#I'm scared to add relevant tags

[captainhysunstuff]

Would you please tag your posts about current events? It's okay if not.

I'm really trying to. I'll try harder. I've been trying to tag them with all the relevant tags that were accompanying those posts, and I thought they'd be enough. I also generally tried to add stuff like "politics" or "serious issues" and the like. "Current events" seemed too general, but I'll tag them that, too. My system isn't perfect.

I'm very sorry. I'm in a very strange and scared state of mind, and I'm very sorry for spreading it to my followers. I usually try to avoid reblogging sensitive content like that. That isn't what my blog is about. However, I felt that they were important enough for others who might be freaking out (like me). I'll endeavor to tag them more thoroughly. Such posts will continue to be rare. Today was... special.

*Fun fact: This is actually the third time I've written out this response or something similar, but my phone refused to post it. I had to do it on my laptop (assuming it even posts it).  I'm very stressed out now~. To be clear, I'm not upset with you, Anonymous! Not in the slightest! Just the situation and everything that's lead up to it. I don't like unpleasant surprises/deviances from a blog intended for fun, either. I should probably invest in blocking certain tags, too (as much good as that would do me; my life is more than happy to remind me in other ways).

[izzyfandoms]

You briefly mentioned a Virgil x Everyone au and I almost want to ask for examples? Because I'm a sucker for multiple soulmate aus

Hmmm well when I made the post I was mostly thinking about a soulmarks kinda situation. I've decided to call this the three hearts soulmate au (and tag it as this) for reasons explained later.

Like for each pair/group of soulmates they have a matching soulmark that's partly in colour and the rest of the colour appears when you meet your soulmate/soulmates. Also most people don't have a solmate so it's pretty rare (and easier for soulmarks to be unique)

So I was initially imagining LAMP, anxceitmus and,,,, viremile? I don't think that last one has a shipname so I'm gonna go with that unless told otherwise. I may change my mind later and add more ships but this is it for now

Soulmark placement probably has some kind of meaning but I'm not gonna overanalyse.

Soulmarks are usually simple shapes made up of like one or two colours per soulmate so it's pretty easy to tell which part is which.

Virgil has three soulmarks (unless I decide to add to this) so he's a part of three like soulmate groups. As the three soulmate groups are connected (they all include Virgil) the three soulmarks all look similar.

I am v basic so I decided that the three soulmarks are all hearts!! (I may change it to something cooler later). This is why I've called this the three hearts soulmate au. They're all on Virgil's upper back (from left to right - anxceitmus, LAMP, viremile).

The anxceitmus one is split into three segments (from left to right green, yellow and purple).

The LAMP one is split into four segments (from left to right (light blue, dark blue, red and purple).

The viremile one is split into. three segments (from left to right (light pink, black and purple).

Though ofc Virgil's born with only the purple ones filled in (with the awareness that he has seven soulmates). His parents probably weren't too pleased and Virgil probably didn't really go around telling people (and it's easy enough to keep his back covered).

Also I've decided that for plot reasons Thomas is gonna be Virgil's older brother in this.

Virgil met Dee (Deceit) in high school. They were about 16/17 and kept it a secret from their classmates (to avoid people making fun of them). Dee's soulmark is on his chest over his heart.

They didn't take too long to get together (and Dee was accepting of Virgil's three soulmark situation) and got an apartment together pretty soon after high school. They didn't stay too close to either sets of parents, but they did stay close to Thomas (Virgil's older brother) who becomes relevant pretty soon.

Now, Patton, Logan and Roman met in college. Patton's soulmark is over his heart, Logan's is on the back of his neck (just below his hair) and Roman's is on his right shoulder.

Obviously Roman and Remus are twins and they've lived next door to Remy since they were very small. They all have known basically their whole lives that they must share at least one soulmate because their soulmarks are basically identical apart from number of segments and colour.

Remy and Emile met in a park when they were six and Remy's impulse reaction was to kiss Emile's cheek and it was VERY adorable ofc. Emile's soulmark is on his left wrist and Remy's is on his right ankle.

Oh also Remus's is on his left shoulder.

ANYWAY back to actual plot.

So theyre all adults. Remy and Emile are together; Roman, Logan and Patton are together; and Remus is currently single. The six of them basically stick together and live really close by to each other because of the whole shared soulmate situation.

One day Thomas ends up in a play thing with Roman and Remus and they become friends.

About a month later he's met all six of them (not knowing that they're his brother's missing soulmates) and is friends with them. One day they're hanging out and the subject of soulmates comes up and Thomas is like 'oh lmao ive never seen any of your soulmarks' and Roman, Remus and Emile end up all rolling up their sleeves at like the same time and Thomas sees the marks and is like "OKAY WAIT"

And yeah everyone freaks out because they have known Thomas for like A WHOLE MONTH and theyre only now realising that he is the older brother to their missing soulmate (plus knows Dee who is Remus's other soulmate)

Thomas ends up calling his brother and telling him about all this

And I'm still kinda unsure about this part but I think Virgil and Dee work at like a haunted house thing (cos it's October because I say so) and Thomas was planning on going there that night so he ends up bringing the six of them and Virgil and Dee's introduction to their missing soulmate(s) is Scaring them cos I think that's funny

Anyway they all fall in love and it's all good and fun and amazing and eventually in maybe like a year or something the eight of them all move in together in like a nice house with three bedrooms and Virgil just switches between them and it's great and EVERYONE LOVES VIRGIL IT'S WHAT HE DESERVES

I might do more with this/write stuff if you guys like it lol

[kukuandkookie]

So, I'm making a story which may or may not be a remake of a old story I made, but with a new setting, new characters, a different tone, and a new storyline. Any writing tips?

Ahhh first off, I just wanted to say how honoured I am that you’d feel like asking me for writing tips! And I must also apologize if this is at all late, since Tumblr has this bad habit of not really notifying me when someone sends me an ask. PS: This might get long ahaha. I tend to ramble a lot. 😅

My first piece of advice is to read and study what you read! I often get inspired by a good book after I’ve finished reading and begin itching to write, but I actually learned how to write stories by imitating the Warriors series when I was a kid. 

I’d also highly recommend studying grammar. Not so much so that it becomes boring and no fun, but enough that it doesn’t hinder your story. Bad grammar or spelling doesn’t usually ruin a story unless it’s really bad, but it can pull someone out of your story. When reading over my classmates’ works, I usually found they worked quite well when read out loud, but reading it over myself caused me to spot those sort of grammatical errors and it would draw me out of the atmosphere they were creating for their story.

And on the topic of atmosphere, it is important to set the scene and also describe things, but definitely don’t go overboard. It often comes off as pretentious or cumbersome, breaking the flow of writing. I do describe certain things while writing, but I usually focus more on dialogue.

When it comes to dialogue, every character has their own voice, so they won’t all sound the same! Make sure to tag their dialogue with variety as well (like, don’t constantly use “he said, she said”). Try looking at other novels. Sometimes authors use “cried, scolded, screeched, begged,” etc). Sometimes they don’t use any dialogue tags at all so as not to break the flow of dialogue.

For example, this is a piece from the chapter I’m currently writing:

Or for something more casual:

The second one had four voices going on, but hopefully the voices flowed naturally enough and it wasn’t too confusing who’s who. If flow is hard to tell, you can try reading it out loud; it’ll also help you pick up on repetition.

Repeating something can be really good for dramatic effect, but too much repetition can also be bad. This is something I’ve had drilled into me by my English teachers since high school. Seeing the same few words a thousand times isn’t very interesting, so try to vary your vocabulary! There’s a whole internet out there to help you find the right words (for example, instead of always writing “angry,” you can look up “angry synonyms”).

Fictional writing, or creative nonfiction, is also where you can break a few rules of English for more dramatic flair. For example, there’s no need to always have full sentences. An incomplete sentence will stand out. 

Definitely be sure to vary sentence length so not everything looks the same. And every time a new action/piece of dialogue happens, it’s a general rule to start a new line.

I like keeping certain things about my characters and world vague and versatile so that I can play around with it more, although I know worldbuilding and detailed characters are important to many writers. It’s okay if your characters start off a little flat—the more you write for them, the more their personality will come alive and have proper depth. 

Sometimes I make a character because I feel like it and I give them a name I just feel like fits. I once made a character with curly brown hair and green eyes and randomly named him Ross, but I eventually incorporated the meaning of his name into his backstory (promontory or headland). He evolved while writing from a more cocky character to someone who is kind and quiet, but stubborn, distant, and has trouble getting over the past.

Of course writing characters also depends on your style. I have a friend who enjoys picking meaningful names for their characters, and there are authors who like to write down all the personality traits, flaws, and strengths right away. I prefer going with the flow, which I find isn’t a bad place to start, but the other way isn’t bad at all!

I usually like fleshing out the backstories for all of my characters, probably more than things like height or birthday. And that’s mostly because every person has their own story and their own scars, so it can affect them in different ways. Even flat characters I first develop just to be a villain often end up becoming more sympathetic later because I decided to focus on their backstories.

And of course we know everyone says “don’t write a Mary Sue!” but characters that seem pretty perfect can still come off as flawed and likeable. Not writing a Mary Sue doesn’t mean writing someone who is boring or terrible at everything or horrible to everyone—there is often a reason the hero is the one with some form of hidden skill or talent.

I’m going to pull on the character of my current obsessions as an example: Wei Wuxian from the novel Mo Dao Zu Shi. He’s intelligent, heroic, kind, and powerful, but such good things can also be translated into bad ones. Flaws are often exaggerations of positives. So for example, even though Wei Wuxian is intelligent, he’s still brash and reckless. He’s heroic, but this translates into a hero complex with impulsiveness, a lack of foresight, and can drive other people away. His kindness can turn into rage or self-sacrifice, and his power makes him arrogant.

Like with the thing on Mary Sues, try not to always worry about avoiding clichés or tropes. It’s good to avoid them, but they’re also staples of writing for a reason, and people do like what’s familiar (in my Film Studies classes, we describe movie tastes as “people want to see what they’re familiar with, but with something unfamiliar sprinkled in”). So it’s okay to use clichés/tropes sometimes, but don’t rely too much on them or your story will feel generic. Add your own twist!

But speaking of twists, don’t try and shock your readers with plot twists out of nowhere. Don’t panic if a reader picks up on your clues and then change the twist to something that doesn’t make sense just to shock the reader. This often cheats people of their experience. If they guess your plot twist, it can mean you laid down the right clues! But if you really want to shock them, try to drop enough hints for the new twist so it makes sense. For example, I find Coco’s plot twist much more sensible than Frozen’s.

Oh, and try not to worry too much about things like Chekhov’s gun. I had a Writing prof ask us to keep it in mind, but I find it more applicable to short stories, and that’s because it started as a rule for theatre. If you show a gun in your play, it should be used later by a character as a sort of payoff. In a longer story, this is less relevant as not every prop has to be important. Still, if you focus a lot on a particular thing, you should probably go back and explain it later. 

I have a bad habit of sometimes mentioning things that seem important to characters at the time and totally forgetting it later until I reread old chapters. For example, I had one character who doesn’t have his mom with him anymore be interested in a ring box in one chapter, but I forgot about it for awhile. I later explained that it was his mom’s wedding ring, which is why he cared about it so much.

I do often get lucky, as my two long-term stories (one that’s close to being wrapped up and one that’s already finished) have both filled most plot points sometimes by chance. I usually just start writing without a real idea of where I’m going—sometimes the stuff I write just establishes characters or their backstories—but they usually start forming into a proper plot later on when I’ve established more characters and backstories and figure out where I want the climax to go.

I’m not saying that my way is the right or only way though! It helps a lot of authors to map everything out from the very beginning. I just find certain plot points change as my writing improves, so I start off with less plan but usually end up coming up with a proper story bible for me to follow as I write. Research and planning, at the end of the day, are still really helpful!

The hardest problem with writing is that we need our readers to care. If they don’t care, then the thing you work painstakingly on won’t feel as rewarding. And it’s easier to have people care when your characters/plot/world are interesting, feel real, and are likeable (or at least have a “love to hate” thing going on for them). Not every character needs to be tragic and edgy—most people recommend against this—but they can still be sympathetic. Sometimes though, characters are just villains or just background characters, and that’s fine too! 

Plus everyone has different tastes, so it’s never guaranteed everyone will like your story—but then again, it’s no guarantee everyone won’t like it either!

I hope all of that helps, and that I haven’t scared you off with my ranting! Writing is a world of infinite possibilities, and I find it easier to test more of those possibilities than with drawing. At the end of the day, don’t forget to write for yourself and write what you also like. Improvement comes with practice, after all!

[josseshiro]

So I need to vent

First of, I've never rely posted before. I'm very much a lurker and I've only recently started geting the curage to activly engage in the online comunities I'm part of. Second, whilst I would consider myself fluent in english. My speling sucks whithout a proper spell check and I am curently running on ADHD meds, caffene and maybe a total of 5 hours of sleep in the last 48 so if none of this makes sense just tell me and I'll try and eleborate, explain and or fix the gramar when I can think in more than rambles or when my hands stop shaking.

Last warning, this is going to get political so if that is something you don't have the mental energy to process or engege with right now, I don't blame you. Also if I need to tag something or I need to add a content warning I ask that you tell me and I will do my best. This might get long.

I recently wached a video that in combination with a coment on it reminded me of the spiral I nearly fel down a few years ago and how I personaly got out of it. You see dear reader from the age of about 13 through to 17 I was very much on the downwards spiral know as anti-sjw. Yes, the crowd of people mascerading as progressive and liberal all the whils creating the perfect opening for a spiral leading to homophobia, transphobia, rasism and so many other forms of supression. Now, as this post will most most likely touch mostly on the raisism I feel it might be relevant to say that I am white. As souch there is a very real possibility that I might say something that hurts someone else, even in a minor way. Once again, feel free to call me out and I will try to fix it. I am allways working on my own world view after all. And that is actualy going to be mostly what this is going to be about. How I remember my world view changing from 13 to 17 and to my curent age: 20, soon to be 21. I cant remember what got me down the rabit hole. But I can remember what the issues I heard about most were. Fighting back. Riots, violent protests. "why are we talking about white on black crime/police brutality against poc comunities/systemic opression when we could/ should ba talking about black on black crime". And that last one came up A LOT. "Why should we talk about the pain that those we see as part of our comunity when we could be talking about the pain this comunity is casing to it self". I remember this as being one of the biggest talking points in large part becouse they were the same once coming from the "All Lives Matter" croud during the start and hight of the BLM movment. And I remember how much it scared me. Becouse I had once thought like them. There was a not so insignificant part of me that WANTED TO LISTEN to what they were saying. And I was terrified of that part of me. After all, I thought I was past that. But you never truly get past it, do you. Becouse the thing about mindset is that it frees you from guilt. It frees you from blame, and giult and it frees you from consicense and the need for action. It's a cold confort though. And it is one born from blood and death and ignorance. It took me to long to realise that. But at the same time, I was the ideal target. Was I not. Young, naiev and ignorant to the way the world works. Most of all though. I was very much alone and unexposed. At the time during wich I started to spital down that path I truly belived the things I was hearing. After all, It made sence to me. And It freed me from blame. The mindset of "the pain aplied by other groups are not nearly as important as the pain the group inflicts on itself". I think this mindset ignores a large part of the issue. It ignores something. A saying we aply in many other cases of abuse. And as far as I know, supression is abuse. We say that "Hurt people, hurt people". They conviniently forget this frace don't they. I could be wrong. This is after all an outside perspective from someone who has never and probably will never be able to get anywhere near the knowlage that comes from being a part of it. I mean, I live half way across the world to the US. Wich is the most vocal about these isues. I don't even know what signs to look for in my own home. I don't even know if it's becouse of people ignoring it, quieting it, or if were just so used to seeing the shit storm that is going on in the US that when we look in our own back yard we just say "well at least it's not as bad as over there" and then just ceep ignoring the problem. Couse I can see the result of the isues here at home but no matter where I turn I cant hear the voices of those who are hurting for it to be that way. I don't know if that is becouse sociaty puched them so far away that they can no longer be heard or if they got so tired trying to voice their concerns over the loud voices coming from elswere and geting the responce of "but at least it's not as bad as over there" and so they stopped trying as hard to get others to listen though words. Maybe that's

why we've seen the rise violent and gang related crime over the last few years. Anyways, I think I got of topic. The confort in the idea that a problem is not my problem so I should not need to solve it and you should in no way try and bring me into this. And don't you dare get violent or raise your voice in a way that makes it so that I can no longer tune you out. I got out of that mindset. Slowly. It's not a fast process. And if you go to fast you risk tireing yourself out and going back to the percived comfort of the spiral. But something I realised latly. When I remembered those years of falling and listening to the voices telling me to tune out the screams of pain. I realised that it got easier. Or maybe I became stronger. Either way dosen't matter. What dose matter is that it became easier to ignore the lure of the cold confort that would only hurt others. What maters is that there are still people who are stuck in or are falling in to these types of spirals. What maters is that whils they can tune out their voices they have a harder time blocking ours. Mind you. We sould NEVER speak over or for someone who has lived through that opression. But what we can do is lend them our voices. So that their words and their scream may break throu and so that more poeple can join us outside of the litle holes that we and they burried. And wo knows. Maybe some day those holes can be filled with dirt and covered with grass and we can all stand together under the sun as proper equals. I doubt it will hapen during my lifetime. But I hope that the next generation can do so. But for that to happen we need to get people out of their holes so that they can hear and let their voice join the roar. And as much as it pains me to say it. Some people will refuse to leve the cold hole of ignorance and hate that they dug for them selves. But those holes need to be filled. Or else others will keep falling into them.

So try and listen to the voices. And lend them your's so that their words may carry further. And maybe one day we can all stand togehter as one. And If you ever find yourslef wondering why they figt I wand you to remeber something I once heard: "You can never truly understand why some feel the need to fight back until you too find yourself on the ground bleeding". And though I don't know were or from who I heard this I do know that it is one of the most important things I ever heard. It is in large part how I realised the spiral was even there. How I realised I was stood building my own little hole to fall into. And though I will never promote violance I do whant you to think about whether lending only your voice is enough. Or if you will need to lend your fists as wel. So that they no longer have to find themselvs bleeding on the ground. For I we are enough I know we can cover the holes. But we need to stand by eachother and we need to realise that not everyone can or want to be save. That sometimes we may need to cover one where the person is still inside. Lastly I want to leve you with a reminder to always be watchfull for the spiral. Both your own and others. And to remember to listen to the voices who message your's might be able to aid and to never listen to those who want you to turn your back on them and grab that shovel once again. Thank you for reading this far. And I hope I've made at least some sence.

[crazyboy3million]

Sound off about how you feel about this bc I truly have no problem with discussing it even if you disagree... Here is one of the main reasons why I can't get behind "transandrophobia" as a real term and can't really take posts using that term seriously even if I agree with the points made themselves.

I think it's a very vapid and misrepresentative term for the unique experiences with transphobia that transmascs experience. I think that it stems from transmascs reading about "trans misogyny," which represents the unique intersection of transphobia and misogyny that trans women face, and the thought process from there is "well, we should have a word for our version of that too, let's just change misogyny to a word that means anti-male."

My issue with this is that androphobia does not exist in the wild. The patriarchy has no room for "anti-masculinity" or "anti-maleness." These are baseless ideals reinforced by terfs alone that are typically just used as weapons against trans women.

My theory is that there is an extremely uncomfortable and unfair truth that the transphobic bias against transmasculinity is also a product of misogyny. "That's what we mean by transandrophobia" is not an explanation for the way people actually use that word. Transmascs who post about "transandrophobia" are not a monolith, but every single one of these posts that I've come across has at least undertones of trans infighting and trans misogyny, and an underlying or even overt agenda that mainstream society has a problem with men. I've seen a lot of very obviously fake or exaggerated stories about trans men being belittled by trans women and I believe that these stories are used to spread the bitter idea that trans women hate or envy or look down upon all trans men, when really it seems like the storyteller just met a tgirl who's kind of shitty in her own way. (Btw, I've seen plenty of posts from trans women that seem to have a weird bitterness against trans men, and those seem to also contain sweeping generalizations based on anecdotal evidence. It goes both ways and it's always bad).

Terfs hate us because they want us to be women. They see "deviance from womanhood" in trans men as a product of undiagnosed mental illness or the manipulation of vulnerable little girls. The way I see it, it's rooted in misogyny and anti-masculinity in women, and not anti-maleness. This is of course stupid bullshit that is incredibly dysphoria inducing, and my first instinct would be to come up with another explanation for it as well. Still, white men--it's a different story for black men, which can't be chalked up to "androphobia" either--are not belittled for being masculine in a society where the patriarchy dominates not only social rules but laws and politics. This is why I sort of get an early stage mens rights activist vibe from "transandrophobia."

So to conclude, I think this term indicates a lack of critical thinking about roots of the unique experiences that we, as men, have with transphobia. I think it's used too commonly among trans men who want to establish a hostile division between us and trans women. Solidarity is hard. Sometimes it's an uphill battle. I think if we all approached discourse with the desire to understand and appreciate everyone's point of view, it would just make us all feel a little more peaceful at the very least.

I understand where transandrophobia truthers are coming from. I've been there, I've regrettably touted transmedicalism in the past, I've resisted educating myself out of the fear of being wrong, I've started useless arguments with people online that just raised my heart rate, and now I've given up on being divisive within the trans community and all I want is for people to just hear me out on this stuff even if they still end up hating all of my points and disagreeing with me in the end. Idk if anyone will even see this, it's just something that's been on my mind lately. Pls if you disagree with me at least try to be nice about it 😭 ok bye I'm done