#and i will literally write paragraphs explaining why if anyone asks

[imaginaryfriendwithbenefits]

i think neil and andrew should be t4t. i just think that would be nice.

[gowns]

Why Kids Aren't Falling in Love With Reading - It's Not Just Screens

A shrinking number of kids are reading widely and voraciously for fun.

The ubiquity and allure of screens surely play a large part in this—most American children have smartphones by the age of 11—as does learning loss during the pandemic. But this isn’t the whole story. A survey just before the pandemic by the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that the percentages of 9- and 13-year-olds who said they read daily for fun had dropped by double digits since 1984. I recently spoke with educators and librarians about this trend, and they gave many explanations, but one of the most compelling—and depressing—is rooted in how our education system teaches kids to relate to books.

What I remember most about reading in childhood was falling in love with characters and stories; I adored Judy Blume’s Margaret and Beverly Cleary’s Ralph S. Mouse. In New York, where I was in public elementary school in the early ’80s, we did have state assessments that tested reading level and comprehension, but the focus was on reading as many books as possible and engaging emotionally with them as a way to develop the requisite skills. Now the focus on reading analytically seems to be squashing that organic enjoyment. Critical reading is an important skill, especially for a generation bombarded with information, much of it unreliable or deceptive. But this hyperfocus on analysis comes at a steep price: The love of books and storytelling is being lost.

This disregard for story starts as early as elementary school. Take this requirement from the third-grade English-language-arts Common Core standard, used widely across the U.S.: “Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.” There is a fun, easy way to introduce this concept: reading Peggy Parish’s classic, Amelia Bedelia, in which the eponymous maid follows commands such as “Draw the drapes when the sun comes in” by drawing a picture of the curtains. But here’s how one educator experienced in writing Common Core–aligned curricula proposes this be taught: First, teachers introduce the concepts of nonliteral and figurative language. Then, kids read a single paragraph from Amelia Bedelia and answer written questions.

For anyone who knows children, this is the opposite of engaging: The best way to present an abstract idea to kids is by hooking them on a story. “Nonliteral language” becomes a whole lot more interesting and comprehensible, especially to an 8-year-old, when they’ve gotten to laugh at Amelia’s antics first. The process of meeting a character and following them through a series of conflicts is the fun part of reading. Jumping into a paragraph in the middle of a book is about as appealing for most kids as cleaning their room.

But as several educators explained to me, the advent of accountability laws and policies, starting with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and accompanying high-stakes assessments based on standards, be they Common Core or similar state alternatives, has put enormous pressure on instructors to teach to these tests at the expense of best practices. Jennifer LaGarde, who has more than 20 years of experience as a public-school teacher and librarian, described how one such practice—the class read-aloud—invariably resulted in kids asking her for comparable titles. But read-alouds are now imperiled by the need to make sure that kids have mastered all the standards that await them in evaluation, an even more daunting task since the start of the pandemic. “There’s a whole generation of kids who associate reading with assessment now,” LaGarde said.

By middle school, not only is there even less time for activities such as class read-alouds, but instruction also continues to center heavily on passage analysis, said LaGarde, who taught that age group. A friend recently told me that her child’s middle-school teacher had introduced To Kill a Mockingbird to the class, explaining that they would read it over a number of months—and might not have time to finish it. “How can they not get to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird?” she wondered. I’m right there with her. You can’t teach kids to love reading if you don’t even prioritize making it to a book’s end. The reward comes from the emotional payoff of the story’s climax; kids miss out on this essential feeling if they don’t reach Atticus Finch’s powerful defense of Tom Robinson in the courtroom or never get to solve the mystery of Boo Radley.

... Young people should experience the intrinsic pleasure of taking a narrative journey, making an emotional connection with a character (including ones different from themselves), and wondering what will happen next—then finding out. This is the spell that reading casts. And, like with any magician’s trick, picking a story apart and learning how it’s done before you have experienced its wonder risks destroying the magic.

-- article by katherine marsh, the atlantic (12 foot link, no paywall)

[comicaurora]

do you have any tips on writing soft magic systems? I only ever see them talked about when people are comparing it to hard magic systems or criticising it, which is a shame because I love systems where magic is just in the background being unimportant, with implied rules that will never be explained

god I wrote up like eight paragraphs of explanation and I was really working out some cool stuff there and then the app glitched and destroyed it all and I'm so upset

Unfortunately this reduces to a previous problem, which is "figure out how Tolkien did it and then do that."

Middle Earth is laden with magic. Hobbits being good at hiding is magic. There's a random throne in the ruins at the end of Fellowship that lets whoever sits in it see literally the entire world, and that's hella magic. Aragorn radiates One True King magic and occasionally heals people with a touch. Galadriel's mirror lets people see any point in time, past or future. Gandalf knows several spells, but most of the time he's doing less granular stuff by making lights or small fires or going all Servant Of The Secret Fire Wielder Of The Flame Of Anor etc etc. Elves are inherently so magical that the words of their language are never forgotten by anyone who hears them, the laws of physics don't apply to them, their havens are magically pleasant and beautiful, and the planet itself is magical for them - flat for the elves, round for everybody else.

The benefit of a soft magic system is that it produces a feeling in the characters and audience that the world is vast, wonderful and unknowable. It's at its best when it can answer why, but not how.

Why did the old empire of men have a throne that let you see the entire world? That makes sense! It's hugely tactically advantageous! HOW did they get the damn thing? No idea, doesn't matter, they clearly made it work somehow because the throne's right there. Why does Galadriel's mirror give you limited, randomized omniscience? Because while it's a useful tool if you can use it, seeing the future is a dicey and weird game, and the future can change if someone knows it's coming. HOW does riverwater in a birdbath do that? No idea.

Soft magic systems start running into difficulties when the writer needs to decide how it can or can't solve a given situation, which is a very common issue in storytelling, a format almost entirely centered on problems and solutions. For hard magic systems with clear parameters on what is and isn't possible, this is comparatively quite easy. The wizard can't magic this problem away because-

They're out of spell slots :(

They don't know a specific spell that can do that specific thing

There's another caster nearby stopping them

The object that lets them do magic isn't working

They need to speak words/do gestures/use materials to cast, and they can't for whatever reason

There's something "antimagic" around stopping them

Etc etc. The possibilities are easy to run through, because the "how" is clearly defined, and can be negated into a "how NOT." If magic uses spell slots, stop the characters using it by taking those slots away. If magic needs a material focus, break or destroy it. This prevents magic from feeling like an unsatisfying "a wizard did it" fix for all difficulties because the wizards can only do specific things under specific circumstances.

Soft magic systems can contrive answers to this too, but it can be a bit tricky to justify, and if it's Too Convenient it can feel like the magic system really just does what the writer needs it to do. When asked "why can't magic solve this problem?" soft magic systems can answer in several ways:

Too tired, sorry :( magic is Taxing and stuff so the caster can tip over whenever's convenient

They're in a Bad Vibes zone that's hindering their ability to cast because soft magic can be impeded by soft problems like "somebody was very mean here once"

That specific magic is tied to a specific location, like a magical elf forest, and doesn't work outside of it because it's intrinsic to the place and can't be replicated

There's another magical being around and their kung-fu is more powerful

These explanations work, but that's conditional on the story not making the audience think the magic SHOULD work in this situation, and this is entirely based on what's been established in the story thus far. If the wizard has been able to fly up until now, parking the gang at the bottom of the cliff and saying "sorry, fly machine broke" feels contrived. But if we've only ever seen other, intrinsically magical beings fly, the audience is unlikely to expect that the party's humble wizard will suddenly bust out a set of feathery wings as a gift from baby jesus himself. On the writing side, it's really a matter of feeling it out and making sure nothing feels too jarring - if the character who's previously displayed a certain specific space of abilities suddenly does something completely unrelated (like going from clairvoyance to slinging fireballs, or from a healing touch to earthbending) that feels inconsistent AND it teaches the audience that this soft magic system is softer than they realized, and can then make it much harder for the writer to then convince them that this caster CAN'T spontaneously manifest a power or gimmick that'll save them. But if the magical characters or objects operate within a specific space - one character that specializes in fire, one object that specializes in remote viewing, one artifact that lets its holder control the winds - then the audience will expect and accept things that fit in those broad, soft categories without speculating too much on the underlying "how" of their mechanics.

But the temptation to explain "how" is very strong for writers, and soft magic systems especially have trouble with this, because soft magic systems start calcifying into fragmentary hard systems when they're forced to explain "how". It locks in a hard-defined axiom that can be logically extrapolated. Because a soft system is not DESIGNED for that kind of internal logic, doing that will usually cause axiomatic collisions as they contradict one another. If a hard system is a crisp, geometric crystalline structure where any tangent line drawn through it will intersect cleanly with other lines in very predictable ways, adding "how"s to a soft magic system is like drawing tangent lines through a bowl of pudding - you're gonna get a lot of intersections in awkward places.

To pull an example out of absolutely nowhere, if a soft system without clear rules establishes something like "this spell can be used to summon an object towards the caster, but it DOES NOT WORK on living things", there are a number of questions that can become relevant:

Who made that spell to have those limitations?

Why can't WE make spells that DON'T have that limitation?

How is the spell defining "living things"? Would it work on a plant or a skeleton or a piercing in someone's body?

Why did you let this character use it on a living thing anyway, joanne?

In a lot of soft systems that try to lock in hard spell parameters, "who made these spells" and "why can't WE make spells" become the first and most obvious axiomatic clash. If magic can be created to do what the caster wants, why and how does that work, and why can't WE do it? This forces the writer to come up with an explanation to solve the clash without letting the protagonists make up whatever spells they want, therefore solving all plot problems forever - sometimes something like "the inventors of spells were intrinsically magical beings, like elves or dragons or whatever, and thus we ordinary scrub mortals can't make new ones." That's a functional explanation, but it reduces to a previous problem again - that this hard-ish magic system was created by someone with access to an unstructured soft system.

In a soft magic system, the only answer to the question "how does this magical thing work" is "because magic." If any other explanation is needed, things rapidly collapse into hard lines and axioms and covering for edge cases. How can elves run on powder snow, shoot targets in the dark and see for hundreds of miles? They're magical. Does that mean they can fly like a balrog or sling fire like gandalf or control weather like saruman maybe can? No, of course not, that's not their kind of magic and we have no reason to expect it from them. They're just magic. Magic means a lot of different things, and in a soft system the audience has to operate based on vibes rather than rules.

This can be difficult to balance. For instance, Star Wars has a soft system in The Force, and if you squint, every single movie and show uses it differently. It's not super disruptive to the audience's immersion because it's never framed like a Hard System with Hard Rules and it almost never pulls something out of COMPLETELY nowhere, but if you look at what it does from movie to movie and then show to show, it expands from "influence the wills of the weak-minded", "seeing the future a little bit" and "force choking" to "general telekinesis" and "limited telepathy" to "FUCKING LIGHTNING FROM THE HANDS MAN" which is a hell of a twist the first time you see it, to some even more buckwild stuff in the two different animated Clone Wars (like Mace Windu fighting an entire droid army Samurai Jack style and using the force to pull every bolt out of one of them at once, or the planet with the living incarnations of the Light and Dark Side) and the explanation never goes further than "The Force is magic, it's in everything, people who are good at The Force can use it to do a buncha stuff." It's not consistent, it doesn't have rules, but the audience accepts that Force users can just kind of do stuff that fits the Vibes of the stuff it's already been shown it can do. And as SOON as they tried to say "The Force is strong in people who have LOTS OF MIDICHLORIANS" everybody hated it, because it gave us a "how" answer to a question nobody wanted to ask and it made this pervasive, wonderous, soft magic system that Surrounds And Binds Us Luminous Beings Are We into "we are space wizards because we contain an above-average number of bugs."

As a chronic worldbuilder myself, I absolutely understand the impulse to explain and overexplain and lock in the Hows and the Whys, but as far as I can figure it, soft magic systems live and die on the writer's ability to restrain themselves from saying "how." The answer is "magic." The rest is just writing the story in such a way that "magic" doesn't become plot-breaking.

[hoodedjelly]

Hi, you were looking for people to send you asks reguarding the show, so here I go. Well I unfortunately don't have any questions about Inanimate Insanity as I havent seen it, but I have questions about hfjONE, as I havent found anyone to talk to about the show with.

What is your favourite character in ONE?

Favourite moment in the show?

What did you think about Airy's death, did you think it felt natural for the show, or do you think it should of gone in a different direction?

What do you think about the investigation mini-series that followed after? Also your doodles of the characters including the ones from Inanimate Insanity are adorable.

OH JOY TIME TO YAP!!!

Fav ONE character: for like "serious" favs Liam, Bryce and Airy. Love Amelia too, but I'll explain my thought process with why i picked those 3. First i fear i constantly fall in love with the main characters of shows, but to me Liam is different. It can be so easy for him to be characterized as the always caring wants to help everyone main character. But he just isn't that, he gets mad, he gets frustrated, he argues back with Bryce. And i really love that??? He has a heart of gold but he will beat the fuck outta airy if he gotta, and he did. With all of that and him being our main character he's still mysterious, like I'm going to be thinking till the day i die about why he didn't see anyone in The Waiting Room. For Bryce, if I'm being honest I'm not always a fan of asshole characters but he has so much depth in my eyes it makes me not well. He can, like Liam, could easily just be "always the asshole one that hates everything" character but he really isn't like that at all, he's immediately caring to Bryce and Amelia, he just puts his foot down to the obvious upsetting situation he was forced in. he left ONE like it was a bad dream and tried to move on like it was one, he found purpose and he moved on, he wouldn't have known that they were still in there after a month or so. he didn't see stone write those notes, after he finally has stability (if it is just running a fast food place) then more then half a year later some random fucking "dream" guy knocks at his door telling him to do things. And omg don't get me wrong Bryce is still an asshole, just a understandable asshole, and only one cause of the situation he was forced in. For the themes of the show, i love that he is a little selfish, people aren't perfect, people can and will be selfish sometimes (that also goes back to airy's character but i look away). his development out of any character was amazing, the "I'm not in the suburbs anymore" line makes me scream and cry every ONE rewatch. Airy is just the perfect villain for a show like this, i can go on about how the writing of the "people" characters are so rich and have several layers of depth that my little autistic brain wants to pick. But this is already long and i have 4 more questions. for a show that has a concept theme of life and emotion, the villain being one that lacks emotions is just SO good it makes me want to claw on the walls. Still with that he still has SOMETHING, he helps Liam, but he also was the one that trapped him. Is he good? is he bad? well for a show that actively tries to NOT put characters in a box of "the nice one and the mean one" those types of questions are very shallow. did airy deserve what he got? was there a better way? well there's always a better way when you're looking from the outside, but inside, airy was just broken (literally haha). there's no forgiving, why would you, what airy did was awful. but you can understand, if only a little. the last line in the whole show being "when you got nothing better to do you'll find anything to occupy yourself" was so good i can keep writing paragraphs about airy but I NEED TO MOVE ON OMG. (fav non-serious characters are atom, subway seat and whippy creamy)

Favorite moment of ONE: For s1, it has to be the end of episode 4, but not the part of stone leaving, Amelia snapping at Airy. First time watching ONE i actually started tearing up at that scene, and it made me realize "oh shit this show is something different". All i wish is that the show explored Amelia more, even though i know that's the whole thing with the show, leaving things up for the audience to figure out. but i feel she got a little TOO much for us to figure out and basically nothing on her. For s2, it has to be the intro on ep 18. Every single time i watch that scene i tear up a little, Bryce's voice actor did AMAZING during that scene (and that says a lot cause the voice acting is amazing through out the whole show). The dread of already knowing what's gonna happen, the music, Bryce basically yelling at airy like he's an angry god. like OUGH it makes me freak out every single time i watch it.

Thoughts on airys death: When i first watched it i was definitely shocked, but i trusted the writing enough to know that it wasn't just "oh random shock value" moment. I love how bitter sweet it is, i love that he went back to the Waiting Room and now it looks like the exact place he trapped other people. He got his karma for what he did, now he has to sit and basically start over, fine another place or sit there and rot like toothpaste had to do. i like to think about if it was an accident or on purpose a lot, obviously it was an accident (at least to me), but was he thinking about it? why did he make the bridge so unstable? he's been there for 10 years, he made a whole house, but not a safe bridge? was he actively being careless? my friend pointed out to me that he does have a very new injury, that might have messed up his brain (even more), or his vision. I just love bitter sweet endings, i love thinking about "what next", and getting to see it, lets my brain start running.

Thoughts on investigation mini-series: OH I LOVED IT, it's more story building but it leaves the ending the same. more stuff about Taylor (the mini-series made me love her more), and background characters. it's just more of cheesyHFJ flexing his character writing and i'm here for it i will EAT IT UP!!!

Thank you so much for the questions! my GOD this was longer then i wanted, call me the yap master (im not)

heres a doodle of my fav ONE characters just for fun ^__^

[lovemyromance]

The "we don't know what Elain wants because we don't have her POV" is just an excuse to not have to think about the obvious fact that Elain wants Az and Az wants Elain

Because they got Az's POV and did they listen to what he wants?? He wanted to beg on his knees for a taste of Elain, he admitted to being unable to sleep for a year because he wants her so bad, staring at her tylenol for that whole year like a lovesick teenager, exercising until his body gave out to not lie awake thinking about her, touching himself to the thought of her, QUESTIONING HIS RELIGION over her in front of HL Rhys. And they still didn't simply listen to Az's POV and accept that he wants Elain. Instead they twisted the most blatant and tension-filled confirmation of love interests in the history of sjm into some nonsense that fit THEIR pov, regardless of the authors intent.

They should ask themselves, what is it they want from a POV that would make them accept a character is romantically into another character? And if their answer is there is nothing from Az's POV that could have them accept that he wants elain (which is true, given their reaction to his very straight forward pov), then we know that they are just lying and making up excuses when they say a POV is what they need. We all also know that if that same POV of Az was about Gwyn, they would turn it into their bible. Same if it was Lucien about Elain. They simply don't want Az and Elain together. its so obvious its embarrassing.

They don't need anyone's POV. They have already made up their mind. And what they have made up in their mind doesn't fit with any of the povs we've already read. I'm so tired of their bullshit. And i'm tired of BB and sjm not making an announcement and putting this fandom out of its misery.

Sorry for this rant. Thank you for being a voice of reason.

Yeah we all need to rant about sometimes anon, issok. I've never dealt with this level of stupidity and unwillingness to accept fact - and I literally work in finance, where everyone is crazy basically 😅😅

I think I'm just going to resort to a "We shall see" attitude. Because I'm so tired of reading these people's "analysis" and "interpretations" on non-complex, straightforward text.

Idk why they're focused on discrediting every single Elriel moment. Why they need to write an entire paragraph to explain why Azriel giving Elain truthteller was actually bc he loved Mor. Why Azriel saving Elain from Hybern was because he needed to prove Nesta wrong. Why SJM is actually secretly planning a rejected mating bond trope for LoA & Helion.

They're so obsessed with trying to prove Elriel wrong because they don't have anything for EL/GA. Collectively they have one stale mating bond, a ribbon that's supposed to symbolize an enemy, a vague mention of sunshine, and a spark.

There's only so much you can obsesses over those vague points. Their ships haven't even touched or been alone together more than once. They quite literally don't have anything else in canon to keep them occupied - so then they invent headcanons.

Borderline disturbing ones sometimes, like when they said Elain & Gwyn cherish the cloaks of their "mates" from literally the most traumatic day of their lives.

Then they think their headcanons are actually canon, and they read the books trying to fit their square headcanons into a round canon hole.

It doesn't work, but who cares if it doesn't fit to them? They can distract from that fact by then writing full blown essays on why Elriel DOESN't Work.

Inventing all sorts of "interpretations" to prove their point.

They seem to have forgotten this is fairy smut. It's not complex. It does not require interpretation to understand. They purposefully assign a different meaning to the text because they don't like what it spells out, and decided to call that their own interpretation.

And god forbid you say their interpretation of canon doesn't necessary mean it IS canon. Then they'll send anonymous asks to your inbox telling you you're a slut and a whore and wish for a sinkhole to open up and swallow you, your family, your car, your dog, and your 5th grade teacher.

Then they go on tumblr and post some obvious troll anon they received and blame Elriels saying "how come no Elriel is coming to our aid! see look at this hate we get - these Elriels are behind it and they won't speak up!!"

Never mind the fact that they have all of us blocked when we even bring up the c-word: Canon.

Like sorry, I don't really feel sympathy anymore. It sucks - but y'all made this fandom toxic and we all have to deal with it. They don't even have the common sense to know it's an obvious troll account - they take any opportunity to point fingers at Elriels and say we're acting morally superior and also we're the devil incarnate.

Like I'm sorry but how dumb can you fucking be to not see what is happening here? Instead of ignoring the trolls like Elriels do, they decide to spread more hate in the fandom, accusing Elriels, and then turn around and cry that Elriels aren't rushing to their defense in these "trying times"???

Maybe I don't want to be at your defense. Maybe I'm not acting like I'm morally superior, maybe I just am morally superior. Maybe I don't give a shit about this anymore and maybe I just want to sit here and post about Elriel and wait for the next book.

At this point idc. I've never gone out looking for a fight and they can shit talk me all they want but their toddler interpretations do not interest me and I don't care. Im at the point in time where I'm the disgruntled kindergartner teacher just letting the kids say anything while I pound back a shot of whiskey like Elain (in my Stanley mug) 😂😂

[subway-boss-jericho]

(Hammer anon- whoops I forgot to say that on the other ask- I’m also the one who apologized about steady tracks shamanism)

Ok! Two left hands au- 

Such a fun idea to take the two interpretations of emmet and bring them together. Trauma and stressful situations can change someone drastically! And though they act differently, they are still Emmet fundamentally. It’s actually really sweet to read Emmet (1) trying to help Emmet (2) while still being… unhappy. And trying to be distant.

Ooough I was. Imagining it would be something to due to Ingo’s disappearance that would finally bring them together (or at least spark that) but the closing of his case… ough. (Emmet (1) didn’t even stick around to face it…) I’m chewing on your writing. The emotions… love them calling each other out. Like “I Am you idiot. You Cannot fool me”. Astounding. 

"I know." "But you let me in today."

Killing me. 

(I’m actually completely out of words (in like. A good way I’m just playing with the paragraphs and having fun) but this is. Very good.) 

It's okay, it's not hard to tell who's sending in the asks (wheeze)

It's SOOOOO fun!! I hadn't realized the sheer untapped potential with them until a few months ago and now I'm obsessed. They're so fun to write.

Both of the Emmets are in such a complicated situation and both of them have so many layers of emotions about it. There would be 4D chess going on here if they were literally anyone else but Emmet. They know eachother so well yet also feel like they barely know what the other is thinking. They're the same person yet they're so different. So alien yet so impossibly familiar.

(Jericho-typical ramble below the cut:)

Other Emmet (Emmet 1) doesn't really hate This Emmet (Emmet 2) for, well, anything. He's frustrated that his attempt to find Ingo and get him back didn't work (yet), and This Emmet's presence feels like someone out there is taunting him for daring to try. He frustrates him, because it should go without saying that he sees himself in This Emmet. It makes him angry to see This Emmet so "Happy" without Ingo, especially because he feels like by this point that he'll never BE happy unless he can find a way to get Ingo back.

This Emmet, in the early stages of the AU, is still just trying to process what is going on. Other Emmet has been able to explain enough that This Emmet at least has a vague understanding of what is going on, how he got here, and why he's here to begin with- But broadly, this is not his area of expertise. He was never expecting anything like this, and facing continued emotional rejection from someone he would have hoped to confide in/take comfort in is very upsetting. He doesn't want to push Other Emmet around or make him feel like he owes him something, yet at the same time, he's suddenly being forced to carry an additional emotional burden that he can't talk to anyone else about. He IS upset- frustrated, angry -that Other Emmet just waltzed into his life and now he has to deal with the consequences, but he also knows that Other Emmet is just as hurt as he is, and doesn't want to take it out on him.

Both of them do care about the other, but show it in different ways, and need to learn how to communicate + get along. Both of them frustrate and upset the other, and once they agree to support and confide in eachother, that starts to be a little easier for both of them.

Touching on the obvious sensitive point of Ingo, of course they're both on edge about the whole thing. They both know that Ingo went missing for both of them, and they both know that the other is upset about this unplanned stop. This Emmet wants to have someone else to confide in, someone to help him process all those heavy feelings, but Other Emmet wants to stay distant in the hopes that he doesn't need to get hurt again. It isn't until the case closes that Other Emmet takes a chance, to give This Emmet a listening ear or at least somewhere he doesn't have to hide how he actually feels- Especially when he can see the mask cracking. Especially when he can see that This Emmet had been trying to spare Other Emmet's feelings, too. This Emmet knows that Other Emmet is upset. He can tell that he's venting that tangled knot of heavy emotions through Anger, through trying to solve the problem, even though he's very sure he's really just deeply sad. He knows himself well enough to guess that he doesn't want to give himself time to grieve because if he crashes he might not be able to keep going- Because at first, that's what happened to This Emmet, too. But This Emmet is also proof that he can keep going, even if he stops to process how he feels and grieve. And Other Emmet is proof that moving on doesn't have to mean giving up, it can mean trying something new.

They both have a lot to learn from eachother. It starts by letting him in.

So yeah, it's killing me too. This is where I'd put the gif of me exploding. I love writing them and picking apart how they behave and interact. The scene I wrote with them is one of my favorite things I've written recently, makes me want to yell out loud I'm really really glad you enjoyed it, it was so fun to write and it's always my favorite thing to see how people respond to my work.

As always, thank you for the ask! 🤍🌟

Reflection AU Masterpost

[myuiis]

(same anon who asked for sinu analysis) well first off let me ask your thoughts on YeonhuixSinu

Despite my undying love for this man- I'll admit they're cute n all BUT I always felt it was undeveloped.

I don't know if it's just me but when Jason (I think) said he'd snitch about him being with neko to her I was confused back when he was still under the influence of those pills at workers. Like, Did I miss something? Did I forget something from the gaps between the arcs? Idk. But even if she was shown to be worried over Sinu, it didn't seem romantic at all especially that all the big deal girls cared too. PTJ also made it seem like an already established relationship and I'm still questioning when?? She seemed to know him well and all but no hinting of any romantic attraction was there, just your average big deal romanticism and admiration lol.

I understand that PTJ has to leave some details away for the sake of the pacing but I think he could've at least thrown some hints here and there.

ok yeah. so this won't be a super long post because i am tired but good lord i am very... lukewarm about sinu and yeonhui. im with you on the "who?" when yeonhui was mentioned again in 2a. now im glad that sinu is with someone he's happy with but man... sinu and yeonhui is just such a mid ship compared to literally anyone else he could've been shipped with. let me explain.

yeonhui's lack of presence in the story. now this is probably the main reason i find this ship so lackluster. how am i supposed to root for a ship when the female love interest is literally like npc #125? while she did have more presence than the other girls on the street, this isn't really a high bar considering ptj's track record writing female characters. and this isn't to say she was boring or had a bland personality either (even though she KINDA did...). she was strong and independent, stood up to samuel when he tried to extort them for money (iirc), bore the burden of sinu's sacrifice and stayed strong for big deal, and was there to comfort jake when he learned of the news. she could've been a REALLY interesting character because she was so strong and also stuck to her ideals in the same way sinu did, so they could've been such a power couple, had yeonhui been developed more. it would've been nice to see yeonhui and sinu strategize about how to protect big deal together, or see more of yeonhui bandaging and caring for sinu after he gets hurt, or seeing sinu bring yeonhui gifts and money... or anything, really. the two have barely have any substantial interactions over the entire arc besides the last part where sinu's about to sacrifice himself, so much so that it makes me wonder... who is this yeonhui person? why are they important again.

chemistry. this mainly comes up to personal preference but yeonhui and sinu feel more like an older sister-younger brother dynamic to me. yeonhui took sinu in as a child, fed, clothed, and cared for him, and then continues to take care of him as an adult, which comes off as big sis behavior. again, some people may like this dynamic romantically, but i personally find it super platonic and sibling-leaning.

other sinu ships. idk. just find it a LITTLE heteronormative that any man and woman who share a little bit of screentime together are instantly a couple while sinu and jake can be out here pulling "you are my everything" and "i came back to big deal for you and you alone, jake" moments, and they'll still be just "good bros". again, kind of up to personal preference, but if you compare yeonhui x sinu to jake x sinu or even samuel x sinu, there's a clear lack of interactions and chemistry for yeonhui x sinu

so yeah. thats kinda it. this ended up being way longer than i expected so im not gonna write a conclusion paragraph but those are my thoughts around yeonhui and sinu together romantically.

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Hey idk if honourable mentions via asks are still a thing (if they are and/or you find this ask to be too long) but godDAMN Alphys Undertale should've been in this I really regret missing the submission period

Okay so Alphys is like, a mess??? Like, I don't know how to explain it all so I think I'll get a previous writing of mine that explains most of the deal with her (the True Lab stuff isn't explained but that is a Whole Mess that would make this 8 paragraph-long ask even longer):

Context: I made a comment mentioning people hating on Undertale characters after appearing to express an enjoyment for a character that I like, someone asked me to rant about it, and I did, making a third of my analysis about Alphys (the rest was about Asgore, who's on the competition, and Toriel, whose hate is fairly minor compared to the others):

"I said it a couple times that Alphys is the least popular character in the game, and it's by a landslide. Why? Well, there are a few reasons, mainly the irredeemable crime of being annoying, because Toby Fox didn't think it through fully and made it so that the Texts in Hotland and the CORE repeated after each death and replay, so you're forced to see the exact same jokes every time you die to literally anything.

That's just the main reason, though, we still have to talk about her manipulation and compulsive lying! She manipulates Frisk through the areas where she's present in a way to act as a Cool Supporting Character, deliberately delays Mettaton's Gender-Affirming Surgery body finalization because she's afraid of losing her only friend, and makes small white lies to Undyne so she can seem cooler to her. These are the main issues, and seem to come from a place of bad mental health and some sort of mental disorder, but a lot of people really dislike her just because of that and then proceed to tell Undyne that Anime is real not to hurt her feelings despite that being a dick move to Alphys because it forces her to say that AGAIN WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.

There's also the apparent incompetence of her actions in the True Lab but honestly those are like 5 cans of worms that I Do Not Want To Get Into, so basically a lot of people misinterpret Catty and Bratty's dialogue in a way that makes it seem like Alphys lied to Asgore to get the job, but that's a completely baseless assumption, and considering how Mettaton works and what was asked of her I don't think it makes much sense.

The issue here is that people are dunking on Alphys's questionable actions when Asgore has done much worse, and then completely missing the point of her character. It's annoying and pretty much omnipresent in the fandom, with a particularly bad case of it being in this video, that calls out the fandom's mistreatment of Asgore and then proceeds to literally call stuff that Alphys didn't do, or was forced to do, out, like lying to get her job (again, not true), or not warning anyone about Flowey (she was being manipulated by him). It's a huge mess that comes from a gameplay annoyance but turned into something way bigger."

Idk if she should qualify due to most of the feelings towards her being fully negative, but eh Mineta did and I'm yet to see someone who genuinely enjoys him :P

Tbh I had no idea Alphys was so controversial or so hated. Though I’ve only played Undertale once so I know I missed stuff

[ghostdoctor]

midoriya analysis because im fucking insane and hes insane

Midoriya analysis because I'm fucking insane and he's insane

Ps i won't be covering the movies bc I like to leave them as their own entities 

pps this contains spoilers

god okay so we all know that Midoriya has SOME kinda issue because... yk.... he was literally bullied and abused by his peers physically, emotionally, and mentally for all of his formative years and that's gonna FUCK SOMEONE UPPPP

but but but Midoriya so so obvi has a thing for escapism!!!! yeah, his quirk thing started before he was diagnosed as quirkless and then abused, but did you see how intense it got after he was abused??? how that was literally all he spent his time doing and how it was the only thing he was known for?? AND THEN. HE MEETS HIS IDOL WHO CRUSHES HIS LAST HOPE. and then said idol proceeds to try and build up an already destroyed boy (it doesn't work) because THEN we see even more escapism in UA because they make it so clear Midoriya spends so much time training and pushing himself to be a better hero because it's the only way he knows how to be useful and escape away from his reality of believing that's he's really not worth all that he's been given. Btw pls dont say that “midoriya is just ideally heroic he doesn't have a hero complex” this is an analysis for my opinion ty 

Midoriya can be viewed as a narcissist for many reasons as well but that is because he's a product of his environment. Honestly there's ways to show midoriya has a hero complex, is a narcissist, has self esteem issues, has a superiority complex, and more. Im slapping midoriya and going “This bad boy can fit sooo many issues it him” 

Another btw before you continue reading: I have really bad adhd and halfway through this forgot what I was writing about so my points get super blurry but I just wanted to state it here. I believe midoriya has severe self esteem issues and a hero complex. I can explain why concisely if anyone asks! 

Going by arcs now because I need some order to follow and regretfully can't just throw my thoughts about Midoriya at a wall and hope they stick (I will happily just spout nonsense at anyone who wants to listen): 

Pre ua-

Most of this I already covered in the above paragraph but I still wanna break down why Midoriya's childhood set him up for a hero complex and a love of escapism. As mentioned before, Midoriya has always had a love for analysis and heroes but it got much more intense after he experienced large bouts of trauma. You can see him isolating himself and getting completely absorbed into his analysis in multiple parts of the pre-UA sections of bnha. His hero complex stems from the fact that there genuinely was no one to save Midoriya. Because he knows what it's like to be alone without help, he takes it upon himself to save people (he basically says this himself too like my god this boy's hero complex is so so clear). Not to mention the fact that his abuser has been called a hero throughout his formative years. like….god….

All might training- 

And THEN all might destroys his dream by telling him he can't be a hero then LEAVES. Midoriya has not had a single good personal hero at this point. Like even his own mother doesn’t save him from this blatantly obvious abuse. So midoriya is just like. Left there to evaluate everything being broken in his life when he falls back on his escapism aka he walks to the scene of a hero feet because “[his] feet carried him [there]” ARE YOU KIDDING ME. he is literally doing something that brings him joy on autopilot. As a response to being told he can't do his life long goal by his idol. Following that he sees bakugou in pain and trouble and this is like right when the hero complex forms. The entire ‘feet moved before you can think’ IS NOT A GOOD THING!!!! He has NO self-preservation in this moment. AND THE ALL MIGHT PRAISES HIM FOR IT. literally cementing his hero complex as a ‘positive’ thing and not at all the self destructive thing it actually is. 

Following this all might tells midoriya he has to be the next symbol and that he has to be the one to make everyone feel safe. That is NOT a healthy mindset for a child to be in. Here Midoriya is told that he needs to protect everyone and this is where he starts to feel the need to be the one to fix everything, this is where he feels that everything is his fault. 

Usj-

Bro just got put into a hugely traumatic situation and did you see how he literally like blacked out when he went to protect Tsuyu? I’d also like to point out that at this point he's been told by all might that his lack of self preservation is a heroic quality. PLus plus plus being put into a situation like this would hurt your brain function so immensely, the adrenaline rush he must be having at this moment. 

Sports festival- 

Todoroki. Just the entirety of the todoroki thing. Someones gonna go “he was just doing the heroic thing, that makes him hero quality!!” BUT!!! I GUARENTEEEE MIdoriya saw some of himself in Todoroki then. Like, todorokis situation is ‘boy whos in bad situation with no one coming to save him because no one would believe him/step up against the number ½ hero’ and midoriya's situation as a kid was ‘boy whos in a bad situation and no one is coming to save him because no one would believe him and no one wants to help the quirkless kid’. So midoriya obviously took it upon himself to be the one to save todoroki and at this point he's had all mights words drained into him so he probably has taken it upon himself to save everyone in similar situations.

Hero killer- 

Speaking of people in similar situations: Iida! Sooo you're probably going “ghost. Iidas situation is NOTHING like midoriyas” and to that i say LET ME EXPLAINNNN because at this point iida has seen so many people be killed by stain that he more than likely believes no one can stop him but iida himself. This situation is ‘things are happening and no one is actively trying to stop it in the way I should, no one is coming to save this situation.’ so iida takes it upon himself and Midoriya sees this and recognizes it because of his own situation. 

Final exams- 

Bakugou. I have thoughts about this arc. Midoriya has no self preservation here at all. I could quite honestly say I believe midoriya is in some way suicidal. There is no ounce of non hero complex actions here. Midoriya takes it upon himself to save bakugou from failing the entire final exam even if bakugou doesn’t want that. And the their fight afterwards??? Where midoriya is like “youre all I look up to [bakugou]” (side note i hate calling him kacchan)???? WHERE IS YOUR SELF RESPECT MIDORIYA!!! BAKUGOU BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU VERBALLY AND PHYSICALLY FOR YEARS!!!!!! 

Hassaikai and Paranormal liberation-- 

Combining these because during both arcs midoriya shows absolutely ZEROOO self esteem and self preservation. These two arcs are combined because therye basically him on the brink of absolutely losing his shit and fully leaning into the hero complex.

Dark hero (so important r you kidding)-

R you serious rn..this is literally him going ‘no one else is fixing it so I WILL. in a dangerous way this IS the hero complex arc 

But it's also the most self centered arc midoriya has had. His entire childhood has taught him to rely on himself and only himself so it's a given that he would only think about himself when anything happens that he needs to take care of as he's the only one who's ever shown to care about himself and others for a large portion of his life. Midoriya is such a complex character but you genuinely can only tell if you look deeper than what bnha has on the surface of it which makes me sad. I’m not here to diss horis writing and world building skills-he's much better at it than me- I just wish he would go deeper into his characters issues than having them fixed in short spurts (momo)

[commaclear]

Holy crap???????

I very recently started reading (most?) of the stories you have wrote on Ao3 and I'm in love. Marry me?? I'll give you a plastic spider ring I got for 25 cents.

Anyways, I aspire to be an author and was mostly wanting to know, how do you continue??

I have so many little ideas that float in my mind and I don't know how to keep writing after getting through one paragraph.

-Turtle-shell anon.

Oh dear, unfortunately I'm sworn to only marry Danny Devito...

Okay, I've got a lot to say abt this apparently. I was originally just gonna write some quick tips and it somehow turned into a full essay lol

#5 is my top suggestion for anyone who's feeling uninspired or stuck. Stories are driven by their characters, so let them lead the way!

1. Write your ideas down as soon as you have them

I've got about five or six tiny notebooks stowed away in different places (purse, desk, bedside table, etc.), and as soon as I have any kind of story idea, I start writing it down as soon as I can, otherwise I tend to lose it or lose my enthusiasm abt it, and it's harder to keep steam later on. I do this with ideas for future stories, ideas for dialogue five chapters from now, random descriptions of scenes, just literally anything that pops into my head.

Like dream journaling makes your dreams more vivid, the more you write down your ideas, the more ideas you'll start having! It's like unclogging a dam.

Also, physical writing is always better for me than typing when I get stuck because kinetic movement engages the brain more, so I have a few full size journals too to write longer ideas in.

2. Start stories even if you know you won't finish them

Writing is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more stamina you build up. So starting on stories, even if you don't know where you're going or know you won't finish is still productive because you're exercising that muscle and making it stronger. And who knows? Maybe you'll come back years later and finish this story brilliantly!

3. Download WriteorDie2

Write or Die is a horrific torture device for writers, but it is genuinely helpful for me to power through pointless writer's block or procrastination stints. Even when I feel completely uninspired, suddenly I find I'm full of ideas when threatened with screeching violin spiders.

4. Get a hype man

A big reason writers lose steam on projects is you start listening too much to the internal critic, and you end up hating your own project when you've barely even started. The best way to combat this is to get a non-writer friend to read your stuff and tell you everything they like about it. Ask them to say specific things they liked, not just vague "Yeah, it's good!" because specific positive feedback is always more encouraging than generic platitudes.

5. Do free form character PoV word-dumps

Get out a journal. Set a seven-minute timer and start writing in the voice of your main character (or whatever character is most relevant), like they're making a diary entry or giving a soliloquy. Your pencil cannot stop moving until the timer ends. Just keep writing and ignore any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Have your character dump out all their thoughts and feelings and insecurities, have them rant and cry, have them giggle and blush and kick their feet, or maybe they're still masking their feelings and trying to be strong. Just write in their voice, and you'll be surprised by what they have to say.

6. Explain your story to a rubber ducky

If you're stuck in a plot and don't know where to go, explain your whole plot to a rubber ducky. Make sure you go into all the intricacies and details, explain all the side characters and background lore, tell that ducky where you want your story to go next and why you're stuck.

8 times out of 10, simply talking out loud through your plot will get you thinking differently, and you'll unstick yourself. And it doesn't have to be a rubber ducky; it can be literally anything with a face, but trust me, it is important that is has a face, and you need to be talking out loud, even if it's just a whisper.

[yagamisdiary]

I have a love hate relationship with the fact that you enjoy making us suffer throughout the entirety of your books and making us think they will have a bad ending just to give us the best possible endings ever 🥲 ugh i love you so much youre my favorite author ever, while im here i apologize for the incoming paragraphs but i just need to say it:

1. Idk how you do it but the book covers you choose are always so perfect like?? Idk if im explaining myself but i feel like they capture the vibes of the books perfectly

2. Ok now this is kinda personal and i dont mean to sound like im venting, but have you ever read a fic that impacted you so much to the point where you find yourself still thinking about it to this day 😭 bc that's how i feel about both of ur books, they're so beautifully written and i'm always thinking about the characters or going back to read random parts of the books (edit: i had this paragraph written way before parasite was removed okay but i started rereading eldia yesterday because im truly heartbroken, devastated, downcast, miserable, dejected and inconsolable by the fact that its finished)

I discovered you in july-ish 2021 during parasite era but didnt actually read it until june 2022, i was devastated when i finished it but also had to cleanse my soul cause i accidentally burnt my self out during the last few chapters (i mean it in a good way lol, it was rlly hard to read the last 2 chapters 🙇‍♀️ they were written really well and i felt unsettled while reading the beginning of y/ns whole breakdown, i could feel the gloomy depressed vibe it had if you get what i mean), so anyway i moved on to Eldia. At that time, it was fairly new so there were only like 10 or 11 chapters, ive been keeping up with Eldia ever since and its truly bittersweet to see it end like i was literally full on sobbing for no reason 🥲 probably the sentiment of being a reader for 2 years idk lol. Anyway what im trying to say is that your books were one of the only things that helped me escape reality in 2022, i didnt really find joy in anything and hated my life, however ive definitely improved ever since, so im honestly rlly thankful for you Amara 💕

Edit: i just know it sounds stupid and youre probably tired of hearing the same thing over and over, but i've had this written out for like 5 months and was kinda scared to send it because i felt like it was corny, but with Eldia's resolution i felt encouraged seeing all these people tell you what they think :P so sorry for the long ass paragraph lmao, i just needed to say it because i know in 10 years ill be a grown ass woman and still thinking about these books, theyre attached to my brain forever (like a parasite, ironic)

Ok so i doubt ppl will read this (or that you'll even read all of it) so if you reached the end i must say that you actually ate with the baby names in Eldia 🤭 im saying it here to avoid accidentally spoiling anyone but Andromeda 😪 i remember in early july i sent you an anon ask saying that i pictured you as a girl mom and even listed a few names, i was gonna list Andromeda so its kinda funny to me 😭 and Elrose?? Andromeda is my fav name but Elrose grew on me and i actually rlly like it, idk why it just sounds and looks so satisfying OMG DAMN I JUST SCROLLED UP AND DID I REALLY WRITE ALL OF THAT?? IM SO SORRY AMARA 😭😭 i definitely had way more to say but i feel bad now, it was gonna be an anonymous ask but atp i'll just let it be public

to conclude i must say that whenever someone asks me what my favorite books are, i hate that im not able to say "Oh my favorite books are parasite and eldia" because they're considered fanfics and not 'real books', i think thats really stupid, not only because fanfiction is just as valid as what ppl consider 'real books' but because there are so many fanfictions turned into real books or movies?? Ok im done (for now) but as you can tell im not really good at going straight to the point sorry for writing about 10 paragraphs love you queen vivan las escritoras latinas 🤞

1. honestly i find a pic that fits the vibe i want the book to give before i even write the story then i just somehow find a way to incorporate the cover

ex) eldia’s cover is jean with wine all over him, iykyk there’s an exact scene in eldia that references the cover

2. thank u so much 🥲 the ppl who have stuck around the longest always say the most sweet stuff bc yall really have been alongside me for so many years now and were like growing together which is kinda cool

3. i wanted a name that had ambrose and elijah both in it and it was either elrose or embrose but i ended up liking elrose more, embrose was too similar to ambrose

4. i don’t mind the length of the message at all! i love love love reading all the stuff i receive and the ones that are the longest stick with me the most. 🫶🏼

[littlest-bugz]

current hyperfixation? (feel free to infodump!!)

YIPPEEE!!! This made my day FR!! Thank you, mutual <3

ANYWAYS

This is kind of embarrassing, but I’ve been deeply invested by my own OCverse for going on 8 years now. Its my Special Interest, which sucks because,,, im the only one who can make content of these stinkies,,,,,

I really find it hard to hyperfixate on anything else because of the fact Ive been invested for so long (except for Web Design and coding, which I wont infodump about, since its literally all for these stories, deadass).

It is not fun at times because 1) all the characters live rent free in my head and criticize how I write them in my novels [that DID life] and 2) its SO hard to make new projects and get attached to them. Ive been trying for 2 years to make a horror project out of one concept but I seriously cant get fully invested and it SUCKS. Let me make my silly little horror web series damnit!!!!! (@ my brain)

I have 3 novels and one fantasy series im working on so,,,, Infodump time >:3c

TWs: Terminal Illness + brief mentions of (mental institute) hospitalization, murder, war, and some others that I’m not 110% sure the exact tags for them (basically kind of cannibalism, but between nonhuman species). Other than terminal illness, they’re super brief mentions, but still proceed with caution.

Right now, I’m working on one of the books I’ve been writing for nearly my whole time writing. Ive been only working on it since feb 1st (it’s, like, the THIRD draft tho).

Blurb about book

Melissa is a bassist in a rock band she formed with her high school friends. Just as her, and her friends’, career begins takes off, she gets diagnosed with a terminal illness. With a month left to live, and a shit ton of unfinished business, she invokes her best friend’s patron deity who is capable of miracles, Flip. Melissa and Flip make a pact to keep her alive until her business is over, but oh no! Melissa has caught the eyes of another god, and a pretty shitty one at that. How is she going to make her last months peaceful if she’s being hunted down by a god?

The working title is called “Ensuring Your Spot In Hell” because Flip is, essentially, a demon in the universe (rules an infernal ring of hell- it means I would have to explain the worldbuilding around hell and its A LOT), but titles are!!! So hard for me!!!

A list of random facts about the book™️ because I don’t want to write full paragraphs bc I can go on forever if u ask me to:

Flip’s name is a shortened version of his actual name, Fli’pyek. Furthermore, the domain Flip rules over is that of Wrath and Violence

Trinity (Melissa’s childhood bestie, and the friend that worship’s Flip) is a hereditary witch and pagan. Her family has been worshipping Flip and practicing witchcraft for several generations! They literally have their own holy book (generational BoS/Grimoire/whatever u want to call it).

Melissa had been sick with the disease™️ since she was 16. She just neglected the shit out of her own health (me too bestie, me too). It easily could have been prevented if she went to the doctor back when she was, at least, 18 years old, max 24.

At the time Melissa is diagnosed with her terminal illness, she’s 26. By the time she was supposed to die, she would’ve been freshly 27. Has anyone heard of the 27 club theory before? Or is it just an obscure reference I made LMAO

Melissa has extended biological family that worships Flip! It gets super awkward when Melissa visits them with Flip lol

The other primordial god that Melissa finds herself in a predicament with is named Ama, the god of Cruelty and Torture. Not a swell guy to get mixed up with, that’s for sure!

Melissa has an orange and white cat named Cheddar!

Flip always smells like whiskey and freshly cut tobacco. At all times. It’s bc his blood smells like it (and tastes like it too, but why are you tasting it? /j)

Any other facts might be getting into spoiler territory, BUT!! Thats the one Im working on rn, in February. In January I worked on another book, but that one honest to gods might be too triggering for this acc for an indepth thingy like the book I just did. It’s being rewritten to not be so triggering, but bc it’s a throw up of some of our trauma, it’s not an easy task to censor it.

REGARDLESS, Here’s a rundown of ALL of my main novels (minus the one I already talked about)

The Case of Twin Woods [mystery, drama, crime] (the one i worked on January)

Chastity hates her life. She hates her shitty job, she hates her shitty friends, and she hates her shitty family. After opening up too much to an online friend about her chronic suicidality, Chastity gets taken to Twin Woods Mental Institute, the state’s mental institution. There she befriends an eccentric group of patients, then finding out something terrible might be going on with the head warden, Leon Bellamy. She takes it upon herself to find out and solve the mystery, but she may have bitten off more than she can chew.

Untitled One (but leaning towards the name of ‘Jealousy’ or somethin idk) [drama, romance, crime]

Mia has a quiet life. She works at a library, she fosters cats, and by all means, has what could be considered a ‘boring life’. One day, she gets laid off from her job under the excuse of “cutting costs”, leaving her without a job and severance. While scrambling for a job, she finds one at a local cafe, the most frequented one in the city. There she befriends one of the regulars, a cold, quiet man named Zander, and after she unknowingly helps Zander’s brother, she becomes significantly closer to him. However, her boss, a bitter ex of Zander’s, hears about their ensuing closeness and decides she doesn’t like what’s going on. One failed dinner party and murder attempt later, Mia is left scrambling to hide that she killed Angelina in self defense. Will she be successful in hiding the murder? Or will the justice system make quick work of her?

Untitled Fantasy Series (has about 2 actual novels and 3 novellas… a possible third novel too) [drama, romance]

book one

Since his birth, King Sunshine has known his fate. He is to be sacrificed for the greater good of the realm he resides, killing his oppressive father, but losing his life in the process. It’s a prophecy that has been laid out since the beginning of Racktokian history, one King Sunshine was never able to escape due to his father’s unspoken rage at his own murder. After meeting a Vurtock for the first time, a species his father only used as cattle, Sunshine finds himself quickly entangled in a plot to overthrow his own father to liberate the Vurtockian race. He knows what he has to do, but it isn’t easy.

book two

The great war tore apart the country King Sunshine called home. His father left no stone unturned from his rage, and public opinions split the people. In the rubble of his home, he builds a new country founded on the importance of the civilians, only to be elected as a King in place of his father. Living in the palace he always called home, but had tried to escape, he finds that his father keeps sending assassins to make attempts on his life. One assassin, a vurtock with nothing to lose, hits a soft spot in Sunshines heart. After deescalating the attempt on his life, he offers the vurtock to stay in his castle until they’re able to find the proper resources to help him build a life in the new country. Far away from the oppressive dictatorship of his father. Yet, as his guest begins to stay for longer than intended, he sees that yet another step in the prophecy will begin.

Despite how the second book blurb is written, it’s more from the vurtock’s point of view than Sunshine’s. I just had a total brain fart.

The novellas for the fantasy book follow the POV of other important characters, such as the ruler of the Vurtockian rebellion, the POV of other rulers. For a while I wanted to write one from Raphaël’s POV, but I decided it wouldn’t be worth writing a whole book about a piece of shit finding joy in the pain he causes. Like, no thanks, ill pass.

Theres a possible 3rd book that would essentially be an extended epilogue, since the prophecy doesn’t stop at Sunshine’s death. I just haven’t thought as far as the 2 books and 3 novellas, in terms of outlining the books and stuff.

I honestly could give TONS more info on the fantasy books because that part of my universe has been around nearly the whole time Ive been writing. I have maps of the world, maps of countries, maps of even just cities, house and castle layouts, moodboards, art. Visual references galore. Not to mention the playlists for each character + each book. I also made a document called “The Remian Bible” because it has everything about the world in it, including the alphabets of the languages, grammar structures for said languages and literally 5 holy books for the religions even tho they wont evEN BE TALKED ABOUT IN ENOUGH DEPTH (why did i do that to myself /lh j/. It doesn’t help that I still want the write the holy books in their native languages… oo,,, and imagine writing the actual novels in the native languages,,,,). It’s honestly kind of,,, surreal how much time Ive put into this world 🧍 Like??? Damn,,,,

BUT YEAH!!! Those are all the books that take place in my ocverse + some other info!!! The things that are my hyperfixation,,,, My own books and world LMAO— The books don’t include half of the ocs in my ocverse tho, so thats where the website im coding comes in. It’ll have short stories based on the backstories of various characters on it, and Yes, even the background characters will be on it bc Im fucking bonkers and fleshed them out, even though some of them are in one scene for 2 minutes.

That being said, if anyone, or u mutual (if u read this wall of text), found any of this interesting, or wants to read even just the prologue of any of these, DM me!! I’m always looking for beta readers!! Or people to talk to about it too, that’d be fantastic. I really need beta readers, so seriously. DM me if u want to read my cringey stories!! I can give better in depth tws too!!!

EDIT: I need to mention that I go through spurts of hyperfixating on only one book or series. Thats why its both my hyper fixation AND my Special Interest

[4ssun]

not an ask but a "comment" because cas has me 🧍‍♀️.

firstly. yn is so irrational that i'm literally pulling strands of my hair out. but love is a strong emotion so i can understand to some extent? that doesn't excuse the amount of things she's done without proper consideration though..

uhh ok. the letter was probably about beomgyu leaving? (maybe quitting twitch and moving onto school studies) hence why chapter 26 is named "moving on".. and that's gonna be so hard to read bcs whenever i read anything ab recovery the tears FALL

27 being named "first love" is probably about felix because of the stems saying "still in love" (unless the chart was made on a website and the website didn't have a "still friends" option or something) or maybe it's a realization that though felix was an era of her life, beomgyu was her first true love?

i can guess 27-28 but don't want to put too much thought as twenty seven is most likely a reunion and twenty-eight is going more about that? the last chapter is more of what i wanted to focus on though because it's simply "cas" so i thinkk it's them dating again and just playing the sims together? like a timeskip? maybe there's a plot twist last second and the ghosts in the room they're playing the sims in go on stan twitter 🤨 (jokes but idk what to expect anymore)

something i was so mad at was yn completely skipping over the love confession and hating beomgyu... like yes that's understandable but PLEASE use empathy in this situation. you are no better than him, doing an impulsive stream because you think it's what's best.. both of them had better options yet decided to take the probably worst one and then yn completely looks past how she's just repeating in gyu's steps...

^^ seriously though because gyu let his love for yn take over and risked losing all his friends, lashed out on them, didn't let them see what he was thinking, and then runs away. yn closes up and is risking losing *everyone* because of love??

if the ending wasn't a happily ever after and my interpretation of 28 was wrong would i be mad? no... not really. if they did just leave each other as a past asset of their live and move on, i would accept that.. i feel like they both harmed each other without trying (excluding gyu being cold at the start) and both saw the major consequences. if they learn from their actions and 28 is just yn playing sims and reflecting on the times i would be okay because it's character development 👍👍

but if it was a happily ever after i would be happy too (as long as it's a timeskip because i can't imagine the ending being like 2 days after the implied unalive mention)

still would be okay with anything you write though 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

(this has got to be my favorite ask ever because you kind off?? read my mind?? in some ways!!)

i want to actually analyze a bit of what you said and offer you (and anyone else) some hints on the future chapters! to keep this from being a long paragraph of wall, i'll put a cut here!

yn and beomgyu are very alike in ways that you mentioned. both are impulsive, deeply feeling, and extremely irrational beings. but they are also different, yn is more openly emotional as we've seen with how she describes how she feels and shows her emotions outwardly. beomgyu, however, is not the same. he tends to not show his emotions (aka his initial coldness to yn) unless they're dragged out of him (keeho getting him to admit jealousy) and when he goes all out, he goes all out. hence his anger towards yeonjun. this will be touched on in chapter 28, which is a gyu-centric chapter.

the letter will also be touched on! but do keep in mind, in yn's emotional state and how she tends to be impulsive, her reaction to the letter might not make sense to someone who isn't irrational with how they respond when upset. also, it will be explained why yn doesn't react to beomgyu confessing that he loves her and how that ties in with his letter. (i can't wait hehe.)

i will say your theory for chapter 26 is spot on! however, i will say you're wrong about the character doing the tasks you mentioned. i don't want to give away too much but i literally was like 😲 when you said that bc that's exactly what happens hehe.

chapter 27 is about felix and yn! not gonna give spoilers on that one though... any ynlix shippers around?

chapters 28-29 are gyu-centric chapters, so if you wanna know why beomgyu decided to become dumb: those are the chapters for you!! can't wait to see how y'all react to that.

your views on yn and beomgyu are pretty much spot on. they both have made some very stupid decisions and are now reaping the consequences of those. however, i promise this story has a "happy" ending. will it be the traditional one of many smaus? probably not.

chapter 30 is also spot on in terms of plot with "someone" playing sims, but i don't wanna spoil it! my hint for you here is just to remember: everything comes full circle.

thank you so much for sending this ask! it's literally my favorite ever and i'm so flattered that you care about my smau enough to analyze and find theories!! <3 i hope these last 5 chapters do you justice.

(i gotta reblog this onto the writing blog though, so that hopefully everyone else can see it! this is my main hehe.)

[cha-melodius]

I got a list, so you get a list. 4, 11, 20 (please take this as permission to answer 20 as many times as you want, I LOVE LOVE LOVE writer meta)

xoxo MJ/kiwiana-writes

Ahahaha I will always take a list!! Thanks! You're out here with some ones that made me have to think for a little while lol. (Meta asks for writers link since there's a cut at the end of this post.)

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

Pretty sure I've shared this before in a question like this, but too bad. I just love the tension that builds in this sequence (and the release that comes immediately after this; spoiler alert: Alex runs). From Chapter 7 of Nova, Baby:

Diego chokes out a fake laugh, but there is real fear in his eyes now. “I’m sure I do not know what you’re talking about. You know my customers are never for sale.” “So it wasn’t money, then,” Alex surmises. It’s not that surprising. Batista is good at hitting people where it hurts. Diego says nothing. “How long do I have?” Alex asks. Out in front of the store, a car door slams. “Better for you if you don’t run,” Diego murmurs. Fat chance of that.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

Oh, a number of things. The biggest ones are probably humor—I think my writing can be reasonably funny but not the kind of side-splitting hysterical one-liners some people pull off—and really poetic, beautiful language. Sometimes when I read a really achingly beautiful work I feel like giving up lmao. Oh, and some people just seem to be able to pull off effortlessly sexy writing—not even talking about smut here, but just the overall vibes of the work. I mean, it's probably not effortless, knowing what I know about writing, but it feels that way.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Oh man, the meta question. I do love talking about meta in my writing but I never know which fic to pick when people ask me these questions. Ok, this time, instead of focusing on one work, I'm including one piece of trivia about the last 5 works I published lmao.

The post-blowjob scene in Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile was added at the last minute (literally I had already uploaded a draft to AO3 before I went back and added it) because I just got it in my head that I really needed a moment of Henry telling Alex to stay. I love thinking about all the ways that would fundamentally change their relationship from the beginning.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I did a fair amount of reading about people surviving on rafts in the ocean for Enemies of the Ocean. There are lots of crazy stories out there, and one of them—Steve Callahan—is referenced in the fic. The most insane part about THAT is that Callahan's boat was called the Napoleon Solo. Yes, really. Too bad the story was for a different fandom.

The sir/daddy pronouns joke in Something To Be Proud Of, which several commenters loved, was shamelessly stolen from @dumbpeachjuice. See! I'm not actually that funny. 😂

I really wanted them to get caught in the rain wearing less clothing in Lessons in Foreign Diplomacy (by which I mean wearing only a shirt and pants and not a full waistcoat and jacket combo), but @orchidscript disabused me of the notion that anyone would be strolling the grounds in such scandalous attire lol.

Although I have in fact visited the Harrods Food Hall, I have eaten only one of the cheeses featured in Will You Brie Mine? (manchego), to my deep disappointment. Someone get me some monk's head cheese, stat. Also I went back and forth about whether to make Henry a baker or confectioner or something of the sort, but the man gives cheese recommendations in canon! How could I resist?

[flyingspicerack]

Hello! I'm so sorry if anyone has already asked this before but how did Mao and Ichi meet and how did they get closer?

*cracks my knuckles*

OKAY SO This is basically the plot of my Maoichi fic that you can read HERE IF YOU WANT TO! I understand reading fics isnt for everyone and i am happy to explain and summarize here. IM JUST attaching the fic link for those who may want to read it because i love sharing my writing. I'm very proud of it and all the research i did/am doing

BUT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION MORE COMPACTLY.... under the cut, the summary turned into a couple paragraphs

Ichimatsu was just walking around Akatsuka ward midday down a street he normally doesn't walk down, and sees a sign for a cat café he never noticed and rushes over to the window to see the cats. It doesn't dawn on him until he's actually at the window looking in that it's not open yet. There's someone inside, sitting on the ground, trying to put a cat tree together incorrectly (as in trying to put two pieces together that don't go together) and that turns out to be Mao! Ichimatsu ogles a little bit and realizes he shouldn't so he goes to the OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET to watch from afar because now he's curious for some reason and he just sticks around a bit until Mao finally notices him. They see he's been hovering for a while so they stop what they're doing and go to the front door (going to open it but don't remember that its locked so they thump right into the door which causes Ichi to laugh a little) and then beacon Ichi over to which he timidly does. He doesn't listen to a word they say because he's watching them so intently but he finally realizes and the information gets across that the cat café is going to be opening this weekend, they had him a flyer with a coupon that has 15 free minutes with the cats with no need for purchase, and he goes on his way.

So that's how they meet, and they get closer slowly over several months of him going to the cat café as well as their paths crossing. They are mutually pining for each other hard and tbh im a hopeless romantic so its a liiiiittle bit of like, a love at first sight kinda thing almost? Not exactly but... both are mutually just infatuated with each other, both have anxiety and similar temperaments so they don't realize that their crushes are reciprocated. Think about how Ichi doesn't think he's good for anything, like how he refers to himself as literal trash? Imagine Mao blushing and stuttering because they're nervous to talk to him? He'll perceive that as their face is red because they're so mad he's even talking to him, and they're stuttering because they're trying to hold themself back from laughing or gagging. Meanwhile, Mao is doing their best to get over their social awkwardness and talk normally to a guy that THEY don't think they have a chance with because why would ANYONE give them a chance, let alone the guy they're crushing so hard on.

[pixiedustandfairypowers]

hey, i know you probably didn’t intend to come off this way, but it’s extremely rude to post a critique about a fanfiction. someone made that for free, in their own free time, out of their love for a fandom, and you’re making a post about how bad it is? think about how the author might feel if they saw your post.

Well, why would it be rude to post a critique of a fanfiction? So much online discourse revolves around film and TV critique and it's certainly possible that the writers will find that video essay and feel a little bad about not realizing some of the implications, or continuity errors, and so on. Just because they got paid to write that episode doesn't make it any less a labor of love.

The other thing is that when you put something out there for the world to see, anyone is allowed to have any opinion on it. If you're going to accept unsolicited praise why would it be unreasonable for people to have some criticism? Obviously I'm not condoning bullying and harassment or even asking the author questions about when the next update is coming (I definitely learned that last point a long time ago) But if you're going to post your fanfiction on a forum that allows for comments or you enable comments to be made, then feedback is something that you're opening yourself up to. And honestly it takes much less effort to type in "I loved your fanfic!" than to give a 5 paragraph essay explaining things that could be improved. The former may give you a small dopamine boost and make you feel good about yourself, but considering a well thought out critique can help you see the shortcomings in your own writing. And it also indicates that your readers took the time to help you improve your writing.

Plus, when I was little, I remember writing my own fanfics (before I even know what fanfiction was!) I bound them up on little sheets of printer paper that I stapled together and wrote them all out by hand. I used a pen and some crayons for the illustrations, and I remember being so proud of my work that I showed it to my older sister, asking what she thought of it.

Near the end of a fanfic I wrote about a wedding, I remember writing about the husband coming home from a long trip, and his wife just had a baby. And I wrote it in such a way where she was literally telling him that after the baby was born, not thinking about how weird it would be to not announce to your husband beforehand that you're pregnant. Needless to say, my sister told me about this, and on some level my 11 year old self felt embarrassed about this. But I had asked for it by showing if off to her looking for feedback, and I think my writing has significantly improved since then. And I needed to learn to swallow my pride and realize that my writing wasn't the most amazing thing ever made.

If fanfic authors don't want any feedback whatsoever then we can all just write it in a journal or diary and write it up on a computer and never post it anywhere, keep it to ourselves for our own enjoyment. But we all know that art is something meant to be shared and we do crave that praise. But you simply cannot have honest compliments without allowing for the possibility of honest criticism. To have it any other way is a double standard.