#This is literally 1 million words. Tetrapod WHAT

[bsaka7]

G, K and R for the ask game please 🥰

THANK U ❤️❤️ ENJOY THIS LITERAL ESSAY

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Start to finish... Always straight through (unless of course the order is intentionally nonlinear. But then straight through from the outline anyway)... Sometimes I'll skip part of a scene if it's like... Travel or something I'm having trouble with (I like to use tags like [GET TO RESTURAUNT]) and then I'll go back later and either flesh that bit out or decide its unnecessary. but usually that's not more than one or two paragraphs. I do worry sometimes that I "run out of steam" at the end of fics bc of this strategy but also idk. I don't think any other way would work for me.

K: What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

I don't know..... I'm not very good at knowing what other people will consider angsty or not (truly I have next to no sense of what fics will emotionally resonate lmao)... anything with infidelity where it like... ends bad for both people...I love falling short of your own destiny/ordained by fate in some terrible way.... I love "it could have been right but it wasn't".... idk. I guess I don't really think of my own ideas like this?? I think i like angstier stuff than I actually think up LOL?? also i don't usually have a ton of ideas im not actually working on I guess

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

in fic.... marthe @wdcseb and milo who has a new blog but I can't remember what it is... bc they are the ones I talk fic the most with and read their stuff and get to know their process!! and because of that sometimes they are who i write for.... also like anyone I'm friends with is an influence lol.

everything else under the cut this is long. I can talk about books forever

I'm not USUALLY trying to emulate other fic writers (though there certainly have been some deeply notable fics for me who have impacted my writing)... I am often taking bits and pieces from published authors. Here is a SHORT list:

Brandon Sanderson. This embarrasses me because I've read a lot of him. He's not a great writer! His stuff reads different when you think about how Mormon he is! But in terms of structure (esp for fantasy), and the idea that you can just sit down and write it. Just pound it out. Has been VERY influential for me (esp for star wars au)

Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich. I very much enjoy people who write about the natural environment in both a scientific and experimental and sometimes narrative and/or religious way. Generally isn't something I'm trying to imitate, but does occasionally come out.

Cormac Mccarthy. Sorry to be a bro. Milo got me into him and I love how he cuts out so much chaff in his writing. Have my critiques, yes. Influential, also yes.

John Steinbeck...East of Eden is one of my fav books), I like how he puts together characters and families. I like the biblical allusions. I like how he writes the landscape. I think reading helps me think about how to put things together. And I think Steinbeck strikes a balance between aspirational and readable and like.... arid and present in a way that works so well for me.

Probably a lot more than I'm not even THINKING about rn. I read. Kind of a lot. Some. Of. It is good some of it is not.

I'll also write a lot of fic that is a response (either an imitation of or how I felt whole reading it) to a book or an author...the two most DIRECT ones are:

hymn of -> Cormac Mccarthy, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

to what will come ahead -> all the kings men by Robert Penn Warren

Okay this is so long. By now you know I can be SO wordy. but there are some thoughts.

[captainswaglord500]

Dib-dib

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Clade: Sarcopterygii

Clade: Tadishohexapodamorpha

Clade: Eucarpia

Superclass: Tadishohexapoda

Class: Ankylodontia

Clade: Gorgotheria

Clade: Teratopodamorpha

Order: Microcerebrafera

Family: Ignoramidae

Genus: Ignoramus

Species: I. maximus (”utmost/biggest fool”)

Information: Roughly twice the size of a turkey in height and length, and with a brain quite literally comparable in size to a pea, the Dib-dib (Ignoramus maximus, literally “utmost fool”) has perhaps one of the smallest brain-to-body ratios out of any terrestrial vertebrate on the planet Tadishkaval. And it shows. This bizarre little animal is somehow more inept than the koala back on Earth, the other contender for the least intelligent advanced tetrapod/tetrapod analogue in the universe. This creature is a generalist omnivore in the most literal interpretation of the word. It will eat anything that can fit into its mouth because it lacks the ability to distinguish food from inorganic matter (though its usual diet consists of small invertebrates, nuts, fruits, and seeds). It has no reason to exist from an ecological perspective, yet ironically, it is not only one of the most widespread terrestrial species on Tadishkaval, spends much of its time foraging in the leaf litter of Tadishkaval’s tropical, subtropical, and temperature forests, its vibrant green body and alternating yellow-and-black feather-like filaments on its back providing camouflage amongst the vegetation, but it is also one of the oldest living species on its home planet, somehow managing to survive not one, not two, but three mass extinction events, its oldest fossil remains dating back some 220 million years ago, in which it has changed relatively little during that time. Bizarrely, other animals seem to show what can be described as rudimentary pity for the creature because of its lack of intelligence. However, the Dib-dib does no favors for itself. In fact, one may argue that it actively tempts death since it will not hesitate to bite the fingers or toes of any forest traveller or large animal, mistaking fingers and toes for branches and roots, though as I have been made aware, this is by no means painful since the Dib-dib’s teeth are incredibly small and unable to break the skin, a bite from one of these creatures feeling much like that of a human infant who has just begun teething. This exact behavior of running up and biting the feet of other animal is how it ends up quickly becoming a nuisance to many larger animals, which would normally spell disaster for a small animal like itself, but because its ineptitude is so pitiful to other members of the food chain, many will refuse to kill them in spite of the great deal of annoyance they cause them, meaning this little animal spends its entire life in what can only be described as stupidity-induced purgatory. But that is, bizarrely enough, not even the worst of it. Not only is the Dib-dib an incredibly naive animal, but it may be perhaps one of the single dumbest animals with a brain (an admittedly smooth and small brain, that) known to mankind’s finest scientists. Whereas most herbivores would either fend off or flee from a would-be predator, the Dib-dib, rather curiously, is neither a fighter nor a fleer, but rather, a lover, charging headfirst towards its attacker to befriend it. While the Dib-dib is by no means winning any sort of competition regarding IQ (in fact, its name translates to “massive fool” [literally “fool-fool”] in the Tadish language and its intelligence is roughly equivalent to that of a 1-month-old human baby), its unrivaled ineptitude actually proves to be something of an advantage against some predators. Bizarrely enough, this tactic seems to work, which is immensely beneficial in the Dib-dib’s eyes since it lacks an amygdala, meaning that it is physically unable to show aggression or fear. And fortunately for the Dib-dib, it tends to make friends in high places in the food chain, meaning that the few predators which do not automatically pity the Dib-dib and spare its life (or which find the taste of its flesh disgusting, which I’ve heard tastes rather like urine) will have to take on the planet’s largest apex predators if they want their meal. That is, until the Dib-dib foolishly wanders off chasing a brightly-colored bug, leaving it at the mercy of the forest once more. While of no practical utility to the native alien races of Tadishkaval, it is commonly kept in captivity as a companion animal, where it lives comfortably to a ripe old 20 years of age, 4 times the life expectancy of its wild kin at roughly 5 years of age. Dib-dibs reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 and mate year-round,  then lay a clutch of 5-10 leathery-shelled eggs in shallow nests in the dirt (though temperature populations may mate in the spring and summer months, then lay their clutch in the fall and winter). The eggs hatch a few weeks later, and from the moment they are born, the young Dib-dibs must fend for themselves because, in true Dib-dib fashion, they would be lucky if either of their parents remembered where the nest was, much less remembered to feed their chicks. And that’s if you somehow manage to get these animals to breed, something which is notoriously because of their extremely short attention span, meaning that they could be in the middle of coitus, see a small bug fly by, and then immediately start chasing the bug without having finished the act. To make this even more insulting, the Dib-dib is a simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning they can both impregnate other Dib-dibs and become pregnant themselves. In fact, getting two Dib-dibs to mate is so difficult, that it’s actually easier and far more time-efficient to resort to artificial insemination. Now, it may sound like the Dib-dib truthfully has almost nothing going for it in life other than its endearing stupidity, and you would be correct. However, the Dib-dib, for all the flak I have given it, has one more trick up its adorably tiny and dimwitted sleeves, and that’s its highly unusual form of vocal communication. The Dib-dib communicates with other members of its species by blowing raspberries. Yes, you read that correctly. This animal communicates by blowing raspberries. Some of its other unique vocalizations include yipping, babbling, lip-smacking, and whistling, though on the basis of it being the only creature known to blow raspberries as a form of communication alone, I immediately feel inclined to give this innocuous little bugger the respect it deserves. Some people say you’re a mistake on Mother Nature’s end, but I think you’re alright as is, little buddy. You keep doing you, Dib-dib, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Final assessment: An exceptionally dimwitted but intoxicatingly friendly omnivore. Watch out, it will steal your heart (possibly literally since I have not ruled out the faint possibility that this offensively harmless creature is, in fact, a demonspawn [and for all I know, it could devour the souls of mortals in its free time]).