#if youve already done this feel free to ignore

[dear-ao3]

by popular request: how to write an email

a disclaimer that this is the specific kind of email you send when people are absolutely smiting you and you know a phone call or an in person meeting is not possible/will not help. like youre 12 emails deep in an email chain and going in circles. youve been re routed to 13 offices 4 separate times. those kind of emails.

credentials: ive taken something like 13 semesters of college (dont ask) and every single semester have had to fight at least 3 offices for varying reasons in order to take classes. (including one time where i was shorted 5k in financial aid. i ended up getting 200 more dollars than i needed in the end) also my dad taught me everything he knows about emails (hes a tradesman turned corporate man and most of his job consists of telling people (nicely) that what theyre doing sucks and makes absolutely no sense)

Step 1: figure out who the email needs to go go

there is nothing wrong with emailing 11 million people if it gets the job done. if someone isnt helping you and you Know that they Should Be feel free to start to copy their boss on the email. copy your boss on an email. (or advisor or whoever). even if you think the person might only be like Vaguely helpful, sometimes people know people.

also theres nothing wrong with emailing the same email to several departments. sometimes you have to make a lot of noise to get something done (again. as like a last resort. dont email 11 million people right out of the gate)

Step 2: remember to be Polite

a very tempting step to ignore especially when you are 13 thousand emails deep in problems. but! if you are not nice to them! they will probably continue to smite you in the future! you want to make friends! not foes! so no matter how much people are smiting you, try to resist the urge to be an utter dipshit because it will not get the job done. vent to a friend or a coworker and send your polite and nice email

Step 3: articulate the problem Clearly.

a very important step. especially if you are adding more people to your email chain. dont assume they know your exact problem. they probably are dealing with other problems. articulate Clearly what is happening, no matter how long the email may be. its far better to get a long and detailed email rather than a non helpful short one. that will only prolong the process of how long it takes the problem to get solved.

Step 4: cite your reciepts.

wildly important. send your screenshots your attachments your whatever the fucking fuck youve got. its always good to have a paper trail. this is also where you would state any previously attempts to have the problem Sorted (ie i reached out to x person on x y and z days about x problem and it is still not resolved). you would not believe how many people dont scroll down in an email, especially a forwarded/replied one. so summarize whats Down There in your most recent email

Step 5: use the appropriate lingo

you dont have to be Overly Formal but there are a few good Buzz Sentences that usually get the job done. for example:

As Per My Last Email: a great line. emphasizes that youve already mentioned this. and this is not the first time youre mentioning this point. also emphasizes that the Thing has yet to be solved

See Attached/See Below: under utilized. again. people do not open attachments and they do not scroll down. almost had a friend once fail a class because a professor gas lit them in an email chain saying they didnt receive the final paper when the paper itself was attached earlier in the email chain. be Painfully Literal. it pays off.

Help Me To Understand: this is one of my dad's favorite lines. it really shows that you have no fucking idea what the person youre emailing is getting at and youre offering them the opportunity to spell out their nonsense for you. so that you can then be like. well. clearly This is where the miscommunication lies. its a great line. has saved my ass many times. because it is not accusing it is just offering someone to understand. it does not attack. it just is.

Step 6: give a polite sign off.

something along the lines of "thank you in advance for any help" or "i look forward to hearing from you" does the job. something that sends the message you are not pissed to shit at them even if you are.

Step 7: follow up and follow up often.

polite email response time is 48 business hours/2 business days. if it has been longer than that you have every right to email back and say hi x person just following up on this email, have you had the chance to review it yet? again. keep it polite. you actually want them to help you. and if they still dont respond well then maybe its time to loop in a boss or a supervisor or whoever the hell else. dont be afraid to go above them if you need to. nothing wrong with getting shit done when it needs to get done.

and really, if all that fails, as my dad says, a little office bribe in the form of cookies has never hurt anyone :)

so an email. should be formatted something like this:

Greetings/Good Morning (Afternoon) (Person)

I hope this email finds you well (or something similar for a greeting). I am reaching out regarding X incident/problem/whatever the fuck it is. I have previously reached out to X person on X dates and (summary of whatever they did or didnt do). See below/attached emails/pdf/screenshot/document (if applicable)

(explanation of the problem in as simple and detailed terms as possible. have someone re read it to make sure that it cannot be misconstrued)

(explanation of what you are looking for as a solution)

Please help me to understand why this (solution) has not been able to be reached. (explain you are on x timeline if the situation is urgent)

Kind regards/Thank you for any help in advance/I look forward to hearing from you etc,

email signature

go forth and conquer your emails. remember, sometimes you have to be a squeaky wheel. and in my million cases of email sending, it has ALWAYS paid off and i have gotten the problems solved. dont be afraid of the emails they can help you.

[thegirlinthedirtyshirtmp3]

tagged by @ggtia

shuffle your playlist/library and make a poll out of the first five songs that come up

@okscomputer @nicappletonpie @lyinginyoursin

i’m putting the songs below the cut if anyone wants to listen to them

[deadeyesthickthighs]

ty ty for the tag @joanofexys <3 <3 <3

@stabbyfoxandrew @themasterofallgaylements @bsinoranges @capcavan @ittyybittybaker @yes-i-exist-shutup and whoever wanna do it :3

Saw this going around twitter, looked like fun. What? I'm not procrastinating (I am, I really am)

Make this picrew of yourself

Take this uquiz

Post the results side-by-side. No pressure tags: @alypink, @revnah1406, @madefordvarka, @deadbranch, @welldonekhushi, @kaitaiga, @applbottmjeens, @froglights-and-pearls

[sweeteastart]

Hello!

Youve got some incredible art on this account and I've been lurking for a little bit and I saw you were taking Lu outfit requests and wanted to ask for Sky in D2. If thats okay? (I don't recall seeing it already but if you've done that maybe in E3?) :)

If you've finished them feel free to ignore. :)

Oh Major !! I heard off and lurked on your blog too lmao i'm so happy you like my art. Thank you for the nice words,,,

Here you go !

My hand ripped and I ended up doing E3--

I couldn't help adding a little bit of eyeshadow and lipstick. Sky just suits it so much !! I hope I did your beloved justice ☆

Thanks for the ask ♪♪♪♪

[elyn1]

-danheng smut

-masturbating

-school au

-not proofread

its bad ik but like i just needed to say it🥲🥲

------------------------------------------------------------

you were on a call with dan heng as he helped you study for your upcoming math test

"dan heng this is boring..maybe i can take a break??"

"no..i thought you wanted to pass the test?"

he says before setting his book down and looking at the camera

"oh come on pleasee?? ive literally been studying for like 1 hour!! thats a lot!" you plead, then grabbing your phone and walking out of the room

"fine..you are already gonna stop without my permission anyways.."

"haha youre just always right arent you?" you tease at him while walking to your kitchen and setting the phone down on the counter

"so...what are you doing now?" dan heng asks. he always sounds so uninterested and cold...but you know that he is softer to you than most others..

"you will see..." you say as you walk to the fridge. the angle of the phone was set so dan heng could see my back while you were looking inside the refrigerator.

dan heng looked at the camera and noticed your clothes...much more revealing than your school outfits...you were wearing some short shorts and a tight tshirt with a low v cut...dan heng couldnt help but stare until you finally turned around

"look! its strawberries!.." you walked closer to my phone so he could get a better look but something else caught his eye. your titties!! they were so big and he could see your curves so much better with that tight shirt of yours...now he couldnt help it..he looked down at his pants and noticed how hard he was getting

"dan heng?? helloo??" you lean more into your phone so he could see your breasts from the v cut of your tshirt

now youve done it. he couldnt hold it anymore and quickly started unzipping his pants to release his boner "ah- y-yes?" he says trying to hide all the noise hes making

"i said look its strawberries! were you even paying attention?"

"ah- im sorry..im uhh busy with something.." busy with what? busy trying to muffle his sounds as he takes out his cock and thumb the tip

"ohh alright" you laugh before turning around and walking a little further into the kitchen to the sink to wash the strawberries

that only gave danheng a better view of you. your body was just so defined from all the tight clothing you wore and he could see your ass..so plush and big..the only thing on his mind riht now is what it would feel like to stuff his cock inside of you but he would have to wait..for now he can stick woth just stroking his cock on call with you!!

he slowly wrapped his fingers around the base and started to move his hand up and down going faster each second and it started to get harder to muffle his whimpers

"ngh.."

"dan heng? are you okay?.." you finished washing the strawberries and wiped your wet hands on your shirt, slightly soaking it as you walked to your phone once again

"ah~ i-im fine!!..mnph!!" his speed gradually increased at the sight of your wet shirt sticking to your breasts. he kept fucking into his fist trying so desperately for release

"a-are you sure? are you sick?."

"n-no!~..im not sicck~..haahh.."

"are you really sure? i can come over to help you..dont we live like a few blocks away?"

"no!~ you dont have to come over!!~" he sets his phone down and covers his mouth with his free hand. he was trying to cum but he just couldnt. all he could imagine right now is you on his bed licking up his cock or using your breasts to fuck into

he really wishes you could be at his house right now..but what would you think of him if he just wanted you for some sex? a pervert? no he didnt want that..

he needed to cum . now. so he took the bottom of his shirt, and lifted it to his mouth and brought his free hand to stroke the tip

by now even when he was barely making noise from his mouth, there was noise from his cock. he was leaking so much precum and him fucking into his hands made it sound so slimy!!

you ignored him and started to eat the strawberries and you sat down at the counter

dan heng looked at his phone and once he saw the sight of your breasts again it was his breaking point. he quickly cummed and tried so hard not to whimper or moan loudly!!

his cum squirted all over his hands and body and his whole body shook from the pleasure.. but he looked down and saw a problem. he was still hard. there was no other choice. what was he gonna do? keep fisting his cock? no he needed the real thing

"u-uh y/n?...i-i think you need to come o-over.."

[lilysaus]

time for lilys rare, once-every-five-months hot take on current general opinions, and this one has to do with j k rowling and harry potter.

ive seen some really harsh things said about her, and ive done my own research, and you know what? youre all right. shes a horrible, awful, nasty excuse for a human being. she is. im not going to deny it and i never will. you wanna know something else? harry potter, despite some of the horrible things that j k rowling included within it, is still a great work of fiction.

there. ive said it. harry potter is a great work of fiction. now, that might just be my ignorant little two-year-old brain who grew up reading that series saying that, it might be that im just desperately clinging to my precious past that means so much to me, but still.

consider this: a person can be a terrible, awful person that no one likes and still create fairly good things. someone, such as j k rowling, can be awful and horrible and completely unlikeable and still be a fairly good author.

i mean, just look at the things that the harry potter fandom has created. the darker, more j-k-rowling-esque things included in the series havent stopped the fandom from finding things within the books to justify their silly little headcanons. there are so many things about the harry potter series that are actually so cool and amazing that i dont think we should just completely ignore it.

instead of never reading harry potter again, just dont buy new books. if youve never read it but really want to, borrow the books from someone. find some free pdf online. find them somewhere where you wont have to pay for j k rowlings sexist, racist, and homophobic agenda.

instead of buying the movies, go hang out with someone who already has them. ask your friends if they already have the harry potter movies and either borrow them or watch the movies together. go onto piracy websites, for crying out loud! thats right! im condoning piracy for this one! go watch them illegally! as long as you arent paying for it, i dont care!

and another thing! keep creating fan content for it! and not just any fan content! make the kind of content that will make j k rowling see red. make the kind of stuff thatll just grind her gears. make the kind of stuff thatll make her scream in anger at her phone when she sees it. fanfics, fanart, if you think of it, you should make it.

please, dont let the creator of the content decide who enjoys the content and how. just dont support the creator while you enjoy the content. do the kind of stuff thatll make her mad, but she cant do jack-shit about it. just dont bash on the content.

you shouldnt feel guilty for liking harry potter just because the author is a little shit. you shouldnt feel guilty for liking something you grew up on. because again, you dont have to like the author to like the book. you dont have to like the director to like the movie. you dont have to like the creator to like the content.

thank you for coming to my hot take. have a wonderful rest of your day.

[deadeyesthickthighs]

ty ty for the tag jem and tiff <3 <3 <3 i've been on a vocaloid artists/producers and utaite kick so... yeah

bakushou - syudou

shanti - wotaku

in the back room - syudou

rin! rin! hi! hi! - hashiguchikanaderiya, the super ball

gambling - syudou

cannibal queen - miniature tigers

kyoutou - syudou, ryoki

the resistance - happy heads naniyori

ifuudoudou - umetora (cover by shooze)

moebius - hiiragi kirai

no pressure tags!!! @this-witch-writes @4byun @stabbyfoxandrew @alcego @joanofexys @jtl-fics

Thank you, @dieonysian for the tag! <3 Here’s the top ten songs on my Spotify on repeat playlist:

1. Good luck, babe! - Chappell Roan

2. Twin Size Mattress - The Front Bottoms

3. obsessed - Olivia Rodrigo

4. The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird - Rachel Zegler

5. The Albatross - Taylor Swift

6. Casual - Chappell Roan

7. stranger - Olivia Rodrigo

8. Renegade - Taylor Swift, Big Red Machine

9. So Long, London - Taylor Swift

10. Kyoto - Phoebe Bridgers

No pressure tags: @no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist @buticanfixhernoreallyican @cream-and-tea

[solivagantingrebel]

Fanfic writer questions!

How many works do you have on ao3?

8! But if we count my other account that I abandoned, 10.

What's your total ao3 word count?

So far, roughly 142k words.

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly just COD fandom (exclusively Ghostsoap!)

Top five fics by kudos:

Leaving Your Heart On Fire - omegaverse smut amirite? (first attempt at smut fic too, which is, something!)

carry me in your teeth (with tender jaws of sympathy) - seal!soap x orca!ghost with hurt/comfort, biting and other shenanigans. honestly, i never thought people would like it that much since i hallucinated the plot & the first chapter within a day lmaoo.

Only Yours - another omegaverse smut! second one in the series, but whatever. wall sex galore tho <33

Sweetest Gift - lingerie & shibari & bdsm. need i say more

With The Softness Of Your Breath - what if hallmark movies were good, and ghoap? ALSO childhood friends and retired au + all the christmas goodness. this one is very deserved and i will literally kiss everyone who read this on the mouth for giving it a chance even tho i know first person pov isn't favoured in fandom spaces. i poured my heart into it, ty <3

Do you respond to comments?

I try my best to! Miss some sometimes because i'm too busy giggling and kicking my feet over the sheer amount of elation i feel whenever i get the notification.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Happy ending kind of guy, so none. Unless you count the letter. MCD 😔

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

CHRISTMAS FIC,, but all of them are going to be happy ending so we'll see!! my current longfics will take the rest of the year, or more, to end though, so who knows.

Do you get hate on fics?

No? But I did get a comment about how first person pov was something that a reader hated and they were looking forward to reading the fic with the tags & summary. Oh well, their loss.

Do you write smut?

ABSOLUTELY,,, i adore writing smut. right after fluff and angst, i have to say.

Craziest crossover:

None yet :(

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! I wouldn't mind it though.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No but Alex. i am looking at you with the softest, darkest brown eyes ever.

All time favourite ship?

GHOSTSOAP. but also capitaru and cami. if you know you know. i don't mind ghoap x reader too, but i swear they NEED to be fucking each other as well, no ghoap 'thinking' of each other as friends and nothing more. all of us are in love and fucking and that is final, or there is nothing.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Beyond Life and Death,,, im so sorry my first attempt at a longfic but i really overestimated everything before i started writing it. Still hold it in my heart, since it was how I taught myself to write fanfics in general but it's a mess, honestly.

What are your writing strengths?

I. have no idea. I've been told I'm good at setting scene (emotional, erotic, angsty) so maybe that? Words also fly out of my mind at the speed of light whenever I am deeply dissecting a character's inner monologue, feelings and thought process AND ALSO TRAUMA, so that too.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I would say action if it were me from the past,, but I've gotten better at it. So, for now, plot, but I'm working on it!

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

HELL YEAH!!

First fandom you wrote in?

......JJK. You will not find that fic though.

Favourite fic you've written?

All of them are my babies don't make me choose 😭

I have no idea who has done this tag game and who hasn't. it was trending like months ago, so open tag for now! do feel free to yap about your fics and tag me if you, i'd love to know <3 (get some recs meself) ill tag a few but feel free to ignore me if youve already done it lmao @eiraeths @myriadblvck

[diaryofellen]

thank you for voting, everyone!! well done for campaigning for your characters and getting them through round one. some characters put up very tough fights, and others.....maybe weren't as evenly matched as they maybe could have been, haha.

before the main brackets continue, heres an extra chance to get two of the eliminated characters back in the running! yeah, two! ..but it might be a little confusing, so bear with me!

there will be larger polls for the loser rounds. the characters from the left who have been eliminated; Rachel Gardner, Niko, Goldia, and Aki Narukami. the characters from the right who have been eliminated; Russell Seager, Sunny, Noel Cerquetti, and Aya Drevis.

these characters will be put into two 4-option polls. one for the left side, one for the right side. for now, i'm just using the left side as an example.

this is the chance to get one of these characters back in the game if you think they didn't get justice! for the first part of the revival polls, simply vote who you want to see get a second chance, and the one with the most votes can be revived. but there's a catch. whoever is brought back will be replacing one of the characters who already survived, from their respective side.

focusing on the left side, lets say aki is gets the most votes for the character who will be given another chance...then, the next poll is to decide which of the survivors from the left side will get eliminated for her sake.

one of the characters who survived the first round will have to be eliminated to make space for the revived character! in this poll, it will clearly state that the person who gets the most votes here will be eliminated. so unlike the other polls, you'll want to avoid voting for the characters you want to win! i understand thats maybe a bit confusing - but if a poll doesnt have that added statement, its safe to assume that all other polls are just for voting the character you want to succeed. just make sure to read carefully during the revival round! vote for characters you actively dislike, ones you like the least out of the options, ones youve never heard of….just dont vote for the character youre rooting for when it says "you are voting for a character to be eliminated" .and dont get mad at me if you click wrong, im trying to make it as clear as i can.....

if claire elford got voted the most in this example, then aki and claire would simply swap places - claire would get eliminated, and aki would be back in the brackets up against madotsuki in the next main round. of course, im just using aki and claire as...... examples.

(...it is just an example.)

...yes, this is a slightly annoyingly confusing way to do this. i know. i really want to avoid having a three-way vote in the final round, so if we're going to bring back some of the eliminated characters, they'll have to swap places with one of the survivors. ˢᵒ ʷʰᶦˡᵉ ᶦ ᵍᵉᵗ ᶦᵗˢ ᶦʳʳᶦᵗᵃᵗᶦⁿᵍ, ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᵇᵉ ⁿᶦᶜᵉ….ᶦ ᵈᶦᵈ ᵗʳʸ ᵗᵒ ᵐᵃᵏᵉ ᶦᵗ ˢᶦᵐᵖˡᵉ….

if you're still a little confused, you're free to ignore the replacement/revival round! ill tag it all posts associated with it as #revival round . if this is a bizzare and annoying way to set up a losers round, then feel free to blacklist that tag.

[ominousmotion]

Thank you for the tag @nanoa1foryou 💕

I'm sorry this took me so long to get to 💕 (blame baldurs gate 3)

Star Sign: Libra

Favorite holiday: Oh man I am not a big holiday person tbh but I have a kind of personal holiday which is march 11th bc for 2 years in a row I got new tattoos that day so thats the kai gets a new tattoo day lol

Last meal: Chicken Noodle soup with Cheezits

Current favorite musician: Probably We Came As Romans I've had them on repeat quite a bit

Last music I listened to: D4MAGE DONE by I See Stars

Last movie I watched: Uhh I think it was Howls Moving Castle

Last tv show watched: Peaky Blinders

Last book/fic finished: A mandalorian fic called Short debts make long friends

Last book/fic abandoned: A Baldurs gate 3 Astarion/tav fic I chose to read the Mando fic instead

Currently reading: A Mando fic called Eyes of Gold and the first Percy Jackson book

Last thing researched for writing/art: I was looking up custom brushes for Ibis paint X

Favorite online fandom memory: Making the life on the pride side shirt w Gemma and facetiming w her and Ju to surprise them with the shirt

Favorite old fandom you wish would drag you back in/have a resurgence: Im not really out of my old fandoms except marvel but I wouldn't be mad to get draged deeper in to Doctor Who again

Favorite thing you enjoy that never had an active or big fandom: oh man ive always primarily been apart of super active fandoms i guess this might qualify but i absolutely love humans are space orcs stuff and ive never see it super often and i wish i saw it more

Tempting project your trying to rein in/don't have time for: i think i have like 3 or 4 wips rn 2 of which are pointilism portraits and im lowkey avoiding them bc i know that they take hundreds of hours to complete

Tagging @another-sun @kraeuterhexchen @there-is-just-me-myself-and-i @necessarytragedies @tomorrows-unknown as always feel free to ignore me if youve already done this or just if you feel like it 💕

[dumplingtrait]

thank you to @authorspirit and @ktysh for the tag !! i have not used the original thread since its p long

not shown is my septum ring that i p much always hide in my nose now 🥲

i tag @thebramblewood, @naturally-dazed, @miralure, @m0ckest, @enchantsims, @tr-angyo, @moonloose and @alientown - if youve done already, feel free to ignore!

picrew link

[i-cant-stop-fandoming-help]

Oh loredumps! If I am here you know who Im asking about. (If youve already done Kanata feel free to ignore)

bites my hand so its no longer asleep. thank god i have her character sheet bookmarked so i dont have to scroll

IVE WRITTEN FICS ABOUT THIS SURGEONS TRAUMA SO LET ME TALK ABOUT IT

-her parents died in a car crash, and she was the sole survivor.

-Shinji kasai is the one who got her out of the insanely damaged car and got her to the hospital

-almost every doctor gave up on her except for one-- Hikaru Ando, who later became her adoptive father.

-Also to note, she went through hours of major surgeries. (do you think she has a bunch of surgery scars?)

-the most commonly known kanata fact, she was planned to be a blackened and a psychopath. The reason this was changed is that Linuj, in his own words, "couldn't bare making this sweet kid into a psychopath"

-Because of her father working so hard to save her life, she decided to become a doctor as well

this next part is from the (s)dra evernote

-if the tragedy didnt happen, she and kakeru might've ended up dating.

-even if she had survived, she would've remained short

-when she is not wearing a white coat, she wears loose-fitting clothes

her character sheet is so fucking short and she doesnt have enough good facts on the evernote

[my-castles-crumbling]

hello cas

i dont remember if my ask was before or after you said about the hidden inbox thing so i figured i may as well resend and if youve already seen it and not got around to it yet, feel free to ignore this :)

im an active ao3 author and have a tumblr blog (obviously lol) that i use both to share stuff about the marauders and sort of like a weird lil place to just talk about stuff in my life (yknow like cooking accomplishments, i went ice skating recently and talked a bit about it, just random stuff) and although i do talk and write about a lot of my personal stuff too (i.e. projecting mental health stuff onto characters and posting mh resources and advice etc) theres one thing ive never talked about either on my blog or in my writing and i sort of feel like i should be?

im losing my vision and am expected to be blind completely within like, 20 years maybe? doctors have been unclear lol (im currently 20 y/o and am at about 70% vision) and ive honestly made peace with it so its not like im touchy about it or sensitive. its the hand ive been dealt, yknow? ive been learning braille and am almost at the point where i just need to get more comfortable and confident with it to get faster and stuff and im not the only one in my family to have this either

but i *never* talk about it online. i feel like i should be talking about it though, shouldnt i? i mean, i read people putting their disabilities onto characters all the time to create representation, but i rarely read about blind/vision impaired characters, so should i (as a visually impaired person) be creating that representation?

as i said it wouldnt be the first time ive projected, either for the sake of storytelling or to process stuff in my life, so i dont know why i havent done it before, i just havent. i think im maybe nervous that since ive spent so long *not* talking about, it might be weird to suddenly bring it up now? i dont know. it also kinda feels like if i talk about it then itll be like 'ugh, of course theres another thing wrong with you, just keep piling stuff on' and its like, would i even be believed? its the internet after all, and i know i dont need validation from strangers about something in my life but i dont want to be told im faking it by people who dont even know me, just because i already talk about issues in my life

but it just feels like something i should be talking about. i dont know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hi! Yes, I answered this one here!

[cauldronoflove]

JJ, my favorite nonfiction reader, I seek advice! I've been trying to branch out in my nonfiction reading journey which to this point has been celebrity memoirs and true crime primarily, and I've been stuck on my current read for MONTHS. I just don't know how to tell when I should keep pushing through in order to learn something and when I should throw in the towel because it's actually just a bad book and not me giving in to the urge to read something I don't have to actually think about

bec i have absolutely no idea how long this has been in my askbox because tumblr never notified me my apologies 😭 feel free to ignore if this isnt needed

i think one of the biggest things when you're trying to get into any new-to-you genre, but especially something like denser nonfic, is picking something youre really really interested in and using that interest to acclimate yourself to the style and expectations of the genre. like there are some key differences in what, for example, a high sci-fi author expects their reader to bring in with them in terms of mentality and knowledge vs what a meticulous biographer expects, but there are still so many areas of overlap too and you have to let the dials adjust as they may

that said like any genre god love 'em sometimes the book is just ass and no amount of acclimation can change that. some key points to look out for in nonfic are a) are you noticing a lot of repetitive information and dont feel like youre learning anything new or the narrative isnt progressing b) do you find yourself thinking 'thats just the authors really bad opinion how did they even get that into this format' a lot or c) does your disinterest/distaste outweigh what you should conceivably be leaving this book with

if you really want to finish the book out of genuine interest or even just spite, try picking up the audiobook if its available bc i do find that helps me if something just isnt clicking and sometimes getting that human intonation helps greatly. if it isnt or you dont do audiobooks, pick a small amount of pages to read every day until you finish it. 5 pages or 10 or whatever (though for the purpose of this exercise i wouldnt go more than 20) and then stick to it. by giving yourself a sure start- and stopping point it alleviates a lot of the dread and also is a nice little accomplishment for the day. and if you end up wanting to read a couple more pages to finish a chapter or just put a bow on the author's current thoughtline, even better. for that reason i find that setting a specific time period like "oh i'll read this for 10 minutes or 20 minutes" or whatever does not work bc i zone out so much all the time when im reading and if i do that in the time frame i generally feel worse at the end bc i didnt "get anything done". if something youre reading in nonfic makes you stop and think and consider what youre feeling or how it fits in with things you feel you already know or has you forming opinions thats good! thats part of the function of nonfic! so if it takes you longer to read a nonfic book than something you dont have to think about that means youre doing it right

and finally if youve been, as you have, slogging through something for months and just cant get there, give yourself permission to put it down for the time being. if you find yourself wanting to get back to it after a while, then it just wasnt the right time which is something i find happens a lot for me with nonfic. if you dont go back to it and the thought of having to makes you want to hit your head against a wall, then that answers that and you can move on to greener pastures

[cottageivy]

i feel like this sums up my music taste quite well lmao

tysm for the tag @birdietrait !!

i'll tag @leavemetoplaythesims @lucidicer @simmercalamity and anyone else who wants to do it! feel free to ignore if youve already done it or dont want to <333

[ykimchi]

rules 🎶 :: when you get this, list 5 songs you’ve been listening to & tag people

I was tagged by @blueprintchan !! tysm

• Glue Song - Beabadoobee

• Banana Bread - Cavetown

• Obsessed With You - The Orion Experience

• Hall of Fame - Stray Kids

• Attention, please! - Enhypen

I'll tag @umbreonwolfy @luvrli @monmonsu @lixence @skewiie

sorry if youve already done this! feel free to ignore as always