#i meant to post this on my sideblog but i saved the draft here in main instead 💥 so wtv u guys can read my 2am thoights lol

[rayroseu]

THIS COMMENT FROM THE SCENE OF MALEFICENT REVERSING AURORA'S CURSE 😭😭😭😭😭 OOOHHH BOOK 7 REFERENCE YOU'RE SO REAL AGAIN

It reminds so much of Malleus ofc.... I know there'll be a scene of him regretting his actions/his overblot.

Right now, he doesn't realize it because the core of his "curse" is a blessing... it is a blessing to live in your dreams and have a long happy life, but the "curse part of it" (I think) is when you reject this blessing that he's giving, and he forces you to take it, and when he realizes that at that point, where everyone wakes up and resist his blessing and he forces them back to sleeping again bcs he has to and its just a cycle from there...

he comes to a realization that he's not protecting/governing/taking care of them (he uses so many verbs to his actions lmao), he just gets angry at them, fights them, and hurts them (because he doesn't understand why people would reject a gift "so perfect" in principle.), then Malleus will realize he's no longer acting in kindness but rather in evil. 🥲🥲🥲

AAAAAAA i hope. 💔 Book 7 is also Maleficent-inspired btw and the point of that movie is to humanize Maleficent as an "purely evil villain" from Sleeping Beauty. And, while I don't doubt there'll be a scene alluding to the defeat of Dragon Maleficent, I still feel like he'll be redeemed at the end lol (so like... Book 7 won't be just be about Malleus will be beaten for his bad deeds and he'll learn and regret it lol) I wanna see Malleus admit his mistake and grow past it 🥲✨✨

It feels like whenever he makes a mistake so far, it has traumatic consequences where the damage cannot be repaired or he'll forever be burdened by unintentional mistake (like people getring hurt by his powers), but if the story lets Malleus redeems himself, it feels like its telling Malleus the lesson that things you have worked on can be destroyed and it will never be the same, but you can still work towards it again, like the saying "not all things that are lost are permanently gone".

Also speaking of lost--- In the past, I used to say Book 7 is Malleus "first experience of lost" but I don't think so now lol If you think about it, it feels like Malleus has always been experiencing lost ... No parents, Limited presence of Maleficia, Lilia is separated from him, People almost dies just by dealing with him (remember the Lilia quote from the frozen castle incident: "The people you are eating with right now are the people you have almost lost"), Yuu is leaving him, ... Like every decade of this guy's life feels like there's a parting 😭😭😭🔥

So its not his first time experience lost, rather he just had enough from experiencing it repeatedly 😭😭😭 But again even if things are lost (even to death), Malleus can still visit it again lol even if its changed, like how there'll come a day where Lilia will die but his memories are still in the world and Silver, -

I feel like thats also a nice way to connect to the fact theres an ongoing theme of things being lost but still their presence persist like how Meleanor's Lullaby is not recognized by Malleus that its his mother's song but Malleus still sings it, and how Dawn is forgotten as well but his behavior and personality reflects a lot with Silver (even though hes not the one who raised him).

[mathmusicreading]

Blog(ger) Shift

I am, so weird and bad about original posting and about reblogging and about saving things on Tumblr and that's why my blog has been mostly inactive or the lurking consumer type. But I don't want my fears about putting myself out there, being seen and known, articulating myself well vs. having been told my whole life I'm too wordy and opinionated vs. not managing to articulate myself well enough to justify being verbose and passionate, etc. to continue to control me so much.

So for my new specific-interest sideblog that I'm not locking, I hope it being themed will help me with making more original posts and reblogging, and I'm publicizing that here to push myself and also welcome interaction.

RIP to my other public specific-interest sideblog and the fandom sideblog I took over for someone that I didn't take further and to my private sideblogs that were meant to make me reblog and save and say stuff because they would be personal and just for me. I still would like to make those happen and reblogging and posting things that matter to me here, and oh my heart for the content ideas I haven't been working on, but they're pipedreams with how I'm (not) managing my life and I keep kicking those cans down the road.

To the person who I developed a real relationship with as a beta but who by now I probably count as having disappeared on with how long it's been and my not coming back to explicitly say I still can't help and don't know when I can, I am so sorry. I'm being a coward languishing in hoping I can tell you soon that I can get back into beta-ing for you and talking, but that's turned into me not talking to you because I'm waiting to be able to say something positive. Hopefully my vaguing here can help push me into talking to you, or at least this is here for you to read if you happen to see it; and I want you to know you absolutely can talk to me, can call me out, and if you're so gracious as to still want to be friends with me and just chat despite my dropping being your beta, I'm here for you and still want to be your friend even if I don't know if I'll have the spoons to be a good one and I know my saying that preemptively isn't apology or justification enough.

Honest assessment, I'm going to curse and say my living situation and work have both become even more of a shitshow, and with those things in mind I can't begin to imagine handling a real project until basically literally a year from now.

Which segues back into the main topic of this post. My goal isn't to have my new sideblog be like an active mainblog nor to abandon this blog—people interested in that blog can and should still interact with me here given how primary vs. secondary blogs on Tumblr work, and in terms of using that blog to help make me be a better Tumblr user, I think I should make certain original posts here and reblog them there as opposed to them being original there. With my mental-emotional and time resources, I want that blog to be "active" for a given definition of active, but really I think I should see my objective as "clear out tabs and likes and photos and lists and notes and drafts, etc. from the last four months" by saving stuff there, as opposed to my goal being the original posts I want to make there, and actually my long-term goal should be to use that momentum to do the same for older digital and physical storage that hasn't been lost or stolen. In my failure to be an interesting person, do I at least manage to be fascinating as a basket-case? Ha. But, also, as expressed above the Read More, the exercise of my danmei/Chinese sideblog is supposed to be a foray into me allowing myself to be an interesting person.

[andipxndy-writes]

meet the writer: aj

(a.k.a. my writeblr intro, done properly)

heya!! i’ve had this blog for a while now, but i realised i haven’t ever actually done a proper intro on here, so here it is!! (also did i want the opportunity to make an aesthetic of myself??? absolutely. image made in canva and portrait on the left is from picrew, all other images were taken from unsplash)

my name is aj (she/her pronouns pls)!! i’m 26, black, and i live in the uk. i graduated from uni 3 years ago and currently work in lab admin, but i’ve been doing creative writing for 10+ years!! i’m currently trying to get back into reading by reading a book a month (i usually share the book i’m reading in the sidebar of my main blog, which i follow back with as this blog is a sideblog: @andipxndy), and i write a variety of fanfiction and original works (both based off my own characters and those i currently/have rp’d with in the past). i also take requests for fanfiction, which you can read about below the cut or in this post (i’ve made some changes which mean the post is not relevant atm)!! but in general i love being asked questions about my WIPs and my characters and basically any characters i write, because i love delving into character thoughts and doing character development (so please send me some!!).

this blog started off as a way for me to share my fanfiction writing, which is how i got into writing in the first place and how i came to love it, but now i’m wanting to expand some more share/talk about some of my original works too!! i write ya sci-fi in my original stuff, but i’m known to drift into romance, action-comedy and crime when it comes to fanfiction works. i’m also over on ao3 as andipxndy.

my main fanfic writing fandoms are abbott elementary and alex rider, just to keep things managable, but i also enjoy watching ncis, criminal minds and lockwood & co., and sometimes dive back into old favourite animes (k-on!! is my current anime obsession). i may be slow to write or respond to stuff but i DO enjoy diving into discussing fandom stuff too!! i also like playing video games like sims 4 (ea is a money grab pass it on) and cities skylines, and enjoy dnd and rping with friends!!

before this intro gets too long, here are my main WIPs:

power play (1st draft completed, left to stew)

the first original wip i planned, the story is intended to be part of a 5-book series about a 20-year-old who accidentally gives himself powers, and ends up drawn into the science underground whilst trying to save people that he may or may not have also accidentally given powers. and all whilst trying to appear completely normal to his mum and get a summer job whilst home from university.

the crossover (still working on 1st draft, is my main/november nano project)

this is an adaptation of an old rp au i had with one of my closest friends, adjusted to have new, original characters despite the same plotline. it follows a 17-year-old girl as she’s accidentally transported into a parallel universe, where her parents aren’t her parents and she doesn’t exist. in an attempt to get home, she ends up crossing paths with the people who are meant to be her family, and finds out that they’re all superheroes. insert drama and shenanigans here.

the rich life: a modern bourgeoise au (working on 1st draft, is my camp nano project)

a passion project that i’m completing for my rp partners, this au is split into a 3-book series following the lives of our characters in the upper class, those who work for them, and eventually their children, going through the drama of their lives and how they try so hard not to have it all end up in the press. that obviously doesn’t work.

fanfiction fics and requests (ongoing but this is technically a wip)

technically counts as a wip as i have a backlog of fics in progress to write and share for requesters (and some ideas i’ve had myself), but these are mainly either alex rider or abbott elementary fanfics that have been sent in via ask. you can see extra info below the cut after the next paragraph. my requests are currently closed, and i’m working through my backlog. the request(s) active for the forseeable future are:

will you be my maybe? - an abbott elementary fanfiction (gregory x janine - injury + fake dating)

anyway, this is all i’ve got for now!! i do take part in things like nanowrimo and camp nanowrimo, so if anyone takes part in those too i look forward to writing alongside you!! other than that, that’s about it!! i’ll be sharing snippets of my work, and maybe eventually you’ll even get aesthetics eventually!! i’ve you’ve read this far, i applaud you, but thank you so much for reading!! i’d love to get to know more writers on here, both inside and outside of fandom spaces, so please feel free to jump at me and send me asks and messages and stuff!!

~ aj xxx

(for more info on fanfiction stuff, read below the cut:)

i’ve been writing fanfiction for over 10 years, and as something so dear to my heart i can’t let it go - it’s helped me to develop my writing and character development skills!! i have, however, grown in the fandoms i write, so please see below for more info:

I WRITE FOR:

alex rider

abbot elementary (more specifically, gregory x janine. i ship only those two. with my whole heart.)

fics getting to know my original characters (oneshots)

(i realise that this is significantly cut down, but i have other projects in mind that require more of my time and can no longer spend as much time on requests!! for this, i apologise!!)

GENRES WRITTEN (not completely restricted):

family/friendship

romance

hurt/comfort

action/adventure

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

MY REQUESTS ARE NOW CLOSED

all fanfics will be cross-posted to ao3

please give me up to a month to get fics written and posted - if not done within a month, feel free to message me about it [please DO NOT pester me about it] - i work and am also writing original things, so do not always have the time

i preferably write oneshots, though the occasional multi-chap will appear - a fic ends up longer, well, it happens 🤷🏾‍♀️

i am a rambler so you are almost always guaranteed a longer fic

please try not to give me word count limits or specifications on fics - they are discouraging

that being said, any writing requests/prompts fulfilled will most likely be 20k words or less (though they may be longer if the inspiration strikes, don’t hold me to it)

i do not write smut, or any nsfw other than possibly gore/torture/violence. this is a personal preference and i will not change my stance on it

if you have any triggers that you do not want included in the fic, please message me and inform me of this

i have a ko-fi! if you would like to tip/donate to me for any of my writings, check it out here

all fics may or may not include a level of humour/sarcasm - i’m not sorry for this

[dyrwoodan]

,

[emptymasks]

Where to watch and listen to non-English language musicals?

I’ve been thinking about making a post like this for a while but wondered hm do I want to be giving out links to free downloads of musical audios publicly when really I want to promote people still buying CDs because one, it supports the artists, and two, I think it’s better to own things still rather than just own things digitally. But I found an extra treasure trove I didn’t know about before and I feel a need to share because I didn’t make it, it’s already online, so why shouldn’t I tell people about it? And then this was just going to be for audios and not videos and I was going to make a separate post but figured it would be easier if all the info was on one post. I actually was going to post this on my sideblog @europeanmuscials but I accidentally made the draft under my main blog which meant I couldn’t change it later and I couldn’t be bothered to cope and paste and redo all the images and tags because I didn’t save the images I just copy and pasted them so oh well.

Purchasing

So as I always preface when I share info on where to stream musicals, PLEASE try always support the artists by buying CDs and DVDs! I know a lot of the musicals here are 10/20+ years old and you cannot get the CDs anywhere anymore, but when a new musical comes out please try and get the CD without instatnly looking for a download.  You can purchase non-English language musical CDs, DVDs and other merch from places like soundofmusic-shop.de or Ebay, or Yahoo Auctions for Japanese musicals, using a proxy shipping service, I personally use ZenMarket. Those are how I’ve gotten all of mine, getting them off Ebay or Yahoo Auctions means they’ll likely be second hand and there is nothing wrong or weird about buying second hand goods.

Streaming Audio

Spotify. A lot of German and French musicals are on Youtube. I have a series of playlists that will help you find them easily: one is my favourite songs from a bunch of different non-English language musicals, one of songs from solo albums from European and Asian musical theatre artists, and this one which is going to be the most help that is a huge playlist of every single full cast album of every non-English musical cast album I have found on Spotify. Please let me know if I’ve missed any on there and I’ll add them.

Youtube. Some official cast albums are also on Youtube, normally official uploads that match the Spotify uploads. Ones I know of that aren’t on Spotify for example is the original 2003 Dutch production of one of my favourite musicals 3 Musketiers and the 2005 German production of it.

Streaming Video

I want to preface this with how unlike Broadway and the West End, it’s fairly common for European musicals to get proshots and DVD and Bluray releases and so you don’t normally need to resort to looking for bootleg videos and can watch and purchase the pretty official proshots instead.

Youtube. There’s so many different channels uploading them to Youtube that for ease I made a playlist of every full length production on Youtube starting with the ones that have English subtitles. I also have playlists for different individual musicals and misc European musicals that are full of shorter videos: clips, interviews, behind the scenes, concert performances and other videos that aren’t full length production videos. These playlists are constantly updated.

Bilibili. A Chinese video sharing website. It has a lot Asian musicals of course, but European musicals, in particular French and German ones, have a very dedicated fanbase in Asia and so there are a lot of videos on here. You can search for then using the English/Roman alphabet and they normally come up fine. Easiest way I search on there is using the name of the musical/actor and a year.

VK. A Russian social media similar to Facebook. There are multiple fanpages for specific actors and musicals where I’ve found videos, but you can also search over all of VK. You might need an account to do this, I don’t remember but I think you do and that’s why I made one there. Here’s links to fanpages for Drew Sarich, Jan Ammann, Mark Seibert and Thomas Borchert.

Downloading Audio

r/castrecordings on Reddit. It’s a community of traders and you can make a reply to their request threads for the month asking if anyone has the audio you’re looking for, but please check first to see if it’s already been uploaded. I have downloaded many audios off there and I also have uploaded audios to there if I see someone request something that I have because I feel that it’s only fair for me to help others out there when I’ve downloaded things off there so many times. Be aware download links on here often get deleted and so a lot of older posts don’t have working download links anymore, but you can just request for a new working download on the request threads.

archive.org. Now I would never have thought of looking there, but I was on there because they have a lot of old silent films and so I was looking to watch the original Phantom of the Opera film and when I searched Phantom I was surprised by some cast albums that came up. So I wondered what would happen if I just looked at audios and oh I have found a wonderful little treasure trove. User musical_lover_1980 has uploaded over 1 thousand cast albums of Broadway, West End and non-English language musicals and a few film soundtracks. A lot of ones on there I’ve found before on r/castrecordings, but I was so happy to find a number that I didn’t already have. There’s even one Takarazuka album on there, which isn’t a lot but do you know how rare and hard those things are to find. And the Korean Frankenstein musical cast album!!

EDIT: also the account @ WennLi3b3 on archive.org is uploading audios and proshot videos 

Because I will be link to external sites this might not show up in tags so I appreciate the reblogs. Please don’t share this post outside of Tumblr, nor any of the audios I post here outside of Tumblr. If I find that happening I’ll delete everything and not post audios or information like this anymore. Apologies if there are typos or any mistakes here.

[itstheblob]

All typed text in the drawings above is taken from The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. These quotations are included here as context for the images, which are meant to be a commentary on the work. 

Finally gave up on the fake screenshot format and went full on comic panels, too many actions and gestures I wanted to illustrate here. I blame Smeagol. He’s strung out on fish and evil and he can’t sit still anymore.

I’ve read a little bit of the analysis saying Gollum is Frodo’s foil or shadow self or what have you*, but reading the book, I really saw Gollum as Sam’s villain.  They’re completely opposed in a lot of ways, but most importantly - Sam’s main overriding story-carrying day-saving virtue is loyalty to the person he loves and pledged to protect, whereas Smeagol’s main overriding story-carrying day-ruining villainous vice is his disloyalty to everyone- including people I thought he really did like and might even have loved - including even himself, I would say.

Also they hate each other. A lot.

This post was going to be about twice as long. But it’s already long, and it’s getting to be quite time-consuming- I have other projects planned for October, and it’s the busy season at my freelance job, so I really may not be able to devote any more time to this until November. Therefore I’ve decided to split it up and just post what I have. In the future, you might see a part 2 of more scenes in a similar vein (I drafted a comic of the scene where Sam spies on Gollum having a lively argument with himself. It is three pages, and that’s when I decided I wanted to stop here, at least for now)

Other LOTR posts on my blog Gollum (and design notes) | Sam, The Best Hobbit | Smeagol, The Worst Hobbit  | Misc, including Merry and Pippin and others (not yet available)

And I made a sideblog for LOTR doodles and memes. It’s at @ach-sss-no (and now you know why it’s called that, 1) i just think it’s funny that gollum sees sam doing something totally innocuous and his reaction is to run over and hiss and scream at him, 2) i knew that url wouldn’t be taken and no one else would be likely to want it)

[kaus-fangirlis]

I meant to say this before, but I absolutely adore when you add long tags under the posts you reblog - I love your thoughts, please tell me more <3

Ohh, anytime, I add a storm of tags with great pleasure! That explains the now 700+ drafts on my sideblog, because those posts do not have tags but I didn't want to lose them so here I cry (((

My ask box and DMs are always open for you, Nyusa, we can pour our hearts out for Er*n or mentally teleport to Petersburg or something and ALSO I am saving this one:

Don't you think it rather suits me? lmaoooo

[sozotohakai]

Blogs update

Hello~!

As some of you know November-December was really hard on me, it’s been better after the new year though it took last week and having monday to friday free to myself to feel like I’ve gotten real recovery energy. I’ve been productive for two days straight in the first few days of January too, so a boost for my mood, but energy consuming which is why it left me on a more relaxed pattern for days after.

So while I’m starting to feel better and to roll back into productive cycles, I feel I need to take it easy, and lower my intentions of activity from now.

In practice, this will mean:

++ sozotohakai remains my main rp blog, however consider it in semi-active state.

Activity is to be non-regular, if you feel you can’t handle the irregular way I can reply (take a few days to a few weeks), feel free to let me know you want to stop. Otherwise, do know I save in my drafts replies, and reply to them when I feel the muse for your thread. It is near impossible for me to miss a reply, as I check my dash for all new posts (which is why I keep it slow enough for my taste), so even if activity derps, I’ll see it myself. AKA: you can be certain your reply is in my draft, and be assured that I’ll work on it sooner or later.

(Memes&asks, I’ll make a thread if my muse want to add something, if you want to continue I’m all good, and if you don’t it’s all good too!)

There is no telling what I’ll have the muse for, and except rare case of high energy, I generally can’t write more than two to three replies when I manage to write. This is why you tend to see only one or two replies be sent out, and why speed can vary, as even if I end up writing replies after a few days, it might not be yours.

(I do mean to try putting in queue more often, so it can space out too).

++ millenniumpatriarch remains my secondary rp blog, semi-active too as while I don’t have as much going on as Allen, the muse is new still to me. However, on the plus side, it’s easier to get replies out since I don’t have as many to get out and so yours will tend to come “quicker”.

+ lostrecordsofwhite is to be half-closed. I still feel I want to work on having infos up, but for now, I won’t rp on there, and will work on adding infos when I feel like. Exception is the Deity AU, I’ll decide later if I add it to sozotohakai (the verse page is meant to reworked anyway), or keep it on lostrecordsofwhite (and have it the only rp verse/the only real activity).

+ choruscaelum is to be half-closed or, in fact, mostly closed. I feel like I’m probably “holding on” rather than genuinely feeling the muses, I haven’t rped there in a while and it’s mostly now that I’m saying “yeah, I won’t be rping there for now”. I do want, however, to put up infos&pages, which I’ll just work on whenever I feel like it.

+ arynladyofice is still a little bit “to decide” but I feel like I might add her to the multi-muse, and thus probably me the “main muse” there. I love her and I know that’s one muse that still sticks around, but at the same time, I don’t feel much urge anymore to try having her active (which is likely because I don’t have the energy to spare). Adding her to the multi feels like the best, and it feels like it will help my mind. Although I’m not sure how active she would be, but at least, she might feel better place for my own mind.

+++ I’m working on a sideblog to millenniumpatriarch, which was made a sideblog here (as opposed to a main account) to keep together blogs in the same fandom. So yes, this sideblog is for a MDZS blog, which will be half-info half-ask blog, and be open to rp threads. I kind of want to have more of it be set up before I share it though, but worry not, I’ll make a post (and edit this post) when it’s out.

Thank you for the patience, I’ll understand if you come and tell me hey, I think I prefer if we stop/drop our thing (and I’ll come tell you if I see a draft for us and I really feel I won’t be able to write for it), and otherwise I’ll be happy to continue, just be aware that, as I often say, my activity is fickle. Which has a lot to do with how my work is also to write and be creative so! Gotta manage better my creative juices and priorities!

[studyfeather]

I just wanted to say I love your bullet journal and ask if you have any tips for starting a tumblr in general. I've seen your studyblr intro/advice post and it was so helpful to me, but I'm just starting my studyblr and already a bit lost as to how to navigate everything. Thanks in advance!

Hey there! (and omg you’re so sweet lskdjflk) I’m not the greatest when it comes to tumblr, but hopefully I can still help you out! I’ll share some navigation tips and some starting tumblr advice!

➸ Starting a Tumblr

Make a memorable username

The more memorable and simple your username, the better! 

Alongside this, a lot of people may associate you with your icon! So it can be disconcerting to some if your icon changes frequently. 

It’s also best if you stick to one username. You are able to change your username, but if anyone takes your previous username, they may think it is you. (But if you do change your username, make sure your followers know about it!)

Find/make a desktop theme that is user friendly, and pleasant to look at.

There’s nothing more frustrating (to me) to come across a blog that, no matter how much I try, I can’t seem to navigate it well. Or, if a blog has a displeasing color combination.

Usually I like to see a search bar, a navigation bar, a clean theme, and a place where I can easily see how to go to the next page.

It’s even better if your theme matches what type of blog you’re running, or some of your big interests.

As you’re running a studyblr, I’ve found that lights, whites, and pastels with a minimal layout tend to be the norm.

Remain active

The best way for anyone to get the most out of their tumblr experience is to remain active. Reach out to others with similar interests, add comments to a thread, post original content, etc. 

People WANT to follow other people who will be active. See it this way - it may be better to follow 5 active people, than 10 inactive people. 

Interact with your followers. Host giveaways (if you can afford it), do blog compliments or blog rates. Ask questions or something to get some sort of feedback.

Maintain some sort of vibe that people know you are approachable! And kind! 

Be sure to tag your posts

The best way for your blog and your content to be noticed, is to tag your posts with relevant search terms.

Quite a bit of people won’t use tags by way of people to find their posts. Instead, it will also be a place to add additional information, personal feelings, rants, if it’s a tangent to what the post is about, etc. Sometimes it can be important to read what others have to say in the tags.

➸ Navigating Tumblr

Honestly, as a major tip, making sure you become familiar with how tumblr works. Settings (and how to change your settings), how to make posts, tag usage, themes, etc - and be sure to make use of it. I’ll share some tumblr basics.

Disclaimer: I use Windows 10 for desktop, and have an Android phone, so some things I say might not be cohesive. I’m also no tumblr master (and have googled how to do things more than I’d like to admit OTL) For the most part, I will be describing how to do things on a computer, and not on mobile - unless specified otherwise.

➸ Tumblr on a Computer

Let’s start with the super basics - the bar in the top right hand corner.

Dashboard

This is where you can see the content from the people you follow. What they post and what they reblog. If you follow tags, they will occasionally show up (and will specify somewhere if they are from a tag you follow - and not from a blog you follow). 

The dashboard is what you are defaulted to when you type “tumblr.com” - if you’re logged in, that is. 

There will be a number that pops up above the dashboard icon. This number tells you there’s x amount of posts that people you follow have reblogged/made you haven’t seen yet. You can refresh your dashboard by pressing the icon, and it will bring you to the top.

Explore

The explore will lead you to a separate page. This will give you different options for you to explore a little bit more with posts that are more tailored to you. I haven’t used this tab, but it can be a good way to find more of what’s out there.

Inbox

This is where you will find all of your asks. A number will pop up if you have new asks, but the number will disappear if you have seen it. (So even if you have not answered the ask but have seen it, the number won’t stay - but you can still access the ask, ofc.)

If you have multiple blogs for one account, you can access asks for each blog separately, or all together (option to do so will be on the right).

If you want to add tags to your asks, you can do the following:

Post your answer and later edit the post, adding tags.

Hold alt down - this will turn the “answer privately” option into a “save as draft” option. Go to your drafts (account -> drafts). Edit post, add tags, post. 

Messaging

Tumblr’s way of insant messaging! It keeps track of all the people you’ve messaged, and is a way for you to start a new conversation (messaging -> new message). 

If you have a new message, a number will appear on the message icon, and will disappear once you’ve viewed it.

If you do talk to people on your computer, their icons will show up on the right and will stack up on the right side of your screen. You don’t have to have it up (just click x on the messaging box once it’s pulled up), but it can be a super quick way to frequently message someone!

Activity

This is how you will see all the activity that involves you, what you’ve reblogged (if it’s been reblogged from you, that is), asks, etc. If you click the activity icon, you’ll see a little bit of your activity. 

If you click the “see everything” option at the bottom, you’ll be directed to a different page, where you can scroll down and see more of your activity. You will also see some more information you can mess around with.

You may notice some activity will be highlighted in different colors.

blue = people who you follow

purple = you’ve been tagged/mentioned

You can also see if people have added a caption and what they said. (not sure how to describe it though, but the notification will the thicker, have a bar beside what they’ve said).

You will also see what each activity notice is, and it will show in the user’s icon in the bottom right.

red/heart = like

green/arrows = reblog

blue/+ = follow

blue/speech bubble = comment on a post

purple/@ = tagged/mentioned

black/? = ask received

black/curved arrow = ask answered (you’ll only receive this if you ask publicly. if you ask anonymously, you won’t get a notification)

Account

This is where you can find different information concerning your account and some quick links.

Access your likes

See who you’re following

Settings

Help Center 

See what you’ve posted on your blog (does not take you to your page)

Your followers

Activity

Drafts

Queue

Click here to manage queue options and see what is in your queue.

Edit appearance

Side blogs

Make a Post

It’s just as it says - this is where you go when you want to make a post. You will be given seven different options. You have seven different options to optimize how to share your content.  (I don’t really use any option other than the text/photo - so I apologize if anything I say is incorrect)

Text

You can see different options how to to customize your text. You can have a title, header, bold, italicize, add links, make bullets, etc. If you highlight your intended text, you will find different options that will pop up. You can do that, OR type in the format manually. Here’s a guide that may help you:

@/unwrapping’s text formatting guide

Photo

Use this to add photos from your computer, or add a photo using an image url. 

You can also add a photo (from your device) if you see a + on the side of your post. Click that, and you’ll have even more options, including adding a photo.

To add a photo from the web, you can also copy/paste the image. Where you would like it. 

Quote

This will automatically add quotation marks, and give you a place where to supply the quote’s source.

Link

Share any link. Typically to an external source.

Chat

Uses a different font than a normal text post, meant to mimic a conversation. 

Audio

Share a song via url.

Video

Upload a video, or share a video from online.

Now to the top left - the search bar.

Search Bar

As it says, this is what allows you to search tumblr. 

Tumblr runs on tags. When you add a tag to an original post, this allows for it to be searchable. If anyone searches that tag, your post will end up somewhere. 

To track a tag, enter something in the search bar. There will be an option beside it that says “follow.” Click that.

If you track tags, they will show up once you begin typing. You can easily find your tracked tags this way!

You can also search for tumblr accounts by searching their usernames, and they will appear at the top.

The tumblr logo on the side will lead you to your dashboard.

➸ Give yourself a URL, icon, and theme!

URLs

You can change your url/username at any given time, and how ever many times you want. To change your url:

On desktop: Go to account -> edit apperance -> click your blog on the side (it will be on the right hand side, under the separate settings tabs) -> username. You’ll see a pencil on the right beside your url, and there you can change it. 

Your old url will be locked (meaning no one else can use that url) for 24 hours - but after that, anyone can take it. If you don’t want anyone to use your old url, you can always make a sideblog and leave it unattended. 

If you want to see your blog, simply type (username here).tumblr.com - i.e. mine would be studyfeather.tumblr.com. If you know someone’s tumblr username (their url), you can easily find their blog by using this method. You can also use this method to see if anyone has a username you want.

Icon

To set an icon for yourself (and how to change it) go to account -> edit apperance -> click blog on right side (as described in the url section) -> edit appearance. Click the pencil that’s on top of your icon.

You will also have the option to give your icon a circle or a square shape - whichever you like best!

Theme

Desktop Theme:

In order to give yourself a desktop theme, as far as I’m aware, you’ll need access to a computer. Go to your tumblr page. You’ll see in the top right corner a button that says “edit theme.” OR you can go to account -> edit appearance -> your blog -> website theme -> edit theme.

Here you can browse themes, make a customizable theme, edit your theme, add pages, etc. 

There will be a bunch of themes that you can find by browsing themes (as described above) but … it honestly won’t give you many options you might like (and some you have to purchase). Here’s some other places you can go to to find themes:

@theme-hunter 

@neonbikethemes

Here you can find more free tumblr themes - but be sure to follow their rules/terms of service/guidelines/etc.

You can also find themes (or blogs that share themes) by searching tumblr.

If you want to learn how to code tumblr themes, @buildthemes​ helps teach how. 

Mobile Theme:

Your mobile theme and desktop theme are two separate things. One is what will be seen on mobile, the other on desktop. To change your mobile theme (on desktop) go to:

account -> edit appearance -> select blog -> edit appearance. 

Here you can change your banner image, icon image, background color, and choose an accent color. This will be what other’s will see when they come across your 

➸ Settings

Go through your settings and be thorough in doing so. Find settings by clicking account -> settings. You have settings for: your account, dashboard, notifications, apps, labs, your blogs. Make sure everything is how you see fit.

➸ Finding your way around other people’s blogs

You’re wanting to send an ask but … you can’t find their ask page?

Type in the following: username.tumblr.com/ask . If their asks are closed, nothing may show up. 

You’re wanting to search something but … there’s no search bar?

You can search their blog using a url instead! For instance, if you wanted to search for my original content on my blog, you can find it by typing studyfeather.tumblr.com/tagged/featherpost ! the /tagged allows for you to earch for a tag. 

If you are searching for something with a space, a “_” (an underscore) serves as a space. For example: studyfeather.tumblr.com/tagged/monthly_spread

Want a quicker way to look at a blog?

Type username.tumblr.com/archive . This will show you all that user has posted and reblogged with some sort of image or cropped text, posts being separated by months. Can be pretty convenient when trying to find something you only remember distantly. 

➸ Become familiar with ways you can access tumblr, and how each device works best for you

Once you become familiar with tumblr on one device, make sure you know how to access everything you need on other devices as well. (imo) Each device has its pros and cons - but if I had to choose, I would say a desktop/laptop as my #1 choice.

Laptop

I use my laptop mainly to make posts (I’ve found making posts elsewhere can be screwy), access posts I’ve been mentioned in, or posts to comment on. I also prefer answering any messages here!

Phone

I use my phone when I’m on the go, and, for the most part, reblog everything using my phone (add tags, and add to my queue, and check my tracked tags). 

Other Devices

I don’t have any other devices, but that shouldn’t limit you either. Work with whatever suits you best!

Hope this helps? Honestly, it takes a little bit of roaming and messing around to get the hang of things, in my opinion. But best of luck Meg, you’re going to do great! ^7