#STYLE CLINIC

[bogkeep]

mannnnnn now that i've actually started medical transition it seems that i will, hopefully, someday, get through to the other side of the limbo tunnel and can hopefully explore more permanent masculine attire. which is as exciting as it is daunting. like, i'm under no illusions that there's a tangible cutoff point where i will Suddenly be out of the limbo state (though top surgery will certainly help if i can get it), and there's no one thing holding me back from exploring this space *now*, but it's. Difficult ,

the List of challenges i must navigate:

- men's fashion is on a surface level very sad and boring and i crave whimsy :( i know knowledge and experience will help but it's like playing on hard mode compared to being a Weird Girl (tm). i am currently gnc against my will and i desire to be gnc Intentionally and on my own terms

- hashtag short king problems. masculine attire was never made with me in mind. almost every time i observe an aspirational example of Men's Fashion it's on a tall lanky guy and that will never be me and that's okay but throw me a bone pleas

- the Autism Sensibilities. collars too close to the neck depletes me of HP. wearing accessories for too long depletes me of mana. if a button up is made of a slightly too stiff material it will give me rashes. i cannot wear binders because i value my ability to breathe comfortably. i can only do so many layers at once before i hit a game over screen. i MUST be comforble

- the restrictions of my circumstances, such as the safety rules of the watchmaker workshop or the mercy of scandinavian weather gods

i'm sure i will figure things out with time. i'm going to need patience. i'm probably going to have to learn how to tailor trousers. i will need to Observe how others dress. but it's so much!! ahh!!!!

[clowncary]

do you remember humanity?

[paul-simon-juggling]

Today I bring you a 1980 Paul interview that made me lose my mind like nothing else : )

[toxickeyboard]

I made some clinic cop art! Yay! ^_^

Ok, for one: cop from OG game:

For two: Ben from c&a!!!:

Um, and last one is my version of clinic cop! Yay!:

[imadhatt3r]

This is going to sound really weird, I know, but I seriously feel like there's a number of like, British communists who desperately wish they were Eastern European??? Like they think that by being into political side of communism (usually not the kind that existed in Eastern Europe), they can be chummy with people who actually grew up in Eastern Europe and were raised with the communist era somewhere in the background their whole life, usually without knowing the nitty gritty of theory but with a lot of cultural herritage from that time...

Like no, there's a big difference between being British, being raised in British culture, with cultural institutions, history, traditions, then getting into communist theory and just assuming that you know everything about life in communist Eastern Europe, and then pulling a "how do you do fellow commies" to people from Eastern Europe whose associations with communism are much different, and they will see you as detached and insensitive at best.

[yuliabalakova]

[not-poignant]

Hey, hey! Random kind-of-writer here, who struggles to bring words on paper and looking for help/advice? I think I finally found my problem, which comes in the shape of 'my third person pov writing sounds like an ikea building instruction'. AKA: All that what the pov character perceives is there, things are happening/the plot is there but the writing kind of lacks thoughts/feeling/inner monolog? For years I've followed your stories and I look up to your writings skills. Especially you handling of pov and that gorgeous mixture of what the character perceives and what is happening in their head. Do you have maybe any tips/insight how do you find a balance?

Hi anon!

So firstly I'm going to point you to my dialogue research post that I put up recently, because dialogue research applies to a characters inner dialogue as well, and will kind of give you a guide as to how they're likely to be talking in their heads. (How I write as the narrator in A Stain that Won't Dissolve is actually somewhat similar to how Alex speaks, I even go out of my way not to use certain words if I don't think Alex would know what they mean).

Otherwise there's several approaches you can take.

You can imagine that the character is basically writing a journal entry or a diary entry. The narrator is, in a way, piggy backing off that. You're a fly on the wall of a character's brain. Sometimes they're going to have lots of thoughts, sometimes they're going to have none. Sometimes my characters are literally just narrating what's happening no thoughts attached, sometimes they're narrating with thoughts attached, and sometimes they're just thinking about stuff and missing what's going on in front of them.

Diary entries are like that too. They can vary from 'today I did this, did this, walked the dog, had this for dinner, and read some of this book' to 'oh my GOD I HATE this person sO MUCH and I really can't BELIEVE this is happening to me omg the DOG needs to be walked I keep FORGETTING.'

Somewhere in there, is your character.

Some characters are more - for lack of a better word - detached or utilitarian than others, some have their voices 'come to life' over the course of a story, because they're growing (Gwyn can be a bit like this).

Some characters are very observational, some are stuck in their heads. Some ground themselves through noticing their surroundings, others notice how other people are acting and behaving (especially true with trauma, Astarion notices setting way less than he notices how people are behaving around him).

It might help you to write down some little sentences like 'this character notices people a lot because people hurt them' or 'this character looks for nature because they like nature' or 'this character is very sensitive to smells so they constantly are aware of how things smell.'

From there, I am very sorry to say, it's just a matter of practice! This stuff becomes easier the more you do it. At first, it will be normal for the characters to feel a bit mechanical and not very natural, and that's because you're still building the skills you need to bring them to life from the ground up. Most writers don't have these skills even if they know what they're supposed to be learning, and they can only be learned through trying, making some mistakes, having some successes, and keeping on with the words.

How you write the first paragraph of a character this year, will be very different to next year, if you just keep writing.

Unfortunately, you can't skip past that part either. I can give you lots of tips, and you can do lots of research and guidance for yourself, but at the end of the day the best way to make it feel natural and have some depth, is to actually just keep writing characters and reflecting on what you've written, notice the paragraphs you like as well as the ones you don't, and building and building from there.

I wish you all the words, anon! It's normal to feel dissatisfied with your writing sometimes, that means you know you have room to grow - but the best thing is, you're already growing if you're noticing this stuff!!! That's actually a positive! You'll go through periods of feeling satisfied, and then dissatisfied, if you keep on keeping on, and looking at what the writers you love are doing, you'll eventually really just pick it up until it feels quite natural to you <3

[whitehartlane]

thinking about legacy today. in the way that i’m mostly thinking about son heungmin and the way that he is such an excellent player and people know it but they don’t really know it. i think about it all the time, the way sonny could’ve easily moved to any club in the world in the prime of his career, to clubs that had technically better players that would have helped him score more goals, bag more assists, win trophies, properly cement his name in the history of greats. but he didn’t. because his legacy has always been one of love. we love him at tottenham. that’s the first thing anyone says about sonny when you ask them about him, “sonny’s brilliant, he’s a great captain, he’s been loyal to us for so long.” none of us really want to ever criticise him or even acknowledge he’s getting older. because he’s been through it all with us, white hart lane to wembley to the new stadium. our first scorer in the league and in the cl at the new ground. i think that’s what really matters in the end, the fact that we love him. you don’t really get this love anywhere else.

[dramatic-dolphin]

sometimes i think about when after my hs graduation banquet we asked our math teacher to share what she though of us individually in the past few years, and she said i "seemed surprisingly violent sometimes, with an aura of repressed rage" or something like that, and i had to physically hold myself back from saying "that's because i fucking hated you and your classes"

[akiymgc]

[novafire-is-thinking]

TF fan moment of the week:

I copied two of my TF meta posts to a Google doc and sent them to my academic advisor/tutor to fulfill a writing requirement. He knows nothing about Transformers, so I was afraid he wouldn’t receive them well. I knew they were good, personally. I was just worried he wouldn’t recognize that.

However, to my delight, he used the word “scientific” to describe one of the pieces and went on to compliment my self awareness as a writer during our discussion today.

He also pointed out grammar and syntax stuff I’d messed up on and habits that would need to be corrected to make my future writing meet typical academic standards, but all of that hardly matters. It’s the middle of the night, and I’m over here obsessing over the compliments when I should be writing or sleeping. lol

If only I could write about my favorite silly little robots for every assignment…

[brittlebutch]

actually, having a kind of revelatory moment here of if HRT was something i have been considering for this long, but has remained inaccessible to me, then that means i Do actually have opinions about my appearance/presentation, so just because i can't take That Particular step doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other avenues i could be pursuing (ie, clothing/accessories/etc.) that i just haven't let myself up until this point. like i don't have to shove it All aside just because there's one thing i can't get -- I'd probably still wind up a lot happier if I took those other steps I've spent all these years ignoring

[zeepzoop-z]

Ok so context for the out-of-the-blue-post, my no. 1 hyperfixation used to be DSMP, then it was stranger things, and now it’s South Park. The DSMP finale reopened some feelings and then I watched Passerine stuff just to rub more salt in. I need some fic recs that are like TUMOASD, Tommy’s Clinic for Supervillains, Passerine, The Rider, That’s, Like, 100 Miles, etc.

ESPECIALLY if they’re like that but South Park (big style, creek, and bunny shipper here)

Also, when school ends I’ll work more on my fic I PROMISE, I’ve just been hella stressed.

[neptunesenceladus]

The Most Beautiful Suicide, photographed by Robert C Wiles

I’ve been reading Crash (as one of Ballards works recommended by @lieu42) and the introduction by Zadie Smith (honestly that intro is my favourite bit of the book) and it’s made me think of this photo that I first saw in a tumblr post a while back.

The idea of how everyone uses everything and everything uses us. She didn’t have to land on a car, the photographer could have not even had his camera on him. But still her suicide damaged the car and the car being what cushioned her fall caused Robert C Wiles to find her body and take the photo.

The framing in particular is what makes me relate the photo to Crash. How her body and the car (and reflections on the car) interact feels like what Ballard was getting at in the book.

[world-of-wales]

CATHERINE'S STYLE FILES - 2018

24 JANUARY 2018 || The Duchess of Cambridge undertook a series of maternal mental health engagements in London.

[milfygerard]

in summary. I find taylor swift interesting bc shes lost the idgaf war against everyone including herself.