#// then asks for critique

[burningcheese-merchant]

MERCHANT

🗣✊🎤How Golden Cheese feels about Burning Spice's Huge Gazoonkas

How do you think? Haha

She loves and worships those tig ol' biddies just like the rest of us

(Except she has it the best, because they belong to her and her alone 😎)

[comicaurora]

Is it just me, or has anyone else felt that the recent Aurora commentary/critique has been shifting over to being more pointed?

nothing I've noticed, but I don't go out of my way to seek it out so I'm the wrong person to ask

[fantastic-nonsense]

So what are the best Nightwing runs to read?

*sigh* this is a very loaded question.

Three things to keep in mind before we continue:

Dick's best writing historically happens in books that are not the Nightwing solo.

The tenures of Nightwing solo writers are usually pretty long, so despite Dick having a solo comic for nearly 30 continuous years, there's a limited number of writers who have actually written Nightwing.

The direction of Dick's solo book has been at times driven largely by the whims of editorial edicts rather than creative team desires, particularly the fallout from War Games and Infinite Crisis pre-reboot and Dan Didio's personal hatred of the character post-reboot. So most Nightwing runs already come with a huge asterisk beside them labelled "*Note: worse than it would have been without editorial interference."

For ease of answering the question, I'm not including Dick solo books that happened when he was Robin or Batman on this list. Since there's only 14 total Nightwing/Grayson writers to choose from (Dixon, Grayson, Jones, Wolfman, Tomasi, Higgins, Seeley and King, Seeley, Humphries, Percy, Lobdell, Jurgens, Taylor, Watters), your options are already limited. Of those:

Devin Grayson's run, Marv Wolfman's run, Tim Seeley and Tom King's Grayson run, Ben Percy's filler arc, and Scott Lobdell's Ric arc are all objectively bad, for various reasons. All have redeeming features, but I would rarely actually recommend them to anyone.

Bruce Jones' One Year later filler arc wins the prize for "had potential, ruined by the most utterly bizarre creative decisions of all time" (aka, everything about Cheyenne Freemont and Tentacle Monster!Jason).

Dan Jurgens' run is…fine. Unfortunately, because it's short and focused on cleaning up Joker War and the Ric arc, there's not a lot of redeeming plot features.

Tim Seeley's solo run and Tom Taylor's run are aggressively mid. They're both readable, and they both have some solid arcs and character development; they also have creative approaches, characterizations, and/or plotlines that are just. very bad.

tbh, my opinions on Taylor's run written prior to the sister reveal vs. post-reveal are funny because it's just a complete 180. my pre-reveal opinion was like "oh this is a fun lighthearted palette cleanser run after the nonsense of the last 5 years. I have issues with it, especially with the ableism and general treatment of Babs, but the run itself is probably needed to re-establish an actual status quo" and my opinion of the post-reveal part of the run is like "this run is dead to me."

So this ultimately leaves us with a Top 5 of Chuck Dixon (his og run, not including Nightwing: Year One, which I personally dislike), Peter Tomasi, Kyle Higgins, Sam Humphries, and Dan Watters' current run.

I'm still not sure where I'd rank these Top 5, since they all have really great elements and not great elements. Dixon's run is foundational but is more focused on worldbuilding than it is on plot progression; it's a great starting place as long as you don't expect consistent quality from all 70 issues. Tomasi's run had fantastic characterization, but his plots aren't great and are frankly racist in hindsight. I really enjoyed Higgins' run, but it was clearly held back by all of the New 52 era editorial edicts and Batfam history/relationship erasure. Humphries' run was imo great but ultimately too short to consider a 'top run.' And Watters' run has been incredible so far, but he's literally only 5 issues in and I can't guarantee he'll stick the landing or stay this good.

So. Probably Tomasi>Dixon>Higgins>Humphries, with the current run by Watters tentatively somewhere on the list as well?

[rustchild]

one of the wild things about people’s stubborn insistence on misunderstanding The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is that the narrator anticipates an audience that won’t engage with the text, just in the opposite direction. Throughout the story are little asides asking what the reader is willing to believe in. Can you believe in a utopia? What if I told you this? What about this? Can you believe in the festivals? The towers by the sea? Can we believe that they have no king? Can we believe that they are joyful? Does your utopia have technology, luxury, sex, temples, drugs? The story is consulting you as it’s being told, framed as a dialogue. It literally asks you directly: do you only believe joy is possible with suffering? And, implicitly, why?

the question isn’t just “what would you personally do about the kid.” It isn’t just an intricate trolley problem. It’s an interrogation of the limits of imagination. How do we make suffering compulsory? Why? What futures (or pasts) are we capable of imagining? How do we rationalize suffering as necessary? And so on. In all of the conversations I’ve seen or had about this story, no one has mentioned the fact that it’s actively breaking the fourth wall. The narrator is building a world in front of your eyes and challenging you to participate. “I would free the kid” and then what? What does the Omelas you’ve constructed look like, and why? And what does that say about the worlds you’re building in real life?

[eats-a-berry]

people when laios struggles with social interaction because he's neurodivergent: awww, it's ok laios, it's not your fault baby. there's nothing you can do about it

people when toshiro struggles with social interaction from being an incredibly repressed japanese guy whos character is literally about being bound by social norms/expectations that inform his worldview of a culture where his behavior is just him doing what he thinks is the best and most respectful way to behave and is mostly just tired of what looks to him as laios' carelessness and him ending up as being a complete pushover because of it: i mean, it's basically shuro's fault, he should just stop having problems since i'm not going to take the time to understand him or the culture he's from

[devil-child-robin]

This message almost made me stop drawing Pizza tower

I’m a chill person but I don’t want your unnecessary message, let me draw what I want even if it’s the only thing I draw. Pizza tower has made me love drawing again and I got to have fun drawing. It made me get out of my comfort zone as I was never good at drawing cartoony and I always tried too hard for realism but I was never happy.

Just leave me be and let me enjoy my tower of pizzas with my Italian husband 😤

[erinwantstowrite]

every time i start panicking about the small details (like how i don't know near as much marvel lore as i do DC, etc) i remind myself that LoF wasn't supposed to get super popular and im just having fun and practicing writing for my own books and suddenly that anxiety goes away. like it's not gonna be perfect and it was born out of me and my friend being goofy

[verboselocket38]

To be fair the only reason cheating is ok in recent episode is because it's supposed to parallel Stella & Stolas situation so he's feeling some type of way about it if they didn't have that going on I'm sure they'll be fine with killing them and also aren't they supposed to be a little emotionally grown right now according to Viv or something? 😗 maybe idk and super unpopular opinion don't come at me but cheating isn't a big deal like I heard one guy say once "Who hasn't cheated at least once" It doesn't take away hurt but it's very common and cheating isn't the worst thing someone can do imo genuinely not trying to start a fire but people act like cheating is a crime like how they treated that Berry dude or whatever with Sabrina Carpenter or the Try Guys dude (I don't know his name)

.....Dude what the hell?

Ok first off, just because the cheating is a parallel to Stella and Stolas doesnt mean that The cheating the husband did WAS OK!!!!

Second, if ANYONE says "cheating isnt a big deal 🙄" then they should not be in a relationship EVER. Because your breaking the trust of your partner and not only hurting your partner's feelings, but suprise suprise, YOUR HURTING THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU!!

JUST BECAUSE CHEATING ISNT "the worse thing a person can do" or "is common" DOES NOT MEAN ITS RIGHT! ITS STILL A BAD THING AND SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE A BAD THING.

Do you know the people who haven't cheated once or more when in a relationship? ALOT OF PEOPLE! The ones who do cheat are toxic who dont consider their partner's feelings or the people around them.

IF ANYONE CHEATS WITH YOU, DONT STAY WITH THEM! THEY JUST PROVEN THAT THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOU FEELINGS WHILE SEEING SOMEONE BEHIND YOUR BACK! ANYONE WHO GETS CHEATED ON HAS THE RIGHT TO BE FURIOUS, SAD, EMBARESSED, HEARTBROKEN, OR ANY OTHER EMOTIONS THEY COULD FEEL WHEN THE PERSON THEY THOUGHT LOVED THEM DECIDED TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE IN THEIR PLACE!

Given how you worded this, you probably havent been cheated on in your life, and genually its a huge red flag to believe cheating is "No big deal."

If you still dont believe me, let me put it like this for the Stolas stans:

If Stolas cheated on Blitzø with Vassago or some other man whatever tf his name is, you'd probably be singing a different tune.

To end this, I just want to say don't come to my blog defending CHEATING and acting like its no big deal. Go somewhere else.

[dear-ao3]

that walnut cake saga was the highlight of my day omfg

thanks. it was not the highlight of mine.

[helluvaartcritique]

Can't wait for Vivziepop to absolutely fumble Lilith, who's a symbol of female defiance and turn her into a bad wife/mother so her smol bean Lucifer can do no wrong.

With how Vivziepop handled Stolas and Stella, I don't have high hopes for Lilith.

[cipheramnesia]

Pulling this because I don't want to get into arguing about AI with a stranger, but I do think it's very funny to see Tim Burton upset about having his style imitated. "It's nothing like when I, a human, have an entirely derivative and unoriginal style - first of all, no robot could ever reproduce my human racism" oh no Tim, the machines are racist too, don't worry.

[theliteraryarchitect]

How do I deal with someone who wants my opinion on how to make their work better, but gets mad when I give them criticism. I have tried spinning it as a positive, and being gentle but no matter how careful I am with my words they take it as an insult. They have good idea, but cannot keep the narrative straight and more than once have forgotten to introduce entire characters who are important to the plot. When I ask who the character is, they act like I should just know . The readers aren't gonna be mind readers and I don't know how to tell tell that without them blowing up in my face.

any advice would be appreciated.

What to Do When a Writer Can't Take Feedback... No Matter How Nicely You Phrase it

Oh yeah, I’ve run into this a lot as an editor. Some writers say they want feedback, but what they really want is validation. And no matter how gently or positively you phrase your critique, they’re going to take it the wrong way.

Honestly? At a certain point, it’s not worth the stress. If someone consistently reacts badly to feedback, the best thing you can do is stop giving it. A simple “I don’t think I’m the right reader for this” or “I’m happy to read for fun, but I don’t think my critiques are helpful to you” should do the trick.

You did your best, but you can’t force someone to be open to critique. Time to throw in the towel.

Hope this helps.

/ / / / /

@theliteraryarchitect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler, a writer and developmental editor. For more writing help, download my Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers, join my email list, or check out my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

[theoddest1]

Is this a safe space to say that I feel like the next seasons of HH and HB will be absolute ass and I hope vivzie flops so hard that she’ll actually take writing classes? (I’m being anon cause I don’t wanna get flamed)

Of course this is a safe space for that and yeah, apart from some songs, HH lookin kinda lame but we'll wait and see. I may actually make consistent goddamn episode breakdowns this time.

HB will stay ass cause it has an identity crisis and refuses to drop the dumbass love plotline.

And knowing Viv's ego

I doubt she'll take writing classes cause this is almost always her main takeaway and not "Maybe everyone saying the same thing means it's a consistent problem."

[wihellib]

In light of your recent post I humbly present you this:

The worst part is that it didn’t even do anything to progress the story forward! It was a nothing scene, in that it did nothing but make Leviathan look awful!

Repeat After Me:

[matteoberrettini]

hi, i translated the entire jannik interview with sky for anyone who's interested!! if someone already did it well :') i tried my best so i hope you still appreciate it <3 under the cut because it's long.

WARNING: zverev is mentioned. i cut out the part where jannik talks about him in an answer (it's not long) but he's mentioned by name by the interviewer.

Let's start with, welcome back to Sky Sport. First of all, how are you?

I'm really good. I’m well-rested. So… yeah, I’m happy.

You’re well-rested, but you’ve trained as well. You always take advantage of the time you’re given, and in this case you’ve had and still have a lot, to improve your tennis. What have you been focusing on the most?

Well, honestly I did a lot of different things. I’ve spent a lot of time with my family, especially with my dad. I’ve done a lot of different things with my best friends who are in Monte Carlo, we went karting, we’ve gone on a cycling outing. So, many new things. In the end, the people I have around me every day, that’s what makes me go on every day and I’m very happy. Obviously we’re working a lot in the gym so I can be even more ready for my comeback, but there’s still quite some time left, you know? They’re questions that will be answered in Rome. But everything is going well. [smiles]

What’s made you particularly happy of all the activities you’ve tried, maybe things you hadn’t done in a while, considering you hadn’t had this much free time in a while?

It’s also not living with the constant pressure… because you have to perform. This is for sure the thing I’ve enjoyed the most. Training is a bit different too because you aren’t thinking about having to play a match in a week, so you’re more relaxed. The days are long, but… yeah, and then again, my friends, because maybe you hang out with them in the evening, you feel good, you go out for dinner or maybe you play videogames for a bit or do other things together… so honestly I’m feeling good. Obviously if I could choose, I would choose to be playing tennis. But on the other hand I’m feeling really good and I’m not even thinking about tennis that much at the moment.

A little bit more lightness, [Jannik: Exactly.] that still leaves room for something else: your being a perfectionist. In your ad for Lavazza, you say: “Can we do another take?” [laughs] but always with a smile on your lips like the one you have now. Does this perfectionism represent you?

In part, yes, for sure, because otherwise I wouldn’t be where I am now. I think you can always improve, you know? For sure that Lavazza ad was trying to show that: the fact you can always try to do better, and I mean, that was an ad, but I am like that a little bit. When I play a good shot, I think there is always some little thing I can do better. And we’re trying to work on that in these two months and a half we have to train before coming back in Rome.

I’ll take you back in time a little, to two months ago when WADA proposed to you the deal that would lead to your suspension. I would like to understand how you felt during those days, how was it for you, on a human level?

How it was for me… if I’m being honest, I’ve felt very relaxed. The decision of taking the three months suspension was very quick, we accepted it in a short span of time, even if I didn’t really agree, there was a lot of back and forth with my lawyer and the people around me… but in the end you’ve got to choose the lesser evil, you know? And I think that’s what I’ve done. Even if sometimes it feels a bit unfair, what I’m going through. But, when you look at the way things standed, it could’ve gone a lot worse and with even more unfairness, so… that’s how things went. Afterwards, when we took this decision, it took me a while to find myself again. Some other things also happened that didn’t have to do with all this but that weren’t easy for me. But… I’m here. I’ve still got a bit of time to process all of this. I can’t wait to come back in Rome, it’s a special tournament for me, even if at the same time it’s a very difficult one because coming back, in a moment when there’s already lots of pressure, and in Rome even more so, isn’t easy. But I’m living every day in a relaxed way, and again, I’m trying new things, so I’m happy.

Have you learned something new about yourself in the last months, something you didn’t know, even from the way you’ve dealt with things, that maybe can help you during other moments?

I’ve learned a lot, but maybe… I already knew it, that tennis isn’t the most important thing, but I’ve understood it during these months too, that outside of tennis there are people who care a lot, that family comes and will always come first, that friends are essential, that we need to create strong bonds, especially during the rough times… and especially that you need to find people to have around that you can trust, with whom you can exchange ideas… and yeah, to have trust [in people around you]. This is what I’ve learned in the last few months, so I believe on a human level I’ve learned a lot.

Was there a moment when you felt really vulnerable, when, maybe even when you were alone, you felt like crying a little, and felt emotions that you’d never felt before, or had only felt them in certain moments?

I felt very vulnerable after what happened. After I took the suspension deal in Doha, for a month, until now more or less, I felt very vulnerable because some things that I didn’t expect happened, some reactions I had that I didn’t expect from myself… there were a few things going on. I would be lying [smiles] if I said I’m a person that has no feelings, that feels no emotions, nothing… but you learn things, during your life, and I think year after year I learn more and more about myself, about who I am as a person, and also my value as a person. So it wasn’t easy, it was really hard actually at times, but the people around me lifted me up, gave me the strength to work through what happened.

On the topic of your comeback in Rome, there’s two sides of it: the love of the people, and we’ll talk about that in a bit, but there’s also your colleagues that you’ll meet again on the tour. In another interview with Sky, some months ago, you said it worried you, during the time when it was all still unresolved and a “hot topic”, going back to Flushing Meadows and have to think of how some of your colleagues would look at you. [Jannik looks down.] How has this worry changed now, maybe considering instead how you will look at some of them, who have said some harsh things [about you]?

Well, you know… it’s a question I can’t answer because I don’t know what could happen. I know how things went, I know I’m innocent. And the people around me, not just my team but also outside of my team, my family, my friends, those are the ones I stay close to, and there’s not even a slight doubt about what the truth is, so… I’m very relaxed because at the end of the day what I want to do is play tennis and be at peace, so that’s the end of the story. I’m sure everything will go well even if at the beginning it’ll take me a little bit of time to get going again. But these are questions I don’t know the answer to. [smiles]

And have you watched some tennis, during this time? Among all the different activities you’ve dedicated yourself to, have you watched some matches?

I’ve watched very very little tennis. I’m not keeping up with anything, basically, except a few matches that I’m interested in, but beside that, nothing. Because it’s something I can’t control, the results and performances of other players. And I’m out for three months anyway, there is no point in checking what’s happening, the time I’ll compete again is so far away that… it’s a bit of a different moment in my career [smiles] but I’m not watching anything really.

Well, even if you haven’t looked at the rankings, I’ll tell you you still have a big margin as world number one. Did you expect that the margin, despite you not playing, would remain basically the same?

The answer’s the same as the previous one: I can’t control how the others play, especially when— even if I were to play the tournament I would not be able to control anything, so there’s no point. In the end they’re just points, we can agree that the rankings are important, coming back as number one, number two or number three [is important], but… it’s a bit of a different moment. There’s also the new generation coming in, the new new generation with even younger players, Nole who still reaches finals or wins tournaments, there’s a lot moving around right now in this sport, but I can’t control anything, so this is what it’s like.

But did you expect that Zverev and Alcaraz would struggle so much? I mean they had a big chance with you not playing, and yet it almost seemed like they felt pressure from you from the outside, in a way.

Well, no match is taken for granted, even if you play against the world number 100, number 150, they’re all hard-fought matches, and in the moment when you’re not at your best… and maybe they’re going through hard times outside of the court, we can’t know that. There are a lot of things that can affect you when you step on the court. Maybe the pressure, maybe the number 1 rank, issues with your family or others close to you, so I don’t know. For sure things can change very quickly and now there’s the surface change, it starts again with Monte Carlo, there’s clay where Carlos is the favorite. [there’s a bit about zverev playing well on clay too here that I don’t feel comfortable translating.] There’s a lot of things. Let’s see how it goes.

[here is a bit about lavazza and how he feels like he’s part of the family and they’re great, also not comfortable translating this considering some of the group’s words and actions re: palestine in the past; also It’s just sponsoring lavazza basically lmao]

Imagine, in exactly a month, you’re in Rome. Can you picture how many people will be there, wanting to support you, cheer for you and see you back on court. How do you picture it?

Well, it’ll be important to keep a balance. Between the attention I will receive and especially how I will react to it and a lot of other things, including external factors, so I don’t know. Surely I love playing in Italy, I’ve showed it in Turin, which is a place where I feel safe. Having the crowd on your side is an extra asset, the support from Italians is important, you feel it a lot on court, especially if you’re the opponent of an Italian player, so it’s an asset I can take advantage of. It’s going to be a [makes quote-unquote gesture] problem or a privilege in a month’s time, so there’s still a bit of time and during this time I will try to get ready as best as I can.

Is there a countdown in your head?

Yeah, that’s been a thing since day one honestly, because… I stopped doing what I’ve always dreamt of doing, I’m in the best position to play this sport, so yes, at the beginning I started counting down the days. But every day it gets closer, every day I feel better, physically and mentally, even if there’s still quite a bit to wait. And it’s also a good chance for me to improve in the areas of the game that I had more problems with and to make my comeback on a surface where usually I struggle. So let’s try to do differently [on this surface], and if we manage, that’s great, otherwise I hope we’ll have many more years to try. [smiles]

Yeah, let’s hope so, that there’ll be many of them! They always say when you wait for something you really want, as I imagine you are awaiting your comeback, you remember what you really desired as a kid. What would you compare your desire to come back on court to? To when as a kid you were waiting for which moment, which event?

It’s hard to say. I’d always wanted to become a [F1] pilot, when I was a kid. We didn’t have the money for that so I never even started, but I went karting now, and the night before I couldn’t wait to do it, it was an amazing feeling. It will probably be something similar to that. Then we went cycling a few days later, and with that too there was a desire to try it out, and I think it will be something kind of similar. Knowing, being aware that I’m a good tennis player though. On the go karts I’m maybe not that great [smiles] and I’m really bad at cycling, but anyway, it’s really important, coming back, finding that desire again. But in the moment I took the suspension deal I was very… I didn’t even think about tennis, I thought about how I would spend these months, with which people and that was it.

So, we’ll see you in Rome.

Yeah. See you guys in Rome! There’s not that much time left [smiles] so slowly, day after day, let’s hope to be ready and I’ll see you in Rome.

[laminatednewspaper]

My piece for the @hieronzine book! I love Red Jack and I’ve wanted to make something about the cycle of Red Jacks for SO long!