#i do not write i am not a writer and i have no intentions of writing this but good god i almost feel like i have to

[jawlipops]

I'll die on the hill that infuriating companions that bicker and bitch constantly are more compelling than constantly friend and nice ones. It's hard for Bioware to sell the idea of a found family to me when all the companions seem to like and interact with each other more than the protagonist!

To me, it feels like we're a boss/therapist with a barrier of authority around us. It's a shame because I doubt it was the writers' intent for it to come off that way. I enjoy the game and companions but maaaan.

Let me tell someone to fuck off, Bioware! I can be a good guy AND still be assertive!

i 100000% agree, its funny to see them beef, and its almost as if giving the characters the opportunity to overcome prejudices and first impressions leads to more interesting dynamics and bonds, who knew. i just find this watering down so odd considering DA's history of writing complex relationships, and also how , as far as i know...the major complaints levied against newer bioware titles have never been "the characters are too mean"?????? like am i crazy???? why did they do this????

[creatingblackcharacters]

I apologize in advance, this guy spent a decade rotating in teenage me's brain.

I feel really complicated about the Drizzt article for a couple of reasons. One, Drizzt was invented in the late 80s/early 90s, and was one of the first attempts to have a 'good' Black character in mainstream Written By White People Fantasy. Two, he was also one of the first canonical portrayals, if not the first, of any moral complexity in the canon of the D&D multiverse. Before him, drow (dark elves) were completely evil cannon fodder. Suddenly there was nuance, and entire races that were considered universally evil in the canon had the opportunity to be reconsidered. Three, the author who invented him was not the author who invented the 'dark elf = evil' canon, he was working in an existing universe with existing rules and turned everything on its head, for the better.

While he is not a perfect character, or perfectly written, he is a very important milestone and should be treated as such.

I am not in any way trying to criticize you, I however do feel like that article did not give him the context he deserves.

I hope you receive me respectfully because I am speaking respectfully.

You are right about the importance of context! It should be provided when making arguments like this, and this character existing was an important milestone for D&D as a form of entertainment. I do favor the high top fade on the elf.

That being said, even with the context, I personally don't have to value that the milestone for making D&D more complex with better, fuller writing for everyone else, was through a misunderstanding and misapplication of racism via a Black character that continues in fantasy to date. By that time, there were Black writers and players that could have contributed, and I wish that the white author had referenced them so that he'd done it properly. So I understand the importance in the character's existence! It's just that the intent was there, the delivery was not.

[qiu-yan]

in MDZS the novel, the innkeeper in Yunping mentions that people are too scared to go petition Yunmeng Jiang for help because someone once walked in on Sect Leader Jiang whipping a guy in the main hall, supposedly because the guy was a demonic cultivator.

[essektheylyss]

I am obsessed with how narratively convenient Lark's divinatory abilities are. She's the only one of the protagonists who is both pragmatic and has a working sense of self-preservation, so having some internal impulse that is actually the guiding hand of the cosmos pushing her into doing the REALLY stupid shit is both necessary and really useful.

Like, I am the type of writer who kind of scoffs at the idea that characters are beyond the writer's control and will completely screw over your outline, because on one hand, a sensible outline will follow the characters' personalities and tendencies anyway. Obviously in an ensemble cast you will need to do some wrangling, but in theory your characters are responding to varying degrees of stimuli in order to maneuver them into the places you need them to be for things to all come together in the end.

But more importantly, "curse from god" is the funniest and easiest way to push any character to do things beyond the realm of reason when necessary, and frankly, what the fuck is the point of playing god if you don't embrace that?

[isekyaaa]

I'm going to say again like I know it is really dumb to feel this way, but I finally put into words why I get so annoyed when people ask me for a part 2 to one of my works. Like I explained once to people that writing is a very slow and arduous task for me, but it's more than that?

Picture you are an artist working on a painting. You spend months on it to get everything just right. You pour time and energy into getting the perfect composition, the perfect lighting, the perfect shades etc. And then finally, you finish it. After a year, you finally finished your masterpiece. And your work is a hit. People really like it. But then.... Someone comes up to you and says, "Gosh, I really love this painting! But you know what? I love it so much that I think the painting is much too small. You know what? You should add on two extra feet of canvas onto the right side of your painting. That way, you can add on more to your painting and it'll be even bigger and more enjoyable!"

To me, that's what it feels like when someone asks for a part two. Like this last fic honest to God I started on more than a year ago. Granted, I'd pick it up and put it back down, but I put a lot of work into making sure everything was as perfect as possible. It's not an amazing fic, mind you, but it still gave me a lot of trouble. But eventually I finished it into a COMPLETE work. It's a finished painting. That's the story I wanted to tell in its entirety.

I get why people want a part two. I get that the story ends to leave you wanting to know what happens next. But that's the point. That's the story I wanted to tell. It's complete. This isn't supposed to be pure romance. It's supposed to be more on the comedic side. But when people ask for a part two, it's like they're telling me that they're not satisfied with my artwork, that it's not perfect and needs more work for it to become perfect. It's like they're ignoring all the year's worth of effort I put into making sure the composition, wording, humor, etc was just right. Not only that. I should put another year's worth of work into making it truly perfect. It's insulting and exhausting.

Granted, like I said, I do understand people completely do not intend to make me feel this way. I'm not irritated with these people directly. I know it's supposed to be a compliment. But like.... Maybe it's because I'm prideful but I really can't help but be insulted. It's telling me that I didn't do a good job as a writer.

[meirimerens]

i know the Willow Mellow lore gets worse the longer you dig inside of it + it reflects even Worse on the writers when you put the actual words on her situation but let's not forget Darlings she is a child. she is 15 to 17yo depending on what piece of documentation we refer to, too young to consent to sex and therefore does not fit the category of "sex worker", and instead falls under the definitions of "sexually exploited youth", more specifically "sexually exploited child", as UNICEF, UNESCO, Convention for the Rights of the Child, [...] and general common sense all define "child" as "person under the age of 18".

she is the victim of kidnapping by her """adoptive father""" and of sexual exploitation by her (presumably adult) "clients" (as she does not appear to have a pimp, and is instead written saying she loves what she does and such giddy teehee fun. [powerful side-eye through someone in the writing team.] [she's not a Real Person I have to stress, so someone wrote her like this, wrote this kid like this.] [it is all part of a narrative in which she is struggling to shake off her "father's" exploitation, an inherently tragic one, but she still was written that way, and could have been written any other way, with any other "rebellious" act]). calling her a sex worker as a child who is basically the same age as P2 Capella or Grace is putting her in a Grown-Up category especially harmful considering we are supposed to read her as an indigenous girl, member of the Kin (even if her lore is Mysterious and Hazy) and indigenous women and girls are sexualized in racialized ways which often paint them as more ~~~naturally~~~ sexually liberated, or docile, or submissive, or [insert racist x sexist stereotype promoted by colonizers to excuse the mistreatment of indigenous women and girls].

tldr yes it's worse when you actually call her what she actually is, and worse tenfold when you read what the writers make her say about it [even as an inherently tragic situation that we can recognize and put words on (hence this post), she could have been written any other way, with any other rebellious act, but you know.] but you know x2 (SIDE-EYES SOMEONE ON THE WRITING TEAM VERY HARD TIL ME EYES POP OUT ME SKULL)

[scarecrowgolem]

Does poor things get good or is it just uncomfortable born yesterday woman trope turned literal the whole way through

[heartvisor]

<- guy who thinks too much about geed for a silly show with 25 eps

[luobingmeis]

i need 2 be more clear that my posts abt unironically liking scum villain are not meant 2 be "i love it no i dont yes i do no i dont <3" but are actually meant to be "i love scum villain and it makes me feel a kind of way that it's always talked abt in a way that makes it sound like it's just a trashy guilty pleasure book bc imo it does make for a good, fun, sad, heartwarming story and it is worth talking abt as its own story and not 'MXTX's silly book vs. her two masterpieces'" like yes it is silly and fun but also i have never cried so hard over a piece of media showing that sometimes things just truly aren't fair and you can never turn back time to fix your mistakes so instead you just have to keep moving forward knowing more than you did before

i am making mountains out of mole hills but also. my blog my hill to die on <3

[vermillioncrown]

[+] my revision of formulation for the whole study & thesis was majorly approved, ppl can no longer pretend to or actually be lost

[+] minion² was contained, showed up in person and got the sense that no one was going to take his nonsense

[+] no major disagreement between the supes, all subteams understand their tasks

[-] back-to-back-to-back meetings w advisors, integrators, external working groups, and study lead in the next two weeks

[-] i have to finish reading... 15+ papers and compile their data

[-] fix a data structure implementation in my optimization model that i had promised since... nov last year lol (it wasn't entirely necessary. until now)

we'll see if i'm in the mood for stress relief writing instead of just stress relief daydreaming... there's a lot of stuff for every fic but it's all over the place. tpac hyperfixation is still holding strong (esp when compared to all other wips, it is second place for most concrete ending + actual epilogue)

(first place is larb bc every chapter is outlined and scoped; just haven't felt like writing it)

(not saying the other fics don't have planned endings but besides their plot i don't have the context for the endings yet. the shape of the ending scenes are very much informed by the long, in-between chapters)

[matryosika]

the sudden urge of deleting all my fics, deactivating my blog and starting a whole new one

[fractalkiss]

I cannot reblog my last socionics post for 1418 but if i may be vain... i went off in it.

[29121996]

.

[queerhockey]

had a dream that sid was starring in a production of bye bye birdie so now i’m going to be plagued for the rest of my life by a musical theatre fic that i will never write smh

[podraje]

A question for writers.

How long did it take you to finish a first draft of a book (I mean a proper book, around +300 pages) and did you have a full time job at the time?

Asking for a friend (Me. I am the friend, who is trying to write the first draft for over 2 years and is in a shithole).

[4lph4kidz]

homestuck is a partially improvisional serialized narrative so yes some parts of the story emerged over time and writing decisions were made on the fly. and some readings of the comic that i think are really good are probably not what the author intended. but no i do not think that it is 'good on accident' actually.

like do some of you think hussie wrote a good comic by accident