional short stories written by Black women writers. All genres are welcome. We’re Currently Accepting Submissions! Next Deadline: December 31, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET (short fiction – all genres and narrative essays) *updated 10/1/23 CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT! short stories. essays. melanin. Whether you’re an established writer or are just starting out, we want to hear from you! midnight & indigo, a literary journal celebrating Black women writers, has issued a call for submissions to review short stories and narrative essays. We publish content on our digital platform and in our literary journals (paperback/ebook/audiobook). In 2024, we will publish our first long-form anthology! Writers are invited to share their original, fictional, or personal stories. Stories can funny, entertaining, serious, or sincere. Stories must be character-driven and leave readers with something to think about. All genres are welcome! How to Submit: Format:  All submissions should follow proper manuscript format and Microsoft Word .doc format. We will not accept submissions that do not follow our guidelines. All stories must be submitted via Submittable — we will not accept stories via email. You may submit up to three stories at any time. Our average response time is 120 days Word length:  Short stories: 1,500-8,000 words. Narrative essays: min. 1,200 words Please note:  Calls for Submissions will be held on a rolling basis with deadlines four times per year: March 31st, June 30th, September 30th, and December 31st. Submission does not guarantee that your work will be published. All submissions will be considered for our long-form anthology Genres: All genres and writing styles are welcome. It may be helpful to view our current short stories, essays, and literary journals to get a general sense of what we publish, but don’t be afraid to push the needle! Compensation: We pay for all accepted pieces. Information is available below Fiction Guidelines General Literary Fiction We are looking for previously unpublished, CHARACTER-DRIVEN fictional short stories written by Black women writers. All genres are welcome. Subject matter and plots can run the gamut, but we want emotion, grit, soul, and writing that forges an immediate connection with the reader. Word count requirement: 1,500-7,000 words We offer $0.07 per word for Short Stories accepted for publication in our literary journal (eBook, print, audiobook, and/or podcast) and online publication on midnightandindigo.com. Rates and word count based upon the final, edited piece Submissions should be submitted in proper short story manuscript format with your name, email address, and the story’s total word count on the first page. For our purposes, you do not need to include a mailing address or phone number. CLICK HERE for an example of proper short story manuscript format All submissions will be considered for publication in our upcoming print anthology (est. December 2024) We do not accept work created by AI. Any submissions not entirely created by a human author will be automatically rejected. Black Speculative Fiction We are looking for previously unpublished, character-driven, speculative short stories written by Black women writers. Speculative fiction is a broad genre encompassing fiction with certain elements that do not exist in the real world, often in the context of supernatural, futuristic, or other imaginative themes. This includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, superhero fiction, horror, utopian and dystopian fiction, fairytale fantasy, and supernatural fiction. Word count requirement: 2,000 – 7,000 words We offer $0.07 per word for Short Stories accepted for publication in our annual Speculative issue (eBook, print, audiobook, and/or podcast) and on midnightandindigo.com. Rates and word count based upon the final, edited piece Submissions should be submitted

in proper short story manuscript format with your name, email address, and the story’s total word count on the first page. For our purposes, you do not need to include a mailing address or phone number. CLICK HERE for an example of proper short story manuscript format All submissions will be considered for publication on a rolling basis on midnightandidigo.com or in our annual Speculative fiction special issue (online and/or print – October 2024) We do not accept work created by AI. Any submissions not entirely created by a human author will be automatically rejected Essay Guidelines We are looking for previously unpublished, first-person POV fictional essays written by Black women writers. Essays can be funny, entertaining, serious, or sincere. Content must uplift, inspire, and leave readers with something to think about. We want emotion, grit, soul, and writing that forges an immediate connection with the reader around your experience. Submissions cannot include list formats or “5 Ways to…” inspirational instructionals. Word count requirement: min. 1,200 words We offer $150 for Essays accepted for publication on midnightandindigo.com Submissions should be submitted in proper manuscript format with your name, email address, and the story’s total word count on the first page. For our purposes, you do not need to include a mailing address or phone number. CLICK HERE for an example of proper manuscript format We do not accept work created by AI. Any submissions not entirely created by a human author will be automatically rejected Rights: Each author retains the sole, individual copyright on her contribution. We only ask for first North American serial rights on any story we publish. This means that the story should not have appeared anywhere else, either in print or online. (This includes publication on an author’s own website). We accept first world eBook, print, and audiobook rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights for our published anthologies. We also accept non-exclusive online rights to publish and archive your story on our website(s) or on our podcast. You will be asked to agree to our contract as part of the submission process. CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT! Via: midnight & indigo.

[lainternet99]

ENTRY #31

A friend of mine today decided to try being a student for a day in the program I'm in and I will say, college has swayed her over! She can't wait till she graduates from high school! Seeing her talk about what she did and how she felt really made my day, as sappy as it sounds.

As for me, I barely managed to get to class on time. I saw the teacher on my way and I told him why I was running late and he was surprised to hear that my friend planned on joining my college. He told me to go in the classroom first so that I won't be counted late. The class was so interesting; we watched a video discussing what could the first language possibly be and a theory suggests that the ancient egyptian hierglyphic system may be the first full alphabet. I had so much fun.

I had a long break, so I decided to do my homework and then get my friend to introduce her to the studyroom. She was so shy, but had such a giddy smile. I found myself having lots of fun telling her about how things go here. I had to leave her due to my english class.

Speaking of english, we finished the play of Antigone. We have to write an essay of 650 words; 325 per paragraph. I don't know what I'll write about yet, but I'll surely get an idea before Wednesday. I loved the class regarding greek drama. I hope I do cool things like that in other classes. She also handed us back our exam and said we could use them as guide to avoid similar mistakes. I got a 90% and after reading the teacher's comments, I'm more than flattered. My classmates got 89% and 82%, which is really good. I discussed what I wrote with one of the two as we left class.

After that, I went back to the studyroom to join my friend. We hung out a bit, then I showed her where all my classes were and answered some of her questions. We then walked around a bit and we had to go back since my friend had told me that I could take my water bottle from her locker (I had forgotten it last week and asked her to keep it with her). We then went to the cafeteria and she bought lemon bread and split half with me, then got up and left to catch the bus. We made it just in time, too. We chatted all the way as we headed back and now that I think about it, I think we were kinda loud... oops. We got off and she invited me to eat at her house, to which my mom said yes. However, her mother didn't agree, but I suggested to reschedule another time and she agreed. We then split and went on about our day.

As of right now, I'm at home, both comfortable and stressing out. Comfortable because I'm at home, but stressing out because I have so much to do. I have a german lab assignment to do, plus some more in french. Not to mention I'm going apple-picking tomorrow at 3 P.M. The only day I'll be able to truly relax will be Sunday... at least I hope I get to.

RATE OF THE DAY: 10/10

—— lainternet99

[batemanofficial]

quastion. i'm trying to save up money to move at the end of the year (i have to have €4000 in liquid funds before i can get my visa pre approved; i need quite a bit more so i'm trying to supplement where i can) so would people be interested in any of the following options:

proposed pricing scheme (all in usd; pricing negotiable):

copyediting: $15/1k words (e.g. if you send me a 4k word essay, the price would be $60)

writing: 10¢/word (will do: nonfiction/essay-oriented content, outlines, original fiction (either from my own ideas or i can ghostwrite something for you), sfw fanfic (if i know the ip it's based on))

video editing: $10/minute of runtime (e.g. if your finished product is 5 minutes long total cost is $50; small additional per-hour fees may be incurred if raw footage is not supplied) (will do: vlogs, commentary-style documentary editing, narrative/short-film, audio-only, etc. if it's doable on premiere or audition i'll probably do it)

i'm a very accomplished writer and editor, both for the screen and on paper. i'm in my last semester of a video production degree, and have been providing writing and copyediting services to family and friends for several years with very high rates of satisfaction! your work would be in good hands i prommy :^)

depending on the results of this poll i'll make a dedicated commissions post, but in the meantime if anybody has anything they want me to look at please feel free to shoot me an ask or a dm!

[batmansymbol]

I am currently open for freelance editing projects :)

Hey y’all! If anyone needs an editor, I have bandwidth right now and have opened back up for editing work. I’m down for anything, “anything” defined here as:

Developmental edits. This includes some manuscript comments, but largely focuses on a comprehensive edit letter comprising notes on plot, character, style, voice, and theme.

Line edits. Feeling good about the bones of your story, but worried that you’re bogged down by inefficient language, indistinct dialogue, or the odd wandering character arc? The line edit may be for you.

Copyedits. Grammar, usage, spelling, etc. Every nit picked. Fair warning: I don’t use a style guide, because I find that imposing e.g. the Chicago Manual of Style on fiction messes with things like “voice” and “fun.” My emphasis will fall on clarity, and on tone: does it feel right?

Query letter edits. Pitches are hell, but weirdly, I love them. Rate: $35 flat fee for a query, $50 for a synopsis. $10 for each revision pass thereafter (I will, of course, not charge you if my response to a revision is “This slaps!”).

Essay, article, or cover letter proofing. For ethical reasons I won’t review academic material, and for national security reasons I won't review classified CIA documents :( Rate: $15 flat fee, plus 2¢/word.

I don't do authenticity editing on its own, because it makes me feel weird. That said, if you happen to have a protagonist who’s bi or pan or Chinese-American or multiracial and you’re like, “Oh no, have I messed this up horribly,” feel free to request that I take a look from that angle. Same for characters with depression, anxiety, or relatively mild ADHD.

Also: I have no reading triggers or content aversions. I'm fine with any kind of material, disturbing, upsetting, or very very sexy though it may be.

My rates for fiction editing vary based on project length and status. With something under 10k words, I feel relatively comfortable ballparking around 2¢/word for developmental/line and 1.5¢/word for copyediting, but beyond that, I’d want to test-edit a sample. Occasionally I’ll swap to an hourly rate thereafter, because what if you send over the next Hunger Games, and I tear through it in three hours, but at 2¢/word it’s supposed to cost $1,600? Ridiculous. I hate editing rates.

You can message me here on tumblr or email me directly at rileyredgate@gmail.com if you’d like to hire me. If you have a question, don't be shy about reaching out to ask. I am not a salesperson and will never try to hard-sell you.

If you know anybody looking for an editor, please do pass them this post! On this hellsite I know I am just another weirdo, but in real life, I have the qualifications to provide writers with high-quality editing backed up by years of experience in the publishing industry. Per The Official Bio:

Let’s take your fiction to the next level!

I'm the author of four novels: Alone Out Here, published by Disney-Hyperion; and Seven Ways We Lie, Noteworthy, and Final Draft, published by Abrams Books. My books have been published on four continents, optioned for film and TV, given seven starred reviews from critics, and named to Best-of-the-Year lists by Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and the New York Public Library. Besides editing my own fiction, I've also done editorial work for authors whose books are published at Scholastic, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and more.

As an editor, I dive in with an underlying enthusiasm for every project. I'm not interested in trying to alter others' work to my tastes, but in recognizing what story a writer wants to tell and helping them reach that destination, whether with a developmental edit or a final polish. I'm happy to edit works of any length and genre, though my specialty is in fiction, and particularly in children's and YA fiction.

Reblogs would be greatly, greatly appreciated! xo

Riley

[eradicatetehnormal]

Terminally Online, Pseudo-politcal Rant.

I was watching a video essay the other day about how right-wing talking points are bad. Its conclusion was that they don't have to be good or compelling arguments because they're appealing to people who already agree with them. To a certain extent, they're correct. It does seem that as of late, the right-wing has resorted less to debating people on the street or on college campuses and more to circling their hatred for trans people and other "degenerate" groups.

In a way, that might signal a good thing. A party that's increasingly incapable of defending itself? Doesn't seem very strong to me. They're still pretty being, of course, if MAGA and Project 2025 are to indicate anything (for fucks sake, give me money for a passport). I do wonder where they'll be in the next 10 years or when Donald Trump dies. A lot of Republican politicians have been having "negative rizz" as of late. I'm side-tracking, though.

The problem I have with that essayist leaving the conversation there is that it might perpetuate this very Twitter, lazy leftist idea that there's no point in refuting bad talking points or educating people about a subject. That's likely not what that person meant, but it's where that idea could lead.

I'm not saying that people should just go around, looking for right-wingers to debunk and dunk on. That carries its own set of problems by making the left wing look catty and disingenuous. People can use their own platforms to talk about various issues and the right lens to see something. The thing is, not engaging and just yelling in an echo chamber, over time can make the left wing look incoherent and nonsensical.

Imagine you're just a normal, center-leaning person logging into Twitter to keep up with your favorite celebrity, and you see a right winger being like, "Western society won't be fixed until the perversion or trans ideology and crt is pushed out of our schools." To which that centrist might think "What the fuck is crt and trans ideology? This person sounds outlandish." Then they see a left-winger all like, "The rates of women who have reported being SA'd are abysmal, but let's not forget about our black and indigenous sisters who were trafficked and never had a search done for them." To which the centrist might say, "Why is this person centering black and native women on an issue that affects all women? This person also sounds outlandish." From their perspective, there's not just one dumbass in an echo chamber, but two dumbasses in an echo chamber, since they didn't grow up around an outwardly conservative community and don't listen to enough of those people to flat out being transphobic or racist, nor do they have an understanding of intersectional politics.

Some might say, "Well this post is just making people engage with optics and identity politics. We have nothing to prove!" I get where this is coming from. A lot of great people and activists were pushed out of communities or silenced because people felt that they optically made them look bad. To the person who says this, though, have you ever supported the de-platforming of a leftist or liberal because of their bad takes or terrible behavior? Guess what? You care about optics. Part of the reason you wanted them gone was because, they were toxic and annoying to deal with, but another part of that reason was likely because they were garnering an audience who may go around acting like them or using their arguments, which could lead to a large group of people misrepresenting and hurting a movement.

We need to get better at distinguishing people who are trying to insult or belittle us from people who are asking questions in good faith. We also need to learn when to end a conversation. Having the last word does not always make you look good. If you get frustrated easily or you get nervous, you don't have to engage. It's just worth explaining what you mean, on occasion. Throwing in a statistic every now and then (rarely ever personal life experience, because not only is it not the best evidence, but people will try to belittle it).

[neuroscience-corner]

We have all heard about the benefits of exercise for literally every part of our body at least once. But what about the brain? Dementia is a concern for many, and brain training and reducing the risk of dementia is a very active field of research. However, the role of brain training remains controversial, but what we know for sure is that physical exercise can help your brain maintain its health for longer, and there is some scientific evidence to back it up.

What are some benefits of exercise for the brain?

There are many, but amongst the main ones are decreased stress and “brain fog”, decreased social anxiety, improved emotional processing, increased focus, attention and memory, and potential prevention of ageing and dementia!

How can exercise actually benefit the brain?

Firstly, by promoting cardiovascular health. Regular exercise was also shown to improve the blood and oxygen flow to the brain. Steady blood flow helps to deliver vitamins, glucose, amino acids and other nutrients that are essential for the mental sharpness of your brain. It also helps get rid of waste materials such as carbon dioxide faster. Any aerobic activity that increases your heart rate will do! Other ways to benefit the brain health is to reduce inflammation and lower cortisol (stress-hormone) levels. Meditation and yoga were shown to help with that.

It could be that exercise may provide physical benefits to your brain itself, too, through improving neuroplasticity (or the ability for the brain to adapt to changes), increase the thickness of the cerebral cortex and improve the integrity of white matter.

What about the evidence?

In a study done in 2019 older adults underwent yearly medical check ups and cognitive tests for 20 years, and they agreed to donate their brains for research when they die. They were also given equipment to track their activity, like accelerometers. Those who moved more throughout their day scored better on memory and thinking tests. The researchers also reported that increased physical activity was associated with a 31% lower risk of dementia (remember to be critical - this is a correlation but not yet a causation). 

A study on greek participants with amnestic MCI* showed that those who were randomly allocated to engage in 1 hour of ballroom dancing twice a week for 10 months improved in multiple areas of brain function, their mood and behaviour. 

In another study on MCI patients researchers offered participants to engage in aerobic exercise (three times a week for 45 minutes per session), eat a heart-healthy Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, combine exercise and diet or receive health education. Over a six-month study, it was seen that those who followed the DASH diet alone didn’t improve on assessments of executive function (which is responsible for tasks like planning, problem-solving and multitasking), while the health-education group’s brain function worsened. Those who exercised, on the other hand, showed improvements in thinking and memory, and those who combined exercise and the DASH diet improved even more, the researchers reported.

When it comes to how much exercise you actually need, scientists recommend to aim for 15 minutes of 3 days per week of vigorous aerobic activity or 30 minutes of mild one 5 days per week.

Some research shows that even a little bit of extra activity you can get can be beneficial. In one recent study researchers concluded that each hour of light-intensity physical activity and achieving 7,500 steps or more daily was associated with higher total brain volume, even in people who didn’t meet the activity guidelines. Researchers claimed it was “equivalent to approximately 1.4 to 2.2 years less brain aging.”

*MCI stands for mild cognitive impairment which is considered to be a pre-dementia state, where cognitive decline is noticeable but doesn’t interfere as much with day-to-day life. Amnestic means referring to memory. I actually wrote an extended essay on this so I am thinking of introducing this concept in the later posts!

Sources:

[imogenleewriter]

hello hi, i've got a question, what keeps you going while writing? i admire your consistency!

Hey!

Super valid question that I'm not entirely sure I have an answer to. Or maybe I have too many answers.

I'm going to give short ones (because I keep trying to answer this and writing a novel) but if you want me to elaborate I can.

1) Deadlines. If I don't have deadlines, I just waste time staring at a blank screen, and that's more stressful than forcing myself to get words down.

2) Writing stuff that matters to me. Before ychiits, I tried writing 1000 things with amazing plots and could never finish any of them. If you think about it, ychiits actual plot is so mundane, but for that, the characters were what mattered to me and a complicated plot would have taken away from that. The two wips mean different things to me as well. Writing fanfiction falls into that as well. I have no desire to write original works because writing Larry fanfiction means more to me.

3) General techniques that work for me. I could probably write an essay on this, but basically, I have so many strategies to get myself to write based on my mood.

4) Comments. I doubt I'd be close to as productive without comments and interactions. I probably get over 250 comments a week across all four fics now, and it's hard not to stay motivated when that happens. But at the start of ychiits I was getting like 4-5 comments per chapter, and that was still as motivating! (So please comment on every fic you love).

5) Planning. ychiits has a full draft. My current WIPs are less so because I found I didn't copy a single sentence from ychiits so it seemed silly to have a 100k draft when I only referred to it for scenes/chapters. So now I just focus on a general plot. My study looks like a serial killer den because of all the posters and cork boards and white boards where I keep all the plans. So, if i get stuck on a chapter, I write out everything I want to include in it. The more stuck I am, the more I flesh out the plan.

6) Talking things through with others. I started Ychiits because I know anyone in the fandom at all, so I was completely alone and didn't have a single beta until the last chapter when @hereforh and @enchantedlandcoffee looked through it as readers to make sure it all aligned so you can definitely do it without this. But now, because I have friends, lol, if I get stuck on a scene or chapter, I have people to talk to and bounce ideas off them and check they think what I'm writing makes sense. I've mentioned in my AN, but @hereforh and I have a constant chat - different time zones - and at least half of the time we're talking about fic ideas etc. @nooradeservedbetter also gives me amazing advice when I'm stuck.

7) Privilege. I don't know how to talk about this without sounding like I'm bragging. However, my job is after-hours. So, I don't work during the day on weekdays. It's a well-paying job, so I don't work full-time - my hourly rate is about double what it was when I worked in a hospital. Some of my shifts are being on-call overnight. This means I spend 10 hours in my study but only have to work when I get a call (that being said, I'm not very productive after 2am, so it doesn't help that much). There is still a need for me to bring in income, and does still take away hours from writing, but I obviously have more time to write than I did when I was working full-time.

8) Lack of sleep. Okay, so realistically, I need just as much sleep as everyone else, I know that. But I seem to survive better than most people would on the same amount of sleep.

9) Supportive husband. I mean, he's never read a word I've written or anything, but he is supportive in the sense that he knows writing is something I value and doesn't talk down about it. I think he'd be just as supportive if I were actually making an income from it as he is about it being fanfiction.

10) ADHD diagnosis and meds. Even medicated, my ADHD is still a big challenge to writing. It might not seem like that because of the frequency that I upload, but it still does. For example, I'll click out of the document to google a word or something and straight away get side-tracked, and after an hour, I'll remember that I was writing and come back to the document and realise I still didn't even google the word and the process starts all over again. But knowing that my brain works differently helps - i.e I know I can only write in 20-minute blocks, and then I need a break. That probably falls more into point three, but I know my limitations now. And ADHD meds still help bring me up to a point where I can actually finish things.

11) Letting go of perfectionism. Could my work be 10x better than it is? Yes. But when I'm writing and uploading 20k+ words a week, I don't have time to try and get every sentence perfect. The thing is, perfectionism freezes me. I probably would give myself more time between deadlines if I was sure that I would use that time to perfect chapters. But I either would still wait until the last minute and not use the extra time, or I'd get too wrapped up in getting every word perfect that I'd still miss every deadline. There are plenty of "good enough" words, sentences, paragraphs, and scenes in my fics that I know could be better, but I just don't have time to spend twenty minutes trying to find the right word or the best sentence structure. I hope that makes sense.

Anyway, this is still long af but I hope it helps a little. Happy to elaborate on any points - because I could definitely right about this all day - but again, it's already long af and I'm not sure if it is helpful at all lol.

[savrenim]

the "oh god I'm poor, help" editing+tutoring masterpost

says it all in the title. my life is a flaming trash heap right now which will be less of a flaming trash heap if I actually had enough money to stop my partner from becoming homeless without dipping into my savings every month.

If you want to support me directly: ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/savrenim patreon: https://www.patreon.com/savrenim <- currently am posting early access to all of my writing here, but eventually I will post more exclusive director's commentary style content again

Editing: I can proofread for grammar and provide commentary for both academic essays, fanfiction, and original writing. You can find samples of my writing in the 'my writing' tab, and I do all of my own editing and proofreading. I have been editing as a tutor professionally for over a decade, with repeat customers from my high school days who have used me all throughout college. I reserve the right to turn down any request, but am confident in effectively any subject up through college level, including mathematical proofs. Language English only. Pricing: $10: first up to 500 words $0.01 per additional word For jobs under 10k words, standard turnaround time is 1 week. Per additional 10k words, an additional week is added. For under 10k words, rush prices are: -> Additional $1 per 1k words for 5 day turnaround -> Additional $3 per 1k words for 3 day turnaround -> Additional $5 per 1k words for 24 hour turnaround Rush jobs over 10k words for negotiated prices.

Tutoring: I have tutored for over 15 years now; including three years professionally in college, leading math study rooms, TAing in graduate school for four years, and even fully teaching college courses. Subjects: any high school math; precalc, calc i,ii,iii,iv, differential equations, linear algebra, abstract algebra, real analysis, dynamical systems, number theory, proofs/mathematical reasoning. other general math/physics topics may be possible albeit at higher rates as that requires more prep work on my end. What It Looks Like: send me the homework assignment, test study guide, or topic (including textbook and chapter if relevant) at least 24 hours in advance. tutoring sessions will be held on discord, where I will screenshare a digital blackboard. at the end of the session, after full payment is made, I will send you the pdf of everything covered in the session. Pricing: $1/ min ; half hour minimum for sessions, then done in additional 15 minute increments. pay half in advance, half on completion of the session. payment accepted through ko-fi or venmo only.