#I'm not an expert writer

[izzydaninja]

Sonic Frontiers - Rewrite (Preview)

With one more push forward, he’s engulfed by blinding white everywhere, and soon the static starts to retreat, and his body starts to wake up: feeling a more natural coolness rush over him with a breeze.

“Mmmhh…” He groans aloud, and being able to audibly hear his voice around himself was enough of a relief. Then he forces his hands under himself and pushes off the grass.

His surroundings felt like a dizzying swarm of overwhelming sounds and feelings all at once, he almost wished he was back in that dream-realm.

Bracing himself on a knee as the fog in his head receded: he was steady enough; he opened his eyes. The brightness of daylight breaking through the cloudy view overhead sent him reeling all over again. He had to blink a few times: shaking the headache away as best he could, before he got to his feet.

“Ngh–Guys..?” He groaned, searching his surroundings.

There were no signs of his friends or the Tornado anywhere, and that was–to say the least–alarming.

“Amy? Tails?” He called, cupping his hands around his mouth. He waited for a response, but none came.

“Mortal.”

With a jolt, he tensed and searched the skies, expecting to see someone or something overhead, but there was nothing. With a quick glance around him, he asks: “..Who? Me?”

“You have done the impossible. You have escaped Cyber Space through your own power.”

He slowly loosened his stance, keeping his guard up, looking along the rocky walls, and cloudy sky overhead: rain falling all around.

“You.. are the key.”

He stood; fists ready on either side of him as he glared at the sky. This whole thing was beyond fishy to him. Just the starting phrase: “mortal,” was an easy indicator to not trust them.

He waited a moment longer, arms crossing with a huff as he taps his foot.

“Find the Chaos Emeralds. Destroy the Titans. Tear down the walls between Dimensions.”

His arms tighten. This voice was being strangely vague. “Yeah, no thanks. I’ll do my own thing.” He points to himself with a bit of a smile before zipping off through the little cavern and straight for more open space.

[muffinlance]

After reading the tags on your latest post I was wondering if it would be possible for you to make a brief overview of the iffy tropes/details your sensitivity reader helped you pick up on? Of course it wouldn't replace doing research ourselves, but I'd love to hear about it regardless!

Have not run it by them yet because it is in no fit state for human consumption at this point; the tropes are just from reading their blog + others on Tumblr + general Internet research including the excellent "blind people walk you through normal activities from their perspective" videos on YouTube. But off the top of my head:

Face touching. Where the blind person gropes someone's face to see? Sighted people made that up. I rewrote a chapter in Towards the Sun when I realized that one. Which makes sense, because why would a blind person be any more inclined to run their hands all up in your facial juices. Eww.

Negating blindness with magic and pretty much ignoring the blindness henceforth. Which is why Zuko isn't going to learn to see with firebending. There are very interesting discussions on how Toph herself fits and doesn't fit into this trope; finding them is left as an exercise for the reader.

Token blind character, AKA only having one blind person in the narrative who represents All Blind People. Going to have a few blind NPCs running around, with various levels of sight and accommodations, to thoroughly negate this one.

Being Depressed and/or Overly Inspirational about the blindness. AKA character devotes a large chunk of the story to bemoaning their blindness, with bonus inspirational "overcoming" at the end. Think about how it would feel if the majority of characters like you spent vast word counts hating the thing that makes them like you. And then solving it, in a way you can't, so they don't have to have the tragic fate of Being Like You. ...So Zuko is not getting cured, and he's also not wasting much time wallowing in an angst puddle.

Etc.

Basically, I want this to be a story that low vision folks can read and go "that was fun and less offensive than 70% of actual media representations", and sighted people can go "that was fun and hopefully I internalized some positive things that will make me less likely to grab a blind person's arm and forcibly Help Them Cross The Road, Try To Pet Their Dog (and Get Huffy When Asked to Please Not), or Call People Out On Not Being Blind Because They Don't Fit The Stereotypes".

[mishkakagehishka]

I just . Repeating "characters are tools" you end up erasing so much about arashi's character and motivations and interactions with other characters if you avoid using her pronouns aka avoid showing she's transgender. It's on the same level of frustration with the translators i had when i saw they had Mika speaking standard English, there's a LOT that gets lost if you don't show those little things.

[thelibrarybat]

Reading a short nonfiction book from a reputable imprint and realising with dawning horror that it may have been partially written by AI.

There's a lot of padding and repetition, and sentences that look informative but when you think about them for 2 seconds are vague as Hell and don't actually say anything.

I just wanted to read a nuanced primer on this subject! What is this!

[squirrelno2]

blue shadow virus is such a weird arc bc they’re talking like “oh it’s a virus it’s a plague” and then talk about an antidote like it’s a poison (you have like cures and treatments for viruses? not “antidotes”?) and also it’s wiped out but like. don’t you eradicate viruses generally with like. vaccines. how did they stop the virus initially if people don’t get vaccinated against that shit. star wars i demand answers

[whatisthisnonsense]

"mutants are poc analogy" "mutants are queer analogy" Listen, X-Men and as such mutants as a whole should really be disability representation, and I mean representation and not analougous to it they just occassionally also get to blast ice while having furniture not built for them, struggles with keeping their mind in the present, and constantly having people casually discuss sterilizing or euthanizing them and being considered either dangerous or simply incapable of understanding when they get mad about this. But nobody is ready for this conversation.

[aberooski]

ok so i was rewatching episode 24 yesterday and foster's line just. has been forced into my brain so intensely itś not funny

"You talk in your sleep."

DO WE EVER BRING THIS UP AGAIN??? IS IT JUST CANON THAT CHAZZ SLEEP-TALKS WHEN STRESSED (OR IN GENERAL) TO THE POINT THAT FOSTER KNOWS ABOUT HIS GRUDGE AGAINST JADEN??

AND WHY HAVEN'T WE USED THIS IN OUR FICS BEFORE!!! (<- /silly)

OH MY GOD YOU'RE SO RIGHT !!

WE'RE CLOWNS. WE'RE ABSOLUTE CLOWNS.

🤡

BECAUSE NO YEAH THEY NEVER BRING THAT UP EVER AGAIN???? LIKE WE HAVE SO MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT HIM THAT'S SO PASSIVELY DELIVERED BECAUSE LIKE HE SLEEPS WITH EARPLUGS IN, HE TALKS IN HIS SLEEP -APPARENTLY- , HE HAS A DOG AT HOME, AND LIKE STUFF THAT I KNOW BUT SOMEHOW ALWAYS FORGET ABOUT WHEN I WRITE???????????? I HAVE TO MAKE A NOTE OF ALL OF THIS NOW CUZ SLEEP TALKING COULD BE LITERALLY SO GOOD TO USE????????

WE'RE CLOWNS 😭

[misskattylashes]

This is so true, and something I always try to remember when writing smut. The first draft I usually concentrate on the mechanics to make sure it's logical, but second draft I like to colour in with the feelings and worries and weird thoughts and fantasies that go through your mind at that point. For me personally it makes it richer and helps the reader stay connected with the character for the coming non smut chapters

[imminent-danger-came]

Sorry if you‘ve been asked this before, but since we know you‘re fav lmk characters, I was wondering what you‘re favorite duos and trios were?

And/or however many characters you wanna group together. Just in general, the character dynamics you find neat!

(My guess is that MK and Mei are somewhere on the top of the list- if not THE top)

One of my favorite things about lmk (of which there are many lol), is that you could throw two darts, and whatever two characters the darts land on are bound to have an interesting dynamic.

One of my favorite episodes is the Sandy and Huntsman episode (2x08), Tang and Macaque also have an intriguing conflict in 3x08, and Pigsy and Chang'e (3x07) have such a heartfelt shared passion that you can't help but enjoy their on screen time together.

I'm someone who wants a sort of Ne Zha and Yellowtusk "we reluctantly work together" arc, where even though Yellowtusk may have helped nearly bring the world to it's destruction, he ultimately helped save it, and he also happens to know a thing or too about keeping the Jade Emperor's power contained. I think it'd really fit in with lmk's "past mistakes vs making the right choices now" theme—in all honesty Yellowtusk has already paid his time with an eternity spent in the scroll—and now he can truly help make a better world. I think it'd be a neat way to keep him involved in the story, give Ne Zha someone to bounce off of (they both view power as sacred and a huge responsibility, unlike Wukong for example who is much more flippant with power), and would give some juicy drama ("You would betray your brothers?") between Peng and Yellowtusk later down the line.

Though anon you're 100% right, MK and Mei are at the top of my favorite dynamic list lol (They're whole motivation is to protect each other out of 100% platonic love. Obsessed with them). I'm also really partial for the MK, Mei, and Sandy trio that pops up here and there (1x03, 1x04, 3x04, 3x06). Traffic light trio is a treat, and the sunburst duo has my heart forever and always (I love seeing the way MK and Wukong's relationship has developed over the course of the show, both for the better and worse). Pigsy and Tang are always a delight (thank you 1x04, 2x03, 2x04, 3x05, 4x04, and specifically the line "Sometimes it's that little bit of char that makes for a more flavorful meat! Even if it is a bit tangy."), they're definitely at the top of my list. Obviously I like shadowpeach, and shadowpeach + MK (ooooo the monkeys are such delicious/tragic foils oooo), and I think Mei and Wukong have a really interesting dynamic (Wukong seeing Ao Lie in Mei, Mei viewing Wukong as someone who has hurt MK). Wukong and Azure's dynamic is also super interesting (Azure with his unrequited crush and heartbreak), so is LBD and MK's (could talk forever about these two), however I'll cut this off here since I could probably go on for a long while about this specific topic.

[angevinyaoiz]

a fun thing about the devil's crown i noticed is how Richard and Bertran call each other by the Old Occitan versions of their names (Richartz, Bertranz, Richard also introduced himself as "Bertranz" when he "adopts" Milo) I thought they were just playing around like poetic licence but was looking through some old docs and lists comparing the old French/occitan names taken from late 12th early 13th century docs and it finally clicked. Fascinating attention to detail, even if idk if that's exactly what they would have used

[theia-eos]

100% me anytime I am trying to write anyone strategizing anything, but especially Soren Fire Emblem.

[attheexactlyrighttimeandplace]

[longagoitwastuesday]

Do you have favorite actors for the various roles in "Cyrano de Bergerac"? I would love to hear your thoughts!

I do! I actually rambled a lot about this while I was watching the different productions I could get my hands on (I tagged it "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "I talk too much").

My favorite productions are the one with José Ferrer and the one with Benoit Solès, and those actors make the best Cyranos in my opinion. Though that's probably something in part beyond the actors' choice, their dynamic with their respective Roxane and Christian are the best ones, I think, and I find how Cyrano moves around these two particular characters at the core of a good Cyrano characterisation.

José Ferrer's use of his voice, which is arguably Cyrano's true most characteristic feature, is unmatched imo (although McAvoy does a very good job with this too), and he manauvers very well several of the different aspects of the character, such as his playfulness, his shittiness and longing. By the end of the play you believe he is the most beautiful man on Earth. Cyrano, however, is a bit pathetic (not just in a "pathos" way), and I'd say Ferrer gives off an air full of dignity very fitting of many scenes, but that eats almost entirely this aspect of Cyrano; Benoit Solès manages this very well, while also playing well with some of the other ones, such as the playfulness, the longing, the pain and the despair. Both Ferrer and Solès are hilarious, tender, a bit shitty, vulnerable, playful and sad. Albeit neither of them portrays 100% what Cyrano is, I think both come pretty close in slightly different flavours, and by the end of the play one ends up being terribly fond of them.

My favourite Roxane is Clara Huet in the production with Benoit Solès, but Mala Powers in the 1950 film is a close second. I think they portray wonderfully Roxane's spunk, and her mix of honest playful cheerfulness and her haughtiness, her intelligence and wit, and how much like Cyrano she is.

I've not come to love for now any Christian as much as I've loved Ferrer, Solès, Huet and Powers, but again I think the Christians in the 1950 film and the Solès productions are very very good. I love the dynamic they have with their Cyranos, especially the one Christian and Cyrano have in the 1950 film, enhanced positively by the added scenes (they actually work so well in showing their developing as friends, their deep love and care for each other!). I don't want to expand too much on this to avoid spoilers (beyond the already known 'Christian dies' ones I mean), but some things they do with both these Christians are a thing of genius, and both feel vulnerable, kind, ready to fight and truly desperate at times; I like when they do that.

There's an Italian production which has a Cyrano I truly enjoy as well, despite how they dumbify him more than I usually like my Christians. His mix of anger and deep pain when he discovers Cyrano's feelings for Roxane were so well made, and his physical presence makes you identify who Christian is even before the play starts.

The Podalydès production has two different Christians. The one in the version on youtube isn't bad, but @ride-a-dromedary likes Éric Ruf a lot. I actually adore him based on the clips and gifs she's posted of him, but I haven't been able to find the version with him online, so I can't know. But he truly seems one of the best. Based on what little I've seen, I love his intense gazes and subtle gestures.

I'm not entirely sold on any Le Bret, De Guiche or Ragueneau yet.

I think the German musical has a decent Ragueneau in vibes, and the 1990 French film does as well. I found his poem made song for what I think is a Spanish production (I'm not sure if it's a fan creation based on the Spanish production), and while I've not been able to find that production online, the song works well in vibes too I think.

The German musical's Le Bret in vibes is very good. He encompasses well his deep love and worry for Cyrano while also being done with his shit. They truly feel like close friends. The 1950 film kind of combines Gaston de Castel-Jaloux and Le Bret into one character, which sadly changes Le Bret's dynamic with Cyrano a bit, but that's a very good Le Bret as well. The one in Solès' production is pretty good too. He has my favourite delivery of the scene in which Le Bret chastises Cyrano for risking his life sending letters.

De Guiche is complicated. I think productions often make him too pathetic and laughable or too bad, so bad it makes the last act kind of not make sense. The 1950 one, the 1990 French one, the Kevin Kline one and the Solès one are all good, but I am not passionate for any of them either.

And basically that's it!

[vikingpoteto]

So you do agree that Oliver Queen is bad representation and that by idolizing him you're part of the problem, right? Because he says defund the police and then uses excessive violence and says that he's doing the police's job? Do you realize how fucked up that is?

Do I agree that Oliver Queen is bad representation of WHAT? I'm not the arbiter of representation, man, what do you want me to do about it? I'm not idolizing anyone or anything, I'm a regular person reading comics written by different regular people. I don't know if you're the same anon from before but you kinda sound like you want everyone to preface every post with a bullet point of the issues in it and put a coin in the problematic jar for every single one which... sounds unreasonable to me.

[wannabemasterofwindintraining]

Cloud kingdom dragon cause i can

[purgaytorysupremacy]

i am once again begging writers (yes, even fic writers) to have someone with some experience in what you're writing about beta your fic. even just a little.