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autumnslance · 3 years ago

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About Plagiarism

I left a long, planned essay on Twitter tonight. I will copy the meat of it here for y’all, as recently a friend was copied (a rarer ship in the fandom, so very noticeable by the writer and their regular beta reader) and it seems we need a Talk, kids. Links and screenshots and my rambling underway.

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Apparently we need to discuss what is and isn’t plagiarism. Especially in FanFic where we're interacting with the same characters, settings, ideas. Let’s start with the dictionary and continue the thread from there (I like the word origin/history personally):

Definition of plagiarize

transitive verb : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

The Kidnapping Roots of Plagiarize

If schools wish to impress upon their students how serious an offense plagiarism is, they might start with an explanation of the word’s history. Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius “kidnapper.” This word, derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete.

“Ideas” is fuzzy in the Merriam-Webster definition. There are story archetypes that exist in many forms. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth/Hero's Journey outlines many famous stories. And it's popular to say that “Avatar” is “Dances with Wolves” is “Pocahontas” is “The Last Samurai” etc.

But note how while those films have similar plotlines--”Military Guy falls for Native woman, learns to appreciate her Culture, stands up to Evil Bosses”--none of them execute those ideas in the same way. Sully’s story is different from Dunbar’s not just cuz one’s a Science Fiction epic and the other a Western. Disney's “Pocahontas” Very Loosely takes history and uses the same story beats. The Last Samurai uses the Meiji era Westernization. Same ideas, different executions, even beyond settings.

None of these are plagiarizing each other though the ideas are similar. They’re told in their own ways, own language; both in the genres they belong to (Western, Pseudo-History, SciFi, Animated) and how characters interact with each other and settings. Original dialogues (variable quality).

We also see this in books as similar novel plots get published in waves so we end up with bunches of post-apocalypse teen revolutionaries or various vampires or lots of young wizard stories all at once. Sometimes ideas just happen like this; multiple discovery, simultaneous invention, concurrent inspiration, cognitive emergence are all phrases I’ve seen for it. So it happens in original content as well, and legality gets fuzzy (Also why you don't send authors your fanfic ideas).

In existing properties, this gets trickier but even “Elementary”’s Holmes and Watson are nothing like the BBC’s “Sherlock” characters. Who are nothing like other versions of the Detective and his Doctor pal over the decades in various media properties.

FanFic's in a similar position where like Sherlock Holmes we play with the same characters, setting, and storyarcs but give our own spin to them. People can and will have similar ideas about plots. Trick is to use your own words. Take the characters and make the story your own.

I have a good example courtesy of @raelly-writing. We both ship Wolcred. We both wrote soft post-Paglth’an scenes with Thancred and our WoLs. Both features the couples helping each other undress, examining injuries, bathing, bantering. My fic was written soon after 5.5 part 1 came out. Dara’s is much more recent. Yet at no point reading hers did I feel she was copying my words. The PoVs differ. Our characters focus on different things. Mine has a mini-arc concerning the Nutkin.

The links for comparison’s sake (and maybe leave kudos/comments if so inclined please and thanks). Note while the scenes are very similar no phrases are written in the same way. Mine: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25417882/chapters/76059467 Dara’s: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067565/chapters/81832915

Dara and I both hang out in certain Discords and I know conversations about Thancred and WoL caring for each other post-battle has come up in those channels and we've both participated. It’s a stock FanFic scene to boot. Cuz it's soft and feels warm and snuggly.

I HAVE been copied before, back in WoW. My case is pretty clear cut so here are the images of my old RP Haven profile (1st, old RP website) and the plagiarist’s RSP (2nd, an in game mod to share descriptions and basic info).

This was a decade ago on Shadow Council and I think the character deleted so any Availa’s in WoW now aren’t the same person. I left the names to point out what changed. Just the names and a word or 2 to make sense for the class changes as well. Otherwise lifted directly from my RP profile.

The funny part is how the person got caught. Literally walked into our weekly RP Guild meeting that I was running and asked to join. Folks noticed right away the similar backstory; after all there may have been more Outland-born Azerothians. My initial excitement at a character I could weave into our story turned to gut-twisting rage and grief as I recognized my own exact words though. Words I’d carefully crafted and constantly iterated on to improve over time (before and after this incident, until the site died).

When caught they tried to claim their significant other had leveled the character for them and made up the backstory based on Skyrim. If you know WoW’s Outland story and Skyrim’s plot you know how ridiculous that is. Also tried to lie about other drama I knew about thanks to roommate's characters but hey. I had to be blunt that I’d shared the info with Haven mods and other guild officers Alliance and Horde. That we would not “laugh about this” one day though lucky this was “just” RP not original or academic work. Cuz if it'd been monetized or academic I would've raked them through the coals.

I felt violated. Hurt. Had anxiety attacks. They took MY WORDS and tried to claim them as theirs. Have another character born in Outland trained by Draenei; Awesome! Our characters have an instant connect in similarities and differences of that experience. Don’t steal my characters wholesale!

Then the audacity of trying to come into my guild as if no one would notice. ShC wasn’t a large server by then, still active but not nearly Wyrmrest Accord or Moon Guard big. My character was well known due to my writing and RP. Speaking of how easy it is to get caught in specific spaces...A case of a self-published novelist getting noticed for plagiarizing fanfic was discovered recently (explicit erotica examples through the thread).

One way they got noticed was how much content they put out in only a year, lifted from fandom. The examples in Kokom’s threads show how the material was altered but still recognizable. In some cases, just the names are changed as in my experience. In other passages more has changed but you can still see the bones of the original fic poking through in the descriptions and character interactions, even with adjustments made.

Similar ideas happen. Similar plots exist. Same 'ships with friends are fun! In FanFic we’re working with the same material. It’s possible to write a similar scene differently. To make that scene and characters your own. All we’re asking is not to copy others' words. Others' characters. Others' specific phrases and descriptions used to bring those words, those characters, to life. Use your own. In the end you’ll be happier.

I get wanting to have what the perceived “popular people” have. I get seeing concepts others succeed with and wanting some of that too. We all get a bit jealous now and then for various reasons. Sometimes we don't even realize it, consciously. But do it in your own way. Maybe check to see if you’re getting a bit too close to the “inspiration” you admired, maybe reread often. Don’t hurt your fellow creatives. If you do and get caught don’t try to double down. Have the grace to be abashed at least and work to do better. Eventually you WILL get caught. All it takes is once to throw all else you've done into question. Ao3 doesn’t take kindly to plagiarists. Nor do a lot of fan communities focused on writing and RP. Getting back that trust is hard. The internet doesn’t forget easily, for good or ill.

#writing #blogging #about me #social media #plagiarism #fanfiction #Ao3

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allaroundcringey · 4 years ago

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Dependency ~ Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 1 ~ The Phone Call

Pairing : Sherlock x Female Reader

Summary : After a few years John Watson was left no choice but to call his old school mate Amelia Harold. The matter of the call you ask? Sherlock's drug problem. What started out as a simple phone call to help out his friend turned out to be so much more: it gave Amelia Harold a chance to find out who deemed her father guilty of murder. Full of friendship, truth, heartbreak, suspense, and love this story showcases what matters most in life: your friends and family.

Warnings : mention of drug abuse, addiction, and emotional abuse in later chapters

A/N : this is the first chapter of many to come- I thoroughly hope you enjoy! FYI, this story begins in series 1 episode 3. Oh and this chapter is a bit short since it's mainly to introduce the characters, but later chapters will have more content. Let me know what you think of it / future predictions for this fic ;)

***I do not own any of these characters, plot ideas, and lines taken directly from the show (though there are only a few of those) anything pertaining to Amelia is my original work.***

Amelia Harold awoke to the scrutinizing sunlight looking down on her through the bedroom window. With a glare she slowly tried to wake herself up. Mornings were always the worst- the idea of getting up nearly pained her. Facing another day with new monsters was not an appealing idea. More than anything she wished she could simply lay in bed all day to avoid said monsters.

Life had other plans though as her phone started to buzz against her bed stand. Groaning she reached her hand for it to see who would be calling at such an ungodly hour. Upon seeing the caller ID she sat straight up in bed.

Having not spoken to him in what seemed like years seeing John Watson pop up on her phone screen surprised her. Immediately curious as to what was about to transpire she answered the call.

"John Watson, is it really you?!"

"Yes I'm afraid it is- sorry for calling so early in the morning." John said, sounding apologetic.

"If it's a call from you I don't care the hour of day. How have you been since we last spoke?" It had been years since they last ran into each other, and even then they hadn't have had a proper chat.

"I've been good, definitely busy though."

"Ah yes I've been reading your blog actually! Sherlock Holmes seems like quite the guy to be mates with."

"I'm most certainly never bored to say the least. He's actually part of the reason I'm calling besides the fact to catch up of course." John mentioned with a chuckle.

"Hm, interesting. Please do go on." Amelia said as she started to leave her bed to get a cup of tea.

"It's easier if I explain in person. Are you doing anything today?"

"I have work until 5pm but after that I'm completely free. What time should we meet?"

"Just come around anytime. The address is 221B Bakerstreet. I'll meet you outside to bring you in."

"Sounds good John. I can't wait to see you." And with that Amelia hung up the phone.

She set the kettle on the stove to start boiling for tea and left to get changed. Going back into her room where her wardrobe was she chose a simple t-shirt and jeans for the day. Quickly brushing her long blonde hair and putting it in a pony tail, she left to take the now boiled kettle of water off the stove.

After finishing her day at work she left to hail a cab to the infamous 221B Baker Street. She had been working with the local news paper as a writer since she finished her schooling. Her father had managed to get her the job because of... how well known he was at the time.

As she stepped out of the cab upon her destination, John was right there as he promised. With a hug, the two past friends were reunited.

"John! I have missed you so much."

"Same here. Come on, let's get you in the flat."

As they walked up the stairs of 221B John spoke up.

"I should warn you that Sherlock is not the ordinary. Exactly the opposite to be honest."

"That's fine in my books. You know I'm not one to settle for the ordinary John." Amelia replied just as they stepped foot into the flat. As if on que bullets were fired towards the black and white wall that held a yellow smiley face. Taken aback at first, Amelia slightly jumped. Turning to look who had fired the shots everything came together when she realized it was Sherlock Holmes.

"What the hell are you doing?!" John yelled in response.

"Did he just fire a gun inside the flat?" Amelia questioned at the terrifying behavior.

"Bored!" Sherlock exclaimed repeatedly, seemingly the reason behind the gun shots.

"You get used to it." John sighed, shaking his head as he walked over to the kitchen. On the way he made sure to dismantle Sherlock of the fire arm. Opening the fridge John immediately slammed it closed when he saw the surprise Sherlock had left there. Amelia snickered in John's response to the morbid head.

"I like her." Sherlock said after a moment of silence. As John and Sherlock went on about their recent cases, Amelia went to sit herself in the living room. Seeing that the only chair available was the sleek black one Amelia made her way towards it.

"NO! Not that chair. Any other one but that chair." Sherlock yelled, flailing his arm towards her, while Amelia hovered over the unoccupied chair.

"Why not this-" she started.

"Just because." Sherlock said then quickly started his conversation back up with John. "Look it doesn't matter to me who's sleeping with who."

"Whether the Earth goes around the sun."

"Wait he didn't know the Earth went around the sun? He can solve murder cases that are next to impossible but didn't know simple primary school material?"

"Shockingly enough that's exactly what it comes down to." John replied in response to Amelia.

As John and Sherlock continued their banter, Amelia took a look around the flat. Miscellaneous things were thrown every which way but that's what made the flat feel so right. It wasn't cozy like a grandparents home might be, but it was cozy enough for the people who lived there. Amelia was awoken from her day dream as she heard John get up from where he sat and make his way out the door.

"I'm going out. Amelia we can talk tomorrow. Come over anytime like I said."

Not knowing quite what to do, she stood still as John left. Thankfully before the silence of awkwardness could ensue an old woman entered the flat talking directly to Sherlock until she saw Amelia.

"Oh my! I didn't see you there. I'm Mrs. Hudson, who might you be?"

From the window Sherlock replied for Amelia saying: "She's John's old friend. And by the looks of it her name is Amelia Harold who has a strong media presence pertaining to her father. He was impressive, managed to get away with killing woman in their forties until-"

"Stop that. Now." Amelia curtly stopped Sherlock from finishing whatever he was about to say. With a roll of his eyes Sherlock went back to looking out the window.

Before Mrs. Hudson left to go back downstairs she commented on the fresh holes Sherlock had put in the wall. She couldn't see that he smiled in response but Amelia could from where she was standing. It almost surprised her that he was capable of smiling from the bit of time she had hung around him that evening.

Amelia was about to tell him off for talking about her father but something stopped her- and that something was an explosion.

#sherlock x reader #sherlock fandom #sherlock bbc #bbc sherlock #sherlock #sherlock fanfiction #sherlock fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #fandom #john watson #netflix

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vios-rockland-corner · 5 years ago

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How I’m going to tackle “Rumors of Rockland”

Hello there! Today there was a RIDICULOUSLY large information dump on Outlaw’s Patreon about upcoming game layouts. There’s far too much there to comment on right now, but there’s one thing in particular I wanted to focus on today. This post actually is less of me talking about the possibilities of the game, and more so how “I” personally am going to approach these particular “games.”

Overview of what’s below:

- What is “Rumors of Rockland” (RoR)

- My OC Sasha Holmes

- What kind of posts you’ll see from me as these RoR installments come through

What is “Rumors of Rockland?”

Of the long list of future games to come from the creators in the Rockland Universe, one of the very first things mentioned that’s new is the “Rumors of Rockland.” THIS might actually be the first bit of solid content besides the demos that you may see pop up.

“Rumors of Rockland” is a little interesting. I’m not 100% sure I’d call it a “game” first of all. I do fully believe it will be presented to us in the same visual format we get with Ren’Py. The visual novel style basically. But there’s two big keynotes on what makes this piece of media different from the creators’ other games.

1) The MC in these “games” is going to be more of an observer. It’s specifically going to be different from the rest of the games where the MC is directly involved in the story. Here, it sounds more like the MC happens to be in the same setting as another set of characters, but otherwise does not affect what’s going on. With that being said, I don’t even know if we’ll be playing through with any choices to select. The creators also said that it would ideally be the same MC in all the scenarios, further suggesting that the MC isn’t being placed in a perilous situation here. They are an untouched bystander.

2) There will be several installments of this series. Oh yes. When I said “scenarios” before, I didn’t necessarily mean that there’s going to be a lot of things happening in this one...I’m going to refer to is as a “visual novel” until further notice. What I mean is this is a series that will be continuously updated throughout the development of other Rockland games. New installments can be called new chapters to the visual novel. “Rumors of Rockland” appears to be a way to supplement extra information to the audience about certain characters and what is going on in Rockland. That solidifies even more for me why I would prefer to call this a visual novel over a game. Yes I know lots of games will sometimes continue to get DLC content to add further progression. Call it a hunch though, I think the creators would want to save their time developing multiple games rather than developing one and just continually adding updates for it. They have a lot of characters to go through, so this could be an effective way to show some elements that may not be able to make it into a main game.

Apparently, the release order of games has switched around once again and Rumors of Rockland is going to be released first, followed by “Welcome to Rockland” (this is a path focusing on just one character), THEN Misfits: First Blood. I know, sometimes this gets a little confusing to keep track of. Just trust me, a lot of this has to do with character shifts for the groups.

Right now the first Rumors of Rockland we’re supposed to get is just listed as “Introduction/Prologue.” It might not be long, but we’ll see soon what we’re working with here. There also was a BIG list of potential chapters touching on all sorts of different elements of Rockland. It’s kind of wild. Chapters may not be long themselves, considering how many they have planned. But the good news is I think if they’re doing this the way I suspect...it won’t be difficult to pump out a lot of chapters at a faster pace than any of the other games. I think all they need is a stock set of backgrounds and sprites...then it’s just recoding and new script each time. That’s not really so bad if they don’t have the MC have to make a lot or any choices at all. No complaints from me in that case.

My OC

Okay, little detour here, but this WILL become relevant to this blog and tie back into RoR. I don’t make many OC’s, but I made one from scratch here. Her name is Sasha Holmes and I created her specifically to be an NPC in the Rockland Universe.

See I’m not really the creative type, but I wanted to try practicing character creation and development. I’m NOT the type of person though who usually a) visualizes/creates my own MC for a game (I prefer games even with pre-made protagonist avatars) or b) self-inserts. I have NOTHING against anyone who does either of these obviously. My brain just...lacks the creativity to do the former, and since games are a form of escapism, I don’t self-insert because that’s not part of the fantasy and escapism aspect for me.

What’s more, lots of these games are going to be horror survival. I feel even LESS inclined to craft an OC I may fall in love with only to throw them into the pits of hell. Likely any character I make would die, and I don’t have the mental energy to create another OC for every.single.game, haha.

To get around this, I said: “Well what if I just make a character that solely exists in this universe, but never interferes with the story. Surely there are just normal citizens that live in Rockland?” What I was planning on doing was occasionally utilizing Sasha for extra posts when I couldn’t think of anything to write. Something like journal entries she’d make about her day and gossip that she’s heard around town. Perhaps gossip about people going missing even or shady dealings. How would Sasha react? Sometimes a normal person will wave something off as too outlandish to be true. If it doesn’t directly impact you, it’s easier to ponder one second but push it to the side the next. Or maybe what you hear could make you start to feel paranoid. Especially if things persist.

Originally, I was going to split things so that some of the gossip or rumors Sasha heard were actually based on real things that “I” know happen in the games and universe, and some things that are false (because you know how rumors get pretty outlandish if someone mishears something or someone’s just looking for attention). I was prepared to just kind of craft my own type of content like this in due time. In addition to all the analysis posts, don’t worry. The posts regarding my OC would have just been filler when I couldn’t think of anything else.

Now that Rumors of Rockland is a thing though…do you know what this is for me? It’s a template. I am literally being gifted the EXACT kind of scenario I would have previously had to craft myself. This visual novel doesn’t need an interactive MC, just one that observes the events happening. If they’re the same MC in every chapter too, that means they should be safe! I am beyond ecstatic and not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

My Rumors of Rockland Posts

So here’s what going to happen in the future. I’m going to try to do at LEAST one post for every Rumors of Rockland chapter that comes out. Even if the chapters are short, they’ll still be enough for characters to comment on. The goal here is for me to try something new and have a little fun while also putting out content. At the moment, I don’t know which of the two types of posts I will end up preferring to do:

1) Journal Entry- The RoR event has already taken place, and Sasha’s just writing in first person her exact thoughts on the day/information. This would be beneficial if I don’t feel up to describing a whole lot of actions for Sasha or what’s happening around her and just want full dialogue.

2) Present time fic?- Writing the story as the events of the chapter take place. This means placing Sasha directly there and describing all that’s happening with her and getting her IMMEDIATE reactions to certain information. I’m not going to lie, I need to see an RoR chapter first to kind of figure out how I’d write a present time piece. I certainly don’t want to copy paste all the dialogue she hears. Could do a –cut to RoR chapter- note literally in there, and do more of Sasha’s before and after behaviors and emotions. This one would be more dynamic definitely, but I would have the advantage where I could practice having Sasha interact with other characters I bring in such as coworkers or friends. It could be interesting depicting Sasha conversing with another person about what she sees/hears rather than just focusing on her inner thoughts. I also have another side character I might want to utilize to explain why Sasha is even repeatedly going back to where these events take place.

I will admit, I’m not really a creative writer. So I’m going to apologize ahead of time if what I put out isn’t all that stellar. This is going to be practice for sure. Like I said, I may start to favor one post type over the other. I don’t know if I’ll keep them short and sweet, or make it long. Whatever I feel up to I suppose.

I will also mention that I may still end up doing an ADDITIONAL analysis/thoughts post of sorts along with my OC post for an RoR chapter. This is only if there is information revealed that “I” personally want to comment on that I know Sasha can’t. Sasha might not be able to either because she, as an in-universe character, is not aware of the bigger picture, or because her personality doesn’t allow her to think about something in a different way. Sometimes characters are very set in their beliefs and views, which can affect how they perceive information. So if there’s people viewing this blog who are more keen on the analysis posts and don’t really like OC content, don’t worry. Not only will all the big games solely get more analytical posts, but the RoR chapters may still get some as well. It just depends on what kind of information I get fed.

I need to stress again that Sasha is NOT a self-insert. She’s a completely human OC, but she is not me. Now, of course it’s not uncommon for a creator to put just a little bit of themselves into any OC they make. Sasha’s no exception. What’s more, I just realized she’s one of the few purely human OC’s I’ve crafted. I might accidentally end up having her share similar beliefs and mannerisms to myself simply because…that’s what I know best. Sometimes you write better if you write what you know. That being said, I do also try to go out of my way to give my OC’s both minor and major differences to myself, whether it’s small likes and dislikes, physical appearance changes or certain beliefs. The only reason I’m explaining this is because in the event I have both an OC post AND an analysis post that seem to contrast greatly, it’s because my OC and “I” are reacting differently to something. Don’t assume necessarily that the way Sasha views something is exactly the same way I view it. If you do, you might get confused, haha. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of times where it can’t be helped that Sasha and I think very similarly. But for this, I want to try my best to give Sasha a consistent personality and system of beliefs. Big or small.

I don’t know if I will be putting out a post immediately once the first RoR chapter drops. I’m feeling pretty good about the image I have of Sasha in my head, but there’s still some BIG bio points I need to settle on before I can get started. I know I shouldn’t try to nail down every little piece about her right away so that I can have some flexibility later, but a couple of things I think I need to settle on include:

· Age and occupation- There’s a time skip I know we’re going to get for the Rockland universe, so it’s important for me to decide where I want to start and where she will potentially be in the future. I know some of the other characters’ ages now, so that helps a little in deciding how much younger or older she is compared to some characters. It’s also a big deal whether or not she’s a college student pre-time skip, or already started a career.

· Long term resident of Rockland vs. New in Town- As cliché as it sounds, I may be leaning towards “new in town” simply because it really IS an easy way to explain why she’s never noticed anything strange before in Rockland. While it’s true that children are often ignorant to a lot of the world happening around them, I don’t know enough about the Rockland universe to say WHICH things should be “common knowledge” to a local.

Those are the big ones. After a lot of thinking, I’m sticking to my original plan that Sasha will just be “good.” Don’t expect her to be TOO sympathetic to a person who she hears committed murder for example, haha. I just think not only will it be easier for me to write someone who is a “normal civilian” with a good conscience, but also because I think it might be fun later down the line to tackle a little fear that grows and pondering on why people do bad things to begin with. She’s be a good girl, right now most likely lawful good. Maybe if I ever wanted to craft a side character that’s a little more chaotic than her to bounce off dialogue with to get other perspectives in there, I could do that. That’d be another challenge for me altogether though.

I’m sure not every single chapter though in RoR is going to be about hearing characters describe how they’ve murdered someone recently though. Especially not continuously in a public place. Not everything is going to be crystal clear I’m sure. Sasha might brush off some things that happen, and other stuff seems so incoherent without the context that she won’t know WHAT to make of it.

I’m also still debating whether to not only wait for at least the first RoR piece to come out, but if I want to wait for “Welcome to Rockland” to come out as well before finalizing Sasha.

Last thing before I end this! I wanted to get this post out as a just heads-up on what you’ll see from me in the future. This should work fine considering the RoR chapters sound like information dumps in visual novel format for the most part. I want to be make it clear though that I am NOT copyrighting this way of commenting on the RoR chapters. What I love about these installments, is that you could literally have any viewer’s own OC operating in their own space and just reacting to what happens in plain sight. Anyone should feel free to imagine themselves as the MC here and it’s not going to interfere with anyone else’s story. I would certainly love to see if anyone else tries to do something similar to what I want to do with the RoR updates. There’s so many different types of MC’s people can make and I’m positive they won’t all react to things the same exact way as each other.

#rockland #Rockland Games #rumors of rockland #runawayoutlaw #rottenbonethief #sugarhazard #RoR #my OC #sasha holmes

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darkspellmaster · 6 years ago

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Okay...Some thoughts...

This is probably one of the things that pisses me off a lot, and I consider my petpeeve, so go into this with this warning. I am not going to be nice about this. You’ve been warned.

So I read this lovely post here about constructive criticism, and who boy...have I got some thoughts on this.

Here’s the thing, we as viewers of any medium are constantly giving unsolicited criticism every freaking day across social media, over the phone, and in person to other people. We do so without consent of the authors, film makers, and artists, every...day. Period. So this idea that you can only give consented critques is a load because the fact is that we’re doing it every damn day on this website, without the okay of the creators of the series that we watch, play, or read.

Look how many people put up reviews on tv shows or books, or movies or games that they watch and play. How many of them have written to the authors or creators of these works and asked for their okay in writing a review on their work on tumblr? Authors don’t go about asking for random fans to say what they like or don’t like about their works, yet they don’t go about complaining when people posts their thoughts. Or if they do complain you get backlash as they are not being “Professional” enough.

So what makes it okay to do it to a published author but not okay to a amateur author? The only difference is that the published author is being paid and the amateur is not, but that author spent hours, days, weeks, months and possibly years, perfecting a work that, honestly as a writer I can tell you, may not be up to their standard, but there’s a deadline there.

Amateur writers have the luxury of not having to complete their work, of not having a set deadline. So they can go back and correct and update and do whatever they want to their work. Once a book is published, unless the author get’s to do an updated version of the book, that’s it...it’s done. So getting feedback early and by as many people as possible for writers is actually a good thing because once it’s out, it’s out.

This is what keeps bugging me about this idea that you should just let people write whatever and not comment on the work in a critical way. The fact is, once you have placed your work in the public eye, it’s no longer just your work. Just as authors have to contend with seeing their works adapted to the screen and in some cases cause them to be wrecked, and see people daily write fanfiction to “Fix” their mistakes, so to should fanfiction writers have to come to grips with the idea that someone may not like their work and want to “Fix” it, or at least help them in correcting their mistakes in how they have presented characters.

I keep hearing this same story of “But I have Beta readers”, great and fine, but the fact is that the Beta readers, unless they are people that are not your friends, are going to be soft on you. Yes I’m being honest here, you will be given the softer comments unless the person is being directly honest with your work. Having voices outside of your beta readers is an eye opening experience because it forces you to look at your writing from a different perspective and pushes you to make changes that you may not have seen before because, in a lot of cases with Fanfiction, the person beta reading is a friend who likes what you like and will say “But it’s good.”

The idea that someone shouldn’t give constructive criticism over fanfiction and that because you like the story the way it is, doesn’t preclude you from facing the fact that as a story writer, especially as a lot of fanfiction authors tend to want to eventually get into the writing field, need to grow and change and face the idea of having their work being evaluated critically.

I read, “Well unless I give you consent to be critical of my work.” Exactly what do you think you’re doing when you post that work out there? You want reviews, what do you think reviews are? Review are, as defined by the Dictionary, “ a formal assessment or examination of something with the possibility or intention of instituting change if necessary.” It’s the appraisal of the work, and, in serialized fiction, as that’s what Fanfiction is as you are publishing it chapter by chapter rather than as a complete thing, you are therefore going to be apraised by those reading it per chapter.

What do you think happens in comics? It’s weekly and monthly and the writers get feedback from fans and the Editors based on the reaction from the readers. As a writer you are not only writing for yourself but for your fans and readers as well. You can’t just look at something and go “This is just writing for me” because the moment you share it with someone, it’s no longer just your story, it’s their story too because they react to what you write. And the idea that you need to have consent to be critical of a work that’s ever evolving...well why not bring that to the whole of entertainment. Should we be asking for TV shows for consent when we say we like or don’t like their works? Seriously this is what you’re asking for when you’re saying that you need to have consent to critique something.

Speaking of consent...

Fanfiction itself is a special thing, given that, it’s technically writers using pre-existing work from an author and, in essence, taking a copyrighted thing and creating their own work with it, without the consent from the original author. Take Anne (Ann) Rice for instant. She doesn’t like fanfiction because to her that’s people changing her characters that she’s invested over 15 books into creating. They are her creations and by saying “Don’t criticize my fanfiction” your being kind of hypocritical if you’re in turn changing up an author’s character because you feel that they should be shown a different way.

As writers you need to have critiques. Saying “Well I don’t want your opinion” on something is daft honestly. Because that’s all reviews are, just an opinion that you can ignore. You don’t have to take the review, you don’t even need to turn them on if you don’t want. The thing is, all stories are going to be reviewed. You need to learn to deal with them.

The problem is that a lot of people giving notes to people are not professional editors or have never been trained in it. So they’re going to come off as mean and harsh in some cases, and this in itself is an issue. People need to learn to be less harsh on how they go about commenting, but at the same time writers need to learn to accept that there are times when their writing does suck and they need more than one or two sets of eyes upon it.

You can write a story for fun all you want, but for readers if it’s hard to read the story, if the characters are way out of character, how are we supposed to engage with you then? How are we to, as people have said, “analyzes and talk to you about your story” if we can’t critique aspects of it that don’t sit right.

As a writer myself and someone who has original stories that I’m working on, any comment, even the bad ones, at least give me an idea of what people are seeing when they read my work. Some are dumb like “You suck,” and “I was expecting more of X character when it said it was going to be in there.” And yeah, they stung, sure, but the thing is, it made me go “Okay so I need to include more of this because of who is reading my work and what they are expecting of me.

You can’t live in a bubble as a writer, this is a myth that needs to be burst. Even back in the day, readers had a lot of influence on writers. Conan Doyle was originally planning on killing off Holmes but because of the backlash he got to come back. Agatha Cristie didn’t like her little Belgium Detective, but she kept writing him and even self inserted herself in there to annoy him, because fans loved him. Authors are entertainers to their readers, they are the customers whom the storyteller is trying to entertain. If you’re going to complain about the readers thoughts then you’re better off just sharing your work among friends that you like.

Honestly, it sounds like a lot of people would prefer it if someone went and did a fix it fic to their fanfiction over dealing with someone giving them something to consider for their next work. You know what, maybe that’s a solution. I propose that from now on, if someone doesn’t like a fanfic, since it’s not copyrighted, as it’s using already copyrighted characters, we should be allowed to fix fic your fanfics to do what we want them to do. Would that be better and easier for people to deal with?

#concrit #constructive criticism #constructive feedback #fanfiction stories #fanfiction #writers need to learn to deal with having critiques.#and yes I know i'm gonna get hit by a lot of asks or complaints over this

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possiblyimbiassed · 7 years ago

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What happened to Sherlock? Part IV – Heartbreak and coma (2)

This is the second post of the fourth installment of my meta series where I try to use Sherlock’s own methods to find out what’s happened to him in the show; you can read the first one here. This is about my hypothesis #4: At some point in time between TSoT and HLV, Sherlock takes an overdose of drugs and ends up in coma. In the first post I tested a prediction to try to verify the coma part. Here are the remaining four predictions that I’ll test the same way, corresponding to the rest of my hypothesis. Since this post won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the first one, and since this is also a monster-post, I’ll put the whole thing under the cut, except for this picture of a comatose hospitalized Sherlock in TLD:

Disclaimer: If you feel the subject matter upsetting, please don’t read further - take care and stay safe! I also want to state that no matter what happens in S4 - like nurse Cornish said in TLD, I’m fully convinced Sherlock will survive this. He will pull through and solve The Final Problem - staying alive.

Prediction #2: It will be possible to deduce from events in the show that Sherlock might have harmed himself, and even overdosed.

Observations: There are some scenes - mostly in TAB and TLD - which indicate that Sherlock’s state of health might indeed be self-inflicted (at least on the surface). The most obvious ones, in my opinion, are:

1. Sherlock’s OD in the airplane scenes in TAB is treated like a fact, but people aren’t acting accordingly. The case is complete with backstory from Mycroft, Dr Watson saying this cocktail of drugs could kill Sherlock...

...and assassin nurse ‘Mary’ suggesting he should be in hospital. And we know from TBB that John has specialist skills in being “able to recognize and give immediate and appropriate treatment to a wide range of medical and surgical conditions including --- poisoning/overdose” (among other things), because this is explicitly stated in his CV. It’s also obvious in this scene that Sherlock has administered the drugs on himself.

But the obviously logical procedure after his OD - taking Sherlock to hospital to try to restore his body functions and maybe save his life - does not happen; no-one disputes Sherlock’s decision to not receive medical treatment. So here we have a person who might just have tried to take his own life with a potentially lethal dose of drugs, but Dr Watson doesn’t even examine him. It’s glossed over as if nothing serious has happened, and no-one reacts properly to it; Sherlock himself acts as if he’s already miraculously recovered, and the others just let him carry on. This is not realistic, it’s not how an overdosed person possibly could behave. Which indicates that this is all taking place inside Sherlock’s brain; it’s Sherlock who wants to gloss over the serious consequences, even though he feels ashamed. Conclusion: the emphasis at Sherlocks OD as such might mean it’s true, but the timeline might be warped and the reactions following the OD twisted because of Sherlock’s drug-induced state.

2. In S4 there are references to self-harm marks on both Faith’s and Sherlock’s arms. The scenes in TLD where Sherlock talks to Faith about self-harm, deducing that her relationship had ended, that she wasn’t ‘getting any’, that she must have scars of self-harm on her left underarm and that her ‘boyfriend’ didn’t notice, are very telling:

But if ‘Faith’ was actually Euros, what was her purpose of first making Sherlock think she was suicidal and then just disappear? I see it as more likely that this is all about Sherlock processing his own relationship with John. Sherlock might have been sexually frustrated for a long time, because nothing ever happened between them. But at the same time Sherlock wasn’t really in touch with his feelings and basically horrified to ever talk about it with John (greenhouse scene in TAB is testimony). It’s possible that Sherlock had started using again when John had decided to get married (like he did in canon) and had scars of the syringe on his left underarm, but John didn’t notice this, because he wasn’t there. ‘Self-harm’ in this case equals drug use.

3. Nurse Cornish tells John in TLD that Sherlock has ‘made a mess of himself’, when what we actually saw was John assaulting him.

But why would the nurse in charge blame the victim in front of the perpetrator? And why all this glossing over the fact that John Watson attacked and beat up his friend to the point of hospitalizing him? Sounds very much like Sherlock’s guilt to me, like he’s actually processing the consequences of what he’s done to himself (his OD) in his Extended Mind Palace.

It also seems like Sherlock is re-hashing things in his EMP, because we already have a scene from the very first episode, where someone accuses Sherlock of having ‘made a mess’:

4. In TFP we learn that Euros cut herself when she was a kid “to see how my muscles worked”. The parents thought it was a suicide attempt. But little Euros is standing here between them, as if the case was being analyzed in Sherlock’s Mind Palace.

So what if Euros is actually a part of Sherlock himself? If S4 all happens inside Sherlock’s head, this could very well be the case. Which means that Sherlock might have been the one to harm himself as a kid.

5. As I’ve tried to show in this meta, suicide is one of the major themes in this show. It has been referred to or implied so many times, rubbed in so thoroughly, that it’s rather upsetting. This is a very serious topic, and I doubt the show-makers intend to treat it lightly. I’d rather believe they want to catch our attention with it, to contemplate the dire consequences to other people of Sherlock’s OD. Just like I think Sherlock himself does in TLD, when he warns ‘Faith’...

...and throws her gun in the Thames...

...and argues the point:

6. And then there’s ACD canon. Before Holmes ’falls’ with Moriarty in the Reichenbach Fall (The Final Problem) he leaves a note to Watson (= a classic reference to suicide). It’s believed that Doyle’s intention was to let him die and end the story with Watson living an ordinary life with his wife and only nostalgic memories left from his time with Holmes. But the fans protested and insisted for years until ACD ‘resurrected’ Holmes and published new stories. So if ACD almost ‘killed off’ this great character in canon, wouldn’t it be rather canon compliant of Mofftiss to almost do the same thing? One of the canon stories is also named ‘The Dying Detective’, but in BBC Sherlock they’ve changed the name to ‘The Lying Detective’ - maybe in order to not make it too obvious?

7. On a meta level, would there be any reasons for the character of Sherlock Holmes to try to commit suicide? Well, yes; I think there are plenty of hints that there might be. And I believe @tjlcisthenewsexy puts the finger exactly on those reasons in this excellent meta (my bolding): “If a person takes their own life due to depression directly caused by a heterocentric culture and institutionalized homophobia, then is it really suicide? Or is it murder?” I think this issue was raised by Sherlock already in the first episode, albeit in a slightly less obvious way; the victims of the serial killer were persuaded to take their own life when the killer put pressure on them.

Same thing basically happened in TRF, when Moriarty pressured Sherlock to jump. And in HLV when Lord Smallwood committed suicide after CAM (=Media as a villain) put pressure on him with blackmail. But the real culprit isn’t the victim; it’s society’s norms and attitudes that pressure them. The issue of homophobia isn’t of course openly addressed in BBC Sherlock, but I think it’s heavily implied for us to read between the lines.

Prediction #3: There will be abundant references to Sherlock’s drugs use, since this is the proximate cause of his state and therefore constantly on his mind.

Why do we see an IV drip with morphine in HLV? Well, this is the episode where Sherlock gets shot in the chest, so naturally he needs morphine as painkiller… But wait a minute; wouldn’t his brother have informed the hospital staff of the risks of giving Sherlock morphine, seeing as he’s a drug addict? And then there’s Janine’s comment:

Observations: There are several drug-related things in HLV that don’t really make sense.

Firstly, after knowing him for merely a month, Janine seems to be very much aware of Sherlock’s drug dependence. But if she is already this knowledgeable, why did he have to tell her that he had been ‘working’ when he had actually been sleeping in a drug den (and she seemed to buy it)? But if she didn’t know about the drugs, who had suddenly told her now?

Secondly, for some odd reason, Sherlock’s drug use seems to be a far bigger issue than his shot wound. A gun is used three times in HLV (twice on a human). But there’s a whole bunch of different drug use references, most of which have to do with Sherlock: a) Isaac Whitney, b) Sherlock found in a drug den, c) Sherlock’s blood tested for drugs at Barts, d) Mycroft gathering Sherlock’s ‘fans’ to search 221B for drugs, e) “Don’t appall me when I’m high”, f) IV morphine drip, h) Janine’s comment about drugs being Sherlock’s dream, i) CAM ‘reading’ opium and morphine as pressure points for Sherlock, j) Mrs Hudson ‘running a drug cartel’ and k) Sherlock having Billy drug his whole family. So there are far more references to drug use than to Sherlock almost dying from a gun shot, which is glossed over; no-one seems to really care about his shot wound or chest pain until he falls apart. Mrs Hudson doesn’t seem overly worried when she learns Sherlock has escaped from the hospital. John - his doctor friend - even yells at him to shut up, and threatens to kill him, when he’s supposedly already dying for the second time:

And Sherlock himself starts to talk about ‘surgery’ and the murderer calling the ambulance and other pieces of absurd, illogical nonsense to gloss over the shot wound, which is now threatening his life again. While at the same time claiming that his drug abuse is actually real; he only solves crimes as a substitute for being high...

At Christmas in HLV Sherlock’s own parents are fussing more over pregnant ‘Mary’ than over their own shot-wounded son. He’s fresh home from months in hospital but doesn’t even move strangely. In hospital he had only a plaster over the shot wound, no bruising visible. This is not realistic in my opinion; if Sherlock was really shot wounded, he wouldn’t have been able to escape by the hospital window in the first place. How did he manage to bring the wheelchair with him, by the way, complete with attached IV-drip of morphine?

The idea of Sherlock risking his life again; all this mystic, dangerous and elaborated scheme to track down ‘Mary’ and confront her with her crime - and for what? Only to then dismiss the shooting as ‘surgery’ that ‘saved his life’ in order to persuade John to stay with her? It’s just not credible; this is more reminiscent of an action movie (Bond?) derailing into absurdity. I think what all these signs tell us is that Sherlock’s real problem isn’t the supposed shot wound; it’s a drug-related problem.

So, now that we’ve established at least the possibility of Sherlock having OD:d on drugs and ended up in coma as a result, we arrive to the point of determining more precisely when it happened.

Prediction #4: If Sherlock falls into coma, there would be a credibility change/difference between ‘before’ and ‘after’ the OD.

Now this is a hard one, because in BBC Sherlock there’s generally a very subtle line between ‘reality’ and ‘imagination’. There are a series of weird events in the whole show that I find it hard to believe in, and many of them happen before HLV…

Irene’s mystic break-ins into 221B which no-one had noticed (ASiB)

Sherlock being visited by Moriarty at 221B after the trial in TRF, before even John got there

Sherlock having a conversation with Moriarty on the rooftop in TRF (how did Sherlock predict that Jim would have him jump off a rooftop in particular and therefore made his arrangement of faked death based on this?)

Anderson’s sudden metamorphosis into being Sherlock’s fan-club (MHR)

Torture scene in Serbia and Mycroft’s cruel behaviour there (TEH)

Soldiers who don’t feel when they’re being stabbed in the back in TSoT. (This is such a crazy idea, and the given explanation we have is hard to believe)

These things are weird and not very realistic, but at least they might contain a grain of truth somewhere, albeit dramatized. But in HLV and onwards it does get far worse, in my opinion, when people start acting way out of character or doing absurd or outright impossible things. These could be signs that the events from HLV and onwards are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain, rather than representing ‘real’ things that have actually happened.

Out of character As for acting OOC, I think John’s behaviour has some ups and downs in the show, but in HLV he gets abominable to a point of no return; the idea that he would stay together with ‘Mary’ after she shot his best friend is highly unbelievable - pregnancy or not (in fact it’s even less believable that John would find an assassin, who should be in prison and who attempted to kill his friend, fit to raise their child). And the top of the mountain then comes in TLD, when John assaults Sherlock and acts as if it’s all Sherlock’s own fault. No credibility left.

But I’d still say that it’s an even bigger OOC development to have the world’s most famous detective stop solving crimes and start committing them instead.

Because as far as I can see, crime solving ends with TSoT; after that, Sherlock doesn't solve a single crime case that hasn't directly to do with his own private life: • He fails to solve lady Smallwood’s blackmail case, which instead ends with lord Smallwood's suicide.

• He fails to capture CAM, the criminal who caused this; instead he murders him. The famous crime solver is now a criminal instead. • He fails to solve Emilia Ricolettis case in his own mind; the person he thought was guilty turns out to be Moriarty instead - who is supposed to be dead. • He fails to solve the mystery of why Moriarty's ‘Miss me?’ video is on every screen in the country, which was supposedly the reason for bringing him back to London. • He fails to save a single one of the Thatcher busts from destruction and why would he want to do that anyway; he even smashes the last one himself! • He fails to find the stolen Black pearl of the Borgias; instead he finds the AGRA stick from Mary's assassin gang. • In a highly doubtable deduction sequence without any kind of evidence, Sherlock decides that Charlie Wellsborough's death is no crime at all; he just had an unfortunately badly timed “seizure” in an extremely weird situation. • He fails to solve the Norbury case, which would exonerate ‘Mary’ from accusations of treason; instead ‘Mary’ dies in a most incredible and over-dramatized way which is physically impossible. • He tries to prove that Culverton Smith is a serial killer, but the only thing he manages to prove is that Smith can try to kill him, Sherlock, on his own request. Supposedly, Smith 'can't stop confessing' after that, but we never get to see or know any of these confessions. • The rest of the show (TFP) is exclusively about Sherlock's own family problems. The only 'outsider' crime cases he tries to solve - his sister's death threats against Sherrinford's governor with wife and the three Garrideb brothers - are complete failures; they all die. He believes he saves Molly's life by forcing her to confess that she loves him, but Euros tells him there was never any danger. Failure again. This is rather far away from canon, where Holmes kept solving crimes even after retirement, isn’t it?

But in this show, after TSoT, there’s only one thing that the genius detective manages to do right: he saves John Watson from the bottom of a well. By solving a puzzle.

So yes - I think these things show a huge difference in credibility between 'before' and 'after' TSoT; the world's most famous detective has stopped solving crimes! (But what about all the cases that were supposedly solved by Sherlock 'spinning plates' in TST, you might ask? Not to worry, I'll get back to that later ;))

As for HLV, I think this is the episode where things start getting completely out of control for Sherlock, indicating that he is actually no longer conscious. Which would mean he doesn’t experience new events in the show’s reality, but his brain keeps re-hashing memories, combining them in new ways to solve Sherlock’s personal problems. Apart from the OOC arguments explained above, I tried to point out a series of others in this meta, connected to Janine’s character. We haven’t seen much of her, but in HLV she appears to be a person with less than average intelligence, which I think she didn’t in TSoT:

Why would Janine risk her employment to let Sherlock sneak into her boss’ high security office at night when she knew he was there?

Why would Janine believe that Sherlock would propose to her after they had known each other for a month and he had just left her waiting for him the whole night in his flat without knowing where he was?

If Janine and Sherlock haven’t had sex (because of his reluctance), how come she all confidently just gets into the shower with him?

How can Janine miss out on all the mayhem at 221B - a ‘drugs bust’ with several people present, Mycroft being slammed into the wall, Sherlock talking about her boss as a monster, etc.?

Janine just doesn’t behave in a logical manner in HLV. It. Doesn’t. Make.Sense.

Impossible The first outright impossible thing I can spot, is ‘Mary’ getting into CAM’s office faster than Sherlock. Sherlock makes a whole lot of effort explaining to John that the only way to get into CAM’s office is by his private lift, and just how difficult that is.

Anyone who tried to climb up wouldn’t just need the agility of a circus artist like the ‘spider’ in TBB; they would have to climb the façade, break into the flat and knock two people down in basically no time. I think we can safely say that it’s physically impossible to climb a building of 32 floors and manage all that in less than 45 seconds (which is the time it takes for Sherlock and John to go up with the lift after Janine has let Sherlock in).

Some people may want to talk about ‘artistic license’ here, and claim that this is just entertainment, this is just the show makers twisting reality a bit to make their show more exciting. But don’t forget the major weakness of this argument: if we excuse one clearly impossible thing with ‘artistic license’, then we must be prepared to excuse all of them the same way. Which means that the whole rational basis of Sherlock Holmes’ own methods in this show becomes invalid, because then there are no deductions to be made, since nature laws and reality as we know it don’t exist ‘in-show’. Which could very well be the case, as I see it, if nothing in this show is meant to make sense - or if there’s still a coherent plot-line somewhere, but the events we do see are mainly taking place inside Sherlock’s head. But my idea here was still to try to pinpoint a change, a difference in levels of weirdness, between ‘before’ and ‘after’ Sherlock’s presumed OD.

Prediction #5: There will be time- and place-references that coincide with a possible OD directly after TSoT

If Sherlock would take to kill himself, where would it happen, when and how?

Well, I think Sherlock already explains it to Lestrade in this ‘script’ from ASiP published on BBC’s website, where we get this (supposedly) cut out scene:

In other words: Sherlock would kill himself, but in a different time and place, presumably a) after leaving a note and b) after some ‘prior sign’s. And c) he’d do it in a familiar place that means something to him. So, to track down the point in time when Sherlock might have done this, we need to determine a) when he has left some kind of note and b) what ‘prior signs’ that could have preceded this.

Observations

Point in time: As for a), in TAB, after realising that Sherlock has OD:d, we learn that he has made a list of all the drugs that he’s taken; a promise to his brother since years ago. That’s a kind of note – isn’t it? A note that could help saving his life after an overdose.

But there are also hints that TAB isn’t the real time of the OD event:

JOHN: He couldn’t have taken all of that in the last five minutes. MYCROFT: He was high before he got on the plane. MARY: He didn’t seem high. MYCROFT: Nobody deceives like an addict.

But wait; could Sherlock really have overdosed on drugs and after that performed the whole scene at the tarmac? Where he says goodbye to John, jokes with him and makes a whole little coherent speech about the Game and the East Wind? Not very likely for a person who has OD:d if you ask me…

And then there’s also the fact I pointed out in my last meta (X); that Mycroft talks about this OD coming after a ‘week in solitary confinement’ when Sherlock was locked up with his worst enemy - himself. I think this week could well be the time John was on ‘sex holiday’ after the wedding. If the shooting of CAM wasn’t real (which is supported by the easiness with which Sherlock gets away with murder without any kind of lasting consequence), neither has there been any imprisonment. I can rather imagine Sherlock isolating and locking himself in at 221B for a week, trying to alleviate his pain and heartbreak with drugs after John’s wedding.

Regarding the turn of events after a presumed OD which we don’t actually see, @sagestreet has made a whole reconstruction of how the things could possibly have happened in one of the additions to this meta (please scroll down to the subtitle “TIMELINE FOR A POSSIBLE OD-AFTER-THE-WEDDING SCENARIO”.

There’s also a note playing a central role in TLD, and I’ve tried to elaborate on this in these two metas: (X, X). The episode TLD seems to take place long after John’s wedding, when he already has a daughter. But what if this is actually not the case? What if the whole of TLD just represents Sherlock’s brain going through events that actually happened immediately after the wedding? (Or even immediately after his faked suicide, in some cases)?

Geographic place: The whole sequence in TLD about Sherlock isolating himself in 221B, resorting to an intensive drug abuse that is basically killing him, could be showing what really happened with him directly after the wedding. John has (supposedly) abandoned him (honeymoon?) and he’s turning nuts, talking to himself (Billy Wiggins), shooting the walls and playing out a Shakespeare drama all by himself.

221B would also fit with c), ‘a familiar place that means something’ to Sherlock. The events might in fact be showing some kind of reality, perhaps it’s just the time of them that is twisted and misplaced. Which would seem likely, if this is Sherlock processing his distorted memories of those events inside his still drug-addled brain. On the other hand, the prison where he allegedly would have taken the drugs and got high, before meeting up at the tarmac to board the airplane; none of these places would have the slightest personal meaning to Sherlock, would they? So where exactly is he more likely to take an overdose according to the deleted scene manuscript; in prison or in 221B? I think the answer here is clear.

Prior signs: Regarding b), I’ve already talked about the signs of self-harm in TLD that John doesn’t seem to either notice or acknowledge. The drug abuse is one clear sign of self-harm, but there’s also more subtle things, like Sherlock basically abandoning his job (which he was supposedly ‘married to’) to take over John’s wedding planning; something he would normally find mundane and probably despise. He even tells John’s and Mary’s wedding guests in his speech how utterly useless the ‘wedding tradition’ is. So why does Sherlock even do this? John and Mary would be fully capable of planning their own wedding, wouldn’t they? I think it’s a form of self-harm, self-punishment or maybe even self-imposed martyrdom - “a cross I have to bear” as he tells John, referring to his ‘ordinary’ parents.

The ‘delayed backstabbing’ in TSoT also makes for a dramatic metaphor about what happens to Sherlock; if he’s the un-seen murder victim of this wedding, the effect of it doesn’t play out until afterwards, when he’s left to his own gloomy thoughts and feelings of abandonment in 221B. Which would mean the delayed back-stabbing was a prior sign to Sherlock’s later ‘bleed-out’.

It’s also interesting to speculate about exactly when this actual back-stabbing took place. We never get to see the wedding act in TSoT, but we do see the moment when it dawns upon Sherlock that Mary is pregnant. I think Sherlock’s realization of her pregnancy is the last nail in the coffin; that's what ultimately breaks his heart. It’s not until after this moment that Sherlock leaves the party; a marriage can be dissolved, but a child is a child and it will always be John’s responsibility. Which basically means the definite end of their crime-solving life together...

But I think the most important piece of evidence about the time of Sherlock’s possible suicide attempt taking place immediately after John’s wedding is this:

John’s blog stops updating at this point. The blog also took a pause after TRF, but the current gap is definitely the longest. All this time we’ve had John’s blog as a more ‘sober’ account of the events; a ‘second opinion’, if you like, to what I believe the show is: Sherlock’s more colourful and dramatic tale of their life together. Sherlock hacks the blog and posts one last instalment before the blog dies completely. I believe this last post can be seen as Sherlock’s ‘note’, which I’ve tried to explain in these two metas X , X.

But what about the blog cases of S4? In TST we see a lot of cases listed by John’s supposed blogging; so many in fact that John tells Sherlock that he can’t go on ‘spinning plates’. Yes, it sounds promising, but since a) John is typing on a jpg-file (which is technically impossible, unless you convert it to or integrate it in another format),

and b) there are no references on the real blog to these new ‘cases’, I’d say that none of these cases are realistic. Which probably means they are fabricated by Sherlock’s brain - some of them are even rip-offs from old cases, like The Six Thatchers.

Last but not least: on a meta level, is there a certain significance to TSoT as an episode that makes it a good time reference for being the point after which Sherlock passes to a comatose state? This analysis isn’t mainly intended to reflect a meta level of the show, it rather focuses on the textual level. That doesn’t mean, however, that I find the meta level unimportant. There are quite a few tumblr analysts that have expanded on the form and shape of this show; its ‘messages’, arguments and conclusions on a meta level. For example, @garkgatiss has published several very thorough analyses of the overall pattern of BBC Sherlock as a five-act drama. In the latest one, dedicated to analyzing Bond and Hannibal references, @garkgatiss points out this about the symmetry pattern of S3 (my bolding):

“S3 doesn’t follow the same Bond/Hannibal triad structure as S2 and S4, and we shouldn’t expect it to. Nevertheless, we still find Bond and Hannibal in TEH and HLV — TEH ‘revives’ the myth of Sherlock Holmes that was destroyed in TRF when Sherlock returns from being dead and proves he was not a fraud after all, and HLV gives Sherlock the Clarice Starling creation myth, as befits the true hero of the story. TSOT, as the overall midpoint of the show, serves its own distinct function in the story that I plan to cover in full at some point, but not here”.

So, TSoT represents the midpoint of the story. It’s also the point after which, I believe, Sherlock enters his comatose state and resorts to pure speculation about the future. Or, should I rather say, he resorts to modeling the emotionally devastating consequences of his own choices, in a series of worst-case scenarios, which are basically S4, but start already in HLV. Which would mean yet another indication of the story arc being symmetric, with the figurative ‘murder case’ in the middle; Sherlock’s heart breaks when John not only marries ‘Mary Morstan’, but even starts a family with her. Because Sherlock’s discovery in TSoT of ‘Mary’s pregnancy will (in Sherlock’s mind) most certainly mean that John’s days as a companion to Sherlock’s crime solving are counted. A responsible father wouldn’t run around risking his life on a daily basis, would he? So yes - to me TSoT undoubtedly marks a midpoint in this story.

So, to sum it up once again: my belief is that this show is totally happening within Sherlock’s head, from his PoV. But there’s a distinction between what happens before TSoT and after; in the former case Sherlock voluntarily goes through his memories with John, based on reading his blog. In the latter, I think Sherlock’s body is in coma due to an OD, but his mind is racing, thus the extra weirdness.

Summary

In brief, I think Sherlock Holmes has some serious stuff that he needs to deal with, and so has John Watson, even if maybe Sherlock’s issues are the worst. And in S4 Shelock does; he goes from being someone who constantly tries to detach his brain from its inconvenient ‘transport’ of a body, to someone who ultimately allows himself to care deeply and truly. And I believe that’s basically what this show is about: the long and winding road to freedom, the mental journey home to 221B. And on this inner journey, he has to go through hell, which means pain, heartbreak and loss, but also insight and realization. But since this is also the story of a truly brilliant and remarkable human being and his only ’feature of interest’; an extremely competent, brave and loyal person, there’s good hope that they can actually help each other. They just need to overcome their worst adversaries first; their own internalized heteronormativity and homophobia, imposed on them by society.

I think one of the most interesting things with Sherlock’s process is to see that it’s actually his brain that saves him. While Sherlock’s intense emotions lead him to desperate actions that cause a comatose state in his body, his brain still refuses to give up, because it needs to understand. Which - seemingly paradoxically - leads him to seek contact with his own feelings and thereby solve the problem - the final problem. This character development is indeed extraordinary.

Phew! I’m truly grateful for those of you who might have managed to read through these two monster posts. :) The next installment of this meta series - which will hopefully be a bit shorter - will handle Hypothesis #5: Almost everything we see happen in HLV, TAB and S4 is Sherlock ‘running scenarios’ in his mind, based on a mix of his earlier memories and movies he has watched.

Tagging some people who might be interested: @raggedyblue @ebaeschnbliah @sarahthecoat @gosherlocked @fellshish @sagestreet @tendergingergirl @loveismyrevolution @sherlockshadow @darlingtonsubstitution @tjlcisthenewsexy @devoursjohnlock @kateis-cakeis @csi-baker-street-babes @sectoralheterochromiairidum @mrskolesouniverse

#sherlock is in coma #sherlock's od #emp theory #heartbreak and coma

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holmesoverture · 7 years ago

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Eileen Goes on a Rant, Ritchie Holmes Edition

Recently I saw a gifset of that scene from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows where Holmes warns Watson that “we’re about to be violated.” I didn’t want to unload on some innocent person’s post, but dang it I’ve been meaning to talk about this for a while and now is as good a time as any.

A Game of Shadows is racist as hell.

On the whole, I do like this movie. I think it’s fun, Mycroft is great and I like screaming about the barely-concealed subtext as much as any other fangirl. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is SUPER SUPER RACIST FFS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ADKFJ;ASLDKFA

*deep breath*

Okay, let’s take a step back. In fact, let’s get some historical perspective, courtesy of the original stories. I’m putting it behind a cut because it got kind of long and angry and sweary, and I didn’t want anyone being subjected to that if they don’t wanna be. Also, spoilers.

First things first. G***y is a racial slur and I don’t ever want to see it in the media again unless you are explaining how terrible it is and how anyone without Romani ancestry should never, ever use it. And no, I don’t want to hear any handwringing about “but historical accuracy!!” It would have been historically accurate for Tiana to be called a negro and worse throughout The Princess and the Frog but I don’t hear anyone advocating for that. Not everything needs to be THAT accurate.

As you may have noticed, media depiction of Roma is either nonexistent or hideously awful. There’s very little in between. As far as I remember, no Roma characters actually appear in any of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, but they are brought up from time to time. In The Speckled Band, the Romani folks who camp out on Roylott’s property are initially regarded as the most likely suspects in Julia Stoner’s murder—or rather, the police regard them as the most likely suspects. Holmes knows better than to let prejudice get in the way of his sleuthing and disregards this unsubstantiated, bigotry-based theory with relative swiftness. In the end, of course, the Roma are shown to be innocent while the white guy is hoist by his own petard.

I think The Speckled Band is the story where Roma are acknowledged most prominently. They rate a quick mention in The Hound of the Baskervilles as well, but it is really just a passing comment from Dr. Mortimer that leads nowhere. If they’re mentioned elsewhere, I can’t remember at the moment. Feel free to chime in with anything I missed.

Basically, ACD seems to play with common prejudices to throw people off the scent and maybe even to show the folly of racial stereotyping and hasty judgments. So Sherlock Holmes stories have a history of bucking stereotypes, even if they never let any Romani characters speak for themselves.

A Game of Shadows, meanwhile, does depict actual Romani characters. How did they do? Errrr…

Yeah, it’s bad. Real bad. When we first meet Simza, our main Romani character, she’s telling fortunes, because no Romani woman has ever had any other occupation ever in history. So right out of the gate we’re in facepalm territory.

@ Guy Ritchie Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

And then they make it worse in exactly the way you’d expect them to. Virtually all of the Romani characters in this movie, as exemplified by the hilarious scene when Holmes warns Watson of the impending violation, are depicted as cheerfully shameless thieves.

You may regard this picture as both an illustration of the scene in question and a representation of my face whenever I watch this scene.

First off, what happened to the open-minded Holmes who didn’t condemn an entire race based on society’s prejudices? Why is he automatically assuming that they’re about to be robbed just because they’ve driven up to a Romani camp? Canon Holmes would never.

Second, this is one of the most common and harmful stereotypes concerning Romani people. I guess you could argue that the Romani characters here were just messing around or testing Holmes and Watson to see if they could be trusted, but who is going to think that hard about this? The Rom-as-thief stereotype is so pervasive and so widely believed that, even if that was your (incredibly shitty) intention, very few viewers are going to think hard enough about this scene to “get it,” because they don’t think they have to. Of course the Roma are stealing from the white people. That’s what they do.

When was the last time you saw a Romani character who wasn’t a thief? Hell, the first place many of us probably ever heard of the Romani people was Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which has plenty of its own problems. And although I can think of a few superheroes with Romani backgrounds—Robin/Nightwing from DC and Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver from Marvel—these characters are whitewashed so often that most people probably don’t even realize they’re supposed to be Roma at all, so that’s no help.

AND SPEAKING OF WHITEWASHING, LET’S DISCUSS NOOMI RAPACE, SHALL WE?

There are few things that annoy me in a movie more than whitewashing, especially in contemporary films that a) should know better and b) have enough budget to, say, creep us the hell out by sticking Chris Evans’ head on Leander Deeny’s body for half the running time but somehow don’t have the resources to hire Asian people to star in shows that steal copiously from Asian culture. That is some BS right there, and A Game of Shadows merrily jumps right into it.

I don’t know about any of the other actors in this movie, but Rapace has stated that she maybe might be part Rom on her father’s side, which, nope, sorry, that’s not cutting any mustard with me. It’s the Johnny Depp-as-Tonto argument all over again. Depp had zero business being in The Lone Ranger and Rapace has zero business being in A Game of Shadows. STOP REACHING SO HARD AND HIRE ACTORS OF COLOR YOU COWARDS.

The one positive (?) I could find in all this is that not all the Romani characters are depicted as villains. Once they quit robbing and swindling our heroes blind (ugh), they’re willing to do just about anything to stop Moriarty, even up to and including risking their own lives. Sure, some of them are crazy extremists who want to blow stuff up and kill people, but just as many, if not more, reject those methods. They may be sticky-fingered stereotypes, but they are sticky-fingered stereotypes with STANDARDS. Which doesn’t make it any better, really, but it doesn’t… make it worse…?

So I mean A Game of Shadows is not The Absolute Worst, but for crying out loud there’s an episode* of The Man from UNCLE that does a better job at depicting Romani characters than this movie did. It’s still racist as all get-out, but they are shown across the board to be decent people. They may be highly suspicious of the white people around them, but it’s shown categorically that they have very good reason to be and also they aren’t fortune tellers and thieves. When a goddamn black-and-white TV show from nineteen sixty fucking four does a better job of portraying a minority than you, you need to go back to the drawing board, smack yourself in the face with it and stop. Just… just stop.

I think I’ve said about all I have to say on this subject. I’m not even going to get into Holmes dressing up as a Chinese man in the beginning. I’m too tired, and the theme of this post turned out to be specifically the depiction of the Romani characters anyway, so that’d feel a bit shoehorned. But that sucked too, in case you had any doubts. And don’t tell me that he had to disguise himself. I could think of a dozen other disguises right now that don’t involve yellowface. That shit’s not cool, yo.

If you’re interested in learning more about Romani stereotypes and how and why you should avoid them like the devil plague, here is a post about them written by a Rom. So if you actually want to be educated on the subject instead of just reading my ranty babbling, there ya go.

TL;DR I love Sherlock Holmes and hate racism, and so should you. Have a nice day.

*It’s called The Terbuf Affair, if you want to check it out. That being said, when I say “an episode,” I mean this one particular episode and no others. Some other Romani characters show up later in the season, in The Bow Wow Affair, and I could write a post twice the length of this one about how physically painful it is.

#ritchie holmes #media analysis #tw racism #eileen goes on a rant

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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With Far Sector, N.K. Jemisin Gets a Turn in the Green Lantern Sandbox

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We talked to author N.K. Jemisin about diving into the world of Green Lantern, her favorite comic books, and why fanfiction matters.

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A three-time Hugo Award winner for her Broken Earth series, N.K. Jemisin is one of the most exciting and celebrated authors working in speculative fiction today. For the first time ever, Jemisin is working in the comic book medium, collaborating with artist Jamal Campbell on a new Green Lantern story that's part of Gerard Way's revived Young Animal imprint for DC.

The new series is called Far Sector, and it follows Sojourner "Jo" Mullen, a member of the Green Lantern Corps who is the sole protector of the City Enduring, a massive metropolis of 20 billion people countless lightyears from Earth.

read more: N.K. Jemisin's Fifth Season TV Series in Development at TNT

The City Enduring has maintained peace for over 500 years by stripping its citizens of of their ability to feel emotion. Therefore, murder and other forms of violent crime are virtually non-existent... until now.

We had the chance to catch up with Jemisin earlier this month at New York Comic Con. Here's what she had to tell us about diving into the world of Green Lantern...

Den of Geek: What your familiarity with Green Lantern before taking on the project?

Jemisin: Almost none. I watched the Justice League cartoon back in the day that had John Stewart as the main Green Lantern. And I mean I knew that Green Lantern was a popular superhero, but beyond that I really didn't understand very much about it. I knew there had been a movie; I didn't see the movie. I rode the Green Lantern ride at Six Flags. That's about all I knew.

That was the limit of it. So when Gerard Way asked me if I would be willing to write the Green Lantern comic, I said, "Look, I need to do some boning up on the lore and the literature," and so the first thing that they did was send me the big Geoff Johns compilations. I don't know if you've seen them, but it's like this big. All hard cover, and the first few years of the original Green Lantern storylines. Not the original, but of some of the most iconic Green Lantern storylines.

And so I was able to read through those. Of course I was able to jump on the various Wikis that exist out there, and then I began to realize that I was drowning in information, because Green Lantern continuity is like any other comic book continuity: there had been retcons, there are contradictions, and I had to try and find ways to resolve that. So, fortunately, with the the Far Sector comic, because it takes place outside of the normal Lantern system, so far away from Earth and all the other Lanterns. In some ways, I was in an isolated space where I can make things happen.

What kind of freedom did you have? Were there things that you did that they were like, "No, actually this contradicts something that already exists in canon," or did you really have pretty much free range to tell your story?

I mean, yeah, I had free range, but I wanted to fit within canon. I mean, there's no value for me in taking these stories so far away from its fanbase.

So the challenge is to make it fit into the continuity, even if it's not directly related. So,at some point, if this character proves popular, if the book proves popular, at some point, she may want to come back and meet the other Guardians ... the other Lanterns. She may move back to Earth, so I need that to be able to work if I do.

I'm curious if your background and presence as a fanfic author helped you in that process of diving into an already-existing narrative universe?

Yeah, effectively, I was writing fanfic—I love it!—except that I wasn't already a fan of this. So I mean it's professional fanfic, but we've seen that out there before. There's a long history of, effectively, fan works insisting within the literary fiction sphere.

Sherlock Holmes story, for example, or the Cthulhu Mythos, all of that is effectively fanfic. The challenge of it is you read the history, you make sure that you've got the canon down pat, and then once you've got that down pat, then you can riff on it.

So that was the idea.

Tell me about working with Jamal Campbell. What did it look like logistically, in terms of your process?

Well, logistically what it means is I gave him a phone call at the beginning of it and I haven't met him in person. So we're doing everything electronically. I write the scripts, we send the scripts to Jamal, Jamal sends us pages.

That's how it's been working, and then we talk back and forth about ... For example, I wanted to convey in this one particular scene that she feels like she's being disrespected. Can we add a little panel where she looks at a thing and gives it a side eye? Something like that.

Cool, and I don't know how much experience you have collaborating in that way while writing a story.

None. This is my first collaboration.

What's that been like?

I'm loving it, I really am. This is the first time, outside of fan art, this is the first time I've ever seen anyone put my stories or characters or anything that I've created to a visual form. I'm used to being able to see it in my head, but I've never had other people try and see it for me.

And he's got a good eye. He's been able to capture what I've been thinking, for the most part.

This story takes place in a city where people no longer have the ability to feel emotion. There are a lot of mainstream, especially female-centric superhero stories that have been commenting on emotion as power, or trying to do that in ways that I feel haven't been super nuanced or complex. I'm curious about that setting and what, if anything, you wanted to say about the strengths or limitations of emotionality or emotional intelligence.

Well, remember that Jo is a black woman, so there is a different nuance or a different variation on that problem that I feel like black women often have to deal with, which is them being treated as too angry, as if anger is dangerous or problematic in some way.

Even when we aren't angry, we're perceived as angry sometimes, and it gets to be a problem, and so Jo is in some cases going to have to deal with being the only emotional person in the room, and she can't get too emotional in her reactions to what she's seeing and what she's having to deal with.

When she starts working through bureaucracy and she expresses frustration with it, she's not going to be perceived as just an emotional woman. She's going to be perceived as a primitive human being. She's going to be perceived as a poor representation of her species, a poor representation of the Lanterns.

She can't get too emotional, so she's got to be able to solve these problems as the lone person in the room that's allowed to be this way, but also judged for being this way. And there's definitely commentary in it.

You're telling a frontier science fiction story of sorts...

A super high tech space society with near omniscient power. I don't know if that qualifies.

It is a high tech story, but Jo is the only Lantern there. She is the only person, as I said, who has emotions. She has to work with the local cops. She's got to form alliances and relationships with her local community and earn their respect in order to have any real power, cause even one person, no matter how powerful, is not going to be able to solve the problems of 20 billion people unless she gets some buy in from them.

Where there other graphic novels or comics that you looked to during this process?

Well, learning how to write, yes. I read The 2000 A.D. Script Book, which has art rendered pages alongside the script agents so you can see how the writer communicated with the artist or how the writer framed the scene and the artist chose to interpret that scene. So that helped me figure out comic writing format and how to do it.

Of course, I read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which was really helpful for helping me understand how storytelling changes in this medium. I've been a comics fan for quite some time, ranging across different media. I did superhero comics a lot when I was back in college, but it got super expensive and I was a poor college student, so I quit around that time.

I read a lot of Japanese manga for awhile. Lately, I have read more indie comics, like Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, Monstress by a Sana Takeda and Marjorie Liu. I'm a big fan of Kelly Sue DeConnick's work, so I've read a lot of comics more recently ... I mean I enjoy the format, I enjoy good storytelling in all of its forms, but lately I've been reading more superhero stuff.

I did already bring up fanfiction, but I have been asking the authors I'm talking to, especially after Archive of Our Own's Hugo win this summer, that fanfic has meant to them, if anything, both professionally and personally.

I mean, I'm not going to say I started out as a fanfic writer, cause I didn't, but fanfic helped me, I think, develop in a lot of ways, my storytelling. I've been writing fanfic basically since grad school, when I started writing it for stress relief, and really when I got access to the internet. That was back in the AOL days. I'm dating myself, and I continue to write it to this day.

It's a place, like a playground, where I can go and sort of write things that I feel like writing without having to worry about my professional fiction readers coming to scrutinize what I do, and I'm not going to tell anybody what fanfic write or what pseudonyms I use or any of that.

Yeah. What else are you working on that you can talk about?

Oh, well I've got a new novel coming out next year. It's called The City We Became. It is based on a short summary of mine in which the city of New York comes to life and develops an avatar, a human being, one single person who represents the spirit of the city.

Well, in the book, all of the boroughs come to life too, and so there's an avatar in Brooklyn, an avatar in Manhattan, and they all have basically magic powers that grant them the ability to protect the city, and they're protecting the city from basically Cthulhu.

It's not really Lovecraftian, and it's not really a Lovecraftian story, although I'd say it's in conversation with Lovecraft, but yes, there is a giant eldritch abomination that is not happy with New York right now and is trying its damndest to destroy the city, and that comes out in March.

Green Lantern: Far Sector comes out on November 13th. Find out more about N.K. Jemisin's work here.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Interview Kayti Burt

Oct 21, 2019

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redscullyrevival · 8 years ago

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A Monstrous Regiment of Women: Mary Russell Rundown

@sonnetscrewdriver, anything that reminds me to occasionally comment “Oh fuck off Tennyson” is a good book in my book.

Plot/Setting/Narrative

Haha, other than revisiting my own personal hell this was a good time!

I knew it would be with that amazing title.

I love how men always try to condemn and speak poorly of women but actually make us out to sound badass.

“A Monstrous Regiment of Women” - nice!

“She was warned, she was given an explanation, nevertheless; she persisted” - nice!

HAHA dudes be wack.

Anyways.

There is a big ‘ol dynamic in this book and it doesn’t try to hid itself but because of the narrative style it’s a very sleek back and forth that can easily be overlooked among the thrills, tension, and action:

The lighting pace back and forth between Faith/Religion and Reason/Logic is hard to trace, precisely because it’s so perfectly stitched.

Like thread holding two fabrics together we get glimpses of the characters discussing these dynamics upfront on the surface only for them to dive under the cloth and become the structurally important but unseen thread, before rising to the forefront yet again.

Over and under goes Faith and Reason, Religion and Logic (Agape and Eros!), from start to finish and it’s very compelling, very slick stuff.

What’s fascinating is how it feels like it’s all held together with those before the chapter quotes!

What a gambit!

Especially because I’m pretty sure the chosen quotes are meant to be as humorous as they are reflective.

I read the words of Tennyson and Shakespeare and friggin’ Knox and I’m not filled with anger or burning for justice; I laugh. They’re funny.

What isn’t funny is how I also know these men shaped their times, that they are considered definitive and important and are apart of contemporary schooling and social undercurrents - they’re not simply far away melodrama but remain to be part of the day to day world, of my time as well as Russell’s.

The violence Russell is subjected to is unfortunately not extraordinary.

The heroin is elaborate and a part of the Mary Russell narrative surrounding The Temple mystery as designed by King - but women being manipulated, used, and being targeted and subjected to overwhelming power? All that’s common place common day.

You don’t read those before chapter quotes and think “Ah, women had it better when these men where alive.” And you certainly don’t read them and think “Well, it’s gotten better by Mary’s time” - and it’s the realization that the various quote’s undercurrents are still rooted into today that chills their absurdity.

So how do we instigate change?

Mary Russell

How do women gain ground?

Do we go to into the temples men worship?

Do we go into their spaces and ask uncomfortable questions and share our opinions, unasked?

Do we dig into the sacred texts looking for what has been changed in an effort to prove we’ve been included all along?

Do we interpret the text anew and preach our understanding?

OR do we maybe rewrite and/or add to the text and insert ourselves in?

You must see where I’m going with this.

What’s shocking is that all those above courses of action are faith based.

Logic and reason, the truth of women’s rightful place, can’t be grasped until those in power acknowledge we’re here and worth listening to and only pleas of faith can begin to breach that wall.

Which is massively fucked up and the root of all evil.

Bringing it back around, what’s also messed up is how Sherlock Holmes’ canon is exclusively understood as male.

The perception that follows the character is this: Sherlock Holmes is male, written by a man, and those of authority on the character and his stories are male and those fans who are true are male and that’s because Holmes invokes intelligence and reason and thus maleness - the notion being there isn’t anything of female worth to be found in proper Sherlock Holmes.

Barf, right?

Our author certainly thinks so.

King’s disgust for the Holmesian Understanding™ is practically palpable; not for the character of Holmes, but she does (to me) seem to distinctly turn her ire on the aura of his existence as he sits in wider literature’s mind’s eye.

And I don’t even think it’s Russell and Holmes locking lips that’s meant to be the big middle finger, although it is fun; I honestly think it’s as simple as King’s Holmes accepting, trusting, and considering her Russell as his partner in work and then, yes, in life.

Laurie King is working at turning Russell into the Logic and Holmes’ into the Faith.

I’m down with that.

‘Cause Mary Russell is my girl.

I’m gonna read all them books.

Sherlock Holmes

Lets stop and take a moment to really bask in the intense and amazing glory that is the throw-away-mention of Holmes’ son.

I know “canon” Holmes does not have a son.

I also know that the character of Sherlock Holmes has directly and indirectly given birth to the most characters ever committed to media’s various forms, which makes him the most promiscuous man I’ve ever read.

For King to solidify Holmes parentage is a very big big big choice - just as big if not even bigger than having him kiss Russell and marrying her.

Man, that must have really chapped some hides.

Oh my god, there are folks I know who would probably burst into flames over such an “OOC” move.

The son implies and seeds many things, not so subtly of which is that Holmes isn’t an automoton and down to get jiggy with it if so intrigued.

What’s more sly is that King knows what she is about and knows what she is doing and is very adamant within the narrative that Holmes is secondary to her character - that Mary Russell is the protagonist and the mysteries of Holmes isn’t mystery to her and we better starting taking her narration as gospel.

So that was a fun kick in the pants.

The romance was, you know, irritatingly thrilling.

Although!

Holmes’ comment, of how he has wanted to kiss Mary since he met her, is a little iffy and not even entirely because she was 15 at the time (still side eye worthy though, obviously) - the issue is that his words imply pure physical attraction even when he didn’t know Mary or her at that point and I’ve been lead to believe their Grand Canyon age gap is inconsequential because their minds are wondrously in-tune and that is what connects their souls.

So that was kind of weird.

Especially from an author usually very tight in her characterizations who is meticulously organized.

Highlighted Passages

“I am having a holiday from the holidays. I am relaxing, following the enforced merriment of the last week. An amusing diversion, Holmes, nothing else. At least it was, until your suspicious mind let fly with its sneering intimations of omniscience. Really, Holmes, you can be very irritating at times.”

Twice I hid from the sound of a prowling horse-drawn cab with two wheels. The second time launched me on a long and highly technical conversation with a seven-year-old street urchin who was huddled beneath the steps to escape a drunken father. We squatted on cobbles greasy with damp and the filth that had accumulated, probably since the street was first laid down following the Great Fire, and we talked of economics. He gave me half of his stale roll and a great deal of advice, and when I left, I handed him a five-pound note.

“I thought that man was going to punch you.” “It’s only happened once, that I didn’t have time to talk my way out of a brawl.” “What happened?” “Oh, I didn’t hurt him too badly.” She giggled, as if I had made a joke. I went on. “I had a much rougher time of it once during the War, with a determined old lady who tried to give me a white feather. I looked so healthy, she refused to believe me when I told her I’d been turned down for service. She followed me down the street, lecturing me loudly on cowardice and Country and Lord Kitchener.”

“I was grateful to that large and noisy man, however. Not immediately,” she added, inviting us to chuckle at her youthful passion, and many obliged, “but when I’d had a chance to think about it, I was grateful, because it made me wonder, Why does he want me to keep silent in church? What would be so terrible in letting me, a woman, talk? What does he imagine I might say?” She paused for two seconds. “What is this man afraid of?

“Here this man is working with God, thinking about God, living with God, every day, and still he does not trust God. Deep down, he doesn’t feel one hundred percent certain that his God can stand up to criticism, can deal with this uppity woman and her uncomfortable questions; he does not know that his God is big enough to welcome in and put His arms around every person, big and small, believers or seekers, men or women.”

“If you want to be logical about it, don’t tell me that the woman was given to Adam as a servant, a sort of glorified packhorse that could carry on a conversation.”

“That was what my loud preacher feared, to be told that he and his cronies had no more right to tell me that I couldn’t speak in God’s house than I had a right to tell the sun not to shine.”

Her attitude towards the Bible seemed to be refreshingly matter-of-fact, and her theology, miracle of miracles, was from what I had heard radical but sound. Oh yes, I should like to meet this woman.

“Men have other options. Women need the help of their sisters, and in fact, that to me is one of the most exciting things about what we’re doing, when women of different classes meet and see that we share more similarities than differences, in spite of everything. We are on the edge of a revolution in the way women live in this society, and some of us want to ensure that the changes that are coming will apply to all women, rich and poor alike.”

“The vote was a sop,” she snapped. “Granting individual slaves their manumission after a lifetime of service doesn’t alter the essential wrongness of the institution of slavery, nor does giving a small number of women the vote adequately compensate the entire sex for their wartime service—to say nothing of millenia of oppression.”

“But that’s . . . That means . . .” “Yes,” I said wryly, pleased with the effect my idea had on her. “That means that an entire vocabulary of imagery relating to the maternal side of God has been deliberately obscured.” I watched her try to sort it out, and then I put it into a phrase I would definitely not use in the presentation in Oxford: “God the Mother, hidden for centuries.” She looked down at the book in her hands as if the ground beneath her feet had, in the blink of an eye, become treacherously soft and unstable. She turned carefully to the drawer, riffled the gold-edged India paper speculatively, and put her Bible away. She returned to her chair a troubled woman and lit another cigarette. “Is there more of this kind of thing?” “Considerably more.”

“You couldn’t help but want to break his control and see what lay beneath.”

“If all these images can come from the word light, how many more from the word love, a thing invisible but for the movement it creates, a thing without physical reality or measurement or being, yet a thing which animates the entire universe. God is love. God creates, and when He sees His creation, He loves it and calls it good.”

Holmes would have done the matter by telegram, I knew, but I always prefer the personal touch in my matters of mild blackmail.

I felt reassured. If he could be rude, he was reviving.

I then turned my warning gaze back on Marie, who subsided, muttering French curses that I wish I could have overheard more clearly, for the sake of my education.

An accurate throwing arm is perhaps the only truly remarkable skill I possess.

None of that was absolutely true, but it fit the image and laid a basis for my future behaviour, which was to do whatever I damn well pleased, fine.

“The boy has a cup of tea for his mother,” she read, and repeated it, then looked up again and laughed, her eyes shining with the suddenly comprehended magic of the written word. Her teeth were mostly gums, she smelt of unwashed wool, her hair lay lank, and her skin wanted milk and fruit, but for the moment, she was beautiful. Veronica Beaconsfield knows what she is about here, I thought to myself, and took the work-roughened hand and squeezed it hard.

No slick-faced creature with a sharp blade was going to destroy my wardrobe again.

I always hated what Londoners called with such wry pride their “particulars,” their “peculiars,” their “pea soupers,” like the beaming parents of some uncontrollable and pathologically destructive brat.

Blind, stripped to my underclothing, and ill, I thought muzzily. Mary Russell, this is going to be very unpleasant.

He had already let me in under his guard, and I him. Holmes was a part of me, and to imagine myself “in love” with him was to imagine myself becoming passionately enamoured of my arm or the muscles in my back.

“These last weeks, since Christmas, have been odd ones. I have begun to doubt that I knew you as well as I thought. I have even wondered if you wished to keep some part of yourself hidden from me in order to preserve your privacy and your autonomy. I will understand if you refuse to give me an answer tonight, and although I freely admit that I will be hurt by such a refusal, you must not allow my feelings to influence your answer.” I looked up into his face. “The question I have for you, then, Holmes, is this: How are the fairies in your garden?”

The restlessness of the day before was controllable now, and the shame something to be acknowledged and not dwelt upon.

With the ponderous dignity of the profoundly intoxicated, she took up a strategic position across the street from the doors.

I could not do this. The safe was not going to open for me, not in the time I had. Tell it to Holmes, nagged a voice. Watch his brief flare of irritation give way to sympathy, understanding. Live with that, will you?

“I walked into the hall, to find utter panic, of the Oxford variety: tight voices, careful poly-syllables, a certain amount of wringing of hands.”

#Russell and Holmes #year of book #fandom talks #A Monstrous Regiment of Women

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immaculate-benediction-batch · 8 years ago

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"IT'S ALL FINE" - QUEERBAITING IN BBC'S SHERLOCK... By J. Elizabeth The stage is set. The curtain rises. We are ready to begin. Series four of BBC’s Sherlock, that is. We are only a few weeks away from the promised land. After three years, not including last year’s special "The Abominable Bride," we will finally see our favorite consulting detective back in action. The fandom is certainly in need of some beekeepers because we are abuzz right now. As we celebrate this award winning, international hit show, it’s only fair we talk about its flaws. And there are flaws, let’s not kid ourselves. From how it handles female characters to its lack of people of color, it could be better, despite the best intentions from the showrunners. The flaw I’d like to talk about now is the excessive amounts of queerbaiting. What is queerbaiting? Well, it’s a term used by queer fans of media to call out TV shows/movies/comics/etc that intentionally insert queer subtext or "add homoerotic tension between two characters to attract more liberal and queer viewers with the indication of them not ever getting together for real in the show/book/movie." So how does Sherlock do this? Let’s talk about the obvious "jokes" first. In the very first episode, Sherlock Holmes mistakes John Watson’s questions about his relationship status to be a come on, or that’s how mainstream audiences are supposed to perceive it, anyway. And I laughed when I first saw it four years ago before I realized what it was I was laughing at: the absurdness of a gay relationship between iconic literary characters. John having to defend his "not gay"-ness becomes a running joke that appears in literally every one of the nine episodes. And every time, Sherlock, the man who John himself has stated has to have the last word, never corrects anyone’s assumptions about them. In that very first conversation over dinner where John questions his sexuality, Sherlock says women are not his area and that he doesn’t have a boyfriend. The whole thing is written to keep his sexuality ambiguous. If it were just jokes, that would be one really crappy thing, to poke fun at homosexual relationships in that way. But there are genuinely stark, emotional moments that cannot be a joke, and if they are, that is exceedingly cruel. For example, in the original canon, Irene Adler was Holme’s one exception to his disinterest in women. In the BBC version, Adler is a lesbian dominatrix. She has a conversation with John in which she accuses him of being jealous of Sherlock’s attention on her. John, once again, defends himself by exclaiming “I’m not actually gay.” Irene responds with “Well, I am. But look at us both.” John doesn’t respond to that. Is that a joke? I’d like to note that John repeatedly says he’s not gay. Which he’s probably not but, guess what, gay and straight aren’t the only sexualities. Later on in the series, John flips his lid when he finds a woman, Janine, in 221B after he’s moved out to be with his wife, Mary. This is a very funny moment, because John and I had the same expression at seeing Sherlock kiss a woman. This funny moment gets a little harder to laugh at later on, before John knows it’s a sham, when he sees Sherlock propose to Janine. He looks so happy for him! I can’t get into all the nuanced exchange of looks or phrasing or how they costume Sherlock’s parents the same way Sherlock and John dress (whoops, I guess that one snuck in there), but there are overt references to a perceived relationship by characters within the world. Mrs. Hudson believed them a couple for years, and she is the Queen of the Foreshadow. But I don’t have time to mention how Sherlock pasted John’s head on the body of the Vitruvian man, or how he literally brought himself back to life after being shot by Mary to save John, or how he was reading John’s blog post on how they first met when he O.D.’d on the plane ride to his inevitable death (I did it again, dang). Of course, how we perceive acting or costume choices are objective. The Kuleshov effect proves that. So it makes sense that if a bunch of queer people were watching this show, they’d see parts of themselves in it. And guess what, a lot of queer people are watching this show. Queer women, to be more precise. A show as massively popular as Sherlock attracts a very diverse audience. But if you look at the hardcore fandom, a vast majority are women and/or queer identifying people. What results in all these queer people being attracted (or baited) to this show is a space for them to exist without the social constraints of being out in normal life. What fandom has done for me, personally, has given me a space to think in terms of queerness as if was not something strange about me but the norm in that environment. It rewired my thinking and helped lessen my own heteronormative behavior in my art and life. This space is full of artists and writers who are exercising their craft where they feel safe to do so. This space is full of academics who study media and LGBTQA+ issues within it. And that is a beautiful, amazing thing. So it hurts all the more when the showrunners, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (the latter being a married gay man) dismiss the queer side of the fandom. Sometime after the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Moffat and Gatiss did an interview that directly addressed the perceived relationship between John and Sherlock. It wasn’t pretty. Moffat, clearly passionate about the topic, and frustrated at the way his words have been twisted, “It is infuriating frankly, to be talking about a serious subject and to have Twitter run around and say oh that means Sherlock is gay. Very explicitly it does not. We are taking a serious subject and trivializing it beyond endurance.” - With an Accent Trivializing it. I wish to express to Moffat that this level of representation of a bisexual character is far from trivial to me. I get a distinct feeling that the creators see the John and Sherlock pairing fans as straight, young girls who want to fetishize male queerness. I can’t help but wonder if the creators would be more accepting and less harsh to fans if we were queer men instead of queer women. Mark Gatiss goes on to say: “Don’t blame us for things that aren’t there. It is infuriating. We get pilloried for these things as if our show [...] has to have the shoulders to bear every single issue and every single campaign point. You can’t do that. It’s our show, they’re our characters, they do what we want them to do, and we don’t have to represent absolutely everything in that ninety minutes.” Gatiss is correct in saying they don’t have to represent absolutely everything. He’s right that they don’t have to bear every issue on their shoulders. I believe that’s what every other show would say as well. But because of that, everybody is saying “We shouldn’t have to be the only ones to tackle these issues,” and nobody is actually doing anything about it. Sherlock has a real opportunity here to have its own chapter in queer media history, but why should they bear that weight on their shoulders, right? Even if they go with the flow and stay safely in the status quo of straight relationships, I’d be able to handle that if they didn’t talk to fans who wish otherwise so harshly. Also, is anyone going to remind them that John Watson and Sherlock Holmes aren’t really their characters? They’re writing and producing high quality fanfiction, but they’re men, so it’s not trivializing when they do it. Moffat says the whole pairing is making a serious topic into “something extremely silly.” My sexuality is not silly. Wanting to see a major television and literary character portrayed with the same sexuality as me is not silly. Maybe they’re right. Maybe everything we see isn’t actually there. Maybe they were all just gay jokes. Maybe we’re the assholes for blowing these jokes out of proportion. Then again, maybe this is some next level form of gaslighting, telling us we’re a bunch of wackadoos for interpreting this little exchange at John’s wedding... as anything but a happy look between best friends at one’s wedding. Look at these guys, totally thrilled about all the life decisions that led them to this point. No pain or regret here. You don’t even have to make it canon, just don’t talk to us like we’re stupid, teenage girls insulting you with our enjoyment of your show. Enjoying it so much, in fact, we are dying to see a part of ourselves validated in that world. And even if this was some elaborate ruse and they really are planning on making this pairing canon, this treatment of the queer and/or female fans isn’t justified. You can't talk down to us like that for the sake of a storyline reveal. It’s much more likely this is just a textbook case of queerbaiting. I hope I’m wrong and Sherlock ends up on the right side of queer media history, but that interview made that hard to believe. Sherlock will end up in queer media history, though. That much is certain, and the fandom can take credit for that. It’s up to The Powers That Be to choose which context it will be discussed in. Regardless, series 4 is coming and no matter what happens, no matter what Moffat and Gatiss say, this is our show too. Not just theirs. Nothing can take away the art we’ve created, the stories we’ve written, or the friendships we’ve made. No matter what happens, your identity is valid. Let this be an inspiration to all you future creators out there, to bear on your shoulders the issues others are afraid to. To challenge the way stories are told. To challenge whose stories get told. Be inspired to do more. To do better. One day, you and I both will be leading the industry, will be the future rulers of media, and... http://www.thefangirlinitiative.com/2016/12/its-all-fine-queerbaiting-in-bbcs.html?m=1#comment-form

#sherlock #queerbaiting #johnlock #john watson #stephen moffat #queer

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goldenhare · 8 years ago

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“As a rule,” said Holmes, “the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be.” (or things that were bothering me and for which i have no overarching conclusion beyond they’re up to something in secret, which, well, we already knew)

THE RED HEADED LEAGUE

The story I’ve wanted to do for ages is The Red-Headed League and I thought this might be the one where I’d do it and I did have a little go at that, but it soon became apparent that the story this suited was The Six Napoleons,

-Mark Gatiss, BBC Media Centre Interview

RHL Summaries (x x) & Text

“The Red-Headed League” is a quintessential “fair-play” mystery, in which readers know all the relevant clues at the same time that the detective does and therefore should theoretically be able to solve the crime on their own.

RHL & TST

The scene in TST directly referencing RHL is the one where Sherlock’s fake deduction about the guy’s girlfriend can be applied to Mary.

-Jabez Wilson (hey JW!) becomes Mr Kingsley, with deductions and reaction basically just lifted from the text.

-In RHL Peter Jones of Scotland Yard mentions "The business of the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure." [AGRA comes up again in TST].

The Waters Gang

Another obvious RHL reference, as has been pointed out several times by different people, including here with Freud fun or here where the writers are the Waters Gang. Also today lol, which I saw part-way through writing up this far too long post and which is the point, basically fjkldsfj

I feel like the whole In. The. Act. thing has been commented on quite a bit by various people on here as being related to canon johnlock in some way, whether it’s referring to the writers or having to explicitly show john and sherlock as a couple, not just through subtext.

The best part is they wore clown masks. Oh Clown...

#trmo mofftiss RHL Quotes

“I had quite persuaded myself that the whole affair must be great hoax or fraud.”

“It was a pretty expensive joke for them.” -except, as Holmes points out later, the money they’d gain from the bank robbery would more than make up for the monetary loss of paying WIlson: “and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands?”

??????????

Right.

RHL comes up several times (there’s also the three pipe problem reference in ASIP). I don’t have anywhere near enough knowledge of the canon references in Sherlock to be able to see how this compares to how other stories are incorporated. But repetition invariably draws your attention.

On top of that, both RHL and TST had technically already ‘been done’ (waters gang and blog)

All the Waters Gang stuff that’s already been said much more succinctly elsewhere jfkldsfj;ds

A story about something ridiculous concealing a secret plan hmmmm

I don’t know why I structured this so badly.

#references**#tst #tfp

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theonyxpath · 5 years ago

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I just figured we could all use a pic of a whole bunch of pandas hanging out.

Now, on to our stuff.

As you might imagine, our Monday Meeting today was primarily about how everyone got through this last week of the C19 pandemic. Our core Onyx Path team are doing pretty well, with no illnesses reported, and nobody has gone stir-crazy yet.

Like I mentioned last week, we’re trying to stay in even closer communication with our freelance creators, both in terms of their assignments and also just to give everybody a friendly ear during these freaky times. So far, folks are doing OK, although there certainly is a lot of adjusting of work habits that has to happen.

Some creators are speeding through projects and asking for more, and others find it hard to stay focused. There’s no right reaction to all this, though, and we’re not expecting our creators to adhere to anything except what their own circumstances require. Internally, that was a large part of our talk today: just how to offer support for all of our folks, with extended deadlines for some and more assignments for others.

Scion Companion art by Shen Fei

So far, luckily, we are in a position to be flexible and we’re not yet looking to how schedules might need to be changed if any of our creators are attacked by the virus.

Part of our flexibility is the way we have progressed our business operations into a variety of sales venues, most of which have online components if they aren’t totally an online sales venue. So, with that thought, here’s an Update:

Right now, IPR and Studio2 are still selling and shipping our physical books. DTRPG is still selling PDFs, and PoD books. DTRPG, Amazon, and the Nook Store still have ebooks of our fiction available for download. You can find all their contact info down below in the Blurbs!, and elsewhere on this website.

Standard distribution into stores has stopped or slowed, though, and many of those stores’ physical locations are closed because of the virus. Conventions are all being delayed, so they are also not available for folks to get their games. These are not the biggest of our sales venues, but we don’t know how our currently working venues will hold up as things progress.

Oak, Ash, and Thorn art by Drew Tucker

We also talked about how we can continue to help out everybody stuck inside and looking for a bit of diversion or even something engrossing to get stuck into. Fortunately we already have our many online game sessions on YouTube, and our Twitch channels that are chock full of actual play goodness.

And often other things as well, like Eddie’s Twitch demos of development and game design.

You can find some great examples of other folks’ efforts in creating fun and informative sessions below in the Onyx Path Media section. Many of them are indeed superb, as Matthew likes to say – the others are simply great! We’ve been featuring links to these sessions in these Monday Meeting Notes for quite a few months now, but never has it been a better time to tell you about them.

As the Onyx Pathcast‘s 100th full episode looms, the Pathcast continues to be a delightful way to get a weekly earful of irreverent humor and insights into the TTRPG biz, and our game lines in particular. (Also into video games past and present, pop culture, Broadway musicals, Sherlock Holmes, and professional wrestling, past and present).

This Friday’s episode features the return of the very popular 5 Minute Pitches theme, with Dixie, Eddy, and Matthew speed-describing game lines for the others’, and your, edification.

Another method of diversion I want to point out, since we decided to postpone the Legendlore Kickstarter campaign because of the pandemic, is this interview with developer Steffie de Vaan, hosted over at High Level Games! https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/legendlore-rpg-from-onyx-path-publishing-an-interview-with-steffie-de-vaan

It’s a great chance to hear directly from Steffie as to what makes Legendlore exciting and unique!

Vigil Watch art by Pat Loboyko

Finally, we’re going to continue deals and sales all through this pandemic time period. For however long it takes, we want to make it easier for folks to enjoy delving into our game worlds.

Our Storypath and Scarred Lands PDF 50% Off Sale ends with March (and wasn’t this the longest month ever recorded?), and thanks to all of you who wisely took advantage of the sale!

Hot on the heels of that sale, starting Thursday, all Exalted PDFs will be on sale on DTRPG, with the oldest PDFs getting the deepest discounts. A great chance to read up on first edition treatments of elements you might be playing in Exalted 3rd!

So folks, stay healthy, take precautions, wash your hands, try and stay focused, give yourself leeway to be diverted, and please be well. Until this thing runs its course, we truly do want to help you get through this and enjoying our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

Last week, we cancelled the Legendlore Kickstarter for the time being. While we wait for that happy day, here’s a fantastic Legendlore interview with developer Steffie de Vaan, hosted over at High Level Games! https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/legendlore-rpg-from-onyx-path-publishing-an-interview-with-steffie-de-vaan

We’ll get Legendlore back on KS as soon as we can, and meanwhile we are building the M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter!

Onyx Path Media!

This week, it’s the Return of the 5 Min Pitches! Join the gang as they “speed date” a smorgasbord of games, giving out highlights and their ideas – all for your viewing pleasure and edification!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Before we get into the promotion of our games and actual plays being featured this week, we should draw your attention to Virtual Horror Con, being organized online by the good folks of Gehenna Gaming! Expect actual plays, interviews, seminars, and a whole hell of a lot more, and all running this coming weekend! Find out more right here: https://www.gehennagaming.com/

If you’re self-isolating or locked down, please take the time to tune in and watch some fun gaming. This week we’ve got a game of V5, the start of a Scion campaign, Pugmire, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, Scarred Lands, and a Dark ErasWerewolf: The Forsaken chronicle!

This week sees the start of an exciting new Scion game, following the excellent Behind the Screen series we’ve had on our channel. A massive thank you to the players participating in this game! You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed!

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/gdzfHOTtnjE

Trinity Continuum: Hard Holidays: https://youtu.be/xPGqisyMQV4

Pugmire: Paws & Claws: https://youtu.be/CSxZ8PZgtW8

Blood City: Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/zRCRzv5AQ-o

Trinity Continuum: Community Service: https://youtu.be/a5SOnTSvyS4

Scarred Lands AMA with Travis Legge: https://youtu.be/38fPD50puSM

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

If you missed the finale of Red Moon Roleplaying‘s V5 Cults of the Blood Gods “The Family” chronicle, here it is again! Thanks to the Red Moon team for hosting such a fun and horrifying story. https://youtu.be/4lK3dM3_fns

The superb 307 RPG podcast has produced a series of shows based around the equally superb Scarred Lands campaign setting, and you can find an interview with Travis Legge, a dissection of sub-classes, a deep dive into Vengeance of the Shunned, and more, right here: https://307rpg.com Please give them your support!

More new Occultists Anonymous for all you Mage: The Awakening fans:

Episode 92: Gaze Into The Abyss The cabal tromps into the jungles of Cambodia, beside the ancient city of Koh Ker with Abaddon and his warriors. They know Abyssal dangers lurk in the area, but to fight them, they need to identify them first.https://youtu.be/tUk0b5PMZ-I

Episode 93: It Gazes Back The cabal has banished the Abyssal entity for now, and now confront the Bound creature, who should be slumbering. Has the Seer, Abaddon, led them into a trap? And will the Abyssal entity return?https://youtu.be/OnOifUrybTM

Plus, we have a fantastic Legendlore interview with developer Steffie de Vaan, hosted over at High Level Games! https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/legendlore-rpg-from-onyx-path-publishing-an-interview-with-steffie-de-vaan

The Story Told Podcast conclude their Geist: The Sin-Eaters story right over here: This Monday, we’ll be releasing the final episode in our Geist series: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/the-78-laments-episode-5-the-devil-drives Thanks for a fantastic show, team!

Ekorren returns with an incredible deep dive into the Scarred Lands which you really must watch. His enthusiasm shines through in everything he says about this beloved setting: https://youtu.be/56QKuLlCCPI

And as we’re on the subject of Ekorren, if you missed it he also did a Charms for Solars video, for Exalted 3rd Edition right here: https://youtu.be/4AG2FxJi0dg

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

Update: the devs are working on the updates for the roller in both Android and iOS; here is the rundown from them:

1) Redo the UI for system for Android. It will look the same as the current design. My goal is to have something ready by Saturday to send out to the Facebook users, asking them if this fixes the issues. This will be a beta type thing. This will break several of the fancy dice.

2) If the above worked out and the android users give all the clear, we’ll redo the graphics system to fix the fancy dice that got broken. We’ll do another Android beta through Facebook. This might take up to two weeks, as my schedule allows.

3) If everything worked well, we’ll release to Android for real at that point.

4) Port all of the existing stuff to iOS and release on that.

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

This week, we end the month and the Storypath and Scarred Lands 50% Sale, but never fear, we’re following that up with a Gigantic Exalted Sales starting Thursday! Everything Exalted in PDFs is on sale!

On Sale This Week!

This week we’re thrilled to announce that V5 Chicago Folios will be available in PDF and PoD versions on DriveThruRPG on Wednesday!

The Chicago Folios include:

Accounts of vampire mysteries in the heartland of America, spanning the activities of Camarilla, Anarch, Independent, and other, even more terrifying Kindred.

Dozens of chronicle hooks laid out in a way that any Storyteller, new or old, might use them to start a new chronicle of Vampire: The Masquerade or add fresh content to an existing one.

Over 20 individual Kindred with biographies, aspirations, secrets, connections, and purpose for inclusion in any chronicle, whether as antagonists, a supporting cast, or inspiration for playable characters.

Loresheets for new vampires introduced in this book and chronicle threads from the Vampire: The Masquerade metaplot.

New Blood Sorcery rituals, handling the Thaumaturgical powers devised in the domains of Chicago and Milwaukee.

But our journey into the Mid-West isn’t all that’s coming this week! In addition, we’ll be traveling to The Realm for The Silence of Our Ancestors novella for Exalted 3rd Edition in PDF, PoD, and ebook versions on DTRPG, Amazon, and the Nook Store.

Conventions!

Though dates are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

V5 The Faithful Undead (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Faiths (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Second Draft

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

The Book of Endless Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Development

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Manuscript Approval

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Approval Development

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Editing

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing

They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCfBtS!)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy – Contracting.

Tales of Aquatic Terror

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Contracted.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

WoD Ghost Hunters – Getting KS artwork going. Gaydos on fulls.

Aberrant

Pugmire Adventure

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2 – ADing that out post Aberrant AD.

Deviant – Going over the notes.

Legendlore – Kickstarter on hiatus.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Prepping for KS.

Cults of the Blood God – Getting more ADed this week.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Contagion Chronicle

Vigil Watch

Scion Companion

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart

Pirates of Pugmire

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting proofing comments.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Inputting first round of dev corrections.

At Press

Ex 3 The Silence of Our Ancestors (Huggins Novella) – On sale in PDF/PoD/ebook versions on Weds.

TC Distant Worlds – PoD proof ordered.

Scion Mythical Denizens – PoD proof on the way.

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – Errata gathering ending this week.

Dark Eras 2 – PoD proof ordered.

VtR Spilled Blood – PoD proof ordered.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

DR:E Screen & Booklet

DR:E Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

Geist 2e Screen

Memento Mori

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Indexing.

Chicago Folios – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Wednesday.

Geist 2e Anthology – Errata gathering.

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Errata gathering.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Thursday, Dixie levels up! That’s right it’s the Quarantine Birthday for the green-tressed one, and like the true gamer she is she’ll be playing Animal Crossing all day long and maybe even kicking it into high gear with Eddy and Matthew with some Mario Kart! Whoot- enjoy your day, Dixie!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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dinafbrownil · 5 years ago

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Readers And Tweeters: More Than Two Sides To Every Story

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names.

Dispensing The Facts — Or Dispensing With The Facts?

Kaiser Health News and PolitiFact HealthCheck’s rating of our advertisement on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing legislation, H.R. 3, ignored key facts and third-party data that backed up the assertions made (“Pharma’s Take On The Pelosi Drug-Pricing Bill: Fair Warning Or Fearmongering?” Dec. 5).

In our ad, we correctly stated that H.R. 3 “would siphon $1 trillion or more from biopharmaceutical innovators over the next 10 years.” The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that just one part of the legislation (Title 1) would reduce revenues to the biopharmaceutical industry as high as $1 trillion. In addition, an analysis from Avalere, a leading health care consulting firm, found that H.R. 3 could “decrease manufacturer revenues by $1T for CYs 2020-2029 in the Medicare and commercial markets.” The KHN story excluded the Avalere analysis while providing no evidence that the impact was less than the amount estimated by CBO and others.

Moreover, our ad directly quoted CBO’s preliminary estimate, which said the bill “would result in lower spending on research and development and thus reduce the introduction of new drugs.” Despite being an exact quote, KHN still chose to rate this as “mostly false,” even though every person quoted in the article acknowledged there would be a reduction in new medicines.

The story also ignored a study from Vital Transformation, an economic consulting firm, which found H.R. 3 could result in at least 56 fewer innovative medicines from emerging biotech companies over 10 years. The impact on the entire industry would be much greater.

We stand by the claims we made in our advertisement and reject KHN’s analysis of our ad and the impact H.R. 3 would have on biopharma innovation.

― Robert Zirkelbach, executive vice president of public affairs, PhRMA, Washington, D.C.

The simple argument that a tradeoff exists is "mostly false"!? I agree the industry overplays the effect size but come on!

— Ben Ippolito (@ben_ippolito) December 5, 2019

— Ben Ippolito, Washington, D.C.

I was very glad to see Kaiser Health News look into and expose the false and misleading advertisements from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) that had been running in “Politico PM Playbook” over the past few weeks leading up to the House vote on H.R. 3, “The Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019.”

This is exactly the kind of spotlight that we need more of on an industry that is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into lobbying and false advertising in an attempt to stop any meaningful action that would threaten their record profits. We at Accountable.US are doing everything we can to expose the corruption, influence-purchasing and coziness between the pharmaceutical industry and the Trump administration, but we need the media to step up as well to help people cut through Big Pharma’s false advertisements and learn the truth.

Because to be clear: Corruption and lies may be par for the course in Washington, D.C., during the Trump era, but this is an issue that can’t be seen as simply another run-of-the-mill falsehood by a D.C trade organization. The cost of prescription drugs is a matter of life and death for millions of Americans and it’s an issue that elected officials have made commitments to address. But if the pharmaceutical industry is able to spread false and misleading information to policymakers and the public unchallenged and with impunity, then this critical work becomes far more difficult.

That is why following the Kaiser Health News analysis, I wrote a letter to the publisher and top editors of Politico requesting that the false advertisements be removed from the website and that further advertisements from PhRMA using assertions that have been labeled false be rejected.

― Kyle Herrig, president, Accountable.US, Washington, D.C.

This is a dumb. I use blended feeds every day, and while they are usually thick, it still works just fine. EnFit is small, yes, but it’s not any smaller than the g-tube port. It’s a safety mechanism that differentiates it from IV ports so tube feds are administered incorrectly. https://t.co/6bJ7YEw8KS

— 𝙂𝙐𝙉𝙉𝘼𝙍 𝙀𝙎𝙄𝘼𝙎𝙊𝙉 (@G17Esiason) December 16, 2019

— Gunnar Esiason, Hanover, N.H.

This ‘Warmline’ Is All Ears To All

I am the president of a nonprofit organization, Peers in Cayuga County, in Auburn, N.Y. We have been offering a “warmline” since 2015 (“‘Warm’ Hotlines Deliver Help Before Mental Health Crisis Heats Up,” Dec. 9). It operates 24/7/365. We volunteer in Cayuga County and mostly work with people within the county. But, when it comes to the warmline, we answer the phone and listen and talk with whomever is on the phone. We have received calls from out of the county as well as out of the state. We believe in supporting anyone who needs help and are open to anyone calling in to get the support they need. Of course, we don’t know which resources to direct them to nationwide, but people are people and we can support anyone. With that in mind, I would like to have our number listed in as many ways as possible so we can help whoever wants it: (315) 246-3004.

― Margaret Phinney, Auburn, N.Y.

Extra Pointers For Patients To Ward Off Billing Fraud

KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal makes many excellent points (“Analysis: In Medical Billing, Fraudulent Charges Weirdly Pass As Legal,” Dec. 16), but please allow a few comments.

First, not to apply a neck brace in such an accident when the patient has been unconscious would be medical malpractice ― period.

Second, the article ignores patient responsibility. When a patient has been out of the hospital for a while, pain management should transition to one’s personal physician. Depending on state law, it may require an office visit, but it’s your personal physician’s job.

Regarding being offered unnecessary medical equipment such as walkers or commodes, just say no and sign that you refuse it. It is your choice. Actually, it could be argued that accepting unnecessary medical equipment constitutes fraud.

Finally, Ms. Rosenthal reminds us of post-accident “pfishing.” Accident reports are easily accessible. Honest businesses never cold-call patients. If you haven’t been told a referral is being made to “X” office and to expect a call, hang up! (Some states have laws forbidding this; you may wish to inform your state attorney general’s office.) Follow your doctor’s recommendations and don’t get hooked!

— Gloria Kohut, Grand Rapids, Mich.

This! Medical billing is a game of greed, confusion, obfuscation, and fraud, plain and simple. After my last experience with CU Health, I have refused to get medical attention I still need because I can't stand or afford the hugely profitable billing scam. https://t.co/1NbGyVvkVD

— Sharon McCreary (@selfesteemfail) December 19, 2019

— Sharon McCreary, Denver

I love this article! I want to know when we are going to stop accepting this as OK. Some of these bills can really hurt people who live on a fixed income. The government needs to step in and stop allowing these things to happen.

― Michaela Reyes-Holmes, Thompson, Ohio

Health care is crazy town. No other part of the economy looks anything like this, because no other sector is as deeply screwed up by government misregulation. #GovtFailure #NotMarketFailure https://t.co/Hjr6qYaZgV

— Kurt Couchman (@KurtCouchman) December 19, 2019

— Kurt Couchman, Burke, Va.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/readers-and-tweeters-more-than-two-sides-to-every-story/

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bizmediaweb · 7 years ago

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23 Benefits of Social Media for Business

What are the benefits of using social media for business? Consider that there are now more than 3 billion using social networks across the globe.

And these people are using social to engage with brands.

Sherpa Marketing found that more people follow brands on social media than follow celebrities. On Instagram alone 80 percent of people follow at least one business.

If you’re not taking advantage of social, you’re missing out on a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to reach almost half the world’s population.

Let’s look at the many ways in which social media can help you connect, engage, and grow your business.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence with Hootsuite.

Benefits of social media for brand building

1. Increase brand awareness

With nearly half of the world’s population using social media platforms, they’re a natural place to reach new and highly targeted potential customers.

Think people only connect with brands they already know on social media? Consider that 60 percent of Instagram users say they discover new products on the platform.

When Absolut Vodka ran an Instagram campaign to promote its limited edition Spark bottle, the company achieved a five-point lift in brand awareness.

2. Humanize your brand

A UK study from Trinity Mirror Solutions found that more than half of adults do not trust a brand until they see “real-world proof” that the brand is keeping its promises.

To connect with customers—and potential customers—you’ve got to show the human side of your brand. How are you embracing your brand values? (Do you even have brand values?) How are you looking out for the best interests of your customers and employees? Does your product really work?

The ability to create real human connection is one of the key benefits of social media for business. We call these Meaningful Relationship Moments. Introduce your followers to the people who make up your company and showcase how existing customers are using and benefiting from your products.

A social media advocacy program can be a great way to humanize your brand.

3. Establish your brand as a thought leader

No matter what industry your business is in, social media offers the opportunity to establish your brand as a thought leader—the go-to source for information on topics related to your niche.

Like brand advocacy, thought leadership is a great way to build consumer trust. In fact, LinkedIn research in partnership with Edelman shows that marketers underestimate just how much thought leadership can impact trust, especially for B2B marketers. About half of B2B marketers surveyed believed their thought leadership would build trust in their companies. However, more than 80 percent of buyers said thought leadership builds trust.

The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer also found that 63 percent of people trust technical experts, compared to only 42 percent of people who trust businesses.

Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes has more than 1.5 million followers on LinkedIn, where he shares his insights about social media and entrepreneurship.

LinkedIn—particularly the LinkedIn Publishing Platform—is a great social network to focus on when aiming to establish yourself as a thought leader.

4. Stay top of mind

Most social media users log into their accounts at least once per day, according to Pew Research Center, and many people are checking social multiple times per day.

Social media gives you to the opportunity to connect with fans and followers every time they log in. Keep your social posts entertaining and informative, and your followers will be glad to see your new content in their feeds, keeping you top of mind so you’re their first stop when they’re ready to make a purchase.

Benefits of social media for growth

5. Increase website traffic

Social media posts and ads are key ways to drive traffic to your website. Sharing great content from your blog or website to your social channels is a great way to get readers as soon as you publish a new post

Participating in social chats—like the weekly #HootChat on Twitter—can also be a great way to increase your visibility, get attention from new people, showcase your expertise, and drive traffic to your website.

A2: Curating content helps you: – Save time – Build relationships with other sources – Provide new perspectives that support your own content While it’s not a replacement for creating content, it has many benefits. #HootChat

— UpContent (@getupcontent) April 19, 2018

Offer great value in the chat, rather than being too promotional. Just make sure your website address is included in all of your social media profiles so that people who want to learn more about you can do so with one easy click. Even better, use a pinned post to highlight a landing page on your website that’s relevant to the chat.

6. Generate leads

Social media offers an easy and low-commitment way for potential customers to express interest in your business and your products. Lead generation is such an important benefit of social media for business that many social networks offer advertising formats specifically designed to collect leads.

For example, Renault Europe used Facebook lead ads that allowed people interested in learning more about a new model to book a test drive directly from Facebook, with just a couple of taps.

The ads had a 7.9 times lower cost per lead than ads linking to a form on the car manufacturer’s website.

7. Boost sales

No matter what you sell, social media can help you sell it. Your social accounts are a critical part of your sales funnel—the process through which a new contact becomes a customer.

As the number of people using social media continues to grow and social sales tools evolve, social networks will become increasingly important for product search and ecommerce. The time is right to align your social marketing and sales goals.

For individual sales professionals, social selling is already a critical tool.

Take Hootsuite Academy’s Social Selling Course and learn how to find leads and drive sales with social media.

8. Partner with influencers

Word of mouth drives 20 to 50 percent of purchasing decisions. When you get people talking about your product or company on social media, you build brand awareness and credibility, and set yourself up for more sales.

One key way to drive social word of mouth is to partner with influencers—people who have a large following on social media and can draw the attention of that following to your brand.

Research from Nielsen, Carat, and YouTube shows that collaborating with an influencer can give your brand four times more lift in brand familiarity than collaborating with a celebrity.

Benefits of social media for content creation and distribution

9. Promote content

Promoting your content on social channels is a great way to get your smart, well-researched content in front of new people, proving your expertise and growing your audience.

For example, Adobe used LinkedIn Sponsored Content to showcase its research, including infographics and videos.

Marketing decisions-makers exposed to Adobe’s promoted content were 50 percent more likely to view Adobe as shaping the future of digital marketing and 79 percent more likely to agree that Adobe could help them optimize media spend.

To maximize the social media for business benefits, make sure to have a content marketing plan in place.

10. Go viral

As people start liking, commenting on, and sharing your social posts, your content is exposed to new audiences—their friends and followers. Going viral takes this concept one step further. As people share your content with their networks, and their networks follow suit, your content spreads across the internet, getting thousands or even millions of shares.

This exposure is especially beneficial because all those shares, likes, and comments show an existing connection with your brand. If I see that my friend likes your article, I may be inclined to check out what you have to say, even if I’ve never heard of your company before. In a world where there is far more content than any one person could ever consume, a friend’s social share acts as a kind of pre-screening.

Going viral is no easy task, of course, but without social media it would be next to impossible.

11. Source content

There are two key ways businesses can source content on social media:

Source ideas: Ask your followers what they want, or engage in social listening, to come up with ideas for content you can create yourself. Put simply: Give people what they’re asking for. It’s a sure way to create content that people will want to read and share.

Source material for posts: Create a contest or use a hashtag to source user-generated content (UGC) you can share. Getting your followers involved can build excitement about your brand while also providing you with a library of social posts to share over time.

Just how much content can you get through a UGC campaign? Check out the #wanderlustcontest hashtag from National Geographic, which has generated more than 60,000 posts.

Benefits of social media for communication

12. Reputation management

Your customers are already talking about you on social media, whether or not you’re there to respond. If you and your team are on the ball, you can pick up on important social posts about your brand to highlight the positive and address the negative before it turns into a major issue.

Is someone saying something about your business that’s not true? Be sure to share your side of the story in a polite, professional way. Someone singing your praises? Send them plenty of thanks and draw attention to their kind words.

13. Crisis communication

When a Philadelphia Starbucks store had two black men arrested, the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks went viral, and fast. The hashtag was used more than 100,000 times in just three days. That is officially a crisis.

Starbucks, to its credit, responded quickly.

We apologize to the two individuals and our customers for what took place at our Philadelphia store on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/suUsytXHks

— Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) April 14, 2018

After this first apology, the company followed up with several more statements on social media, and announced that it would close all of its stores for a day of racial-bias training. It remains to be seen what the long-term effects of this incident will be for the Starbucks brand, but the consequences would almost certainly been worse if the company had not responded quickly and appropriately on social media.

Does your company have a plan in place for dealing with a crisis? While smaller brands may not have a crisis blow up to such a large scale, a smaller number of shares can have a devastating impact within a tight-knit community or niche.

Silence is not an option when it comes to responding to crises on social media. Maintaining well-run and managed social accounts and having a plan in place can help make sure you’re present and ready to engage if the worst occurs.

14. Customer and audience engagement

Social networks give you the opportunity to interact directly with customers and fans, and likewise give them the chance to interact directly with your brand. Unlike traditional media, which offers only one-way communication, social media is a two-way street.

If you want customers and followers to be engaged, you have to be engaged yourself. Stay active and respond to comments and questions on your own social media posts in a way that’s appropriate to your brand.

pic.twitter.com/TJvCmIsuxq

— Postmates Support (@Postmates_Help) May 26, 2017

You can also use social media monitoring to keep an eye on what people are saying across the social web.

15. Customer service and customer support

People expect brands to be available on social media and seek out their social accounts for customer service. Research published in the Harvard Business Review shows that brands who don’t meeting those expectations damage their bottom line.

The HBR research, which specifically looks at Tweets, shows that customers who receive a response to their Tweet would be willing to spend more with the brand on a later purchase, especially if they get a response within five minutes. That holds true even when the initial Tweet was a flat-out complaint.

Benefits of social media for gaining insights

16. Monitor conversations that are relevant to your brand

We mentioned social media monitoring above as an important element of audience engagement. But it’s also important as a key source of intelligence about your brand, your competitors, and your niche.

17. Learn more about your customers

Social media generates a huge amount of data about your customers in real time. You can use that information to make smarter business decisions.

All of the major social networks offer analytics that provide demographic information about the people interacting with your account. This can help you tailor your strategy to better speak to your real audience.

We’ve created extensive guides on how to use analytics in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest, so there’s no excuse to remain in the dark about your customers and social followers.

18. Gauge sentiment around your brand

Lots of mentions is a good thing, right? Sure, in many cases. But if you’re getting lots of mentions with a negative sentiment, you need to do some quick thinking to figure out what’s gone wrong and address the problem.

Hootsuite’s social engagement coordinator, Nick Martin, defines social media sentiment as “the perceived positive or negative mood being portrayed in a social media post or engagement.”

While it’s important to know how much people are talking about your brand online, it’s also important to know how people actually feel about your brand.

Using social media for your business allows you to stay on top of sentiment analysis so you can protect your brand reputation.

Bonus: Get the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence with Hootsuite.

19. Keep an eye on the competition

It’s also important to know what people are saying about your competitors.

For example, tracking mentions of your competitors might reveal pain points with their products that you could reach out to address, winning new customers in the process.

When Uber Canada launched a promotion to deliver free ice cream for a day in Vancouver, things went spectacularly wrong. People couldn’t get their free ice cream, and they were not happy about it. They took to social media to complain.

The social team at Skip The Dishes saw an opportunity and reached out to people complaining about Uber with a free ice cream delivery of their own, in the form of a Skip The Dishes credit. All those Uber haters quickly turned into Skip The Dishes fans, and new customers (since you had to create a Skip The Dishes Account to get your free ice cream).

Thanks for delivering free ice cream to the office @SkipTheDishes. When #UberIceCreamFAIL , #skipthedishes saves the day! Happy Friday! pic.twitter.com/3Se2AbbdFj

— Leavetown (@LeaveTownNow) August 25, 2017

Monitoring the competition on social media also means you’ll be aware when you competitors launch new products, run promotions, and release new reports or data.

20. Stay on top of industry news

In the online world, things move fast—and you can’t afford to be left behind. Keeping a virtual ear to the ground through social listening makes sure you’re always informed about upcoming changes to your industry that could affect the way you do business.

Benefits of social media for advertising

21. Targeted advertising

Social ads are an inexpensive way to promote your business and distribute content. They also offer powerful targeting options so you can reach the right audience and make the most of your budget.

Savvy marketers have embraced this key benefit of social media for business: They will spend twice as much on Facebook ads in 2018 as they will on newspaper advertising.

With ad targeting options including demographic information, geography, language, and even online behaviors, you can craft specific messages that best speak to different groups of potential customers, and only pay for the exact viewers you want to reach.

22. Retargeting

Nearly 70 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned.

People who have abandoned products in a shopping cart are prime potential customers. They have already found your website, browsed your products, and made a decision about what they might want. People abandon shopping carts for many reasons, but someone who has expressed this degree of interest in your company should not be ignored.

Using tracking tools like the Facebook Pixel, you can show these potential customers social media ads for the exact products they have browsed on your website or placed in the shopping cart.

For example, the craft site Craftsy used retargeting Facebook ads to promote products to people who had already interacted with a product page on the Craftsy site.

The campaign saw a 4.3 times return on ad spend and 33 percent increase in Facebook-driven revenue.

Benefits of social media for proving ROI

23. Reporting and analytics

It is always a challenge for marketers to prove return on investment. But with social media tracking and analytics tools, you can see the full impact of your social media activities, from follows to engagements right through to purchases.

Tools like Google Analytics and Hootsuite Impact track website traffic generated from social media, conversions, email sign-ups, and ROI for both organic and paid social media campaigns.

UTM parameters are another great tracking tool that will help you see which social networks are providing the most benefits for your business.

Use Hootsuite to easily manage all your social media channels from one dashboard. Grow your brand, engage customers, keep up with competitors, and measure results. Try it free today.

Get Started

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