#AND ONLY HAIKUS THOSE ARE THE ONLY ONES I'M GOOD AT WRITING

[minty-bubblegum]

I'm bad at coming up with any actual good poetry so I'm sending her little love haikus <33

[neil-gaiman]

Good evening Mr Gaiman! Asking about the strike.

I've read the strike only affects US film & tv industry, but I've also read you're going on strike, even if you're working in the UK. How is the strike going to go there in England? Are Good Omens actors going to participate in it too?

Thanks for reading :)

I'm living in the US.

I'm a WGA member on strike when I'm in the UK too.

I'm a member of the WGA East, and I'm employed by or paid by a number of companies we are on strike against, including Amazon Prime and Netflix. It doesn't matter where the show in question is being filmed or promoted or edited: I'm still on strike.

I'm not on strike if I write a novel, a play, a Haiku or a Tumblr post, unless someone at one of the struck companies wanted to buy the rights to make a film or tv series out of my Tumblr post.

Some Good Omens actors are in SAG-AFTRA, some are in Actor's Equity (the UK union), some are in both. Those in SAG or in both would be unable to promote the show.

[goodluckclove]

Hey. Stop scrolling for a second.

You scroll through writeblr a lot, don't you? I get why. Lots of fun people, interesting concepts and prompts. But maybe you haven't taken that jump from collecting resources on writing to actually writing.

Once again, I get it. It's daunting if you've never done it before. I've been doing it for a while and I genuinely can't think too hard about the act itself as it happens or else I get all sweaty and confused. I flopped spectacularly at a game of Scrabble tonight because I just ran out of words to think of and I'm in the middle of my 13th novel. Writing to me is like side-eyeing the sun - but that's besides the point.

What I mean is that you should do it. That idea that you think could be, might be, maybe has potential. More than that, I think you should do it right now. Right now.

Ooh but Clove, it's one AM and I have to do open heart surgery tomorrow. Cool. Write three sentences and go to sleep, then see if you want to do more after you get your license revoked.

But what if it's not good? Okay. What if it isn't? But what if it isn't, and it GETS good later? Or what if it isn't, but then later in the story you find a way to make those three initial sentences make sense? Three sentences isn't a story, unless you're Ernest Hemingway or a Haiku Man. Moving on.

Clove, where do I start? Honestly if you've never finished a project, or really never wrote anything at all, maybe just start at the point that sounds the most interesting in your head. To find the process that works for you takes work and experience so maybe for now you get dessert for dinner.

But I don't have an outline/character sheet/world map/mood board/playlist/ECT! Cool. Maybe that's an issue. Maybe it isn't. There's only one way to find out.

But it's hard! It's hard at first and then it gets easier. It's a muscle. You work at it consistently and you'll get to a point where you struggle to remember what it was like to not know how to write.

But it's painful! Hah yeah. That's kind of the more honest issue, isn't it. It's easier to think that your idea WOULD BE GREAT rather than face the fact that you might not be able to MAKE IT GREAT. That fear isn't based in reality, though. People like different things. You might write a work that you're displeased with in one aspect and find that it's changed someone else's life for a completely different reason.

What if I'm not a good writer? I struggle with this a lot and I've been published. It doesn't really go away even when people cry at your work and heap praise on it. But if you like to do it, if you would still be doing it even if there was no end promise of fame and success, you should do it.

What if I'm not a writer at all? I used to ask myself that. There are lots of answers to this question so I can only give my own: you are a writer if you write - past, present or future. If you haven't written in a long time but you're trying to get back to the craft, you are still a writer. You just have to keep trying.

What we do is half-trade, half-religious act, and because of that it is easily one of the weirder passions. I don't really get why people romanticize the field but at the same time I guess it seems pretty magical at times. As a writer, though, our job is to be the proverbial Man Behind the Curtain. You have to know how the magic trick works enough to do it successfully, but you also still have to be amazed. It's weird. I don't know why I do it.

I still do it though.

Write three sentences. Right now. Why not, right? If you send them to me in an ask I'll read them, or you can send them to me at my email address that I posted a few posts back because I'm old enough to know online safety and choose to ignore it. Or just do it for yourself.

Make something. You deserve to be a source of creation.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for using a poem I wrote for my ex-girlfriend to apply for a scholarship?

I'm pretty sure that I'm not TA here, we're still on good terms anyway and it's unlikely she'll ever even find out about this unless I outright tell her, but I'd like to know if I'm committing some grievous social faux pas here.

So. I (21F) met my ex-girlfriend, who we'll call Jolene (22F) online a couple years back. The specifics of how we met will make it immediately obvious to anyone who knows either of us that it's me writing the AITA post, so I'm going to leave those out, but we were friends for a while before she asked me out, and it's relevant that we became friends over writing. We hit it off pretty well for a while, to the point where I wrote a poem being incredibly gay for her despite not (then) being much of a poet at all.

And then I went to visit her in person. Y'see, she'd come to visit me in person the previous winter, and that went fine, barring the fact that I ended up being super overwhelmed by the end of the visit—suffice to say that I'm extremely asexual, and she's extremely not. This came to a head when I went to visit her, she constantly wanted to be hanging out and doing things, and I straight up could not handle that much social interaction with anyone for that long. It got to the point where I was straight up dreading being with her, so I took a step back, examined my feelings, and decided yeah, we'd probably be better off as friends or as queerplatonic partners or something nonromantic.

We're still on fairly good terms, I'd say? Though I still feel extremely awkward over the circumstances of said breakup, she can't change how she is and I can't change how I am, and she's really happy with her new girlfriend so. Hell yeah. We love to see it. (There's also the additional complication that I might be something approaching arospec, but. Y'know. Details.)

Fast forward to today, several months after our breakup. I'm applying for scholarships for my university. I happen to be going for an English major and one of the available scholarships involves submitting up to 5 poems of any length. I remember, abruptly, the poem I wrote for her, go looking in our DMs, and—yep, there it is. Still incredibly gay.

Between that and some haikus about wildlife (long story), that brings my count of poems up to four of the five total allowed. I haven't submitted the application yet, but I've only got four days left to, and I absolutely don't have to submit my extremely gay poem alongside the wildlife haikus, I'm looking at the application right now and it says up to 5 poems of any length, presumably implying that I can have anywhere from 1-5 poems in that document.

But... I really want to. I'm not romantically in love with Mabel anymore, and while our personalities don't mesh super well these days, I still care about her a lot and if this is some giant social faux pas I'm unaware of (I'm unaware of a lot of those, I've never gotten formally diagnosed with anything but I highly doubt I'm remotely neurotypical if that's relevant) and it feels kind of like a way of saluting the relationship that was good while it lasted?

Also, and possibly more relevantly to the scholarship thing, it's a halfway decent poem. Nothing award-winning, but I'll never get any scholarships if I don't try for them, y'know? ...And I kind of really need the scholarships, due to reasons best brought up in an entirely different AITA post involving my mom.

So. Uh. Yeah. I know what I'll be doing regardless, no way this gets a solid judgment before it's time to submit, but I do want to know if it's an AH move or not. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[etherfabric]

That Thing from Your Past Wants to Talk (TW)

This is something I channeled, not a Pick A Card today. But it felt really important, so I'm posting it. As always, take what resonates, leave the rest.

This might get a little deep, so proceed with caution.

General Reading

Queen of Wands rx, The Moon rx, The Sun rx, Knight of Cups

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

It's over. It's truly, truly over. I remember how devastated you were. I was there. I know you didn't make it up. Not one detail. Either you were numb from head to toe, or you couldn't move one inch without hurting. Nothing made sense anymore, everything had lost its meaning, simple things you couldn't even fathom losing were gone. For good, you thought. And in a way, that's true. So many things are different now. People don't recognize you, and that's exactly how it's supposed to be. You were so... lonely. Among them all. No one batted an eye at your pain. Your tears and your laughter alike were nuisances to them at best, or just background noise like a heater rumbling in the next room. Not worth any attention whatsoever. You were practically invisible, except when they needed something. And that something never felt good. Being suddenly noticed? That was close to a miracle, and you would have done anything to keep being noticed. Well, you practically did do anything.

Now, you are free to do none of that. No more humiliating self-abandonment. No more ass kissing people who are a whole other level of fucked up than you. No more being at everyone's disposal at a moment's notice, no matter the time, cost, terms. No more waiting for reciprocity in vain, only to beat yourself up for your "foolish" (read: actually guided by the smidge of self worth you had left) hopes after being stood up nonchalantly yet again.

This is a time that brings you the relief you are so overdue for. The only problem: Me, this thing from the past, is still deep in your bones. And I can't leave without your help.

Let me out. Write about me, talk about me (even just to a stuffed animal, or a picture of someone), make music about me, paint me, knit me, crochet me, cook me - just give me another vessel than you.

I see how I hurt you. I don't want to. I knock to be let out, not hidden yet again. We are safe. We don't have to do it all at once (actually, that might be a bad idea), let's just go step by step. We might have to do this a couple of times, but it probably get easier with each round, like all things you do a lot (and especially those things that bring cathartic releases, right? Doesn't that sound nice? ...okay, it might not feel good while doing it, kinda like having to throw up bad food and tasting it again, but I swear you will feel lighter afterwards.)

I feel ready. Do you? How could we start, just a tiny bit? Maybe a haiku? A 10 second drawing? Putting together a playlist? Maybe just a tear? I'm game with anything. I won't go anywhere anyway (ha... sorry. Stuck trauma joke.)

[writing-for-life]

Thank you for an amazing 2023!

About metas, fics and sparkly things…

This won’t be short, but you wouldn’t expect that from me, would you? 🤣

I’ve been on Tumblr for just a bit over a year because I needed to get off my family’s back after my three decades long Sandman brain-rot got worse again due to the Netflix series. I hovered around a handful of followers for months until things exploded (I still don’t know why tbh, I think it was one particular meta that kicked things off a bit), and I somehow ended up with hundreds of followers, which might not be much to some, but it’s a lot for me.

So to all of you I’d like to say: Thank you for being here. I don’t always manage to stay on top of things because my notifs are a mess and I lose track, plus I have a rather busy life and can often only write in batches and then queue, but each of you is appreciated, even if I accidentally forget to get back to you or if we aren’t mutuals.

I’ve made such lovely connections over the last year—my interest in The Sandman definitely does not align with the main focus that shan’t be named, and I’m glad that you folks are out there. You probably know who you are.

Now to the obligatory “your posts wrapped” thing—and I’m only doing it because I need to make a point (of course I do 🤣).

News and art

My by far most successful posts have been casting/shooting news and pretty pictures (two examples are linked). And I’m grateful for all the reblogs and likes of those, but apart from curating them, they’re not really me. They’re someone else’s work.

Meta analysis

Then you have my metas, which make up the bulk of the other posts that are doing quite well (you can find all of them in my pinned post).

Even if it wasn’t my most “successful” one (what does that even mean?), this one meant the most to me:

I love writing metas, whether they cover literary concepts, psychology, music or art because I’m a permanently brain-frazzled multi-hyphenate who has to talk about everything that won’t leave her alone.

I also love when you’re sending me asks btw. For the latter, I hope they pick up again in 2024 because they really nosedived since I switched off anonymous asks (which I won’t change, soz) after some people just thought it’s good sport to be an arse about my not being here to pray at the altar of the ship. I guess we have briefly covered the ugly side of Tumblr, too, then.

Writing

But what I'm most proud of when I think of all the things I've done in 2023 is my fiction and poetry. And that's both a happy and slightly sad thing to address.

My 31 Haikus for Sandtober started as a bit of fun, but they’ve developed a life of their own, and people seemingly liked them. The post also contains a bit of my fan-art:

I still intend to turn them into a hardcover at some point, but I won’t be able to create all the artwork myself, so if you’re a fan-artist and want to know what I’m thinking of, please get in touch (I’ll still talk about this in more detail at some point though).

The other thing I’m incredibly proud of is “The Light of Stars”.

I started it as a NaNoWriMo project in 2022 (I always use NaNo to do something that is less stressful than my professional writing projects), wrote it in a bit more than a month—and then did nothing with near 80,000 words until June 2023.

And then I thought “Fuck it,” and published it on Ao3. It’s a canon x OC fic, and this is where it gets a bit sad. Because for most of us writers, these are never the posts that get most engagement (the ratio is really something like 100 : 1 — 500 for a shitpost, 5 for an average writing post).

On Ao3, it gradually picked up because I published chapter after chapter, and I think I can say that it’s done fairly well over there in terms of engagement for an OC fic, and above all how people engage with it. Because it’s a bit deeper despite being romance, it deals with heavy topics like grief, and I’m so glad to have touched a few people’s hearts with it, and that it was meaningful to them. So much so that you all convinced me to write a sequel.

But here’s the thing: The general engagement with writing, especially non-explicit, non-ship, non-readerY/N on Tumblr is very, very low.

Writers who write canon x OC are still struggling to be heard through the noise (it’s not just me, I’ve had many conversations about this, so I’ll just say: I’ll speak for many of us). There are basically hardly any events for us to participate in (most of us only ever do so if we shift to canon one-shots, poetry or metas. If we don’t: Again, no one cares), and fandom often actively chooses to ignore us because “all OCs are self-inserts, ew.” Which is patently not true, and I could go on a long rant now why many canon x canon fics are very obvious self-inserts, which I won’t.

But even if all OCs were self-inserts, even if all characters were—so what? All writing is to a degree based on self-insertion because it comes from our brains—it’s not a bad thing. But apparently, it becomes a bad thing if the character is an OC, heaven knows why.

So if I had one wish (I’m allowed one, right?) for 2024, it would be that people engage more with OC fics and include them more in community events. That fandom, which prides itself in community, includes writers who don’t write for (the main) ship/s a bit more, especially if they don’t write smut (which I personally even do professionally, but I don’t want to have to do it in fanfic just to get engagement). I’m not holding my breath because I know that’s not where fandom’s oft single-minded focus lies, but a girl can dream, right?

And with that, I want to get to my proudest accomplishments of them all:

Being the curator queen of the sparkle realms:

Being one (arguably the main) instigator of the maddest crack ship that has ever graced (?) the face of the earth, spawned the most unhinged discussion (much truth in it though 🤣) and even NSFW fanart. I promise I’ll write that fic about Murphy and his Cool Hat:

Have a lovely 2024!

[asiandra-dash]

Do you have any headcanons about Genshin characters with instruments or just music in general?

↪ Characters: Alhaitham, Ayaka, Ayato, Childe, Kazuha

↪ Warnings: None,,, Except swearing and maybe a bit of violence (Childe) if those count lol

↪ Notes: Ohoho anon as a violinist, person who keeps saying they can't sing but everyone else says they can, and slaps on music the second they wake up, you bet I have some. I have many many MANY more hcs with more Genshin characters but I don't wanna make this too long even though it's pretty long already so I'm just keeping this to five characters for now but feel free to send another ask about this :>

Kazuha

He plays the guitar

But he plays the flute too

A flute is more portable than a guitar lol

The leaf is a substitute when he doesn't have his flute

He usually borrows a guitar if he wants to play it

If he's wandering and the region he's in happens to have something going on with a little bit of music he might stop by

It's nice to know about the local music, maybe he could try and play it a bit or write a haiku about it

He's not really good at singing

But his humming is quite soothing and comforting

Sometimes he'll find himself humming a small tune he heard or made up while traveling

Alhaitham

He doesn't care

Mostly

He won't admit that some of it sounds good

Kaveh annoys him about it sir please go get a dose of music

If he wanted to he could try to play something

He's okay at most instruments though he doesn't find much of a reason to play them

He sucks ass at air instruments

He'd touch a piano for the first time and once he figured out the basics he'd ace easy and medium level songs and never touch one again

Kaveh always annoys him about it because he wants to know how he does it

Alhaitham would brush him off he doesn't care let him read and do his job

But Kaveh will not let go of this until he find how how he does it

He can't sing

Not well anyways

Also don't tell anyone but he sometimes plays the cello

Childe

Mmmmmm music is amazing

Especially if it's good music for thinking about murder /hj

No but really he enjoys any music

He is absolutely a violin player

But be careful when he has the bow in his hand

He might stab you with it

Probably replaced his bow a few times doing that lol

Either you DO NOT let him pick up a bow when he's having even a little bit of murderous thoughts or BACK UP WITH PROTECTION

He might stab someone with the bow, you never know, and if it snaps oh boy the splinters...

Stabby stabby stabby

Someone stop him

He will not break the violin though it's hard to find a really good quality instrument

He's trying guitar

He sounds okay but it still sucks

As a person who has literally every Childe cover in their playlist he can absolutely sing

It's SO GOOD SHFSUHFUIOSDJGFIUWABFVJDFIHDGYESBF

Ayato

He's fucking tone deaf

He can't sing or play shit

This part is only here because I thought it would be funny

How nice it would be to hear Ayaka's playing and singing...

BUT in another version where he ISN'T tone deaf

He still doesn't play any instrument

He really likes Ayaka's playing and singing

If she ever says she is bad he will not let her live with that and try and find a way to make her think she's good

Most of the time it works

He prefers humming over singing, especially when he's working

When he sings it's literally the best fucking thing you have ever heard he sounds so perfect

And he'll deny every compliment saying that it's not that good and others can do better

Sir no you sound like a fucking angel shut up

No one not even himself knows how he can sing that well I guess he was just born like that

Ayaka

Absolute opposite of Ayato (The first part)

She got all the music genes

She loves music

She plays quite a few instruments but her favorites are the Koto, Kokyu, and Shamisen

Ayaka can sing

Mostly

Kind of

It's not the best but at least it's passable

She wishes she could sing and/or play for her brother but she can't :(

Even if he couldn't play an instrument anyways why couldn't he at least have not be tone deaf

Anyways in the other one where Ayato is NOT tone deaf

Sometimes Ayato will listen to Ayaka playing or singing when he has the time

Which isn't often considering the loads of work he has

Sometimes she hears her brother humming/singing and wishes she could be as good

Why did he get the good singing genes :( oh well she can play instruments so it's fair enough

She's asked multiple times if he ever has free time if he wanted to sing something while she played but he always finds some kind of excuse to say no

Ayaka has started suspecting that but hey, he's a busy man

And the excuses are mostly true so

[shiningstardan]

During the process of writing fanfictions, do you have a creative block or are you able to flow a story easily?

☆ A S K T I M E ! ! !

Well... Imma try to reply to the best of my abilities. But first context:

I have come just come out from a 5-year writing pause. I won't call it a block because 5 years ago I didn't have much interest in writing, I just wrote 5 fics but didn't think much of it and even dropped one of those.

So, what have I done now that is so different and has gotten my juices flowing?

I have established some rules

1. I will not write for others.

What does this mean? I will not write expecting kudos, bookmarks or reviews. So I don't place my writing motivation on feedback, some people get writers block because they don't feel appreciated. It's hurtful but you gotta remember that you also write because you love this character and the fandoms. I've always been kind of a lone wolf irl so, I gotta conduct the same mentality on online spaces.

2. I will find what I need out of the fics I'm writing and write that

I have been investing a lot of time thinking in Naruto for example. What do I need from this story that I never got?

Hyuga lore & politics

Konoha 13 interactions

Re-imagining of the time skipped between the OG series and Shippuden.

The fact that naruto talks friendship to everybody but he only cares about 1 friend, so I need him to interact with the other.

Knowing I need this I have started writing fics using prompts that may help my inspiration. Created character profiles to know who is friends with who besides what we are told in canon. Taken advantage of certain fandom patterns, there are some headcanons that have become universal.

For example: Somehow, somewhere a fan decided that in fanfic Hinata's grandfather is called either Hideo / Hideto and the rest of the fandom just rolled with it! which brings me to my next point~

3. I don't have to start from scratch.

If you feel that you are inspired by an image, headcanon, just roll with it. Don't feel pressure to come out with "original ideas" all the time, that's exhausting. I personally love when authors reference things, so maybe you said that a character likes the color red and you repeat that in a different way every fic you have, maybe through clothes, maybe through food, maybe through objects. A nod is always welcomed.

4. I can work on something else or abandon your idea

If you are stuck with an idea you can

Sleep on it and check it later

Outline it and move on. You can write 4 or 5 sentences about what you want to happen in that section and then you can come up with the details for the scene and write something else.

Not work on it anymore, maybe you can recycle what you wrote for another project (that's how I wrote Happy Valentine's Day, I didn't want to star from scratch so I reused the first portion from a discarded idea)

5. Length doesn't define you

I'm currently writing a 20k+ fic. This is my first time writing this much and it's scary AF. I thought it would be a 2k max, because I don't have a really good imagination. In the past I have mainly written works under 1k and even a 40 part drabble pieces (if you know the technical definition drabbles are 100 words exactly). So up until now I had just written relatively short works.

Challenge yourself to write short, write a haiku, a drabble, some flash fiction (250 w) or something under 500. Just a page.

Any writing is good writing.

6. Workshop it

Talk about your story and the ideas you want to explore with a friend (that includes me now, just so you know. Whether it is an annonymous ask or a direct message, my ask box will always be open for fanfic questions, even if it's a different fandom or ship I personally don't gravitate to).

7. Educate Yourself

This last few months I have discovered that english and spanish are formatted totally different in terms of punctuation.

I have also wanted to learn more about creative writing so I watch some Lectures

That being said I think I write slowly, but enjoy it nonetheless.

[holofoiltowercard]

The Journey of The Tarot Haiku

VII: The Chariot - Embarking on the Journey

Next to the Fool, the Chariot speaks most clearly about the start of a journey, with the added connotation of needing discipline and determination to stay on the path. The road is smooth and the goal is clear, you just need to keep to it is how I see it...

...so when it appeared in my Tarot readings about the book, I listened every single time.

But before that, it might be nice to talk about exactly how I got to actually finish the book, because again, I needed discipline and determination. It wasn't exactly hard, but it took effort. So after those first two poems, with Eight of Swords now fully covered (I am still in awe that it was the Eight of Swords, you don't often see that card as the start of anything good, do you?) and a few more poems coming along, I made that progress page I showed off in a previous post, and I set myself a goal of twenty poems. I'm sure that at one point, I adjusted just so I would have a total of X8 poems, in order for the new batches of twenty poems to seamlessly land me at 188. And from there, the writing process began.

I didn't write every day. I didn't get a burst of divine inspiration each time. But I did, whenever I had the time, take out my cards and a notebook and looked the cards over, to see if any caught my eye and turned the gears - if they did, good, if they didn't, at least I tried. I also remember one time having to travel to another city, finding some time on my hands, and scribbling into a notebook as I waited for others to do business. I didn't have the cards out since we were constantly moving about, but the notebook I could manage. Sometimes I could only do a single poem or a draft of one, and other times I got inspiration for several at once. Sometimes I focused my attention and only studied the Suit of Cups or the Suit of Swords, and other times I was glad to grasp at anything. Those two suits were the first to be finished back in the day - they came much more easily than the other two or the Major Arcana. Indeed, my last card, the last poem I had to write was for the reversed Knight of Wands, which to me speaks of your progress stuttering because your energies are scattered...

And then the readings came. I finished all the poems sometime in early September - I can't even tell you what day because my bullet journaling has been very scanty. But I did thankfully jot down the big reading I did on September 17th, when I started asking the Tarot questions about publishing:

What might I experience if I...

...published under my real name / a pseudonym?

...published in October / November / December?

I found the real name and October the most favorable answers - December also had promise so I gave it a shot, but when I did a reading about it and asked if I should aim for so and so dates, the answers didn't feel encouraging, so I returned to October, which I had been drawn to from the start.

With Tarot having so many ties and attractions to mysticism, I thought of October and saw three possible dates to aim for: the new moon, the full moon, and Halloween. Accordingly, I drew a card for each, and the full moon got the Ten of Cups, which was lovely, but the new moon got The Chariot.

I love the Ten of Cups as much as the next person, but when I saw that Major Arcana, suggesting I could embark on a whole new journey after so much stagnation (the pandemic not only affected me personally as a source of isolation, stress and grief, but also destroyed my previous sources of income), I said to myself, it has to be the new moon. This is it. I deserve to step onto a new, better path and I'm going to do it.

Mind you, I was struggling. Not so much with discipline or determination as with mental illness, so progress was sometimes slow and anxious. But I gently pushed myself along - "do it scared" is a phrase that described me well, because I knew so little about self-publishing, and even when you read up on it, actually doing it is a totally different experience of doing and waiting. And when at last I was there, and had to price the ebook... I input 7 dollars, 7 standing for The Chariot. The paperback was then priced 28 dollars to account for printing costs, 7 being multiplied by four. The hardcover would have also followed this pattern and be 35 dollars, but when I did a reading just to check in, I kept getting reversed cards for 30 dollars, 33 dollars, etc., until 34 dollars landed me an approving Six of Cups. I later realized that 3 + 4 = 7.

Thank you, Chariot. Because of you, the book is now out, and with luck and support, it might just reach those who will appreciate and love it, and give me a new chance at life.

Buy the ebook

Buy the paperback

Buy the hardcover

[demonslayedher]

What are some blood demon art concepts you find interesting but they weren’t explored in the canon?

This was one of the Asks that made me go, "uuuuuuhhhhh..."

The reason for this is that I find myself most creative in response to a problem. For example, in this fic I came up with the Mirror Demon because I wanted a demon that might be fought with the final form of Flower Breath. That's why in a lot of hypotheticals or potential AUs I'm asked about, my first response is to set the perimeters and figure out how to work within those constraints, such as asking what would be in-character. Constraints drive creativity, like how well you can write a haiku within a given set of rules.

What I'm less good at is divergent creativity: coming up with something out of nothing, no limits.

That brings me to how I'd like to answer this Ask: with a breakdown of my brainstorming methods!

A common phenomenon is that children are better at divergent thinking--imagining all the possibilities--than adults, who have had that ability beaten out of them by the emphasis on "rightness" and that some ideas are "stupid." It takes exercising this part of the brain to be able to think in more original ways instead of just "the best" ways. This page breaks it down pretty simply and explains it with the paperclip test/game, and here's more ideas for other exercises and different kinds of goals you could potentially have for creative thinking.

When I am doing a group brainstorming exercise, be it in a classroom or office setting, what I find works best is a leader/moderator at the board who can catch things and write fast and potentially legibly (within reason for how fast they're writing), and the method should be agreed upon in advance--for example, mind-mapping, which uses branches from a main idea to show relationships between ideas. Typically, this means starting with a main idea in the center and branching out into different categories as more ideas come to you. Another methods is writing things in a list format, thinking of as many things as you can in a given category. These are basics found in any cheesy corporate "how to increase creativity" guide, but they are helpful in easing people into how to brainstorm.

The challenge is to set a time frame--short enough that you are forced to think fast, long enough that it gets painful. The time frame is up to you, whether it's setting a timer for one minute or however long it takes for you to write while eating melting gelato. Okay, maybe in a formal setting you'll set a timer to keep everyone on the same page.

While you might have a different ultimate goal in the purpose of your brainstorming, what you're going for here is not quality, but quantity--as many ideas as possible--and that means not throwing any stupid ideas out. If anything, the stupid ideas are where magic starts to happen. It's the shift from "basic stuff anyone could think of off the top of their head" to "oh, I never would had thought of this otherwise." You have to force yourself to think past the initial, obvious-feeling, correct-feeling ideas to access what's more unusual, and that usually means some stupid ideas first. It's like dusting out the cobwebs of this part of your brain you aren't usually accessing. I've also heard this process described as tossing out your first ten ideas, at least in a creative script-writing approach.

Refining your ideas, convergent thinking, comes later. But only after you've gotten some ideas to work with!

The reason a legible mind-map or list works well in a group setting is because this means everyone can observe the ideas after the initial "hurry, hurry, think, think" stage. Everyone can discuss them and decide which ones to throw out, and even draw lines showing more connections and circling whatever ideas you want to come back to.

But do I look like a corporate board room to you? No. I ate gelato today while writing this:

When it's just me using it, I don't care about legibility, and I use a mix of mind-mapping arrows and lists and flow of consciousness. While playing with story ideas I might whole pages of doodles that look like this with fragments of character lines. This gave me a way to observe my own thoughts about Demon Blood Techniques and their unlimited potential, and I found that I kept myself thinking quickly by asking questions and then answering myself.

Also, I got lines like "Skunk demon" and "so now we're the Magic School Bus."

Some of the themes I found interesting were the repeated effects of sound waves (Kyogai, Nakime, Flute Demon), and infinity (the fortress, the ability to regenerate, the ability to replicate, etc.). One of the themes I thought deeper on was how much I love Kyogai's abilities, and not just Kyogai himself. For as much as other Blood Techniques are based on things we've seen in other media (being trapped in good dreams, alternate dimensional spaces, spider threads, body duplicates, illusions, etc)., Kyogai's abilities were very unexpected, but also had a rationale to them. However, instead of the sound waves only changing the orientation and spatial locations of the rooms, he also had big air claws, which otherwise would seem like they have nothing to do with the orientation of a room. In the first place, air claws and redecorating seem they have nothing to do with drums. It's the combination of these factors that make Kyogai's Blood Technique so impressive and refreshing.

Once I made that observation, I made a couple of lists of potential means that a demon might use and ways that a Demon Slayer or prey might be overcome, and then I connected them semi-randomly. I got connections like "temperature" and "memories," like how a demon might raise the temperature of a room little by little and call to a demon slayer's mind memories of their childhood, until they are completely overwhelmed with that last summer they spent in childhood innocence as they are in reality boiling alive, and "color" with "invading body," like if a chameleon-like demon can match the color of a Nichirin blade then it can gain control over the swordsman's hands and forearms, whatever grip created that color.

My favorite, though, was "fingernails" and "suffocation," because it gave me a very vivid mental image of a demon sweeping its hand like it's going to grab a swordsman's face, but draws away just shy of touching them. However, with its long fingernails, it's grabbed the Breath just about to enter a swordsman, and pulls it right out of them.

Horrific, am I right!?!?

So anyway. That's what I got from my divergent thinking experiment today. It's the kind of thing I tell myself I need to do more of when trying to write my own original fiction, but kind of like physical exercise, I think about it more than I actually do it. ^^;

[tsuki-sennin]

Donbrothers, Episode 35!

Ohhhhh boy! Just got off the train from Oishi-Na Town! Time to visit my friend Tsubasa in Donbura County Jail. And uh... well, my good buddy Jirou is in immense pain so, I wanna check on him too. Going all over the place today, huh? Please stand behind the white line! We're departing on a train ride towards pain!

Spoilers, I guess...

-Well, at least you're not having a massive rampage, right Tsuyoshi?

-It's OUR power, boys!

-"Kijino, you're really making an annoying racket stirring your coffee like that."

-"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU SON OF A BITCH, I PAID FOR THIS DRINK!"

-"Hey man, chill, you don't gotta yell at him like that-"

-"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE OTAKU BRAT I DIDN'T WORK FOR 10 YEARS TO BE BOSSED AROUND BY A LITTLE ONI PUNK!"

-"Jesus Christ, what's gotten into you"

-"OHHHHHH LOOK AT ME, I'M A FREELOADER, I'M GONNA WRITE A HAIKU TO PAY MY BILLS!

Lies high as the palms

Bananas within reach

Monkey gets free lunch!"

EAT MY ENTIRE ASS YOU APE!"

-How many takes do you think it took to get that rant right?

-Ohhhhhh, Shinichi jbk;hjg

-Hello Auntie Yuriko.

-"He's hot" OH MY GOD how does Haruka rein you in?

-Ohhhhh, there's something with Auntie Yuriko isn't there

-"Ah fuck, he has a girlfriend already"

-...I get really bad vibes off of auntie Yuriko.

-Miho Spotted.

-Oh no

-Aaaand, we're in jail!

-Jail time with the homie.

-"So like... do you want 500000 yen?"

-"Nah, you... you can keep it, I don't really need that kinda money."

-"Ah... so this means... YOU'RE REFUSING A RANSOM! C'MERE YOU SON OF A BITCH"

-Free doggy!

-Kito, please stop that, I'm pretty sure fraternizing with suspects under interrogation is a violation of the law.

-Ah, who am I kidding, that's not gonna stop her.

-Ohhhhhhhhh, she hit you with the whammy.

-"Go investigate your girlfriend! If you get us results, we'll let you go free!"

-Murasame's just sitting there, huh?

-Yeah just seal him up a little, he'll be fine

-Oh hey, Rumi-chan, right? You're Jirou's ladyfriend.

-Alright, my boy's getting focus!

-JIROU HJKHK

-Natsumi rehearsal!

-Very solid delivery

-Proposal!

-Wan-derful!

-Oh... hello Sononi! There's a really funny case of some poor kid unable to confess his love happening in Oishi-Na Town if you wanna come with me next time!

-"Oh, that boy's gonna die. Old Yeller's got nothing on this dog tragedy. I'll be sure to hand his friends a posthumous Newberry medal."

-Having a midlife crisis so soon?

-Hmm... what is that thing... he seems to be a physics major, so... perhaps he's one of the more science-y sentai. That's a red bird of prey for his face. Yellow beast with tusks... or fangs? And those blue... rubbery shoulders he's got... Ohhhhh, I get it now! This guy must be our Liveman rep.

-A toast~! For the most~!

-Naptime!

-Hello Jin!

-Just send him away like that, huh?

-"Ahhhhh, so you're the guy who made him a psycho. Good job, dingus."

-Hmm... found a new form of dimensional travel, huh? Do you think perhaps they cut through the CooKingdom?

-"Menkai wa wata."

-Natsumi? Ohhhhhhh, a crane.

-Fuck

-Y'know Momoi, I think whenever somebody acts even slightly weird around you, you should assume

-"Are you okay, Pheasant Guy?"

"FUCK YOU HARUKA YOU'RE NOT MY REAL MOM"

-Sloooooow motion!

-Party Time!

-Too fast, too strong!

-Ohhhh, Avatar Change!

-Now transforming! Get your ass on the dance floor behind the white line!

-Aaaaaaaaalll aboard!

-Hyper ToQ Momo-gou! Hyper ToQ Momo-gou!

-Gotta admit, I'm actually kind of a fan of this idea that Momoi's so up in his own hype that he just... slaps his own super form onto another Sentai's Red.

-Alright, Jirou!

-Stop sniffing your girlfriend and lie down!

-...yeah, like that, thank you for listening.

-Got a ToQ Blaster and the Rail Slasher, badass.

-Awww, I wanted to see more.

-Darkness of youth!

-Kimochiiiii!

-Ore koso only one da.

-Youth stuff!

-Let's fly!

-Take that power!

-Matsuri da matsuri da!

-Donbros Utopia!

-Yeah, good luck with that, Mister! Have fun!

-BRUH

-Juto Suck

-"Nooooo :("

-And he just got eaten!

-Fuck!

-Oh God, where is this

-That poor Anoni lady :(

-Oh...

-Ohhhhhh this is the lion's den.

-Jesus fucking Christ, what on earth is happening

-Why is this so horrifying

-Inoue? Tasaki? Shirakura-P? Anybody?

-What the fuck guys, what is happening?

-Ohhhhhhhh that's not good.

-That's not good at all.

-Ramen! Deliciousmile~!

-Oh, that poor chef, he's going through this again.

-That's not our dog, that's a really fucked up cat!

-Uh... hang tight, Tsubasa! We'll save you!

-Next episode that is, Happy Halloween buddy!

[verdigrissoup]

18, 23, and 24, please!

Thank you for the ask!!

18-- Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Ohhhhh the bane of my existence! Titles are always the hardest part for me. More often than not I find myself blankly staring at that lil Ao3 screen after meticulously editing my story and choosing the tags, cursing myself for once more forgetting that I need to have a title in order to publish.

I would say out of all of the fics I've published, only a small handful were crafted with the title in mind from the beginning or middle. Most of them are at the end, and most are just the first thing that comes to mind when I consider the tone and ideas of the piece. Maybe not the best approach, but it's the one I've got!

If anyone has advice on better ways to come up with titles, I am ALL ears!

23-- Best writing advice for other writers?

Don't start out trying to write the Next Great Classic or Fandom Favorite. In my experience, that's always a recipe for disaster. The pressure is too high, it's a veritable desert of ideas, and it always feels a little miserable. Instead, approach writing with something you love or care about at the core of it.

Maybe you want to make yourself laugh. Maybe you want to write a story that's enemies to lovers. Maybe you want to write a story about your favorite haiku. Maybe you want to write a story about your best friend. Maybe you want to write a story exploring a feeling you can't quite name. Find something you love, something that's interesting to you, and use that as the jumping off point for what you want to write. It makes writing approachable, because it's a small seed that you're curious about, but it has the potential to turn into so much more.

That's been my great secret for most everything I write, fanfic or otherwise. I write the feelings I have with the people I love into my stories. I write jokes that make me laugh. I write with a concept or a trope I've always found interesting. And I have found that more often than not when I write from a place that makes me excited to write and explores the world through something I'm curious to explore, that is when I write the things that are the most impactful to my readers and myself.

People can tell when you care about your writing, and when you care about your writing it gives you the drive to make something really amazing :)

And, even if it turns into something that I decide not to share, I spent my time doing something I enjoy, which is good because writing should be fun :)

24-- Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

"Don't use said. Use other words."

Awful advice. I write as a part of my job and creatively (AKA I write all the time), and I'm here to say said ROCKS. In all those contexts! You can't really overuse it because it's kind of an invisible word-- it never feels very repetitive if you keep going with it.

Not to say there isn't a place for those other words, but most of the time said is the right contender, so let that lil guy stay where he is!!

[vihrago-a]

(   𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖆𝖝𝖚𝖘   )      :      independent   and   highly   private   multimuse.   this   multimuse   contains   only   original   characters   which   are   majority   female   or   non-binary.   all   of   these   original   characters   are   based   in   a   plethora   of   different   fandoms   ―   written   and   cared   for   by   𝚅.   rules   can   be   found   under   the   cut. [ previously illyriamade, mkoshi, atlaentian ]. nsfw sb is @jigjigstreet.

(   𝖆𝖋𝖋𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘   )   :   @motife  ,   @jonbyers , @deadranch , @adaelus

(   𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖉   )       :   link. promo temp credit. promo.

001 : i am 18+, so nsfw content will be present but it will be tagged with the generic ‘nsfw tw / cw’ tag, this also goes for triggers. — consider general trigger warnings for blood, death, murder, torture, are withstanding due to the nature the fandoms i interact with — all of these will be tagged accordingly ( trigger tw / trigger cw ), but if you need anything additional tagged, please let me know ( via message, anon, or carrier pigeon ) and i’ll make sure to do so! i generally tag anything that’s extensively / actually written out in threads or any visuals / direct references, but if you need something more than that, feel free to let me know.

002 : i don’t use heavy formatting ( occasional bolding / italicizing and small text is all i use ), but if you need me to adjust anything for replies to you ( because of eyesight / disability / ease of reading / etc. ) don’t hesitate to let me know i’d be happy to do it. otherwise, i give you overarching permission and encouragement to edit any parts of my reply formatting that you need to to fit your needs!

003 : i prefer to keep my blog mutuals only, that being said, if you unfollow me i’ll be pretty quick  to unfollow you as well. typically i just block and move on because i detest confrontation with all of my being.

004 : i love multi-muse blogs and fellow ocs / oc writers, but i will not write with self-insert ocs or blogs that write a non-fictional character / a character that is based on a real life person. it’s nothing personal towards those muns, but the line between fiction and reality is a bit too blurred for me to be comfortable with it.

005 : i ship chemistry. force-shipping is an automatic block. but generally, if you ship it, i ship it. so just talk to me! i am a very nice person and easy to talk to! chances are, i'm more afraid of you than you are of me.

006 : regarding call out posts, DNIs, and messaging people about “toxic” mutuals – i 100% your respect your right and experience and choice to keep your dash a safe space for yourself, but i believe in two/three sizes to every story and i prefer to develop my own opinions about people. i do tag urls on all my replies to make blacklisting easier for those that need it and i respect all my mutuals enough to never talk negatively about them behind their back, so if you message me trying to spread anything but basic information ( like hey here’s what my experience with this person was, it wasn’t great ) you’ll likely be blocked because i don’t want to be put in the middle of drama that has literally nothing to do with me. the only time i do anything other than that is when someone is genuinely harmful and i feel that interacting with them is going to bring YOU more harm than good. i value every one of my mutuals' well beings.

007 : got something mean to say? tell your cat. or dog. or plant. but don’t send it on anon and just don’t spread hate about people in general. anon hate on this blog will only be accepted if it is either a haiku or a pun.

CONTACT.

DISCORD available upon request for chatting / plotting / flailing purposes.

MUN INFORMATION:  V ( any prns ). 18+. ISTP-T. sagittarius. please tell me about your pets, i’m dead serious. i want to know about your pets. or if you don’t have pets, i would like to know about your plants. also if this rules page looks familiar, it is because @seesgood gave me her rules to use after she realized how little braincells i had left.

[crowisinthetrash]

6, 9, 15 ♡

hello mika! hope u are having a good day/night :)

6 - Favourite headcanons belonging to other people?

my favourite headcanons are when people draw or write how characters who haven't met and if they met, how'd they act. my favourite one being Scara and Itto <3

9 - If you were from Teyvat, where would you live?

ooo hard one. i think i'd pick mondstadt but liyue would be a close second. i feel like it would somewhat remind me of home and i feel like it would be a nice place to reside. but i would probably be more of a travelling adventurer like the traveler and visit other nations every so often

15 - What's your favourite voice line from the game?

Alot of the birthday voicelines are my favourite but my personal favourites (besides Itto's birthday voiceline), humour wise are:

"Don't tell me they did it again..." - Kuki Shinobu, joining the party

"Understood. I just have to stand here, right?" - Shenhe, joining the party

"Have you seen that gentleman around? Huh? He's just a normal man by the name of Zhongli now? That must be quite the change for that old block-head. Come with me to see him, will you? I have a vintage I dug up from Windrise that I can take as a condolence gift. Oh, ahh... did he still seem strong when you saw him? How strong? Am I likely to get blown away?" - Venti, about Morax

and lastly:

"Oh, don't listen to the Shogun. Desserts! Cavities are no big deal — you can just replace your teeth. Anyway, I just don't see how desserts can pose a serious obstacle to my pursuit of Eternity." - Raiden Shogun/Ei favourite food

Though for more meaningful ones:

"Give me your hand. Heh, there's no need to be nervous. I'm just taking you to a vantage point.

How is it? The scenery here should be quite breathtaking. There's no need to thank me — I see little point in it." -Scara, birthday

"Oz, my loyal companion. That we should have met this person, one who hails from another world as I do... Perhaps even cruel fate has deigned to smile upon me, though sin courses through my veins. If I am indeed destined to remain here, in this inescapable prison that is reality, at least—"

"I understand mein Fräulein! In this traveler, Fräulein has found one who will never forsake" - Fischl, About us: ones dear to heart

"I heard it was your birthday, so I wrote a haiku for you. Unfortunately, I'm not the most talented in this area, and after trying for several evenings, I was still only able to come up with the first two lines... I guess I'll just share what I've got so far, then. "Sun and moon rejoice / Birds of dawn sing songs anew"... Wait, don't say a word, I think the final line is coming to me... Yes, how about.... "Far from home, with you." Anyway, Happy Birthday. Let's go and get you some cake, shall we?" - Kazuha, birthday

and lastly:

"Are you sulking? That's no good — c'mon, follow my lead. First, use your right hand to draw a biiig circle in front of you. Then, use both hands to take all those negative feelings off your chest and into the circle. Next, push it away as hard as you can! So? Feeling better now?" - Nilou, about us: dealing with anger

[lunarsilkscreen]

I'm asked about how I keep a rhythm in the way I speak, and the way I type. It's pretty simple...

When I was younger I started keeping rhythm in my speech based on how the language arts and music teachers talk, or give examples.

"Da duhDa duhDa duhDah!"

That became a habit. I enjoyed keeping the rhythm with my words.

Later, I started researching haiku, poetry forms, and metres. I can't really tell you any of the standard forms anymore, but I practiced them so much, that they became habit too.

My AOL instant messenger was full of this rhythm. But I doubt others picked up on it at the time. (Or maybe they were sick of it. One can never be sure)

My ability to write comes simply from typing in chat rooms, IMs, text messages, and online forums, and now social media posts. You know, people talk about "a thing a day" I just yell at strangers on the internet. It counts, right?

Somebody recently suggested that I do what Carlin used to do, he has rhythm in his performances. Carefully thought out, carefully prepared, and thoroughly memorized.

My act is more "stream of thought". I can prepare a speech quickly with that rhythm simply through all that practice. I won't deny that Carlin and many other stage performers worked their way into my brain. I used to watch A LOT of Comedy Central growing up.

The only way for me to prove it is to actually see me give an impromptu speech (which I dislike because anxiety is gross these days. But on-stream is pretty close.) My streams, the better ones, are things I've prepared in my head over the course of a day or two. I don't write them down, because my speech classes taught me that bullets are better. (Though writing down the bullets helps keep me on track.)

The worse ones, the repeating ones, those are ruminating thoughts. I'm working on avoiding those in the future. Especially for study and gameplay streams.

When I'm in a good mood, or when I get a spark with the right words in my head, the rhythm just kind of leaks out. The haikus assemble themselves the same way a typical sentence does when you're talking.

The only difference is that I talk in cursive instead of print.

You'd have to really enjoy speaking that way to begin with if you want to replicate it maybe.

Then again ... I've always been ahead of my peers in language arts, so maybe it's a brain thing. Tho... I have new, classically trained peers now... And that's a bit intimidating. I have a lot of niches, but I'm always enamored with a well built sentence.

Thankfully, William Shakespeare wrote in layman's, so that the princes and the paupers, and all those around the continent could enjoy his brand of entertainment. And that lends itself to my brand of simple speak.

Phew.

@_@

[tabernaclehearts]

Losing Touch (The Worst Feeling)

Last night, I had a somewhat good conversation as I nursed a highball glass of white wine which I took two strained sips out of.

You see, poetry is a spectrum, just like many things in this world. Poetry comes in so many different forms: concrete (like a villanova vs. a haiku), emotion (sad, happy, wanting, etc.), and also the physical (written, spoken, the works), and even more past that. Subject matter is also a big thing in that the content of a poem can be a plethora of things.

Those who know me well may know that I'm not a conversation-starter; I only talk first if there's something interesting about the other person that I'm curious about.

In this case, what drew me to this person, what made me start the conversation, is that this person is also a poet, and from what I had seen online, our styles were vastly different. From what I had seen, this person looked successful, featuring in an indie film, winning medals, going on a small tour, something that the high-school me had wanted so badly. She was the epitome of a "successful writer" in my books, and as I flicked through her Instagram highlights, I became painfully aware of how far off I have been in my art, hiding behind acronyms and aliases because a part of me is too afraid to own up to my own words. I wish I could be courageous like her and belt out my lines like an opera singer, stand in front of a crowd with a microphone in hand, voice unchanging and brilliant, getting paid for the words that leave my tongue. I want to be able to talk with the light on.

The conversation was nice, me spitting out a couple of questions like a vending machine regarding the path of her poetry, its general content, what poetry is to her and what her major was (not English, it's Public Health), and why (poetry was a personal hobby, not a career path). And as much as I did enjoy hearing this side of the table (one that seems to be very prevalent in the world—we all know poets don't ever make much money if that's all they do), I could feel myself spiraling mid-sip, the wine in my mouth tasting a lot bitter than it did before. A large part of the human condition has to do with jealousy I think, me being unable to be truly passionate and at ease with my own work, desiring to be "successful" and yet also afraid of being perceived for said work. It reminded me of that long period of time in which I couldn't bring myself to write lyrical poetry anymore, unable to fit a certain number of feet and losing rhythm, the syllables running in-and-out as if they were a chaotic symphony. Losing touch with the sole thing that kept you alive is a scary thing. Ah, I don't really know what I'm going to do if I lose it now.