#i plan on making maybe ? a video essay style thing breaking down the crazy disney jr spiderman universe

[gwensy]

Top 5 cartoon adaptations of comic book characters

can i be honest with you. i really dont watch cartoons i dont think i can do this

[chemiste]

She - H.S. soulmate au

blue - the first time you see them

It doesn’t matter how you see them. It could be a photo, a video, the back of their head on a crowded sidewalk. All that matters is that you’ve now seen them, your soulmate.

For most people, one day they may find themselves going about their schedule as planned. Maybe shopping, getting groceries, or going clubbing, and suddenly their world changes. They drop their new Prada purchase on the ground as they gaze up to the bright blue sky, the milk carton in their hand no longer a version of grey but bountiful sapphire, the drunk girl’s sequin dress now sparkling in the disco light a captivating periwinkle.

Hopefully, they’re able to get their bearings in time since sometimes, unfortunately, their soulmate won’t see them as they drive away from the store or leave the bar with other friends. But if they do, and that person looks up from the carton in their hand to the women holding a box of rice down the aisle, its like magic.

For you, it happened at a very young age. You had been at the mall with friends, going through the J-14 magazines in the back section of Claire’s.

“Oh my god! I got Zayn from the quiz!” your friend Maggie exclaimed excitedly. The rest of your gaggling group of 13-year-olds gathered around her as she pointed out the famed ‘which One Direction member will you marry!’ quiz in the magazine. You weren’t a big boyband fan and honestly didn’t know what she was talking about until you went over.

“Who?” You asked, going through big title names like Justin Bieber or Usher and not ringing any bells. She grinned, “It’s a new band that formed from the X-Factor, they are totally gorgeous and now I’m pleased to say I’ll be marrying”— she shoved the glossy paper in your face— “this one!!!”

You pulled the booklet back to take a better look. On the top of the page was a picture of five boys. They seemed to be on a bus of some sort you realized as Maggie pointed to the boy with the beanie in the far left of the photo. “That’s my future husband, isn’t he just dreamy?”

The girls around you giggled like all tweens would while looking at their celebrity crushes. Some exclaimed their love for other members like ‘Niall’ or ‘Louis and Liam’.

“Who’s that one?”

You drew your finger to the last member on the right, “That’s Harry Styles—“ “ The love of my life!” Your friend Bernice shouted—“He’s the youngest member and a total heartthrob as well!” Maggie laughed, throwing her hand out to poke Bernice in a teasing manner.

The photo had just been various shades of grey for you, nothing surprising. Plus, Claire’s was a mainly ‘pink store’ you’ve heard it been called by parents so it wasn’t until your group of friends walked through the food court and past the Dillard’s sign did you realized something major had changed.

You could see blue.

purple - the first time you hear them

A few months after your mall surprise, a school assembly had been called. You and a couple friends from math were walking together to the gymnasium for the pep rally being held to cheer on your band going to competition and briefly update students on what’s new. You had grown to love blue and always wore monotone outfits of various shades of the color but who could blame you? It was your FIRST color! The moment you saw the Dillard’s sign, you flipped.

You and your friends screamed and jumped around you in the middle of the mall which may have looked a bit funny to any bystanders, but then you suddenly all stopped and had the same realization— your soulmate must be somewhere in the mall!

Y’all searched for hours until coming to the conclusion that they must have left some time ago, but it still gave you hope that they must live in the area! You lived in Austin, Texas, and sure there was a slim chance that your soulmate could have been a tourist, but right in the middle of March? Not likely.

Unless they were here for SXSW, well then you were screwed.

“I see a couple of open bleachers over there.” One of your friends pointed out and you started to weave your way through the loud and crazy mess that was your school. A song started over the speakers and screams erupted from your fellow classmates.

You’re insecure

Don’t know what for

“What’s up with everyone?” You yelled to Anika as people belted out the lyrics to the specific song with more enthusiasm than you’d ever seen from the student body. “It’s a new song that just got released by that band from the UK! South Direct or something like that?”

Being the way that you are is enough

Your eyes lit up with recognition, “Oh, One Direction?”

Everyone else in the room can see it

Everyone else but you

Anika nodded and opened her mouth to say something more but the school somehow managed to get louder as they screamed the chorus to the song.

Baby you light up my world like nobody else

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed

But when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell

You don’t know

Oh, oh

You don’t know you’re beautiful

You laughed at the scene before you and bobbed your head along with the song. As it came to a close you chatted with your friends while waiting for the principle to come out and give her introduction speech for the student and faculty. What you didn’t expect was to see her in an entirely different color than grey or blue.

It was purple.

Your eyes bulged out of your head as you whipped you head back up the bleachers on each side of you, desperate to see someone that had the same reaction as you to her dress.

You had heard your soulmate, and they had to be in this room.

yellow - the first time you hear them laugh

Yellow is an odd one for sure, any type of laugh, giggle, chuckle, snicker, or guffaw could spark this shade to life for you.

You were a junior in high school, studying in the library during you break period. You had kind of given up on the whole soulmate thing when your extensive research in middle school bore no results.

The minute the fateful assembly had been over, you raced home and looked through the yearbook for hours, trying to see if fate would show you your soulmate again. At school the next day you made sure you laughed, made eye-contact, brushed up against or touched in some way with EVERYONE you came in contact with.

You thought maybe they had missed picture day and so that should make it easier to pick them out, right? Wrong.

After the school year ended, you sort of stopped caring about the whole ordeal and had a strange resentment for the retched boyband that had given you another color to haunt you every day. As the group blew up, you avoided them at every turn, declining invitations to see their concert when they came to Dallas, instead choosing to listen to original movie scores and orchestra recordings, and Disney.

LOT’S of Disney.

You watched your friend bump into their soulmate at ACL, or heard them while tanning at Barton Springs, but never anything for you. You guessed that your soulmate must have moved right after the assembly or changed schools and that these were going to be the only colors you saw for the rest of your life.

I mean, sure, you could try one of the ‘soulmate finder’ apps, but in all honestly, they creeped you out and didn’t seem 100% certified. Who wants to record themselves laughing at a camera while wearing as much yellow as possible somewhere with blue and purple all around them?

When Etude No. 5 started to die out as the battery life in your headphones dropped to zero, you mumbled a quiet “fuck” and started digging through your backpack for the travel charge box you kept with you. That’s when you heard it.

Through the quiet brushes of flipped pages keyboard tunes, and scribbled lead, you heard a little laugh and some chatter come from the computer section that was only divided from you by a long bookshelf. You strained your ears to listen to what sounded like, an interview? From a computer? You shook your head, whatever it is it’s not like it matters, the librarian should come to force whoever it is to turn the volume down, and it probably won’t distract you from finishing your essay.

Roughly an hour later, you’ve completed your lovely paper on how things would have been different if women had been given more positions of power long ago (coughsexismcough) and slip on your aviator shades.

Your parents had given them to you as a birthday present freshman year, they were tinted blue so everything you looked at was, well, blue. You loved them and wore them all the time. It’s silly but they made you feel cool. You packed up and left the library as the school bell rang to end that day of class.

Only when you got home did you practically choke on the goldfish you’d not-so-graciously shoved in your mouth when you saw that your mother’s flower vase was filled with sunflowers.

Very yellow sunflowers.

“Fuck.” Was all you could say as you grabbed the whole carton of goldfish and went to your room.

green - the first time you dream of them

This color comes to many within the first few months they learn about the concept of having a soulmate. Little kids restless in their tiny racecar beds, thinking about the person that is meant for them. Often times, said children wake up to see the vibrant green leaves on the tree outside their bedroom window waving hello to them as the race off of to tell their parents about the dream they just had. The Dream.

Your friends all were able to see green by the time junior high was ending. It was a little disappointing to be the odd one out when they would make green friendship bracelets that of course you had but couldn’t see the happy color it produced, only the shade of grey over it.

You yourself were surprised when you didn’t have a dream of them the night after you saw blue, you guessed that maybe your mind had been so caught up on finding the person that it didn’t take a moment to actually think about what they would be like.

How they might react to one of your dad jokes that you take the liberty to present in a dramatic way, if they snore or not after a long day of work, or how they make their tea.

This is why it was a surprise you woke up one lovely summer day before your senior year to see that your journal was actually a lovely lime green with tiny lemons scattered on the cover, not red like you originally had guessed.

Your dream wasn’t anything defining of the person. In rare cases, people were able to see fragments of their soulmates while in dreams, but that was only one in a million, and no, yours didn’t magically let you see the person or where they lived but just connected the pieces of your first color moments.

The blue Dillard’s logo standing out to you in the mall.

Your school jamming out to music and the surprising appearance of the purple dress.

And— the laugh at the library.

Wait, hold on, the laugh from the computer at the library?! You fell back on your navy sheet cover pillow grasping your hair. How on earth was that the defining laugh? You had always assumed afterward that you must have heard it on your way out through the crowded foyer at school or when you had the windows down and you drove through your neighborhood.

“Well isn’t this perfect.” You mumbled to yourself as you climbed out of bed, noticing every piece of green that was spotted in your room. Your favorite sweater was jade, the mismatched sock you had put on last night with a blue one an emerald green. The family picture frame on the wall in the hallway a simple Olive.

Maybe the biggest surprise to you was that your old and ‘most comfortable recliner in all the world’ was a horrendous Feldgrau. Your parents found out you had finally achieved earth’s pigmentation when you came into the living room exclaiming, “Oh my god, how have we not gotten rid of this thing yet?! That color is disgusting!”

red - the first time you make eye-contact

This shade could sometimes be the first color a person sees or maybe the last, or not at all for those with blind partners. All your friends said it was an out of body experience, it’s not just seeing the shade of red but the connection between you and your soulmate just feels like electricity is shot into your veins and it’s hard to control your breathing in the moment because it’s so powerful.

Today was a lovely October day in the great Lone Star State and you were visiting a friend who was studying biophysics at UT.

“Y/N girl it’s been ages since I saw you! How’s the semester treating you?”

Danica asked you as you both sat on her sofa in her small apartment next to campus. She was a junior this year and used to live in your neighborhood, you had been friends for what seemed an eternity. She was smart as a whip and made everything seem brighter, she had short red hair and two freckles underneath her left eye that you had always admired.

“Everything’s well, I graduated early so now I’m taking college classes through community college until next year. Economics is kicking my butt though.” You state with a smile, taking the cup of Earl Grey that had been cooling in front of you.

Dan twiddled with her thumbs and mumbled something to you when you put down the teacup. You rolled your eyes, “Come on Danny, spit it out!” The girl next to you took a few moments as it seemed like she was having a debate with herself.

“Will you come to a concert with me?!” She finally blurted out. “I know it’s last-minute but everyone else seems to be only studying and I need my part wing woman!”

You laughed, Danica had always been a spontaneous chick, ready to do anything right in a second. You loved her for it and it took you to some very interesting places and events, plus lot’s of concerts.

Eyeing the crazy red-head who now had her head in your lap, you asked, “Who’s playing at the concert?”

She smiled sheepishly up at you, “Harry Styles…”

You dropped your head back on the couch behind you and groaned, looking up at her stuccoed ceiling. Dan jumped up from her position and propped up over you. “Please! I know you’ve got some weird vengeance against the band he used to be in but can you give him a chance to redeem just himself?” You blew a raspberry as she looked down from over you with sad puppy eyes.

“Fine!” You whine, admitting defeat where it was needed. She squealed and dropped down to straddle you for a hug, knocking the air out of your lungs at the same time she squeezed the life out of you while shouting, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”

Danica popped off you and raced to her room, you stood up and followed the ecstatic girl to her sleeping quarters. A shirt flew out of the doorway that you managed to snatch from the air as you entered the doorway. “What on earth are you doing Dan?” You questioned with a smirk, leaning up against the wooden frame.

She threw a dazzling smile at you, “WE need to look our best for this concert and that means dressing up! Our soulmate could be there for all we know and this is the defining moment to show off if we’ll be just platonic soulmates or romantic soulmates.”

The two of you ended up going through her whole closet but eventually came down to the perfect outfits. Danica decided to go for a set of black skinny jeans, blue blowy tank top and some wedges that she swore were “the most comfortable heel in all creation”.

After a bit of debate, you decided to go for a pink skater dress, with black velvet strap ankle heels that you most definitely put gel pads into (lmao they are literally life savors). You couldn’t see the pink but you both always loved the specific shade of grey pink usually was so you went with it.

You both did your favorite makeup and took a bunch of photos in the wall mirror Danica had out in the living room before eating and grabbing a Lyft to the Moody Theater. On the ride there Dan talked about how she had won the tickets in a raffle that she had called drunk a few months ago and forgot about till she received the tickets in the mail a few days ago. You both walked arm in arm into the theatre, showing your tickets to the scanner.

“Excuse me! ‘scuse me, sorry about that!” Danica chirped as she practically dragged you to the front of the standing crowd, you couldn’t believe how close the stage was, and surprising how low it was too. Usually, when you would go to a concert with her, the stage was almost five feet high, but the ACL Live one was only about three, making it seem cozier or more connected with the audience and performer.

When the lights went down in the audience and the stage lights shined back up at you, it was amazing.

The overhead lights cast down on the first few rows of people crammed around the stage and it was so surreal. Save for those few dozen people, you couldn’t really see anything behind them except for a couple of phone lights and the silhouettes of bodies anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mr. Harry Styles.

“I love his new album, Fine Line, it makes me cry every time I get to the end of the track!” Dan said to you while bouncing up and down ready to jam.

You smiled and gave her a big hug, “Well here you are up and in person with the man that sings to you every night.” She sighed, “I wish he could just be my soulmate, I mean we’re practically made for each other!”

You both laughed but were overtaken by screams as a man walked out wearing a different shade of grey, white pants, and black boots. On his hands were the signature rings of his initials as well as blue and yellow-painted nails.

He struck a pose that slightly confused you but when Dan lost her mind with the rest of the crowd, you went along with it and clapped too.

What do you mean?

I’m sorry by the way

Never coming back down

Your eyes widened a bit as you actually knew the song, “I’ve heard this on the radio countless times!” you shout to Dan who gives you a thumbs up.

Can’t you see?

I could, but wouldn’t stay

Wouldn’t put it like that

What do you mean?

I’m sorry by the way

Never coming around

Be so sweet if things just stayed the same

(La-da-da-da-da)

It was strange really, it seemed like the blue you once knew as a lightly mellow pastel turned very bright and sharp, the backset lights flickering between shades of blue you’d never noticed before.

Huh? You scanned the crowd that was lit in front a bit, seeing if there could be a slim chance that the missing piece of your life puzzle could be here.

All the lights couldn’t put out the dark

Runnin’ through my heart

Lights up and they know who you are

Know who you are

Do you know who you are?

Shine, step into the light

Shine, so bright sometimes

Shine, I’m not ever going back

You closed your eyes and shook your head, looking back up at the man with suspenders before you. The song comes to a close and the audience erupts in applause and cheers.

“Hello Austin! ’s wonderful to meet ‘ye here, ‘m Harry.”

Purple lights flood the crowd and you cheer with the crowd, throwing a ‘hello!’ into your welcome cry.

Strangely, the musician seems to catch something in the crowd as his eyes get big and glance over the whole auditorium. Harry seems to snap out of it and you think nothing of it as he finishes the introduction and goes through a couple more songs.

He sings Watermelon Sugar, (which gets a few moans out of Danica) Canyon Moon, and then Adore You. After the final verses from the song, he takes a swig of water and a moment to chat with the crowd.

“Texas is somthin’ id’n’t ?” Well, that got the crowd going. Telling a bunch of Texans that their state is pretty cool? That will get them riled up. He continues, “It’s such a big state! My whole birth country could fit in ‘ere with room to spare!”

He grabs his guitar and starts to strum a bit on it. He looks down and says into the mic, almost like he was bashful to tell a certain secret.

“This next song I’m gonna play for you I wrote… about a certain someone.”

Shouts were thrown at the stage faster than bras during Kiwi, most of them consisting of ‘Soulmate!’ The British man definitely heard them as a small smile graced his face.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before throwing his arms out and stating, “I’ve never told the story behind this song so why don’t I do it deep in the heart of Texas?”

Crowds. Loud. (You get the point.) Dan basically was squeezing the life out of your arm she was so excited him he said that.

“This song is about, a person that is constantly on my mind, for those of you that don’t know through the deep dark web—” a couple chuckles fill the air “— I am one of the lucky people that can dream sort of ‘bout their soulmate.” This got some gasps in the audience, but surprisingly stayed quiet, hanging off his every word. “I see them, in flashes, and there’s such a strong connection it’s sometimes hard to get out of bed in the morning.” He cleared his throat as though taking a moment before stepping off a cliff.

“I wrote this song, so hopefully I find her. Here’s She.”

The audience ate it up as the intro started, all excited to hear his song now with the new knowledge.

Nine in the morning

The man drops his kids off at school

And he’s thinking of you

Like all of us do

Sends his assistant for coffee in the afternoon

Around 1:32

Like he knows what to do

The crowd is enraptured with the performance, swaying and singing along. But you just stand there as you try and decipher the emotions running through you. It’s unlike anything you’ve felt before. Maybe the gravity of his song weighs on you more than you realize.

She (she)

She lives in daydreams with me (she)

She’s the first one that I see

And I don’t know why

I don’t know who she is (she, she)

He scans the crowd, just the tops of heads. It’s hard to make eye-contact when singing the song cause it evokes so much emotion. But as he turns around to glance at his bandmates during a small pause between verses, he’s blown away at the sight of blue lighting the wall behind him.

You watch as he turns back around frantically scanning on the opposite side of the crowd you’re on before closing his eyes and singing a few more verses of the song.

Lives for the memory

A woman who’s just in his head (just in his head)

And she sleeps in his bed (his bed)

While he plays pretend (pretend)

So pretend (pretend)

You decide to copy him and just move your body to the rhythm of the song, letting it flow through you like you’ve never let a melody do before.

She (she)

She lives in daydreams with me (she)

She’s the first one that I see

And I don’t know why

I don’t know who she is (she, she)

She (she)

She’s the first one that I see (she)

She lives in daydreams with me

And I don’t know why

I don’t know where she is (she, she)

As he finishes the last verse, he walks while playing around the stage and dances with the other guitar solo that plays on. He dancewalks the edge of the stage looking at all the people in the audience, some reach out to him, others have cell phones pointed up, and some just smile.

Then he starts coming closer to where you and Danica are standing. You look over to see her buzzing like a hummingbird and laugh. The lights in the crowd flood yellow as a strong chord is hit on the guitar and Harry is immediately looking over to your area. His behavior piques your interest but nevertheless you focus back on Dan who looks like he’s made eye-contact with.

Harry knees down to her as she almost faints from the closeness in proximity to her.

“Wha’s your name love?” She squeaks and says, “Danica!” You chuckle at her response and turn to look at the man who’s still crouched down by you.

That’s when you make eye-contact.

You’d been told stories and secondhand experiences about the moment you finally see your soulmate fully and your wonders never amounted to this moment. It was as though everyone else had disappeared and the only people that existed were you two. You felt like a bolt of lightning had struck you in your spot. Your lungs were heavy to breathe with and only when you both snapped out of your small trance did you take a deep breath.

You faintly smile and let out a sigh. Finally. You glanced down to his shirt when your peripheral vision caught sight of something new.

“Nice shirt ya got there. I love the suspenders too.” His eyes crinkled from his smile at your comment.

“Quiet a lov’ly dress I see you wearing.” You look down to see that ironically, you both are matching in fuchsia attire.

You look back up at the man who has now stood and is realizing the song has ended but really REALLY doesn’t want to leave the spot he’s in.

You nod toward the microphone that was waiting for him in the mic stand. He smiles and with a bit of spring in his step, he walks back over and turns to his bandmates to chat for a second.

“What the fuck.”

Oh right, Dan is here. Along with lots of people around them. You look quickly to your left and right and breathe thankfully as it seemed the people around you were too drunk to care and luckily didn’t seem to be recording.

But Danica was there, and she was gobsmacked.

You grin at her and shrug your shoulders. It takes a moment of just staring at you dumbfoundedly before she socks you on the arm and shouts, “I can’t believe you had a vendetta against your soulmate’s band!”

orange - the first time you touch time

The concert ends, very well and happily. His encore was fantastic and you definitely noticed as few hip moves thrown your way when he sang Kiwi at the end. You honestly don’t know what to do when a bright white light washes over the room to let people trickle out and go home.

You walk with Dan to the side of the stage where a security guard was stationed by a small door that most likely led to the stage. You turned to Dan right before you went up to the beefy guy with a taser, “What in the world am I supposed to say?! I can’t outright say, ‘hey I’m Harry’s soulmate, he just met at the concert and I wanted to get backstage’ now can I?!”

The security guard seems to have noticed both of you now since you’re dressed in a bright pink dress you now realize and are kinda failing around. Basically a giant pink target. You know you’re done for when he opens the gate and is walking to the crowd arena you’re in but then, a flash was pink and white flies through the stage door and past the guard. You hear several people shouting from whatever corridor the door is connected to as you’re picked up and swung around.

You cling to the person holding you as you take a deep breath of their cologne, it’s warm vanilla. You open your eyes and gasp as you see the Longhorn’s banner standing out in bright burnt orange block letters. You’re finally set down and you’re able to see him clearly for the first time without stage lights and 3 feet of space between you.

“My name is Y/N.”

Harry smiles and laughs, “ello’ soulmate, I’m so happy to find you.”

You tuck your face into his chest, not caring that he was pretty sweaty after a full concert, hell you probably are too. “Thank you for the song,” you say when you look back up at him, “it’s wonderful.”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty more for you love.”

<3

[bookenders]

11/11/11 Tag Game: Round... uh... 5, 6, & 7?

I got tagged by a bunch of people ( @quilloftheclouds is this how your 77 question one felt??) so here are a bunch of answers! I think this is the most I’ve ever talked about myself in my life. 

Good gracious, you’re all so nice and have such good questions.

Tagged by: @surroundedbypearls, @waterfallwritings, @bigmoodword, @sundaynightnovels

Rules: answer 11 questions, tag 11 people, give them 11 new questions!

[I’ve done this enough to be able to break the tag rules. Fight me.]

44 questions and answers below the cut!

But I’ll be nice and put my questions right here:

What would you do for a Klondike bar?

When do you title your WIPs? It is the first thing you do? The last? Does it come to you during drafting?

How many inside jokes do you put in your WIP(s)?

Your WIP’s antagonist is now The Riddler. How do your OCs handle that?

Do you use sticky notes?

Laptop or desktop?

Your OC is a wrestler. What’s their hype music?

Do you own any craft books/books on writing?

What’s your favorite book cover?

How many unread books do you have sitting around right now? Which are you most excited to maybe get to eventually some time?

How committed are you to your outline(s)?

Bilbo Taggins: Literally anyone, but also @francestroublr, @sahados-shadow, @a-story-im-writing, @bethkerring, @citruschickadee, @bos-ingit

If I’ve tagged you before, you can totally ignore this. In fact, I encourage you to.

From @surroundedbypearls:

What’s your favourite genre to write in and why? Literary fiction! It’s what I learned in university and the one that fits my themes best. Sci-fi is hard, I’m just getting into writing fantasy stuff, I can’t do thrillers, romance is hard for me, and historical is too much work.

Do you think you have a style/voice that you use more often in your writing? When did you develop that style? If you’ve read one of my stories, you know exactly how my writing voice sounds. It doesn’t change too much. I write like I talk, but if I had a lot more gravitas and charisma. Honestly, I’ve always had that kind of style, but it really developed in high school. It’s been getting stronger since then. It’s one of the things I always got comments about from my teachers and fellow workshop writers. “Your voice is so strong!” Yep. It’s mah thang.

Do you play video games? What’s your favourite? YES I DO. It’s hard to pick faves, but I’ve played Dragon Age: Origins too many times. 

If you were going to do a WIP crossover, which OCs would be most interesting together? (If you’ve only got one WIP crossover with something else) A crossover between H2H and AOPC? Interesting. I think Mel and Keema would get along the best, Oz would have some fightin’ words for Elder Sanga, and Gemma and Teva would be a force to be reckoned with, my god. Two stubborn nerds who believe totally different things but are also very determined to be very good at what they want to do and love their communities to a fault? Fear them.

Do you prefer to plan WIPs in a document or through handwritten notes? I used to do it by hand but I couldn’t read it because my handwriting is terrible and I kept losing papers. I do it in docs now. Much easier to organize and incredibly legible.

Do you multiple languages exist in your WIP? If so how do you address that in the story? H2H is set in the “real world,” so yep. It hasn’t been addressed too much yet, but I have a way for tackling languages. I’ve written multilingual-ish stories before. I never write phonetically and use hella context clues so the reader knows the gist of what was said if another character doesn’t translate.

What’s your favourite animated film that’s not Disney or Pixar? AN AMERICAN TAIL. All of them. It’s on Netflix go watch it and marvel at the way a kids movie talks about Jewish immigration, poverty, and cultural oppression via mice. As a young Jewish child, this movie was my jam. It’s very dark, though.

Do your real-life surroundings influence your WIP’s settings? Nope! One time I tried to write a story set in the same area where I lived and I couldn’t do it. Too weird. Sometimes I’ll write in an item I see near me, or like, a painting or poster on the wall if I need some set decoration, but that’s about it.

Which OCs would be most likely to break the fourth wall? Oz. Lookin’ at the camera like he’s in The Office.

How do you work out your OCs’ personalities? Hm. I look at the story I’m trying to write and make a protagonist that would have the most interesting experience in that narrative. For H2H, I wanted someone who would be loyal as heck to the people they loved while still being experimental enough to try new things and get into shenanigans. The story called for someone like that, and there she was. Mel came about my thinking of someone who would compliment other characters in the story while still being their own person. If that makes sense. I think of dynamics and interactions with the story world in relation to the theme(s). Most of the time they just happen, though.

Do you prefer worldbuilding or character building? Character building! As much as I like making stories about places, making characters is more fun for me, and more interesting. You should see all the DnD character sheets I have. 

From @waterfallwritings:

1. How do you come up with ideas for your WIPs?

At random. Seriously. It’s like my brain has to be running something in the background to function normally, and usually that something is whatever story I happen to be working on. Or I’ll look at a thing and go “huh.” My brain also likes to twist normal things to be a little bit different.

2. How do you get past gaps in the plot?

No idea, man. It’s like throwing spaghetti at a wall. I like to work backwards. If this is what I want to happen, what needs to happen before that to ensure that it occurs? I look at all the elements currently in the story and see if one can be manipulated to fill in the hole.

3. What motivates you to keep writing?

If I don’t, my brain gets all constipated and angry until I write something down. Like, seriously, I get grumpy and frustrated like I’m hangry or something. Aside from physical need, I love writing. I love word puzzles and feelings puzzles and figuring them out. Sometimes I think of how my stories could help someone, or make them feel something that they enjoy. 

4. Do you do any other kind of creative writing?

Oh, man, I’ve done it all. Screenwriting, playwriting, poetry, video game-ish writing, interactive storytelling, short stories, flash fiction, proposals, essays, DnD campaigns, monologues... You name it, I’ve probably tried it. I tend to stick to prose and poetry these days.

5. Do you have any other creative hobbies besides writing?

I’ve gotten into graphic design a little bit. I kind of wanna learn how to knit again. I’m not really very crafty. 

6. What do you do when you’re stuck on a scene and don’t know how to get it out / write it?

Write a different scene, stare at the screen in frustration until I give up and go to sleep, meditate for a few minutes, go do something else to get my mind off of it, clean, work on a different project.

7. How do you decide how to end your WIP?

I mean, see the next question for part of my answer. How did I decide to end H2H? My friend, that’s a big ‘ole spoiler. But I decided to end it at a place where everything, and everyone, comes together.

8. When in the process of writing do you decide how its going to end? Or do you kind of just wait til you get there?

Right at the beginning. If I don’t know where it’ll end, I have a hard time writing the arc. I work backwards: start with the idea, then think of where I want it to end up, then work back to the beginning until I know where its going, then start writing.

9. Why did you decide to join writeblr?

My reasons are pretty personal, but the least personal is that I needed some accountability and motivation. And I missed being in a good writing community.

10. What’s your favourite food?

Pasta! I’m eating spaghetti right now.

11. If you had to kill off a character in your WIP, who would it be and why?

Oz would be the most tragic. Treena would be the most logical. 

From @bigmoodword:

1. using one sentence summaries, can you tell me about your wips?

Nerdy potion woman meets cute odd stranger who helps her solve magic mysteries in their quirky small town.

2. what inspired them?

I saw a zine accepting submissions for magic stories, then an open call for queer shifter stories, and thought “what if wholesome magical lesbians?”

3. which of your ocs do you most identify with?

Gemma!

4. if you’ve ever cried while reading, which book cued the waterworks?

THE SONG OF ACHILLES.  My God, my soul was weeping. Honestly, it still is. Doesn’t matter that I knew the story from the Iliad. Madeline Miller is a feelings wizard.

5. how do you conduct research for your wips and what’s the most interesting thing you’ve discovered in said research?

On an as-needed basis. I used to do way too much research to avoid actually writing the damn thing, so now I only do it when I actually run into a problem that can be solved by Google.

6. thus far, which scene has been the most difficult to write?

The ones that aren’t hugely emotional. Which is... unfortunate.

7. which of your ocs do you like the least?

Rude. On a personal level, Jill. I love her, but I would not be friends with her. We wouldn’t mesh at all.

8. which pov and tense do you prefer to write in?

Third person limited present tense! To the bane of everyone who’s ever edited my work.

9. do you write poetry?

I do! Not often, though.

10. who is your writing role model?

My freakin’ writing professor from college. He is crazy disciplined.

11. if you could give your younger writer self some advice, what would it be?

Hey, you know those people who say your writing is too dark? Yeah, they suck and they’re wrong. They just want kids to live up to their expectations and write happy sunshiny stories about unicorns and dinosaurs having ice cream. And you’re not depressed because you wrote that one sad poem one time and someone asked if you were depressed. What you have is called feelings and they’re very useful for a writer, nay, a human, to have.

From @sundaynightnovels:

Who is your biggest role model? Okay, so I got crap all the time in grade school for never having a role model, and I still don’t have one. The teachers were concerned about me. But my reasoning was, “why should I want to live someone else’s life?” Yeah. They didn’t really know what to do with that...

What are your OCs favorite foods? Sort of answered here!

Which OC is most afraid of the dark? Oz and Mary!

What made you want to start a writing blog/participate in the writeblr community? Answered above!

Did you sleep with a stuffed animal as a kid? Do you still? I did, indeed. I don’t anymore, but I have two that I shuffle around my room when they get in the way. One is a highland cow I got in Scotland (he has a plaid hat), the other is a blue whale I got at the Museum of Natural History in NY.

Do you like donuts? I love donuts. Especially jelly filled ones. Mmm.

Do/would your OCs like donuts? All of my OCs like donuts. I don’t think Mel has ever had a modern one, though.

What is your least favorite food? Cauliflower? I’m the household taste-tester, so there’s been a lot of stuff I don’t like.  ( @sundaynightnovels I hate sparkling water, too, you’re not alone!)

What is your ideal writing environment? Comfy seating, a chair with no arms (stupid elbows), alone, plenty of chosen beverage within reach, headphones.

Favorite line from your WIP? So far, it’s this one!

Favorite quote from a book? Oh, man. There are so many. From recent memory, here are a few: “’Give it time,’ she replies. ‘It won’t be a story forever.’“  and “Everyone has heard stories of women like us, and now we will make more of them.” (both from The Ladies Guide to Petticoats and Piracy) “When he smiled, the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled like a leaf held to flame.” and “I lean forward and our lips land clumsily on each other. They are like the fat bodies of bees, soft and round and giddy with pollen.” (I could write a goddamn essay about the imagery in this scene.) (It is quite possibly my favorite description of a kiss ever. And the metaphor extends through the rest of the scene so artfully ugh.) (both from The Song of Achilles) “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head.” (from The Things They Carried)