#books that are written in poetry and follow a specific plot are so dear to me and yet so niche I think more people should know about them

[longnightsandredflags]

Making a Destiel fanfic but instead of normal paragraphs it’s just formatted as poems who even gaf anymore

[hexenmond]

slowly gearing up to writing again

I want to dump all my thoughts somewhere, and what else did I reactivate this tumblr for? I'm going to ramble about the beginnings of this long form Witch Door fanfiction that has some 90k words already. If you're curious about how a comparatively old, fandom-disinterested, fanfiction-baffled person (aka me) came to do that, there are Many Words below the cut.

I haven't really read much fiction books in years, mostly because it can take such an emotional toll on me, and I've never really been interested in watching anything. I don't have the patience for it. That's just how it was for me, for most of my life. With one notable exception: webcomics.

Webcomics work uniquely well for me because of their format – the updates are spaced out, and while I will readily admit that I've been in agony over some cliffhangers (I am side-eyeing several comics so hard right now), the simple fact that I have at least two days to just, like, integrate the latest page, no matter how hard-hitting, keeps me from getting overwhelmed. And my long-term memory is excellent so I have little trouble keeping tabs on the plots of twenty different comics.

So I've been reading webcomics for 15+ years, and I knew about the existence of fanfiction thanks to my oldest child. I didn't get it though. Never had any desire to read any. Never was so obsessed with fictional characters that I needed someone to share that with. And maybe that was just because I wasn't surrounded by that subculture? (I was on tumblr specifically to follow a small number of blogs religiously, and kinda lost that thread completely sometime in 2019.) It just never was a thing for me.

Then in January 2023 I stumbled across The Witch Door, at the end of chapter 9. Did my damnedest to pace myself but I gobbled it up within a week. And reread it, in parts and as a whole, more than once. One day I wanted to look it up on my phone (as opposed to my desktop where I usually read comics), and I'd forgotten the actual URL, so I did a web search – and the first thing I found was a 22 page bonus/side comic on itch.io. By the actual author.

So that was the most wonderful coincidence since Anni never really advertised the thing anywhere, and then I read and reread THAT comic, oh, dozens of times I'm sure. And one day my brain came up with a short scene (2.5k) of how that comic might have continued. A oneshot, if you will… 😄😄😄

And I also hadn't written any prose, or even poetry, in many years, but I do love it so I thought why not. Wrote it down (on pen and paper!), typed it up, edited it a bit, reread it a couple of times, I was pleased. Proceeded to put it on AO3 because I knew from my child that the platform existed, and was excited to discover there was actually another fic in the fandom (a drabble sequence, a term which confused me back then).

Well, and as all seasoned fic writers know, oneshots sure can be some tricky little beasts. My brain did not stop coming up with the rest of the story. It kept going till the very end! I woke up early one Saturday morning, crying, because I made myself sad with how the story ended.

So that was kind of a wild trip. But the actual writing made me so happy, I was basically flying, for months, returning to my story at every opportunity. (I'm self-employed. "Opportunity" is very relative.)

Then I stumbled across Anni's Dreamling comics on Pinterest, which was another wild coincidence. And those reminded me of the Sandman comics which I'd read, uh, decades ago? and with that came reading Dreamling fanfiction. Which I consumed at a most alarming speed, I stopped writing, I stopped working, basically I fell into a hole and my life got jumbled for a while, back in September last year.

But by now I've dragged myself out of that hole, I'm back to working, and I am ready to get back into writing. This story is still dear to me, and I still love to write, and I will see it finished. Not least because even though I love the Dreamling fanfiction and fandom folks, and I have even consciously and by myself decided to watch Dead Boy Detectives and LOVED it – I do not feel like writing about any of these characters. They just don't tickle my brain that way. Only The Witch Door characters do that for me, and right now this feels like a precious gift.

(Honestly I am amazed at how many people are able to take the same two blorbos and put them in situation after situation without getting boring or getting bored. You are so wonderful 💜💜💜)

Has anyone actually read all of that? Well if so, you're in for yet more words 😜 because all the reading on AO3 has given me plenty more perspective and understanding, and I've decided to put all my original thoughts about wanting to write this story here instead of also on AO3, where I've kept them along with my progress tracker. I'll put some detailed content warnings there instead, for people who would rather have spoilers than no clear idea of what they're about to read. So here are my thoughts from, uh, April last year?

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My thought processes, in case anyone’s interested

So I found The Witch Door in January this year, at the end of chapter 9 I think, and then by pure coincidence Anni K.’s wonderful side comic about Jousia and Jesse. That ignited a creative spark, and now I find myself adding on to this every day. Originally I’d written one chapter, was pleased with it and posted it, done. And then my brain just said, “guess who knows what happens AFTER that?” and now I’m writing thousands of words.

The thing I am very conflicted about is: I would LOVE for this to be canon compatible. Ideally it would be a side story that happens on all those days where the canon plot isn’t doing anything (or possibly after the current adventure arc). And that worked for the first chapter I wrote, but it just doesn’t work for the rest… partly because there simply isn’t enough canon material yet for me to know some important world building details, but also largely because I quickly ended up writing stuff that has actual plot. And plot means character development, otherwise what’s the point. But Anni’s plot is going to take the characters on a different route, and that’s just how it is.

In short: I am not writing this because I want to change a single thing about The Witch Door. Quite the contrary! I am writing because I so dearly wish there was more of it! And it’s one of those hard facts of life that 2,000 words are written much more quickly than even one full page of comic is completed. :-\ So if you will take the characters as they are at somewhere around chapter 10 in canon, and you find them to be well represented here but just having different adventures, that's all I’m hoping to do.

Addendum:

I decided to fudge the canon timeline a bit, just so the side comic event would fit in nicely with the state of relationships in chapter 10. I'll give an in depth explanation of that in the actual series. And also… I am now entirely happy that this will NOT be canon compatible.

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Now that I've dumped all that the next post shall contain an actual story snippet! 🙃

[rinamars]

hello 🐰 how are you doing. i have many Qs…. feel free to answer however many you please/none/split into multiple.

do you see yourself in any of the SNK characters, and if so, which, and why?

what do you think erwin’s motivations would be in a world outside of the walls, where titans didn’t exist, and eldians aren’t kept on paradis? he’s a character whose motivations are so closely bounded with the plot that sometimes i find it difficult to extricate him from it… so i’m curious to know your perspective!

what kind of desserts do you like? i always like knowing people’s dessert preferences….

how do you choose your fic titles!

book/poetry recs?

do you make moodboards?

hello dear 🥺 i'm always super happy to be FLOODED with questions so don't you ever apologize!!! i encourage this behaviour actually!!

first of all, i don't know if i actually see myself in any of the aot characters?? probably the closest thing to identifying myself in a character would be marco. i've always had this deep attachment to marco. i wish i could give you a proper explanation shdjdjrj

as for the erwin thing, i think you could probably already figure it out, but i like to think that in a world without titans erwin would be soft and goofy. he'd never lose that childlike wonder in him. he'd be a family man and follow his father's footsteps in becoming a teacher. i feel like this is the kind of man he'd be had That Thing never happened to him when he was a child. i love to see him like this in modern au's!!! he deserves all of the good things in this world. i could talk about it a lot more and in a more precise way maybe

favourite desserts: i'm more of a savoury kind of person, but i love any kind of sweets that have cocoa/chocolate!! i especially like the chocolate+raspberry combo. i once had this chocolate cupcake that was really soft but also kind of fudgy and then i bit into it and it was filled with raspberry jam... ngl i had a tiny orgasm in the middle of the street 😵‍💫 i also really like cheesecake and tiramisu!!

about the fic titles, it's usually a matter of a particular song really fiting into the theme of the chapters in a way, and usually when it happens there's always this one lyric that feels like it was written for that moment, and boom, we have a title!! all of the songs were pretty much already there before i even wrote the story... it's like they did the writing, and i just obeyed

and omg when people ask me for book recs suddely i forget every book i've ever read shhddhd i have been going through a major reading slump for the past year, so i'm not really equipped to do that yet, but i'm kind of getting back into it which means that if you ask again in a bit i will be able to tell you about the things i'be been reading <3

last but not least: moodboards!! if you mean stbn related moodboards, i haven't made any yet, but i HAVE been thinking about it!! let me know if you'd like to see something like that, or if you have requests for something specific (like, a moodboard for a specific chapter or something like that hehe)

thank you for chatting with me 🥺🥰

[tradingmaps]

The Paris Review Guide to Becoming a Well-Read, Cultured, and Critically Thinking Person

Dear _________,  What kind of soulless freak could fail to answer your call? Your intelligence glows through your professed ignorance (as does the authenticity of “a very specific religious cult”). That sounds like an educationally less-than-ideal but, in other ways, fascinating childhood. My only piece of advice before recommending some titles would be: don’t fall for the inferiority/superiority racket. We’re not on a ladder here. We’re on a web. Right now you’re experiencing a desire to become more aware of and sensitive to its other strands. That feeling you’re having is culture. Whatever feeds that, go with it. And never forget that well-educated people pretend to know on average at least two-thirds more books than they’ve actually read.

A place to start is with Guy Davenport’s nonfiction collections, Every Force Evolves a Form, The Geography of the Imagination, and The Hunter Gracchus (with more pieces in The Death of Picasso). You’ll learn an enormous amount from these essays and sketches, but almost without realizing, because they give off the pleasure of great stories. Read the title essay in The Hunter Gracchus (about Kafka and the way symbols can take on a life of their own), and see if it isn’t as stimulating and creepy as the last good movie you saw.

Come up with a system of note-taking that you can use in your reading. It’s okay if it evolves. You can write in the margins, or keep a reading notebook (my preference) where you transcribe passages you like, with your own observations, and mark down the names of other, unfamiliar writers, books you’ve seen mentioned (Guy D. alone will give you a notebook full of these). Follow those notes to decide your next reading. That’s how you’ll create your own interior library. Now do that for the rest of your life and die knowing you’re still massively ignorant. (I wouldn’t trade it!)

Read My Ántonia, and then read everything else by Willa Cather. Inside her novels you’ll find it impossible to doubt that high enjoyment and extreme depth can go together. The most difficult art.

Read Isak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Tales. I’m saying that randomly, because it seems right, and to approve the spirit of randomness.

If you get into a writer, go all the way and check out everything he/she has written. This summer I fell into a Defoe hole. Started with the major stuff, the best novels and the good journalism, and then read everything down to the poems and the tedious political pamphlets, since by that point I was equally interested in him as a human being and wanted to have as accurate a map of the inside of his brain as possible. His is one of the minds that helped shape the modern world—we’re literally still telling his stories—so there’s a vital interest. I read Maximilian Novak’s super-solid biography of him, Master of Fictions. That sort of questy reading ends up enriching your experience of each individual book and piece, and it lends a sense of adventure to the whole business, which after all involves a lot of lying down or sitting on your ass.

Borges and Denis Johnson—anything by either. Edith Wharton’s story “The Young Gentlemen.” (Random, random.) Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, and then his poems if you’re feeling spry. Find on the Web and buy an old paperback copy of the Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine–edited anthology Six Centuries of Great Poetry (a book for life). Read the next two things I’m going to read and then see how you like them: Grant’s Memoirs and Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle. Read Nabokov’s Speak, Memory and Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

Books that got me kick-started were the great modernist biographies, especially Hugh Kenner’s The Pound Era and Richard Ellmann’s life of James Joyce. Read those two books and you’ll have a decent-size grid on which to plot the rest of your reading. I’m somehow moved to spurt out, Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World. People have been writing about Shakespeare for half a millennium, and the very best of it just happened.

Ignore all of this and read the next cool-looking book you see lying around. It’s not the where-you-start so much as the that-you-don’t-stop. I was reading Phoenix Force novels until I was like thirteen. These days a lot of people I know are into Murakami. I should have said more novels. If it’s by a Russian, read it.

[iphisesque]

Yes rant about an italian book no one has ever heard of. I love to learn more and now im so curious too haha. Pls endulge me here lol

Happy to indulge you and the others who asked about it ❤️

The book in question is "Il morso della vipera" by Alice Basso, an author whose previous book series I adore and who definitely did not disappoint me with this novel! It is a mystery novel set in 1935 Turin, right during the fascist Ventennio, and it follows a young woman named Anita who decides to work for a while before getting married, gets hired as a typist in a small detective story publishing house and inadvertently stumbles upon an unsolved murder dating back to WWI alongside her editor/coworker/translator/boss.

Now, there are a lot of characters who are either purposefully queer-coded (and not made explicit because you know, fascist regime going on) or subtextually indicated as gay: the one character I'm sure was purposefully written as a closeted lesbian is our queen Candida, Anita's old school teacher and dear friend who smokes cigars, wears pants, has a secret stash of banned books and is repeatedly said to have never married and have no interest in doing so, often advising Anita and her friend Clara to focus on being the intelligent women they are and maintaining their intellect instead of marrying off to some fascist and bearing six children for him. Anita mentions many times what an influence and inspiration Candida is to her and Clara, and just as many times she mentions how she pointedly refuses to conform to societal norms, as a working, unmarried woman in her 40s-50s who loves to read and have intellectual discussions and surround herself with other like-minded women; all of this to me reads very clearly as a lesbian mentor figure who is simply not out to the main character, and I do hope to see her either come out in some way or find a lover of the same gender in the later books, though of course she wouldn't need to do so to be a lesbian icon.

Now, the rest of this post is more just me projecting and reaching a lot, but I also feel like Clara, Anita's friend, was strongly hinted at to be a lesbian: she is often compared to Candida, as she is also an intellectual bookworm and a working woman with no particular interest in men (this is said to be reciprocated, as she is not exactly attractive, something even she points out and relishes in, as it "keeps ill-intentioned boys at bay"), to the point that while reading the book I was dreadfully anticipating the reveal of a sexual relationship between Clara and Candida à la "Life of Adèle", which luckily never happened.

As for the men, there's a specific scene in this book that sent my gay radar FLYING, and that is chapters 10-11: a bit of context with extremely mild spoilers is that in this chapter Anita, who was previously convinced that her aforementioned editor/coworker/etc Sebastiano was a devout fascist, walks by the publishing house and therein finds Sebastiano and another man talking, reading poetry and semi-openly insulting the regime (which makes sense for them to do in context, they're not like yelling "fuck fascists" at a busy street). We find out that Sebastiano and the other man, the Italian-American Julian, are colleagues and very dear friends, who know everything about each other and trust each other with everything, from original poetry and detective stories to risky political opinions to intimate thoughts, and they're both trying to elude the regime into thinking they're the perfect ideal of the virile fascist man for various reasons, with Sebastiano even being engaged to the daughter of a local fascist leader.

Of course, two men being close friends does not necessarily mean they're gay, but I think the story would have been extremely enriched by them having/having had a relationship (Sebastiano later has a flirtationship with Anita I really like, so I could see him as bisexual): imagine if, aside from Sebastiano's stated motives of acting like a perfect fascist to protect his communist father and be able to publish his stories, he was also keeping up that pretence and overcompensating to hide his same-sex attraction and his affair with a man! That immediately raises the stakes of it all, adding tension to the story that goes beyond "if the facade falls the publishing house gets shut down", and with the way the scene is written it's a change easily made: in canon Anita sees them talking from the window, Sebastiano crying (a moment she literally describes as him looking like Achilles, known gay) and Julian consoling him, they hug and insult fascists and lightly banter as they pop open a bottle of cognac, she gets caught spying by Julian and Sebastiano spills the beans.

It would be easy and a huge plot twist if instead of hugging by the window they kissed and Anita saw, and Sebastiano wouldn't even have to spell out that they're in a relationship, which could leave Anita wondering about his real motivation and about what other things he's hiding from her! It's such a missed opportunity in my opinion, though of course it would be quite a risky move, making your male love interest/co-protagonist bisexual.

That is IT, thank you for coming to my TEDtalk about the gay subtext of this book ❤️

[dontlookatmeitwashim]

My Book of Writing Secrets

HEY! I thought someone would love to have some over my very own writing tips! Fair warning, my personal methods my very well not work for you but it doesn't hurt to try something different when it comes to writing!  So, fair warning this will be a long post!

1. Creating a Character    a. This step is probably the easiest because if you’re like me, you’ll have dozens and dozens of unused characters, plot lines, and basic story ideas laying around somewhere (For me it’s in my writing journals where all my random story ideas go to die)    b. DON’T BE INTIMIDATED BY ALL THOSE NAMES. It’s okay to have a simple name, hell, I’ve even used my own name in some of my Tumblr-posted stories (good luck finding it sluts). You can have a long, short, unique, plain just as long as it makes you happy as a writer but don’t get caught up in finding the ‘perfect name’ because there isn’t one. Trust me, I’ve looked. 

  c. KNOW YOUR CHARACTER. This is the best advice I can give you for writing a character, whether it be someone from fandom or an o.c., know them well because that’s where the difference lies. I suggest having a notebook or something that helps you keep track of all those details (I have like two binders and five notebooks filled with information, each about a different story or fandom). This will make your life easier, plus it clears room in your head for plot thinking.    d. SUPPORTING CHARACTERS! They need as much love as your main characters, especially if a supporting character is a love interest. I can’t emphasize this enough. I’ve read stories where it’s obvious that the writer didn’t put much effort or research in the supporting characters and it really just ruined the whole story. 

2. Creating an Interesting Story    a. DON’T PLAN DETAIL TO DETAIL, it’s not a good idea because you risk losing interest in your story. It’s always a good idea to have a basic idea of what the plot should look like and what you want the outcome to be, but leave room for you to experiment. I’ve written and rewritten so many chapters for so many different things because I thought of a better idea or it just fits more than my previous idea.     b. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Remember when I mentioned those binders and notebooks filled with character information? Those are used for collecting research as well. Filled to the brim of information I deemed a worthy addition to my story. You can’t just sit down and write a story, sorry that’s not how it works (though I have gotten away with it more than a few times...). You have to put thought into your little masterpiece and a lot of the time that usually involves taking some time and researching different dress styles between the 1850s and the 1860s. But try not to go overboard, research just enough for you to get by.    c. UNLESS you're like me who is a perfectionist and actually enjoys researching or you are basing your story in any historical time period or using mythology at any point and/or you’re writing a character that’s very smart. You are going to have to be pretty accurate with all that unless you want hater coming your way, which I highly recommend not provoking them!   d. JUST KEEP THAT NOTEBOOK HANDY because it’s going to be your saving grace, trust me. I’ve been at this for a while and I can barely function if I keep all that information in my head by myself. 

3. Writing the Story   a. YOU HAVE TO DO MORE THAN JUST DIALOGUE. Don’t get me wrong, the dialogue is fun and way easier to write then all those description paragraphs you have to write. But that’s where the story lies, my dear! (Oof, this is where I realized that I have to give dialogue and descriptions their own sections all together... well, I’m here now.)      - The key to great descriptions is to think of it as a movie playing in your head. Have the camera focused on the particular character you want, see what they are doing and then write it. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time, you can go back and polish out those movements later. You just have to get the ball rolling and always keep track of what and where body parts are... Movements can be just as meaningful as words, probably even more. It can show if someone is nervous, shocked, scared, cold, etc. without even saying a word. I suggest picking up a book on body language, it will help!    - The other key is to capture your character’s emotion. (Several people have said that I have a unique ability to capture raw emotion so this where I excel). Generally, what I do is use movies, tv shows or real life as a reference. Pick up on the small details, a specific face someone makes when they are angry, sad, happy, etc. This is where you take a page out of the poetry book and get creative. You have to experiment with words and see how it makes you/others feel, a thesaurus is great for this but shouldn't be completely trusted. FOR EXAMPLE! I could simply say, “We shared kisses under the moonlight”, it’s a very straight forward of saying that, but because I want it to sound more tender I would write it like so “We shared honest kisses caught under the rays of moonlight”. Just find that little romantic in you, I believe in you!    - THIS IS IMPORTANT, you have to find an even balance between the two of these. You don’t want to overpower the storyline or your characters.    b. DIALOGUE! The best part of a story and where all of the love confessions take place! There are only a few no-nos that I ted to follow religiously, at least I have been for the past few years.     1. Slang words don’t belong in the dialogue. it just sounds weird and our brain just takes too much time trying to figure out what the character is trying to say. Mostly words like yeet, yolo and so on. Just pay close attention to how others talk to one another, mostly adults and college students (Even then that's a stretch). They don’t use a lot of slang words, a story runs more smoothly when they aren’t used often.      2. When a character is speaking in a different language and the main character can understand, write it like this “I am speaking a different language”. With the help of descriptions before, middle or after, it can be made clear that the character is speaking a different language. If the main character doesn’t understand, simply write something along the line of, They were trying to speak to me but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. It’s far too annoying as a reader to see two characters have a conversation in a different language then have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the chapter in hopes that they put a translation. The only exception of this rule is if a line is written in a different language, it should be immediately translated in the next few lines.     3. Don’t write accents. It’s awkward to see. BUT! And this is only if a person has an accent and has specific slang to that region/culture, you can use slang words.  

Well, this is my basic guidebook to writing, I hope it helps someone. I’ll add more too it when I think of more, or just send me requests! I’m an English Major with lot’s of experience so I’m willing to help whether that be for academic papers or just personal writing! 

[frenchibi]

top 5 books

Hello friend!!!! This is areally really tough question bc I read so many different genres and have SOMANY FAVORITES so I’m going to cheat a little bit… I’ll give you Top3 or 4 (I have no impulse control) for several genres so you’ll get more than 5total but not like.. an inordinate number of books, ok? xD (Who am I kidding I’mgoing off the rails, no apologies)

Fantasy

The Name of the Wind(Kingkiller Chronicles Book 1) and sequel(s) by Patrick Rothfuss. Has beentalked about loads in fantasy circles and I have nothing to add other than“this is the best fantasy book I have ever read, and probably in the top 3 ofbest books I have ever read, period.” The style blew me a way, the characters are fantastic, the system of magic/power in this world is the coolest I have EVER SEEN and… yeah. I’m invested.

Howl’s Moving Castleand sequel(s) by Diana Wynne Jones. Y’all remember the ghibli movie? This isthe book this is based on and it is way, way better than the already fantasticmovie. It is ridiculously charming and witty and lovely and I recommendeveryone read it. You will not regret it. This is my ultimate comfort book, if that makes any sense.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – a hilarious bookabout the apocalypse with absolutely amazing characters and incredible styleand wit. We’re getting a TV series this year and I am beyond stoked. Pleaseread this. It’s… just… yes. British fantasy is SO GOOD.

Honorable mention: Die Stadt der TräumendenBücher by Walter Moers. Theremight be an English translation of this, but honestly I only recommend you readthis if you can read it in its original German – I’m not gatekeeping, it’s justthat so much of its brilliance relies on in-depth knowledge about German culture,history and language and it’s inevitably gonna lose that in translation. It’sone of my absolute favorite books ever and it pains me I can’t share this withmy English-speaking friends :/

YA

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking Book 1) by Patrick Ness. It’shands down the coolest YA book I have ever read and it doesn’t even… feel likeYA at all, more like sci-fi? It could just as easily have gone in the “experimental”category and I don’t wanna give too much away but… the typeface of this book ispart of its charm? Different characters have different fonts and shit? Definitelyread a physical copy of this. Also, the narrator is illiterate so he writeswords by sounding them out – and I know that sounds like that would bedistracting but trust me it’s fantastic??? Please please PLEASE give this atry.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. Y’all want a good queerstory that’s not romance-heavy but instead has intricate worldbuilding and really cool magic? Pleaseread this, you will not be disappointed. This is a more “adult” version of YoungAdult Fiction and I absolutely love it.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. Is this fantasy, actually? Probably. Does it haveissues? Yes. Is it still a very fun ride with a cool magic/power system? HELLYES. Also the characters are a bit older, which works very well. It’s like YAafter you’ve kind of outgrown YA.

Murder/Mystery

The Strings of Murder (& sequels in the “Frey & McGray” series) by Oscar de Muriel –listen, the main character is a little SHIT and that’s absolutely fine? Themysteries are kind of convoluted but not in a distracting way, it’s just a funseries with fun characters that I really enjoyed!

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie (and honestly pretty much everything she has everwritten) – I have nothing to say about Agatha Christie that has not been saidbefore :’D

Phantom bySusan Kay. Now this is kind of also a drama and it’s been a while since I’veread it so idk how well it fits into the murder/mystery category but it’s aboutthe Phantom of the Opera before he became the actual Phantom (or rather, thepath to how he became the Phantom), and I have endless love for this verydramatic and mysterious and misunderstood character so… yeah :D

Collections of Short Stories

Topics About Which I Know Nothing by Patrick Ness. Yes, this is the author of “ChaosWalking” (see above), and this is a collection of a VAST variety of shortstories he has written, all of which are insanely creative and so, so fun??This man has an insane imagination and I love it, instant recommendation toanyone honestly.

Dear Life byAlice Munro – another one that I read a while ago and don’t remember that muchabout, but I remember absolutely loving this book, and that it’s one of thebooks that made me want to read more short story collections :D

The Refugeesby Viet Thanh Nguyen – an interesting bit of perspective, this book centersaround different characters who are Vietnamese or of Vietnamese descent in theUnited States. I loved how eye-opening it was tbh?? I love reading books byauthors from cultures vastly different from my own and this was wonderful.

Poetry/Experimental

Milk and Honey / The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur – two collections of very personaland touching modern formless poetry that honestly blew me away. I’m not a bigfan of classic poetry, or poetry in general, but these two books are justincredible.

Good morning, Good night by Lin-Manuel Miranda – a collection of Lin’s “good morning”/ “goodnight” tweets that, idk, give me hope for humanity? Ideal for perusing if youneed cheering up and just an all-round wholesome book to own.

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn – a “novel without letters” I wouldn’t know where to placeexcept under “experimental” because its premise is basically… an island thatslowly bans more and more letters from everyday use? It’s told in the form ofletters between the characters and it’s just… such a FEAT of writing, the waythe author forces his characters (and himself) to get by with fewer and fewerletters of the alphabet? Fascinating, from a writer’s perspective, and anabsolute recommendation!!!

Sleeping Giants (Book 1 of the Themis Files) by Sylvain Neuvel. This is a sci-fi book,but it’s under “experimental” because, well – it’s told through interviews. Iwas a little confused/put off in the beginning by this style, but the jaw-droppingstory pulled me in and hooked me. It’s a sci-fi EPIC… don’t get too attached toanyone because the apocalypse is coming for them all - and you’ll be at theedge of your goddamn seat. This is a fantastic series.

Drama

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Honestly, anything by Khaled Hosseini, unsurpassedauthor of dramas that will rip your heart to shreds, and you’ll never be thesame after reading them.

Everything I never told you by Celeste Ng. This is one of those books that will never leave you afteryou’ve read it. It starts with “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” –unravelling the mystery and consequences of the death of a Chinese-Americanfamily’s teenage daughter in gut-wrenching detail. A family story that willleave you sobbing on the floor but also filled with such profound hope forhumanity – I don’t even know. This book eviscerated me.

Homegoing byYaa Gyasi – the story of two sisters, one a slave and the other a slave-owner’swife, and their descendants. A family history of choices and consequence thatis… raw and personal and a very, very important book.

Home Fire byKamila Shamsie. The story of a British-Pakistani family – more specifically,the story of three children whose father was a terrorist. I am weak for familystories, and this one is politically charged and relevant and gut-wrenching aswell.

Novels/Fiction

The Hours byMichael Cunningham. The first book I read in a stream-of-consciousness style,and I still really enjoy the plot of it, too: The story follows three women;Virginia Woolf writing a novel in the 1920s, a woman reading this novel in the40s, and a woman basically living the plot of this novel in the 90s. It’sfascinating, really? I highly recommend it.

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde. Another story told in three time periods – a man whoinvents a new type of beehive for beekeepers in the 1800s, a beekeeper whosebees are dying in approximately present day, and a woman 100 years in thefuture who pollinates plants by hand because all the bees have vanished. It’s…fascinating, again, and a really good story. I also feel like it was quiteeducational? I enjoyed it a lot.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. Technically this is a drama too (but shh) – it followsa black delivery nurse who is charged with a serious crime after an incidentinvolving the baby of a White Supremacist couple. It’s an explosive topic butit’s handled with a lot of nuance? Reading this book will frustrate you greatly,but I think it’s… idk, important? It shook me.

Eyrie by TimWinton. I have never seen depression portrayed more accurately than in thisbook. I was highlighting passages on almost every page – also the style ispretty cool? Snappy? Sharp? I’m not good at describing it but… yeah this leftan impact.

Non-Fiction (listen I knowthese are all by youtubers but hear me out)

So Much I want to Tell You by Anna Akana – letters written by Anna to her sister, who committedsuicide when she was 13. It’s raw and personal and important, stories aboutpersonal growth and lessons learned, about grief and regret and moving on. Irecommend this 100%.

Secrets For The Mad by Dodie Clark. A collection of charming stories and anecdotes and songlyrics and doodles – a book that reads like what watching dodie’s music videos andvlogs feels like. Safe and soft and personal. I love this.

Doing It byHannah Witton – a book about sex education that honestly everyone should read.Hannah blazes through taboos like they’re nothing more than hot air – as theyshould be. (Also, watch her videos.)

Bonus

The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. I don’t even know what category to put this in? It reads like a fable and it is just... so beautiful and enchanting. Please read it, you will not be disappointed. It’s a story of chasing your dreams and self-discovery and it’s... just wonderful.

-

Did I make this entire listas a means of procrastination? Yes. Am I sorry? No.

Listen I have been wantingto blog about books for the LONGEST TIME but I never took the time to because…idk, I am not involved with the book reviewer community on any platform andhonestly I’m intimidated? But I do have a lot of Thoughts so if you’ve read anyof these and want to yell about them with/at me please dm me??? Or send me anask if you want to hear more detailed opinions about any of these from me????

…yeah. Thank you for this question,man. I love books.

Send me “top 5″ of anything and I’ll respond with my favorites!!!

[sanrionharbor-blog]

Thoughts on Sansa S8 Endgame

Speculations galore! Long post ahoy!

Let’s run through every possibility I can think of for the end of show-Sansa’s story (and yes, there will be many more possibilities besides these because GOT is layers upon layers, man, I’m still new to the fandom, and there’s probably a lot I’ve missed).

At the very least, let’s do this categorically.

Dead, Alive, or a Fate Worse Than Death?

1. I’d bet money that Sansa survives the whole dang thing

2. But if she does die…it could be A) Sacrifice to save Arya, Jon, and/or Bran, B) in a possible collapse of Winterfell, C) after ensuring the demise of Cersei or a similar threat, D) something worthy of a song

3. Crack Theory: Sansa Becomes the Night Queen?

Shipping...

1. Let’s start with the most popular ship: Jonsa. While I’m not personally a Jonsa fan, I neither hate it nor see it as a complete impossibility. And while I’m not personally a Jonerys fan, I neither hate it nor see it as a no-brainer. Jonsa makes sense practically (uniting Targ and Stark, North & South; they already trust one another; cousin marriage isn’t considered incest in-universe, etc.), though I’m not entirely convinced if the show goes this direction that it would be the most romantic ship ever. The best I see is that it has vibes similar to Ned/Cat when they were first married to one another; they didn’t love each other romantically at first, but it would come with time. As for political!Jon Theory making this ship possible, while I wouldn’t completely put it past the GOT universe to make Jon that cold, it honestly doesn’t jive with what I think is at the core of Jon: which is a hardscrabble sort of nobility, decency, honesty. I mean, if he was politcal!Jon, wouldn’t he have come up with a smoother way to handle Cersei in their first meeting? Anyhoot, the ship isn’t hateful. I think the biggest obstacles are the fact that, even though they are technically cousins, they were raised as brother and sister. You don’t just erase that. This is somewhat “remedied” by the fact that they were never close and Sansa pretty much treated him as a whole-lot-less-than-a-brother for most of their childhood. But GOT has never shown incestuous relationships (again, I don’t really consider historically based cousin relationships as incestuous, but it is a close family bond never-the-less) as a good thing. At all. The Targ’s went mad; Dany’s brother was creepy as fudge; UMM Jaime x Cersei dear Lord; Craster and his Merry Brood, etc. (But this mainly just spells doom for Jonerys, IMHO). So, as with anything in GOT--it’s possible, it’s also not possible, there’s undertones, but there’s undertones for the complete opposite thing happening, etc. Lastly, as for the “romantic framing” of S7, I think it falls under that same maybe/maybe-not. I LOVE Jon and Sansa’s dynamic, even if I don’t see it as romantic, even if does or does not end up romantic. It is certainly one thing: intimate. And the framing (forehead kiss, bittersweet reunion, worrying for one another’s safety) supports that at the very least. If they don’t end up romantically, Jon is the last real strong male relative that Sansa has. That’s not to diss Bran, but D&D have made him a remote magical old man stuck in a teenager’s body. In some ways, he’s dead to Sansa too (as Meera said, “You died in that cave.”). The poetry, the irony, is that the people Sansa had the most problems with in her family (Arya and Jon) are all that Sansa has left now (yes, yes, I love Bran, but again he’s acting more like a solo unit than a family unit at this point)--and she realizes how much they’ve always meant to her. Jon, and Arya for that matter, are different sides of Sansa, just as she is a different side for each of them. The parallels are lovely, and this ship could very well set sail.

2. My personal favorite: Sanrion (Sansa x Tyrion, Tyrion x Sansa, whatever the preferred parlance is). Yes, I’m biased, so this entry will be the longest--BUT, let’s remove my shipper goggles. This, to me, is just as possible as Jonsa. That is, I don’t see it as guaranteed at all, but there’s plenty to read from the text. Let’s get the trouble spots out of the way: 1) the build-up has been few and far in-between since S4 (though they did throw us a bone in S7). 2) the 50/50 chance of Tyrion dying in S8 (no, I’m not basing this on “leaks,” interviews, or what-not--I’m just using this as a baseline guess, given that this is GOT and given that Tyrion is at the center of a very dangerous web of relationships), 3) the show possibly not wanting to ask a twentysomething actress and a nearly 50-year-old actor to act out anything deliberately romantic (however, I don’t expect an on-screen ship to be anything but unconventionally romantic--I very much see it being done with subtle dialogue, color theory, ambiguous looks, an epilogue, etc), and 4) Tyrion may or may not be in love with Daenerys. None of these trouble spots spells doom for me. The greatest “doom” is simply Sansa ending up alone (thematically possible) or with someone else (also thematically possible). Let’s break down counter-points to the trouble spots, then I’ll list my reasons why this ship could sail. 1) Almost all relationships in GOT are troubled and/or unconventional, built up over one season, hidden underneath layers of symbolism, or suffer from the fact that one or both partners are either dead or seperated (by this same token, Sansa’s other popular ships, Jonsa and Sansan, also suffer the same dearth of “development” or copious screen time. Arguably, Jonsa’s foundations were mostly built over the later seasons), 2) yeah, Tyrion could die (and I would be heartbroken but not blindsided) or Tyrion could live (but I would bet money that Sansa lives through the whole thing), 3) the show already put them through the most awkward phase of their “relationship” (i.e., their wedding night, though it was toned down compared to the books) and they can still sell this relationship in any number of ways (again, dialogue, color theory, looks, just holding hands again geez Louise), 4) Tyrion’s “love” for Daenerys is incredibly debatable and may only be used as fuel for a soap opera plot that I really hope doesn’t happen, but even the director of the S7 finale said Tyrion’s main concern was political and Dinklage proposed the idea that Tyrion only “think he’s in love” with Dany, that what most people feel for Dany is awe (I’m neither a Dany fan or hater, but it’s hard to deny that she’s shocking, enthralling, powerful, attractive, a force, for lack of a better term). Now, on to the practical/thematical reasons why I think this ship would work. Let’s use letters for this, haha. A) Fairy Tale parallels/Turning Tropes Upside Down: It’s easy to read inversions of fairy tale archetypes into Sansa’s storyline, as that is what her character is naturally drawn to: songs, princesses, true love, beauty. So far in the story she has learned that looks can be deceiving; life is not a song (though I wouldn’t be surprised if GRRM turns this on its head again, and Sansa simply learns that all great tales involve sorrow and darkness as well as joy and light--i.e., bittersweet vs. simply sweet); people are not black and white (Tyrion shows her that the Lannisters aren’t necessarily all evil and Littlefinger shows her that allies, even someone who loved her mother, are not necessarily all good); etc. Just some of the fairy tales/tropes that play into Sansa’s personal storyline and the subtext of Sansa x Tyrion include: Beauty and the Beast, Psyche and Cupid, Hades and Persephone, The Princess in the Tower archetype, and many, many more (I’ll meta about it one of these days--and there are already many excellent posts under the Sansa tag that expound on these). B) The Queen Elizabeth Theory: So Sansa has parallels with two remarkable historical Queen Elizabeths: Elizabeth of York and Queen Elizabeth I.  Since this has been said by so many before, here’s a quote and link to the article as summary: “The show is based off the War of the Roses, the real-life family feud between the Lancasters and Yorks that ended with the two broods combining their houses. Since the storyline happening at the end of season seven is extremely similar to this moment in history, we can infer that GoT will follow that path...” Link  C) Character Actions Written Especially For the Show: Just to name a few: GRRM purposely changed a moment in the books to where Sansa hands Tyrion a cup instead of him having to crawl underneath a table to do so; Tyrion remains loyal to his wedding vows (and this is probably inspired by his trauma for having killed his father and lover as well) even when it was very possible that Sansa had left him high-and-dry and the marriage was, in Tyrion’s own words, a “sham marriage”; Sansa and Tyrion both stick up for one another’s character, etc., and D) Also, aren’t they technically married? :-p [There’s a lot more, but again, I’ll save that for a future meta]

3. Sansan: While there may end up being a slight possibility in the books, I don’t think show-Sansa and show-Sandor are heading in this direction. However, the same fairytale motifs play into play here: Beauty and the Beast, Hades and Persephone, etc. Also, bridge4 over on Youtube has a fabulous analysis of the “unKiss” over on his channel, which I think could pop up in some shape or form in S8. Here’s the  link

4. Sansa Alone: Also supports the Queen Elizabeth theory. Specifically, Elizabeth I “the Virgin Queen.” This would a different form of poetry/irony: Sansa, the one who wanted most to be a queen consort and be married to a handsome king and have babies, ends up as a queen (full-stop) but leverages her power as a single lady. Not my favorite ending for Sansa, as I’m Teh Unabashed Romantic, but it’s plausible, thematic, pragmatic. Only time will tell!

The Fate of the North, Night King, Direwolf Theorizing

Just spitballing various takes:

1. The war is “won” (as in mankind survives), but Winterfell or possibly the entire North is compromised. As in, perhaps they have to trade the North to the Winter King at the promise he won’t invade the rest of Westeros. Or Winterfell explodes, so the North and all of Westeros is saved but the Starks lose their home

2. The Starks deliberately blow up Winterfell, for any number of reasons. Perhaps a bunch of wights or what-nots ended up there. Perhaps the dead in the Crypts were resurrected, and this was the only way to neutralize that threat. Or something deeper and darker lurks in the Crypts, something worse than the Night King. In fact….

3. Maybe the true enemy ends up being something awoken within the Crypts of Winterfell, and the Night King is not what he seems….

4. The old gods play an unexpected role

5. The godswood is burned or ends up in splinters or is used to create a new throne (ending the age of iron, fire, blood and making this a “time for wolves”)

6. Sansa’s direwolf Lady is resurrected (of course, poor Lady is headless…) and manages to wound Cersei (if she gets her arse up north, which seems unlikely) before Cersei’s killed by whoever the heck the Valonquar is

7. Speaking of, could Ghost be the Valonquar? I mean, he was the runt, the littlest brother of the brood. Eh, dunno. I just don’t expect the Valonquar to be anything close to what we think he/she/it/them is.

8. I like the idea of parts of the ocean being permanently frozen over because of something the Night King does. Dunno why. I don’t think there’s any foreshadowing to that in the show; it just sounds cool, and represents a permanent consequence to the land. Because I do not expect there to be zero consequence for the landscape of Westeros itself. The Greyjoy’s are already kinda sorta doomed (with eunuch Theon being the last male of that line, unless Euron’s got a kid somewhere and he ends up surviving to take the throne and not be a dick about it), so it’d be a bit of tragic poetry if their islands, their seas were frozen and lifeless but thanks to their efforts the rest of Westeros is safe and their people will have to make a life on land

9. One or both remaining dragons are frozen for all timez

10. Sansa becomes Queen in the North or Queen of the Seven Kingdoms (is there really an in-between?)

Bonus

Lastly, here’s just an observation on an important part of Sansa’s storyline and character development: Arya Stark. I believe Sansa and Arya adopted different pieces of the original storylines in GRRM’s book proposal outline--not that I put much stock in the outline. Sansa was created, at first, to add tension to the Stark family. GRRM says he was surprised by Sansa’s developments; he also says he empathizes with whichever character he is currently writing, so I think he just naturally found things that he liked in Sansa that made her more than a complication device. Because his original vision included Arya as the sole Stark daughter, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sansa and Arya aren’t the result of this once singular character being developed into two very different ways. The archetypal Amazon Wild Child and the Princess in the Tower. Two sides of the same coin--or, in Ned’s words, Sansa is the sun to Arya’s moon and vice-versa. For this reason, I don’t put it past Sansa to continue developing her personal brand of Brave Northern Lady and Arya developing her personal brand of Brave Northern Lady. Because that is what they both are: brave, northern, ladies. Will Sansa find herself at the center of a love triangle? I really, really hope not, but at this point if it is gonna happen I find it much more likely with Sansa than with Arya.

[purple-spring]

How long did it take you to become this well of a writer? Do you have any tips or suggestions? I want to make my writing more exciting and vibrant like yours is. I feel like it's not as good as yours and I want it to be the best it can be.

Hey there, @fangirlthatreads​! I’ve been sitting on this ask for a while and I do apologise for that, but I was so incredibly touched that you came to me with this kind of question that I wanted to answer it as best as I could, and create a sort of masterpost for writing in the process. I’m devoting my whole day to answering this, so hopefully it’s worth the wait :)

So, to answer your first question, I guess I’ve always enjoyed and have been fairly competent in writing. I wrote all throughout school, but never really got the opportunity to continue that in college, so I got a bit rusty. I only really started again recently (Sprousehart and Bughead were too tempting to resist), which has just been the most joyful, creativity-unleashing thing. I started simply by writing the beginning for “Tomorrow” because I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, and I had a very vocal cheerleader (hi, @jandjsalmon​) encouraging me to write the whole thing. I haven’t looked back since then. 

As for tips and suggestions, I thought about this for a long time and came up with the following, which I’ve tried to divide into three sections after the cut - READ, LISTEN, WRITE. 

Anyway, without any further ado, I give you ��

paperlesscrown’s personal guide to writing 

—-READ—-

I mean, your account name kind of gives it away, but I’m sure you read a lot! But my #1 tip for writers is to read voraciously. I often think of it as fuel for the tank: you can’t put out what you don’t put in. When I run into writers’ block, it’s the first thing I do - I purchase a book for my Kindle and bunker down and read.

Three kinds of reading that I do:

Fanfic - This is a no-brainer. It’s important to expose yourself to the different interpretations of the canon and the characters you are writing about. I must admit that I’m not always the most up-to-date fanfic reader, but I am always hitting up @blueandgoldoffice​ and my dear friend @theatreofexpression​ for suggestions and recommendations. 

Literature - This is important, too. As amazing as fanfic writers are, there is a whole other universe out there of incredibly written original fiction (and poetry!). Anything I can get my hands on, I get onto it. It’s why I bought myself a Kindle - I carry it around with me everywhere to make sure that I am constantly feeding my brain with exciting plots and engaging characters and beautifully turned phrases. 

I often try to read specifically, too. What do I mean by this? So, for example, when I was writing “Apparitions”, which included huge chunks of dialogue between Cole and Lili, I chose to read One Day by David Nicholls, which I knew had a lot of earthy, realistic dialogue between a couple in love. When I was writing my first smutty fic (“In here, too”), I made sure to read The Boss by Abigail Barnette, which is an INCREDIBLE Dom/Sub series (which honestly every Dom!Jug writer should read) with amazingly written sex scenes.

I also make sure I read different formats - not just chapter books, but also longform articles, poetry, etc. I read a lot of short stories because I write exclusively in one-shots, so reading them allows me to see how writers develop plot within a limited word count. 

Writers’ resources - This is something I’ve started doing recently, and it’s made such a huge difference. There is a whole world of writers’ resources out there. I recently bought the Emotion Thesaurus, which is described as “a writers’ guide to character expression.” It. Is. Amazing. It catalogues an emotion and the different ways a character could express them (that way I’m able to avoid cliches or vary the way that the emotion is expressed). It’s formatted like this:

It’s quite cheap on Amazon and such a worthwhile purchase. You should also check out websites such as Reference for Writers, which has SO MANY amazing resources for writers, plus links to similar websites. 

Meta - Read analysis on your characters, whether it’s a recap from website like Vulture and AV Club or (with Riverdale specifically) meta posts from places like @riverdalemeta, which compiles all the incredible theorising from around the fandom. It helps you think about your characters more clearly. A good story always comes from a good grasp of character, and sometimes meta posts make a world of difference in understanding a character. 

—-LISTEN—-

Listen to…

1. A beta. I cannot emphasise this enough. Betas make all the difference between a good piece of writing and a great one. My forever beta, @jandjsalmon, has saved from terrible writing decisions and has also steered me towards incredible ones. @theatreofexpression is a constant source of ideas, headcanons and discussions about the show. The thing about betas is that they are essentially your first audience and an important first filter for your work. They are able to pick up on inconsistencies, disruptions to flow, awkward phrasing, spelling and grammar errors, etc. I often think about them as the midwives for our stories. I may be the one giving birth to it, but it’s the beta who guides me with how to breathe, stand, position myself, etc. and essentially get the baby out into the world (sorry for the weird metaphor, lol). Always, always try and work with one.  

2. The characters you are writing about. A handy tip - whenever I am writing, I put the show on in the background (as long as it’s not distracting), or interviews with the actors (if I’m writing RPF). It helps me to get a good grasp on their voice. With Bughead, I’m not much of an AU author - I prefer writing and expanding on canon scenes, so it’s important for me to try and get the voice, tone and phrasing of each character right (as well as the overall tone and atmosphere of the scene).

3. Music. Music can activate some really strong emotions and neurological reactions in us that help us to write well. Some people like writing to playlists (I made one for “What she wanted”), while others like listening to instrumental music. Both are fine, although sometimes I can find lyrics quite distracting. In terms of instrumental music, I listen to a lot of Philip Glass (classical and heavy) and Explosions in the Sky (indie and atmospheric) when I write. 

—-WRITE—-

I guess there’s nothing left to do but to write! 

Start small. I write a lot of drabbles, as you may have noticed, and those are just small writing exercises for me to keep the words flowing. Not everything you write will contribute to an amazing story, but it’s important to keep putting ideas to paper. 

Engage in writing prompts. These don’t have to be Bughead-specific. There are plenty of writing prompts on the net - Pinterest is a great place to find some good ones!

Do writing sprints. I actually learned about this idea from the incredible @tory-b​, who does this with other writers on the wonderful Bughead Family Discord. It’s basically stretches of 30 minutes to an hour where you do nothing but write. It doesn’t have to be perfect - it just needs to be written down. It’s a way for you to knuckle down and focus and not have any sort of pressure in terms of getting everything perfect. While my job and life often prevent me from engaging in these, they’re an awesome idea for any budding writer.

Practical tip: Google Docs is your friend. This is a tip just for logistics, but I write on Google Docs rather than Microsoft Word because it’s a lot more portable and I work on multiple devices throughout the day. I have Google Docs installed on my phone and I access it via my web browser off my laptop. This just means I can work on a story when I’m travelling, when I’m at home, even when I’m standing in line at a grocery store. I’m often hit by inspiration quite randomly, so this works really well for me. It’s also the best tool for betas - they are able to edit and make comments in a way that’s easy for them and doesn’t involve multiple file-sending.

…

Anyway. I truly apologise for that insane essay, but I hope this can help you (and anyone else). If you have any other questions, please feel free to send them to me! I hope we can read more of your work soon! xx

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

If you don't mind me asking, who are your favourite Ancient Greek poets (if you read them)? I want to write a story based on the myths and thought it'd be cool to incorporate some poetry, and since I've been following you for a long time (that sounds weird, oh dear) I know you're big into the classics

I GOTCHU PAL

So when we’re talking about Greek lit, there are three main areas I like to discuss. 

The first is epic poetry. This is Homer, a natural evolution of the oral poetic forms that made it possible for bards to memorize and perform extremely long, complicated stories. It’s formulaic, meaning that each line is constructed by the poetry following certain rules and follows a rigid syllable pattern and meter. It’s full of repetitions and monickers that get used again and again and again and the same phrasing being multiple times in regards to multiple characters. You’ll find translations that are more poetic in nature, you’ll find direct translations that follow the original line by line, and you’ll find translations that emphasize the story. Homer is obviously the big name when it comes to epic poetry for the Greeks (although technically “Homer” didn’t really exist in the way we might think he did). But Hesiod, with the Theogony (an epic on the creation and lives of the gods), also wrote in the epic style. Epic poetry is written in Dactyllic Hexameter, the heroic meter.

The most important poems in this area for your purposes are probably the Homeric Hymns. These are 33 individual poems, written in epic meter, dedicated to individual gods. They’re technically anonymous, but are called Homeric because they follow the Homeric (epic) form. My favorite is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which is the origin of a lot of what we know about the cult of Eleusis, where Demeter and Persephone were worshipped in particular. The Eleusinian Mysteries are one of my favorite things to study, so I highly recommend doing some research there. It’s fun and fascinating. Most of the other hymns we only have partial manuscripts from, but what we do have is fascinating. 

Then there are the lyric poets. These are the people that wrote more what we would think of as actual poetry. Shorter works, following poetic forms. The most famous of the Greek lyrics poets is of course Sappho (I have a tag just for her on my blog). it should be noted that only one of her poems survives in its full form. The rest is fragmented. Sometimes translators will work off the fragmented material and extrapolate to create some really lovely works. My favorite translator, Anne Carson, has done some really amazing interpretations of Sappho. She also has a tag on my blog.  Here’s a wiki page on the most well known and well regarded Greek lyric poets. Unfortunately, this is the area I know the least about, except for Sappho. I wish I could be more help. 

The third area of Greek literature that’s probably important to discuss is drama. Specifically, the Greek tragedies. Greek plays were also written in meter, with a different meter used for the dialogues between characters and the choral songs that form the framing devices for every play. They’re all important and great and I highly recommend reading a few. The three most important Greek tragedians (and the only ones we have extant manuscripts from) are Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Euripides is my personal favorite, with The Medea being my favorite Greek play, closely followed by The Bacchae. The Oresteia, the three part series following the family of Agamemnon is probably the most important work of Aeschylus, while Sophocles is most well known for the Theban plays, which focus on Oedipus and his family. Each playwright has a very different style and take on human relationships with the gods. Euripides is a bit more in your face with it than the other two, because the plot of the Bacchae is Dionysus coming to wreak his revenge on his mother’s family.

There are also some truly stunning and beautiful translations of these plays that are definitely poetic enough to suit your purposes. 

Also, one of my favorite books and the one I reference most often when I get questions like this is my Anthology of Classical Myth. It includes both Greek and Roman writers, so keep that in mind if you’d rather focus only on the Greeks. (I studied Latin in college, not Greek, so I’m moderately more familiar with Roman poets than I am with Greek poets). Here’s a link on B&N. You can probably find a used copy on the amazon marketplace if you decide to buy it. Otherwise, see if your library can get you a copy. I don’t want to bog you down too much with recommendations for individual translations of each particular work, so this is a good baseline collection to work with. It doesn’t have the full tragedies, just a few excerpts. 

Let me know if you have any more questions! I hope this is helpful. Also thank you so much for asking this? I haven’t been talking about Classics stuff on here nearly enough lately, and I do apologize for that.