#I've noticed I have a pattern of putting a vast majority of what I have to say in the tags. and im doing it again

[discjude]

whatever afterlife exists in SGE must be the funniest shit ever imagine being some Jaunt Jolie peasant who gets a little too in the way of the Snake and dying only to see The Literal School Master cheering the Snake on. Imagine dying of like cholera or something and taking a little Ghost Vacation to Camelot and seeing the King of Camelot - who's dead, apparently - beating the shit out of some random other boy with weird eyes. imagine how flesh and blood went down. Do you think they all had popcorn for that

[effemar]

hi are there any trc fics you would recommend? (saw your tags on that one fandoms with good fic post)

ohhhhh tumblr user after my own heart...

First of all, some of my thoughts on the subject. I love fanfiction -- both as a phenomenon and as a genre of writing. I have a deep and sincere appreciation for the earnest engagement with media it fosters, the creative potential it holds, and the way it can be truly and deeply bad. This being said, what I think makes a fic good is different from what makes a book or a movie good. To me, a good piece of fanfiction is simultaneously a story and a piece of analysis. It should respond to the work it's based on, even (or perhaps, especially) to the detriment of its functionality as a standalone narrative.

This is all to say that the fics I'm recommending here rely heavily on knowledge of the books, and their main merit is in how they engage with the canon narrative. So bear that in mind.

TRC has a lot of fic in a variety of niches and tones. I will try to give you a diverse sampling. That being said, the vast majority of TRC fic that exists is Adam/Ronan (because fandoms are predictable like that) which means the recommendations here are slanted that way.

In no particular order:

Son of the Nuclear A-Bomb -- This is the fic I recommend most among this selection. A clear divergence from canon, it nevertheless extrapolates perfectly on existing themes, to the point that it straight-up predicted several plot points regarding Ronan's family in The Dreamer Trilogy. It's the TRC fic of all time.

Out for Re-henge -- Among TRC fics, there's a surprisingly substantial percentage that are, simply and exclusively, about Blue and Ronan having platonic bonding moments. It's just two teenagers having unmagnificent adventures. Like, as a distinct genre. I've never observed this in any other fandom. You can find more of these under the 'Ronan Lynch & Blue Sargent' relationship tag, with Gen checked as the work category. There's some real gems.

empire that runs on its own -- MIND THE TAGS. I said I'd give you diversity, so I'm giving you diversity. I hesitate to recommend this fic usually, as it can be unpleasant to read and has genuinely upsetting subject matter, but if I'm going to talk about how good TRC fic is, I have to pull out the big guns. It's genuinely incredible work. There's imagery and themes in this that still echo in my head, years after I first read it.

feels better biting down -- Everything by this author is incredible, but I enjoy this fic in particular because it's set in an unexplored bit of time before the series actually starts. It has a unique, lethargic tension that mimics the state of the characters' relationship at this point. It is almost pointedly unromantic, despite dealing with characters who we know have/will have a romantic dynamic during the events of the books.

my bones into your bones -- This fic frustrates me so much. It's incredibly emotionally intense, it has lines that are tattooed on the inside of my eyelids, and it's completely and unapologetically About People Fucking so I can't recommend it to anyone without paralyzing embarrassment. I skipped over this fic in the tag for like three years because of this, but eventually I decided to see what all the fuss was about, and gave it a try. When I tell you it's good, I mean that I felt like I'd been put through the fucking laundry.

Those are mostly pretty serious fics, so here's some light(er) runner-ups as palate-cleansers.

see you somewhere, someplace, sometime -- Ronan assholery, feat. Declan

Hey, Brother (PUNKBITCH) -- Ronan assholery, feat. Blue

in your manner of speaking -- Ronan assholery, feat. Adam (are you beginning to notice a pattern)

[ephhemeralite]

writing pattern tag game!

post the first line of your last ten posted fics and see if there's a pattern! thanks for the tag, @ful-crum !!!!!

not quite sure how i got here, real glad i've got more than ten fics posted (if only barely), excited to see how it goes

"Aziraphale bustles back into his shop with all of the energy of a raccoon holding a goodie they never expected to stumble across." – no skin like the skin you woke up in (gomens canon divergence au)

"Ed has spent the vast majority of his life as a pirate. Get as old and experienced as he’s gotten – far older and more experienced than he ever expected, mind you – and you form some opinions, about salt and the sea and the way of things." – and i feel so proud when the reckoning arrives (this is two lines so it's cheating but whatever 💚. very dumb black sails/our flag means death crossover)

"The first time Dick notices himself call for Batgirl and the wrong sibling respond, he doesn't think much of it." – no difference between the past and the ground (dick grayson thinks he's going crazy until he realizes [REDACTED])

"Tommy thinks that finding himself stuck through the Blood God’s sword – stuck through – should come as more of a shock to him than it does." – this is mostly what happens in dallas (au of my dsmp hero/villain major character death series where the major character death doesn't happen but it's still not great! hence the wtnv if he had lived title)

"Wilbur drops onto the couch with a groan and some sort of weird, histrion-type flail." – a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun (dsmp hero/villain au, companion piece to the actual mcd, probably my best piece of posted writing)

"He isn't looking for trouble today, but he isn't surprised when the blade of a sword finds him regardless." – the truth is like a sickle (it'll cut you to the middle) (dsmp hero/villain au with the mcd)

"The flickering lights of the tavern seem soft, in the late hours of the night." – drunk in a field (on dandelion wine) (unfinished 5+1 from a folk witch!jaskier universe that i got super super attached to but eventually let go of because my life kept getting more insane and the concept more intricate)

"Peter had spent a lot of time trying to psychoanalyze Neal Caffrey before his capture." – acquainted with the saint of never getting it right (white collar/batfam crossover, dick grayson is neal caffrey, my most popular fic by a chunk)

"Geralt can already tell that Jaskier plans on dragging them both out tonight, probably with quilt, to force him into a night of 'stargazing and communing with nature like we used to!'" – it could feel like an end (to have to keep going) (immortal/modern times geraskier au fic i haven't read since i wrote and posted it in a day. i think it's contemplations on mortality, helplessness, and the climate crisis?)

"Briefly, he contemplates sitting up on the couch to give himself better lung capacity for his incoming tirade, but figures that he may as well put his vigilante training to good use, and continues to lay back." – more like me (less like you) (technically the second line of an emotional conversation between dick and jason, but the first line was dialogue and it is too early for me to mess with quotation marks like that)

so, full disclaimer that i don't post a ton (no skin was last updated in august of last year and more like me was posted in july of 2021) so a lot of this writing is kind of old, but! i did notice that i've tended to open in media res, but recently i have been incorporating more exposition. i've never tried to make my first lines great hooks — i'm honestly more concerned with giving myself a good jumping-off point than anything else. it also struck me how many fandoms i've written for that i no longer engage with, basically at all. maybe i've just been really focused lately, but i don't think a few of these fandoms would hold my attention anymore! ironically, i'm talking about the more recent fandoms like dsmp/gomens/ofmd and not the older stuff like the batfam or the witcher.

this was really fun, i loved looking back through my work like this!! thank you again ful-crum for tagging me :)! i'm gonna tag @doingthewritethings, @b10000p, and @alavenderleaf !!!!!!

[inaconstantstateofchange]

Alrighty, your tags in the 'anti-blorbo friends' post intrigued me, so... hook line and sinker. Personally, I am kind of an 'anything goes' fan, I don't mind people disliking stuff about BG3 - or liking it a bit too much, either. I like all the companions, but I do see their flaws and critique can be fun. That's what a piece of media is for, no? For us to dissect and tear apart. So! Tear it freely, mate. Give me your Gale hot takes.

Excellent, all according to keikaku (translator's note: keikaku means plan). Sorry I love that joke.

Thank you so much for the ask! O(∩_∩)O

Okay, Gale hot takes, with the caveat that, in general, I just personally find his whole everything very off-putting, so I am very neutral-edging-to-negative toward him, but can still appreciate the complexity of his character in an objective sense.

This hot take/critique kind of overlaps with issues I have with a lot of the fandom interpretations of the characters: it feels like a lot of the fandom needs to woobify the characters and/or reduce them down to the most simplified version of themself to appreciate them.

Gale is a character who will approve of good actions in general terms, but the moment there is a chance to do something new, something heretofore untried, some advancement in knowledge or power, no matter what the terms of it, you have his attention. And that's really interesting! It's fucked up as all hell, but it's interesting. And this is something I see pushed under the rug and outright denied or left unexplored in most cases, because it requires confronting that all your faves are complex and "problematic", yes even that one.

This one is tangential to Gale, but also relates to the broader lore and world. I think there's a lot fucked up about Forgotten Realms lore (obviously), but it is also so vast and intricate and Larian put so much work in aligning with it as much as possible with the narrative of BG3, allowing you to extrapolate pretty consistently based on that. I've noticed a tendency by a lot of fans to engage with the world and its lore as though they've been isekai'd into it or something, not considering what would actually affect philosophy and perspective and "human" (as it were) experience in a world that worked like Faerûn does. For example, I recently saw someone arguing that the way Halsin handles Kagha after he is rescued is "unrealistic" and the player should be able to tell him that he needs to pick a stronger option. In my opinion this completely ignores the way that druids and druid groves function very differently from a lot of other communities in Faerûn. The majority of druids tend toward True Neutral in terms of alignment, live and let live unless nature is affected in some way. Halsin is honestly a bit of a rarity for verging so far toward Neutral Good. Additionally, because of their focus on nature and natural patterns, of course they would have different perspectives on punishment and rehabilitation.

Another way this presents itself very commonly is in how people conceptualize the system of gods/theology in Faerûn. Most people do not have any real experience conceptualizing a polytheistic worldview in practice, let alone one where the existence of those gods is an undeniable material fact, rather than a belief, and it shows. They hold the gods simultaneously to the standards of humans (which they are not), and the monotheistic conglomerate Christian God (which they are also not). Once again, the system of deity and interaction with it in FR lore is so fucked up, but for complex and interesting reasons I rarely see anyone exploring.

(The above is also the reason I think a lot of people underestimate the power of the archdevils and the Hells compared to the gods, but that is another discussion.)

This comes back to Gale in my hottest of hot takes: I really wish people would stop throwing around the "Gale was groomed, Mystra is a groomer" thing. I think it hyper-simplifies the actual tragedy of his story and the one Larian was trying to tell to an absurd degree, and I don't believe it even does any favors in terms of raising awareness of important issues. Based on FR lore and timeline, Mystra has only been back in existence as a goddess for at absolute maximum thirteen years prior to the start of BG3, and at minimum five, so unless you headcanon Gale to be 30 or younger (which seems decidedly unlikely based on everything else presented in the narrative), their time together was when he was an actual adult.

Am I saying there was no power dynamic problem there? No, ofc I am not. God/Human relationships are famously tragedies and cautionary tales. There is always an inherent disconnect between the two beings. You'll notice a trend, but yes, I do think that the most interestingly fucked up parts of that story are ignored in favor of the most basic and banal.

Mystra is a greater god, having dominion over magic as an entire concept. That means the scale of her power and existence are unfathomably vast, and so alien from human existence that to bridge it would be the work of thousands of lifetimes. At the same time, there are parts of her that used to be human, grafted onto her godhood. That's incredibly fucked up in such an eldritch way, you know?

Final hot take: Gale is a wizard's wizard™, a crime punishable by death. In this essay I will-

[bossbutch]

i don't know who to ask this, but i reckon if anything this will put my thoughts in order. i have a bad habit with people, new people and people i've known for a while, where i act overly familiar, or worse, overly flirty. Something happens, either to me or to them, usually some vulnerable or downtrodden or scared state, and it puts my brain into this weird hyper mode where I just start saying weird shit, including flirting with them or acting like their best friend ever or acting overly defensive, and before I even realize what I'm doing, it's already happened, and I get cognizant of it, but it's too late, because it's already been sent and been seen (this rarely if ever happens face to face).

I try to make amends, and sometimes it works, but the vast, vast majority of the time, they end up getting hurt. Their entire view of me changes, justifiably I might say, and they stop wanting to talk to me.

My question is, if this is at all a common occurrence, how do I catch myself before I do that and cause bad things? I don't wanna hurt people. I don't wanna act like that. And yet it happens.

hi i wish you hadn't asked this on anon... i know a couple of people this could've been and that additional info would be helpful. and also asking this anon means i have to answer it publicly.

generalizing this as much as possible, "i have noticed a negative pattern of behavior in myself, how do i notice it before it happens to prevent it" and well i'm not an expert on Behavioral Strategy. but if you know what typically triggers it ("some vulnerable or downtrodden or scared state") then when that situation arises you just. gotta pay extra attention to what you're saying. lucky for you, something with an event flag is a lot easier to look out for then a behavior that just kinda happens Whenever.

i don't have any tips for noticing The Situation Where The Mistake Can Happen but that's half the battle. the other half is editing what you say before you say it, when you're on alert mode. if it happens less face-to-face, maybe try saying what you typed out loud and seeing if it sounds like "Weird Shit" to you before you send it. or say their post out loud before you think of your response to them. remind yourself of who they are in relation to you...somehow. i'm sure there's a million and one Strategies to make sure you're keeping the appropriate tone and level of familiarity and i don't really know them lol, but i trust you can create one that would work for you.

[leo-culture-technology]

I don't really have anything specific in mind, I'm actually kinda lost as to what to look for jkjsksjk I know I identify with some traits, like sensory issues and difficulty communicating (I do have a diagnosis of social phobia, though I've been thinking maybe autism would better explain other aspects of my life beyond social interaction). I've been reading some articles regarding late discovering of autism and mostly looking for experiences, so I can compare to my own. I feel like I should be looking for something else but I don't really know what? lmao I don't think that was really helpful, anything you can share would be good to me

This is a really long post so I'm going to put it under a read more to not clog up other people's feeds but I think the main areas to cover are:

- verbal communication issues

was your vocabulary/reading ever under/over developed as a child? Having a really advanced vocabulary is just as much a sign of autism as having delayed development in this area. Also, having a very hard to pin down accent, or taking on others' accents Really easily is common amongst autistic people. Do you ever have trouble speaking? I experience selective mutism and when I'm overwhelmed/stressed/upset I often find it hard to speak out loud and have to communicate through messages/notes, though when I'm not mute I'm very eloquent and have always had a vocabulary that was advanced, other kids found it hard to talk to me when I was younger bc they couldn't understand me, but equally comprehension/vocabulary can be delayed/compromised and you might find it hard to understand others because you struggle with that sort of thing yourself. Do you have issues with your tone of voice ever? I find that I can't read my own tone of voice or my volume, some things will come out really bitchy-sounding or angry-sounding and I won't be able to tell, or I might be shouting and not know it because it all sounds the same in my head really.

- sensory issues

do you have issues with certain types of sound? volume? quantity? volume doesn't bother me, but too many different sources of noise will send me into a meltdown so fast. Do you struggle with certain smells, bright lights, tastes, textures of food or of clothing, certain sensations, for example I get really stressed out by having wet skin/hair, and I can't stand the sound/feeling of something rubbing over carpet. I also find some tastes to be overwhelming. Under-sensitivity or processing issues can also be a symptom. Do you ever struggle to process reading/listening to something? I have absolutely awful retention for auditory information, I can't hold more than around 4-5 words in my mind at any one time, and I can't follow auditory instructions at all if there's more than one step, it needs to be written down. I also often struggle to read things because I don't process the words and they just look like meaningless letters on a page to me. I also really struggle to process my own thoughts and order them, I'm able to talk out loud but there are times where I can't write my thoughts without speaking them first because ordering my thoughts while they're still inside my head is very difficult. I also have an under-sensitive sense of smell and taste at times. I can't even smell when meat has gone bad and everyone else I know says it really stinks, and like I can't tell the difference between chicken gravy and onion gravy, for example, because they taste almost identical to me. And senses aren't just the basic five, either. Do you have a particularly high OR low pain threshold? interoception is the perception of bodily functions. Do you have trouble identifying/noticing when you're hungry/thirsty or when you need to go to the toilet e.g. you didn't need to go pee a minute ago but now you're Suddenly absolutely bursting to go because you didn't notice it earlier at all. Proprioception is your perception of your movements, balance and of where your limbs are in relation to your surroundings. Do you bump into things or fall over seemingly nothing a lot? Have you ever been told/noticed you move "strangely"? Do you ever walk sort of on your tiptoes or toes-first rather than heels-first?

- social issues

do you have trouble reading body language? facial expressions? figurative language? tone of voice? not every autistic person will experience all of the above, I know people who can't read body language but can read tone of voice, or can't read figurative language but can read facial expressions, etc. etc. Personally I struggle with tone of voice a lot, I can't tell when people are being serious or not, or whether they're upset or not, tone of voice doesn't really tell me anything about how they're feeling of what they mean. Figurative language varies, I understand metaphors and I often understand sarcasm, although I won't get it if it's too deadpan, and I sometimes miss hyperbole and think people are being serious. I also can't tell whether people are teasing me or genuinely being mean the vast majority of the time. I tend to rely on speech patterns and word choice a lot to understand people, personally. I pick up on what sorts of words they use in what moods and use that largely to inform my interpretations of their current mood based on the words they're choosing. Do you ever struggle understanding what is/isn't socially appropriate? I overshare a lot bc I don't rlly understand what is "too much information" and what isn't, and I also don't understand really how to treat people differently based on their "social role", like I treat someone like a friend regardless of whether they're a stranger, a classmate, a friend, a family member, a colleague, a boss, a teacher, etc.

- need for routine/dislike of sudden/significant change

this isn't always as clear as like needing an entire day to be a routine, it can be little things. I'll give some examples: I have to brush my teeth in a specific way - I count the number of passes of the brush over each section of my teeth, I have to eat a sandwich in a specific order of bites, many food places I will order the same thing every/nearly every time and I will eat that order in the same way, I wash my body/hair in a certain way/order in the shower every time, sometimes I get weirdly obsessed with symmetry and I have to walk in a certain way and if I step "wrong" I have to hop around on one leg until I feel "balanced" again, I have to do my daily tasks on genshin impact in a certain order, etc. etc. I could probably think of more if I tried. I will often get distressed/overwhelmed/upset if any of these "routines" are disrupted somehow. My original method of eating a sandwich applied to when they're cut across into rectangles, so I used to hate eating triangle sandwiches because I couldn't eat them "correctly" until I figured out a similar way to eat triangle sandwiches, and now I Have to eat them in that way because it's "correct" and I'll feel uncomfortable otherwise. Note that this isn't like OCD because it's not anxiety-based, it's based on the fact that it feels like the "correct" way to do it, and that any other way is simply "wrong" and you don't like doing it "wrong". The need for routine and dislike of change might also manifest in needing to plan things ahead days in advance, you also might be like me and be very capable of impulsively doing things like going out if You decide to do it, but if someone Else suggests it, then you need the preparation time. - stimming/special interests

stimming can be honestly anything. I tap my foot, I sing, I have a whole folder names "stim games" on my phone, I type, I eat, I chew gum, I flap my arms, I scratch fabrics, I smell blankets/clothing. Stimming just means self-stimulation and is absolutely any repeated action that you find soothing/cathartic in any way. Under here I'm also going to mention samefoods: foods that you feel comfortable eating even when you don't feel comfortable eating anything else. Like if too much flavour/smell/texture feels overwhelming, most autistic people will have food/s that aren't at all stressful to eat and they can default to at those times. Mine is a specific brand of chicken nuggets, I'll often fall back on those when eating anything else feels overwhelming but I need to eat Something, and I can usually handle those when I can't handle other things.

as for special interests, they are anything that you're kind of obsessed with. You can have multiple, they can change over your life, but your interest tends to go much deeper than that of a neurotypical person's and you feel a need to know everything about it and struggle to hold conversations about other topics because it kind of just takes over your brain. when I was younger some of my special interests were final fantasy, anime, hello kitty, languages/linguistics has always been a special interest of mine, kpop is definitely one, astrology is also for sure one. I fall in and out of being obsessed enough with genshin to call it a special interest. I had a friend in highschool whose special interest was the periodic table, for a while they were obsessed with the 8 times table, and then it became dinosaurs. My little brother is autistic and his special interest has always been video games, he's really interested in retro games, he loves Minecraft and Mario too, when he was younger it was ben 10 for a while, there was also a period where all he wanted to do as a kid was rewatch the cars movies. Media likes to portray special interests as being academic but they can truly be absolutely anything. A desire to know absolutely everything about trains or flowers or kpop is just as much a special interest as neurology or maths or physics or smth like that.

Another thing I've just thought of to be noted, is hygiene:

some autistic people might appear to have borderline OCD tendencies where they can't handle dirt/mess and need everything to be tidy/clean all the time. This is definitely one of the stereotypes. But struggling with hygiene is just as much a symptom of autism. If you struggle to remember to shower/wash hands/brush teeth/do laundry/etc. that could well be an autism symptom. I found out I'm sensitive to mint and especially to toothpaste, it makes my mouth feel like it's burning and like I'll actually cry if it touches my tongue bc it hurts that much lmao. I discovered a toothpaste that's unflavoured and doesn't foam up and now I can brush my teeth without pain but for a long time I struggled with consistently brushing teeth bc of that. I also struggle with showering bc of being stressed out by wet hair/skin. Sometimes it's also a memory thing, and I forget to do these things. I also absolutely suck at keeping my room clean, idk why I just Really Can't lmaoooooo

I'm certain there are things I haven't covered, these are mostly pulling from my own experiences of autism from myself and those around me. All of this might apply to you, it might not, but I hope it makes sense and has given you a good starting point of things to examine within yourself and questions to ask yourself <3 I wish you well bub and please always feel free to ask more questions and/or talk to me more about your experiences <3

[emisonme]

I've had it with the stans.......

This fandom is chock full of some of the most toxic people I've ever had to interact with. How is it, five lovely young Ladies, attracted such filth. I have had the misfortune of reading some of the most vile comments, directed toward anyone who isn't their favorites. It's getting beyond ridiculous. The stans need to either GROW UP or SHUT UP.

The truth is, a shit load of these "stans" don't give a rats ass about their so called faves. They only care about themselves. They are selfish people, disguised as fans. You have your "nizers" for each girl, but C, L, and N, "nizers" are without a doubt, the most toxic of the bunch. They are down right despicable, when they are shit talking the other girls, but they are just as vicious when they are shit talking their favorite.

When Camila was still in the group, a big part of the fandom was united in their hate for her. When Camila left the group, it became a competition within the fandom to make sure she didn't succeed as a solo artist. Then when Down was released, and the fandom as a whole was disappointed, they splintered even more, and it became every fave for themselves. Lauren go solo! Normani go solo! Dinah go solo! Ally, go solo! There are literally less OT4 stans left, than there are OT5 stans. Go figure.

Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Now, we have the infighting within the fandom, of who's the new leader of the group. You know, for a bunch of people who did nothing but bitch and moan about Camila being the perceived leader, because "Fifth Harmony shouldn't have a lead", suddenly seems to think they need a lead, because now, the fight is on between the L-stans and N-stans to see which one is the new leader of the Group. The hypocrisy is real!!!

Oh, it gets worse! When your favorite, someone you claim to love and support, does something you don't agree with...Hell hath no fury like a fan scorned. All of the girls have their problem stans, but poor Lauren hit the unfortunate jackpot with this riff-raff. I'm not even sure why some of you even call yourselves fans of her. You don't have a good thing to say about her, half of the time. She can't do anything right, for some of you.

I've seen more of her own fans, or used to be fans, call her a fake lazy sloth, who is a drug addicted alcoholic, who fucked up her voice, and sucks Ty's dick for connections. Jesus Christ, what the fuck is wrong with you people. Lauren's life does not revolve around YOU. She was not put on this Earth to kiss your fucking ass!

Does Lauren have a few bad habits? Hell yeah, but who the hell doesn't. I can assure you, even if it were real (which it's not), she would not be the one sucking his dick for connections. If anything, he would be the one sucking her clit for more fucking album sales. Fifth Harmony got Ty more notoriety, not the other way around.

It amazes me, that these 5 young Ladies interact with this fucking fandom, at all. We fell in love with a manufactured group, that we knew would go their separate ways. When they auditioned for that damn show, none of them had any intentions of being in a girl group. They were put together, by a machine, and told to sound great together, and get along, or they could kiss their hopes and dreams of a music career good-bye.

They didn't have a say in any of it. It was either agree to THEIR terms, or go home. They agreed to THEIR terms, because they knew they stood a better chance of making it, as eventual solo artists, by using the group as a stepping stone. Dinah said it best, not that long ago, when she compared Fifth Harmony to High School. The group was to acclimate them into the Music Industry. She even said this was like their Senior year.

Do I wish they would have all stayed together? Yeah! I miss ALL of the girls together, but I also know, they are not happy with their situation in the group. They do not have the freedom they keep telling us they have. They will never have the freedom they seek, as long as they are together, at least, not now. If their solo careers don't pan out, they can always find another Label to give them the freedom they deserved, and make another go at it, as a group. Right now, they all want the freedom to express themselves individually. Unfortunately, this fandom has proven, they either want them to go solo, or commit fully to the group. There is no middle ground with some of you. It's really sad!

Your selfishness rears it's ugly head, every time something doesn't go as you hoped it'd go. Camila's first solo single is a Sia sample. Not what you were expecting from her, you un-stan and call her a flop artist. Havana gains World Wide success, you come running back, but with yet, more demands. I don't know how many times I've seen the statement, "I'm taking a chance on you, now where's MY fucking album" REALLY!!!

Fifth Harmony releases Down as their first single as a foursome, you are disappointed and call them flop artists. You tell them, you are putting your money on them and they better deliver. They release their self titled album, and now "They suck! They need to all go solo."

Do you notice the damn pattern here? That's right, it's all about YOU. You don't want them to succeed for themselves. You want them to succeed for YOU. You chose sides, and now, by God the side you chose better win, or else.

I'm not saying all stans are selfish hypocrites, but a shit load of you are, and you know who you are. If Camila doesn't out-chart 5H, she is suddenly not who you thought she was. She becomes a racist flop nobody who needs to take her untalented ass back to Cuba. If Fifth Harmony doesn't out-chart Camila, they suddenly become lazy ass nobody's who can't carry a tune without their fearless leader. Lauren suddenly becomes the junkie Bi-slut attention whore. Normani suddenly becomes the girl who can't sing and should stick to dancing. Dinah suddenly becomes the idiot Mormon Trump supporter, who can't breathe for shit. Ally suddenly becomes the conservative Bible thumper who is only good for high notes.

You ridicule the hell out of them, not because they aren't successful, but because they aren't successful enough, FOR YOU! You want them to win, because YOU want to win. You chose them, so the least they can do is win, FOR YOU.

When they are successful, you shower them with love and praise. When they aren't as successful as you expected them to be, you shit on them and treat them like trash. You do this, not because they aren't out there working their asses off, but instead, because they didn't live up to YOUR expectations.

OT5's didn't pick a side, because we want them all to succeed, collectively, and individually. We don't measure their success by who beats who, who gets more media attention, or who has more damn Social Media followers. We don't want them to succeed FOR US! We want them to succeed FOR THEMSELVES. To bad the vast majority of you, who did choose a side, can't say the same.

[not-poignant]

I was wondering if you had any tips for people who end up with patterns or recurring sentence structure in their writing? I've got this problem and it makes my writing feel clinical. I can't seem to write a sentence without one or two commas. I've tried looking at other people's work for help but it makes me feel like I'm copying even if it's just their structure and not the actual words themselves I use.

DO IT.

COPY THEIR STRUCTURE.

First of all, do you know how many readers, read with a view to sentence length and actually know what an author’s series of sentence structures look like? Just about a whole none of them, unless it’s something they’re also worried about in their own writing, or they’re an editor, and it’s their job.

Secondly, it’s really good to break out of repetitive sentence habits (not that I think repetitive sentence habits are a bad thing, but more on that later). Try a sentence with four commas. Try a sentence with only four or five words. Try paragraphs with four sentences, with six, with two, or a paragraph that’s only one long, run-on sentence.

If you’re worried about copying someone’s style too overtly, pick three different authors you admire. Or try writing random sentences about a new OC you’ve just made up in the different styles. Copy them as closely as you can even, and try and get a feel for where their flow comes from. Read those sections of writing you admire out loud for yourself, feel the staccato of the short sentences, or the long cursive strokes of longer sentences.

Patterns of recurring sentence structure however is pretty normal. Like, I have very repetitive structural patterns - and while I do use sentences of varying lengths, I have a very precise sort of habit of using short sentences in that way, long sentences in that way, and so on. That’s like, that is what defines you stylistically as a writer, along with the words you’re using and the content/subject matter.

So it’s also worth looking at what you’re doing and how comfortable you are with it. Do you enjoy reading it? When you read it out loud, does it flow well? Are people happy with it when they read it? (If they have access to it). If yes, to any of these questions, then what might feel clinical to you could also just be you really used to to your own style. But just in case, it never hurts to do some ‘copy another author’s writing style’ exercises. You wouldn’t believe how many times we were tasked with doing this during creative writing classes at university, it’s a thing.

Also, the vast majority of sentences should have like, one or two commas. So if that’s what the majority of your writing is doing, it’s by no means a bad thing. It might just mean you need to put in the occasional short or long sentence, but that doesn’t mean all the time, either. If you look at something by Rowling, you’ll notice she uses longer sentences with in descriptive/exposition mode, or shorter sentences during an action scene. The rest of the time, she’s generally using sentences with one or two commas. :D Dialogue is also a great way to introduce run-on sentences and short sentences, if you don’t like/aren’t used to changing it up the rest of the time. Because just about no one speaks in sentences that use one of two commas on a regular basis.

But yeah I guess the tips I mostly have is embrace copying other authors for a while, in your writing equivalent of a ‘sketchbook’ so that you can really sort of figure out what you like / don’t like, and what you want to keep / don’t keep. We are all composites of the writers that have gone before us. In my writing, I ramble like my hero, Robin Hobb, I talk too much about unimportant things but care a lot about feels, like Cecilia Dart-Thornton, I borrow snappy, ongoing dialogue from Dean Koontz (he’s not a hero, that’s just a habit I can’t break lol), I like creating evocative scenes like Mark Z. Danielewski did in House of Leaves, and on the rare occasion, I try and craft tender intimacy like CS Pacat did in the Captive Prince series, I also try and use cliffhangers and series arcs like my favourite TV dramas.

My writing influences are many many more than what I’ve written here, but I embrace those influences, and I know it’s not ‘copying’, because there’s like 40 authors I love, across different genres, and I know what I do is both my own, but also aspirational towards the incredible things I see that they do with their writing. I will never be as good as the above listed authors, but in the seeking of achievement, my style can sometimes be similar to theirs. And also fanfiction authors I really admire.

And their styles are a product of the same process. Pacat’s style is indebted to the Lymond Chronicles, among other authors. Dean Koontz borrowed heavily from Stephen King and also romance authors (believe it or not). Cecilia Dart-Thornton was inspired by Juliet Marillier and Tolkien. And so on and so forth.

The sooner you embrace that part of the writing process, the more comfortable I think you’ll be with the part of the process that literally does involve sometimes copying a style or trying to figure out another person’s style to figure out how you want to make it work for yourself.

[secretly-a-catamount]

I want that fic!

whatever afterlife exists in SGE must be the funniest shit ever imagine being some Jaunt Jolie peasant who gets a little too in the way of the Snake and dying only to see The Literal School Master cheering the Snake on. Imagine dying of like cholera or something and taking a little Ghost Vacation to Camelot and seeing the King of Camelot - who's dead, apparently - beating the shit out of some random other boy with weird eyes. imagine how flesh and blood went down. Do you think they all had popcorn for that