#even more writer's block possibly related to the previous two problems

[scary-grace]

idk what it is but I'm feeling distinctly unholy today

[funkymbtifiction]

Hey I’m having trouble with my type and was hoping you can help me narrow it down from: istj , intj or istp...

Erm. INFP. Let's discuss.

So my main flaws include two things: adapting and actualizing. <- a common problem with Fi-doms/Te inferiors who use Ne. The latter (actualizing) actually indicates inferior Te, because ITJs are proactive in establishing plans and going after what they want. No idea is worth having if you can't do something about it, and TeFi is self-motivated.

I have difficulties with sudden changes in ideas and/or plans. When I am with my esfj conworker, we will have an established plan of how we will go about certain management projects for our work. Specifically, we will list out as discuss: data points, timelines follow up questions for our superiors and expectations. <- this shows you are capable of using Te.

However, after we discuss our plans, she’ll mention a totally new point or observation that we intellectually missed or did not consider post presentation. Or she will deviate from our previous plans and pivot into new ideas or avenues if it’s for the greater good. Usually, I’m so stark in my mind about our plans/mission from point a to b to c, that I immediately get frustrated at myself for not thinking about an alternative factor. I get “stuck” and any deviation from what I already established mentally can cause me pause. <- This sounded ISTJ at first, and it IS SiTe, but what you added later rules out ISTJ.

As well, she’s way better at problem solving than I am. When I reach a block or obstacle, I get overwhelmed and try to find out the reasons why we cannot overcome it. <- inferior Te.

I kind of have this inability to really delve into the perspective of others and to consistently reach out of my head to do so is taxing. I prefer to be in my own mental realm that is not beseeched by others. As a result however, I’m pretty bad at actualizing plans. I’m more of a: note taker, idea person or behind the scenes person who will brainstorm different ideas but I seem to lack the necessary “present energy” to be the one to take action or start if that makes sense. I guess I lack inertia. <- not ISTJ. This indicates weak Te, because you can't decide what to do with something once you brainstorm it. There's no strong Te energy to take you forward and actualize an idea / make it real. (There might be a core 9 mixed in here, also; inertia.)

When I go out to to tasks, I tend to go into my own head and imagine a scenario that is much different than what is happening such as a sketch, comic or idea. Anything to distract myself from the present. Hence why it can be difficult to really engage in more objective tasks. It takes too much energy for me to adapt and fully take advantage of opportunities. <- this rules out Se/ISP, and shows me you're an intuitive, specifically an INFP who prefers their inner mental landscape to the outside world. Avoidance of tasks (again, inferior Te) in favor of fantasies like you outline below:

I mentally drift to the y what if’s such as: what if other people had powers, what would other people’s dynamics be, or if i could live out life in an anime or if I could be a doctor, engineer or Astronaut, even though I have no desire to delve into any of these professions. I’ll even create a mental scape where i have plot points, character driven arcs and designs that i immediately relate to the real world in an intertwined level with my perspective reality. My mind kind of goes into these non sense scenarios that I forget where I am or what I’m doing. This is usually brought on by a stranger I see wearing a yellow jacket and I immediately thing oh wow what they had photokinesis or mirror based based powers and instantly create a whole new identity for this person instead of seeing them for the person they are. It why I crave to become a writer or Animator; Relating to real if is difficult and being in my own mental realms is key for me. <- Fi and Ne / INFP behavior.

It really is until that I’m at work or doing a task that I can be more present but that does not last long. <- weak Si and Te

I care deeply for others but I would also say that I’m not emotionally charged. I dislike disappointing people don’t get new wrong but the constant checking in and expectations are overwhelming and I have a bad habit of not contacting others for awhile. I get told that i am a bit cold but it’s really not something that bothers me (I actually find it humorous because while I don’t show it, I can be a huge ball of emotion). I can be insecure about not reading situations correctly or not saying the right thing but i try my best. <- Fi-dom. Not sure how you fit in with others, being relatively unconcerned with not matching them emotionally, but also a bit anxious about socializing, intense emotions that don't show, leading others to find you "cold" -- the "still waters run deep" of an IFP.

[popculturebuffet]

Star Vs The Forces of Evil: Is Another Mystery (Prince of Wishful Thinking) or Wasted Potetial

Happy Valentine’s Day Lucifans! And while I originally intended to cover this along with the much worse Booth Buddies I had too much to say about both to try and clown car both together so here we are. And just in times for V-Day we have a StarTom episode.. that isn’t as focused on thier relationship as I thought because I hadn’t seen this in a while because every time I think of things in this series I think of all the wasted potetial and it gives me a migrane. I’d also like to thank @jess-the-vampire for talking this one over with me as usual, and helping me think through some stuff. And as with last time we’re picking up about where we left off, so no real exposition to get through. Join me under the cut as we solve a mystery and marvel at HOW much potential from this episode the show squandered. 

We open with Marco chasing Glossaryck.. and it’s only now I realize I have not talked about this subplot at all. Or Glossaryck really. As you probably know Glossaryck is the tiny man who lives in the big book of spells, created the magical high comission and is a colossasl assshat whose likeablity plumted this season. For starters his voice actor Jeffery Tambour was outed as a massive creep, making him harder to stomach even if the show had reduced him to stock footage of one line. Speaking of which he came back from the dead... and despite it being revealed he was fully sapient the whole time and just saying Eclipsa’s husbands name without context a twist coming up int he finale that i’ll give out about here as while clever when you first hear it. makes NO sense in hindsight, as Eclipsa might of mentioned it before now especially since Glossaryck was around her quite a few times, had no reason not to, and you’d THINK Star, Marco or Moon, especially the latter two, would be curious why he can only say that and has seemingly been reduced to an infant. It’s an annoying subplot tha’ts just casually part of the series and no one seems to care about despite Glossaryck being a big deal and the spellbook revealing there IS a way to make copies, one that would be used next season. 

But what really just made me HATE him.. is how he contributed to how bad things on Mewni are, by doing nothing. Being omnicent and powerful does not mean you do nothing.. it just means you have to be VERY careful. Power is a responsivity not an excuse to say “Wheelp my kids were a mistake going to just let them overthrow the government, become far more entriched in mewni politics, and boss me around without EVER questioning them or trying to replace them”. His apathy is never really called out by anyone but Marco, and he’s treated with all this undue importance despite not doing anything but train the queens, which even then i’ts questionable how good he was at that. Just an asshole, not the worst character in the series, he’s coming up in a few episodes, but just wholly unlikeable. And I get he’s supposed to be comically douchey but after what we learn about eclipsa it just passes into unforgivable and it’s never brought up or talked about. Which is a trend for this series and I don’t know why i’m even bothering being annoyed at this point when I could easily COUNT the number of potential plot threads the series half finished, dropped or wasted and it’d probably hit 50+. 

So Marco is chasing after Glossarcyk and ends up in Buff Frog’s office. Buff Frog was Ludo’s former second in command, who reformed, and became close with Star and Marco, and who Star gave a position as Royal Monster Expert in order to have an ACTUAL MONSTER doing their job since the previous person was a crazy lady who thought of htem as less than sapient and tried to drown them all for reasons I don’t quite remember. This.. has not come up since and this is the first time we’ve seen his office since and it’s empty. 

Marco finds a note for star but accidently reads it before he can get it to her, and we do get a glimpse of the old Marco as he’s disgraught over “reading someone’s mail without their permission!” I missed this.. I think I blocked out the GOOD times with marco in my brain behind a butter-like wall of all the stupid shit he did this season and the next and the whole resolution to the starco thing that left a taste in my mouth not unlike sardine juice mixed with vinegar, aka what causes Mitch Mconnel’s face to look like delfated and to sound like the ghost of Michgian J Frogs Condederate Uncle. 

Meanwhile Star is with Tom and is distruaght after finding our her life is a lie and feels there’s no one she feels she can talk to about this, and Tom’s face when she says this just...

You can tell the poor guy is just hurt. HIs girlfirend is hurting.. and she dosen’t even CONSIDER talking to him about this or think she can trust him despite him being RIGHT THERE. This expression is only on screen for half a second but it says so much. And another thing it says is that he dosen’t know HOW to help her, as evidenced by the fact his offering to is very awkward and sitlted, that he’s clearly HURT she dosen’t think she can confide in him, but is so awkward in general and out of his depth her ehe dosen’t know how to help he just wants to.  But while Star eventually seems receptive.. Marco busts in and we get a seen of EVERYONE involved being a canoe filed with dicks and old vhs copies of biodome. After of course Marco tells Star, Buff Frog is gone. To wit

Star: Immediately plans to take off with Marco and only Marco despite tom being right there, that he could help even if he has no stake in it, and the fact that cloudy can both grow, and Tom can you know.. FLY. That’s a thing we’ve seen him do a lot. So space isn’t an issue, sh’es just forgetting tom exists. Which WOULD work if it was an intentional issue but is sadly the beggining of Star being a pretty terrible girlfriend to tom. This example is lighter since you know , one of her closest friends and his small children are missing, and this is the day after her entire world got flip turned upside down, so I can forgive her a bit since she’s probably not thinking clearly.. but it’s the start of a LONG pattern fo her forgetting tom exists when it’s not coinvent and not thinking about his feelings.

Marco: When Tom asks to take Marco’s place, Marco says, not that he’s buff frog’s friend or he’s worried again about the fact he has kids that could be in danger but “I’m her squire it’s my job”... BEFORE you know the fact his friend WITH YOUNG CHLIDRNE WHO COULD BE DEAD VIA HATE CRIME, is missing. 

Seriously it says something about how far Marco has fallen by this ponit that even in an episode wher eh’es largely his old self.. he STILL make this about him and star to her boyfriend’s face. HiS FRIEND’S FACE. There will be worse from Marco soon enough, and far worse we won’t be covering, but it does say something that they did him so wrong this season that THIS is minor in comparison to some of the other shit he pulls. 

Tom: The only INTEITONAL one of these, as Star’s neglect feels like it was an accident, as he insists on coming along as her boyfriend despite this being a fairly serious situation and him clearly just wanting alone time. 

OH and if you thought the writers you know ACTUALLY cared about STar’s anguish over finding out her whole life was a lie, her newly found grandma who actually relates to her and treats her with respect unlike her mother isn’t biologically related (Not that blood relation matters but I can see why finding out the one family member besides your dad who was anything like you in recent memory.. isn’t related to you would hurt).. 

This highlights the show’s biggest flaw, and yes folks it’s bigger than the ending with the accidental genocide and the horrible implications. That was bad.. but what really tripped the show up long before that.. is the lack of payoff. Now sure some plots get payoffs, especially the Metora one, it’s one of the series best arcs.. but TONS of other threads are just outright ignored, casually dropped or never really pulled.  Look I know that every show has things we wished they’d done more with, and most of the greats of this generation have stuff they dropped the ball on by dropping it or never really getting into it: She Ra never really had any closure with Catra and Scorpia, despite Catra hurting her the most out of anyone and that could’ve been a good thing for her character developent and Scorpia’s own character development. Ducktales had NO intention of going into Della’s reaction to Scrooge and Donald’s feud and quitely ignored or retconned the fact Scrooge clearly erased Della’s long history from the web and wherever else he could, as why else would the kids have never known. Did they just not use google? Steven Universe, if partially by design as it turns out, skipped over a LOT of things and ignored a lot of intresting characters human and gem. It’s the nature of writing seralized teleivsion: Sometimes you just forget to take care of something or simply don’t have the space to. That is fine.  The problem is star does this.. for major plot points that really CAN’T be ignored. Starting with this season they flat out ignore Star telling Marco how she felt for pretty much the entire season. They only deal with it in booth buddies.... THREE EPISODES before the season finale two parter. Despite it having massive impliciations, doing so IN FRONT OF JACKIE, who was her friend, and Jann who is both Jackie and Star’s friend and is not subtle.  We never get any fallout from this and the show weirdly acts like Marco can’t easily visit home. I mean yes he’s star’s squire but she’s not a heartless monster> The DIazes were her parents for a while too. And that’s not even getting into Marco Junior... “Shudders”. But that part of the cliffhanger was just the start after that the pile just kept getting larger. Before it was basically JUST the monster arm and it possibly being involved with the blood moon. So to prove my point i’m making a list of EVERY dropped plot point or storyline from the series, most of which are from season 3 onward. And naturally I asked jess for help with this after the first 25.. and the list DOUBLED. One or two of these are nitpicky.. but the fact the vast majority AREN’T .. yeah.

1. Jackie’s reactoin to Star’s feelings for Marco 2. Janna’s Reaction to Star’s feelings for Marco 3. Buff Frog being head monster expert 4. Buff Frog and Co fleeing this dimension and where they WENT exactly 5. Tom being a Monster 6. Star not being a Butterfly by blood 7. Moon’s reaction to not being a butterfly by blood 8. Rhombulus feeling guilty 9. Marco’s reaction to hekapoo being a terrible person 10. Marco and Kelly’s Relationship (Technically resovled but done poorly) 11. Tad not being over Kelly 12. Hornanne never getting a horn (I know minor but it bothers me a lot) 13. Eclipsa having to win over the other kingdoms 14. Related, the Johnasons being the hardest one of those to overcome 15. Related to 13 again: Why Tom’s Parent’s didn’t suppport eclipsa 16. What the Jaggy Mountains are or are like at all 17. WHy Glossaryck was worried about Globgor 18. Why Glossaryck faked being feral for a season 19. How Star had a piece of the spell book 20. What Mr. Candle’s Deal is 21. The Pie Folk knowing the true lineage of the queen 22. Was the commission conspiracy ever made public.  23. Meteora possibly having memories from her previous self 24. Lobster Claws 25. River’s reaction to moon’s betrayal 26. Toffee’s Past  and Motivations 27. Marco’s Cheekmarks 28. Any reaction by Star and Janna to said cheekmarks 29. The kingdom’s reaction to the book being stolen is never brought up again 30. The Past Queens (Never brought up in show itself, but Jess feels there was supposed to be more there and I agree) 31. The Septarian Painting in ST.O’s (While i’ts a hint at who meteora is WHY it’s there and why ST. O would even allow it and why it’s of septarians is never explained) 32. Monster Arm 33. Relicor’s Wife 34. Why the dance memory was different 35. How do people in other dimensions get dimensional scissors? 36. How Did Toffee Know of the Whipsering Spell? 37. Where did Toffe, Ludo and Rasticore’s dimensonal scissors/chainsaw come from? 38. Toffee’s Damage to Mewni (Never gets brought up aagain after silver bell) 39. Why Globgor eating Shastacan was “Complicated” 40. Upwards Waterfall Unicorn 41. Star spying on Marco and Jackie 42. Any Explination for Green Magic 43. The photo’s of star and marco’s kiss (To quote jess, into the void they go) 44. How Metora Learned Soulsucking and why she can do that 45. Metora taking Rasticores arm with her.  46. The Neverzone’s weird time dialation 47. Star’s Neglect of Tom 48. The Spiderbites reaction to globgor being freed 49. The “Big Surge of Dark Magic” 50. Eclipsa “gets into your head 51. Star learning wandless magic with no effort 52. Where did Brian Go? 53. Star and Marco Never apologize for the kiss on screen 54. “I know how this all ends 55. Why Lekmet was never Replaced and why reynadlo didsn’t replace him

55 in the span of an hour.. and that’s not even getting into the fact Jess was thinking these up off the top of her head and probbaly coudl’ve kept going, but I didn’t want to overtax her since I was asking a favor of her, and  fifty goddamn three is more than enough to say ya done fucked up. Just.. holy shit. MARVEL has less dropped plotlines than this, and that at least has the caveat of changing writers and some writers being dipshits who don’t CARE about resolving what happened before. The Star team has an excuse for maybe 10 or 20 of these.. but 55! Fifty Goddamn five! And that’s stopping as we could probably have found more and just tying this paragraph we did, hence 55. How much do you have to NOT care about your audience, your plots and your characters to miss this much? The three I mentioned before all have understandable explinations behind them: She-Ra had a set episode count and only so much space and it made more sense story wise to have scorpia be taken over by the horde. Ducktales is on a kids network and Disney isn’t at all supportive of adult plots to the point a courtroom episode was deemd too confusing for kids... which first off , no, and secondly you see what they were dealing with. and Steven Universe again did this slightly intentionally, with things happening offscreen because that’s how life works, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t. 

This is just incompetence on a MASSIVE scale that boggles the goddamn mind. I have seen shows do worse, but i’ve never seen a show flush most of i’t spoteital drama nad character development down a goddamn hole again, and again and again in such a consitent manner. There’s no wonder I didn’t see this at the time. This is a level of messed up you have to see from helicopter view! The show just stopped carring about finishing most of it’s storylines and just brought shit up when it was convient and threw it out on a scale that just... just.. 

It sucks. It sucks to see a show that had so much potetial squander it, it sucks the show ended up like this, as only a handful of those are from pre season 3, and it sucks that the clock is ticking on how much good I have to say about the show without having to add the button “And then this was never properly resolved.” Good. Fucking. Grief. And Jess wanted to find MORE, and probably could, but I didn’t want her to dedicate her life to this. It’s monuentally frustrating, and saddening to see waht a waste of potetial this series was by the end. All of this is one big list of what if and most of it shoudl’ve been resolved in some way. “Sigh”.... let’s move on.. for my sanity’s sake. I made myself very sad. 

So with Marco out of the way Tom and Star start investigating and Tom is a bit of a dick about it, suggesting they abandon the search for her friend and his CHLDREN to go get a corn shake and that the monsters just went out grocery shopping.. the former is just horribly out of character, as even if he would WANT to leave he woudln’t be so cavialer about it when sh’es this upset just a few episodes AFTER monster bash, where he learned you know.. not to do that. The other is just ehhh... like you think he’d react to an entire town being missing and Star’s JUSTIFIED fear mina did it , after she easily swatted both of them aside, with more than “eh maybe their doing pesant stuff I don’t know” Thankfully the “Tom is a huge dick and also star is grossed out by him liking monster food revealing she might still be a touch racist without realizing it, which itself is nver touched on, let’s call that number 54″, portion of the episode ends when dark gets a little something on him

Star gets one in her arm, and the two pass out and wake up with sacks over them. We do get the best part of the episdoe where both try to run around blind, and Tom realizes he’s claustrophbic and starts panicking, which results in him falling around and kicking in a circle, while Star takes a guy out and while she can’t see assumes she did something cool. Eventually we find out their kidnappers are related to the buff frog thing and tell her to stop looking and just to be serious are going to break tom’s horns... before Buff Frog arrives wondering what the fuck their thinking and stopping them, and he and his kids are fine. Turns out he’s leaving Mewni and Katrina, his oldest daughter who has giant legs now, wanted to make sure they got to say goodbye, so she left the note in his name knowing Star would come and find them. Before we get into all of that, just a quick aside.. okay so baiscally these monsters who threatened are either fleeing mewni or running some sort of underground railroad to cover up the monster exodus. Which begs the question... why did they tihnk breaking the horns of a crowned prince of one of their allied states and kidnapping and threatning the princess of mewni, who is PUBLICLY pro monster and thus only makes them look worse, was at all a good idea. I get wanting to hdie this but breaking Tom’s horns is only going to lead to a fight at best and two kingdoms coming down at them with their full might, putting innocent people in the crossfire at worst and most likely

But yes the Monsters are leaving.. and this is part of where the episode misteps as the scale is kind of hard to figure in hindsight. On one hand the montser villiage is abandoned , meaning that the episode implies ALL the monsters are leaving.. but not only are some left, once Eclipsa takes over plenty of monsters come back or may of never left, making nit very vauge just how many actually left, especially since the party leaving that we see is just about 10 monsters not including buff frog’s babies.. where did they come from by the way? Ludo just kinda stole them but from where? Jess brought that up but i’m not sure I got it on the list so 55. The show is entirely too vauge on if this is a mass exodus of eveyr monster at long last or just a large migration of them wanting a better life. Instead of explaining any of this when it’s a very intresting and engrossing idea, the monsters leaving the predjuicde outright, the possible hateful reactoins of the commission given how paranoid they are, how star would combat this, a possible divide in monsterkind with one half going back and the other staying put, WHERE they went exactly.. there’s a lot of great questions and stories here.. but as the list the size of my gut should make clear, none of them get answere dbecause this series just didn’t care about it.. and if so then WHY bring it up. That’s why I brought up the list in the first place.. because this is one of MANY times they bring something up and just.. do nothing with it. Then why did you bring it up in the first fucking place?! As I said I can abide by dropping a plot point for time or beacause Disney is kinda dumb or you just want to get to other good stuff and you had to make a cut. And while a portion of the list is that. i’ts mostly things like this: really fascenating stuff.. that’s ignored because htey just stopped caring. 

So before they all can leave despite Star’s best efforts, TOM steps up and calls them cowards.. and admit’s he’s a monster too. And while one.. WEIRD looking guy points out he’s rich, so should he count, Tom counters with the fact that sure he’s rich.. but when he gets in an elevator he’s a monster. He may be part of a diffrent “catageory”.. but to a stranger he’s just the same as them. While it dosen’t feel quite earned by the episode, it is a moral that needs to be taught: prilvage dosen’t insulate you completely from prejudice. You can still be discrminated against no matter how much money you have or how far you get because the system sucks.  And once again this is a waste of potetial: tom technically being a monster and being the son of a human and a demon is never brought up again.. despite you know also being a massively powerful monster child of a monster and a mewman.. like a certain someone who’se the big bad for this half of the season. It just never comes up... and I get it’s a categorical bullshit thing, that the comission werne’t worried about a lucitor doing any of this because “Well demons are okay and we have a treaty and stuff”, but the show had no trouble pointing out categorical bullshit before.. why not now? 

The ending however is good as Buff Frog.. isn’t convinced. HE admit’s tom’s speech is good.. but he’s been dealing with this stuff for too long. It also works because him leaving the job they never focused on.. isn’t framed as him being ungreatful or anything. He’s genuinely appricative of what Star is trying to do and gets her heart is in the right place.. but she doesn’t have the power to fix this. She’s just a kid, and while she has some power her mother has no real intention of making things better for them. And he has to think of a better life for his kids.. so we get some tearful goodbyes as Buff Frog promises to return when she’s in charge.. even though he does because she’s in charge in the season finale and we never see him , 56, and he has to be talked into coming back in the last season... so they leave but Tom promises her it can work out because their a monster and a mewman and they hug and I sigh a little knowing how this relationship ends and the accidental message it sends. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is DECENT on it’s own but in hindsight.. it’s just depressing, bringing up some good ideas.. that end up going nowhere and the ending REALLY isn’t great in hindsight when he leaves star so she can be with another human-type person. Also tom’s charcterization is a bit lopsided starting off worse than ever and being fine in the end, and while that COULD just be that he felt he coudln’t admit he was a monster... it honestly just feels liked they wanted the moral without having to work for it as him being a monster has nothing to do with how he acted earlier. Till the next rainbow... UUGGGGHHHh. 

[seyaryminamoto]

I recently saw a video where GRRM talked about how he saw two different kinds of writers. He mentioned the gardener(planting the seed of an idea and letting it grow) and the architect(who plans out and organizes everything ahead of time). Obviously, every writer is a little bit of both but I was wondering which you relate to more and if you’d be willing to share some more about your own writing approaches and processes :)

I think I've answered similar questions in the past, but it'd be near impossible to dig it out in this ridiculously big, chaotic archive of my blog xD so I guess I'll answer it again, and if we come across the previous answers I've given, it'd even be fun to compare if there's anything different in the answer these days (?)

Personally, I think the best way to go about this is to have a mix of both things, but for me, it's in a very specific manner.

While I absolutely see the value in letting a story spiral and grow into whatever it wants to be, I have to say I don't think my best work comes from that. The lack of structure is similarly liberating and dangerous, because if your story's purpose isn't something you, as an author, have really made up your mind about, it's 100% possible that the story will end up going in very strange directions that MIGHT not make much sense, when you look at where you started out.

I've told this story a few times, but it bears repeating xD my first "serious" attempt at writing (by which I mean, I took it seriously, not that the content itself was super serious, since it was a trainwreck more often than not xD) started off as a perfectly happy romcom high school story! And tbh, to this day I love it as it is... but I know, I KNOW, that I totally warped the initial purpose and process of the story when, upon fulfilling the first bit of conflict in the story and leaving some massive loose ends I had to wrap up, I found myself at a loss because I had no idea how to continue. I was seriously, genuinely, at a loss for ideas and storylines to keep going. What, then, did I come up with?

... my happy romcom characters ended up embroiled in an organized crime catastrophe that has ZERO build-up in the first part of the story xD

(To the eagle-eyed who might have picked up something here... yes. That is 100% what I was poking fun at through Yang in Gladiator during the Fire Lord's Shadow arc. Yes. I mock myself. More accurately, I make Azula and Sokka mock my most questionable writing choices :'D)

Now, then, I had a very weird mess in my hands and I admit, it wasn't a great place to be at xD you see me now with my very, very small likelihood of falling into writer's block? Well, back then, I spent more time blocked than writing, for sure :'D and one of the reasons why that happened is because, while I had some ideas for what I wanted to write in the future? I didn't really have a set direction beyond "I want these and these characters as endgame relationships!", which is pretty much the most basic level of "plotting" you can pretend to do, as a writer xD And ironically, even then I was far more malleable and willing to experiment with whatever character combinations came up later, which even resulted in me discovering, well into writing a story, that some characters I absolutely did NOT conceive in a relationship were actually pretty good together! :'D

But that I had very little direction when I started writing that story was still a problem. I actually found more direction and built some more structure as I reached the last part of the story, and I will say, it's the strongest bit of it, by far xD (as evidence of what I'm saying, it was the first time I ever wrote an OUTLINE DOC! XD) but I have no doubts that, if I'd had the foresight to actually know where I was going, the story as a whole would be much much better, no matter how much I love it for what it is.

So! This particular writing experience of mine taught me countless things, among them, to actually ponder direction and purpose in stories instead of diving in blindlly. It's not really about having foreshadowing hints every ten minutes, which is what some people take as a sign of quality (I'll dare be quite controversial and say that not because you know what you'll write ten years down the line does it mean your story automatically makes sense... xD), it's about actually having a purpose in what you're building, a real direction, character arcs and plotlines that, to put it simply, work.

Therefore... I know for a fact that I can't be a full-blown plantser (or gardener) because I've tried it, and while I absolutely see the merits, the drawbacks are pretty sizable for me, and it just really doesn't work with my approach to storytelling.

Thus... If I MUST choose a category out of them both, I'd say I'm an architect, but the truth is I'm not an architect in the most strict sense of the word, either :'D

If you want a super strong building, you obviously need the best foundations for it. But you don't stop there, of course: erecting a building takes a lot of different efforts and processes if you really want your building to not only stand tall but to be a proper, decent place to live in. And while in real life, the reasonable thing would be to have a plan for each of those little details you have to build in, from filling the walls, to the type of flooring, down to even the decor... in writing, THIS is where I take the gardener approach! :'D

I don't know if I've said it in the past, but while sometimes I don't know how to start a story (which, despite my carelessness with the matter in the past, I've come to realize is a VERY delicate choice to make, one that can actually destroy my immersion in a story if it's a choice made carelessly), usually, I try to make myself think about where it's going, first of all. Currently, I have a few potential original projects rolling around in my head... and I don't know where they start :'D but I DO know where I'll take them, what the actual, ultimate climax of those stories would be. This, then, is the most basic foundation for a story, for me. I choose a destination, kinda, and then build the journey there :D

This is, loosely speaking, how I've built up Gladiator. And yet Gladiator, being the ridiculously big mess that it is, required a very unique plotting approach that I suppose might be at odds with a lot of what I've said so far xD yet it also remains true to a lot of what I've said here :'D

When I first started to ponder this story, the first plot point was obvious and instinctive: Sokka's capture. When Chaosconetic (the one who first gave me the idea for this story) suggested it, he didn't quite put forward the idea of having Azula being the one who captured Sokka personally. I thought of making Azula and Sokka first come face to face in this way because... honestly? Because I just wanted them to interact as soon as possible x'DDDD it complicated matters, of course, but that was absolutely something I could work with.

Yet... where was I going with this story? It was a rewrite of ATLA as a whole, so what exactly was the direction for the story? Clearly, Azula and Sokka would wind up falling in love, and how exactly would that come about? And beyond that, wouldn't it be a seeerious mess for this to happen in a setting where Ozai is STILL in power? Why, of course it would be! :'D It added a new layer of complications to the generally already complicated Sokkla relationship, and instead of it being kept secret or being a forbidden romance for the reasons canon-based stories typically make it so, it's BEYOND forbidden here because Ozai is still a very much active factor in this story, and he makes everything worse :D soooooo...

With these particular factors in mind, I had several things to think about. With Sokka fighting as a gladiator being the core of the story, I had to figure out who would be his rivals, and in doing so, figure out what his power curve as a warrior would look like :'D in doing so, I settled very quickly on Toph for his main serious rival, but Sokka wasn't the only one whose story I'd be telling: obviously, Azula's arc would be important too, as I'd have to work with developing her FAR MORE than I ever had before, and while Sokka's personal opponents would be important, Azula is the one who chooses Sokka as her personal warrior, therefore, she had to have a purpose in doing so. Said purpose then materialized when I decided to make use of Zhao's character for Azula's main goal and foil, and so, I needed Zhao to have THE best gladiator of all... and I didn't need to think about it too much before I settled on Combustion Man for the role :'D

Thus, those were small, isolated yet pivotal elements that I had to articulate into a structure that made sense :D they were small things I settled on pretty quickly, from the very first few days of plotting. I can say for certain that, by the third day, I already had settled on the climax (... can't decide whether that's a fortunate or unfortunate wording choice, tbh xD) scene of Part 1, when Azula and Sokka have their fateful fight in chapter 96, then finally succumb to their attraction and act on their feelings without holding back, in chapter 97 :'D I knew I wanted this to happen after Sokka hit a low point upon failing to defeat Toph, either for the second time or after losing against her far too many times that he just was too discouraged to keep going, hence, I knew what the lead-up to this would be from literally day THREE.

But beyond this? At like... day one or two of plotting, once I settled on Combustion Man as the ultimate man to defeat? I also settled on how Part 2 would end :> back then, I honestly had no idea how much time there would be between the events from chapter 97 and the upcoming culmination of Part 2, I wasn't anywhere near advanced enough with plotting to even KNOW I'd split the story into parts because it would get too big to handle xD But what I did know was that I needed these two situations to happen, situations deeply entwined with Sokka's role as a gladiator. Everything in between was variable, and it was stuff I could figure out slowly, along the way.

The ultimate direction of the story, though? That did take me a long time to settle on xD In fact, I think it took me well over a year after I got started to really figure out where I was going with all of this. A close friend helped me figure out things by offering many ideas for Zuko and Suki's storyline, basically tossing them at me in hopes that I'd make sense out of some of them... and I don't really know if she even knows how much that helped me xD I really spent a long time unsure of what I wanted to do, what I COULD do... until at long last, I settled on one slightly ambitious direction that eventually turned into what you'll all know as Part 3 :'DDDDD

So... yeah, that's why I say I'm being contradictory as heck xD Yes, I worked out some core details of the story since the very beginning, but it wasn't ALL the core details, let alone the ultimate direction of the story, BUT... in building up Azula's character arc, that direction slowly became clearer to the point where, when this particular possibility stared me in the face, I knew it was where we had to go, I realized that what I'd written over that year was leading up perfectly to that outcome.

Ergo, Gladiator is 100% a work of gardening and architecture, woven together to a point where I have a hard time remembering what, exactly, was the result of each thing. There's some things that I settled on early on, like I said, structure things... and then there are some parts where the characters just went wild and did things I did NOT expect them to do xD There's one scene coming up, right before the climax of Part 2, where Azula actually does something that I honestly WASN'T sure of doing... and yet I couldn't resist the urge to go forward with it, once the idea came to mind, and so I did it. And now I regret nothing xD was it necessary? Possibly not. Will some people find it weird and out of place? Maybe. But was it CATHARTIC AS HECK!? Aaaabsolutely friggin' yes XD pardon me for being so self-indulgent, but that's part of what being a gardener is about (?)

So, I really think the best stories benefit from a careful approach to mixing the principles of both ideas. I know that some gardeners think that a structure can stifle creativity (not necessarily true, if you sense a lack of creativity in anything you're doing, it IS up to you to turn it around, switch it up and make it interesting, right...?), I also suspect architects might think gardeners would be utterly unable to tell a good story altogether in virtue of letting the story run away with them (also not necessarily true, as the quality of a story isn't quantifiable as easily as that, gardeners might just make masterpieces without as much need of direction as I personally require: Philip Pullman apparently had no set direction in the His Dark Materials trilogy and I could swear that's some of the best storytelling I have EVER seen).

Ultimately, each person gets to choose their ideal approach and what exactly they're trying to do with their work, as well as how they want to do it... but if you ask me, if your characters never seem to pull you in unexpected directions, you might just need to rework them or approach them differently to give them more life. If they DO pull you in those unexpected directions, but you're not sure if you can follow them just because you need to follow structure, it's really up to you as the author to choose whether to sacrifice the life/creativity within your own work and stick to structure, or sacrifice structure and potentially cause your story's course to crumble :'D

It may sound like I'm advocating for gardening so much more, despite I've labeled myself an architect, buuuuut... ironically, a very complicated but VERY rewarding scene in Gladiator Part 3 damn near WRECKED my structure when I was writing it a few weeks ago :'D I literally had to take a day off from actually writing so I could make a list of ALL the elements that would be impacted by this change if I went forward with it. If I chose against it, I would have to rewrite the complicated scene in a different way, and it might have been waaay too weird to make it work. If I chose to keep it, I had to tread VERY carefully or end up potentially making a mess of the ultimate direction of Gladiator's story, even threatening the themes and nuance that I have been counting on since I settled on this direction. Thus, sometimes gardening can be dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

I THINK I found a fair enough compromise that allows me to keep the best of both worlds... but I hope I've made it clear that both ways of working have their pros and cons, and why even mixing both things can have pros and cons xD but this is also why I, personally, think that a writer benefits the most from figuring out at least a loose outline, the broad strokes of what they want to achieve in a story, and then figuring out the many ways in which they could fill in those foundations, in whatever way they're most comfortable.

And so, I have rambled plenty xD I hope that was thorough enough, my position in this particular subject is honestly to oscillate in the middle of both things, where part of your job as the writer is to determine which situation benefits more from either approach :D Like I said before, I've found structure isn't something I can sacrifice easily, but more often than not, letting the story flow, letting the characters make their own choices, can enrich your story rather than hinder it. So... I lay the foundations, the structure, so that seeds can grow inside it, if that makes sense xD

[agwitow]

Hey there's two parts to this. My first question is How do you handle writer’s block? Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers? Bonus Question How do you deal with emotional impact of a book (on yourself) as you are writing the story?

Hi Nonny, thanks for asking!

Okay, so... I have thoughts about this, and that might make this answer a bit, uh, longer... than you were expecting. Sorry in advance if you were wanting something quick.

Right, so. Writer’s Block. The boogeyman of writers everywhere. We hear people complain about it all the time, there are tons of guides to beating it (I’m even writing an entire book about getting yourself unstuck when it strikes), and everyone will likely give you a different answer as to why it happens and how to beat it.

To my way of thinking, this is because there are several different types of writer’s block. Too Many Ideas, or Not Enough Ideas, or Mental/Physical Exhaustion, or Written Into a Corner, or Bogged Down By Details, or Missed A Step

1. Too Many Ideas

While this might not sound like it’s all that bad of a thing (how can a creative type have too many ideas?), it can actually be really frustrating to deal with. Sometimes it means you keep getting ideas for new projects, and sometimes it means you keep getting new ideas to squeeze into your current project, and then sometimes it means you keep thinking up different ways to tell the current story.

Ugh. Well. Silver lining, your creative juices are certainly flowing. But that doesn’t help you get any writing done.

So if you’ve got this type of writer’s block, the best way I’ve found to deal with it is to have a notebook or word doc (or something along those lines) to jot down all the ideas as the come to you. You can even have a separate document for the ideas that pertain specifically to your current project. But the trick here is that as soon as you write the idea down, you push it aside and ignore it.

This can be hard to do at first. New ideas are soooo shiny that you can’t help but want to play with them. So it can help if you set aside a bit of time every week to go over all the ideas you’ve jotted down. Just make sure it’s a time that’s distinct from your writing time. Once you’ve gotten into the habit of this, then the flurry of ideas will no longer hinder your writing.

Alternatively, you can try channeling all that extra creativity into another art form. Especially something big and messy ;) 

2. Not Enough Ideas

When people talk about experiencing writer’s block, they’re usually thinking it’s because you don’t know what to do next in your story (i.e., that you don’t have enough ideas), but this is actually pretty rare. Usually you’ve hit that block because of one of the other items on this list.

But, when it is because the well has run dry (so to speak), then it’s like trying to start a car with a dead battery. And just like that, you need to grab some jumper cables and give it a boost.

Do some yoga, go for a walk, listen to music, watch the clouds drift by, go stargazing, get your heart pumping, read poems that make you cry.

Basically, you need to shake things up. Drag yourself out of the rut you’ve found yourself in by doing things non-writing related. Not only is that good for your general health, it’ll recharge your creativity.

3. Mental/Physical Exhaustion

This type of writer’s block has probably become the most common over the last year or so. It is dang hard to be creative when you are mentally and/or physically drained. This can come about because of stress, lack of sleep (literal exhaustion), pain, injury, illness, or lack of self-care.

The most important thing with this type of writer’s block is to remember that it’s okay to take a break. Your mental and physical health is more important than completing a writing goal.

Give yourself the space to rest, and your creativity will return.

4. Written Into a Corner

Let me tell you, I’ve fallen into this one a lot. It sucks, and it can take awhile to figure out why it’s such a struggle to write. It usually happens when you are determined to have a specific event or sequence of events play out in your story, but your subconscious is recognizing that the scene/event/storyline doesn’t fit.

If you can’t seem to figure out how to connect your current scene to where you need to go next, then it’s very possible that you should remove the current scene entirely, or completely rewrite/change it.

You might think this only applies to pantsers (people who write without having an outline first), but it happens to plotters just as frequently. It’s not about a lack of planning, it’s about not realizing that the way you’re forcing the story doesn’t match with some other part of it. Maybe because of extra world building, or research, or character development, or lines of dialogue three chapters back, but whatever the reason, it’s made the current scene not-quite-fit.

This is okay. It’s not a failure of planning or creativity or you as a writer. It just happens sometimes.

Go back a scene or two and rethink how to get to the next plot point. Can you rework the troublesome scene? Do you need to remove it? Replace it with something else entirely? Whatever the solution, it’s okay. Your story will be better for it.

5. Bogged Down By Details

Along the same line as the previous one, this kind of writer’s block often leaves you unsure of how to progress to the next scene. The difference here is that this time it’s because you let the narrative point of the scene become lost in the minutiae. Maybe it’s a big info-dump, or maybe you let the characters get sidetracked by sightseeing, or maybe some random supporting character has been elevated to having a three-page monologue.

Whatever the cause, you’ve tried to cram too much information into the scene and now it feels weird to connect it to the next one.

Read over the scene and identify what information absolutely needs to be there for the story to progress. Is there any information that doesn’t need to be there, but is good set-up for something later? Keep those bits. Everything else you need to cut.

Yup. Sorry.

If you really like the information or dialogue or what-have-you, save it and see if you can work it in to other parts of the story in small bits. A little extra world building here and there can really make a story feel alive. It’s when there is too much in one spot that it becomes a problem. 

6. Missed A Step

This one is almost the opposite of the last two points. Instead of having too much, or conflicting information, you’re missing something. For me, this is usually a rewrite/edit writer’s block phenomenon, but I’m sure there are lots of writers who experience it during their first draft too.

Basically, in your hurry to get from point A to C, you forgot all about B. Whoops!

If you’re writing (or editing) and the scene feels disconnected or like you’re having to do a lot of flashback-style inserts to get the reader up to speed, then you probably need to add something to a previous scene, or add a new scene altogether.

Usually this one (at least for me) doesn’t feel as much of a ‘block’ as the other types, but more like I can’t move forward until something is resolved. That something being the missing info/scene.

So yup... there are different types of Writer’s Block, and how you deal with it depends on what type it is. You might find that you experience one type more than the others, or that you experience a different type that I didn’t describe (in which case, please share). However you are facing off against writer’s block, just remember that it isn’t the end of the world. It’s just a sign that something needs to change.

As far as tips for aspiring writers go, I’ve answered a couple of different asks about that sort of thing before, so (to keep this from being monstrously long) check those out.

For your bonus question... I just let myself cry when I need to, or bounce around after the scene is written, and/or do some light sparring with my partner to work out the anger/stress afterwards.

Emotionally charged scenes are rough, but so rewarding. Keep on writing ‘em :)

Thanks again for asking!

xoxo

[demonboidies]

𝓼𝓲𝓬𝓴𝓵𝔂 - 𝓶𝓲𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓲, 𝓳𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓸𝓴, 𝓴𝓲𝓶 𝓷𝓪𝓶𝓳𝓸𝓸𝓷

pt. 5 

word count: 2,775

<this is a yandere story, therefore this is a trigger warning for emotional abuse, manipulation, toxic relationships and overall unhealthy obsession towards the reader/mc/yn>

tag list: @taezeus​ @jooniescupcakes @aesthetically-messed-up @okpoke​  @aysha489​ @iwannabeanidol (comment under this post to be added, if you comment anywhere else i won’t see it) 

➣min yoongi

      producer, song-writer, and lyricist. 25 years old and enjoys his own personal times as much as he enjoys naps. has dark brown hair and pale skin. (similar to his wings era looks but brown hair)

you locked the door after dropping the boys off. on the journey to the college, you discovered how energetic the trio really was. you figured they would've been as tired as you were to be up at 7 am when you were in college.

checking the paper that was still in your hand, you saw the name Min Yoongi next. walking back to your room, you unlocked the cabinet door with your key and saw a pill bottle with the patient's name on it.

you knocked softly on his door and a grunt was the only response you got. entering the room you took note of how much darker the aesthetic was prior to the previous male. his walls were painted gray and his sheets were gray and black. everything matched a minimalist aesthetic and you appreciated the chill music that was playing from the record player in the corner of the room.

"yoongi?" you called out softly, shutting the door as quiet as possible.

"hng..." was the only response and you smiled softly at his relatable tone. no one in your book enjoyed waking up so early.

"i have your medication you have to take." at your words he slowly, very slowly, sat up with his hand sticking out. you placed the capsule in his hand and looked for water for him to take it with. "ah. sorry. please wait as i get you the water."

he dismissed your worry, swallowing the pill right down, a sigh leaving his lips afterward. "what time is it?" he asked quietly in a meek voice.

"its 08:45." you answered, peaking down at the schedule in your hand. it was really short for this individual. simply turn on his desktop and switch his record playing to a hip hop album. then get him a fresh cup of instant

so you did as it said, not noticing the trailing eyes that were on you the whole time. yoongi watched with a small smile as you diligently worked, even if you only had to shake the mouse awake. he loved the smile on your face when it finally turned on. but your expression faltered at the sight of his lock screen.

"uhm. yoongi? who's your lockscreen?"

his one eye peeked open, trying to hide his panic. he had forgotten to change it before you came. "uhm, no one. i got it off of the internet."

he threw the covers aside, softly moving you aside from the desktop. "just-just could you change the record and get me my coffee..." he smiles weakly, trying to hide his nerves, "i can't function without it. especially in the mornings." he explained to try and cover himself up. you nodded, letting it slide. you probably were the one at fault anyway, why did you even question him? ugh, you were being so stupid.

there was no way that it was actually you as the lockscreen...that's impossible considering you only met the lot yesterday. your eyes were probably just playing a game with you.

you delicately switched the music, hearing the crackly, yet relaxing beat of a rapper you didn't know the name of. you went to the kitchen and came back up to his room a few minutes later with a steeping cup of hot coffee. he smiled thankfully to you, taking the mug from you.

"thank you." he said and you turned away, about to leave. but the light pressure around your wrist made you turn around with a confused expression. the expression on his face looked as if he was hurting as he touched you, like your contact of skin on skin was burning him.

"so-sorry if I offended you earlier. i-you just caught me off guard with that question." he retracted his hand and scratched a spot behind his ear, a habit you assumed was formed out of anxiety.

"oh, don't worry about it. I should've watched my own mouth. it's not my business what your lockscreen is anyway." you said with a light chuckle. he shook his head with a small pout, which was the cutest thing in your opinion.

"don't blame yourself. it really is my fault." he retorted with the shake of his head. almost like he was disappointed in himself.

"why don't we meet in the middle and say it wasn't any of our faults?" you proposed, deeming it useless if you continued arguing about whose fault it was.

he chuckles at the proposition and nodded. "fine." a smile graced your lips and you continued to take your leave from his room.

"have a nice morning, yoongi." you said softly and he returned it with a grateful smile. shutting the door behind you, you didn't hear the breath of relief he let out.

"such an oblivious girl~~" was the tiny mutter he let out as he clicked away on his desktop, getting right to work.

➣jung hoseok

      choreographer, dancer, and produces and raps occasionally. always working although he does enjoy joking around with the maknae line and being goofy with them. he's a child at heart, beaming with energy and curiosity, although he does get a switch in aura due to his mental disabilities occasionally. has a light tinge of red in his hair although the undertones are true brown color (DNA era). 25 years old.

the giddy dancer was the next to be confronted. upon entering his room, you saw the immediate difference and contrast between the two.

his room was painted a bright, but not obnoxious, yellow. it was dulled down a bit and he had an eccentric colorful poster on his wall, just above the headboard of his bed. reading the color font, you made out the words 'HOPE WORLD.' perhaps it was a movie that you haven't heard of.

as for the male you were supposed to wake up, he was already sitting in front of the large screen of his room.

"good morning hoseok." you said cheerfully, almost like your mood had brightened by the mere sight of his wallpaper.

"ah, good morning!" his eyes didn't leave the screen. "sorry, unfortunately, i can't pause Tetris 99 and i'm ranked pretty high right now..." his voice was fading as he continued to focus on the colorful blocks on his screen.

you maneuvered around him, making sure not to cover his vision from his intense game. you sat at his desk, placing the pills labeled with his name into your hand. you had to wait until he was finished until you could give him his pills.

so you watched and got unreasonably attached to his game as well.

"shit..." he cursed lowly under his breath when it showed he was eliminated. honestly, you were yelling at which directions to put the blocks and how to edit their position, but for the sale of professionalism, you held that urge to yell back.

"better luck next time," you said with an encouraging smile. his annoyed expression was washed away immediately like he had taken off an invisible mask, and a wide smile spread his face.

"yup! thanks for the encouragement. it means a lot!" he took the pills on his desk, swallowing without a problem. "have the others been treating you well? the little ones aren't causing trouble right?"

you chuckled at the reference of the maknae line, shaking your head. "everyone is super sweet and nice~ no one has caused trouble." you pushed away the thought of the minor bump in the road at yoongi's room.

"i'm a good boy too right? i don't act up~~" he put his hand under his chin and pursed his lips cutely. he surely was cute. you held back the urge to pinch his cheeks. so all you could do was laugh with a light blush and nod.

"yes, hoseok. you're a good patient." you ruffled his hair slightly.

"awe, am i only a patient to you?" a cute pout now was on his lips, putting his hand on his sides as an upset child would.

"well, hopefully, we become closer as friends." you said in a sing-song voice stepping towards his door. "would you like me to come back to remind you of your studio opening? or do you think you could manage?"

hoseok thought. he always remembered when his studio opened, he was the owner and couldn't let his students down by being late. usually, he was a good 20 minutes early just to clean up. but that would mean you would come back and see him. so, with the two options, he obviously chose the latter.

"just for safety precaution, please come back around to remind me." you nodded in understanding.

"have a nice morning then, and see you soon hoseok." you were about to shut his door before his voice called out to you.

"wait!" he rushed to the doorway, opening it wider as he smiled, "call me hobi from now on. after all, we are gonna wanna become comfortable if you wanna be close friends! i hear nicknames are good ways of doing so. so call me hobi from now on, okay?"

you couldn't say no, especially when he was beaming with a smile like a little puppy. he was so unreasonably cute, it was unfair.

"alright then, hobi, have a good rest of the morning." you made sure to exaggerate the new nickname, thinking it would make him happy. and it did and it showed through his bright smile.

this time you shut the door without him interrupting, continuing on with your job and going down the hallway a bit more to namjoon's room.

meanwhile, hoseok was on his bed, face down in the pillows. in his arms was one that was suffering from his tight hug that he was enveloping it with. he had to bite back a squeal knowing you were only a few feet away from his room.

'i'm a good boy, she said so herself.' he said with a light blush, kicking his feet in ecstasy. 'i can't let her down now, i'll be good for her and only her.'

➣kim namjoon

      online college courses so most of his mornings are spent in his office doing work. very smart and excels in most of his classes. occasionally will accompany jin on his out of country trips, just to be a helping hand if needed. blondish, blonde hair, usually exposing his forehead. he's 25 years old and does also confide in his lyrical book to relieve stress.

you stopped a moment in front of the door, leaning your head against the door. your eyes were widened a bit, seeing how long his list was. you soon realized that is was like that because it contained his school schedule (which was several pages long, he didn't keep out details.)

suddenly, the door was swung open, leaving you to fall out of balance. luckily, namjoon acted fast enough to catch you. he was careful with his hands, not wanting to intrude on your personal space. he kept his arms stiff as he caught you from your underarms.

"oh my go-! i'm so sorry namjoon," you bowed profusely, trying to hide the embarrassment in your voice. although, it didn't help much. his familiar chuckle left his lips as he shook his head.

"it's fine," he said with a sweet smile, "i suppose i should apologize too for scaring you. sorry, i had just seen someone's shadow by the door, wanted to see who it was." he explained, keeping the same sweet smile on his face.

you nodded in understanding, digging into your small bag for his dosage. "would you like water?"

"ah, yes. i do need water, unlike the others, i have trouble swallowing these pills down."

rushing to get water, you came back upstairs with a full small glass and a tired smile. "sorry, i should've added that to your notes. i'll be sure to add that on later." he said before swallowing his dose.

"well, i would hate to cut our conversation short but i do need to continue on working. duty does call, unfortunately." he said with a heavy sigh. he didn't want to leave you prescence, but he needed to finish his work before anything else. maybe if he worked hard enough, he would get to spend alone time with you before lunch.

so as you nodded and shut his door, he dashed to his desk and worked as fast. but effectively as possible. without taking a second glance at the click the whole time, he was clicking through pages of pages of articles. at with all this rushing to get finished, he was done at a new record speed of an hour and forty-five minutes.

that was half his time than usual. and he was giddy and excited to have some personal time spent with you. he left his room, shutting the door and bringing his cup of water with him as he walks down the stairs.

however, his rushed feet paused as he heard you laughing. along with a familiar laughter mixed in with yours.

"hobi! stop, i won fair and square!" giu exclaimed as hoseok stomped his feet childishly. he was acting like a child and that was what triggered your laughter. meanwhile, namjoon was scowling at the scene.

of course, he had to ruin the moment. he was supposed to talk to you for some time longer. whatever, he would get his way with you eventually, he told himself.

"what are you two doing?" namjoon voiced, walking closer to you two. in the center of the room there was a giant flat screen TV and it displayed the image of mario kart. "ah, nevermind. i'll let you two have your own time."

hoseok smirked victoriously seeing namjoon's disheartened attitude. "no! come on join us! hoseok had to leave for his studio anyway."

the younger of the two lifted his head hopefully, the cutest smile basking his features.

"really?"

"what-no-!"

"hobi, we can have a rematch mater. you have to go to your studio remember?" you reminded the male, who slouched on defeat. his victorious smile long gone as he stood from his position on the couch.

his bag was already packed for the studio and he hid you two a farewell, not without glaring at namjoon when you weren't paying attention. the other simply smiled innocently, waving bye almost mockingly to hoseok's retreating figure.

"to be honest, i'm kinda scared to go against you. hoseok is second best to jin in this house, so you must be really skilled."

you smiled confidently, "not to toot my own horn, but i've been playing since i was a kid." the newfound fact about yourself made namjoon smile fondly at you.

"well let's hope lady luck is on my side today."

she wasn't. he just all the races you two played, leaving you to pat his shoulder reassuringly even though a prideful smirk was on your lips.

"i demand a rematch, that was not fair!"

tou checked your phone, standing up with a smile. "afraid not at this moment. i've got to get the younger ones from school."

namjoon stood up and followed your walking figure, that was getting closer to the door. "we can send a driver to pick them up, come on just one more."

"sorry, duty calls, like you said earlier." namjoon let out a weak chuckle, not liking how his own words bit him in the butt.

"fine, but i expect a game when you come back."

"we will see namjoon, see you later." you waved and departed, leaving the male to slouch where he stood.

as you drove off to the college, jin sat in his wheelchair as yoongi leaned against the stairwell railing observing Namjoon.

"he's smart, but too selfish." yoongi noted, glaring at namjoon's figure.

"you're one to talk, you maniac."

"oh shut up, poser."

"ah, yoongi, you know I prefer romancer." the eldest winked as the other rolled his eyes at the statement.

| and that's the hyung line! sorry for the long wait =/ maknae line coming up next, apologies for any typos|

[drmedicsgamesurgery]

Danganronpa Togami Volume 3 Part 8 (Summary)

[0] See endnotes for a revelation about Haruki Murakami's relation to this novel I had while at the bookstore.

Thanks to @enoshima-pyon @shockersalvage​ @jinjojess​ @hopeymchope​ and the girl I met at the bookstore who recommended me ‘Kafka on the Shore’ out of sheer coincidence, for helping out! 

7.

"My kettle!"

"Get down! Be careful not to get hit by that rifle!"

"That’s a submachine gun. It’s not good to just think there is only one weapon type"

"Whatever, lay down!"

However instead of going prone, he stood up and went to the coat rack to take his hat. At the moment, K reached out, the hat was reduced to Swiss cheese "Why destroy the hat like a surrealist!?"

"Please, let's lie down!"

"Samsa, who transformed into a bug, moved around the room somewhat like this," K finally listened to me. He’s down. "Nevertheless, I do not want to sleep forever here. That guy with the submachine gun will  want to play close combat. He should soon be in the hut."

"Just what can we do?"

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you aside from wishing for the good times that I hope will find you.” says K “If you’re expecting me to say something like, ‘I knew something like this would happen so I developed ‘Borges Mark II’ which fixed all the weaknesses that the previous model had’...forget it! Don’t expect a development like that!”

With more bullets flying into the house and destroying items like paintings and tableware, K loses his temper and orders Shinobu to follow him. He then opens a hidden door in the kitchen that goes into an underground staircase that leads to the garage. An experience that caused Shinobu to remember when she read the Diary of Anne Frank [1], which left her speechless. Once they get to the garage there is an old Skoda car. K asks Shinobu if she can drive. She asks if he isn’t going with her and he answers that he’s living incognito, so he can’t go with her. Shinobu tells him not to die.K says they are going after her, so they won’t bother killing him. Thus, Shinobu gets in the car and prepares to leave.

I opened the window of the driver's seat.

"Thank you for creating Borges." she says gratefully to K’s surprise.

"Don't you hate me?" he asks.

"There are, of course, hundreds of complaints I would make, but...the world that Borges made me see was very beautiful."

"I hope the world you will see with your left eye will not be so bad either."

"One more thing……"

"What else?"

"I always wanted to know...the writer who you started to tell me about that got angry in the interview. Who is he?"

"Milan Kundera." replied K and I realized one thing.

Kundera. 

That initial letter is also K. 

Kundera is still alive, an old man. After the war, he fled to France, but he was born in the Czech Republic…

No, no. It couldn’t be- Could it? Was that really possible? I am eager to find out if K is also part of the false reality that Borges has shown me, or not.

"Kundera has written a very good sentence. I will quote it until the end." K said. "’Betrayal is to get out of your position. Betrayal is to get rid of the original position and cast it to the unknown’."

"I’m leaving."

I stepped on the gas pedal and the car suddenly slammed into the garage door, breaking it. I saw through the rearview mirror that K was calling, but from his previous words and deeds, he should not blame me for this little thing. 

I drove all the way and rushed down the mountain road. Back when I walked up on my own two legs, I was walking pretty hard.

Now I’m leaving this road at the speed of sound! I was extremely happy! Every time I was too unskilled to shift gears properly, the car squeaked and shaked. 

However, the vintage engine kept running like it has been operating for years now. 

All this means, I just had to keep at it with a smile...until those bullets finally enter my brain!

 8.

"I have finally arrived!"

I tried to say something that was not my usual style. As for the reason as to why, well, maybe it’s because I actually didn't have a ‘style’ at all.

The sound of the air smashed and tore open and with it a helicopter appeared. Since I no longer had Borges, I didn't know the name of the model. But even if I did know it, I couldn't stop it. 

The helicopter flew in the sky and followed closely behind the car. I came out from the window and looked at it. I saw Yuika Ketouin. Her face expressionless like a noh mask, and she was holding the joystick. That octopus was also attached to her head.

“Yuika Ketouin!"

I called out, but she did not respond. Yuika, was still being controlled by the octopus that Kasamori put on her. It’s her that probably killed Hiroyuki, too. I don’t know how to feel about a sister who killed her own brother, although perhaps she simply doesn’t have free will. Having said that, maybe they aren’t siblings at all. I don't know, I don't know anything, but this kind of thing is not important to me at all. I don't need to drink Bufferin anymore. I stepped on the gas pedal and thought about going down the mountain. No matter how destroyed the roof and the mirror were from the bullets, I still continued to drive forward. 

Shinobu decides that in order to make sure a bullet doesn’t hit one of her wheels, that she would jump out of the car and escape into the forest, with the helicopter shooting indiscriminately into the leaves that covered her body.

I held my breath and stayed in the same place. The sound of the propeller and the rain of the machine gun fire gradually drifted away from me. The opportunity came, I walked out of the forest and went back to where the car was.

It’s a trap! 

The helicopter is indeed in the air at a distance, but its body is facing me.

If Yuika Ketouin were to be holding a sniper rifle and waiting for me to come out of the forest, the dot should now be aligned right in the space between my eyebrows. 

I am going to get hit.

I am going to die.

At that moment, however, I suddenly saw something fly towards the helicopter. The thing flew up with a tail-like white smoke, hit the side of the helicopter, and, at the same time, caused an explosion. 

Fireworks bloomed in the blue sky. The helicopter lost its balance and fell toward the mountains. I heard the sound of the spiral wing sweeping the trees... 

Then the explosion. 

The sleeping birds that were in the shade of the forest flew away together.

"It's over..."

I heard the voice, but I didn't see anyone. I looked to the right and then looked to the left again. When I turned to the right again, before there was no one there when I looked that way. 

Now there is a girl standing in front of me. She wore the uniform of Hope's Peak Academy and there were tight muscles on her limbs that protruded from her uniform. She gave off the impression of a female athlete. She had a pair of squinting eyes which were filled with tension.

From the 78th Class of Hope’s Peak Academy.

Mukuro Ikusaba.

Super High School Level Soldier.

Shinobu asks her what is she doing in the Czech Republic and, after a bit of banter where she reads the wrong script in front of Shinobu (which leads Shinobu to comment on how she’s cute, yet rather useless) she answers that she was hired to escort one of the Council of Global Controllers members a day or so before the World Domination proclamation. She blames herself for not being able to protect him. Having failed her mission she tried to head back to the airport but since it was blocked, and she had no money, she was forced to camp out in the forest…

“It couldn’t be helped...so I camped out here,” admitted Mukuro,  “While I was here, I also hunted down a live bear and ate it...slowly.”

“Yep...that’s...good.”

“It was indeed.”

“...”

“...”

Trying to keep the conversation going, Shinobu remarks that Japan or, to be precise, the world is in rough shape at the moment. Mukuro asks how Junko is doing and Shinobu reports about her being in Hope’s Peak and her food request, to which Mukuro takes note she’ll buy before she leaves Czech.

Shinobu asks her help to save Byakuya, but she apologies saying that she isn’t very good with improvised plans, though notes she is supposed to help her, but the plan never says to what extent (she really wishes she had her script now). To make it up to Shinobu, she fixes a tire of the car that got damaged during the machine gun attack. They then part ways, and Shinobu gets out of the mountain with the old Skoda car.

I drove forward again in the car and finally got out of the mountain. There is no problem with the tires, and it was very light to drive. After driving for a while along the river, I was able to see the restaurants in the mountains. 

Mr. Hiroyuki Ketouin. 

Who is that guy? 

From his tone, he seems to know me, but I still can't remember. Thus, the emotions of anger, sadness, and compassion, I can't fathom these.

I am empty, and I blame the K2K system that drives Borges for that. My existence is extremely ambiguous and there is no difference to that of a newborn baby. 

Yes, I am a baby. I know nothing about the world, and I don’t know anything about myself. But, because of this, I can update all of them and move forward. 

Yeah! 

I tried to make a scream that was not like my usual style. Maybe it was because I never really had my own ‘style’ at all? 

But now things have changed! 

I must rely on my own strength to create my own style!

As Shinbou glances at the hotel she and Hiroyuki were at, she whispers that Yuika should be dead as a result of Mukuro.

It feels a bit funny, the world around me is so crazy, but the craziest is myself. I can't believe in any experience of my own. It’s only now that I feel this certain type of happiness. That no matter who is accumulating the past, with this recent freedom only I can create the present.  

In the whole wide world, only I have no original. Happiness that pushes forward like a beast or a bird without being noticed by anybody and with no need to worry about anyone's evaluations.

"Yeah!"

Even if it is not like my usual style of yelling, no one will ever say again that I am not acting out of my usual style. Yes, I have been reborn!  

Even still, I must still keep going towards the place where Byakuya is kept! 

I will move towards the freedom that will aid Byakuya! 

Oh, let the engine roar loudly...and may it run all the way towards happiness!

Translation Notes:

[0] So as it turns out Haruki Murakami has also written a book called “Kafka on the Shore” which is just another connection to the ‘K’ theme. However here is a conspiracy. So in Volume one of DRT the JDC and ER3 system get mentioned as you probably don’t recall. ER3 system form Zaregoto written by Nisio Isin (which in itself heavily inspired danganronpa) and the JDC primarily written by Ryūsui Seiryōin, but also many many spin offs written by Nisio Isin and Maijo Otaro. Now the writers isin, Otaro and Sato (DRTs author) are commonly compared to each other in the japanese fiction world as there style of writing and intricate details that only work in japanese (Pure Literature as the genre is called there), we can see they share a lot of similar ideas. In fact DRT and Otaro’s Jorge Joestar are commonly compared also, (which is a JDC book with a jojo’s Bizarre Adventure spin on it). Now in “Kafka on the Shore” one of the main characters is called Johnnie Walker and in Otaro’s new anime ID: Invaded the villain is called John Walker. What has this got to do with DRT? No idea but all im saying is that if Tsukumo Juku shows up in DRT at this point I wouldn't be surprised. These writers all share a common theme of some sort of force controlling the actions of the main character and the deceptive nature of the world around them. It’s very interesting to compare and contrast all these things.

[1] The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages. 

To be continued.

https://drmedicsgamesurgery.tumblr.com/GameSurgeryDRTranslations

[johns-album-reviews]

Courteeners “More.Again.Forever" album review

Courteeners

More.Again.Forever review

7/10

The Courteeners are back after four years of silence with their “Best chance at a number 1 album” Liam Fray admitted. The new album More.Again.Forever sees the courteeners going in a different, almost experimental direction. On tracks such as “More.Again.Forever” and “Better Man” Liam displays fantastic lyricism and shows he is a true wordsmith despite revealing he has been struggling with writer’s block over the past few years. Joining these arguably somewhat poetic tracks are some truly back to basics in your face courteeners bangers that will be sure to get any crowd moving and wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Heaton park setlist in 2019. Tracks such as “previous parties” and “heart attack” fit perfectly into this album for exactly this reason, when they’re played live they will really get things bouncing, just as a courteeners gig should be. In their four years away, Liam admitted he had been struggling with addiction and talked about how he felt a lack of self-improvement. This album shows how he has risen from these depths as an artist and throughout the album there is an underlying theme of  bettering yourself, picking yourself up and finding your own happiness. Despite this being a relatively good album if you’re only going to put 10 songs on the track list, there can be no fillers but unfortunately, there are. However, the new direction the band is pointing towards seems positive and I think they needed to push the boundaries with this one, and they did.

The album begins with the rightly named tune heart attack. This is a real in your face opener that screams the message that the Courteeners are back at it again, with a heavy riff, a repetitive drum beat and somewhat catchy lyrics. The chorus suggests that at one time this was possibly going to be one of their singles with the lyrics “ Here we go fast, new tempo make another song for the radio”. Personally, I don’t think this would have been a bad idea but inevitably it didn’t happen. Nevertheless, it’s a strong opener and will grow to be a classic Courteeners tune. Which brings us to heavy jacket. Which Isn’t one of their greatest songs by any stretch of the imagination and it should not have been the albums lead single. If this song was the first I’d ever heard of the Courteeners, it would have been the last, honestly it doesn’t get you excited for the rest of the album to come which I’m sure left many fans disinterested and probably deflated their excitement about the album. Although there is no denying that when its played to a live crowd, every single lyric will be sung back to Liam and that can never be a negative thing.

Heavy Jacket leads on to “More.Again.Forever” which is honestly a brilliant song. Liam has pushed the boat out with this tune offering a more poetic spin on things which was a refreshing change of direction from the first two tracks on the record. Lyrically it has to be up there with one of their best songs and is has a feel of “the 17th” to it from their previous album. The bass riff throughout this tune interweaves perfectly with his easy on the ear impressive lyrics that really make you think. Better Man has more of an acoustic feel to the rest of the album and I think it fits in with the flow of the album nicely. Within this song he is trying to relay the message of self betterness. The chorus especially shows Liam putting his heart into his lyrics talking about his plans to be better in the future after the problems he has faced in the past few years. This will resonate will many fans and will make it special when played live. Liam’s vocals on this track sound brilliant.

Hanging off your cloud follows on well from Better Man, on first listen this track didn’t seem to offer much, but after a few more listens I realised the lyrics, violin and piano all work perfectly together and it is truly  a beautiful song. The song builds up to an impressive crescendo and everyone who listens to this track can relate in some way. Weather it be a girl or a boy that you used to see in your past, this song makes you think, and this is important and that’s what makes fans want to listen again. From a slow timeless “love song” to a fast-paced banger- previous parties. This song has got classic Courteeners written all over it and if they choose to play this live at future shows, madness will reign every single time, without a doubt. The nod to artists is clever in the first verse, Liam wasn’t suffering with writer’s block when he wrote this. When the song slows down midway you can envision the mosh pits and crowds getting ready to go mad when the chorus kicks back in. Brilliant.

The joy of missing out comes next with a serious likeness to “modern love” but nowhere near as brilliantly executed. As I mentioned at the start, this album has a few fillers and unfortunately, this is one. The muffled lyrics just make for uneasy listening, definitely one of the lows of the album. However, some recognition must go to Michael for this song, he showed his worth drumming on this one. From a low to a high with the next tune “one day at a time”. This is the best song on the album that they didn’t put out as a single and defiantly pushed up my rating of this album. It has a lovely message in that you can be the source of your own happiness, only you can make the changes. Honestly the chorus gave me Goosebumps and when listening to new music this is exactly the feeling that you want, and I got it. Again, this reminded me of another old record, “small bones” which is also a brilliant song. Liam really shows off his vocals on this album with soft songs such as this and “Better man” and loud in your face vocals like on “heart attack” and “previous parties”

The penultimate song “Take it on the chin” carries on the theme of picking yourself up and moving on. This song is less experimental than most of the album and is quite middle of the road, but I think it worked quite well. With a nod to Paul Gascoigne and a somewhat catchy, punchy chorus it’s a tune you could have expected from courteeners. Which leads us to the last song of the album “is heaven even worth it?” which is a disappointing end to good album. This album should have gone out with a bang like it came in with a bang with “heat attack”. This song could have been left out and you wouldn’t be missing much. As much as his slow experimental songs on this record have worked well for the most part this one just missed the button unfortunately. It reminded me of an elbow song, which can never be a great thing.

Overall More.Again.Forever was an experimental journey for Liam and the Courteeners that worked. With a few great tunes that will almost certainly be put on the setlist for shows to come and a few that made you think and tugged on your heart strings. This new direction that the courteeners are heading in seems bright, you can’t stay relevant if you make the same boring recycled albums so I am glad they didn’t do this and attempted to bush the boundaries even if a few of the songs missed the mark by an inch.

[songwritingtipsandtricks]

Hey and welcome again to another episode of songwriting tips and tricks. My name is Kieper, and I am so glad to talk to you again this episode. I hope you enjoyed listening to the latest episodes, and one of my music colleagues gave me some feedback on the show so far. He says that he loves the titles I'm choosing for the episodes. I was so flattered, as it takes me so long to find a proper title and put some fun into it to make it more appealing. Thank you as well for some of the reviews on the platforms you're listening to; this really keeps me going! If you know someone that is stuck with writing lyrics or is just starting, please feel free to share this podcast with them to support me with this program.

Anyway! In last weeks episode emergency songwriting, we were talking about the w-Questions and being on the phone with an emergency officer. But later, I realised that there is one crucial question missing in this emergency questions and it is the question for intention or motivation: why? Why is the protagonist doing this? Just food for thought. It is highly essential to tell the listener about the motivation of the situation that you are describing. I know, you would not say to an officer about the motivation on the phone. Still, in a later interview with the policemen, you would definitely tell about your motivation or the motivation you expect to be at the core.

So much for last week, today we will be talking about perspective. And this could not be more important to your songwriting. The point is, how would you start if you would not know who is speaking, to whom and what the relation between these two is? And another point to perspective is the way you are telling the story. So two contrasts we are going to talk about later in the show.

But first, how do you write your songs usually? Well, I assume that most of us use a first-person perspective. You are the protagonist, perhaps, or at least you are part of the story and experience the situation. And to be honest with you, I do most of the time. Pop songs nowadays seem to always follow this rule. And maybe you have been wondering if there are any, what are the different ways to tell a story from different perspectives.

And this is a good question, what possibilities are there for us to tell a story.

Okay, so let's strip this down to pieces and building up a picture in your mind. So there are several ways to tell a situation.

So besides the direct address, which is you talking to someone in a story, there are various other ways to tell a story, which you might not know immediately but use in your everyday life.

A good example is You and I by One Direction or Bad Guy by Billie Eilish. To prevent any copyright infringements, I will not provide you with any sound as a reference. However, I will put links to the songs in the description of this, and you can listen to them later.

You and I We don't wanna be like them We can make it 'till the end Nothing can come between You and I Not even the Gods above Can separate the two of us No, nothing can come between You and I

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kqQDCxRCzM) 

So you're a tough guy Like it really rough guy Just can't get enough guy Chest always so puffed guy I'm that bad type Make your mama sad type Make your girlfriend mad tight Might seduce your dad type I'm the bad guy

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyDfgMOUjCI) 

First and most often used, the first-person perspective. You are telling a story through your eyes, it is like in a game with a first-person view, but you are telling your mate on the phone what you are doing at the moment. But despite it is quite relatable and can get to a core quickly, the problem is the restriction in outlook and eyesight. This could also be an opportunity because you can go into much more detail about small things. But if you are stuck in this type of narration, then you should at least try any of the following examples to shift your mind.

A perfect representative for this type would be yesterday by the Beatles, where the Chorus settles this kind of narrative.

Why she had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say I said something wrong Now I long for yesterday

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrgmdOz227I)

So next, another type would be second-person narration. And how could you think about this? Well, you could be talking to someone. However, this time the narrator doesn't have to be an active part in the story. Writing a song in second-person is quite hard really, just like writing a book in second-person would be. And really it is hard to explain to you with words what this type really means. You, as a narrator, are talking either to the protagonist or the audience about a third person mostly.

An excellent example of this complex narration is Suzanne by Leonard Cohen. It might not be your type of music, but it gives a unique description of how this works.

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river You can hear the boats go by You can spend the night beside her And you know that she's half crazy But that's why you want to be there And she feeds you tea and oranges That come all the way from China And just when you mean to tell her That you have no love to give her Then she gets you on her wavelength And she lets the river answer That you've always been her lover

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svitEEpI07E)

So moving on, next would be the third person narrative. And you might be familiar with this type of narration, as it is just like novels tell stories most of the time. The narrator usually is not a part of the story. However, you can get creative and break with this tradition. You can also use this in the previous type and be talking about someone else if you like. So anyway. The narrator mostly has a birds-eye perspective and knows about all the feelings and thoughts in the protagonists' minds. So it is vital to shed light on these different views and perhaps show discrepancies in the expectations of the acting parties. However, there is also the option to have the narrator only know about one persons thoughts and feelings. We differentiate between a limited and omniscient, all-knowing narrator. This narration type is quite limitless, just pick a random book from your shelf and open it. Et voila, chances are high; there is a third-person narrative. You can tell whole libraries in this kind of narration. So just try this out for some time, perhaps when you have writer's block. It broadens your horizon to tell things differently.

Without giving songs for both omniscient and limited 3rd person narration, a good example would be The Hurricane by Bob Dylan.

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall She sees the bartender in a pool of blood Cries out, “My God, they killed them all!” Here comes the story of the Hurricane The man the authorities came to blame For something that he never done Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been The champion of the world

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpZvg_FjL3Q) 

And now we are shifting towards plural narrative, yes you are right. We are just using all the forms of grammar there are. So the next type would be the first person plural. And how would we do so? Well, we simply include any other protagonist into our narration and tell a combined story. We either have us tell the whole story from our collective perspective, or we can use it in a duet perhaps. So quite straight-forward, is it not? So pragmatically speaking this is quite an engaging kind of narration, as we include the listener. It combines first and second person narration and provides us with a combined narrative that could shift into their own perceptions every now and then to add individual voices to the speech. But the thing is, this is not a real narrative type. Why is that? Well, because it is just a kind of direct address, isn't it? For some time in the song, we act as an item, as one group. However, then again, we are just two individuals that have their own thoughts and feelings, right? It is hard for a listener to relate to a group of people, as we are not omniscient. But there are just some exceptions to this rule, and I would argue that there is such a thing as the first-person plural narrative in songs.

Because the best example for this is We are the world by the U.S.A for Africa. A music project of singers that consisted of Micheal Jackson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder and so many more great artist. The song is quite unique in its narration, and I would count it as a first-person plural narrative. Give it a good listen and let me know what you think about it.

We are the world, we are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjkUyX0rVw)

So next up, the second person plural narrative, in English this means the you pronoun. So this type is highly provocative and argumentative if it is rightly put, I think. You can talk about a group of people that you don't like perhaps, or talk about problems they are causing possibly. The thing is that these people have no chance to answer you right away in this song. Or you simply won't let them. Perhaps you do, it is your choice. However, you could also be talking to your parents, and they reply in your story. There are seemingly endless ways to combine the types.

So finding a song that is written in this form was quite hard for me and actually never came to a conclusion. So I thought about this for a minute and understood that you can not really write from their perspective, but as I said before, write about them. So I would instead call this the plural direct address. The best example I could find for this is Masters of war by Bob Dylan again.

Come, you masters of war You that build the big guns You that build the death planes You that build all the bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEmI_FT4YHU)

So lastly, there is the third person plural address. And it works just the way as you would expect it. With one difference to the previous type. You are talking about a group that you are not addressing directly. So you are just giving a description, generalising individual voices to one collective that is telling or doing something. In this case, your protagonist becomes a victim the passive. If they do something to him or her, then he has no control. So you can play with this vulnerability and try using this type to let a collective voice judge his actions. I can already see a dystopian world being told in a song.

The best example in contemporary music would be Ridin' by Chamillionaire. Which I think most of nowadays kids know mainly through YouTube Fail video clips. You better have a listen to it as it contains explicit content I do not want to speak out on this program.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtwJvgPJ9xw)

So, I guess the time's up already, and we are going to talk about this topic again in another episode of this podcast. But let me conclude this enumeration of narration types. While the first three singular types are rather stable and standard and are what you are probably going to use most of the times, the latter three are somewhat unstable and can slip back into singular easily or even consist of a certain degree of individuality and the singular. So some might only be possible in connection to a singular narration type. And it really is a complex and scientific topic. Maybe you don't need a PhD to know everything about narration and grammar, but it is no harm to know a bit about grammar and storytelling.

If you like the podcast and have some feedback, feel free to rate, comment or share this podcast to help me go on with the show and please let me know what you think about narrating your songs and what your experience is so far. If you want to further support me, go ahead to my Patreon page in the description and support the podcast for exclusive access to Patreon only episodes and in-depth analysis of songs and lyrics.

Thank you again for joining me today, and I hope you keep on writing brilliant songs

[teampunkzine]

I wanna apply but...

I get it. We’ve all been there. Zines are a beautiful, strange thing and we just get so pumped to participate. Maybe you’ve just got wind of what a zine even is. Maybe you’ve been watching them develop from a long time, even buying some. Maybe you’ve already applied to some before. Maybe you’ve been rejected.

So, you want to apply. But...

I don’t think my art is good enough

This is a valid concern we all go through. There’s just so many pretty, popular art and fic going around and sometimes we just feel frustrated. 

But, what as the artist you may see as ‘’boring’’ or ‘’nothing special’’, as a spectator we may be extremely moved. There’s so many skilled artists and writers I’ve heard saying their creations weren’t good enough. It shakes me. 

What you think it’s not good enough, it’s usually you being very hard of yourself. Of freaking course there’s always room for improvement! And a big part of that frustration you feel with your art comes from that part of you that knows you are capable of so much more! and YOU ARE! You are a human being with the amazing skill of creation! You have the space to grow and develop as big as you want to!

But, my golden advice? Give yourself the time and patience for that growth. Don’t stop trying, don’t stop practising but also be kind with yourself. A great chunk of the artistic cycle is having blocks and resting, living experiences that will eventually help you grow as an artist and a human being. 

You are already being the best artist version of yourself that you can be at the moment.

I’m going to get rejected/ I’ve already tried in so many zines and I always get rejected 

Are you sure, though? Are you sure? Do you have physic powers? Can you see what I’m going to do next month? If you are already looking there, by the way, can you please peek and tell me if I’m going to have a gf by then?

I’d advice not giving up based on previous experiences. We are not those other zines, we are not those other mods. Hell, you are not even the same artist! You’ve grown! This is a whole different situation and experience. 

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: You may get rejected. Or you may not. You don’t know that, I don’t know that.

What I do know is that there are 0% chances of getting in if you don’t apply.

You ask for a submission of two of my best pieces. I don’t know which of my works are my best

I always have this doubt when applying for zines. It’s nerve wrecking! I feel like I get one shot and I have to do it right! 

Well, in our case, you have 2 shots. So, if you are in between 2 options, you can post both ;D 

Apart from that, I always ask a server/a friend/a pal from somewhere which one they think it’s more impressive. If it’s a fandom friend, I explain it’s for a zine. If it’s an irl person, I’m just asking their opinion for something bussiness-related.

In the case you don’t have the option of consulting someone, I reccomend you take a few days without looking or thinking about it. Then, go back and watch/read your stuff with fresh eyes. 

A few criteria to self evaluate your pieces...

Art: Think of the use of lighting/shadows, characterization, anatomy, color use. The most important question is, though... ‘’do I like this?’’ ‘’am i happy i did this?’’ . If you like it, it will work <3

Writing: Think of it being clearly redacted, of the emotion it conveys (if it fits whatchu wanted it to convey). Again, the most important question is ‘’do i like this?’’ ‘’am i happy i did this?’’’ If you like it, it will work <3

You ask for a submission of a previous Hunk+Pidge piece. I don’t have any.

We ask an example of your work depicting Hunk and Pidge for two very simple reasons. 

1) We want to see the characters through your eyes, we want to know what you bring to the table.

2) We want to rule out any possibilities of whitewashing Hunk, making him overly skinny or oversexualizing Pidge. Y’know, we just want to see beforehand you respect basic character traits like Hunk being fat and dark skinned and Pidge being a human being without anime-like titties. I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m not saying this to police you. We just want to avoid any uncomfy conversations in the future!

Apart from that? GO WILD WITH YOUR TAKE ON THEM! Add a beard on Hunk, give Pidge green hair, give everyone 80s clothes! As long as we can still see the characters we love, we are okay with you going off the mold. Hell, we encourage you to!

If you are a writer, a simple drabble with the two of them interacting would do. If you are an artist, a simple colored drawing it’s okay by us!

I’ve never been in a zine before

And if you let us be your first, that’d be our honor! It’s my first time modding a zine too!

We are not looking at your resume. So, to us, it’s not a problem. It’s okay to be scared or nervous, specially if this is your first zine! But remember: you won’t be alone! Us mods are here to guide you and help you! And you’d have the rest of the participants too! We are all new in something, this is a chance for each of us to grow and learn!

I’m not a popular artist/writer

*motions around* ...and this is not a popular team of characters... 

We are not popular ourselves. We are not looking for popular people. We are not looking at your follower count, the number of reblogs you have or the comments your fic gets. We are looking at what you offer us, at those submissions you deem your best, at your take on Hunk and Pidge, at what you can bring to the table.

Will I squeal if I recognize your name? Yes, because I’m happy someone I already know is here. Will I holler and yodelei around bc of your submission piece and see how much you bring into the table? HELL YEAH DUDE.

The application form scares me/ I haven’t even looked at it.

Oof. Filling forms for me is scary. But that’s when you know you’ve got stuff to lose! This? This is for FUN! 

An advice? Look at the form first and write down in a piece of paper what you will need. I swear, until you submit, all the times you look at the form won’t be decisive. 

I swear the more you look at it, the less scary it gets. To break it down, we ask for very basic stuff: examples of your work, examples of your work featuring Hunk and Pidge and a profile where we can peek at more of your stuff. Oh, and a mail where we can contact you. That’s the important stuff. The rest are questions to know what’s in your mind, who are we interacting with. We’d like you to fill it but if you don’t know what to answer, say just that. It’s okay <3

So, it’s okay! It’s for fun! YOU CAN DO THIS :D

You don’t want me to apply :(

There’s nothing more i want in this world right now that u filling that damned application form, boi.

IM STAYING UP TILL 4 AM TO WRITE THIS !!!!! :))))

I can’t find the application form

There you go ;)

A zine is not an élite art gallery. We do have a selection stage but we are also that space where you can practise, interact with other creators and make the best of yourself! We are just looking for passionate creators!!! Applying is the first step to get there. If you don’t apply and you want to, you are not even giving yourself the chance to participate!

As my dad says: you put the effort, the other evaluates it. You can only just control the effort and love you put in so invest your time and energy worrying about that, not about the result.

WE CAN DO THIS!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!! WE WANT YOU TO APPLY!!!!!!

love,

Mod Ami

[janiedean]

Hi Janie! So, I admit to a bit of ignorance pertaining the whole “anti”-debacle. I’ve seen anti and anti-anti posts that say the same thing, sometimes it’s about morally offensive things, sometimes about completely unrelated stuff and I can’t make heads nor tails of it, especially since there isn’t really a wealth of actual information? Just rants... *sigh* If it’s possible, do you think you could explain what the problem is? (Does that need to be in plural?) and the „sides“? Thank you! ❤️

anon you asked the question of the century I’m afraid X°D THAT SAID let’s... see if I can make this understandable.

so: the anti debate is... pretty much tied to the whole ‘politics in fandom discourse’ and you can’t separate the two of them sadly. of course I come from the not anti side of fandom so what do I know. anyway, premise:

what happened is that in the last two/three years, whether we liked it or not, the debate in fandom has moved from ‘my ship is better than yours’ to ‘my ship is better than yours because it’s more progressive/woke’, which has gone hand in hand with the political fandom views of any media product, ie ‘you can’t watch that because it lacks representation’ or ‘that show is crap because it’s not woke enough or doesn’t treat that topic well’ and so on, and with a tendency to think that if you ship anything you want it to be canon because it only is worth anything if it becomes such (which imo is bullshit but never mind);

this has moved on to also judging people based on their ships, as in: ‘ship X is wrong because it’s problematic for X reason therefore if you ship it you support X irl and you’re problematic and you need to be stopped’. such as ‘thor/loki is wrong because it’s incest so if you ship thor/loki you’re okay with incest irl and you want to bang your siblings if you have any’, which is a ridiculous notion but this goes also hand in hand with the fact that people have suddenly decided to trash all the psychology that confirmed how violent videogames don’t influence reality and now think that liking something problematic influences you irl because they don’t grasp the difference between fandom and mass-media consumption of a mass-media product;

they also don’t grasp the concept of catharsis through media nor of the really basic concept that most normal people who see themselves in fiction don’t take the entire package but relate to specific things;

keeping THAT in mind:

the whole ‘anti’ thing, as ‘people being opposed to a ship or a trend’ is basically people saying that you cannot ship a thing or be into a problematic character or kink because it says something about you and not about your fictional preferences and actively go around being assholes to people who ship the thing while at the same time gatekeeping/policing their own ships which are of course Purer Than The Others and bringing politics into it, too;

this also goes with a frankly problematic (AND I’M USING THE WORD NON-IRONICALLY) attitude that those people have of equating age gaps with pedophilia always and considering children people older than thirteen/fourteen, which automatically makes them think of people who ship age gaps even in between adults pedophiles (I kid you not a friend who’s over thirty in a rship with a person fifteen years older got told that their rship was pedophilia because their partner was an adult when they were a child at some point in their lives. I mean, IMAGINE THAT.);

to give the to-go example these days because it’s sadly the worst: sw sequel trilogy fandom. rey/kylo has been targeted by antis as the to-go Most Problematic Ship because in order:a) enemies to lovers as a trope which is of course abusive if the good side is a woman (more on that later) b) both are white (so it’s racist to not ship her with the non-white people in the light side *roll eyes*)c) they have a ten years age gap (so it’s pedophilia even if rey’s of age and she kicked his ass more than once)d) he’s not technically good looking so it sets people’s worst instincts offe) these people don’t buy into the fact that people can be redeemed so they decided he’s absolutely Not Redeemable and so onf) it’s an m/f couplenow, rey/lo is admittedly a fairly tame ship as far as problematic goes - it’s honestly your typical enemies to friends to lovers trope that’s been in media since the beginning of time, but according to these ppl it’s The Worst and if you dare being into it you must be a pedophile, racist, misogynist (or internalized misogynist), straight person (because of course only straight ppl ship m/f) - and yes, being straight is a problem but more on that later. but since you can ship her with finn (black) or you could ship finn and poe (black and latino actors) if you’re not into either you’re problematic. too bad that if you ship finn and poe (WHICH I DO) these days it’s... let’s just say I’ve seen a list of ‘problematic f/p writers’ where the reasons for the PROBLEMATIC was that they took a fluff ship and wrote it dubcon. oKAY. also pre tlj fandom was full of block lists for r/eylo shippers where you’d get the name plus ALL REASONS WHY THEY HAD TO BE HARASSED OUT OF FANDOM which you will imagine does not sit well with me since that’s... like... the most fascist thing you could do (NO REALLY BAN LISTS OF PERSONE NON GRATAE WITH REASONS WHY THEY WERE IS A THING THAT HAPPENS IN DICTATORSHIPS AND SOCIETY WHERE EVERYTHING IS CENSORED LIKE BANNED BOOKS) in this circumstance, but hey, if you’re anti-reylo and you’re doing the above you’re just doing the work of the lord because you’re saving people from the Horrible Problematic Ship, and meanwhile I don’t want anything to do with a fandom where people do block lists for how you write your fanfic IN GENERAL. like, concrit is more than welcome but lists? please don’t fucking kid me;

I used r/eylo as an example because it’s the epitome of what anti-shipping ends at, but there’s also sh/eith from voltron which is two guys, with a seven years age gap but both are adults now and were older than 15 when they met, who have the sweetest less problematic relationship ever and people who ship.. the other rival ship decided that it’s pedophilia, SUPPORTS INCEST on the grounds of one of the two tell the other ‘you’re like a brother to me’ SERIOUSLY and that it’s abusive and by shipping it you’re a pedophile. k;

also, this entire thing ties with the fact that these people seem to think that having sex when older than fourteen is somehow bad, which means that if you write someone under the age of 18 (and sometimes NOT EVEN THAT see voltron above) you’re automatically a *pedophile* even if teenagers aren’t children and fictional characters are fictional and never hurt anyone, and that goes hand in hand with the fact that these people seem to largely be against kink;

specifically: ‘bdsm is abusive’ (???), ‘you can’t be a feminist if you like kink’ (OKAY???), ‘if you read/write noncon fanfic you have a problem and you’re terrible’ etc, with a specific subset being against specific kinks that play on a certain angle ie daddy kink and so on which are PEDOPHILIA now, which is again an extremely puritanical way to see the world, not progressive;

at this point we have a situation where a bunch of *antis* specifically target people who are into *problematic* things whether it’s ships, characters, kinks and so on and are going like THINK OF THE CHILDREN half of the time. the children being them, of course.

at this point we have the other discourse we need to have ie about the age and sexuality of the people involved in fandom and why it matters:

now: a lot of fandom is made up of women. it’s statistics. a significant statistical part of the old guard (25+-30+ people ie my generation plus the previous 40+ older generation) is cis women (who can be straight or bi but are attracted to men) who went into fandom writing m/m slash. a significant part of this group is into either problematic ships or kink and such on. but in our understanding of fandom, the key terms were ship and let ship + your kink is not my kink + don’t like don’t read. as in: outside your usual MY SHIP IS BETTER THAN YOURS wank was generally understood that people liked things different than yours and that you had no business being an ass over it, and back in the day warnings were at the beginning - when I went into fandom warnings were not a thing. now there’s warnings everywhere which is GOOD and guess why ao3 was made by... the old guard/old fans, which of course are not very pleased with being told they’re pedophiles or perverts for shipping a thing or, *drum rolls*, that they fetishize gay men by shipping m/m or writing m/m porn, and are fairly vocal about it;

on the other side, this new wave of younger fans who thinks is progressive along with older fans who are assholes/most likely grooming the youngers (because this anti shipping thing is seriously cult-like at this point) calling the old generation all the stuff above and pushing the idea that they want ‘old straight ciswomen out of fandom’ because ‘they have gross ideas and THEY DON’T WANT TO READ OUR GROSS FIC’ and such things. we can also talk for ten years about how the new wave has decided that straight = insult but again, tumblr politics. all goes hand in hand;

so basically the sides are ‘younger fans who thinks they are progressive but are actually being puritan af’ vs ‘older fans who want to do their damned thing’ with some people obviously crossing into the others’s territory;

(and mind that not counting SW, most of the anti drama happens in fandoms for... animated cartoons and the likes - vo/ltron, ste/ven universe and so on, which says a lot about the age discourse, but nvm that);

now, the problem is that by telling some woman older than you that she can’t safely explore her sexual fantasies/kinks in fiction about fake characters you’re basically doing the same thing as policing women’s sexual fantasies that has been going on since the dawn of time, so it’s actually hella misogynist, and the fact that it goes with people saying that you can’t be a feminist who likes kink and that kink is abuse/misogynist... is still policing women’s sexualities, irl and fictionally, and that’s what they’re doing at the end of it;

on top of that, they’re also policing what non-straight, non-female fans who ship problematic stuff do and most of all, there’s the shipping to cope bush of thorns.

about shipping to cope:

now, this entire system had to, at some point, deal with the very true fact that a lot of people who are into problematic stuff/kinks/noncon (not all of them of course) engage with that material to work out their issues - a lot of the time it’s abuse victims writing it to elaborate on their abuse and take control of it and so on and usually... a lot of them aren’t even straight (honestly, almost everyone I know who ships th/ramsay ie noncon torture ship that I personally don’t like myself is... not straight, and a lot of them do ship to cope) and telling them you cannot handle your recovery with whichever system they see fit is... RUDE at best. which is why there’s antis who are like ‘shipping to cope is fine but JUST IF IT’S TO COPE’ which means that in order to be given the green light you have to out yourself and tell people you were abused and other antis who are like ‘SHIPPING TO COPE IS WRONG BECAUSE YOU JUST MAKE IT WORSE’ which is... not a thing that happens to everyone and actually every psychologist worth their salt in the world disagrees (or better: for some people it’s bad to do but for others it’s cathartic, and the latter shouldn’t be not able to do it because the former can’t blacklist or because kids on the internet decided that shipping to cope is bad);

so a lot of antis are actually crossing into the territory of wanting to police how people handle their own experience of abuse (honestly once someone told a friend who explained them from a professional pov the valid of problematic/violent art as a cathartic, healthy way to deal with you shit, and who told them that they were an abuse victim who dealt with it in different ways, to GO ON GOOGLE AND LOOK UP HOW IT WORKS and that person knew shit about it period just to say one) and telling people they can’t process their abuse in THAT way but just in THIS way, feeding into the idea that there’s a right way to process abuse and a wrong way to react to it which in turns becomes good victim vs bad victim;

(and then you wonder why they hate kylo ren... who’s a Bad Victim under the definition of the word but hey whatever)

and this is all thrown under the rug of ‘we need to police problematic attitudes in fandoms’ which is 100% bullshit because if you run into someone specifically problematic you should explain them on a one-on-one basis, not do the witch hunt, and you should never presume to police how people handle their own shit, never mind that 90% of the time the so-called problematic material is consumed by a small percentage of people and you can choose to like, not read it;

and by the way, 90% of the actually problematic fandom trends don’t get called out because it wouldn’t be progressive (I can talk for ages about how it’s really worrying that ppl headcanon characters as X following stereotypes that are actually hurtful for the category in question but since the hc = a minority then it’s always okay) but that’s an entire other problem;

tldr: the anti side, as much as they want to think they’re not doing it, are actively policing the content that other people put online based on supposed ‘moral’ standards which 90% of the time aren’t even true (a 16yo in a relationship with a 20yo is NOT pedophilia period) and even going as far as ‘I’ll press charges to the FBI because X wrote underage fic’ when according to the US law if it’s fictional characters it doesn’t count as such and it only does if real recognizable minors are involved (and in that case it shouldn’t be happening in the first place) and those people might be whoever, and for all they support feminism they also end up being incredibly misogynist.

or, just because I like to use my own experiences as an example: this year I had the horrid idea of replying to a post made obviously by anti people where I told them that straight women writing m/m ie what they’re attracted to of course have more in common with a guy into guys in that sense and not with a lesbian since they’re not attracted to women and that writing m/m wasn’t inherently fetishizing shit. since then I’ve had people:

informing me I MUST have internalized homophobia

assuming shit about my sex life that wasn’t even true including which positions I like in bed (because of course straight women only identify with the gay bottom so they’re capitalizing off that experience when some of us don’t)

assuming I was disgusted at the idea of writing lesbian sex (false, I wrote it when I was in the mood)

informing me that writing fanfic about canonical m/m characters wasn’t activism and I shouldn’t presume I was one for that (I never said I considered it such) but at the same time these people think reporting incest fic to ao3 is... activism, but nvm that

telling me that I was a sad old bitch who needed to find a husband and grow up (I MEAN NOT EVEN IN THE FIFTIES) (I’m 29 btw hardly old) because it was the only way my life could have had sense

informing me that of course I was that horrible since I’m italian and all italians beat their wives (NOT XENOPHOBIC AT ALL)

accusing me of writing torture porn with gay characters to get off (never wrote torture porn once in my life, not with gay characters nor any character)

(most ppl I know into torture porn aren’t straight btw)

telling me that I didn’t understand my own attraction to men

assuming that my parents must have thrown me out of the house at some point, that I had no friends and that I never got laid

and in another occasion I got sent fanart of a ship that I said upset me because I had the gall to tell people to leave the shippers alone but hey what do I know

and a bunch of other stuff I won’t bother you with but that to me sounds hella misogynist (I mean, GO BACK TO THE KITCHEN AND FIND A HUSBAND, srsly?). spoilers: I never write noncon, I’m into a few kinks but most are literally harmless, the wildest thing I’m into writing is... 100% consensual d/s sex, the most problematic thing I’m into is thor/loki and I hadn’t shipped it until I realized that... it was cathartic (ps: no, I don’t think irl incest is okay as a general thing) and for the rest I’m famous for... being the person who almost never kills people in fandom X°D I mean, I got that shit and I laughed about it, but what if they sent it to an abuse victim or someone who actually got kicked out of the house? who knows, but sure af they only seem to care about victims when it’s convenient to them and when the victims agree. *shrug* but the above is absolutely okay if you tell that to a straight cis woman who doesn’t particularly feel like writing f/f sex (which is ANOTHER plot point but never mind that I can’t possibly go into how tumblr has decided that f/f relationships without sex are the Thing Everyone Should Aspire To and everything else is a problem including lesbians having kinky sex). anyway, that was all antis. heck, a round of the shit above was started because an anti-ship blog found an oldass ask related to that wank, so.

tldr: the point is that we’re always talking about the same old dumb fandom war ie my ship is better than yours and my fave is better than yours, but now the arguments aren’t just about ships, are about which one is most moral or pure or non-problematic and if you dare being into anything else for your own reasons in your own life (I forgot friends who’ve been told they abuse their partners because they’re into kink, WHAT A DAY) when the *else* is fictional (ie doesn’t exist) and you don’t even do the thing irl or would want to but just want to explore it fictionally, then you are that problematic thing and so *you* are problematic and guess what, there’s a nice witch hunt starting and -

ops.

HOW SURPRISED I AM.

I mean, it’s 90% wanting to censor people and all of that time it’s useless that they dress it as ‘FIGHTING PEDOPHILES’ because thing is, now that everyone rolls their eyes at it because you think ‘right, real pedophiles or people who ship the wrong voltron ship,’ actual pedophiles have free reign and actually whenever I see a post to report a real one it has very little notes in comparison to OMG REY/LO IS PROBLEMATIC and stuff, and the one time I got linked one I checked because I didn’t trust tumblr and let me tell you I wish I didn’t. anti shipping or being anti kink is just... 90% wanting to be puritans without knowing that you’re a puritan and you’re still policing women’s sexualities and abuse victims’s reactions and you’re not helping anyone.

and you sound like those soccer moms from the 90s who thought playing tekken made their kids violent or that marilyn manson’s music caused the columbine shootings which is a thing that has been disproved since two weeks after it happened. and these people have no idea that media influences you to the point you let it and that fiction is not reality. *shrug* and that was my offer to this contribution, I know I’ll get roasted at this point but I’m beyond giving two fucks at this point. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ethereumtoken]

What is Ethereum and what impact does it have on the market?

Do you know Ethereum, the cryptocurrency platform of 2021? It was created in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian writer and programmer, with the idea of ��​establishing a vehicle for decentralized collaborative applications. The Ethereum platform makes it easy to use blockchain technology to develop applications without central control and to ensure the integrity and processing of secure payments with your smart contracts. Basically, the Ethereum blockchain can bring its basic principles of trust, transparency, security, and efficiency to any service, company, or industry.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is an open-source public blockchain platform with smart contract features. Unlike other blockchain platforms, this one is decentralized. Through its cryptocurrency Ether, peer-to-peer contracts can be processed and, in turn, it allows developers to create and run distributed applications in public nodes, instead of using the traditional client-server model. These so-called “dapps” applications get the benefits of We can say that the applications on this platform are actually contracts, that is, they are its core. The contract is an automatic agent that lives on the system and has its own Ethereum address. When the user sends a transaction to the address of the contract, it is activated and, after agreeing with the additional information in the transaction, it will execute its own code and finally return a result, which can be another transaction sent from the address of the contract. cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

The development of Ethereum is based on a user-created and managed system that relies on thousands of independent computers around the world to monitor and verify transactions. It functions as a distributed network that uses “volunteer” operating nodes, rather than traditional servers or cloud platforms, to provide computing services. Each computer maintains its own ledger and relies only on its historical records to ensure the legality of transactions, without relying on any 

What is its operation?

Ethereum is based on the Bitcoin protocol and its blockchain. However, the only similarity between the two blockchains is that they store the complete transaction logs of their respective networks. In addition to the transaction history, each node on the Ethereum network also needs to download the latest status or current information for each smart contract on the network, each user's balance, the complete smart contract code, and the storage location.

Each Ethereum state contains millions of transactions. These transactions are grouped together and form “blocks”, each one connecting with the previous one. However, before the transaction is added to the ledger, it needs to be verified, and then the process is known as “mining” begins. Mining refers to the process of challenging a group of nodes using their computing power to complete the "proof of work," which is essentially a mathematical problem.

The greater the computing power of the computer, the faster it can solve these math problems. The answer to these puzzles is itself a proof of work and guarantees the effectiveness of block building. Many miners around the world compete with each other to try to build and verify a new block, because every time a miner tries to build a block, a new Ethereum (ETH) token will be generated and delivered to the miner.

What are its differences from Bitcoin?

Despite the fact that Ethereum and Bitcoin retain a great similarity in nature coming from blockchain technology, there are marked differences between them. The most important difference lies in the technology behind each of them and what this means for other cryptocurrencies. In principle, Ethereum is not technically a cryptocurrency, but a unique blockchain technology. This technology not only allows people to transfer Ether, it can also be used to create other cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum has an important feature that improves on Bitcoin: its smart contracts are more efficient. Bitcoin uses a simpler script, while the smart contract used by Ethereum can handle more complex problems. The system is capable of formulating ground rules and enforcing the contract, which is impossible in the actual contract and without an intermediary. Many cryptocurrencies are based on the underlying technology of Ethereum and in some cases, it can be said that they are completely dependent on this technology.

It is also worth noting that, compared to Bitcoin, the block confirmation time for Ethereum transactions is shorter. And in terms of transaction fees, they are lower. Furthermore, they operate according to different protocols and the operation process is not related to each other. This means that certain transactions that are allowed on one platform may not be allowed on another platform.

How to invest with Ethereum?

The most common and recommended way to invest in Ethereum is to buy on an exchange. All you have to do is find an exchange that sells Ethereum and operates in your jurisdiction, opens an account, and buy Ethereum tokens through bank accounts, wire transfers, or even credit cards. Ethereum must be stored in a wallet. The wallet will be provided by the exchange itself, by the native Mist of the Ethereum browser, or by other professional service providers.

However, you should know that some complicated situations can arise when buying cryptocurrencies on exchanges. An example of this is the cumbersome account verification processes and commissions. Also, if you want to benefit from the difference in price by buying and selling Ethereum, you must buy at real value, and if funds are limited, income will be too. On the other hand, being a decentralized system, there is a risk that the wallet can be hacked.

Advantages of using Ethereum

The development of  Ethereum is one of the most advantageous blockchain platforms that we can find thanks to the fact that:

The entire platform is decentralized, which means that the probability of failure is extremely low. And all applications will always remain online, they will never be closed.

It has been developed with open source, which gives it greater security, stability, and transparency. It also allows you to make the necessary improvements at a given time as well as the correction of possible errors.

It does not admit interference from government entities, due to its totally decentralized nature. Which implies that no government will be able to influence its value.

Smart contracts guarantee the security of compliance since their programming cannot be violated, that is, their guidelines are always followed.

Every blockchain network is formed based on a consensus. It means that all nodes in the system must agree with each change that occurs. This eliminates the possibility of fraud and corruption, making it inviolable.

[squirrel-moose-winchester]

Author Honesty Hour

I was tagged by @dragonchica! Thanks babe, I actually never thought I’d get this. You’re the best!! MUAH!!

1. Which is the imagine you’re most proud of?

The imagine that I’m most proud of is “Picking Flowers.” I had so much fun writing it and the flow was awesome and when I was done with it, I felt really good about it. And to my surprise, it’s become my most successful story! Thanks for reading it guys!!

2. Which is your least favorite? 

Possibly “Trick or Trick” because it’s not so popular and has the least likes and reblogs. 

3. If you were to recommend one to read to your mum/mom?

Umm, my mom and I aren’t very close so she wouldn’t even want to read anything. But if I had to choose, it would be... “Baby Girl,” why? I have no idea. 

4. Which one would you consider re-writing?

Trick or Trick because it’s not very successful. I even contemplated on deleting it but decided not to. I want to believe that it’s a sign of growth. Some stories people will love and others not so much. So I like to keep it there as a reminder that once upon a time, I sucked. haha.

5. Biggest regret in an imagine?

Umm... I don’t think I have one. It’s all a learning process.

6. Biggest success with an imagine?

I have to say all my Jack fics, because he is/was a new character and his “innocence” to the world gave a lot of room to play with. That’s why I feel “Picking Flowers” and “Evesdropping” are my most successful.

7. Your imagine with the most notes?

Picking Flowers.

8. Your imagine with the least notes?

I am pretty sure it’s Trick or Trick.

9. What do you think makes a good imagine? Tips?

Grammar and spelling are big ones for me. If the grammar is bad or if there are many spelling errors, it usually turns me off from reading a fic. Or if there is no real structure, where it’s just a giant block of writing. That’s a pet peeve of mine and I won’t even give it a chance. 

Advice I’d give would be to keep practicing. Read other fics and observe they way they structure their writing. Have someone beta your fics. I don’t use a beta for reasons unknown, but I know that they are extremely helpful.

10. When’s the next update on your works?

I’ve scheduled a fic to be posted real soon. I was a little worried about posting it but with positive support, I’ve decided to put it out there! I’m still scared, but I hope it does well and people are able to relate or try to understand where I’m coming from. 

11. Number of followers before you started writing and after?

Wow. Umm, I can’t even remember that far back. But I started this blog in September 2017, and now I’ve got 869 followers. And I am so grateful!! 

THE WRITER

1. Which character do you love writing for?

I’m a Dean girl, but I love writing for all of them however, I’m having trouble writing for Castiel. So his name is still “in progress,” but I do have a couple of fics in my participation for Kari and Ida’s 12 Days of Christmas challenge. Here is the masterlist.

2. Which character do you dislike writing for?

So I only write for any members of TFW 2.0. And I don’t dislike writing for any of them, but like I’ve mentioned in the previous question, I am struggling with Castiel.

3. What’s your favorite AU to write for?

As of right now, I don’t have any that I’m very fond of. I think I only have two AU’s and they’re both for Dean. There’s “Long Time Coming” part 1 and part 2, and “Because You’re an Idiot.”

4. What’s your least favorite AU to write for?

I can’t really say at this point. Don’t have much AU’s.

5. What do you hope never gets requested?

Well, I am currently not taking requests, nor am I planning to, but who knows what the future holds. But if I do, I never want to get anything that gives off any negativity. 

I don’t do wincest, destiel, or sabriel and other ships similar to those just because it’s not my thing (but if it’s your thing, then that’s cool too. We all like different things and I respect that). I LOVE a good bromance, but that’s all it’ll ever be. Only platonic. Plus, I don’t think I’d be very good at it anyways. 

Also, I only write reader inserts. I think it’s more personal for everyone and more enjoyable as well.

6. What do you wish was requested more?

Murr... I don’t take requests as of right now.

7. Thoughts on writing Smut/POC/Curvy/MxM/FxF?

I believe smut is a natural desire and there’s nothing wrong with that. POC, is awesome! Personally, I try to keep the reader as vague as possible.

Curvy? I have no problems with that.

Writing MxM and FxF, if people want to write about that then they are free to do so. I support it. I wouldn’t write or read it myself because it’s not really my preference, but maybe FxF I wouldn’t mind dabbling in. Maybe because I am a female so it would be a lot easier to write. I know more about a females body than a mans.

8. Which account is your biggest inspiration in writing?

OY!! There are so many and they are still growing. But the main accounts that I’ve read on my personal blog and pushed me to create this blog and start writing are, @kittenofdoomage, @atc74, @supernatural-jackles, @hannahindie, @kaz2y5-imagines, and @itsmkjones.

9. How long have you been an imagine writer for?

I’ve written some when I was in high school when I was into anime, then stopped because I (mostly) grew out of anime, then not long ago I wrote for bands, then I stopped because I became overly obsessed with supernatural and wanted to only wrote for spn. LOL.

10. Any upcoming secret works?

No? But I have this idea for a semi-AU series that I want to do, but I suck at writing series. Blehh... Boo me!! *throws myself into a trash bin.*

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Wonder Woman - assorted thoughts

(This disjointed excuse for a review made possible by contributions from Baroness @lauralot89 and viewers like you. Thank you.)

Well, I suppose I should start this with a disclaimer that I’ve never seen any of the other DCEU movies (it took me a good long while just to warm up to Harley’s Squad costume), so those who view this one in the context of the DCEU’s arcs and themes as a whole may find additional reasons to be elated or disappointed. That said...

It was good. Not great, but with the numbers of things that it - that any Wonder Woman origin, really - had to juggle, that was perhaps never in the running...

Alright, the way I see it, the chief stumbling-block in Wonder Woman’s mythos (at least, where connecting her to the wider DC Universe is concerned) is... well, the mythology. To accept the Amazons, the audience must also accept that actual Gods exist, and that those same Gods have been influencing human society and behavior since the dawn of time. This is kind of a problem in the modern superhero genre, which is largely built on individualism, emphasizes both good and evil as conscious human choices, and distrusts any authority that isn’t 100% deferential to the hero 100% of the time (I believe @ragnell has some choice posts on the modern trend of pitting Wonder Woman against her own pantheon, and how toxic it is as a storytelling choice). When Diana and Steve are making eyes at one another, for instance - do they love each other for what they are, or are they merely dancing to Aphrodite’s will?

(Thor weaseled out of this by portraying the Asgardians as a distant alien kingdom whose pre-Avengers interactions with Earth amounted to “dropped a Plot Coupon here a couple millenniums ago, also inspired some old stories” - but from what I understand, mortals have never been as important to Norse myths as they have been to Greek ones. Thor and Loki are first and foremost princes and brothers in their own Godly realm, not stewards of mortal functions like love, communication, or dying.)

Wonder Woman tries to head this problem off by emphasizing Ares (and maybe Zeus...?) is the only Olympian still alive by 1917, but even then, there’s a delicate balancing act. Make Ares too big of a villain, and the audience will come away with the impression that all (or at least most) human evil can be blamed on some upstart God; too little, and you’re left wondering whether our heroine made any difference at all in the grand scheme of things. I can’t say Jenkins and the writers didn’t try for balance, but it came off more as bet-hedging - there’s a big song-and-dance about how beating up one guy won’t accomplish anything, and yet that one guy was the reason Steve had to make his big sacrifice at all...

In vaguely related topics - hinging the central conflict on “stop the bad guys from fucking up the peace process” rather than “turn the War in favor of the good guys” is a neat idea on paper, but in practice it sort of feeds into that “did we make any actual difference” issue. To mitigate this, I think the movie should’ve portrayed more of the War from the cheap seats, show off just how much the average citizen's life sucks and how much they have to gain from peace. There are little allusions to things like racism and PTSD, but give me a soldier who tries to charge into No Man’s Land because he just can’t take being cooped up in the trenches anymore; give me a mother who has to divide a single, half-rotted apple among five children; give me the specter of polio and typhus and Spanish Flu hanging over it all, preying on a populace too tired and poor and uprooted to even bathe regularly.

(I suppose I should also say something about the Diana’s birth, which I believe was the biggest pre-release kerfuffle among fandom, but the bet-hedging is even worse in this department, like the writers are leaving a backdoor open to any combination of retcons. @bluefall-returns, you have any particular thoughts on this?)

As for the villains... Field Marshal Whatshisface and Dr. Poison are largely disposable, though I liked the Doctor’s quarter-mask, and that scene where they laugh and twirl mustaches over all the generals trapped in the gas-filled room give me some good Evil Family Bonding feels. Which is more emotion than Ares ever roused... I didn’t hate him as much as everyone else who saw this movie seems to, but I was begging and praying that for once, the authority figure who’s (apparently) on the heroes’ side wouldn’t turn out to be the traitor, and I was bitterly disappointed. I like the Perezian touches on his armor, but I really wish they kept his face to two glowing coals over a field of black; having his face be actually visible in the helmet just makes him look like a Ren Faire escapee.

Okay, that’s enough whining about the cons. The pros - Diana’s childhood is absolutely adorable; Themyscira as a whole is a gorgeous, functional society that left me wanting to see more; Gadot’s accent isn’t nearly as distracting as I thought it’d be; Steve’s little band is pleasantly diverting without being distracting; Etta is also adorable (though after seeing what @themyskira had to say about the fish-out-of-water bits, I went to get my first refill during the London sequence so I probably missed quite a bit of her); and praise Gaea, there’s no obnoxious #notallmen moral like in the 2009 DTV.

Most of all, though, I loved the use of the Lasso. Unlike previous adaptations, which mostly turned it into a fancy grappling hook during fight scenes (if they didn’t ignore it entirely), here it was almost like a Green Lantern Ring, constantly moving, constantly changing shape, always dangerous. Come to that, I also loved how the Amazons were more than a match for the German soldiers despite being five centuries behind in weaponry, and the scene where Diana charges into No Man’s Land is the first time in a long, long time any superhero movie actually managed to get my blood pumping.

(That said, I agree with @renaroo that there was too much slow-mo; bullet-timing bracelets be damned, it got real old real fast.)

Now, my usher said there wasn’t a post-credits scene, so I only stuck around for about thirty seconds into those, but the Cast List was a pleasant surprise. Euboea! Mnemosyne! Artemis! Sure, none of them had any on-screen names or relevance, but it goes to show someone who worked on this movie cared, and I salute them for all this sequel fuel respect for the source material.

Oh, and the soundtrack was great. More memorable than any Marvel movie I’ve seen, but we’ll see if that holds up a couple weeks down the line...