#2 essays with a lot of citations

[ckret2]

@space-bowl Hi you didn't ask for an essay on this! But I happen to have a detailed headcanon, canon citations, and a piece of art I'm currently eager to procrastinate on so I wrote one anyway!

I base the headcanon that Bill isn't a very good artist on the canonical self-portraits he makes in Journal 3 while possessing Ford:

That looks like the Euclidean equivalent of stick figures to me. I'm not impressed by his artistic prowess.

We know he didn't smuggle out the book he's working on in Theraprism. The Theraprism staff says "you have been contacted through this book against our rules" and includes a photo of Bill working on the journal—if the book was in their hands when they spied him working on it and confiscated it to write a letter in it, then they wouldn't have let it leave the Theraprism. So TBOB is already outside Theraprism when the staff finds Bill making contact with the readers. Plus Ford already knows TBOB exists at the beginning of the book—meaning it was already out in the world before Bill's death.

And so: the book Bill's working on in Theraprism is a different book, through which he (and then the staff) is making psychic contact with TBOB and manipulating TBOB's contents. TBOB never came into Theraprism, and the book Bill was working on in arts & crafts never left Theraprism.

And he SAYS at the start of the book he's manipulating TBOB's contents remotely. When he describes what the book contains, right beside the table of contents, one of the items is:

"Paper" made from pressed, pureed human brain matter. I can invade anything with neurons, so I can project anything I want in here!

In the photo of him working on his end of this TBOB tin-can-telephone, he's beaming his thoughts straight from his mind onto the page (and, presumably, through that page to our page):

On top of that, note what his supplies are: paper, scissors, tape, and glue. We see a clipped-out picture and bits of paper pasted into the journal. He only has one black marker, no other drawing/coloring materials. The journal Bill's making in Theraprism isn't a sketchbook: it's a scrapbook.

And the one time we see Bill deliberately focus on the graphic design aspect of the book, the end result is...

Graphic Design Is My Passion-looking ass.

So here's what I believe: the contents of The Book Of Bill are made up half of a collage of cut-up papers and pictures Bill pasted into his end of the book (magazine pages, textbook pages, newspaper clippings, chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, etc) and then psychically altered the text of to suit his needs; and half of images that Bill projected straight from his mind onto the pages without needing to actually do any art (such as every time Bill himself pops onto the page to talk directly to the reader).

Still requires a little graphic design work on his end; but if he's largely just slapping down pages of somebody else's completed graphic design work, that takes a lot of the required skill out of it. Definitely doesn't require him to know how to draw.

[livixbobbiex]

The use of the twilight aesthetic in Ace Attorney

This somehow started with me thinking about Miles and Phoenix being THE star crossed lovers, but now here we are with a whole essay (with actual citations. You're welcome.). TLDR: Miles and Phoenix pined so hard for each other that their spirits have broken through the veil of space and time. One of my favourite additions to the Ace Attorney 'lore' made by the anime comes in Season 2, Episode 6. The episode is Miles Edgeworth centric, showing how he first 'became a Von Karma' (in a sense), and Phoenix's attempts to contact him when they were both in middle school. The ending of the episode in particular has always stuck out to me.

Here we have Miles thinking about Phoenix, who had 'helped him' earlier by delivering a message to him through a radio show song dedication. The song ultimately gave Miles the evidence he needed to win an argument with a woman at the mall (and saved a dog in the process). As we can see, the scene is set at dusk, or twilight.

Although this is also a really beautiful image, 'twilight' is an incredibly profound and intentional choice.

Now, I will spare you an entire ramble about wabi-sabi as a Japanese aesthetic (you can use here as a starting point though). Basically all you need to know is that it is arguably the most important cultural aesthetic, and means something like the beauty of transience and imperfection.

Twilight, or tasokare (誰そ彼), can be seen through these transient aesthetics. It's something you see a lot in traditional waka poetry, but permeates today through literature and cinema.

"About dusk, we can say that the main feeling is that of the colour of darkness and night. However, twilight is not merely the colour of darkness nor the colour night. That said it is not only the colour of day, nor the colour of light…The world that exists in the instant where it turns from day into night, the boundary of the instant where it enters darkness from light, isn’t there that the twilight world is? …Entering darkness from light, night from day, during that instant there is a world with a peculiar essence and subtle colours, which is what I think is the twilight world."

Izumi Kyouka, 1996. Tasogare no Aji. In Izumi Kyouka, ed. Tomomi Matsumura, 243-44. Tokyo: Center for the Japanese books.

Basically, twilight is all about that transient moment where boundaries drop. Relatedly, there's a supernatural association with it, like the crossing of a veil where the restrictions of 'space' and 'time' can be lifted. Most famously, in terms of modern example of this, take the scene in Your Name.

Admittedly, Your Name is where I was able to find the most analysis. To be fair, it really is a beautiful scene.

In classical Japanese tasokare does not simply indicate the dusk as an in-between period transitioning from day to night, but also a hybrid moment in which visible entities become invisible and hidden presences momentarily reveal themselves. The anxiety of the encounters that take place during this liminal time is emphasised by the expression of surprise - "who is that!" (dare da, are ha 誰だ、あれは) - which constitutes the origin of this term. Therefore, in kimi no na ha, the transfers between the human spirits take place at night during the oneiric activities of the protagonists, but the possibility of a real encounter is limited to the ephemeral time of dusk.

Andrea Castiglioni, 2019. From Your Name to Shin-Gojira. In Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan: The Invisible Empire, ed. Fabio Rambelli, 173.

"Tasokare” means “Who’s in the gloom,” and it’s where the word “gloaming” comes from. You know what “the gloaming” is, right? It’s twilight, when it’s neither day nor night. When the world blurs and you might encounter something not quite human.

Your Name, 2016.

Now, I don't believe you can call this a trope that's exclusively romantic. Though, clearly, it lends itself to that. It certainly conjures the feeling of profound pining, with just a moment of relief (after all, stories of tragic love stories between manifestations of the day and night are common across the entire planet).

Anyway, I hope this explains why, in the Ace Attorney anime, Phoenix turns around and stares, bewildered, as if he actually heard Miles call out to him despite their physical distance.

Funnily enough, they're even under the polaris star, which is also a theme in Your Name. But anyway, yes indeed I think this scene can be taken as Miles and Phoenix pining so hard for each other that their spirits have broken through the veil of space and time.

It's also just really beautiful symbolism, even if it's not 'canon' to the games. Considering the anime also gave them the whole 'gold chains of fate' aesthetic.

[drdemonprince]

Can you offer any (academic) writing advice for Autistics and ADHDers? You clearly write a lot and write very well and very clearly, so some insight into your process would be great. Personally, I tend to struggle with over explaining or over citing (cause I am always getting misunderstood) and that I get very fixated on not misrepresenting what my sources are saying to avoid feeling like I'm lying. All this is time consuming and makes it hard to say what I really want to say. Thanks!

Hi there! I've written an essay about a lot of this, here is the free link to read it on Medium:

Much of my writing process is inspired by the book How to Write a Lot by Paul Silvia, and it is specifically tailored to academics. The advice applies to people who write popular nonfiction or fiction just as easily, however. And he does have advice relevant to the self-editing and self-doubt you describe feeling.

The full piece gets into this more, but here are some of the stand-out tips:

Schedule a regular time to write every week and show up no matter whether you are feeling it or not.

Throw out all your magical thinking about what you "need" to be able to write. You don't need the perfect workspace, divine inspiration, the right pen, the right playlist. You just need to show up to write regularly, and do it

Editing, outlining, working with research notes, and drafting all count as "writing." Don't expect your initial drafts to be perfect or to equate writing only with getting new words on the page.

Try writing in public spaces to help get yourself in the mindset of explaining a concept to someone with a different frame of reference and type of expertise than you. Writing in a cafe or a public library can force you think and write in a more accessible way. (alternatively, you can pretend you are explaining the concept to a specific person in your life who you respect but who doesnt have all the same reference points as you -- sometimes this is called the "Grandma Test". Explain something like you are talking to your grandma.)

In addition to all this, I would add that you should read a lot of writing, both good and bad, especially work that isn't dry and academic. If all you read is journal articles, you'll write a journal article -- and most of those are hell to read, even for academics. read fiction. read bad wattsapp shipping. read substacks. read newspapers. read indulgent personal nonfiction in the cut or whatever. read reddit posts. notice what works and what doesn't. develop an ear.

and then write a lot! it took me 15 years to get good enough for anything i wrote to get noticed. you can expect to take many years to get comfortable developing your own voice, too. i dont know how far along you are, but even when you've made tremendous progress you'll only notice your flaws and feel the most turgid brain foggy moments. that doesn't mean you're failing.

also, to some extent you can embrace your citation-dense, precise manner of self-expression. we are living in a moment of maximalism and indulgent, long creative works. it's the decade of the 5 hour youtube essay and the 2 hour album. my 5,000 word essays do better than my 2,000 word ones. you should strip down unnecessary tangents and trust yourself and your reader a little more probably, but ive found that the more blatantly autistic and indulgent my writing gets the more the right people like it. a writer's flaws and their distinctive voice are kinda hard to separate. you're not for everyone!

good luck!

[gurugirl]

A Good Boy | 2. No Panties?

Summary: Harry goes to visit Y/n and his father for dinner. He tries to be on his best behavior in front of Leo but Y/n is the one that can't hold back.

Note: This is stepmon!reader x stepson!harry - proceed with caution and don't read if you don't like it. Read Part 1 first!

Word Count: 8,857

Warning: 18+ only, NSFW, smut, inappropriate & forbidden relationship, age gap, cheating, lying

A Good Boy Masterlist

think I interrupted your dad and yn having sex when I was leaving yesterday. so embarrassed :(

Harry sat in the library at the University and grinned to himself at the text from Leslie. He was scrambling to finish up his essay that was due later that day. He’d slacked off a bit on Sunday. But he felt that had been worth it. He’d already mostly had his paper done anyway. He just needed to format it and add his citations. Maybe an extra sentence or two and clean up his conclusion. But yeah. Worth it.

He felt like his face was still burning hot and he definitely had a hickey on his clavicle. His t-shirt covered the blue mark but he could still feel her lips on his skin and… well… he could also still smell her. Her perfume. Traces of sex. He hadn’t had time to shower before he left that morning. He’d gotten a little sidetracked when he had her sitting in his lap on the kitchen stool and they were coming together one last time before he had to go. It was as if they hadn’t been sharing their bodies with one another for the better part of the day on Sunday and into the wee hours. He loved that she enjoyed him so much. That she’d been able to come (massive ego boost). That she liked his cock (great big, huge ego boost). He really liked her voice when she was panting dirty words to him and the way she used her tongue to get him off and to paint saliva over the inked designs on his skin.

He swallowed hard as he clicked to save the document and sighed. He knew he was in trouble. Because she was his stepmom and he couldn’t really have her. Couldn’t pursue her and invite her to his dorm. Couldn’t visit her on a whim and beg her to do that thing she did with her-

“Harry,” his thoughts were interrupted when he heard Jay and looked up to see his friend, “Tried calling you yesterday, dude. We all went out to brunch. The one that you were supposed to come to. For your birthday? Remember?” Jay sat down across from him with his own laptop.

“Ahh shit. I forgot man. Sorry.” He did forget. He had been quite preoccupied with Y/n all day. And even if he had remembered he wouldn’t have peeled himself away from her to join his friends for an overpriced, subpar brunch to drink away their hangovers. He could do that on any Sunday. But the chance to have his stepmom in her bed all day with her smooth skin and her soft voice in his ear and her tits in his face… well that was not such a common Sunday activity.

“Got hung up with Leslie then?” Jay raised a brow and smirked before looking at his screen.

Harry scratched the back of his neck and blinked his eyes. He hadn’t thought of what he’d say about what happened. And he really wanted to brag that he’d finally had sex. Over and over again. But he couldn’t, “Uh… sort of. I just drank a lot. But… yeah. The hangover was brutal. Spent most of the day in bed.” At least that last part was true.

“You didn’t get laid? Leslie would’ve you know. And she’s a nice girl too. I know you’re looking for someone sweet. She’s into you, H,” Jay shook his head.

Harry decided to not entertain that line of thinking, “I am sorry, though, man. Just completely slipped my mind. Barely made it here this morning. It was a long day yesterday.”

.           .           .

Y/n threw her sheets into the wash and showered Harry’s scent off her body. Which was a shame because she liked the reminder of him. Her little secret. Not so little really, but quite massive in fact. The secret that is. Of course.

She hated that he needed to go. That he was such a good student and that he took his studies seriously. He had an essay to finish. But also, on the other side of that feeling, she was glad he’d gone when he did because it gave her time to freshen up and get her mind on straight before Leo got home.

Harry had been an absolute surprise to her. Hell, she was a surprise to herself. She’d never done anything so… forbidden. But god was it erotic and it felt so good. Better than good. She was fucked. Even then, she couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face as she sat on The Stool™ and picked at her eggs. Not two hours prior she was coming around him and giving him permission to come inside of her. In that very spot. She wiggled over the stool remembering how his fingers dug into her thighs as he held her steady and moaned into her mouth.

“Ms. Y/n?”

She jumped when she heard Linda’s voice from behind her. She’d nearly forgotten that the housekeeper came on Mondays, “Yes! Hi Linda.”

“I noticed your bed covers are gone. Would you like the satin or cotton?”

“Oh… The cotton is perfect. But with the silk pillowcases, please. Thank you.”

Yes. It was a very good thing that Harry had gone when he did. She couldn’t imagine having to deal with Linda catching them in the act. In the kitchen. On the very stool, she was sat upon.

When Leo came back he left his suitcase near the door and asked Linda to take care of it for him. Y/n greeted him with a hug, “How was it?”

“It was… fine. How was everything here yesterday? We’ll have that all cleaned up today?” He gestured with his chin toward the front door to indicate the yard that still had chairs and tables and lights and a dancefloor in place from the party.

“Yes. In about an hour, they’ll be arriving to pack up everything. And everything was fine here too yesterday.” She smiled.

Leo walked off, presumably to go to his bedroom and shower.

That was easy. Too easy, Y/n decided. She bit her lip and remembered how Harry promised her that no one would need to know. How easy it would be. He was right. Easy peasy.

It all felt like a dream to her as she stepped out into the yard and was reminded of that night. How excited she was but then how confused she felt when they kissed. And then the anger that coursed through her when Harry tried to make her jealous. That had worked. She had been jealous. She didn’t like to admit that but she was. Even with Leonardo, she didn’t care all that much about what he might have been doing last night. But with Harry… her stepson… she shook her head as she walked back inside and decided to do something, anything, to get her mind off him. Because she was already missing him. Missing his dimples and his voice. His pink lips and tattoos. The way his breath smelled like her and his curls that were wild after they showered and he let it air dry.

And she could still feel him too. An entire day of sex was exhausting in the best way. But her body knew where it had been and who it had been with. She still tingled with need despite how satisfied she felt.

Then her eyes roved the kitchen island and she spotted a ring. His ring. A simple thick white gold band. She suddenly had an idea.

.           .           .

It felt good to turn his fully completed essay in on time despite how rushed it had been last minute. But then that only reminded him of why it was last minute and he was left grinning as he walked back to his dorm.

He figured he was due for a shower as he took a piss after looking down over himself and catching her scent again. Remnants of her were matted into the bit of hair at the base of his prick. It was a pity to wash away her soft feminine perfume but it would have been weird if he didn’t bathe himself. Right?

Turning on his shower he heard his phone ding and he plucked it up quickly, his heart pounding heavily in his chest when he realized it was Y/n.

Left something here. Guess we’re gonna have to figure out a way to get it back to you.

Attached to the message was a photo of her pretty thumb dawning said something. His ring. But that wasn’t the intent of the photo he realized when he took the whole picture in. She was naked behind it. Blurred just enough as a background image but he could see the curve of her waist and her tits and the color of her flesh uninterrupted by any fabric. The details weren’t clear but he knew what it was.

So Harry smirked to himself and took a photo of his own bare finger, sans the ring, and used the focus to keep the details at the forefront clear but have the background with his naked frame blurred.

you’re right. feel naked without it. any suggestions on ways i can have it returned?

He sat his phone down and already his prick was thickening up. From a single fucking text with a photo of blurry flesh tones.

Licking his lips he waited for her to text back but after a minute he decided he could just wash off and rub one out in the meantime.

And perhaps it was all the sex he’d had the day prior, and even that very morning, but his quick shower where he was meant to just come in under two minutes took a little longer. He stroked and stroked and moaned (thank god he had no roommates) and his thighs shook as he was reminded of how Y/n had bent herself over and bared her ass to him just the night before.

“Let’s try it like this. Use your hips to just rail me. Fuck me like you want me to remember you for days, Harry.”

So he did. His thighs were burning as he steadied himself in a hasty rhythm and used his hands to squeeze her bottom and watched as he stuffed his cock into her repeatedly. She rubbed at her clit and cried out each time he bottomed out.

“Spank me. Really hard. Both sides.” Her words were panted as she turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. Her tits swayed at each of his heavy thrusts and he brought his palm down over her ass and she hissed with a grin, “Harder. I know you can do it better than that…. FUCK!”

He guffawed as his next strike caused her to shriek and she moaned and then melted into the mattress as he continued swatting her bare bottom, “God yes. Just like that. You are so good, Harry. Such a good boy.”

He placed his palm onto the linoleum shower as he came. His orgasm poured out of his tip in spurts as he groaned and spoke her name between breaths.

With the towel wrapped around his waist, he smiled when he noted two new texts from her after stepping out of the shower.

Tit for tat I see. I deserved that.

Leo’s leaving this weekend. Friday morning. Won’t be back til Monday night. Perhaps we can arrange something for you to come pick up your ring then?

Harry took a deep breath as he read over her words. He didn’t have classes on Fridays so he could potentially go there Thursday night. But then his dad would still be there. But of course, the sooner he could see her the better. Even if Leo was around.

How’s Thursday night? And I feel like it’s gonna take a few days for me to get over the loss of the ring so if you don’t mind me staying until Monday morning then I think that can work.

.           .           .

She hated deleting the texts. But it was necessary. It wasn’t as if Leo would ever go through her phone but still. He didn’t care if she had a sidepiece. He would, however, care that her sidepiece was his son. She was certain of that. Even though he hadn’t said specifically, don’t have sex with Harry, he didn’t need to. It was something that went without saying. A moral boundary. She knew better. But she wasn’t sure that she wanted to stop. No, she was sure she didn’t want to stop. Harry was… tender and fun and sexy. He was eager and vibrant. Confident without being egotistical.

There were more photos and suggestive messages over the following days. Until he finally arrived Thursday evening after his last class.

He’d called Leo and told him he was coming over for dinner that night and that he’d stay and leave the following day.

So that’s how Y/n found herself with her little apron floating across the kitchen making dinner for the three of them. She had a little music playing and felt the nerves bubbling out of her tummy. She couldn’t wait to see Harry again. Just to lay eyes on him. To hear his voice. There could be no funny business that night, but she had him for the entire weekend and it was like a dream. She felt like she was in high school again. Heart thumping in her chest, head spinning and swimming. She kept getting interrupted by her thoughts. Wooden spoon in hand, hovering over the bowl with her head in the clouds. Images of what they’d done together, what they would do together.

He seemed to really enjoy eating her out. And his enthusiasm for it was obvious on Sunday when they were curled up together on the couch watching a movie and he dragged her legs over his lap and then asked…

“Can I try again? Want to see if I can make you come.”

His fingers reached up underneath her shorts and slowly dragged along the seam of her panties with his eyes growing dark as he licked his lips, “Please?”

He’d been trying. The first time he hadn’t made her come because she stopped him to have him play with her tits while he was fingering her. The second time she nearly came. Was so close but he couldn’t quite get her to tip. She reassured him that was normal. Most guys couldn’t really make a woman come if they didn’t know her body well enough, “No one has ever made me come from only eating me out. Ever. Don’t feel bad about it, Harry.”

But he wanted to try again. Third time’s a charm and all. So she nodded and he quickly rid her of her shorts and panties and dug in. He did everything he learned she liked and went slowly and softly at first. Watching her intently and moaning into her pussy.

She’d long forgotten the movie they were watching in favor of enjoying the scene with Harry’s mouth and fingers trying to work her to her end.

“Please… I need you to come. What do you need? Tell me exactly what you want so I can be good. Want to be the best for you.”

She thought for a moment. Since she’d never come from cunnilingus she figured maybe it was because she’d never sat on anyone’s face before. Perhaps a change in position…

Harry lay flat on the couch as she straddled his face and put her palms on the cushioned arm as he pulled her down over him and got back to lapping and sucking.

That was good. That felt… really good. The more she settled into the position of having her thighs around his head as she sat over his mouth she began rolling her hips slowly and realized that also felt really good. His nose was perfectly big enough that she could use it on her clit every time she shifted her hips up, but then each time she tilted her pelvis down Harry’s lips and tongue would stimulate her clit. It was perfect. The right amount of soft licking and sucking along with that healthy friction she got from his nose.

When she felt that initial tingle, the spark of her orgasm snaking around to her center she was surprised and relieved. She was finally going to come. And she was glad it was Harry who was doing it.

But Harry was beyond glad. He loved the idea that he could be her first for something. When he felt her quivering and her gasps turned into soft moans and chants of his name as she yanked his hair and ground herself over him his eyes fluttered into the back of his head. She was coming on his face and it was all he ever wanted. He didn’t even know it was anything he’d been missing out on but to have a woman coming from oral sex, from the way he flicked his tongue and kissed her pussy made her lose it and that was the best thing that happened to him all day. Yes, he’d lost his virginity but this was a notch on the belt of experience. This earned him bragging rights.

She collapsed over him when she began to come down and he caught her by her hips before she fell off the edge of the couch, “C’mere. I wanna hold you.” He laughed as he pulled her into his arms before she toppled over the arm of the couch.

She realized how beyond fucked she really was in that moment. With his eyes on hers and his arms holding her to his chest and their hearts beating in synch. He was special to her. His genuine care had her filled with butterflies and confusion, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist him ever again.

She sighed as she shook that memory from her mind. Stay on track, Y/n.

Leo hadn’t made it back from his appointment that afternoon yet but it was LA and traffic was rotten at that time of day. She hoped Harry wasn’t too caught up on the 101.

When her phone chimed with the notice that someone had arrived at the gate she swallowed and tried to keep calm. It could be Harry. It could be Leo. She had her hands deep in soggy flour so she couldn’t check to see which but either way. Harry was going to be there.

She heard the door close and her heart rate picked up. SZA’s Snooze was playing and she grinned to herself at the irony and before she could call out to see who had come in she saw him enter the kitchen. It wasn’t unlike last week when he came in with his duffle bag and that sexy smirk. Except this time it held so many other layers.

“Leo’s not back yet. Had an appointment downtown. How was traffic?” Small talk. That’s how she’d start. Her nerves were on fire as he raised a brow and placed his bag on the floor and sauntered toward her.

She tried following him with her eyes as he walked behind her without a word. Her hands were still stuffed in the flour mixture as Harry pressed his chest to her back and put his arms onto the island on either side of her, “Like this song.”

His voice in her ear was sultry and she knew that drop in his tone. She gasped as he pressed his warm lips to her neck and then swayed her with his crotch glued to her bottom. She closed her eyes and let his proximity and his touch filter into her bones and her veins and her cells. His lips were soft as he moved up toward her cheek and she felt him smile, “Nobody do body like you…” he sang the words quietly and nosed at her cheekbone as he rocked them to the slow beat.

God, she hadn’t been with anyone that was just so naturally good at being sexy and dreamy like Harry. He was a dream. He might have been a virgin before but he was sensual and flirty and exciting in a way she’d never known. He might have not had all that much experience, but he was a natural lover. Thoughtful and romantic without even needing instructions.

“How long til he’s back?” He spoke his words against the corner of her lips as she turned her face toward him. Her lips were already parted and her eyes were closed.

“I don’t know. Traffic is bad. He said he’d be home at five but it’s already six.”

Harry’s hands found her waist as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her mouth. She swooned. She actually swooned, nearly falling and passing out in his arms like one of those Victorian women who wore their corsets too tight and any little excitement would have them fainting.

Harry laughed against her lips, “You okay?”

She nodded and looked at him as he craned his neck to see her eyes, “I need to wash my hands. I’ve got wet flour all over them.”

The grin on Harry’s face was devious as he looked from where her hands were stuffed into the flour and then back to her face. He wasn’t budging at all, “So pretty with this apron on. Didn’t think you could be any prettier but here we are.” His fingers moved down to her hips.

She was wearing a dress. A little short. She wanted to look cute. And her plan to not wear panties was suddenly dawning on her as she felt the tiniest bit of slip on her thighs. She grinned back at him, “Thank you, Harry. Always so polite.”

He nodded and stepped back an inch as he moved his hands from her hips down to her bare thighs, “I try. I do my best to please you, ma’am.” His smirk remained as his finger slowly pushed the hem of her skirt upward, “You don’t mind if I just take a peek?” He tilted his head as he looked at her, his fingers inching up slowly, “To tide me over til tomorrow? Missed you.”

Y/n bit her lip and felt her neck grow warm. He was about to see what she didn’t have on underneath but she nodded, “Okay. Go ahead.”

The fabric of her dress was pulled upward and the air of the kitchen was cool over her backside. Harry groaned as her supple bottom came into view, not a single shred of material to cover herself from him, “Fuck. No panties?”

Her chest rose and fell deeply. She could have him just quickly fuck her. Who knew when Leo would return? It would be risky-

Harry dropped to his knees, “Please… can I have a little taste. Just a…” he smushed his fingers into her bottom and kneaded her flesh apart to get a better glimpse, “Please?”

“God, Harry. Okay.” It was insane. Absolutely nonsensical for this to be happening but it was. His tongue roved her folds as he moaned and lapped at her from behind. Slick and warm with his fingers biting into her skin. But when he slid his fingers over her clit she gasped and leaned forward to allow him more and Harry dug his face into her deeper.

It was quite the scene. From the front of the kitchen, one would only see Y/n leaned over the counter with her apron and hands in the bowl of dough, her eyes closed and mouth dropped open as she panted his name. But just behind the island, hidden from view, there was her stepson, eating her out with her ass bared to him and his tongue plowing through her labia.

Suddenly they heard the door close and Harry quickly stood up and wiped his arm over his face as he backed away from his stepmom and turned to the sink to wash his hands.

His cock was so hard but luckily his dark jeans would hide what he had going on.

Y/n was still panting with dark eyes as Leo stepped into the kitchen, “My son!” He crossed the room and wrapped Harry in a quick hug before backing away.

That was a close call. Y/n tried regulating her breathing as she pulled her fingers out of the dough and smiled at Leo, “He just got here. You both have great timing! Dinner will be ready in about an hour.” She lifted her sticky fingers and moved to the sink to rinse her hands off as Harry said something to his dad about traffic and then excused himself to go up to his room for a bit. Her teeth dug into her lip as she looked down into the sink at her flour-covered fingers and imagined Harry taking care of himself in his bedroom as he thought of her. She didn’t miss the way his prick started to stiffen when he was pressed into her back as he kissed her neck.

It was crazy to Y/n how quickly she could shift from being blushy and hot to being composed and cool in front of Leo. Dinner was plated and the three of them sat outside in the garden overlooking the pool.

Leo picked out a nice cabernet for them to share and Harry sipped a glass of tequila. She tried not to pay too much attention to Harry’s hands as he ate and grasped his glass. Or his lips as she spoke. She glanced at his jaw a few times as he chewed his bites and she spoke about the tennis club and then they got onto the topic of the war in Ukraine.

As cold as Leonardo was, he was at least of sound mind when it came to politics. He was liberal and he was quite a forward thinker. He was fair in his opinions. At least.

Her second glass of wine had her ears warming up and she felt more relaxed. No one would have guessed she was a ball of nerves but she was. Harry being at the table with his soft green eyes finding hers every few minutes as they spoke felt especially weighty when Leo was there too.

But on the surface, everything appeared as normal.

“And how are your grades?” Leo asked his son.

Harry perked up and nodded, “Good. All A’s. Nearly missed turning in a complete essay on Monday after that party but got it in just in time and got a 90 on it. Felt pretty good.” He pulled his lips inward to hide the grin that threatened to make its appearance as he caught Y/n’s gaze on him. Their expressions were similar. A knowing look. A secret only they shared.

“Figured. You’re always an excellent student. Never have to worry about you mucking it up do I?” Leo boasted.

“He is a great student. I even offered for him to stay longer on Sunday to relax but he was so intent on getting his schoolwork done instead. It’s quite impressive.” She didn’t need to chime in. Her words were a lie. Though she did know he was a great student, and that was impressive.

Harry smiled down at his plate before letting his eyes wander up to Y/n’s, “Thank you, ma’am. I take pride in learning and being good at what I do.”

She clenched her jaw and stifled a small titter she nearly let out. His innuendo wasn’t missed by her, “It shows too,” she spoke wryly and then bit into her roasted cauliflower.

His nostrils flared as he mimicked her by biting into a forkful and chewing hastily.

When they’d finished up dinner, they all made their way to the heated pool after changing into their swimwear.

It was… a task. A task to not look at Harry’s lean muscles and tattoos. The soft part of his hips that gave way to the elastic of his yellow trunks. His strong thighs. She swallowed to moisten her throat at the sight of him with dimples as he laughed at something Leo said.

But she felt his eyes on her as she stepped into the pool. She pretended not to be bothered by knowing his eyes were scanning her in small increments. He couldn’t gawk at her in front of his father, but he could take subtle glances to feast on.

To Harry, though, he wasn’t getting enough. He wanted to paste his eyes onto her body and allow himself to splurge on her tummy and her back. He was already keyed up a bit at the idea of having his brains fucked out all weekend. He knew he could be patient. He had to be. Leo joked around with Harry about Leslie a bit. Even he thought his own son was getting girls left and right. He had no idea that Harry had been a virgin until only days prior.

“I’m glad you came over today so I could spend a little time with you. Haven’t done anything like this in a while. And your birthday party doesn’t count either.”

The sun started to go down, oranges and pinks covering the horizon toward the Pacific Ocean, as they listened to music over the blue tooth speakers, and the subject of conversation had started on sports. Y/n zoned out a little. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy sports, but in comparison to Leo, she was nearly clueless. She watched the dusk take over what had been a bright blue sky only thirty minutes earlier and smiled to herself as Harry’s voice floated over the water toward her as he spoke to his father.

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom. Be right back!” Harry spoke as he pulled his wet body out of the pool, climbing up onto the patio, his body dripping with water as he padded his way toward the back of the house.

Leo placed his back toward the edge of the pool and rested against it, “What do you have planned this weekend? Going out tomorrow with the girls?”

“Oh… I might. I’m not sure. Actually, Cyndee wasn’t feeling well this morning so we’re just playing it by ear. Tennis club Saturday. Maybe just hang out here in the pool. Relax. Not much. Bet you’re gonna have a good time in the Hamptons.”

Just as Leo was about to respond his phone rang and he cursed under his breath as he pulled himself out of the pool, in much the same way Harry had only moments before. He wiped his hands on his towel before lifting his cell phone up to his ear and holding a finger out to Y/n as he walked toward the back of the house to take the call.

Looking out to the horizon, the pinks had turned purple and the sky grew darker. The music on the speakers was some sort of slow hip-hop song she wasn’t familiar with but she liked the beat. Easy and a little sexy. From her peripheral, she saw Harry walking toward the pool.

She turned her head and grinned, “That was fast.”

Harry wore a small frown and slid into the water right next to his stepmom, “Yeah. Just went to the pool house. And um…” he turned to look back toward the house and lowered his voice, “Is he cheating on you, Y/n?”

The breath in her lungs stilled at his question. She wasn’t sure how much Harry knew about her and his father’s situation but she knew she hadn’t told him everything. And she knew that it was unlikely he would be privy. It wouldn’t have been his business in any normal circumstance. But theirs was not a normal circumstance.

Shaking her head she let out the breath she was holding and looked at his kind eyes brushing her fingers in between his under the warm water, “Not really. We have an agreement… But we don’t discuss the details with each other. We are free to see other people. But don’t tell your dad I said anything.”

Harry’s frown remained as he shook his head, “Of course, I would never say anything. Are you… seeing other people too?”

“No. God no. Since I married Leo I haven’t been interested in seeing anyone else. Until you.”

The frown lines slowly disappeared as his soft lips curved up, “Yeah? Really? You’ve been free to be with anyone? But it’s just me?”

Harry’s hand grasped her thigh as he stood only inches from her in the pool. Definitely closer than appeared innocent.

Nodding her head and letting him pull at her leg she spoke in a murmur after looking over Harry’s shoulder to make sure they were in the clear, “Just you, baby. You’re all I want.”

His demeanor changed back into his bright and confident self at her words, “So if I ask you really nicely you’ll give me anything I want, right? S’what you said Sunday.”

Y/n breathed out a laugh and cocked her head, “Depends. Tell me what you want.”

Harry’s fingers moved up her thigh slowly as he spoke in a whisper, “Let me come to your room tonight.”

She raised her brows and scoffed, “Well that certainly wasn’t asking nicely was it? Sounded more like you telling me.”

He licked his lips and dropped his gaze to her mouth, “Please, ma’am,” the smirk on his face deepened his adorable dimples, “Can I come to your room tonight? After he’s asleep?” He motioned with his chin toward the back of the house indicating his father.

“And what do you think is going to happen if you are allowed to come to my room tonight?” She tried hiding her own grin but it was futile. Harry’s smile and the way his hand was pasted to the inside of her thigh, only a hand’s distance from the crotch of her bikini bottom was making her feel dizzy.

“Whatever you want ma’am. I’ll do anything. Even if it’s just to hold you.” His tongue swiped over his bottom lip and his eyes were hooded. He was turned on.

Letting her hand drift toward his swim shorts she grazed her fingers over his crotch and sucked in a small breath as she kept her eyes on his, “Poor thing. When was the last time you came Harry?”

A laugh puffed out of his nose as he continued speaking in a low whisper, “This morning.”

Looking at the house and back to Harry she cupped him in her hand and moaned lightly, “Oooh… I see. A horny thing aren’t you? What did you think about?” She slid her hand into the waistband of his trunks and wrapped her palm around his smooth shaft and watched as his lips parted and he closed his eyes to take it in.

“You. You’re all I think about, Y/n.”

“Me?” She spoke into his ear as he opened his eyes to look at her, “I’m so flattered. What do you imagine? Am I sucking you off in your fantasy? Are you fucking me? Tell me about it?”

She was surprised by the way he was looking at her. As if he were the dominant. The aggressor, yet she knew he’d bend immediately if she told him to. She loved his moxie. Loved how he oozed confidence despite the way he’d beg her and whimper for her.

His fingers found the edge of the fabric of her bikini at the lower part of her hip and poked a finger in, moving it down toward her inner thigh, “This morning I imagined I was eating you out. Came all over myself in my bed wishing you were sitting on my face smothering me with your pussy.”

She’d met her match. Harry was not shy to say dirty things. He was submissive to her but he was still very much able to keep her on her toes. She swallowed and nearly pulled him down so she could kiss him but she saw Leo return and quickly released Harry’s dick and leaned back into the edge of the pool to act as if they’d only been talking.

Both Y/n and Harry were a mess until it was bedtime. Harry was thankful his boner went down before he got out of the pool and Y/n was just glad that the wet between her legs was disguised by pool water.

“I’ve got to get up at like 5 am so I’m gonna go to bed. Harry stay up as late as you like bud,” he leaned in and kissed Y/n’s forehead as they all stood in the kitchen, “Probably won’t see you in the morning. I’ll call you later after I land.”

When Leo had gone upstairs and Y/n put away the clean dishes from the dishwasher Harry was seated at the island quietly.

“You gonna go to bed? Or are you not tired?” Y/n asked as she pulled out a stool to sit on.

Harry glanced down at the empty stool between them and back up to his stepmom, “Not particularly tired no. Was hoping you had an answer for me. About the question I politely asked you earlier.”

Sighing she put her elbows onto the marble and kept her gaze on Harry’s, “You know this can only work if we don’t get caught.”

He nodded, “We won’t. I’ll be quiet as a mouse.”

She smiled and sat up, “Do you smoke weed?”

Harry blinked his eyes at the sudden change of topic and nodded, “Yeah. Not like every day but often.”

She bit her lip and looked at the corner of the room. Contemplating whether she should or not. She should. She definitely should. And why not? It was just a little weed. And she needed to calm down. As composed as she appeared, she was vibrating with nerves and her body ached for him but she knew they couldn’t do anything tonight.

“Come with me.” She jumped down from the stool and Harry followed her upstairs to her room. She closed the door and locked it before crouching down in front of her dresser and opening up the bottom drawer, retrieving a box and lifting it upward, “My stash. If you ever need some and I’m not here, you’re welcome to it.” She spoke as she stood up and opened the lid.

“Wow. My stepmom’s a stoner. Had no idea.” Harry laughed quietly as he stood behind Y/n and looked over her shoulder down into the box.

“I’m not! I just like a puffy treat once in a while. Something to help me sleep and calm my anxiety.” She pulled out a joint and a lighter.

“You have anxiety?”

She shrugged as she walked across the room toward the large window that looked out to the backyard, “Kind of. Not diagnosed or anything but low level. I get anxious sometimes. This helps to make my mind chill a little.”

She sparked up the tip and inhaled as she unhooked the window lock and pushed the glass outward to open up before blowing the plume out into the night air.

Harry nodded at her words. He supposed it was the same for him. Low level. Normal levels he imagined. He took the joint she passed him and drew the cannabis into his lungs.

After a few lungfuls each Harry could feel the softening of his nerves and yet, it did nothing to calm how aroused he was around Y/n, “So does this mean you’re gonna let me stay in your bed with you tonight?”

She stamped out the joint and placed it on the windowsill before turning to look up at Harry. She was ready to jump his bones but she knew they had to be quiet. They could get to the juicy stuff tomorrow. Perhaps that evening would just be about being close and talking in whispers.

“Yeah. But no sex. It’s too loud. We have plenty of time for that all weekend,” her grin was adorable and Harry couldn’t help himself when he grasped her chin and kissed her lips.

It took her by surprise but she melted into him quickly as she wrapped her arms around him. Harry walked her backward to her bed and pulled her in with him before parting from the kiss, “Like I said. I’ll take anything you give me. No sex is fine with me.”

The problem with lying in a bed naked (Harry didn’t want to go and get his sweatpants from his bedroom and since he was naked he insisted that Y/n be naked with him and she easily obliged) with your brand new lover after having smoked a little weed is that it’s hard not to be horny. It’s hard to keep a ‘no sex’ rule when you still have so much to explore and the person you’d love to explore is lying right next to you without a shred of clothing covering anything.

Harry tried not to let his hands wander. He kept his palm over her hip, only letting his thumb travel over her skin softly as he spoke. And she kept her hand a safe distance from his cock, which was thick and hard, ready to be used.

“Well, when I graduated last year it was the same. All the professors really just wanted their students to get a good grade so they were always helpful and then would offer extra credit. You’ll be fine, Harry. You’re so smart.”

“Feels that way. Which is nice. I like having a little bit of a break.”

Y/n kept her eyes on his as he spoke and then they were quiet for a moment when Y/n was reminded of something, “What did you hear Leo saying that made you ask me if he was cheating?”

Harry didn’t stop his slow touches over her sides as he spoke, “I heard him say that he had to keep his voice down because his wife and his son were nearby. Then he said he couldn’t wait to see them either, but it sounded like he was speaking to a woman or like a lover. Not a friend.”

She nodded and squinted her eyes. She hadn’t known Leo to be sneaking away for calls to lovers. She always imagined that anyone he might have on the side would be a once or twice sort of thing. Someone who might not even have his number. But perhaps she was wrong.

But she wasn’t upset. She had Harry in her bed and his dark curls were messy with the way she ran her fingers through it earlier. She scraped her nails lightly over his pecs.

“Can I kiss you?” His voice barely came out above a whisper.

“Harry…” she looked into his eyes and then down between them and moaned softly, letting her hand travel down just a little, “If you kiss me it’s not gonna stop there. And you know it.”

The smirk on his lips edged upward on the right side of his mouth, “So you’re saying you can’t resist, is that right?”

She laughed and rolled her eyes, “No. I’m saying you can’t resist.”

Harry shook his head and rounded his eyes innocently, “Ma’am, with all due respect…” his nostrils flared as he spoke in jest, fingers digging into her hip, “I will do literally anything you tell me to. And if you say we’re not going to have sex, then I will resist. It’s you who makes all the decisions here. I’m simply following your lead. And all I’m asking for is a kiss.”

He had a point and she knew that was the truth. She wanted to fuck his brains out, that was the reality. And if his pillowy lips wrapped around hers and his tongue lapped at hers she’d be climbing over him and attaching herself to his cock.

Instead of answering she continued pushing her hand down his abs and toward his heavy cock, softly ghosting her fingers over his tip and he keened.

“Fuck…” Harry breathed out his words and he closed his eyes.

“I wish we could, Harry. But we can’t. It’s too risky.” She wanted to grasp him in her hand but she only brushed her fingers over him. Just to touch. Just a little.

His hand moved up from her hip and over her arm to her neck and then her face, “Fine with me. Love just being here with you. What would you do with me if we could right now?”

Y/n licked her lips and pushed her face into his touch as she scooted into him closer, “I’d have you creampie me and then I’d climb onto your face and make you eat your come out of my pussy until I orgasm.”

Harry’s mouth dropped open and the tiniest whine from the back of his throat sounded, “Fuck. I want that. Can we try that first thing in the morning?”

Nodding her head she felt his fingers drop to her jaw, gently rubbing his knuckles over her skin, “Definitely. Yeah.”

His face was so close to hers. She was throbbing already, clenching tight as her skin heated up under his gaze. He looked like he could devour her and it made her heart thrash in her chest.

“Yeah? Want me to fill you up? You like that, don’t you? Then I’ll let you smear it all over my face, clean you all up with my tongue and make you wish you were married to me. There’s no way I’d ever want anyone else if I had you.”

Y/n’s eyes went wide for a moment but she actually couldn’t be mad at that. If she wasn’t so far gone and horny out of her mind she might have scolded him for that but instead, she groaned softly and pulled him in for the kiss she’d been desperate for.

She hadn’t meant to. Not really. She was going to just lie with him and fall asleep and keep things quiet and tame. But she couldn’t stop it. She needed him. Needed him to soothe her ache and her heart.

Harry trembled as he pulled her in closer and opened his mouth for her, kissing her back wetly as his mouth was already watering. He was going to get what he wanted. He smiled into the kiss knowing where it was leading as she pulled him on top of her and she spread her legs, “Fuck me and come inside of me. If you make one peep we’re stopping.”

Harry breathed in and out slowly to ground himself as he lined his tip up to her sodden entrance. She was soaked. And puffy. Her clit was standing at attention because of how aroused she was. How aroused he made her.

He plunged into her and dropped his mouth wide as she closed her eyes and panted at the feel of him, “Yes…” she whispered.

Harry’s face was set in anguish as he rocked into her. His cock had been so hard and already leaked from the tip before she even kissed him. It was only going to be a matter of minutes before he was going to fill her up like she wanted.

Wet, sloppy sex sounded in the room and her mattress gave way to their weight at each of Harry’s thrusts. He was good to keep quiet but Y/n was struggling the most as she peeped the tiniest moans and then breathed his name softly as she felt him throbbing inside of her.

“Come inside of me, baby. Give me your come. Want it…”

Harry was quivering and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as his penis was sheathed in her tight pussy. It was warm and wet and his cock felt so good moving inside of her that he couldn’t hang on one moment longer. He clenched his teeth and his balls tightened as he fucked into her, his orgasm filling her to the brim. His ears rang as he came and his chest heated up from ecstasy.

Y/n watched in awe. Harry was good. He stayed quiet but even better was the way he felt when he was orgasming inside of her. His heavy cock pumped and throbbed and she felt every one of his ridges and shot of come that poured out from his tip. Perhaps it was the weed that made her so sensitive but it was an incredible feeling.

And Harry was blown away by having an orgasm inside of Y/n while he was a little high. He’d never trembled so hard in his life but he couldn’t stop shaking as he came and eventually calmed from his orgasm. He was shivering still as he held himself up over her with a grin. Proud that he’d managed to stay completely quiet.

“Good boy. Just like I told you. Now, you ready to use that mouth to clean me up? I need to come so bad, Harry.”

He nodded as his shaky limbs steadied himself, pulling out and then quickly grasping her ankles and lifting her legs upward to see it. To watch the bit of his creamy come drip from her pussy.

“S’pretty isn’t it?” She asked as she watched his face. He’d gotten lots of eyefuls of his creampies on Sunday. He nodded and then released her legs before plopping down on his back and scooting himself into position so she could climb on.

Before lowering her pussy to his mouth she watched as his come dripped over his lips and kept her hands at the headboard, “Eat it.”

Harry licked his lips and swallowed before opening his mouth again and looking up at her eyes. He just wanted her to sit on him so he could make her come.

The moment her cunt covered his lips she gasped when he pulled at her clit and his tongue lapped up her messy pussy. Swallowing his come mixed with her sticky arousal he moaned softly into her.

She grasped onto his hair as she gyrated over him, rubbing herself on his lips and over his nose, her pussy was on fire from need and desperation and the prickle of his facial hair.

“Fucking gonna make me come, baby. Oh my god, Harry…” she panted her words as quietly as she could while she used his face for her pleasure. Harry tried to keep his eyes open but she was riding his face roughly and it was almost impossible. He wanted to watch her tits bounce and the way her lips parted, wanted to watch her come as he ate her out. He forced his eyes open every few moments to see her riding his face as he held on to her thighs.

She began to spiral into a boiling-hot orgasm as her thighs nearly gave out from the exertion of her muscles. Looking down at where she was rubbing herself on him she was struck by his vibrant green eyes on hers as she began to come. The tight cord inside of her snapped and she gushed over his face. His nose was amazing. She kept bumping her clit into it and riding over the tip of it but being sure to give him air in between.

His face was shiny and pink and his eyes were droopy by the time she caught her breath. She shakily moved herself to lie over his body, pressing her chest into his and nuzzling into his neck. She was spent. He was spent.

Not only was it late, but they were both a little high from the joint they shared. Tired was an understatement.

She could have fallen asleep right over his chest like she was. Harry wrapped his arms around her and spoke quietly, “We should clean up. I’m all sticky and wet.”

Y/n groaned and smiled as she looked up at him. The handsome young man with her wet arousal smeared all over his face, “You’re right. Then we’ll go to sleep.”

The moment they were cleaned and snuggled under the covers with limbs intertwined Harry drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Y/n was sure that having Harry in her bed was the best part of their affair. His warm limbs loosened and his heartbeat slowed as he began to lightly snore with his mouth open. He was adorable. Not just adorable. He was striking and self-assured. He was smart and gentle. He was affectionate.

She hadn’t realized how much she missed affection. She’d been without it for so long that she thought the affection her friends gave her was quite enough. But now that she had a taste of Harry’s sunny smile and his tender heart she wasn’t sure she could go back to the once-per-week schedule of sex and then separate rooms after. The occasional hug and kiss. That just wouldn’t do anymore. Harry was forbidden but she was already hooked.

A/N: The next part will be their “quiet” weekend together 👀

3. Overheard

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[archive-z]

rambling abt my notetaking methods as someone with memory problems for @divorceblogger

i am not an organised person by nature, but in my apartment Everything Must Have Its Designated Place, and that place must be the most intuitive place i will look for something — keys Must be hanging by door, bc if i leave my keys literally anywhere else (coat pocket, bag) i will NOT remember and then i will not be able to lock my door & leave for the day. the goal is work with my brain, not against it. things should be in the most intuitive place possible, and if they can’t be, i should “leave a trail of breadcrumbs” in order to help myself find what i KNOW i will forget. this is also a strategy i apply to my world of Concepts and IdeasTM.

previously, i was organising my notes into a google doc where each entry was dedicated to a single book/chapter/essay, with (1) a summary of the text, (2) relevant quotations transcribed & cited, (3) my own thoughts responding to the material, and (4) other works in the bibliography that i should check out.

This presented several problems: google doc quickly became massive an unwieldy for a 2-year research project & v laggy

lots of closely related ideas existed in isolation bc it was organised by-book instead of concept-first

couldn’t remember where to find shite bc i would have to recall the exact book the idea was from to find it (BAD for the “trail of breadcrumbs” approach)

very linear process — read & summarised one text, moved on to the next. not letting ideas “accumulate“ (build upon each other) bc it was difficult to search/constantly have to refresh myself on notes i’d made six months to a year ago

~late 2021 or early 2022, this talk is what rly sold me on adopting obsidian. i started using obsidian as my primary notetaking tool, specifically for its ability to hyperlink between concepts & display those connections in graph view (picture above). it solved the problems above with the added benefits of being Not Google & being able to sync to my phone/ipad/laptop (via icloud).

now my process looks like:

Step One: Read the material in its entirety while highlighting and making notes in the margins

by entirety I mean like full article, full chapter. if it is a full book, this is going to take multiple sittings bc i only have the cognitive stamina to absorb one chapter at a time. trying to push thru mental fatigue will exacerbate memory problems into a self-fulfilling spiral. the highlighting & annotating is absolutely essential bc it lets me talk back to the book while reading, without the cognitive fatigue/loss of momentum of stopping read to type up notes, etc.

Step Two: Go thru the material again from the beginning, this time transcribing important quotations into a note

somehow people have gotten zotero to talk to their obsidian by tbqh i haven’t bothered bc i’m fairly fast at writing my citations, and the plugins rabbit hole seems like a massive upfront time investment to me.

Step Three: talk back to the material, write my own thoughts & summaries, make connections with other works/ideas

having obsidian as this big repository of my thoughts on previous books i’ve read, previous movies I’ve seen, concepts and defintions from essays, etc makes really easy for me to start writing a new note with my thoughts about something and just go “okay, I’ll put this concept in [[ square brackets ]] so it can link to my note with all my info on that subject rather than rooting thru one million notebooks or folders of misc notes and projects to find what I’d already written abt that subject”

Step Four: Break the material into smaller units of information

i breakdown/separate out my note on a single book/essay into several smaller interlinked notes abt the concepts covered. that way the information lives (with correct bibliographical citation) in a note titled with the concept, and then that note can get added to incrementally with each new book read. this allows my notes to be organised concept-first rather than book-first.

this — ESPECIALLY the part where i connect the notes to other notes — is a rly important part of the process bc it is the “leaving myself a trail of breadcrumbs” to be able to remind myself of concepts/ideas/texts i may have already encountered that feature similar ideas. if i am wondering if i’ve previously written anything on “regicide” i can click on the note called “regicide” and discover i’d written abt macbeth AND hamlet but not agamemnon and leave a note saying “come back to this and connect it to yr other ideas abt regicide as a form of [[patricide]] in [[agamemnon]]”.

Step Five: leave yrself “on ramps” to revisit notes as new concepts are added and connected

i can’t remember where i got this advice, but it was when you are writing more than can be achieved in a single sitting, leave yourself an “on ramp” before you finish for the day. like if i am coming back to something, maybe it’s not the next day but a whole week later. it is a lot more helpful if i open up a note i was working on and see “REMEMBER: YOU WANTED TO LOOK UP THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS FOR THREAD AND FATE TO SEE IF THERE IS A CONNECTION”

do not get caught up in “finishing” a note bc notes will be every-accumulating. work on something for as long as it serves you. if the amount of information is overwhelming, it probably needs to be broken down again into smaller concepts that can be hyperlinked together.

i think that covers most of it but i might come back to this later if there’s anything important i’ve forgotten. oh, yeah, also i love Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis, but that’s less important if yr note writing a thesis, just trying to track info across many different texts for yr own purposes.

[cards-of-rose]

study tip!! how i write essays

going from a long, intensive classical education to my current history major, i've had to write a lot of papers. at this point, i can write a 5 page paper in a few hours, and just a couple weeks ago i wrote a 20 page paper in a single day. i graduated valedictorian with this method (current cGPA of 4.0!) so i thought i'd share how i write them! grab some coffee and settle in - it'll be a long post, but i promise it'll be worth it. :)

first, the topic. if you don't have an assigned topic, pick something that fascinates you, something that you could write pages and pages about. you will. if your topic is assigned, find something in it that you find fascinating. even if you find your topic completely boring, there's always something interesting to glean from it! once you find this, you'll gain motivation, and that's half the battle.

write down a basic outline. when i say basic, i mean barebones. just a vague, 3-point general idea of what you think you might write your paper about. this will guide you in your research! you don't need to worry about writing your full outline just yet.

sources. after you have a basic list of points, it's time to find sources! if they're already assigned, you can skip this step. most of the time they aren't, though. this is the most important part of your paper. you can go to google scholar to find really good academic journals and studies!

generally, the number of sources you have depends on the length of your paper! a good guide is that your amount of sources should number half the length of your paper. so if you have a 5 page paper, 2-3 is a good way to go. if you have a 20 page paper, you'll want around 10.

evidence. skim over your sources and categorize each one under the point you made earlier. this will mean you have a quick reference guide when you're writing, so you don't have to go through a big list of sources when you're looking for evidence! under each source, put a few bullet points talking about the info that you can use for your paper.

outline. this part may seem daunting. i promise, though, it's one of the easiest parts of the paper! you may feel tempted to skip it, but having an outline makes your paper sound better and makes it easier and quicker to write. use the sources and bullet point info you used earlier to fill out your outline. start broad and general, then add details as you do your research! your outline should be about half the length of your paper. don't worry about making it super scholarly - this is just for you, so make it as informal and easy to understand as you want! be stupid, throw in memes, whatever gets it written!

every outline should include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. i can go over the structure of an outline in another post, but remember the 3 points you thought up earlier? these will form your entire outline, and eventually your essay!

finally, write! open a blank google doc and view it side by side with your outline. once you get started, it's a lot easier to finish than you'd think, especially if you took the time to outline! this is when you can make your dumb outline into something that would make the ancient philosophers proud. don't worry about perfection. just write it as you go. you can edit it later!

quotes/evidence. once you've finished your rough draft, it's time to add the evidence! some profs want quotes, others want you to paraphrase. either way, go through your paper and put in the evidence you researched earlier. don't worry about citations just yet - just put in the link in a comment on your rough draft. it won't be hard to fix it up later.

edit!! please, please don't finish your rough draft and be done with it. you can save so many points by going over it again instead of submitting it in a rushed 3am haze. fix spelling and grammar, add citations and a reference page, edit for clarity, anything you need to make it sound like the best paper you can write! if you're proud of it by the end, you know you've done something right.

congrats, you did it!! make sure you start your paper early and don't wait till the night before - your grade will thank you <3

[owlchimedes]

Any study/homework tips? Especially when it come to writing a essay?

I can definitely share what works for me! I generally feel that there are 3 types of essay assignment, so I'll break this answer into parts. I'm assuming your essays are untimed and can be written in advance.

General Persuasive Essay:

Could be a unit assignment, midterm paper, or a chiller final. Generally 2-6 pages with moderate sourcing (3-5 new sources per page).

Personally, I like to assemble all my arguments first. Think of it like a pearl necklace -- imagine what you want your essay to prove ("X is Y") and then gather thoughts and evidence supporting that: quotes, articles, journals, statistics, etc. These are your pearls. Once you have enough of them to meet the page count -zip- all you need to do is thread them together with explanations and transitions.

For me, this looks like a very messy trash document filled with nonsensical shorthand and meticulous citations exactly how I'm supposed to use them in-text for the paper and for the final bib. If your teacher wants Chicago, or MLA, or APA, be sure to use that from the get go. The best parts are that 1) you know exactly where to go to double check something, 2) you don't need to look anything up again, 3) you've already written your bibliography.

For me, a doc might look like:

"72% of people can detect fake statistics" (Example, et al. 2025 404-405) ... "what, you egg?" (Macbeth 4.2.94)... [NEED MORE SUPPORT HERE] "cat's toe beans can absorb 5.44 lbs/cm of force" (Akename, F. in Purrrfect: A Science Tail 2013 p. 102) [TIE BACK TO 3RD PARAGRAPH]

You get the idea. Messy, but helpful. I like to copy-paste each 'pearl' into a clean document that holds the actual essay as I write it. You probably won't use every piece of evidence you have, but it's better to have a lot to choose from than to be staring at a blank page trying to write. Collecting evidence this way is particularly helpful if you know ahead of time that you need to do a paper, because then you can add tabs or highlight materials as you read them, cutting your workload in half. Generally, unless I'm totally unfamiliar with the field, I try to roughly know my final essay topic on the 2nd day of class and then start putting things in the messy doc when I find them. If it's not in the syllabus, ask your teachers about the final prompts. The worst they can say is no.

One of the great things about the process is that it skips the paralysis of a 'draft'. There is no draft here because there is no writing. Ideally, you should have 0 of your own words on the page -- only pulls and quotes. You'll paraphrase and rearrange things later. Don't copy paste directly into your essay; even with citations, that's plagiarism. Don't use first-person unless your teacher explicitly says it's okay.

Once you have all your content, structuring it may seem difficult.

I taught the TISAS model (also sometimes known as TISAC). This stands for topic sentence, introduction, supporting evidence, analysis, & summary (or conclusion). For clarity here, I'll use TISAC.

The TISAC is a simple paragraph structure model for beginner writers, but can also apply to longer and more complex writings. The standard 5-paragraph paper form taught in most middle- and high-schools is a simple nested form: TI TISAC TISAC TISAC C. The pattern of topic sentence and introduction, three evidence paragraphs, and a final summary is clear. More complex writings may add more evidence to the same point: TISAISAISAC. Thus, the amount of evidence and analysis can be endless, but must always be bracketed by clear topic sentences and conclusions. You can also vary the amount of information on any one topic; all paragraphs do not need to be the same length. More supporting evidence often leads to stronger persuasion or proof, though if there is enough of it, a reader may require mini-summaries to keep track of what it going on: TI TI(SAISAC TISAC)C TISAC C. It's clear that these elements can be combined endlessly to whatever length and complexity is required. Overall, TISAC is a straightforward set of building blocks that serve both beginner and advanced persuasive writers.

The format of the above is TISAISAISAC.

Introductions and topic sentences benefit greatly from the use of transition words, which flag to the reader (and to you) exactly what you're trying to do with the information you've presented. All evidence should be cited correctly. Obviously, TISAC is a little cramped on style and not perfectly suitable for heavily data-based work or more lyric, narrative, or artistic writing. Keep in mind though, 'evidence' can be a graph, an image glossary, an appendix, or many other formats.

Reflective Essay:

Unlike the persuasive essay, this type is entirely first-person, focused on YOU and your own thoughts, experiences, and takeaways. These tend to be the first and/or last assignment in a class, and are usually 1-5 pages with minimal to moderate sourcing (1-3 sources per page).

For course/project reviews, make sure to cover all the topics in ASSASSIN: Anticipations, Surprises, Strengths, Awkward points, Struggles, Show an example, "In conclusion", and Next time.

You can organize your thoughts chronologically or by theme. Longer papers work better as chronological.

Get a sense of what your teacher likes. If a prof. is proud of a certain thing, don't bash it. If they expressed disappointment in an outcome, agree with them. Don't come off as smarmy, but this is the easiest way to an A.

Do not use AI. In general, don't, but especially for reflective papers. AI is trained on models of the external world --it has no clue about your private internal world or what the class was like. It's guesses will be wrong and it only takes one or two incorrect details for your professor to realize you didn't write the paper. Even with careful proofreading, it's not worth the risk.

Research Essay:

These tend to be longer papers, possibly a course final or graduation checkpoint (qualification exams/thesis), meant to show how well you know the literature and materials as well as your ability to argue. Usually 5-100+ pages with moderate to max sourcing (4-10 sources per page). I use the same general process as for any persuasive essay, but make sure to use a reference management software instead of a single document. Mendeley, Zotero, RefWorks, and EndNote are the ones I've noticed most among my peers. Zotero was a godsend for my thesis.

Lab reports are a whole different beast, so I didn't discuss them here. Good luck!

[mischieffoal]

Kugrash; Rat Jesus; Bruce Kugrich; you know him, you love him - is a repressed, closeted, gay man. In this essay I will… tell you why I think that, I actually wrote the essay. (It’s not an essay it’s a long text post, it doesn’t have an introduction or a conclusion or citations don’t come for me)

Anyway, I’ve just finished The Unsleeping City chapters 1 and 2 and Kugrash has infested my brain and wormed his slimy way around my heart. I don’t need to proselytise him, if you’re reading this post you already understand the appeal of a crusty, washed-up rat bastard of a terrible father who’s trying to make up for everything he’s ever done. What I particularly loved about him was that he is gay-coded in such a specific way that it makes the poor little meow meow of it all even worse. Was it on purpose? I doubt it. But it certainly is there. 

(I doubt it was on purpose because the joy of D20 is that all the characters are kind of just pan unless specified otherwise and homophobia is only a thing that villains do in the first five minutes of a character’s introduction. So it’s like, I doubt Murph did this on purpose because he’s probably just being very queer friendly and it comes across this way because of the Kugrash of it all)

Evidence that I remembered to write down is as follows: 

Perry the Pigeon

Kug doesn’t actually want to date Perry, but he doesn't object to going to the wedding with him/sort of leads him on/definitely flirts with him/tries to let him down nicely. 

Murph did just choose the name Perry at random. Could have been a girl pigeon, but no. 

Perry is serious about Kugrash. Like, “still mourning him” serious. 

Perry isn’t only into Kug, he is an established gay pigeon who later marries another man (/rabbit)

2. The Kugriches

When the other PCs tell Wally there’s a pigeon with a crush on his dad, Wally immediately asks “What’s his name?”

Wally and David’s mum is out of the picture. David said that Bruce abandoned them when Wally really needed him, which I think implies she’s been gone since before Kugrash was cursed. Why? Who knows, Bruce was a bastard in many ways - but if his sexuality was so obvious that their son can only imagine his dad dating a male pigeon, it was probably obvious to Bruce’s ex. 

3. Lowell Masters

Kingston: finds out Lowell can Identify things by sticking them up his ass Kingston, two seconds later, pointing at his good friend Kugrash: “This man, what is this man?" Lowell: gives Kugrash an ass jacket Kugrash: “Yeah, yeah, sure thanks, appreciate it.”  Kugrash: “I smell like lube now instead of trash.” Kugrash: “We’ll link up at some point”

4. The totems

All men. When the Intrepid Heroes came up with what their totem animals would be in an Adventuring Party, they weren’t particularly gendered, but weren’t sentient either, so who knows what that’s worth

Perry (see Point 1)

The campest unicorn you’ve ever seen or heard in your life

5. Best friends with a hairdresser

6. “You goddamn beautiful boy, you fucker, you absolute arsehole.” I get it, Kug. Ricky does it to us all. 

To me, all of this implies Kugrash is gay, but quietly. He’s certainly not out-and-proud like Pete is, but his children know. Did he tell them or was it obvious? I don’t think Kugrash knows. I think he’s closeted to no-one but himself. A business man in the 1980s isn’t the most likely guy to have searched his soul for any sexual deviancy, and since then he’s been very busy being depressed/ashamed/a literal rat in the sewers. Misty and Kingston do a lot of work to pull him out of the underground and actually talk to human beings again. They know he’s gay, from the things they say about him (see in particular Point 3: Lowell Masters). I don’t think Kugrash would have ever had a “gay awakening” or a “gay panic” if he’d stayed on the mortal plane, I doubt his sexuality would be that shocking or confusing - I just don’t think he’s noticed. 

Being cursed into a ratman gives you the space to learn all sorts of things about yourself, and if that doesn’t quite work, you can always eat an everything bagel and become omniscient, when you can finally realise that Bruce Kugrich was in fact gay the whole time.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 

[drmedicsgamesurgery]

Are there any direct statements from kodaka himself that dr0 is meant to be read first before going into 2? (Believe it or not, there are some fans who believe zero is no matter what, ultimately unnecessary to the franchise despite being written as essentially the back half of the themes and worldbuilding of not just dr, but ESPECIALLY 2, with the excuse being “it’s side material, it’s a light novel, it did not get an official western release (so it is therefore unimportant.). I’ve seen people think the plot points 0 introduces SPOILS the stuff it brings back to resolve in 2! (Specifically regarding izuru, the steering commite, etc.))

This'll be a long one (and include a dr0 game update):

Let me preface this with the fact I am also one of those people who thinks it does spoil a considerable amount of 2 despite releasing first. I am a long time fan of zero from back when the OG translations were coming out, and read them over 10 yearsish ago now, and am obviously the lead creative director for the Danganronpa Zero fangame.

But let us go through some of (not all because this would be way too long) the details behind your ask.

As far as I have read in multiple interviews there is no explicit statement regarding about reading it before dr2 or after, but i am pretty sure there is for before reading dr3 definitely [needed citation form one of the old dr3 interviews i do not have the link handy]. There are also his comments that the books/anime/manga are canonical and important to the series. (warning spoilers for rain code in this interview too)

As for what I think, personally dr0 and dr2 are the most interchangeable entries of the series. personally I am also in the camp of leaving izuru a mystery before going into 2 as smart people will be going well obviously izuru is just going to be important / be the mastermind of the next game, and it may ruin their enjoyment of that twist. Sometimes prior knowledge can turn off people, though i know some people are in the camp of "actually spoilers enhance my experience" but i do not think that is what you mean.

As for the visual novel version I am creating theres no real good way around having visuals of izuru even as a shadow so it will be required to at least have read dr1 and dr2 prior to it and designed to read definitely before dr3 with hitherto references to other parts of the series as a nod to it all.

As for the plain text novel version either way works really, it depends on what you want to get out of the series yourself, more mysteries by leaving it, or more concrete answers by reading it for less confusion. There is no perfect answer. well the perfect answer is do not read dr0 before dr1 for those weird people that read the series in chronological order but that's a whole other can of worms.

More so I also think dr2 builds the mystery of the reserve course a lot better and not knowing about them lets people speculate on hajime's talent rather than going "i wonder if he is one of those reserve course students mentioned"

As for the steering committee they don't really matter for 2's story at all and are mainly just world building for the schools hierarchy (which i intended to create an essay for but ended up including it in the game script as a prologue interlude when explaining the school so it doesnt just only reuse the same text as dr1s opening.)

That all being said, personally I think it is best to read 0 after 2 and I have more reasons as to why, being considerably familiar by now with the text, but it did come out before dr2 so I cannot fault people for reading it first. but as for my vn version, having it be read after 2 and before 3 lets me be considerably more creative with the games art and I am sure people will agree when it releases. Kodaka considers DR0 one of his best works (I believe he said this on DanganRadio) to which I agree, so making sure the game is a perfect homage to his series has been well on my mind for a long time, as well as the question of when should it be read.

Your opinion is perfectly valid here of wanting to read it before 2, and understandably so considering it came out first, but at the end of the day I think they are pretty interchangeable in order, probably the two most interchangeable things in the series outside of maybe the kizakura drama cds being before or after dr3 as well (did someone ask for a translation for those soon? 👀)

Thanks for reading, hope this gave you some insight as to my thoughts regarding this order. Some people. may know i have my own order guide for Danganronpa but i think i will have to update it soon when everything is fully translated, and it may or may not have some controversial book placements so I may come back in the future with another blog post about series order and my thoughts on it.

Without intending to drag this out further, thanks for asking, hope you all are doing alright - SeriousSeiko

[edwad]

Do you have any tips on how to use information from a lot of books when you're writing an essay or other academic paper? I always feel overwhelmed when I have to find the right sources from over ten or twenty books when I'm writing for uni so I was wondering if you had any tips

not really, just use the index and start mining from there. i imagine most professors aren't actually checking every source multiplied by however many students they have all that closely, so i tend to cite people on generic/uninteresting claims that probably don't really need to be backed up but i just say it with a flourish or say more than they do so that the citation seems to be doing more work than it actually is. but im also fairly new to writing papers like this in a way that matters (i haven't given myself citation minimums etc on things ive written pre-college, for example), so i don't really think i have anything super clever to offer otherwise. ive only taken 2 classes so far lol

[theomnicode]

How I write metas? A meta about metas

If this deconstruction post is going to be useful for any aspiring meta writer on this OPM fandom that I currently follow, then be my guest. :D

Warning: Semi-long post.

Step 1: Inspiration

Nope, really can't get into my head all the time to write stuff as much as I would love to but when I do, it's because I get a good inspiration from something. It does not really matter at this point if it's short or long, just the subject matters. Then if I get inspired, I will usually stew on that idea for a while and think about the points in the manga that fit.

Unfortunately inspiration does not strike all the time so there's always that. I'm going with the route that "you can't force inspiration to come to you, you want the inspiration to become you" or something like that. Take that with grain of salt, I just made it up on the spot.

Step 2: Practice

I've personally been writing fanfics since I was...a teen I believe and meta is just a subsection of writing school essays, except it's actually fun. So writing something has been quite a lot of work put behind it, but nobody says one cannot start from scratch today and the meta doesn't need to be immediately impressive, we're just writing it for fun yanno? For other fandom peeps who maybe wanna hear our thoughts. Just gotta start from somewhere yanno? My earlier metas are prolly a fair bit different than my current metas.

Like they say, practice makes perfect.

Step 3: The creative process

Ok so to the nitty gritty of the meta making... PLOT NO JUTSU!

I oftentimes either discuss the meta on discord channels with likeminded peeps and then start gathering some images from the manga to use as my images to enhance my point and make my texts also visually interesting to look at and make some clarifying points. I tend to find some good relative image to use as my first image because it'll show up in archive search like so:

It'll be easier to search for my metas even without searching for my tags from my archives if they look similar.

Next, I keep a folder for all my meta images in a neat pile and I use paint ms to cut me nice images to post into my meta and I also have cubari , the one site which hosts all the chapters so far, open where I can just grab images whenever. Basically any kind of image tool you got from paint to gimp to photoshop can help you crop images you want to use if you want to use images in your meta.

My brain can sometimes be pretty hard to follow apparently, so I do try to parse a lot when I write my texts and keep it somewhat coherent. Parsing information via the canon timeline can help form a coherent timeline to follow in a meta.

In general, you want your writing progress to be seamless and disturbance free creative process, not unlike drawing. Sometimes ambient music on the background can help focus on the actual meta writing process (currently listening to Ardenweald from WoW), which can take me from 1 hour to all the way to 5 hours in a single sitting, which is quite long but remember, tumblr drafts saves your progress even if you save it nowhere else and it's entirely possible to finish the thinking process another day when you have more time.

Sometimes I include links to either my own metas or some outside source, which I then briefly quote on my text, like in the Saitama mental health meta where I citate depression effects on memory recollection. The quote sources can also be stated at the very end like in a real essay, but to me personally I'm fine without the citations at the end, long as I state my sources and then put quotes into indented text.

Step 4: The writing itself

Paraphrasing helps make your text look coherent and easier to read to just about anybody, so avoid pure walls of texts. I usually write longer texts, but that is up to the writer to decide how short, long or how abridged they can/wanna make their work, which frankly is not one of my best skillsets lmao. Just gotta make sure to put that warning in the front if it's long post.

Nowdays, I also include chapter names and numbers about the relevant information I'm writing meta about in between () marks and itallics to further separate it from plain text, which might be helpful to people if they search for that specific plot point from the manga itself. Then if it's a particularly long meta, a tl;dr at the bottom if I can form a proper tldr.

Sometimes I also get struck by random thought and I just have to write it out haha. Sometimes I ask for aid and opinions on discord channels.

Any long metas should definitely have that "readmore" cutoff in the beginning, else entirety of tumblr or wherever you'll post the meta will hate you.

Step 5: Revision & Tagging

You can hold on from posting the meta the very same day and just keep it revised for a bit longer if you want to correct spelling mistakes or if you think you can maybe adds some more to it. Revision is just as important in writing meta as in writing something like fanfiction and I personally do a fair bit of both.

When tagging, I just use "opm meta" for all my opm related metas and then tag in fandom and characters that apply to the current meta and then some other related subjects like "mental health, character study" etc. I prolly haven't tagged my earlier metas that properly but eh... if you write on another platform and then copypaste it to tumblr, make sure that the plain text shows properly and doesn't create any weirdness.

Closing thoughts...that's about it folks, that's how I write meta and how I wrote this piece as well. Which took me roughtly 1hr 45mins to write down at my current writing speed but I've been thinking about this since yesterday haha.

Tl;dr: Inspiration, practice, creative process by saving images and thoughts as they go, writing and paraphrasing, revision and tagging properly.

[solacescastleglow]

Study Tips for Humanities Subjects

The majority of studying tips I see are for subjects where there's a lot of rote memorisation, but what about those ones where you just have to research and write? As a history student in university, all of my subjects involve very little learning through memorisation and almost entirely annotated bibliographies and essays. Where I go to university, that's how the majority of courses are run, and I've got the formula down. So, from someone with a HD/GPA of 6.4/7 (American equivalent 3.71 according to this) who has never used AI, here's some study tips for this kind of subject.

1: Reading

The first paragraph of a text and the first sentence of each paragraph should tell you what it's about. You don't have to fully read all of it, just those parts, then if you think you'll use that paragraph you can read it.

While you're reading, write down the key themes next to the citation in your essay document. That way, you'll remember where to find the references for what you're trying to say.

2: Essays

If your university is anything like mine, you usually get to choose from a list of questions to answer or make up your own question. Remember to go for something that will fit the word count (not too broad, not too narrow), and try to make it something that interests you. If you can't make one up, pick the easiest one. Don't be a hero, it just needs to get done.

Make an essay plan. Trust me it makes writing it sooo much easier. Here's an example I made of what the plan would look like for this post:

For your first draft, don't worry about how it sounds. Just get the ideas out of your head and onto the page. You can even do this with your second, third, etc. drafts. If you count the essay plan as the first draft, you can just build on it. As long as you fix it at some point, you can write informally for however much of the process you want. I find it takes way less time because I'm not just staring at the page wondering how to get it right.

Make the point you're trying to make (based off what you learned in the lectures), then find sources for it. That way you'll actually know what you're looking for in a source.

3: Citing

This one's obvious, but put the links to your sources down before you try to make it look presentable. Formatting comes later.

If you've never done an annotated bibliography before, they can be really helpful, even if they're not required. Not only is it an expanded version of the writing down key themes part of the reading section, but it helps pare down your references to only ones that are necessary. It doesn't have to be formal, and shouldn't be part of your submitted page unless required, but it's a good idea to have one for your own use.

Look up the citation guide for your faculty. I can't count how many times I got points deducted because I had errors in my referencing. Use a tool like CitationMachine if you're not sure, but actually check what it puts out because sometimes it's wrong.

4: Professors

Research your classes and find out who's teaching them before signing up to the class. Last semester I had the worst time because an archaeology professor was teaching a digital curation subject and he had no clue what he was doing. Next semester, I'm taking another digital curation subject, but the professor teaches digital curation, so it'll be so much easier. Where I live, RateMyProfessor doesn't exist, but if it does where you are, pay attention to what people have said about them.

Teaching style matters. Is your professor well prepared? Do they seem passionate about what they're teaching? It's easier to find this out early if you're taking online classes. If their teaching style doesn't gel with you, or they just don't like you for whatever reason, it's ok to drop the class. If you have to take it, adjust your expectations accordingly.

If you're making your own essay question, or really doing anything that isn't what they told you to, check with your professor first to make sure it's ok. You don't need to for the tiniest little things, but it lets them know you value their opinion and care about your academics.

If you have the same professor for multiple subjects, or multiple essays in one course, pay attention to the feedback. Some professors really like things done a certain way. Do they want you to be more specific? More analytical? Do they just really hate a particular word or phrase? Learning from your mistakes can help you not lose those points again.

5: Mindset, Organisation, Routine, etc.

Know your why. Honestly, for a good couple of years there I spent every study day wondering if it was even worth it to keep going. But I love history, and I love museums, and I want to be a part of it. Your reason might be a little less self centred, or it might not (because what's wrong with that?). Either way, that drive can get you through a lot.

That being said, if it sucks that bad, you don't have to do it. You can drop the class if you need to, either for your physical health or your wellbeing. Obviously I'm not suggesting you drop out over an essay being difficult, but in my case, dropping that class with the bad professor would've been a good move. I spent too much time and effort trying to do something I hadn't really been taught how to do, and it really wasn't worth my energy. Unless it's required for your degree, don't worry too much about it.

At the beginning of the semester, look at the percentage each assignment is worth. Act accordingly. Don't put in 100% effort for a 20% assignment (unless you're getting really into it), that's a one way ticket to getting burnt out. There's literally no point spending an extra 12 hours perfecting something that's not worth at least 40%. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done.

Find a study environment that works for you. I like to work with a buddy, whether that's my mum (who's working on her PhD) or an imaginary study group. I need to be somewhere different from where I usually hang out to get focussed (like a cafe or my desk). I need breaks, some people don't. I don't really think there's a single best way to study, as long as you're getting stuff done, it doesn't matter if it's not aesthetic or an approved method. That being said, if making it aesthetic works for you, do that.

---

And that's all I have. I'm sure there are more out there, but I've been in academia for a while now and this is what works for me. I know a lot of people are going back to school, so good luck! You got this!

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter Sixteen (Part 2)

As final term goes on I seem to have a lot less time to socialise than I used to, spending late evenings in the computer room polishing off my digital art piece, or down in the life drawing studio compiling my best drawings from the year, or in the library composing my critical cultures essay, hours spent pouring over books to cite, researching and learning all about my chosen topic, which is the fashion and textile of Asian tribes. 

For most of this time I am alone, but for the times I amn’t, it’s because I’m with Dean. Whenever he has time off work he’ll join me in the lab or the studio or the library and we’ll sit there together silently working through the evening, ankles intertwined beneath the desks as we pore over books about contemporary ceramics, ancient civilisations, Iranian cinema, pop art and the frescoes of Pompeii. The clocks change in late March, and even as April comes and the sky is bright until late into the evening, we stay until the sun goes down and the light fades from the room and all that’s left is the fluorescence from the lamp on the table between us to light the pages of our books. 

“Do you ever get sick of this?” He asks me quietly one evening as I organise my bibliography on my laptop. I lift my head to look at him, hand fisted on his cheek as he stabs his own keyboard with one finger. “Sometimes.” I say. “But I think my essay is finally coming together.” 

He huffs. “It’s so stupid that we have to do this writing shite, this is supposed to be a fine arts degree.”

“Yeah I get that but it’s also an academic degree. There has to be some sort of essay portion, I don’t think you’ll ever get away without having to do it.”

“I’m terrible at writing.” He frowns. “And I’m so sick of reading these stupid books about fucking pottery, the words they use are such bullshit, it’s like these writers are having a contest to see who can make their book the hardest to understand.”

Dean’s education, as I’ve learned, is a touchy subject for him. He left school when he was fifteen because he had either some difficulties learning or a lack of interest. It isn’t clear to me which, but either way he struggles now because of it. I tried to ask him about it before but I only ended up irritating him and he shut down, so I’m careful before broaching it again. “If you need help with anything just let me know.” I say. 

“I don’t.” He goes back to typing something aggressively onto his laptop for several minutes before he whacks the backspace key in frustration and sits there with the heels of his hands dug into his eye sockets. I clear my throat nervously. “Dean, like, I mean it if there’s anything I can do-”

“I don’t need help.” He repeats. “As in, I don’t need you to help me, do you not get it?”

“I get it.” I say quietly. I try to go back to my own citation list but I seem to have lost where I was, my focus having been thrown by him. I scroll back up to the beginning of the bibliography and start checking it again. After several more minutes, he sighs and drops his hands back to his lap, and while I don’t dare look over at him, from the corner of my eye I see him drop his head and shake it from side to side. “I’m so sick of this.” He says. “I’m so tired of spending all of my time in this building. I just go from college to work and back to college again over and over. Everything is shit.”

“I know it’s hard right now.” I attempt. “But soon it’ll be over and you’ll have so much more time to relax during the summer. At least then when you’ll only be working in Primo you’ll have every afternoon free.”

“Yeah.” He says flatly. I know that it’s more than just pure exhaustion with him, more than just college. It’s his family, his father’s death, his sister, his aunts, all of these things that I can’t even begin to relate to or even know how to comfort him about, things that feel so far out of the scope of my experience that they only serve to remind me of the worlds between he and I, a terrain between us that I can’t traverse. It makes me feel weak, small, ineffective and childish. “I don’t know how to make you feel better.” I tell him. 

He sighs and beckons me towards him. “C’mere.” He says, and when I hesitate he repeats himself. “C’mere.” I get out of my seat and walk around the table to stand in front of him. He slides his hands around my waist and links them at my back, and then rests his cheek against my belly. For a moment I’m not sure what he wants me to do with him, but he hums with approval as I lift a hesitant hand and run it through his hair, the dark roots an inch long now and the bleach turning brassy yellow, beginning to grow long over the tops of his ears. It’s so silent in the empty library, nothing but the buzz of the lightbulbs and the gentle whirr of Dean’s laptop fan. He lifts his head and kisses my ribs, gazing up at me with honey coloured eyes that I am immediately knee deep in. Despite the sharp anglesthere really is something so lovely about his face. He takes me by the hips and pulls me easily down onto his lap.

“What?” I whisper. I stroke my thumbs over his dark brows and kiss him gently on his nose, and he looks back at me, eyes travelling over my body as he says “just let me kiss you.” He lifts my hands away from him, and the feeling of his fingers on my wrists makes my skin tingle with awareness. Heat flashes in his eyes and the weight of his gaze makes my breath catch in my throat, and when he kisses me he crushes his mouth against mine so suddenly that I want to gasp. He lets go of my wrists to hold my face and I’m free to touch him again, so I sink one hand into his thick hair while the other sweeps down his chest, then his hands grasp at my waist and pull me even closer to him. 

“Is this helping?” I murmur as he begins kissing my throat, and I’m sure that he can feel the flutter of my pulse against his lips. 

“Mhm.” He says, and guides me backwards so that the table edge presses into the base of my spine. He lifts me off him so I’m sitting on it, impatiently shoving his laptop and his books out of the way to make some room. I pull back to look at him, enjoying the way that his gaze sweeps over me before he takes me by the jaw and kisses the side of my mouth, his hands travelling to my chest, breath shuddering out of his nose as he captures my mouth again. “The things I want to do to you…” He says between hungry kisses. “If I told you about them they’d make you blush.” He moves his hands underneath me so he can hold me to him, right in the place that he wants me, his knee sliding between my legs until I can feel his thigh…

“Wait.” I whisper. 

His voice sounds hoarse and strained. “Evie… please.”

“We can’t be doing this here. Not in the library.”

He sighs against my collarbone and I feel him resign then, resting his forehead in the curve of my neck. His hands return to my waist. “Okay, it’s just, I think we should keep going.”

“And I think we need to stop.”

He sighs heavily and slumps back into his chair, his mouth a little swollen from kissing me, his amber coloured eyes expectantly fixed on my face as if waiting for an explanation, and I don’t really know what to say, so I just repeat myself. “Not in the library.”

“If not in the library then where? This is where we always are lately.”

“It’s not true, we go to the park together, we’ve gone to the cinema and to the harbour that time.”

“If we did what I wanted us to do in any of those places then we’d be arrested.”

I feel my cheeks flushed with heat. “Oh, well, I know, but-”

“And I’m not allowed in your apartment either, you’ve made that clear, since you’re hiding me from your housemate, and you won’t come home to my house either.-”

“You live in Kilbarrack.” I reason. “It’s too far away.” He also lives with three very intimidating sounding men with intimidating nicknames, one in particular that they ominously call Bones who I don’t feel ready to be in the presence of.

“So what do you want from me?” He insists, struggling to keep the impatience from his tone. The impatience that’s been steadily growing over recent weeks. “What is this to you?”

I hesitate. “We’re just getting to know each other.”

“We’re not really, not in the ways I want to get to know you. I just don’t get it. You’re so open with me about everything, your art, your family, your friend Kelly from school who was mean to you, why is it so easy for you to show me all those parts of you but when it comes to sex you’re a closed book?”

“Because that’s private. I’m the kind of person who likes to wait a while.”

He leans forward with his elbows on his knees and looks right up into my face from beneath me. “It’s been a while.” He tells me. “And I don’t get it.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Why does it have to be all about that for you? Can’t we just keep doing what we’re doing?”

“No.” He says. “Because you aren’t my girlfriend.”

“So unless I’m your girlfriend, it’s impossible for you to care about parts of me that aren’t the ones hidden by my underwear?”

“No, Evie.” He says, letting out this intense, frustrated little sound as he clenches his fist and throws his body back into the chair again. “Stop twisting everything and acting like the victim, I’m just asking you why you’re so closed. It’s not like you’re a virgin with no experience.”

I nod. 

“So is it something about me? Is there something off-putting?”

“No!” I cry. “It’s not that, it’s nothing to do with you at all, I just get nervous.” Distantly, I hear my phone buzz from inside the pocket of my coat that’s draped over the chair behind me. I ignore it. 

Dean continues. “So let’s have something to drink first, let’s just relax and I promise that I’ll be nice to you, I’m not trying to hurt you.”

“I know you’re not.” I say in a quiet voice, and he takes my hand, softening his expression as we interlace our fingers, his thumb gently stroking up and down the inner part of my wrist. “Look, Evie.” He says. “If you don’t want to, just say that, and it’ll be grand. I’m not here trying to force you to do anything. I was just asking the questions.”

“I want to.” I say, and the way he looks at me makes my stomach lurch with anticipation and unease all at once. “But not right now, not tonight, and not here.”

“Okay.” He says, watching me carefully. 

“On Thursdays.” I swallow. “My housemate always stays over at her boyfriend’s house in Clonskeagh. I’ll be alone.”

“Thursday.”

“But if I chicken out and I don’t want to do it…”

“Obviously, Evie, then we don’t have to.” 

“Okay.”

He smiles. “Look, I’m going to go home now, I’m tired of being in this building, I feel claustrophobic in it, and my neck hurts.” He stands up and I move out of his way as he snaps his laptop shut and begins gathering up all of his books to put them back onto their corresponding shelves. I stay leaning on the table and watch him as he does it. “It’s going to be fine.” I say, and he looks over his shoulder at me. “Your essay.” I clarify. “You’ll get it done.”

“Oh, that.” He says. “It’s just about the last thing on my mind.” Stuffing his laptop back into its case he says “My essay will be… whatever it ends up being, like. If I cared about it I’d probably be staying here longer. Here, are you gonna leave too? Do you want to walk to the bus together?”

“No, I think I’m going to stay another while and just finish up what I was doing.”

“Fair enough. I’ll see you tomorrow, so.” He takes me by the neck and plants a kiss on my cheek. 

“Bye.” I say to him, and he waves over his shoulder as he exits through the swinging doors and is swallowed into the dark hallway. 

Sighing, I resume my place in front of my laptop, jiggling my finger on the touchpad to wake it, and the screen flicks back to life and displays my bibliography in the exact disappointing state that I left it in. I start moving things around more, checking for spelling mistakes, and then I suddenly remember that I missed a message on my phone earlier, and eager for another chance to procrastinate I dive into my coat pocket for it. I feel my heart expand a little bit when I see a message from Jude. 

Rate me? 

Following the message is a mirror selfie of him in his Top Gun costume. He’s doing a very Tom-Cruise-accurate pose, turned to the side with his shoulder to the mirror, his arm lifted to give a thumbs up to the camera, but also to show off the big red white and blue TOMCAT patch that he ironed onto the sleeve. We’ve talked extensively about this costume over recent weeks, trying to figure out the best ways to make it as authentic as possible, not because there’s a prize for the best costume or anything, but because, as Jude explains to me, he has an insatiable need to be the best at everything he does. 

“It’s a sickness.” He told me last week. “I absolutely cannot be outdone.”

I grin at the photo, feeling proud, and partly responsible for how well it turned out, seeing as I was the one who searched Ebay for three out of the six patches on that costume, getting a kick out of finding the ones most like those from the film and for the best prices.

Just to tease him, I text back:

6 out of 10. Where are the aviator shades??

He replies just a moment later with another photograph, this time of him wearing them, doing a silly duck face. It looks like he’s out already, as there’s a handful of people around him out on the city streets, random arms and legs and elbows filling up the edges of the screen.

Happy? 

Yep, now that’s a 10 out of 10. 

Because it covers more of my face, is it?

Yes 100%, uggo. 

And when he texts back again I forget all about my essay. Thumbs zooming over my phone keyboard, mouth quirked up in a smile as I think of a hundred clever things to say to him, texting, laughing and texting until my laptop screen gives up waiting for me and fades back to black. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[reginavulturum]

Terry's Birthday: Fandom, the Internet, and Citations

Or, a too long, too in depth essay on a fictional character's birthday

If you aren't thinking I'm a total nerd by the time you're done reading this than you didn't really read this. But, let's start at the beginning. Recently I posted a timeline I made for "Batman Beyond" and in the time since I made that post there's been something I've seen pop up in tags which I'd never heard of before. A few people were saying that Terry's birthday is August 18th. I was really interested in the source of this claim because I had no recollection of ever seeing it anywhere before now. I looked it up on google (as you do) and found this date scattered around the internet. Case closed, right? But I quickly realized there was a consistent problem on every site I came across. None of them cited a source for Terry's alleged August 18th birthday.

Just look it up yourself and you'll find that the date is ubiquitous across the internet. Yet, as far as I can tell after all my research, it's also completely unconfirmed. I mean, I may have missed something, but if I have than someone else is going to have to point it out to me. I also made a post prior to this one asking people to cite a source for Terry's birthday and no one has so far. You can have a look at that post if you want to know what I consider a good source on this subject. In any case, if this date or any other had been confirmed in any piece of media or in an interview with any DC creator involved in Batman Beyond than I think I would have found a citation for that source somewhere by now.

Right now it kind of seems like August 18th is fanon that's been recycled into "canon". This seems to have happened through a process of source-less wikipedia edits being parroted across reddit threads, sites featuring profiles of comic heroes, other wikis, etc. The less popular June 27th birthday for Terry seems to have gone through the same process. Here are links to some of these sites: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

As my research continued I came across some possible witness testimony of the first mentions of these birthdates:

a.) In this archived thread from the DCAU wiki, in quotations below, I've copied an excerpt of an exchange between two users that I feel is most relevant to this post (emphasis mine):

"So, I've noticed lately that a lot of different sites have been stating Terry's birthday to be August 18th with various years attached to the date. The earliest mention of which I could find is an edit to his wikipedia page in 2008 (which prior to the change stated his birthday was June 27th). I don't remember a mention of when he was born on the show or tie-in comics, and the third volume of comics didn't come out until 2010, so would anyone here know where these dates originate from? -- ReachingForRevolution (talk) 17:48, September 26, 2013 (UTC)"

"I've done some extensive timeline research, and I never came across a good source for those dates. All I saw was a wikipedia edit war with those two dates, but neither is correct AFAIK. The most cited year of birth is 2023, which is speculation as well, but there's at least some foundation for that. --Tupka217 17:56, September 26, 2013 (UTC)"

b.) A similar claim was made in this thread. The relevant excerpt, written by the user "Yojimbo" on October 16, 2023, is in quotations below (emphasis mine):

"No official birth date was ever given.

There was a wikipedia edit war in the 2000s but no source was ever given for either disputed date, June 27, 2023 and August 18, 2023."

As I've travelled down this rabbit hole, I've begun to suspect I won't be able to find exactly where it began, but this is as close as I've gotten. Allegedly, sometime around 2008, there was an edit war on Terry McGinnis' wikipedia page between at least two users over the birthdates of June 27th and August 18th. Now, how or why that edit war even started, I don't know. Why those dates, I also don't know. What I do know is that August 18th is the birthdate that gained the most popularity in the end and spread across the internet.

I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes with this post or call anyone out, really. If anything, this post exists because the subject was interesting to me and I've found the journey enjoyable. If you want to say Terry's birthday is June 27th or August 18th, then please do. Fandom is about fun, not perfectly sourced and cited dissertations on fictional teenagers' birthdays...unless, of course, that sort of thing is fun for you. I know I've loved every minute researching for and writing this...because I'm a massive nerd...but I certainly don't adhere to a strict reading of the timeline myself which is something I plan on covering in an upcoming addendum to my timeline.

In summary, my own research has produced no officially confirmed birthday for Terry McGinnis. This leads me to believe that August 18th and June 27th are fanon birthdates. It may be that I've just not found the citation for one or the other of these dates so I'm open to anyone who can provide me a good source. But really, none of this matters in the grand scheme of things, although it's interesting to see the way user edited/moderated wikis can sometimes bring less clarity rather than more. I'm sure this isn't the only example of that. Assuming I'm right and these birthdates are fanon, I wouldn't consider this a cautionary tale or anything so dramatic. Instead, I'd say this was a case study in the interaction between fandom collated information about fictional works as it exists across the internet and why the adage, "cite your sources", will never die...or something like that...

[thetalkingwave]

I got a message on reddit the other day following another warmup comic I had posted onto an anime subreddit. To paraphrase his question "Why the hell do you ship Hol Horse and Applejack?" I had a short and sweet answer in "Opposites Attract" but I decided to instead edit an essay I'd written prior. So here it is, the updated version of the Holjack essay! Episode citations weren't included in the original response, but those will be in [green text brackets], while any outside remarks will be in [normal text brackets.]

I've been shipping it for years now as I immensely love both series, but it initially started as a light musing gag: "What if a cowboy fell in love with a cowpony?"

Hol Horse stuck out in my mind because on the surface they're polar opposites: Applejack is brave, honest and hardworking while Hol Horse is cowardly, dishonest and lazy. But when I went to dig in further...

There's the question of his Stand, the Emperor, based off the Major Arcana. Upright, it represents paternal leadership. Reversed, it represents instability and stubbornness; what he first appears to be, having a strong philosophy in being #2 and refusing to fight without a partner otherwise. [The Hanged Man, Part 1 and 2]

He almost joined the Crusaders twice but relented due to his overwhelming fear of DIO. [Justice, Part 2]

But it's around the fight where he partners up with Boingo, where we see more of the gentler side behind the jerk facade. [Hol Horse and Boingo Part 1] He makes sure Boingo is near him at all times, gave him a coin purse in case got lost, and a cute little detail noticed upon re-watches: Hol Horse never says any swear word stronger than "damn" or "hell" around him. And this particular detail was noticeably adapted from the manga in official translations.

On that note, Boingo isn't shy (through Thoth's interference) about letting Hol Horse know he's not all too keen on him.

And yet, despite the circumstances he was under, he never used the word "Hate"; It's a stronger word for a child. ("He's mean and a jerk!" subbed, "He's mean, and I don't like him!" dubbed).

Counting Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak/the Hol Horse Josuke spin off, Hol Horse ran away with Boingo from the hospital without another thought during the final battle. [Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak, Chapter 10]

[Assuming you don't have as much knowledge on MLP... ]

Applejack is part of the Elements of Harmony, representing Honesty. She values it greatly, though it could be argued she values her family more.

Early on in the series, when given the opportunity to attend a gala, she sees it more as a means to earn more money for her family as a food vendor than attending as a guest. [Season One; The Ticket Master, Best Night Ever]

Holding responsibilities in the highest regard, near the point where it hurts her at times [Season One; AppleBuck Season] it takes a lot of coaxing to get her to even accept the smallest bit of help, given her stubbornness. [Season Two; The Last Roundup]

This became less of an issue for her in later seasons, but her stubbornness remained a prominent part of her character. [Season Four; Bats] In her little sister Applebloom's words: "Applejack keeps us all organized and does her part on top of that!" [Season Four; Pinkie Apple Pie]

After her parents died at a young age, the farm became most of her world. She keeps a wary eye for the sake of her friends, but there comes a point where her friends helped streamline her chores due to her living in the routine that there was something wrong in them. (I.E the gate still being squeaky and scaring the pigs, although neither had been the case for a while.) [Season Six; Applejack's Day Off]

Her grandma's getting older, her brother is a selective mute, and she knows how much ambition her little sister has in terms of finding her own destiny. She had no other choice.

It's even noted by Pinkie Pie that she has a tendency to bottle emotions/ "crying on the inside." [Season 5; Tanks for the Memories] the only notable one that flares out being anger.

I feel as though they would compliment each other nicely in terms of growth- Hol Horse softens up a bit on being a tryhard to compensate for his lack of self confidence and Applejack shoulders less responsibility without guilt and accepts doing more for herself. Both coming to terms with how they'd been hurt and supporting each other in healing. Oki dokes got to better articulate why I love em so much, take some panels from Part 1 of my most recent comic, a panel from the warm-up comic and a little doodle~

[whomst-the-hell]

How To Write An Essay

from someone who did pretty well in school. and i don’t mean the structure of an essay, because someone probably taught you that in class, i mean the actual process of sitting down to write an essay, which for some reason no teacher has ever addressed (at least to me)

(for the sake of this, I’m going to pretend i’ve been assigned an essay about shakespeare’s depiction of love in Romeo and Juliet, because I feel like thats a relatable point of reference idk)

1: scaffold. go into your document and create an outline in dotpoints of all your arguments. this is also where you put your quotes. (some people might find it helpful to also create some kind of mindmap pre- scaffold, but i tend to just use the scaffold as a mindmap, it depends on your preferred brainstorming techniques) for example, my scaffold might look like this:

intro

point 1: the relationship between love and violence

-friar and the plants

-romeo and juliet eventually die for love

-“starcrossed lovers take their lives” (act 1, scene 1)

-romeo and juliets love is arguably the cause for mercutio’s and tybalt’s death

-“i died under your arm”-mercutio (act, scene)

point 2: etc

this is much less effort than sitting down and actually writing out that paragraph.

the number of dotpoints needed per paragraph varies but as a rule of thumb i’d say 3-5. if you know a lot of information about a topic, only a couple points with lots of depth will do. if not, briefly talk about lots of things.

if you find yourself struggling with motivation, try to make scaffolding a bit fun. meme the fuck out of it. talk abt how romeo was a lil bitch who got the infinitely cooler mercutio killed like a moron. talk abt how much you hate shakespeare. no one is going to see it. IMPORTANT: make sure that you make it easy to find and remove the scaffold later. i do it by writing all my scaffolds *like this* so that i can go through at the end with ctrl+f and find all the **s, which i don’t generally use in the actual essay. you could do something else (maybe pick a number, or some other character) if ** wont work for whatever reason. you could also colour your scaffold so that you can visually see which bits to get rid of.

further things to note: DO NOT WORRY ABOUT PLAGIARISM. if you found a really good paragraph online where someone dissected the language used in the balcony scene, copy and paste that shit directly into the scaffold (remember to include the URL to make citation easy later). that way when it does come time to write this fucking thing, all of your information is in one place and you really just have to decorate it, which is honestly the less important part anyway. you will get more points for a badly written essay with good information than a well written essay with bad information.

another thing i like to do here is calculate roughly how many words i should write per paragraph. for example, if my essay is 1500 words and i’ll have three points, my breakdown may look like this

intro (100)

p1 (433)

p2(433)

p3(433)

concl(100)

i might even break it down further eg

p1: love and violence

-romeo and juliets death (108)

-tybalts death (108)

-mercutio’s death (108)

-friar’s plants monologue (108)

i get these numbers by literally putting them into a calculator. it may seem useless but it’s actually really quick, and it will be infinitely easier to convince yourself to write 108 words about romeo and juliets death than it will be to write 1500 words about the concept of love throughout the play.

(heres the formula for breaking it down btw: intro + conclusion = about the same each, generally smaller than a body paragraph. pick whatever number you think is appropriate for the total word count, minimum 50 words. my rule of thumb is <1000=50, 1000=100, 2000=200, etc. next, [total word count] - [intro+concl] = [body paragraphs]. next, [body paragraphs] / [no. of body paragraphs] = [wordcount per paragraph], next [wordcount per paragraph] / [no. of points]. written out this seems long, but it takes 5 seconds with a calculator- i just use google)

2: actually writing the essay. tragically i cannot give you the magic words to write a perfect essay, but one really good tip that i can give you is this: don’t stop scaffolding when you start writing. personally, i tend to get tripped up on details, and get stuck in one spot. for example: i know what all my arguments should be in my paragraph about love and violence, but i cannot for the life of me think of an introductory sentence. my paragraph might look like this for a while:

*epic guitar intro like in smells like teen spirit* This concept is demonstrated in the eventual deaths of the titular characters, Romeo and Juliet, as foreshadowed in the line “starcrossed lovers take their lives” (act 1 scene 1).

its sort of like skipping a question on a test then coming back to it later. there is no point in struggling over one sentence for hours — often, writing the rest of the paragraph will actually fill in your mental blanks and make it easier to write whatever you were struggling with.

other places ive found this method helpful: quotes. for example:

Romeo and Juliet’s love also caused violence to those around them. This is evident in the death of Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend. **find quote, and include analysis*** This demonstrates Shakespeare’s connection between love and violence.

in my experience, actually searching for a particular quote can throw off my momentum and fuck up the whole process. its been much better to just mark where i want that quote to go and come back later.

you can do this for single sentences or even whole paragraphs. i often write introductions last, because i never know what to say the first go round. you do not need to write your essay chronologically. go through one pass without losing momentum, hit ctrl+f, or find your coloured bits, to locate the problem areas. has writing the rest of it managed to fix the problem? no? try the next highlighted section! go back and forth like that until theres no more highlighted bits.

other assorted tips for writing an essay: don’t worry about repetition. for a lot of people (including me), writing is something that is supposed to sound good. we try to avoid repeating words/phrases too much because it can read as annoying or boring. as anyone who has read an academic paper knows, that actually means you’re on the right track. if your thesis statement is “shakespeare depicted love as a destructive and negative force” the words “destructive” or “negative” should probably be used 2-3 times a paragraph. you really want to hammer your audience over the head with your opinion.

also, as much as possible, try to make whatever the prompt is fun for yourself. this isn’t always possible of course, but it can really make the process easier. i know this wasnt my longstanding example, but as an actual real world example of this, i had to write an essay about the movie gattaca and how it incorporated its political themes into the narrative, and i argued that actually it had done a terrible job at that and that the movie as a whole sucked ass. i got 95%. if you have any kind of strong feelings about the topic, make them fit the question. its much less mind numbing than writing 2000 words you dont actually agree with for the sake of your grade.

if you need to take a break, maybe try working on homework for a different subject. this’ll shake things up so your brain is doing something new, but you won’t exit school mode and lose momentum entirely.

3: editing. dont worry too much. read through it so theres no glaring issues. try reading it out loud — you’re more likely to pick up on clunky sentences or grammar errors out loud. if you really want to do well, have someone else look over it (a classmate/teacher would be best bc they know what info was available to you but anyone will do)

final tips: its better to hand in something unfinished/badly written than nothing at all.

it is 100% better to sit down for five minutes and add 20 words to your essay than not to do anything. you dont have to dedicate your evening to it. progress is progress. a good way to do this is to get word/docs on your phone.

high school isnt life or death - failing this essay will not destroy you.

for essays on an exam, my best tip is don’t worry abt making it pretty. use the first page to make a mindmap. write more info later and use an arrow to show where it should be. it doesnt matter.

this might not work for you, but i hope it can act as a jumping off point to find what does work for you! go forth and conquer!