#I'd make them worth the $75

[the-last-thing-you-wanted]

Some day, I'll be-

old enough to buy my own Taylor Swift merch and won't have to get on my knees and beg my parents for the evermore pajama set

-And all you're ever gonna be is mean

[ssavaart]

Sometimes You Have to Make 100 BAD Drawings To Get 1 GOOD One

(Earlier this year, a publisher asked me if I'd be interested in writing a book on art. As we discussed it... they asked me to "give it a try" and this is one of two tests I did. I don't consider myself a writer, really, so this is just "in my own voice". I wound up turning down the offer... but would love to know your thoughts on this. Thanks)

Drawing something good. Something you like. It’s… elusive. Especially when you’re just starting out.

But, here’s the thing. You have good art in you. I promise. You just have to get to it and it’s stuck under a bunch of bad art. Really bad art.

When I was younger, I would draw every day. Filling up sketchbooks with doodles and sketches and I hated ALL of them.

Page 01: Crap

Page 02: Crap

Page 03: Crap

Page 04: Worse than Crap

Page 05: What even is that?

Page 06: Ugh

And it was just downhill from there…

But… somewhere around like page 100… I made something that… “wasn’t crap”. I actually didn’t hate it.

And that gave me courage to keep going. That one drawing made it all worth it. I was cured. I was now an expert. All of my art would be great from now on.

Oh… if only.

The next drawing was worse than any other drawing before it.

How??? I just made ART! like 5 minutes before that. I got all the bad drawings out! How did my art just go from Van Gogh to Van NO???

Honestly? I… got lucky. That one good drawing? Total fluke. Dumb luck. Sheer Happenstance.

Doing 100 drawings didn’t suddenly make me an expert. It couldn’t.

Have you ever heard of the saying “If a million monkeys type on a million typewriters for a million years, they’ll eventually write Shakespeare”?

I was those monkeys and that drawing was my Shakespeare.

I just pooped out enough bad art that eventually sheer luck was going to mean I may make something really good.

And I’m TOTALLY okay with that. I was 11. I’m not a prodigy. I don’t have any special gifts. But what I did have was… a taste for how making good art felt.

Seeing that one good drawing made me want more. Like my first time tasting chocolate ice cream. I was hooked.

So, I made 100 more bad drawings. Maybe more. And, guess what? ANOTHER great drawing emerged!

Another Shakespeare from this 11 year old monkey!!!! Huzzah!

From then on… I knew that all I had to do was keep banging away at that typewriter (I’m still on the million monkey thing… bear with me) and I would get rewarded with another masterpiece.

Week after week. Month after month. I would fill up my sketchbooks with the most horrific, amateurish, incomprehensible art… and, sure enough, 1 of every 100 drawings would not suck.

I would show it to my mom and she would say “Oh! That’s wonderful!” and when she tried to turn the pages to see more, I would quickly SNATCH it out of her hands and run back into the shadows like Gollum hiding his “Precious” from prying eyes.

I dare not let her see the monstrosities that came before the work of genius.

And… this went on. For years. Predictably. Rhythmically.

Until, one day… my 75th drawing was really good.

How? It was 25 drawings early! That’s not how it was supposed to work. That wasn’t the plan.

But there it was. A really amazing drawing of a spaceship I came up with out of my head. It had lasers and a cockpit and wings and…It was glorious. And it was totally unexpected.

Maybe NOW I was an expert and I no longer needed to make bad art? Would today be the day I would only make masterpieces?

I quickly turned the page and began to draw what would soon be my second greatest work of art and… NOPE.

Still crap.

Hm. But… something was different. It was still crap. But… it wasn’t as “crappy” as the other crap.

I grabbed my previous sketchbooks and looked at the bad drawings from previous years and… guess what? My older bad drawings were WORSE than my newer bad drawings!

Apparently, the more I drew… the better my BAD drawings got too.   

Okay. So. I drew 75 more “not as crappy” bad drawings and… predictably… I made another great drawing!

I was… IMPROVING.

This went on for years. I went to high school. Then art school. I hated MOST of my art… but as I practiced… the number of BAD art I had to make to get to the GOOD art got lower and lower. Soon it was 50 bad pieces for 1 good one. Then 25. Then 10.

It took decades when I noticed… I liked my art more often than not.

It was a complete surprise. I was in my 40’s when this happened. I was SO conditioned to just accept I was going to hate my art that I hadn’t noticed that I had made 5 paintings that didn’t suck. IN A ROW!!!

Unheard of!

But, there it was. 5 good paintings. One right after the other.

The 6th one was complete trash. Tossed it in the garbage.

But, the 7th one? I liked. And the 8th. And the 9th.

I’m now 54 and I know I still have SO much bad art in me. I can feel it. Always ready to pop up and ruin my day.

But, I “pooped out” so much bad art over the years that I’m not really worried about those pop up bad art surprises. I know it’s just temporary.

I like my art now. And that’s because I got MOST of the bad art out of me and into those old sketchbooks.

I know it may seem daunting doing 100 bad drawings just to get to 1 good one. But… if you love that feeling of making that one GOOD piece of art… you need to be patient and get the bad ones out. They’re blocking the good ones. Keeping them deep inside you.

So, crack open that sketchbook. Poop out those bad pieces of art and never look back.

You’ll thank me in like 40 years or so. I promise.

(Oh. And sorry for all the poop references. I’m still that 11 year old when it comes to humor)

Poop.

[bedoballoons]

Ahhh thank you for this request!! Honestly feels like I'm torturing some of them though hehe~ Also, I apologize for this being late and if these weren't the characters you wanted!!

─⊰⁠⊹ฺ❄️𝔾𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕟𝕤⊰⁠⊹ฺ❄️

{༻~Time to workout~༺}

CW: GN! Reader! Mentions of the characters wearing their hair up, reader is less in shape then the characters and sweating also makes a appearance! Suggestive!

(Includes: Diluc, Heizou, Xiao, and Wriothesley!)

𑁍༄Diluc:

100 jumping jacks~

You plopped onto the ground, a light sheen of sweat coating your body and your muscles already on fire. You were exhausted from the workout and it felt like you could pass out at any second from lack of air...but it was more then worth it. Everytime you finished a round faster then Diluc you could sit there and catch your breath while he caught up with you...and that was always entertaining.

Today he had his hair tied up in a bun, loose strands of it clinging to his face and neck. He was wearing tighter tighter clothes then the ones he'd normally wear, meaning that every outline of his muscles was visible as the moved and god it was perfect to watch. You weren't shy about staring, even when his bright red orbs met yours with a knowing glint, he was just to good to look away from.

𑁍༄Heizou:

100 burpees~

"Phew, this is harder then I thought." Heizou leaned against the wall, using his forearm to wipe the sweat from his brow as you continued to finish up your round of burpees. His hair was disheveled, sticking to his skin and his hand when he tried to run it through the locks, even with his lack of clothing and ice cold water bottle he was still soaked and when you say it made your face blush...

You sat back after the last burpee, looking up at him with wandering eyes as he threw you his bottle...to think he'd gone shirtless. He had to of known what he was doing...

"If you keep staring at me like that, we are gonna be doing a very different kind of work out." He smirked at you as your heart skipped a beat... working out was working out...no matter what kind right...

𑁍༄Xiao:

Planks~

You bit your bottom lip, watching Xiao as he continued to plank in front of you...showing off his stamina that you loved oh so much. He'd always last longer then you with these exercises, not that you were complaining. You simply sat back against the wall, watching him as his strength was put on display for you, muscles moving and his tattoos only accentuating his perfect self as the glistened with beads of preparation under the light.

"Xiao, so you think you could still plank even if I sat on you while you did it."

"No."

"If you were sitting on me, I wouldn't want to plank anymore. I'd have other matters to attend to~"

Your eyes widened slightly at his answer. You knew full well he could without breaking a sweat....why in archons name did he say no? "What-"

𑁍༄Wriothesley:

75 crunches~

You were sprawled out on the floor, looking at the ceiling above you as your heart pounded in your ears. You couldn't believe you'd done the whole workout. "I did it. Wrio I did it! Woohoo!" You tilted your head to look at him, but he'd already moved from his spot next to you, instead sitting up like he was about to get up and head to the showers.

You didn't really knew what got into you...where the energy came from, but your rolled yourself into his lap, straddling him as you pushed him back down onto the mat. "Hey, I was really proud I completed that. Let's appreciate the moment together a little first."

"You should be proud, that was a hard workout...but I just hope you're prepared for the next one."

"What do you mean?"

"You said you wanted to appreciate the moment didn't you~"

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚~Have a nice day!~*⁠.⁠✧

[ivaalo]

Introduction

This is a fan analysis about the results of 24 polls posted on Tumblr by the user @zeldatourney. Huge thanks to them to have organized this tourney.

(Keep in mind my first language isn't English, so I might make some minor mistakes)

This is a long post with multiple graphs, so I'm putting a "Read more" button here!

For each game, the question asked was "How high does [game] rank?" with 7 answers possible to choose:

S tier (One of the greatest)

A tier (A favorite)

B tier (I like it)

C tier (Meh)

D tier (I'd rather play something else)

F tier (AWFUL)

I haven't played this game

The poll started on the 2nd of December 2024 and ended the 9th of December 2024.

Disclaimer: This is not a representation of the Zelda community as a whole, but a result of people who saw and voted for the polls between those previously quoted dates.

For the rest of this post, I will simplify each game's name by its abbreviations. For example, "A Link To The Past" will be named "ALTTP". The polls didn't specify if it contains the original games or both the original games and the remakes. They will be named as such:

[TLOZ] The Legend of Zelda

[AOL] Adventure of Link

[ALTTP] A Link to the Past

[LA] Link's Awakening (DX) (+ the unnamed 2019 remake)

[OOT] Ocarina of Time (3D)

[MM] Majora's Mask (3D)

[OOS] Oracle of Seasons

[OOA] Oracle of Ages

[FS] Four Swords (Anniversary Edition)

[TWW] The Wind Waker (HD)

[FSA] Four Swords Adventures

[TMC] The Minish Cap

[TP] Twilight Princess (HD)

[PH] Phantom Hourglass

[ST] Spirit Tracks

[SS] Skyward Sword (HD)

[ALBW] A Link Between Worlds

[HW] Hyrule Warriors (Legend / Definitive Edition)

[TFH] Tri Force Heroes

[BOTW] Breath of the Wild

[COH] Cadence of Hyrule

[AOC] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

[TOTK] Tears of the Kingdom

[EOW] Echoes of Wisdom

Collected data

Each poll being independent from each other, the number of votes varies from one poll to another.

For each games, I added the percentage (as picked up from the HTML for a better precision). The result is either 99.999, 100 or 100.001, so I sometimes cheated to add or remove 0.001 somewhere. Tumblr doesn't give you access to the exact numbers of vote per option.

So before ranking the games, I have to show you first what games are the most played. Adding all answers and doing:

Played (%) = 100 - "I haven't played this game" (%)

I'll use colours to differentiate 2D games (in terms of gameplay) to 3D games. I'll also highlight spin-off games and multiplayer games.

Here are the games played by more than 75% of players:

We can already see a huge pattern. All the 3D games are there. And the only 2D Zelda game to be played by 75% of players is ALBW. BOTW and OOT are the most played games of the sample, as those were huge turning points and both cultural and commercial success.

We can also notice the difference of 5% between the least played 3D game (MM) and the most played 2D game (ALBW).

Let's continue to look at the other played games:

EOW is most likely low as it's the most recent game, at this time, but also because it's not a 3D game. And the hype train was low compared to TOTK. (3 months of anticipation compared to 4 years)

And finally, the multiplayer games are the least played games, excluding COH. Also worth noting that all the spin-off games cited can also be played with another player, but it wasn't the main focus of the communication. COH being a musical tactical rogue-lite only appealed to a specific part of Zelda fans.

If these polls contained the CD-i Zelda games, Link's Crossbow Training and Tingle games, the score would probably be under COH, but we never know!

I'll keep these colours as labels, to recognize them better in the next images.

Alright. Time to share the ranking. Here is the global result, sorted by release date in North America:

It's kind of a lot to see! Overall, the games are pretty liked. So first, let's take a look at the disliked games:

Please note that the X-axis was zoomed, so we can see the result better.

We can already notice that AOL makes a huge contrast. As this game is considered as the black sheep of the franchise because of how different it is, its reputation mostly came from the difficulty of that game.

Almost a factor of 0.5 divides the first disliked game to the second. TFH the second disliked and the original TLOZ follows.

ALBW is the least disliked, with under 1%, counting D tier and F tier.

But notice the F-tier (red) line. It varies a lot, so let's take a look at the most hated games:

Yep, TOTK is third, this time. As I don't personally think it's awful, it definitively disappointed many by being too close to BOTW and having a lot of issues BOTW didn't have.

Nobody voted "F tier" for ALTTP nor OOT. Same for OOS but keep in mind this game was the least voted one too!

Alright, enough for the hate! Let's look at the most appreciated Zelda games.

Yep, the majority of Zelda fans like 22.5 out of 24 of the games! (TFH being exactly 50, I half-counted it!)

TWW is being almost unanimously appreciated, with almost 97%, and the second one to get this score is TMC, a 2D game, with more than 96%!

You can notice some gaps, like between ST and COH, and then between the Oracle games and TOTK.

Now let's look at the most loved games:

5 3D games are in the top 5, except for SS and TOTK. TMC is very close to beat BOTW and remains the most loved 2D Zelda game. Notice how SS and TOTK make a huge gap between the game before and the game after, like voters use them as references. The two Hyrule Warriors games are, in a funny way, between the Oracle ones.

Let's add a step forward and look at the S tier only:

Nothing changes for the top 9 games. However, EOW seems more nuanced and is less considered as best than TOTK.

Final results

And finally, let's rank them using the Majority Judgment:

The Majority Judgment was created to propose a more democratic way to vote. Each candidate has multiple mentions, and you (the elector) must attribute one mention to each candidate. Since this poll uses this exact method of vote, I decided to rank them all using the Majority Judgment. To count using the Majority Judgment, you must focus on the 50% axis, and look at the category that crosses it (more than 50%). That gives you the tier, and the best tier wins.

When two or more candidates get the same tier, there are multiple ways to rank:

The first way is to put a line at the middle and see which line has the higher percentage. (Less precise but more simple)

The second way is to divide it into multiple tiers by doing the first method again and again until each candidates has a unique tier. (More precise but less simple)

But since I didn't want to compare B++++ to B+++-, I used the first method. It's my democracy and I do whatever I want!

Just keep in mind that depending on the way to count these games may be swapped:

ALTTP and LA

OOA and PH

AOC and HW

SO, for the data. Top 5 is TWW, MM, TP, OOT and BOTW. To be honest, I imagined MM to be a more nuanced game, or at least more controversial, since it has a unique concept.

The A tier only contains 2D games, except SS. TMC, ST and ALBW are the favourite 2D games. ALTTP and LA are always very close. The last one of the tier is EOW.

Only mainline games are in the S and A tier.

The first game of the B tier is a spin-off game, followed by TOTK.

TFH was one vote away from being in the B tier. And no surprise, AOL is the last one.

To sum up, according to the participants who voted for these polls:

S tier

🥇 The Wind Waker

🥈 Majora's Mask

🥉 Twilight Princess

⭐ Ocarina of Time

⭐ Breath of the Wild

A+ tier

The Minish Cap

Spirit Tracks

A- tier

A Link Between Worlds

Skyward Sword

A Link to the Past

Link's Awakening

Echoes of Wisdom

B+ tier

Cadence of Hyrule

Tears of the Kingdom

Oracle of Seasons

Oracle of Ages

Phantom Hourglass

B- tier

Age of Calamity

Hyrule Warriors

Four Swords Adventures

Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda

C+ tier

Tri Force Heroes

C- tier

Adventure of Link

Thank you for reading! ~

[joleenjackalope]

So I have some Lenore thoughts, I like the idea of her a lot. But I don't think she's worth her price. So here are just some of my thoughts, as well as my doodling out some of those thoughts. I don't think she necessarily needs all these things, it's more that I let my internal rants about how she could be better guide me out of my art block these past couple days.

Part of why people pay more for collector dolls is because they have some type of attachment to them. Either being a Monster High character they already love, from an IP they love, or even the Off White had some brand recognition. (just not from me) And I felt like Lenore COULD have been the lady in white/weeping woman ghost story that just about every town has.

That being said- What is with the glitter tears?? If she had a unique sculpt that actually had a downturn on the brows and a sad face, and actually LOOKED like a weeping garden ghost, that alone would have made her more appealing!

Then why unpainted accessories? Why one big unpainted accessory her main focus? I like the vines (I didn't go very detailed here) but either paint them or make them smaller. (What I did) But if you want me to believe that the doll is WORTH $75 then you need to show that some actual care and effort went into her manufacturing and paint her damn accessories.

I just wanted an excuse to draw the spider. I don't like the human face but I only like a few of any of the MH pets anyway. so...

Put her damn hair up. Just like with the accessories, show me she is WORTH her price.

All of the above combined, the collector dolls stray further away from the High school aspect of MH and although Victorian/period fashion isn't necessarily my thing, I know a ton of collectors would have loved her looking like a ghost who's been haunting for a long time. And since she's not a character that's being portrayed in the high school - a collector doll would have been great! There's lots of adult/non-student characters.

Mini notes- I didn't draw patterns for her clothing, but the pattern on her dress as is would have still looked lovely on a bigger, fancier gown. I didn't do full body and I have no notes on shoes. They're not my specialty. And I would have appreciated her not having a full white sclera.

Also, line art for this piece is available here, tag me if you color it! I'd love to see. ♥♥♥

[violant-apologia]

with dual-stat challenges becoming more and more common, FBG have created a standard "exchange rate" between stats: BDR stats are with 10 main stat points each, while advanced stats and NII stats are worth 15.

this prompted the question:

Which equipment has the highest converted stat total?

(stick around, there's a cool spreadsheet for you!)

in other words, which is the most "valuable" based purely on its stats? maybe the ubergoat? perhaps the hellworm transport? (make a guess now! tell me if you were right!)

so i made a spreadsheet. with the item and its stats, it outputs the converted stat total of that item. and to make sure it was accurate when it determined the winner, i should really add

EVERY

SINGLE

ITEM

there are exactly 1000 non-boon equipments in the game, by the way. wild coincidence that this was when i made a list of them all

so i did that. i slogged through every item i owned, then every item in the bazaar, then every item on the wiki. i should – should – have them all. (except maybe ones that add no stats, because they don't show up on any of the automatic lists. but really that doesn't matter)

so, without further ado... the item with the highest converted stat total is...............

all the treasures. that was probably pretty guessable, huh

okay but AFTER them it's... the............

unquenchable firebird! pulled ahead of the other whitsun creatures by its random single point in neathproofed. after that is a similar case: the aurochs-fur coat, at 71. they both beat the ubergoat and hellworm by a slim margin; those two tie at 70, along with the efficient plenipotentiary.

but you may have noticed some other columns here. what's limited total?

well, since most multi-stat challenges are only two stats at once, i also decided to measure the point value of each item's highest two stats. the winner of THAT category is the hellworm, at 75, with its 6 dreaded and 1 KT/NP. half of the treasures fall in next – all the ones with a single BDR stat at 4, rather than two at 2 each.

you may have noticed some other things on the spreadsheet, too. what are all those tickboxes about?

since i already made a way for each item to care about its highest two stats, why not a way to care about a specific pair of stats? hell, what about any combination of stats?

if you check on the boxes beneath each stat, the sheet will find the specific value of each item considering ONLY those stats. then, by looking at the highest value for this specified total for each outfit slot, the sheet finds the overall specific total. (by default, specific total only checks an item if you have it ticked as "owned". if you tick the ownership override (OO) box, it disregards whether you own items or not.)

THEN the sheet finds the best-in-slot (BiS) items for that combination, and displays whether each item is BiS, not BiS (blank) or not owned. you can filter by the BiS column to find an outfit that maximises those stats!

so, for example, if i wanted to find my best outfit for a persuasive/apoc challenge, i'd simply select thost two stats and filter for BiS:

and it shows me my best combination, and its converted point gain (243)!

so, that's what i've been doing for the past few days. since the sheet has every item in the game in it, to personalise for your account, you just have to go through and tick all the items you have. here's the link! feel free to make a copy and play around with it yourself!

[ffverr]

hello I come to you with a request. I watched x men 97 recently and was saddened by how little time the whole magneto in charge of the x men storyline got and I know he does this longer in the comics (I can't say why but the phrase "its seven in the morning max..." lives rent free in my brain) so I wanted to ask if you have any recommendation for comics from that era / any recommendations for comics with mister magnet-os because I want to get into x men comics but comics as always are so daunting

It is my great pleasure to answer this!!

Disclaimer 1, I am still going through a lot of the issues of this era but I will try my best to make it as clear a guide as I can for you!

Disclaimer 2, Headmaster of the school and leader of the X-Men are quite different positions that they kind of fused together in the 97 show so I do want to make it clear that magneto in the "seven in the morning" era is headmaster of the school, teaching young kids, while Storm is leading the X-men team and Scott is leading the X-factor team, so with that said:

Magneto's teacher arc starts in uncanny X-Men issues 199 and 200 (iconic issues containing the trial of magneto that was adapted in the show!) And then he is headmaster of the school in the book "The new mutants" by Chris Clermont, from issue 35 to issue 75. It is A LOT I admit and he gets a more minor place considering the book is about the kickass young class of new mutants that he's teaching. But it is worth checking out! Many consider this to kind of be peak magneto because.... he's trying so hard to be a good teacher and to handle all these kids and it's very humanizing for him!

I mean look at him and his 8 kids!

Now, how to get into Magneto overall? Let's get into it:

I believe it is impossible to get into Magneto without reading his ultimate origin story, Magneto: Testament by Greg Pack. It is a quick intro, it barely features his powers (not an action comic) and it is a very very emotional read. I consider it essential magneto reading!

Next up: Two One shots if you want to get a quick primer on the character pre moral arc instead of sitting through his few appearances in the Stan Lee comics:

A classic one: X-Men: God Loves, Men Kills by Chris Claremont. It is an iconic comic book one shot that can be read out of continuity just to see what his deal is when he's not necessarily on the side of the X-Men but fighting for his own ideals! It's overall a brilliant comic book!

If you want a more recent retelling of the first appearances of magneto you HAVE to read X-Men Mythos that retells magneto's major first appearance in the 60s in quite a beautiful and amazing way! It also has an absolutely insane magneto scene that is very memorable! (So this would "chronologically" come before God loves men Kills)

Now for his switch from cartoon villain of the 60s/early 70s to complex guy in the 80s, read the issues 149 and 150 from the run Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont. This is THE pivotal moment for "good guy" Magneto

(know that after issue 150, somehow he falls in the ocean from asteroid M, is rescued from a shark attack by Scott's girlfriend Lee Forester. They have a quick relationship where he struggled with his change of morals then he comes to the new mutants)

if you want to continue chronologically you read the issues 199 and 200 that I recommended at the start then go to the new mutants book I talked about earlier!

If you want MORE MODERN comics, then I advise you get right into what's happening at the moment!

House of X powers of X are two series that intertwine (you'll easily find them in the right order) by the same writer, Jonathan hickman!

It serves as a status quo change/relaunch of the X-Men universe. Magneto plays a big part of the story as he is directly involved in building a mutant nation. I'd say it's a bold but quite functional intro to X-Men comics!

Then he appears as a major character in the GREAT series X-Men Red by Al Ewing alongside Storm, a character that meant a lot to him in the 80s, so it's really nice to see again.

In this he is- epic, depressed, suicidal, sassy, it's great magneto stuff! This series is widely regarded as the best X-Men comic out right now!

(if you want context for this book read the event X of Swords, or I could explain if interested)

That's about all I will lay on you ! If this is hella confusing, don't hesitate to dm me! I can detail more cleanly exactly what you have to read and when!

Good reading!

[runawaymun]

Hey! Any advice on writing multi chaptered fics or just longer stories?

I feel like I'm okay for like snippets but have no idea how to write the middle of a story or move a character or story from point a to point b.

And asking you because you're writing is phenomenal and I'd love some advice.

(But if no brain space for advice I totally get that too and feel free to hide this ask or something)

(Anyway great updates on boundless and the one shot Brimbrond)

Sorry for taking so long to respond to this! I just wanted to take some good time to gather my thoughts because oh man oh boy I am a bit of a nerd about plot structure, even if I pants it a lot of the time -- because middles and structure absolutely plagued me when I was a beginner and so I spent a long, long time studying it and breaking it down.

I'm going to start with some very, very basic advice and then get into some more specific stuff. So let's talk first about how to structure a long-form plot first.

DISCLAIMER: this is how I personally structure plots. More often than not I veer off my own track. And this is a very western way of structuring a plot. It's well worth looking into how storytellers from around the world structure their work because it can vary wildly (Miyazaki is a great example of this). Take this with a grain of salt. It's a guideline which I find helpful. This is going to get very, very long. Bear with me:

When I'm first thinking about how to create a plot around a story I want to tell, this is the process I walk myself through, and it tends to work about 75% of the time for the stories I like to tell (I'm not much of a thriller or mystery writer and those tend to have different kinds of structure). Main recipe is as follows:

Status quo - establish the setting and the character. Do this by the middle-to-end of chapter one, preferably. You can get away with drawing it out a bit in sci-fi or fantasy works that require more worldbuilding, but try not to.

Inciting incident - I won't tell you to start in media res, as that varies from writer to writer and story to story. Generally you want to have this somewhere in chapters 1-3. Say we're talking about LOTR - I'd say the inciting incident is when Bilbo goes invisible at his birthday party and leaves for retirement. Everything sort of snowballs from there (Gandalf confirming this is The One Ring, the Ring being passed to Frodo, the adventure beginning, etc. etc). This is where your character can lose something, or be confronted with a huge problem, or gain some new information. This is the point where your story really picks up.

Point of no return - your character has been presented with a problem or is put in a situation and now they have to decide what to do about it. Sometimes characters choose to run away, or choose inaction. It's up to you and your character as to what they do next.

The annoying part - the most helpful way I've ever found to think about middles is in terms of a series of decisions and consequences. Your character must decide what to do (or try to get what they want), and this will then come with consequences to those decisions. I ignore a lot of writing advice because writers seem to be very cagey about how they compose middles and plots for some reason, but the one piece I heard that helped me was: "What does my character want, and what stops them from getting it?" -- and this can be anything, right? Frodo wants (has to) take the Ring to Mordor. Luke wants to learn to be a Jedi like his father. Inspector Poirot needs to catch the murderer. Odysseus wants to return home. Each of these characters are going to make a series of decisions toward their goal, and they may be working from incomplete information, or bad paradigms, or racing against the clock, or against impossible odds. They're going to make mistakes. Over and over and over again. The middle is a series of decisions, consequences for those decisions, and obstacles (more on that later).

Point of no return 2, electric boogaloo (i.e. the actual midpoint to the story) - the part right before the climax -- the climax IS NOT the midpoint of your story, nor is it the end. This is your midpoint where Everything Fucking Sucks. Your character's back is against the wall. They have to change, or fail.

Paradigm shift: your character learns something new, or develops in some crucial way that leads to:

The climax/confrontation: 3/4 - 7/8th of the way through your plot. Frodo decides to keep the ring. Luke uses the force to blow up the death star. Anakin's fear and the manipulation from Palpatine overtakes him and he turns to the dark side. Inspector Poirot gets his last crucial piece of information and gathers everybody together for the Big Reveal. Odysseus gets home and chases the suitors out of his house. Etc. Etc. This is that Big Point in the story we all think as the most important or crucial point (but it's not. That's the key here. THE most important point is the whole middle of how we got here).

Consequences and paradigm shift 2 electric boogaloo: varies from story to story, but this is the fallout of the last decision or confrontation. Your character may reflect on what they've learned. The killer goes to jail. Frodo returns to the Shire and it's saved, but not for him. The journey your character has been on has irreparably altered them, or the world around them -- for better or for worse.

Resolution: the place where you land the story ;) what is the final impression you want your readers to have of your character, or this world?

Alright so that's all kind of nebulous. Let me give you a slightly more specific form of this plot structure that I use pretty often, because I almost exclusively write character and relationship-driven stories since that's what interests me most:

So most of this looks much the same (the inciting incident is some kind of meetcute. The characters then have to decide if they want to have some kind of relationship -- I like to name this part the callback). Then we have a whole weird squishy section of building interest and tension, before once again we have The Big Fight (darkest before the dawn or what have you), before one or both characters have some kind of paradigm shift, they confess their feelings (or resolve the fight or whatever), and the security of the relationship is established -- happy go lucky times, everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

So the middle here is of course still squishy and nebulous, but the focus here is still on "What decisions are the characters making? What are the consequences of those decisions? What are they learning, and how do they respond to it?" Maybe the tension is in one character being more reticent, while the other is more open. Maybe the tension is a sexual tension (will they, won't they?). Maybe a character is working off of incomplete information, or a misunderstanding, and that needs to be cleared up before the relationship (or even their own personal growth) can progress (both Elrian and Thalionel in Stars and Boundless Sky follow this pattern). The middle is a push-pull between your character's desires and outside forces that are stopping them from getting what they want, or achieving what they want to achieve.

So okay, that's all well and good. That's basic plot structure. Let me get into my thought process about middles specifically:

Begin with your ending in mind. I do not mean that you need to have like the whole resolution to your story fleshed out. If you're that kind of writer, great! But if you're more of a pantser like me, then that can be a big ask. Instead, ask yourself: what do I want my character to have learned by the end of the story? How do I want them to have changed, or grown? Do I want it to be for better, or for worse? Is there a specific plot goal you have in mind? (saving the world, or catching the murderer, solving the mystery, exorcizing the ghost, the couple getting together at the end, the found family finally gelling with each other, or whatever).

Once you have that thought in mind, now start to think about what your character might need to get from their starting point to their ending point. If it's a murder mystery, this is your information gathering section. You can lead your character to wrong or right conclusions. Have them make mistakes. Etc. etc. If it's a romance, this is where you create a string of scenes where the characters have opportunities to interact and learn more about each other (works for platonic slowburns, too). If this is a traditional hero's journey, this is where you plop in your actual journey.

Not to repeat this ad nauseum, but your middle is all about getting your character to your end goal, but in the most difficult way possible lmao. Let them make mistakes. Let them make bad decisions -- and then follow through with the consequences of those bad decisions. Give them bad information. This is where understanding your character's fundamental flaws becomes extremely important. Your entire plot, imo, stems from your character's fundamental flaws -- because ultimately that is what is going to slow them down the most from reaching their goal. Sure, you may have the big bad evil guy (bbeg), but we're not worried about him. That's an external factor and that's easy to drop in when you need a quick problem to place in front of your protagonist -- but that problem needs to be in service to your character or your worldbuilding. Teach them something. Give them an opportunity for growth. Aragorn needs to lead at Helm's Deep so he can inhabit his leadership role. The mountain pass of Caradhras needs to force the Fellowship through the mines so that Gandalf falls fighting the Balrog and comes back leveled up and ready to fight, and other characters in the fellowship have a chance to grow into their roles without relying on Gandalf for leadership. Your middle is all about crafting little opportunities for character growth, always while moving toward your end goal -- whatever that may be.

The paradigm shifts are crucial, and they can shift for better or for worse. It's up to you and your characters and the story you want to tell as to which it'll be.

If you're bored, your reader is bored. Only write what excites you, skip all the rest, and make it make sense at the end -- I'm so serious. Yes you need to add in breaks for pacing (like the whole Rivendell section in LOTR), but in those breaks still make sure that you're either expanding your worldbuilding, or giving your characters and opportunity for growth.

If you want to tell a really long (novel length) type of story, sideplots and alternate POVs are your best friend. They are structured exactly the same as a regular plot, they're just simpler or smaller and generally work in service to the main plot. Maybe there are side characters or side relationships you'd like to develop. Maybe there's a smaller mystery or a part of your worldbuilding you'd like to explore. Action plots can be side plots to romantic or platonic slowburn plots, just as much as it can be the other way around. And this is not something you need to structure out the gate. Just be curious and playful. Find points in your story that interest you, and explore them a bit. You'll find that they expand the story.

Biggest and best tip I can give you, when all is said and done, is to decide what kind of story you want to tell and then examine how other people are doing it. If you want to write a superhero story, pick out your favorites and look at how they're structured. If you want to write a mystery, same thing. If you're writing a romance or a drama, again -- same thing. Look at the pieces of fiction that you like, figure out what you like about it, and then apply it to your own work.

That's all the general advice off the top of my head. IDK how helpful this was lol. If you want more tips on middles I can try to look at it a bit more in depth, but to be quite honest middles are really what defines a genre. Romances have different middles to thrillers. Thrillers have different middles to mysteries. Mysteries have different middles to dystopian sci-fis. Etc. Etc. So take the general advice with a grain of salt and look more specifically at the genre of story that you're looking to tell.

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk <3

[thatsnotmygunflash]

WIP Title Tag Game

Rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Thank you @incorrectcoldflashblog for the tag!! I have a ridiculous amount of WIPs, and this was a great way to finally sit down and make a list of all 92 of them 😅  I didn’t add my Sterek WIPs, mostly because there are 75 of them and I don’t have the time right now, but maybe I’ll do that at a different time. 

ColdFlash

A Brighter Future

An I’ll Use You As A Warning Sign 

Burn Notice

Cause Maybe You're That Thing I Need To Save Me

For Better Or Worse 

I Love to Hate Who I Was Because It Means I Could Change

I'd Cross Galaxies to Find You

I'll Tell You All About It When I See You Again 

I've Got Decades On You

It's The Second Glance That Ties Your Hands

Life Worth Fighting For

Love Me Silently 

Make Me Feel Seventeen Again

Maybe You Don't Know What's Lost Till You Find It

More Then What We Seem

No More Bad Boys

Romance Isn't Dead 

Side Effects May Include 

The Horrors I've Endured 

We Could Be Enough

Well Shit, If It Isn't The Consequences of My Actions 

What Are Friends For 

You Bring Stars To My Eyes

You Give Me Headaches 

You Got This Heaven In Your Eyes

You Know In Your Soul

You Need To Allow Me To Help 

You Should Be Here

Hannigram

A Day In The Life Of Someone Else

A Flight For The Fallen, Flies the Crow

I Dance With Demons On A High Wire 

I Won't Find A Way Out Looking Inside  

Batfamily

General 

409 In Your Coffeemaker

I Wish I Wasn't All Talk

I'm Your Mother Now

Never Gon' Get Away

One Of The Epics 

Robins Sanctuary

The Bat Academy 

The Nest

Waiting For Never

Tim/Jason

The Sparrows Tend To Fall Asleep

Dedicated To You

Everything Blurry Looks The Same

I'll Be A Better Man Today

Maybe If We Went Another Way

Product of Our Upbringings

Silent Protector 

Sit Back And Watch The Beauty In The Fall

The Robin To My Hood

You Are My Dream Come True

Your Name Has Echoed In My Mind

Slade/Dick

Falling Back Into You

Only One Place To Run To

Operation Osprey 

Relief 

Tim/Kon

Family Vacation 

Growing Pains

Wash Me With Your Water

Wayward Waynes

Buddie

Breakfast With Buck

Couches Make Great Metephors 

Call Me Anything But My Name  

Cowboy Like Me

The Other Mr. Diaz 

Am I Too Late

Ana vs. Buck

You Never Have To Pretend With Me

Who Gave You So Much Power?

MCU

Turn Back The Clock

Uncle Frank

Spideypool

How NOT To Seduce a Mercenary by Peter Parker

I'll Be Your Reason 

Same Side Of The Tracks

Spider Behavior 

Spideypool's First Couple's Retreat 

The Definition Of Insanity 

The Years Start Coming and They Don't Stop Coming

Yoda You Be My

People Say That's Love's a Game

Destiel 

73rd Hunger Games 

Cassie

Everything Went Right 

Family Engagement

Free Will Orphanage

The Rebels 

Weyler

A Little Bit Of Sugar, But Lots Of Poison Too

Courting an Addams

Love Drunk On Your Blood Till Sunrise

Percy Jackson

The Age of Prophecies

The Favored Son 

Trending Water in the Wishing Well

I'm tagging @thefastestqueeralive @simpledontmeanpeachy @vexic929 @nytephox @tiger-in-the-flightdeck @tiacat11 @whaaaaaaaalllle6 and who ever else wants to do it!

[blueskittlesart]

i’m so interested in the A and B plot but i can’t keep up, it’s just so much and i don’t know where to look. have you been doing anything else besides logging on once a month?

currently what i do is i log in once every few updates to check if there's any new archon quests i've missed, play those, and then go through the gameplay loop for as long as I can without getting bored. when kaeya's new hangout dropped i played like. 2 versions of that because i'm obsessed with him but couldn't bring myself to do any more. I did a decent amount of fontaine exploration when it dropped because i do still think the scenery and set design of the game is beautiful and I actually really enjoyed the underwater portions of fontaine. it was the first time in a while that the gameplay had felt new and exciting to me. If there's an event going on that's both interesting and either complete or almost complete, i'll do that, but if the quests or minigames are still coming out daily i won''t touch it because i don't like having to log in daily to get the full event. I also generally don't read event stories anymore, i just tap through them. Occasionally when I log on I'll do spiral abyss if it's reset, because teambuilding and combat was the other major thing I was initially into the game for. I have two fairly well-built teams that can consistently beat up to floor 12-3, but because neither of them are hyperbloom I still can't 36-star lmfao. When I was doing my fontaine story sweep I accidentally pulled neuvillette with a free pull, so for a while I was attempting to build him into a hyperbloom driver, but I eventually realized that I don't have the off-field dendro applicator support character I'd need to make a team like that viable, so I gave up and he's still sitting at like level 75 right now.

Tldr I basically don't seek out anything but the main story at this point. world quests to me feel like tedious bullshit at best and active distractions at worst, and the rewards you get from them aren't worth the hours of grinding, nor are the rewards for building new characters and teams. my triple-crowned ayaka freeze team solos basically any open-world combat i'm ever going to come across, so there's no point to me actively pulling for new characters, which makes the primogem-collecting endgame loop basically useless to me.

[doulayogimama]

I have about $275 worth of baby stuff in my cart that is *essential* for his first week of life. I also have about $140 worth of return credits on my Amazon account! The rest of the stuff I'm saving for people in my family who offer to buy something for baby, but if I don't have it for a while, it's fine.

I will order the stroller in a couple weeks when I have his other stuff organized in the closet, but for now I'm just ordering the car seat + base to have in the trunk ICE before 36 weeks.

Our guests check out on Wednesday, the 1st. We paid off 75% of our rent this month, and we are a new listing so we had to price it on the lower end. Very happy with that! When we signed our 13m lease, it came with 2 free months of rent and we put it towards January + February so that we can not worry at all about finances before/after he arrives. Then the last week of March there is Miami's biggest concert event of the year in our area (Ultra) and we will probably make like ~2.5-3x the rent for that week alone.

July + August we will probably spend in NY + take a mini family trip if I feel up for it. I'm thinking the PNW + maybe Vancouver. Or Toronto/Quebec if I'd like to make it a shorter trip.

Eeeek, I'm excited!!! Yes, it will be a hard year because bringing life into the world and sustaining it is hard. It's not supposed to be easy. But I have my village, my dream home, emotional support from several people, my husband and I have an amazing, local marriage therapist (she is so sweet, she said she would visit me in hospital after I recounted how sad I was when we were all alone with no one for Sky's birth because no visitors were allowed).

Kevin and I have a few really wonderful companies and when I am ready to step more out of my "mom" role and my kids are more independent, I know that I will do big things as a Birth Worker, on my own. I will fulfill *my* professional dreams. But this dream of having kids relatively young and staying home with them while they are under 3/4 yo is my life's greatest dream and this may be my last time experiencing it from the start. I want to soak it all in and not try to be a jack of all trades, so to speak.

[endy-x]

ArtFight Recap (3)

Recap 1 / Recap 2 I thought I'd go and post my attacks from artfight that I did, I had a ton of fun this year, I'm going to post them in batches because there is a lot and I do not have the energy to make an individual post for all of them

If you want me to remove you from this list, or add or remove any links in any way just message me and I will!

Im going to put a keep reading here because there is a lot of stuff here so I dont want to block your feed if you're not interested

Attack 61 was Agnes Willowbee for @maydaymadier I am super proud of how she turned out, she was the first character after a couple days of artblock so she got a couple days worth of effort put into her and I think I can confidently say that it shows

Attack 62 was Leniss for @kr4shz This character looks really cool and I'm happy with how it turned out

Attack 63 was William for LinFan [Twitter @LinFan1590 Instagram linfan159] I am super happy with how this one turned out , the overlaying images took a lot of fiddling for me to be happy with but I'm really proud of how this turned out

Attack 64 was Dewi for @lilybug-02 I've been reading the comic this lil guy features in so stumbling upon him on artfight was a good excuse to draw him

Attack 65 was Jimbo for @simplysanders A very fun looking guy who was a joy to draw

Attack 66 was Sanquo for Emilykun [deviantART EmilykunRocks] I loved the character design and the hand resting on the horn was really fun to draw

Attack 67 was No name for EightBitAutumn [deviantART JinxTheBlissfulBunny] I really loved that character design

Attack 68 was Nova (ISAT) for @laciedoesdraw I love seeing ISAT characters and Nova was super fun to draw

Attack 69 was Beatríz for @shushetho777 Another adorable character as a revenge

Attack 70 was Nuray for @ixabits I hope I did her justice because shes so pretty

Attack 71 was ♡♡♡ Devil's Rose for @leafy-lilac I am super happy with the half and half and it worked really well with the really cool characcter

Attack 72 was Gwyidion for @shinibobo Another really cool character design that I hope I did justice

Attack 73 was Holly - Empiral Blue Pearl for Pomdough A really cool character with a very pretty design

Attack 74 was Iri for TaffySnow There were so many colours and I loved drawing this

Attack 75 was Phoenix for macaronimissile She has a super pretty refrence and I think I managed to draw her super pretty too

Attack 76 was Umbra for Snaz_uwu The reference was super Majestic but I think I did pretty well

Attack 77 was [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️] Ozzie for Lycanrosie [deviantART Lycanrosie Twitter Lycanrosie_ Instagram sierrarosie.art] I love how I did the lineless for this, Im very proud of it

Attack 78 was Bia for hinareks [Instagram hinareks] I am very happy with this art and I had a great reference to work with

Attack 79 was Mona Lisa for @zeawesomeness I really like how this one turned out, the two versions staring at eachother is something I am really proud of

Attack 80 was Ghost for User_Kara [Twitter User_Kara Instagram entity_kara] This is a really cool looking character, I dont think the amount of detail I managed did it justice but I think I did well regardless

Attack 81 was Forlorn for throat A really fun looking character, unique animal characters are always cool

And Finally, attack 82 was Jubilee Maples for @dqrshrtck A really pretty character that I drew with just over 10 minutes left of artfight

[bambamramfan]

A fun read, even if you don't entirely agree with the thesis. Full of delightfully illustrated examples. I'd rate it 75% correct.

I'd add examples of what it used to be like going to used bookstores looking for that one out of print book, vs searching amazon now. Or what I previously wrote about World of Warcraft optimization.

For the other 25%, well...

Sam Kriss wrote a while ago about the death of hipsters.

The hipster was an information-sorting algorithm: its job was to always have good taste. The hipster listened to bands you’d never heard of. The hipster drank beers brewed by Paraguayan Jesuits in the 1750s. The hipster thought Tarkovsky was for posers, and the only truly great late-Soviet filmmaker was Ali Khamraev. The hipster bought all his toilet paper from a small-batch paper factory in Abkhazia that included small fragments of tree bark in the pulp. The hipster swam deep into the vastness of human data, and always surfaced with pearls. Through its powers of snobbery and disdain, the hipster could effortlessly filter out what was good.

Almost any economist will tell you, that information gathering is just a different sort of price people pay for products. They can pay $300 up front for a good experience, or they can spend hours scouring and networking to find a similar quality experience for $100. If they find these two bundles equivalent, then that information gathering labor was worth $200 to them.

The difference is, when the naive consumer just pays *someone gets those extra $200*, whereas if the information gathering is labor (big if), then that extra labor doesn't actually pay anyone, and the world is just $200 of effort worse off. So, cetera paribus, it's better if everyone knows all the good places and at least the local industry is reaping the surplus.

So this is the death knell of hipsters, as all the information they had to seek out is accessible by everyone and just goes into rents for the producers.

...

Except we know from experience, it doesn't *really* work like that. For one, a lot of us ENJOY the hipster information gathering experience. It's a fun activity in moderation, and we even develop an identity for having a personal research base to use as a resource. How do you calculate the labor surplus lost if you're having fun? Well, I'm sure the economists can find some way to.

The other problem is that Freddie is only talking about a certain class of hipsters. The same ones Sam refers to in his essay. You can look at it as a sort of pyramid.

Top: quasi-autistic savants who are on Discords talking about secret places, or going out and mapping territories themselves.

Middle: hipsters who casually seek out new things they heard about and report back in indy magazine columns.

Bottom: the great mass who do one google search and flock to whatever they are told "the best deal" is.

(Now it's more complex than that. To be honest these three are probably only the top 25% of people, and the real base of the pyramid has no idea what any of this is about. And there's networks and lines of communication between the different layers. But you get the idea.)

For a while in the 90's and 00's, being a hipster became easier, and maybe that middle layer grew a bit in both directions. And then in the 10's the process Freddie describes ramped up, and so the value of just being a middle-tier hipster shrunk again.

But there are still a lot of secrets out there. You just have to be a much more dedicated information gatherer. Being in the top tier - which in travel might be as simple as driving places instead of flying to them IME - will still find you things where no one else is there.

This month I'm going to visit the cement factory where they filmed scifi movies like the Crowe and Super Mario Bros, and I expect to be the only one there.

[gothic-lottie]

Writer Interview Game

Thank you for tagging me @espressoristretto-patronum

When did you start writing?

I sort of had a project in highschool into a couple years out of highschool but it crashed and burned but I'm hoping to rescue my characters and world building from that project. I'll never write with a coauthor again because of it.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I like fantasy without captivating, relatable characters, I probably won't read it though. I also like dystopian books (big Orwell fan) and in those I care more about the Big Message™️ and world building.

Whats your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Women who can kill me and pretty men. How else do you get inspired?

Could kill me Pretty

(these are Caira and Lenya btw. If anyone ever wondered why I like Ominis so much… Lenya has been around for years before Hogwarts Legacy.)

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

One sec… it's easier to just-

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I would absolutely die if I was ever compared to Patricia C Wrede or Jennifer A Nielsen. The Enchanted Forrest Chronicles and The Ascendance Trilogy (now longer than a trilogy) were my life till I was like 14. I'm definitely nowhere near their level but I hope to get there someday.

Are there any recurring theme in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Death and autism. No, I'm not surprised

What is your reason for writing?

Well, right now it's because I'm kinda really sick so I haven't been able to do much else for almost a year. I've always felt like I'd go mad if I didn't get the stories out of my head and give them true form though.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Any comment honestly. My fic is long so not many people have followed all the way through so comments on my newest chapters are the best because it makes me feel a bit less like I'm talking to a wall. Comments on older chapters are just as appreciated though, I know starting a long fic can be really intimidating so I really appreciate when someone decides my story is worth the time dedication to start it. I especially love hearing what your favorite parts of chapters were, especially if you noticed one of my many subtle details that I don't think anyone will notice.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Idk. I'm just a person telling stories and drawing.

What do you feel is your greatest strenght as a writer?

I can draw anything I can't adequately put into words. I think it really helps communicate the feelings I want in a lot of scenes and also helps amplify certain comedic moments.

How do you feel about your own writing?

Honestly, I don't know. I'm not very good at flowery, pretty language and I think my writing ends up sounding a bit bland sometimes. I'm also afraid my plotlines end up a bit… I don't know how to describe what I think is wrong with them. Confused maybe? Unrealistic? It's a probably unfounded anxiety.

Tagging @rypnami @jeongyunhoed @ladyofsappho @ravenwind-75 @saibugslegacy if you haven't done it already.

[berylian]

Depression life hack:

Do you have trouble getting out of bed to brush your teeth? Or have trouble brushing your teeth in general? I feel you, brushing your teeth has a lot of steps. What if you could boil it down to one?

Consider: dry brush your teeth. This helps get the big particles out so they don't build up and create plaque and irritate your gums / cause cavities. This is honestly the most important part of dental hygiene, toothpaste be damned.

Take that a step further -or, backwards? Why should you have to go all the way to the bathroom if you're not gonna rinse? Just keep your tooth brush by your bed. Now you don't have to get up, it's right there and you don't have to deal with toothpaste or water on your face. If you can swish with water or something after to make sure all the loose stuff is out, that's good too. (I literally just swallow it)

Upping the game a bit: when brushing with toothpaste just spit it out. Don't bother with rinsing. I have special prescription fluoride toothpaste I'm not supposed to rinse out, and since I removed that step it's been SO much easier to brush my teeth. It takes a little getting used to but you won't notice it after a while. And ofc you can bring that to your bed too. Maybe keep a lil cup or trashcan to spit into.

Other options: alcohol free mouthwash (the fluoride stuff). If brushing is too much work, just swish some mouthwash. But also if brushing is too much work I'd recommend an electric. It's worth it, teeth are much more expensive.

Get a smaller toothbrush. Try a kid's toothbrush, they're smaller and softer bristled so it's easier on your gums and easier to brush your back teeth. This can help with texture issues.

Get some floss picks. If you think you can manage a normal roll, go for it. If not I highly recommend the picks. Takes all the stress and dexterity out of trying to keep the floss tensioned. (I'd suggest picks with a slightly wavy handle, the straight ones are a little harder to maneuver).

Final, easiest option: try to swish some water around after eating anything. It'll help remove loose food and neutralize sugars/acids. My dentist told me to do this (in addition to everything else) so it's a good fall back.

In summary: brushing your teeth is honestly really difficult if you're depressed or chronically ill and or disabled. There's no shame in that. So fuck the rules: brush in bed, rinse in the kitchen, floss at the dinner table.

Hopefully you can try just one of these suggestions to make things easier for you. You don't have to do all of them. In fact, that'd be completely counter to the point.

TL;DR

Dry brush, no water or toothpaste

Dry brush in bed

Don't rinse after using toothpaste, just spit it out

Same thing but in bed (maybe get a cup)

Use alcohol free fluoride mouthwash (or whatever you can get)

Can also be done in bed (again, get a cup)

Get a smaller, softer toothbrush (kids brush)

And/ or an electric toothbrush (try a kid's brush)

Get floss picks (keep by your bed)

If you can't do any of these, just rinse with water after eating.

Remember, anything is better than nothing!

This is all fairly cheap too! Prices under the cut.

You can get 4-6 kids toothbrushes for like, 5$. They come in more colors too so it's more fun :)

You can get kid's (and some adult) electric toothbrushes for 10-20$. Try and make sure you get one that comes with the replacement heads in the package.

Alcohol free fluoride mouthwash is about 8-12$

You can get packs of 75-150 floss picks for like, 5$

I'd recommend sensodyne complete protection as a toothpaste bc it covers all the bases and isn't too harsh. It can be 8-15$ depending on where you go.

You should also try to change your toothbrush every 3-4 months, especially if it's worn down.

[david-goldrock]

You are my age. I haven't had the horror of seeing a wall erected as a border, but my country has one too. There are so many people suffering. The people's front for the liberation of palestine is one of the widely supported resistance movements that existed long before hamas. The british mandate of palestine was cruel, and immigration laws from britain are what prevented jewish immigration. A hundred hamas members in one huge city does not make every child in that city not innocent. It is Israel's government that is choosing to drop bombs. Self defense is not the same as aggressive destruction.

The nabka is not trivial. how as a victim of violence do you dare trivialize pain? haven't you seen an old woman with the key to a house that was razed? haven't you felt that powerlessness knowing a US funded destruction is waged against an entire region?

aren't you angry that anything anyone is trying to justify this?

Look friend, I just frankly disagree on a lot

I haven't seen the wall being built, I am too young, but I know the difference it made. My mother was next to several terrorist attacks in a few years. Had she been early or late a few minutes, neither her not I would be alive today. The wall erected stopped nearly every infiltration, and radically decreased terror from Judea and sameria.

What do you think the Arabs there are "resisting" dear? Over 80% of them, when asked on a poll, answered that the only solution they'd accept is a 1 state for their people "solution". They aren't resisting neither occupation not hardship, only the presence of Jews.

And with all due respect, I'd prefer a hundred innocent Palestinians will die for this war before I will send 1 solider to sacrifice himself for them. Even today, 70% of Palestinians support hamas and their actions on Oct. 7th. Many of the people who die aren't much different from the terrorists in their intentions nor in what they'd do were I to be strapped to a chair next to them, the only difference between them is that one chose to be a salesman and the other, a terrorist. Not ideology, only a career choice. And please, seriously, if we don't bomb their facilities, we send a clear message to them, and every other terrorists, that human shielding works and is good. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't take precautions, and make sure we give every chance possible to civilians to evacuate and save their souls. No intentional killing of civilians either. But I don't have any hard feeling when a building with 10 terrorists and a family of 5 is taken down.

The "nakba" is a virtual event. You start a war, start to lose, go away from your homes to return when the Arab forces kill all of the Jews, and you cry when you aren't allowed back? Not to mention that the ammount of evacuations and deportations in that time was insane. This is after WW2. Millions of Germans and poles and Russians and many more displaced from their lands to others, they all integrated and were fine. "Palestinians" (they weren't called that back then) got citizenships in Jordan, and Lebanon, and america, and many other lands. By any definition except for UNRWA, there are almost no more "Palestinian refugees" alive that were considered so even a year after the war. That is not to say some innocent villages weren't rekt, but this is a wildly exaggerated event, especially when it serves as the "Palestinian people" story of origin, as before the war, these people were all different flavours of arabs from different tribes. The same ammount as that of people who got out of Israeli land in the war is that the ammount of Jews that fled the middle east at that time because of pogroms all over this land. Billions of dollars worth of land and property was lost, do you see Israelis complain for 75 years? We built what we could with what we had, like Jews do.

And please, if I have a criticism of the US's actions in the middle east is that it does not agree to wage war in here. It does everything it can to avoid a war here, even sacrificing every value we had in our relationship, only so that Biden can get reelected in November. If the US was what you claim it to be, it'd have given Israel a green light to do whatever it wants, and the war would already have been over.