#I'm having a lot of fun with it so I think that outweighs the work I'm putting in haha

[rosielav]

Rough draft (a bit more than judt the sketch I was trying to do lol) of the commission I'm working on :)) love seeing all my monsters together

[andy-wm]

I’ve just been listening to a podcast about the fabric of reality, and came on here for a bit of downtime. And lo and behold, you’re talking about reality and time passing, and that’s exactly it.

No matter what we think, no matter what we say, or theorise or claim, we don’t alter the truth, and that stands for everything that doesn’t pertain to us.l and our own lives.

I can think the earth is flat till the cows come home (I don’t, obviously) but that doesn’t alter reality. 

Same goes for Jimin and JKs relationship. I’ve seen people claim wild theories, bending and stretching to reach conclusions far outweighing a k drama or blockbuster movie, whereas I personally, think mundanely and simply, that they are together. 

Whose right? We don’t know. 

That’s the truth. We don’t know. 

We may never know, we may find out one day?. 

I’m saying this with a smile on my face because that’s the beauty of life right, as long as we are not harming others, or coming into others spaces and shouting. As long as we aren’t being disrespectful to others, and to Jikooks bond. 

I will say this though, an actual truth people seem to forget or quickly dismiss across the fandom as a whole, is that those men chose to enlist together and whatever we may think of their relationship that is what happened and we should do well to remember that. 

Hey Anon, that's what i call serendipity.

And I love this ask, thank you!

I absolutely agree, what we know - or think we know - has no impact on what truly is.

Even when we believe we know all there is to know, new discoveries and new understanding mean - hopefully - we're constantly learning and reassessing.

When it comes to Jikook, Occam's razor is my go-to: the simplest explanation is, in fact, usually the best. We don't need convoluted plots and schemes and conspiracy theories. There's enough information staring us in the face.

Sometimes we need to untangle that information - I'm not saying we should accept everything on face value - and we do have to look out for new information so we can adjust our understanding.

But that is the case with everything on earth. There is no static knowledge.

These things add layers of richness and complexity but they don't change the basic premise of our underatanding.

That understanding, for me, is that these two humans love each other.

As you say, there ARE things we definitely know, like their companion enlistment.

Like the fact that Jimin chose to have JK with him - next to him - when he talked about his depression on Beyond The Star.

We know Jimin flew 28 hours so he could spend 3 days with JK in NY and Connecticut.

We know that JK was ready to crack Yoongi on the head with a frypan when he though Jimin might have been hurt (by a 5g shuttlecock).

We know that JK never harms Jimin - in all the games and jokes they play, he never targets Jimin (spraying his butt with a watergun is not targeting him, before anyone gets huffy. That did Jimin no harm at all.)

We know that Jimin worried over how hard JK was working.

We know JK begged Jimin shamelessly in front of millions of people, to do a weverse live together.

We know JK watched and hyped all Jimin's footage when he was promoting FACE.

We know they jumped into the comments of one another's livestreams several times last year.

We know all these things, but imagine what we don't know.

There's so much we have no idea about.

Hours and hours of footage that never reaches our screens. Months of time they spend together or alone or with family or friends. That's as it should be - their their private lives are just that - private.

Yes, I have a lot of fun picking apart the little glimpses we get into their lives because i enjoy their dynamic so much and because I'm naturally curious (okay, yes, I'm nosy 🤣).

I look deeper not because I'm hunting for lies or flaws, but because these two delight me. Sure I speculate, but i don't purport to know what they are to each other or where their boundaries lie. And I'm happy not to know. Some things are none of my business.

Like you, Anon, I accept that i may never know the true nature of their relationship, and I'm quite okay with that.

In the end what does it matter?

Whatever they are to each other, they're happy, and honestly what more is there to life than love and happiness?

💜💛

[sequinsmile-x]

Is not the fact that we are hating on pregnancy. Is the fact that you write Emily as a typical mediocre person who settles down to have children and thats her only goal in life. That’s so out of character for Emily she will never settle down to having kids and a husband like all those mediocre women. With her upbringing she would be achieving for bigger and better things. Is Frankly annoying to have you write her as a typical mediocre character

ok this is wild on so many levels.

A) no one is forcing you to read anything. ever. so...just don't read it.

B) early on it's made clear that Emily did want to have children. For one reason or another, that didn't happen. But it's within her character that she wants those things. Even in the original ending of CM she is looking to move to be with her boyfriend and his child.

If anything, who she ends up becoming is sad to me personally. She essentially becomes her mother. Yes, she's strong. She's amazing. But she's doing a political job (something she truly does hate in canon. she says it repeatedly.) And it's almost a cruel twist of irony that she ends up by herself, doing a job that she's fucking excellent at but would have, in my opinion, never chosen when she was younger.

C) I have never, in my life, met a woman who is mediocre. No matter what her choices are. Whether she as a career, or is a stay at home mother. Whether she has a career AND a family. Which, by the way, is what I have Emily do in 99.99% of my fics.

So maybe you need to reflect a little on how you view women and their choices and sit in that for a minute. Because that sounds like something you need to work on.

Ultimately, this is fanfiction. As @eyesontheskyline always says - we're playing with dolls.

I've been writing about them having a nice, happy family (albeit with bumps along the way) for close to four years now. Because thats what I think they deserved. And it's what I like to write because it's a nice reminder that in this horrible, awful world that nice things exist. And sometimes, just sometimes, a happy ending is possible.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you don't like what I'm writing, don't read it. Don't send rude, anon, messages to me and simply just go away.

I'm not one to often big myself up. I'm a walking pile of anxiety. But I write the vast majority of the fanfic in this fandom. I do this for free. I use a LOT of my spare time doing this.

If I keep getting messages like this, this will no longer be fun for me. And as soon as the negative outweighs the good I am out.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

[trainsinanime]

Your favorite fanfic writer doesn't know (but would like to)

Let's talk about comments on fanfics. This is not meant as a guide or call to action, just a bit of observations. Personally, I always saw it as impolite to ask for reviews or kudos or comments or likes or reblogs or whatever. That's not a rational point of view, it just reflects how I am. And people actually telling others that they have to leave any of this feedback? I've blocked folks over that. In my mind that's not okay. I'm not announcing a change of that, this is not a policy, just some deep-seated mental issues, but I want to write down some more things that have been going through my mind, from the perspective of someone who occasionally writes fanfics. My previous suggestion in this regard was mostly to write some fanfic yourself and see what happens and what you'd like to happen, because it's genuinely fun and I think you probably have more to say than you realise.

But there's also another point here, and that is that your favourite fanfic writer has no idea that they are. If you're anything like me, then it will seem like the great writers in your fandom are obvious. Also, the last time you bought Blåhajs, it ended with you having to flee a smoke-filled subway tunnel. The great stories and great writers in your universe are facts of nature. You read a story and you think, "this is the greatest thing I've ever seen." A story rewires your brain chemistry forever. You keep coming back and reading that one fic whenever the mood hits you. It feels obvious that this story is great. How could it not be?

It feels trite to say that the author of that fic doesn't know that unless you tell them, but it's hard to really understand the feeling unless you've been there yourself. You write a story, but is it any good? Maybe you get a lot of kudos, or maybe very little, but what does either of that mean? Kudos can mean literally anything from "loved this" to "didn't close the tab in disgust". Maybe you just got unlucky. Maybe you just got lucky. What do these numbers mean? What is a good number of kudos? 1? 10? 100? 1000? Should I calculate ratios? How do I know whether people like this?

In light of this, a comment where someone just said, "I loved this", has an almost incalculable worth. A comment where someone says they read this over and over again, or quotes lines they loved, or something? You can't imagine how valuable that is. A while ago someone told me "a couple of us are talking about this on Discord, we love it and we keep repeating our favorite lines". I thanked them, but I was too polite to say, "really? What are they saying? Which are your favorite lines? How many people are there who love it? What are their names? Which lines are the favorite ones, please, tell me!". Part of me still regrets that, because I so desperately want to know! I don't think it was a public Discord and I never heard from the others on it, but just the idea that they're out there and they like my story was so powerful. (By the way, it's not on any account that's linked from here, please don't try to find that comment.)

Now, I firmly believe that you, as a reader, don't have to care about any of that. I know there are people who disagree with me on this point, very strongly in fact, but I don't think it's necessarily your job to care. It's great if you do, and I think a lot of you do in fact care, that's why I'm writing this. But if you haven't thought about that or don't feel comfortable leaving comments or whatever, that's fine, that's normal, and you are in fact part of the majority. Any well-adjusted fic author has found ways to deal with this. They have learned to love writing for its own sake, or they love re-reading their own fics, or they have a couple of trusted friends who like their work, or ideally all three. Personally I was scared of Discord for the longest time, but it really helps with that. One person who you sort of know going "hey that's neat" can outweigh just about anything else. (Still, there will be days when you post something and you won't get a response and that just plain sucks, no two ways about it.)

But if you do care, if you think it's important that a fanfic writer knows what they mean to you, not because of any concern about the wider unpaid fan creator economy but just because of the way their work affected you, then this is important. Your favorite fanfic writer probably doesn't know and/or believe that they're anyone's favorite, and even if they do, a reminder or learning that someone knew found them will make them incredibly happy. And obviously, all of that applies at least just as much to all the beginners with potential that are out there. So if you're wondering whether it's worth it leaving a comment that says how much you enjoyed something: It probably is. And if you shared this with others and they loved it, or if this is your favourite fic, or if you enjoy how original it is, or how well it does your favourite tropes, or anything like that, the writer is going to be so happy to hear that.

A final aside: This obviously applies even more when it's about fandoms, pairings, subject matter and in particular ratings that are considered a bit embarrassing. Writers who write stuff that, say, happens to be E-rated for whatever reason, doesn't matter, will probably get fewer kudos and comments just because people are embarrassed to have their names show up in the Kudos and Comment sections. If that's you, just a note that it is perfectly okay to comment anonymously, or to create a second separate account for leaving kudos on, commenting on and maybe even posting the somewhat more risqué stuff. Now I'm not saying I have one of these second accounts, at least I'm not saying that in public, but it is an option worth considering.

[mecachrome]

i swear there is something about landoscar that makes me insane like i got into this fandom and have liked a lot of ships like maxiel, carlando, lestappen etc but there is just something different about landoscar??? idk if it's the dynamic between the two?? or if it's oscar's personality that makes their interactions feel genuine but i would love your analysis or thoughts on this cause WHYYYYYYY have these boys taken over my brain like so??? i swear other ships are literally out here hugging like mad and saying sexual innuendos to each other etc etc and im unfazed but i see oscar and lando have the slightest touch or glance at each other and im feral foaming at the mouth lmfaooooo !!!

omggg anon i answered an ask here about why 814's personalities appeal to Me Personally but maybe i shouldn't get too into that... 😔

anyway idk whether this makes any sense but perso with some rpf ships i find that the myth somewhat outweighs the canon or vice versa — i.e. the "potential narrative" of a ship is really compelling but it doesn't quite exist as it's written in canon, or a ship doesn't have that many compelling extra narratives other than the existing relationship that's strongly visible in canon. and i think these are all great and fun to ship, but i guess as EYE see it it sort of feels like 814 balance those aspects fairly well? like they have a dece amount of sweet and interesting interactions with each other, but obviously they're not best friends and there's enough of this like, sense of repression + the fact of their personalities being not fully diametric but still different enough that it feels like you can take them in a lot of directions. i really like that landoscar aren't quite foils but also aren't "twins" either as some people say, and oscar despite being so lauded as mature is still inspired by lando in many ways and shares the same sarcastic humor as him and enjoys his presence a lot. they work because they aren't opposites but there are enough crucial aspects that separate them so you can make a lot of tropes and aus fit them. which isn't to say you can't do the same with the other ships you mentioned but... idk i'm also just biased because i'm an oscarybroTM so i don't really think about 90% of the grid so i'm fundamentally less invested HLKSDFHLH

also i've mentioned this b4 but my favorite hockey ship (2124) is literally the hockey version of oscar (dorky californian sportsnerd who brings his gaming setup on road trips to play fifa) x his dry finnish linemate whom he doesn't even interact with off the ice but ON the ice they have the most electric wordless chemistry and are constantly aware of where the other is and play beautifully together and get super awkward when reporters try to talk to them about it. so like to me unspoken collaboration IS a beautiful and worthy thing to rpf about.... *__* so clearly i enjoy teammate repression and awkwardness in my ships already but then 814 are kind of even more insane because they're less myth than 2124 so there's SO much to chew on. at least for moi 🥰 icl i'm a little bit anti-pda so constructing intricate rituals to look longingly at other men and laugh at their bad jokes is more compelling to me than straight up skinship/bgp... i was just telling @inchidentally whose analysis i feel like might be up your alley that i don't rly get why people act like oscar's "heart eyes" toward lando are "pr" (???) because from everyth we've been told and see about him it's so clear that he's always been just himself and the level of... unguarded emotion he displays around lando isn't something you can just make up imo. even if it's just little things and they go off and do completely different things off-track (which again i kind of enjoy. like romanze can be guy who goes off to party with models the day after a race x guy who's in bed gearing up his 10th joke about getting his wisdom teeth removed) it makes them rly fun to watch ;__;

[kittydoremi]

Brutally honest opinion on Sonamy, Sonadow and Whispangle? :P

Sorry for the late reply ><

S0namy:

Hoo boy... I have many thoughts... most not very good...

At best, I'm apathetic towards it. At worst, I'm actively annoyed and/or frusterated by it.

I think it's heavily overrated and isn't that good of a ship in general. The amount of bad portrayals of s0namy outweigh the good and/or okay ones imo, and the toxicity of the fandom surrounding it only adds to my dislike for it.

(I'm not saying everyone who likes s0namy is toxic. There are many people in the s0namy fandom that are chill. Unfortunately, there's a vocal part of the s0namy fandom that is very toxic and gatekeepy)

Alot of s0namy portrayals unfortunately fall into "Amy makes Sonic uncomfortable and/or is possessive, but it's seen as cute" which is a dynamic I really don't like. For example, Sonic X has arguably the most popular portrayal of the ship, but imo is one of if not the worst portrayals of the ship.

Then you have other extreme that the ship sometimes falls into, where I can best describe it as "they sure are standing next to eachother" (Frontiers) where there's just... nothing to it, besides "oh it's the main girl and main boy so you have to ship them, they're obviously meant for eachother!"

Another thing, it can be annoying sometimes how the fandom will exaggerate how much the ship is actually canon, saying things like "they're totally dating! they're a couple!" when in reality Sonic is single and will most likely continue to be. At most, it's teased because it's a popular ship, but it won't go further than that.

So the best way to describe how canon S0namy actually is:

Sonadow:

I like it! I think it's cute! I can't see it working out in canon, but I really like fanon sonadow and it's fun to write.

Also, even though prime sonadow is nothing like sonic or shadow would act in canon, I still think it's cute and it's the only thing I enjoyed about the show lol.

Whispangle:

This one kinda hurts... 😔

I used to really like Whispangle, I thought it was really cute. The mini series did a good job of showing their bond.

But then the city arc happened...

What the hell is this.

Why is Tangle reminding Whisper of her trauma so casually when she was shown to be considerate of her feelings before.

Why is Whisper being shown as in the wrong for being upset by this.

Why does Tangle get a 2 panel half assed apology while Whisper gets a THREE PAGE apology.

After this whole mess, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. I can't get behind this ship anymore because of how badly this was handled, and how flanderized it is now (it seems very onesided now, a lot of "Whisper angsting, Tangle comforting" over and over)

[nathaslosthershit]

Death Glares and Loving Stares||Jamie Drysdale x Reader

Pairing: Jamie Drysdale x Reader

Warnings: Jealous Jamie

Summary: Two childhood friends, both too scared to admit their feelings.

Request(s): 

“hi love could you write something for Jamie soon? idc I’m not picky :)”

“Could you write for Jamie using this prompt?

“Since when did you start liking me?”

“Remember we were four and you face planted outside your house while running to get the mail? Two people fell that day, literally and figuratively.” 

Thanks!”

A/n: I really don’t love this fic so I apologize. I will definitely write something for Jamie again because I feel bad for releasing this.

Word Count: 1k

Being best friends with Jamie since before you both had even really developed a consciousness was a dream. You had never known a single day without the brunette by your side, even when one of you was sick, even when you two were fighting, even when his career took him far away from home, you were there. 

Having 24/7 access to Jamie had led the two of you to knowing each other more than you knew yourselves, and with that came the realization that you have never known a more perfect man for you, and you doubted you ever will. But, as is the case with many best friends in love, the fear of losing him outweighed the need for him to know your feelings. 

It didn’t feel good to watch as Jamie talked to, had feelings for, and dated other girls. Sure you had dated as well, you weren’t going to let your dating life cease to exist because of buried down feelings, but they never worked out because you couldn’t ever give 100% of yourself to them, not when Jamie already had so much of you.

That being said, the guy at the bar was cute. Boyfriend material? Definitely not. But he would be great to get your mind off of Jamie in the corner with another girl. 

Or maybe not.

Maybe it was that you weren’t interesting enough for him because soon after your conversation started, he started getting seemingly distracted and eventually made up a lame excuse to leave you and start talking to a new girl. Even though you couldn’t have cared less about the guy, it still hurt a lot for him to walk off.

Little did you know, it was the brunette shooting him daggers from the corner that scared him off. 

The girl in front of him was cute, don't get him wrong, but after five minutes, and an invitation to “get out of here and have some fun”, Jamie had lost interest and the girl had huffed off in annoyance. 

Now alone, Jamie scanned the room for you. Earlier, he was hoping to just spend the night by your side but soon chickened out when he saw you scanning the room for any potential people to talk to. 

Which was fine.

He could find someone to talk to.

In fact, it would probably be better if he found someone first so that you didn’t feel pressured to stay by his side, no matter how much he wanted you to. 

You weren’t his, he had no claim to you, so he had absolutely no right to be upset when you found someone. 

At least that's what he told himself while he shot daggers at the man you were talking to. It wasn’t his intended purpose to scare him off but he wasn’t necessarily upset about it. Until he saw you sitting at the bar, disappointed that you had been left alone once more.

“You think it's time to go?” Jamie asks from behind, surprising you.

“Yeah, it was stupid to come here.” You pout, making him feel worse.

As you head outside, you explain what went down, unaware of Jamie’s part in the whole mess. It wasn’t that you had really liked the guy. Most nights, you wouldn’t have spent as much time thinking about him, but with his sudden departure and already having felt rejection from Jamie as he talked to the girl, you felt so insecure.

Seeing how upset you were killed Jamie. 

“I’m sorry” He exclaims, the guilt eating him alive.

“It's not your fault, the guy was an ass I guess, or maybe I'm just not that interesting.”

“No.. no please never think that. I- seeing you talking to him just made me mad, to the point where I may or may not have glared at him till he left you.”

Shock caused you to stop where you were. Jamie had scared him off? 

“But why would you- weren’t you talking to that girl?”

“Oh please. I had been wanting to talk to you all night. When I offered to take you to the bar it wasn’t to go hunting for some one-night stand. I just thought that we could have had a nice night together. But this ended up being a shit show for the both of us. I couldn’t handle seeing you with him, even though you aren’t mine. Even though I have been too much of a wimp to tell you how I have felt about you for years. And I'm sorry for that.”

How are you supposed to even respond to that? You supposed there was nothing to even say, so you kissed him. And after a few seconds, he kissed you back.

In the middle of the sidewalk, in the dark, you finally kissed your best friend of many, many years. His hands circled your waist while yours went to his hair.

You both pulled away to take a breather.

“Since when did you start liking me?”

“Remember we were four and you face planted outside your house while running to get the mail? Two people fell that day, literally and figuratively.” 

“You’re an idiot, Jamie. We could have solved many issues had you said something earlier.”

“I don’t know why all this blame is getting put on me. You easily could have said something as well, love.” Touché. You kiss him again.

[deramin2]

Charts For Assessing Pain And Fatigue

As a person with chronic pain and chronic fatigue, I often find it helpful to use scales to communicate how I'm doing, both for myself to contextualize it and so others have an idea how I'm doing. It's especially helpful for doctors who take you more seriously when you have data.

But I'm really bad at just assessing it in my head, especially consistently. Internalized ableism means I always feel like I'm just being a wimp and I really minimize my pain. So assessment scales that make me look at my behaviors really help break me out of that and be more honest. They also keep me more consistent so the days is more useable.

Both scales in a spreadsheet

Pain Scale

This scale was given to me in a hospital with no indication of where it came from in a really basic badly formatted table. This is my cleaned up version formatted to be saved on a phone or printed.

0 - No Pain - Pain free

2 - Minimal - Pain is barely noticeable; tightness

3 - Mild - Feel a low level of pain entering awareness only when my attention is devoted to it

4 - Uncomfortable - Pain is troubling but can be ignored most of the time; am able to continue activities

5 - Moderate - Moderate pain but no break in activity or concentration; guarded movement patterns

6 - Distracting - Pain is troubling and breaks through concentration but is tolerable; activity level changes.

7 - Distressing - Pain is intense and preoccupies my thinking; can complete tasks but it is difficult and must cease some demanding activities; considering pain medication or other pain reducing agent.

8 - Intense - Severe pain that makes concentration difficult; can do only non-demanding activities; taking pain medication, etc. Can't carry on a conversation well, pacing , etc.

9 - Severe - Cannot concentrate on anything else; sweating, unsteady breathing, can do almost nothing. Can barely talk.

10 - Immobilizing - Excruciating pain, constant; unable to move.

Fatigue Scale

This was floating around Tumblr in the colorful version. I can't print it, I can't read it with the colors when I'm tired, and I wanted the scales to normalized going the same direction so here's my formatting version:

0 - Not tired at all.

1 - Slightly tired, but still able to carry on as normal with little to no difficulty.

2 - Finding everything more effort than usual, but still able to carry on.

3 - Tiredness makes it hard to enjoy activities that are usually fun, but still able to work or study (with some difficulty).

4 - Possibly able to do some work or studying, depending on how much effort it takes. May choose to work or study from home. Avoiding activities that take a lot of energy.

5 - Mostly unable to work or study (except low effort tasks that can be done from home) can go out (for example to buy food) but only if essential.

6 - Too tired to go out, but still able to move around the house and do activities that require little energy and focus. Preparing a meal is difficult. Can't work or study.

7 - Doesn't need to lie down and can walk around the house, but can't stand for more than a few minutes without resting. Finding it hard to eat some foods. Can't focus on anything easily.

8 - Able to sit up for a while and walk around the house if absolutely necessary. Unable to eat most food. Holding a conversation is difficult.

9 - Able to sit up for a short time and can walk short distances (with difficulty), e.g. to get a drink or go to the toilet. Can't eat.

10 - Can barely sit up. Needs assistance getting out of bed.

Sources

I don't know where either of these came from originally or who to credit, but I'd like to. (Normally I wouldn't repost people's work but the public benefit here outweighs those concerns for me.) Please reblog if you do and I'll edit it in. I just want them available to more disabled people.

[ofliterarynature]

SEPTEMBER 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok nope dnf reread* (book club)]

Bryony & Roses • The Paragon Hotel • The Invisible Library • (The Magic Fish) • The Gathering • Paladin of Souls • Mislaid in Parts Half-Known • Red White & Royal Blue* • North Woods • The Empty Grave* • Barda • Lost in the Moment & Found • The Creeping Shadow* • The Spellshop • Lalani of the Distant Sea

* * * * *

Lockwood & Co - not much to say, but it was fun revisiting an old favorite! It's becoming clearer with age and rereads that there are things about this series that I don't like, but the things I like definitely outweigh them - the way it does ghosts and uses a casebook structure among them! Would highly recommend if you're looking for something a bit spooky and mysterious.

Lost in the Moment and Found - this book was very hard to get into, because as it warns you, the opening involves a child experiencing grooming and gaslighting from an adult, and it is tense. Oof. But that said, between this and Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, I think Antsy's story and the Shop Where the Lost Things Go might be my favorite place and narrative arc we've seen yet.

Barda - I was obsessed with Ngozi's Check Please! for a number of years, and I think she's a very funny person in general! I read this on the strength of that alone despite no previous knowledge of the DC characters involved. I do honestly think this needed to be twice as long to get the depth of story necessary for an outsider, but dang did she pack the emotions in! I can fully see why she's obsessed with these characters, even if I don't feel like I have enough info to get into it myself.

North Woods - honest to god I'm so glad I picked up a copy of this at the library book sale, because I don't know if OR when I might have gotten to it otherwise. I don't really have the words, but it's one of those slow, literary, speculative, books that you have to work to put together that I love to listen to on audiobook and just marinate in for a few days. I would highly recommend to fans of Emily St John Mandel.

Red White & Royal Blue - I'll be honest, I somehow found myself on a FirstPrince fanfic binge and eventually hit a point where I thought to myself, you know, I've only read the book once, maybe I should go check that out again. It was fun! Remarkably similar in tone to the fanfic, so keep up the good work yall ;D

Paladin of Souls - Y'all. I'm so mad it took me this long to get to this after Curse of Chalion. I've seen this recommended so many times independent of the first book and they were so right, I loved it. Character-driven fantasy, great world building, a middle-aged female character who's on a journey of self-discovery and also so done with everyone's shit (including the gods, lol).

The Gathering - a murder investigation in Alaska with vampires *sounds* cool, but... the vampires are people, they're sentient, they have a culture, but they're also deeply hated and treated like predatory animals and are designated a protected species? It's trying to say something, but I'm not sure it works. Definitely taught me that I don't like crime novels or thrillers, but some bonus points for being unexpectedly queer.

The Magic Fish - I've see this around, but tumblr finally convinced me that I needed to read it and I got it onto the book club list. It was completely not what I was expecting, it was so much better! The description really led me to think it would be a lot more YA-ish and be about the son, but his mom is just as important to the story! It's got fairy tales, it's got complexity, the art was incredibly beautiful, ah!!! I'll be needing to get my own copy so I can read it again and think about it some more.

The Invisible Library - tumblr apparently finds this book very divisive, and both times I've asked about it there's been a 50/50 split on whether people liked or hated it lol. SO I went in with very low expectations, and I thought it was fun! It's not a great work of fantasy, I will give you that, but I do enjoy a tropey alt/historical fantasy adventure on occasion, and this filled that niche pretty well. It also didn't lean into a romance plot like I was afraid it would, and as long as it continues to do so (or at least handles it well), I think I could have fun with the rest of this series.

The Paragon Hotel - this is somehow my third Lydsay Faye, and while I don't think I've particularly loved any of them, she can really write a very solid book! A good read, with queer identities playing an unexpectedly major part in the plot!

Bryony & Roses - I have so far epically failed in my goal this year to read more of T Kingfisher's fantasy backlist, but I saw this on hoopla and thought I could fit it in. A very good time as always!

DNF

The Spellshop (16%) - I've read the author's YA in the past and (mostly) liked it at the time, and have been meaning to read her previous adult book for ages. Unfortunately, I've been having terrible luck with anything recent being marketed as cozy fantasy. I put 2 hours into this on audiobook and my initial impression of the story was earnestly quirky, charming, and anxious. Perhaps better than L&L, but I wasn't feeling much more than a vague interest and decided to cut my losses before my feelings entirely soured.

Lalani of the Distant Sea (10%) - this book sounds really cool (yes I did love Moana), the mythology and worldbuilding in the bit I read was interesting, but it is very much written for a younger reader. If I had any in my life currently I would be happy to give this to them! Just not the right pick for me right now.

[e-vay]

Hello hello! How are you? I hope you're well! First of all I must say that I am a huge fan of your art, and you are my greatest inspiration, thank you for that. ❤️

My question is: Do you have any advice for those who are starting to post their art online or are afraid to do so? I have been drawing for many years, literally everyone tells me to share my drawings but it terrifies me! These days I'm drawing a lot and I want to start posting, but I'm still a little afraid. Do you have any good advice?

Thank you so much! That means so much to me ❤️

I think the most important thing to determine for yourself is why you're afraid of doing something (in this case, posting your art online). It's natural to feel nervous about doing something new and worrying about if people will judge you, so that's a totally normal fear and something you can overcome if you choose to address it. But if there's something else in your gut telling you not do something, then you should trust yourself. Don't put yourself or your work online if you aren't comfortable with it, no matter what anyone says!

If you're only feeling nervous because you're worried about what people will think of your drawing skills, I don't think that should hold you back. We tend to be our own worst critics and a lot of people out there (myself included) don't always focus on the technical skills when we're looking at art online. Sometimes we just enjoy great stories or ideas or simply just being able to see the joy that it brought you to draw it. Some of my favorite posts are just little doodles people have done but I can tell they had so much fun with it, it just lights up my heart.

There are always going to be people on the internet with negative things to say just because they have the anonymity to do so. It's hard to shake mean comments off, especially if it's about something you worked really hard on, but it's best to just ignore them and let it go. Chances are it's not actually about you or your work at all, it's just something stupid that the anon did because they were bored.

Personally, I've really thrived as an artist and as an individual since I started posting online back in my deviantART days (god i'm old lol). The good FAR outweighs the bad for me. I get to gush about my hyper-specific interests with people who are just as fascinated by those interests as me, I've made some lifelong friends and I've learned a lot about how to better my art, too. It gave me the courage to share my talent with the world, to the point where I even ended up tabling at several comic conventions and selling my art at local comic shops. I don't think I would have had the confidence to do those things if I hadn't been in the habit of sharing my art online for years.

Again though, if something feels off to you and there's a reason you are avoiding posting, then don't do it. You should never feel pressured to put yourself out there if it risks your mental/emotional health and safety.

Take care and if all you needed was a little encouragement, I hope this helped!

[sugarcookiefawn]

🎀🪽the 2024 victoria's secret fashion show: my thoughts, the good & the bad

hello angels! as we all know the 2024 victoria's secret fashion show happened yesterday, october 15, and i was sat in my living room with my matching pjs, makeup, and a hot, steaming cup of tea all vs coded of course! i barely even know where to start being that i have a lot of positives to share and a few negatives. sit back, relax, and please enjoy this read!

i do want to preface that unfortunately i was one if the girls that didnt watch the fashion shows growing up, being that i was a bit too young, however i am aware of of how the old shows were like! and this is my opinion, feel free to disagree with me

one thing i had thought was that there was a certain charm that was missing. i'm not sure how to describe it, but the set design was pretty plain? there wasn't any props, no glitter... which i understand now it would interfere with the performances but something would be better than nothing! i also think the lack of a runway is also what threw me off. who was the engineer and set designer behind this? there are so many better ideas that could be executed that could bring this from good to GREAT!

im not sure what the theme was for this, but some of the girls were so serious. not a lot of smiles, some look bored! it worked for some segments, such as kate moss, alex consani, it worked for them! but candice swanpoel... you did not have to mog us SO hard, a smile would've been so nice! a little more energy from the models, please!

speaking of alex consani, some of the wings either looked really good or very cheap! i liked alex's wings, the shape of them, but it wasn't the right material. there seemed to be some favorites when it came to wings, because god was gigi hadid's wings gorgeous! doutzen kroes'... not so much. next year we hope that all the angels have equal opportunities for their wings to match their beauty!

that's really all of my negatives really, the lack of ambience, the wings, the energy... because to me there was a lot of good that outweighed the bad! like can we please talk about the gorgeous gorgeous amount of diversity and inclusivity? my dark skinned beauties, plus-sized dolls, og models, ahh! i've seen some opinions disliking the hair choices, but i absolutly loved the big, blown out hair, like tyra banks and devyn garcia!! the fantasy babyyyy!!

speaking of hair, i know! we disliked the ponytails, i heard y'all loud and clear but hear me out. i swear i read something somewhere saying that the old vs was trying to sell the "bedroom fantasy." personally, i feel like high ponys were certainly flirty and youthful! and if we’re talking about the bedroom fantasy, it could allude to it being grabbed? do we see the vision?

more positives! THE PERFORMANCES??? lisa! tyla! cher!!! they all did their big one. god, it’s so hard to pick a favorite, but can we talk about how cher and the dancers absolutely stole the show? i got CHILLS, and she looks so so so stunning, and you could tell how all three of these women were absolutely was feeling themselves. they brought the energy that we needed. i found myself smiling and having fun the whole time!

and the fact that most the looks you can shop!! i’ve seen some people complain that vs should stay unattainable, which i understand that but i felt that this fashion show was a sexy mix of both inclusivity and exclusivity. and let’s be honest? most people complaining about keeping vs unattainable really don’t have any grounds to complain on 🙊

my overall rating? 7/10. i think vs really hit the mark with a lot of what fans were asking for: the backstage vids, the pink, glitter, shine! but there are a few places where they fell short, and i’m hoping they’ll take the criticisms and study it, and if there’s a show next year, it’ll be even bigger and better!

thank you if you took the time to read this! i would love to hear other people’s thoughts on the show. mwah!

xoxo!

[jennilah]

I don't think I've ever fully read your about me thing until a few minutes ago, and I looked at the animation reel on your website, AND HOLY CRAP YOUR WORK IS AMAZING?? AND YOU'VE WORKED ON SOME OF THE COOLEST FILMS WHAT THE FUCK, It's so good I'm in shock, what's your job like? Does it ever get stressful? What's the best thing you've ever worked on in your job? And once more, HOLY CRAP YOUR ANIMATIONS ARE AWESOME OH MY FREAKING GOD.

Hope you have a good day, AND YOU ARE SO COOL, inspiring me to look at what job I actually want in the future.

ASHDHSHFHHG THANK YOU SO MUCH

i’m so happy you like it!! it’s weird to say but it’s hard to openly gush about my own work without sounding like i’m just bragging but I really do just enjoy what I do that much

it’s usually normal! whenever I get to actually slap some keyframes around and work on exciting shots, it’s a LOT of fun. because I find the act of animating genuinely enjoyable. and I love my teammates, the people I get to work with is some of the best parts. Many of my favorite experiences so far was just because the team was so fun to work with, with our team memes and jokes and outings and such. doing extreme overtime was made slightly worth it with such entertaining companions in the animation trenches by my side.

sometimes it’s incredibly stressful yes. the technical stuff isn’t as fun, or sometimes you get a shot that makes you want to rip all your hair out because it’s so goddamn annoying, or it’s just very difficult, or there’s technical glitches kicking your ass, or the clients just seem to never be happy with it. there’s def been some long nights with tears. but usually the rewarding stuff outweighs the bad. for me at least. 😬

oh god don’t even get me started on the industry halts, that’s a whole other beast that we’re dealing with right now.

ANYWAY

gosh well everything i’ve worked on is one of my children that i love in its own way………. but i DO love my children unequally LMAO

some of my top experiences have definitely been:

Godzilla KOTM- a dream come true as a big Godzilla fan and relatively new animator, and later again getting to work on Monarch

Prey- some of the most kickass shots i’ve gotten to say I animated. the predator fighting a bear? fuck yeah

Top Gun Maverick- the absolute jaw-dropping shock i had to the reception to the film, realizing what i got to be a part of. an incredibly surreal feeling.

and i’ll stop there bc i could honestly say something about everything and just go down memory lane like a cringe aunt forcing everyone to look at her vacation photos

again THABK YOU SO MUCH!!!! 😭 ❤️❤️

[butterrats]

ATTENTION 2012 TMNT FANBASE I HAVE A PSA

I love 2012 Donnie

I severely dislike 2012 April, one could say I hate her.

I am allowed to have my own opinions on these not-real-people characters because it. Is. A. Cartoon.

No, I am not a misogynist because I hate 2012 April. I actually love literally all five female characters they put in the show except her (Wow writers...) I'm a fucking feminist lesbian. Disliking a female character does not make you a misogynist. I honestly think a lot of her slander is undeserved, but I'd be a goddamn liar if I didn't say I kinda (ok I love it) enjoy participating in it. HOWEVER, I do not think she is a bad person. Is she snippy, rude, entitled, and kinda a brat in my eyes? Yeah, no dip. Do I think she's evil and intentionally trying to seduce every guy she sees into being her man slave? Uh no. I think she's annoying and I dislike her, but I don't want her to burn in hell. I want what I want for every character I see on a show: *clears throat* OWNING UP TO THEIR SHIT AND CHANGING FOR THE BETTER AND NOT BEING A MARY SUE AND MANY OTHER THINGS I DON'T FEEL LIKE GETTING INTO AT 11:30 PM. This goes for literally all the characters on the show. I wanna see Donnie and Casey apologize to April for being weird with her, AND I want April to apologize to them for being weird with them. THEY ALL DESERVED BETTER. They all could have developed amazingly if the writers didn't stick their heads up their asses and spew whatever shit they inhaled onto the script. I have so many other examples of this: I want Splinter to realize the generational trauma he's inflicting on his sons, Karai developing her relationships with all her brothers, Casey going into his backstory, insert other example.

No, I am not encouraging "nice guy" behavior by loving on Donnie. Oh wow, a kid with zero social interaction outside of his three brothers an strict dad gets weirdly obsessed with the first person he develops romantic feelings for? Who could've seen that coming? He should have left her alone when she wanted to be left alone and given her space, yes, but goddamn people, these characters are children. They're always making dumb choices. It's TEENAGE mutant ninja turtles. My boy never once tried to force himself on this girl. Never tried turning her no into a yes. Never wanted her to do anything she wasn't okay with. He's not a "nice guy" or an "incel" or a "stalker" he's a smart boy who made some very dumb choices. So did literally every other character in the goddamn show. You wanna talk creepy? Leo knowingly had the hots for his motherfudging sister but that's a whole 'nother can of worms I ain't touching tonight baby. I just personally think Donnie has so many more redeeming qualities to his character. Honestly, in my opinion, his apology to April was good enough for me. Not perfect by any means, but good enough. Donnie is literally one of the only characters who quickly owns up when he messes up, I think that' worth something considering the characters. Honestly, Donnie is a sweetheart, super smart, sassy, and fun to watch, and I think his qualities outweigh his flaws, unlike how I feel about April. (How I feel about her.)

My morality should not be called into question when I have an opinion on a fictional character for fuck's sake. This franchise is beloved, BELOVE IT. Have your opinions, love April, hate April, love Donnie, hate Donnie, just enjoy yourselves (except you, Tcesters, stay the fuck away from me and my son.) These characters aren't perfect, they're flawed, they're young, they're children. It's not their fault they were written like shit. They're ALL good people at the end of the day.

I hate 2012 April's guts and I love 2012 Donnie to death. But that doesn't mean you have to as well. LOVE YOUR CHARACTERS.

Holy jumping Jesus on a hoagie sandwich why did I waste an hour of my life writing this? I need to get to bed, I have work tomorrow. Anyways, hope this gets to someone who needs it, love yourself, love characters, don't fucking ship siblings, eat your homework, and enjoy your life. Love you <3

[moorishflower]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you @landwriter for the tag <3<3<3 Answers under the cut!

How many works do you have on Ao3? 227!

What's your total Ao3 word count? I broken two million this year! :)

What fandoms do you write for? I guess you'd say my "main" fandom is still The Sandman, because that's what really started me writing again, but I'll write for any piece of media that inspires me. I've written for The Terror, the D&D movie, Dungeon Meshi, Supernatural, Sherlock, and Homestuck at various points.

Top five fics by kudos: 1. aulon raid - In which no neonazis are allowed in the New Inn. 2. Curse of the Green Hag - The one where Xenk Yendar is cursed by a hag and he and Edgin have to fuck about it. 3. Ecdysis - Undressing and armor and bathing. 4. That I Should Wedded-Be - This was my first attempt at something longer. It's definitely not one of my better ones at this point but it was one of the first ones so it has a lot more kudos. 5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - The one where Hob fucks Dream on his desk.

Do you respond to comments? I would really like to, but I find that I often don't have the energy, and because I want every response to be unique and thoughtful and just for that person, it means that I feel really bad if I give a simple "thanks!" and nothing else. Inevitably the bad feeling of not responding in a meaningful way outweighs the good feeling of getting the comment, so now I really only respond to comments if they address me directly or ask a question.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? the long way down maybe? It has a more open "hopeful" ending. I don't usually let things end on a low note!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Hallmark-Adjacent, I think. Literally ends like a Hallmark movie lol.

Do you get hate on fics? Once or twice it's happened. If it's happened since then I haven't been aware of it. I'm sure a lot of conversation goes on in like, discord channels and such that I don't follow. I'm not particularly interested in debating with people about the intentions or morality of my writing. I try to be as authentic and inclusive and respectful as the setting and story allow me to be, but I'm also human and fallible. *shrug* I grow and learn more every day. Expecting perfection from people is an exercise in frustration and futility.

Do you write smut?

yeh

Craziest crossover: Wrote a BBC Sherlock/Homestuck fusion. That was fun.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of. If it was like Cocoon or Maybe sprout wings I think I'd be really upset about it because I put so much into those, but I don't know if I'd feel particularly devastated if it was anything else. BSN, maybe. I mean it would suck? That's a shitty thing to do, but also, you're not earning any real clout or money by doing it, lol.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! A number of my fics have been translated, mostly into Russian (thanks chainsmoking and Bonniemary!), and one into Spanish (thanks Dhixi!). I'm incredibly flattered every time someone takes the time and effort to do a translation. It's an incredible art.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, though not recently.

All time favourite ship? Listen I write so much for Sandman but truthfully? Mulder/Scully. Alpha and omega ship. Don't know if anything will ever compare.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? At this point, The Whole of Love Contained is so far removed from my current writing style that I would have to restart from scratch, I think. I'm not counting it out forever, but there are other ideas I've had that I'm more interested in pursuing first.

What are your writing strengths? I really like sentence construction. The flow of it. How you can use punctuation to make it stop -- and then carry on, giving it purposeful structure. I've been told I have a talent for inserting life-altering sentences into the middle of things so that they hit you like a punch. Idk I'm bad at listing my own strengths. I like to research things a lot?

What are your writing weaknesses? Pacing, definitely, and action scenes. I always feel like my action scenes have low-stakes feel to them. And dialogue. I think a lot of people struggle to write realistic dialogue, though, so that might not just be me. Keeping the momentum going. Sometimes I'll be so focused on reaching one specific scene that I'll lose track of how to actually get there, and I'll stall out. I feel like I have a lot more weaknesses but I struggle to articulate them beyond a sense of deep dissatisfaction with my own writing, especially in comparison with other writers whom I greatly admire. I feel often like I'm churning out things that are easily-digestible and entertaining, but not necessarily meaningful, or not conveying what I would like them to do. Logically I know that "entertaining" is a value unto itself, and nothing to scoff at, but still. The writer's hubris, maybe.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? Kind of depends on what you're using it for, I suppose. I tend to stick with one narrator's POV, so it can be useful if the narrator doesn't speak that language, but we, as the readers, can pop the sentence into translate and get the gist. I tend to use that sparingly as a gimmick, though, because I'm not multilingual except in the very most basic of terms and I prefer being correct to being aesthetic, lol.

First fandom you wrote in? If you want to be technical, it was Harry Potter. But the first fandom I wrote seriously for was Heroes.

Favourite fic you've written? I'm still proudest of Maybe sprout wings. Not sure if I'll ever write something like that again, where so much of it just felt right. And it got a compliment from a writer I admired very much in Homestuck fandom, so I reckon I did something right with it.

I'll tag @arialerendeair and @dsudis because I know you've both been in fandom for a while and I want to hear your stats <3

[yeenybeanies]

Hi so this is gonna be weird but I need to freak out about ur g/t au. I love it sooo much you have no idea.

I just wanted to ask, since in a tweet you said giant bones are hollow, does this mean they follow bird bone rules? Like hollow but still dense to provide strength?(for example a bird and mammal that are roughly the same size will have a very similar weight despite the mammal having solid bones!)

Also it is believed that hollow bones help with air circulation during flight via pneumatic sacs connected to the respiratory system located in the bones themselves. So (if your giants follow this rule) does this mean they have amazing "lung" capacity? I imagine that their proportional lungs already compensate enough for the oxygen requirement but it is interesting to think about the implications. Being able to hold their breath for longer? Heavily oxygen saturated blood? How buoyant would they be?

Another thing I thought of! You already addressed the calcium requirement, but do your giants also need extra collagen? Since collagen is a primary component in bones and ligaments (and a bunch of other stuff but i need to keep mostly on track) and provides structure to your bones and joint support.

Anyway. That's all for now. Im sorry for the long message. I wish I could blend your AU and drink it. Also science is my jam. Thank you for your content!

this is a super fun ask!! thank you for bouncing biology ideas off of me!!

under a cut bc we get a lil long here:

so, to your first point: i'd like to point out that i'm going off of what we've seen in the past with dinosaurs, wherein these huge creatures had hollow bones to reduce the weight they would otherwise be carrying. i will admit i arbitrarily picked a weight scale factor for giants (12x instead of 15.6x), & am working in the hollow bones/additional air sacs/slimmer build in to make that work.

that being said! i would agree that giants have a (proportionally) different lung capacity than humans! probably bigger, more efficient lungs (taking advantage of those extra air sacs), which would help their metabolic efficiency. given their slower metabolisms ,too, i would wager that giants could probably hold their breath for a bit longer than humans.

hippos, which outweigh my giants, & are also fully warm-blooded, can hold their breath for about 5 minutes at a time. so, somewhat arbitrarily, i'd say that giants can maybe hold their breath for 5-7 minutes at once. still longer than a human for sure, but this ties into another question of yours & point of mine:

i have it in my mind/headcanons that giants in my au cannot swim well. they're somewhat like other great apes, like chimps, in that they don't maintain a lot of body fat––at least not so much to offset the density of their muscles, so they are more likely to sink in water, despite all the evolutionary adaptations to keep them light-weight. i touched on this a little in one of the MitB chapters where ghost & soap were bickering about ghost's ability to swim, where he asserted that he could, which wasn't common among giant kind. those that are dedicated can swim––ghost is able to & does know how to swim––but it is incredibly strenuous & exhausting & not sustainable.

which does tie into another aspect of giants! while they are undeniably bigger & stronger than humans, they don't have as much stamina. it's kinda impossible to maintain the same degree of stamina that humans have evolved at a giant size. so, while giants do have relatively more stamina than the average mammal, humans can still smoke them in terms of distance running. so, the the olden days, humans would wound & chase their prey animals into giant ambushes, where humans would chase the animals to exhaustion into a team of giants that would then take them down, or pursue them in the last few miles until they fully dropped.

moving back onto your points!: collagen! i find research on the consumption of collagen to be dubious at best, & have had college professors tell me that collagen "supplements" are just a bunch of bs, so... idk, i feel like whatever requirements giants need to maintain themselves is largely found in their diets. they do have very fibrous diets (mostly plant matter), & eat most of the less desirable parts of animals, like skin & bones.

but hey!! thank you for the ask!! i love thinking about stuff like this!! even if some of it has to be hand-waved, it's still fun to consider in a way that might make it semi-realistic!

[killershrike]

I want to say to all writers or would be writers; we gotta stop comparing ourselves to other authors. Take inspiration, absolutely!!! I have taken sooo much inspiration from media in my fic Dark Suspension. Not just from books, movies, tv shows, songs, paintings, everything. I think it's absolutely so important to use the things that inspire you to create and not be afraid of "ripping off." Obviously if you copy and paste a whole paragraph and just change the names then maybe rework it a bit. But, personally, I see absolutely no problem in having direct inspirations. Yes I have a lot of original lines and things, but I also have reworked some of my favorite moments and lines into the story.

Two examples from me specifically:

• Cersei Lannister and Margaery Tyrell speaking together. "Gone, a gentle word, why not say slaughtered?" reworked into So-yin saying "Force, a gentle world, why not say slaughtered?" When Ghost tells her about "forcing" Bad Bloods to give up info.

• In The Terrfier 2 Art the Clown brutalized a victim and two of the ways is by snapping the victim's arm in half and tearing it off her, and another way is by tearing her hand apart so it rips down the middle. This was reworked into Ghost, tearing an arm off a corpse and snapping it in half to create a "knife" to throw at someone escaping. And then directly tearing a man's hand apart so it rips down the middle.

Someone could argue this isn't Changed enough, not Original enough, I disagree. This is where it comes to opinion and where I hope to help me and other writers or potential writers to feel some ease. I've been seeing a lot of people saying they're too scared to post their fics cause of people saying things like "copying too much," "too much description," and "too much dialogue." And really, at the end of the day, everyone is wrong. Even I am.

Art has always been subjective, but I feel like writing can be some of the most subjective of all. One person can read Homer's Odyssey, a literal world renowned classic, and say it's boring. Someone can read The Lord Of The Rings books and say they're stupid, even though it's arguably the most popular book series to date.

No matter who you are or how "good" or "bad" your work is, there will always be people who either love it or hate it or don't care. We have got to stop comparing ourselves and holding ourselves back from sharing the things we want to because of other people's stupid little "writing rules." Those dont exist.

You know what the only rule of writing is? You gotta write. To be a writer, you have to put words down somewhere. That's it. That's all. Whether it's me, you, or Stephen fucking King. We're all just silly Little Guys with thoughts in our head that we put down and share with other people because they mean something to us. Just because you aren't a published author and Stephen King is doesn't mean you're a worse writer, or shouldn't bother posting your stuff. He just had the opportunity, luck, or possibly both, to end up in a position as a famous and published author.

But even he didn't start that way. So many authors don't put their stories out as a way to get famous or attention, I definitely didn't. I use my story as a way to work through my own pain and hopefully come up with some fun and interesting ideas along away. I'm not saying one way is right, go for that bag if you want! Or just post your story for fun! Just don't feel like you can't post your writing or people will hate it or won't read it because these stupid "rules." Someone will read it. Even just one person. And you never know, maybe that one person could turn out to become a friend!

I've found so much happiness by posting my story and characters. Yes, I've received some hate, but the love and support I've gotten so outweigh that. Sometimes, I get caught up in the negative and the anxiety, but overall, I don't regret posting my writing and will continue to do so. I hope you can too!