#metacognition blog

[twilight-resonance]

Obstacle Course

This is a post about my brain. That's what you were here for, wasn't it? Well, whether or not it was, that's what I'm here for ultimately, so that's what you get.

Dude, sometimes my brain feels like a fuckin' obstacle course. I was sort-of parsing through how I might describe to someone the way that my brain works - or rather, I was actually parsing through how I might describe how my sleep works, and that's intimately connected with how my brain works. Always has been, always has been.

You see, different parts of my brain are active or "on" at different times of the day. And if I were to utilize the whole spread of those parts of my brain, I would only sleep from 3AM-6AM. This is part of why, you see, I had some terrible sleep problems for years - I was down to about four hours a night and dwindling, probably bottoming out on that 3hr stretch. I had to go to therapy to learn to sleep, and it was a whole thing.

More and more I find that a lot of organizational work has to happen in the morning - anything to do with planning, sequencing, deciding, etc. If I wait too long - usually somewhere in the 12PM-2PM range, but it can kick in as early as 11AM - a lot of the self-conscious, self-watching parts of my brain come online and actively prevent that organizational part of my brain. Or rather, it's there the whole time; but my brain has the right resources it needs to fend those things off earlier in the morning.

Afternoons are good for grinding. If I've already gotten a good headstart on a project in the morning - its sequence and scope laid out, all the problem-solving around any rough edges already done, etc - afternoon is when I have the energy and can just go and go and go. If I haven't already started working, good luck - what takes me 15min in the morning takes me more like 2 hours by afternoon, which seems extreme but is the regrettable state of things up there.

Evenings are good for relaxing. My brain is not good at relaxing, so this is important - a time when it can rest, and relax, and wander and play a bit rather than churn and chug away. It's the breathing room that keeps everything else happy.

Then, come about midnight - particularly once all the lights are out and everyone has gone to bed - two things happen. One is that the reflective, emotional part of my brain comes online. This is the part that is processing my place in the world and is in touch with how I'm feeling and what I'm doing and why; and is when it's closest to the surface for me to gently work with and witness. This is hugely important for my ability to operate the rest of the time - if I don't do this, everything during the day gets clogged up with lots of messy emotions and blocks.

The other part is that there are a lot of inhibitions that drop - the much more focused, planning-oriented part of my brain - goes to sleep; which means that creativity gets free rein. I do my best creative work in the deep night like this, and when I don't get that time, what I come up with for work tends to be a lot more trite and semi-recycled. So that's important too.

...So therein lies the problem. All of these things are important: if I don't get them all, all the other parts suffer. But if I get them all, I get a handful of hours of sleep a night. Like I said, I did this for about seven years - it started at six hours of sleep a night and slowly dwindled from there. I used to hallucinate semi-regularly from the sleep deprivation, in all kinds of fun ways. My favorite was the time that I was driving and suddenly everything flattened out; and instead of becoming closer, things got bigger instead. I was very lucky that I was driving a route I'd driven a million times, because I can't imagine trying to drive under those conditions on a completely unfamiliar road. Got there safe, and it was an interesting experience; but yeah, no thanks.

Like I said, I eventually went - well, got sent - to therapy to fix the problem. There were a few environmental things to help the process along - switching from a white overhead lamp to a yellow side-shaded lamp to mimic sunset, things like that - and the other semi-helpful thing was finding something that was (a) intellectually demanding, and (b) boring. For me, that was math. When it was time for bed, I used to have take a math textbook and a notebook and lay in bed doing math in bed for an hour-plus or however long it took to get sleepy. Can you imagine?

What actually ended up helping were two things. One, melatonin. I'm not a huge fan of drugs for solutions to this kind of problem; but this is one I found actually worked. It didn't take a lot - just a few mg, wait half an hour, and then the magic happened. I would get sleepy. It didn't make me pass out, it didn't make me stupid - but it made me feel like I had a choice. I could choose to go to bed, when my brain wouldn't let me otherwise. It took a few rounds of that to sort-of teach my brain how to wind down and prepare for sleep, and for the most part i haven't needed it since - I just needed those training wheels.

The other thing that helped was having someone I wanted to go cuddle in bed with. That was motivation to actually go to bed when the time came.

I like my sleep nowadays. Sometimes I sleep too much. I'm still ridiculously stupid-functional on no sleep, and probably always will be - that feels like something that was just broken into me over the course of those seven years.

...Of course, I feel like my brain doesn't work nearly as well as it did those years ago. Some of that is the Brain Damage, but some of it is that I don't get access to all those parts of my brain regularly. I'm figuring it out, slowly - figuring out how to wrangle The Obstacle Course and all the ridiculous trappings that come along with it. But that's how it works up there, and that's how sleep is so intrinsically tied to it, and that's why I'm going to have to battle sleep problems for the rest of my life.

Because you see: the reason I didn't want to sleep is because there were Things To Do. Stories and poems to write, things to learn, crafts to work on, planning to do, projects to work on... all of which were infinitely more interesting than sleeping. Why waste that time when you could do things?

(I am haunted by this to this day. I will always be haunted by this. Y'all know where Xitli comes from, right?)

So that's the obstacle course. And that's just one part of it. I've talked before about all the other things I've had to learn how to make my brain work - making sure I'm engaging in enough new processes and information and experiences and other "input", fucking with tiny variations in the lighting and where I'm sitting and what I'm listening to, all kinds of conscious run-downs on bodily needs, picking a particular scent to waft through the room on a given day... It goes on and on and on, and I swear it's nevereneding.

So that's me. Welcome to my brain. Guess what time it is now? You got it! 1AM! Tracks, no?

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

So funny how I wrote 1.7k words on TSP today and was like woahhh this chapter is so long but then I crank out a 4.7k review of a movie like it's nothing

I'm not complaining because it really does help with stamina and building deeper understanding of the writing process. I'm serious when I say it's truly funny. It's just the perspective.

[nicoleyellow8]

2023 Goals :)

Hi, my name is Nicole, going by @nicoleyellow8, and I've created this Tumblr blog dedicated to self-improvement and learning... Soo... to get a productive 2023 started, I've done a little mindmap to see what I want by the end of this year, and what I should prioritize!

I've listed what I need by the end of the year -- some of these include getting into the IB Diploma program, preparing well for that, and doing well on the AP Biology exam in May this year (praying for a 5!!!) There's more, of course: efficient and consistent violin practice to reach my goals, getting to a higher French level, maintaining my Chinese progress, etc. !! That's only what I need, though. What I want is another story... I've included those in the mindmap too. For one, I'd love to learn oil painting! I would love to be able to learn another language on top of the two I am learning currently... I'd even love to travel to the language's country to speak it! Good goals need to consider both your wants and needs so that you can progress in your professional life while still meeting your personal desires.

How to Approach Goal-Setting

Here I take from Ali Abdaal's amazing video, "I WAS WRONG -- How I set goals" on YouTube, to summarize what exactly makes up good goal-setting. There's no point in setting a goal without enjoying the process of getting there... If not, you would constantly feel unhappy about your current situation until you get to your goal's endpoint.

So it would make sense to focus instead on creating a system, little daily habits that bring you forward, so you can enjoy the process, rather than solely working towards an abstract goal.

That doesn't mean having an endpoint is wrong. In fact, it's important to set a goal and have a direction. Without a goal, the system becomes aimless and there becomes no point in fulfilling these mini habits. A good system and clear goals come hand in hand.

As Ali Abdaal describes, there is a "Yin-yang" quality to it, where you should have a balance of self-acceptance and self-improvement. You should strive towards being better while still accepting your current state. You should, instead of comparing yourself constantly to the best, take some time to also compare yourself to the former you. Celebrate the progress you've made over that time -- it'll give you the energy to strive forward. An inspirational quote to get you started:

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him." - Victor Frankl

Funny thing, just the other day I had completed a huge, personal goal, and rather than feeling the joy I thought I would've, I felt more of a sense of emptiness. Frankl states it perfectly here, we love the journey of getting to our final destination, not necessarily the destination itself. This would explain why working for something is so much more satisfying than when it's easy to obtain. Working for money, working for a better life, working for love.

My Personal Goals

After interweaving wants and needs, I've come up with some 2023 New Me priorities to get started on! For each of these, I'll be spending some time making a good system and some great habits to go along with them.

Get into the IB Diploma Program (IBDP), this is the next step to my future!

Work HARD in my French, especially since I love language learning :)). It will also help me in IB French.

Get a 5 on the AP Bio exam -- and learn more to solve a real-world biology problem...

Efficiently and Effectively practice violin... Maybe learn a dream piece, or brush up on pieces I already know (like Czardas) and make pieces performance-ready, instead of relying on retaking videos.

Make some time for health. Get a good amount of sleep each night and exercise consistently. Have some free time with friends and personal hobbies, like oil painting, too!

Of course, these will be refined in a later post! For now, I think I have a good idea how I should work towards a better me.

That's all for now, take care!

[anewwriter3]

What is Metacognition? A Fascinating Insight Into Thinking About Thinking

Have you ever caught yourself thinking about how you think? It sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? But that’s what metacognition is all about—thinking about your own thinking! I’ve recently come across this concept, and I find it absolutely fascinating. It’s like stepping back from your thoughts to observe how your mind works. So, What Exactly Is Metacognition? In simple terms, metacognition…

[littlebitoftrolling]

i tried to make an interesting post about blitzscaling but all the thoughts sensed i was collecting them and scurried away

fun fact: Adam Neumann (founder of WeWork) smoked so much weed on private jet flights that his pilots wore gas masks out of fear of getting lost in the sauce and crashing the benz

[definitelynotshouting]

heyo!

had a late night trying (and failing) to sleep thought

i found your blog about a year and a half ago and it did a number of things for me. its introduced me to tumblr (i got a tumblr account to show my appreciation) and this super fun community, and equally importantly, your writing! (made an ao3 account because of you too-) I've learned a world of colourful vernacular and your writing has seen me through identity crises about being aro/ace spec, possibly having undiagnosed mental illness, many changes in music taste, 5(ish) bouts of loneliness, 3 (or so) collapsed friend groups and more.

i cannot express how much you, your blog and your writing mean to me. you've told stories that push me to think about myself, my brain, how it works, what i want and why i want it. metacognition and that. at times it's been the comfort of a friend on a lonely day and at others made me face things i didn't really want to think about but knew i had to.

i've got a special little room in my heart just for you (i was born with a ventricular septal defect so you can live in the little tube they used to patch it)

good night just wanted to show my appreciation :)

-🍁

oh my gods???? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 LEAF ANON....... this is legitimately one of the sweetest msgs ive EVER received and im absolutely blown away by it hello..... i dont even know what to say aside from the fact that i am genuinely, DEEPLY, humbled and so so grateful that my writing and i have had such a strong impact on your life. I absolutely adore hearing from you, it ALWAYS puts a smile on my face to see you in my inbox, and knowing ive helped you in even just a small way-- let alone the absolutely enormous ways youve listed here??? oh my gosh???-- makes me so unspeakably happy i dont think i can properly articulate it

I always kinda wonder how much influence my writing has on other people. I think its pretty common to think about that, especially as a writer-- for me, the goal has always been to reach out and touch someone's life with my writing, and hopefully do something good for them. I think thats why im always so focused on these cores of emotional realism in my work-- i want people to see themselves and gain new insights when they read my writing. Im incredibly touched that ive been able to do that for you to such a significant degree 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 like genuinely this is what i live for, im so glad my work and my blog can keep you company when you're feeling a little lonely or when things are hard and worrying🫂🫂🫂❤️❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for sending this ask leaf anon 🥺🥺🥺🥺 this really made my night, ive had a pretty hard string of days recently and this has improved my mood IMMENSELY🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂 i hope i can continue to be of help and encourage you even more as time goes by!!!

[bettsfic]

Hi Betts!

I’ve been prepping to write a new novel and in doing so I’ve been consuming a lot of writing advice for the past few months. And now I feel like I can’t put a story together. That probably sounds weird but it feels like all of this advice is playing in my ears and I feel stuck. I don’t think I can execute it the way I’ve been advised to. I feel like I’m not outlining correctly not coming up with my characters correctly.

It feels like all of this writing advice has put pressure and doubt on me. Has this happened to you and how did you get out of it?

it has absolutely happened to me. here's how you get out of it:

step one: write a bullet point list summarizing all the writing advice you've heard. stuff you agree with, disagree with, stuff that contradicts other stuff. all of it. you don't have to look anything up, just go from memory.

step two: write a story that does the opposite of every item on your list. if you have "active verbs are stronger than passive verbs," write an entire story in passive voice. if you have "avoid cliché," begin your story with "once upon a time" or "it was a dark and stormy night." you may not be able to hit all your bullet points in one go, but that's okay. you will find more opportunities to spite write.

step one is important to establish metacognition. when you write about writing, you cement ideas that are otherwise abstract to you. and when you can clarify those ideas, they become smaller. it's easier to dismiss them. step two frees you from writing well. i don't mean "shitty first draft" bad. i mean "i'm writing as badly as i possibly can, and that's the point." when you make it a choice to write badly, you're being intentional, you're seeing your options, and you're choosing the worst one. and that's way more fun than choosing the best one.

i've written well over a 100k of writing advice on this blog over the past decade i've had it. if you were to follow everything i've ever said, you would never be able to write again. if *i* followed everything i've ever said, i would crumble under the pressure of it. i have to turn off teacher/editor brain when i write. i have to imagine myself, thirteen years old, under the covers with a flashlight in my hand, staying up past my bedtime to write in my journal. writing that's against the rules, writing that has no stakes.

think small. write ugly. take risks.

[preservationofnormalcy]

I woke up yesterday and could just read minds? It’s very unusual and very loud and very overwhelming. And to make matters worse this seems to transfer over digital devices, I can feel the thoughts of all the blogs I look at for the example. Even you, norm.

I kind of....doubt you can read mine. I'm in a little of a weird state as it is, to say nothing of psychic shielding materials around me.

On the off chance you actually can, I'd appreciate keeping it to yourself. Either way, let's get you checked in to Metacognition. There's a chance that we're seeing a form of psychic parasite. There's a rare behavior pattern that attaches itself to its victims and overloads them with psychic energy like a lightning rod, feasting on the bubbling overflow.

[maaarine]

Bibliography: books posted on this blog in 2024

Sara AHMED (2010): The Promise of Happiness

Cat BOHANNON (2023): Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

Holly BRIDGES (2014): Reframe Your Thinking Around Autism: How the Polyvagal Theory and Brain Plasticity Help Us Make Sense of Autism

Johann CHAPOUTOT (2024): The Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a Nazi

Caroline CRIADO-PEREZ (2019): Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Gavin DE BECKER (2000): Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Virginie DESPENTES (2006): King Kong Theory

Annie ERNAUX (2000): Happening

Lisa FELDMAN BARRETT (2017): How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

Shaun GALLAGHER (2012): Phenomenology

David GRAEBER (2015): The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy

Henrik HASS and Torben HANSEN (2023): Unconscious Intelligence in Cybernetic Psychology

Yuval Noah HARARI (2024): Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

Sarah HENDRICKX (2015): Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age

Sarah HILL (2019): This Is Your Brain on Birth Control: The Surprising Science of Women, Hormones, and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Luke JENNINGS (2017): Killing Eve: Codename Villanelle

Bernardo KASTRUP (2021): Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe

Roman KOTOV, Thomas JOINER, Norman SCHMIDT (2004): Taxometrics: Toward a new diagnostic scheme for psychopathology

Benjamin LIPSCOMB (2021): The Women are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics

Dorian LYNSKEY (2024): Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About The End of the World

Kate MANNE (2024): Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia

Mario MIKULINCER (1994): Human Learned Helplessness: A Coping Perspective

Jenara NERENBERG (2020): Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn’t Designed for

Lucy NEVILLE (2018): Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: Women and Gay Male Pornography and Erotica

Peggy ORNSTEIN (2020): Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity

Lucile PEYTAVIN (2021): Le coût de la virilité

Lynn PHILLIPS (2000): Flirting with Danger: Young Women’s Reflections on Sexuality and Domination

Stephen PORGES (2017): The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe

Joëlle PROUST (2013): The Philosophy of Metacognition: Mental Agency and Self-Awareness

John SARLO: The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain

Jessica TAYLOR (2022): Sexy But Psycho: How the Patriarchy Uses Women’s Trauma Against Them

Manos TSAKIRIS and Helena DE PREESTER (2018): The Interoceptive Mind: From Homeostasis to Awareness

[apple-orchards-writings]

omg im sorry apple but that last reblog about metacognition made me GIGGLE

i cant believe me writing filthy kylar smut is making me smarter 😭😭

soon we'll all be at harvard because of these blogs

kylar penis is the best way to study 👍

[gravitascivics]

“MILIEU” AS A COMMONPLACE, III

To give readers insight about the challenges attached in developing a responsible curriculum, this blog has referred to William Schubert’s commonplaces of curriculum.[1]  In that endeavor, the blog has reviewed all of the commonplaces and how they relate to any suggested curricular changes one might promote for civics education.  It still has some commentary on the last of the commonplaces, milieu, to share.  The last posting commented on the social expectations of schools and this one will address schools’ socio-economic concerns which undergird their base.

          As explained earlier in this blog, Jean Anyon found the types of instruction and curriculum that schools offered were highly associated with the economic status of the children and adolescents who attended those individual schools.[2]  In “working class schools” the tendency was for students to be exposed to instruction relying on rote work with little or no explanation, which leads to mechanistic learning.[3] 

“Affluent professional schools” or “executive elite schools,” on the other hand, were much more apt to utilize instruction that had students engage in creative activities and independent work.  This latter type of work is what is being proposed in this blog’s promotion of the liberated federalism mental construct.  Such instruction allows students to develop analytical skills useful in adult life. 

The consequence of this difference is that through the schools’ hidden curricula, they tend to reinforce the social and economic inequalities that already exist.  Workers’ children are taught the skills and disciplinary dispositions expected of them at the workplace and managers’ and problem-solvers’ children and adolescents are expected to learn the skills they need to take the employment positions of their parents.  This includes such positions as management and consulting work.

          Jere E. Brophy, in the latter years of the past century, argued that the dichotomy of experience is not only one experienced in school, but further experienced in the home.  The reviewed sources of this century do not reveal improvement[4] but describe how upper income parents, who usually hold more intellectually demanding employment, fill their households with discussion and conversation that have a more abstract quality.  Brophy wrote:

I take the term “disadvantaged” to imply two things about a child’s background:  (1) poverty and (2) gaps and limitations …  so it should not be taken to imply limited potential, sensory or motor deficits, or learning disabilities … Disadvantaged backgrounds limit students’ readiness for school activities in both quantitative and qualitative ways. …

In addition to … quantitative limitations in disadvantaged students’ background experience, there are gaps and qualitative limitations in their development of cognitive and metacognitive tools for processing and making sense of their experience, transforming and storing this information in a form of codified knowledge, and assessing and applying it in relevant future situations.[5]

Of course, this condition of treating different socio-economic groups differently in terms of the educational advantages provided is an affront to the nation’s stated political value of equality.

          This blogger, in a published article, argued that the educational product presented to lower income students should be different in terms of the level of abstraction in which the material is presented.[6]  This is not to avoid abstraction but to recognize the exposure these students have had.  This demands curricular constructs of content that are flexible enough to meet the different levels of abstraction that are of potential utilization.  The judgment of this account is that its proposed model, the liberated federalism model, offers such flexibility. 

The model is open-ended in terms of the specific conditions which might be portrayed under its use.  Challenging political situations can vary from relatively simple concerns to highly complex ones.  The portrayal of the compact-al, federated union can also vary in complexity.  But its basic components are easy to understand and amply demonstrable by the experiences of any youngster. 

Bonds formed among young friends in primary groups, for example, often exhibit the characteristics described under the concept, fraternal ethos.[7]  Therefore, the judgment of this account is that the use of the liberated federalism model can meet the demands of the different income groups by allowing teachers or material developers to gear the material to appropriate levels of abstraction and therefore, provide the pathway to more meaningful and insightful understanding of governance and politics.

[1] William H. Schubert, Curriculum:  Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility (New York, NY:  MacMillan Publishing Company, 1986).  The commonplaces can be defined as follows:

The subject matter refers to the academic content presented in the curriculum. 

The teacher is the professional instructor authorized to present and supervise curricular activities within the classroom setting. 

Learners are defined as those individuals attending school for the purpose of acquiring the education entailed in a particular curriculum.

Milieu refers to the general cultural setting and ambiance within the varied social settings found at the school site.

Upon reflection, these commonplaces prove to be helpful in asking insightful questions.

[2] Jean Anyon, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” in Curriculum:  An Introduction to the Field, 2nd Edition, edited by James R. Gregg (Berkeley, CA:  McCutchan, 1988), 366-389 AND for a more general overview on the ways financial resources have on education see “Does Money Matter in Education? Second Edition,” Albert Shanker Institute (2023), accessed October 28, 2023, URL:  https://www.shankerinstitute.org/resource/does-money-matter-education-second-edition#:~:text=Schooling%20resources%20that%20cost%20money%2C%20including%20smaller%20class%20sizes%2C%20additional,positively%20associated%20with%20student%20outcomes.

[3] For a granular review of how money affects the quality of education students of various income levels receive, see Henry M. Levin, “On the Relationship Poverty and Curriculum,” North Carolina Law Review, 85, 5 (June 1, 2007), 1383-1418, (quotation below, page 1403).  Here is a sample of that work:

The signs of different expectations are subtle but evident, even at the elementary school level. Schools serving lower-income students often stress following directions, while the middle class students are charged with critical analysis of school subjects."  Teachers of low income students often place more emphasis on discipline, and children's experiences are circumscribed because of concerns that they will not behave appropriately if given challenging or enriching experiences or provided with too much independence.

[4] For example, see “Unequal Opportunities:  Fewer Resources, Worse Outcomes for Students in Schools with Concentrated Poverty,” Commonwealth Institute (1921), accessed October 31, 2023, URL:  https://thecommonwealthinstitute.org/research/unequal-opportunities-fewer-resources-worse-outcomes-for-students-in-schools-with-concentrated-poverty/.

[5] Jere E. Brophy, “Effective Schooling for Disadvantage Students,” in Better Schooling for the Children of Poverty:  Alternatives to Conventional Wisdom, edited by Michael S. Knapp and Patrick. M. Shields (Berkeley, CA:  McCutchan Publishing Corporation, 1991), 211-234, 211-212.

[6] Robert Gutierrez, “Teaching Secondary Social Studies to Low and Moderate Achievers:  A Modest Proposal,” The Social Studies, July/August, 149-154.

[7] For readers new to this blog, the liberated federalist view promotes a view of state-building which depends on a sacred (either secularly or religiously defined) agreement in which founding parties come together to formulate the resulting polity.  In turn, it counts of its citizenry to maintain a relatively high level of federation among its members.  Hence, a “fraternal ethos” becomes important.  The problem is that this nation has veered away from such leanings and has adopted a natural rights view with its high level of individualism to define how the citizenry defines governance and politics.

[kuunibal]

hi, it's 💌 anon. surprise! :D i know i should have made the reveal a bit more surprising but i dont mind this either.

so i have come to you for some advice <33 i have to write some yandere characters, but im not very sure how to write them, per se without crossing any lines. do you have any input?

sincerely, 💌

Hello, Atlas! It is a lovely reveal, don't worry! I hope you don't mind me looking through your blog a little. I really ought to play more Genshin once I get a new phone or computer that will run it without overheating haha (my favourite character is Zhongli, although I am pretty unfamiliar with the lore).

I think as long as you are not fetishizing mental illnesses or depicting the people that have them as completely crazy, selfish, and amoral, you are fine when it comes to major line crossing. A lot of yan traits overlap with mental illnesses, which is why many in the irl yan community use it as a coping mechanism and way to vent. This is especially true with Cluster B and C personality disorders, which are stigmatized enough as is.

A pet peeve of mine when it comes to fictionalised yanderes is that oftentimes they are wholly possessive, obsessive, and/or murderous without detailing who they are as a person outside of those traits, or how they feel about their thoughts and actions (metacognition). My suggestion is to write the character first before you add the yandere traits in relation to their personality.

Here are some resources and blogs that may be of interest when it comes to writing yanderes in general. Note that I did not screen all of their contents:

Discusses how to write certain things well, yandere types, etc. It is very extensive and focused on the writing itself, so I recommend it. (Not my doc, taken from a popular Reddit thread)

General tips on writing a yandere's perception and thoughts, which is crucial if you're writing them in the first person.

@thatyanderecritic Masterlist of yandere analysis, good general reference.

@maleyanderecafe Masterlist of yandere analysis, mostly focused on different yan types and scenarios.

Extremely detailed and underrated yandere typology guide and diagram.

[turanga4]

2022 Roundup

Thanks for the open tag, @sliebman10--I like how this one has a mix of things one did, things one is doing, and things one WISHES to do next year.

Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular),

your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year,

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year,

your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year,

and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year!

Five pieces I am proud of feels like a lot: imma do three.

Accidental Magic This one came so seamlessly to me, once I scrapped all my initial plans to do a more conventional love story for the contest prompt, "pivot." I'm proud because it was a chance for me to trust my instincts, and also to reach out to other writers for advice and thought partnership--I leaned heavily on a brilliant meta from @ashesandhackles and I felt so very brash even asking for permission to do that, but she met me with such amazing kindness and sincere interest in my craft.

Mysteries This one kicked my arse. I drafted and struggled and despaired and tried again, and if @evesaintyves hadn't been there to talk me off the ledge seven different times, it would never have made it to publication. I am proud, because I didn't give up, and now, it's a thing I feel good about sharing.

Visit Proud of my last piece, because it shows I'm still creating stuff, and also because I used it to try a very new thing--second person pov. I'm proud of the fact that I am always learning and stretching: it's first and foremost a credit to the people who are so generous with their support, inspiration, and encouragement, but it is also a credit, I think, to me.

2. FOUR current WIPs? Nah.

I'm working on one thing for a festival, so must be Way Secret. I am also working on a story centering Neville after the War--my conceit is weaving together his relationship with himself and his parents with the Muggle concept of using principles of improv comedy to work with dementia patients. I only have the title (Yes And) and a couple hundred words, but I'm looking forward to crafting it fully next year.

3. Biggest Improvements this year? Everything? I just started fan fic writing this year, and I started out ROUGH. I think craft-wise, I've gained the most in my ability to use point of view, and in my use of actions and descriptions to gird my dialogue: I used to pretty much just drop the characters in the middle of a conversation and not do anything other than the 'script' to help the reader understand time, place, or mood. Metacognitively, I've gained confidence, although I still have further to go with this--a willingness to see what I'm doing as both worth doing for myself and worth sharing with others.

4. Two Resolutions I shall break the 3000 words mark, and I shall learn how to Plot, which is something that I genuinely have not needed to fuck with until now.

5. One Favorite Line: From Accidental Magic, a summary of sorts of Harry's arc as he moves from what he needed to be around the Dursleys towards who he is meant to be:

He hides cake under the floorboards and buries love in a place deep enough within himself that for years it sparks out hot and feral, beyond conscious volition, an accidental magic that he has to learn to tame.

It has been such a joy to have found fan fic and the lovely, lovely humans I am blessed to know within this special space. I wish you all a creative and wondrous new year!

[viksalos]

eurghh i hate being personal on my personal blog. i posted all that shit this morning and now i feel legit hungover. got a headache and everything

at the same time it’s like. i had this strange worry that dropping these random insane facts about my life and experiences with religion whenever it’s relevant in conversation or to something i saw on here was like, not believable? maybe because i worry that people are perceiving me or keeping track of these things more than they probably are, or because i thought the facts would seem sort of contradictory (they aren’t in a factual sense, but they are in a religious sense) or because if i’m honest i only started remembering the childhood stuff maybe a few years ago, and in some ways remembering these things feels like i’m lying even to myself? like a lot of my childhood memories are just sort of, gone, or they need really specific stimuli for me to remember them. e.g. i didn’t remember that i’d been in a cult until for some reason i decided to play as a cult leader in my friend’s ttrpg setting, lol. but i *know* that stuff is true because i can ask my mom and sister and they were there. anyways

i struggle with ruminating on stuff a lot, and tend not to talk or post about it bc i hate the feeling of burdening others with my problems, but i have noticed that focused, guided thought on a topic (e.g. with psychedelics or, ugh, journaling) helps me with metacognition. abandoning thought patterns that are not helpful to me, finding solutions that will help me self-regulate, that sort of thing--not really gaining any *new* insight but just working with what i have. so i think from that i decided:

in some ways identity struggles can only be resolved through community

go check out the local reform synagogue when i graduate

in the meantime, see if hometown synagogue is still doing remote services

keep hanging out with my weird Jewish and metalhead and Sacred Harp and witchy friends. music and friendship and the rituals surrounding them do all offer me spiritual fulfillment, albeit in an unorganized and nontraditional way

don’t act weird at Perpetual Flame (will almost certainly fail this one but we’ll try)

[anewwriter3]

What is Metacognition? A Fascinating Insight Into Thinking About Thinking

Have you ever caught yourself thinking about how you think? It sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? But that’s what metacognition is all about—thinking about your own thinking! I’ve recently come across this concept, and I find it absolutely fascinating. It’s like stepping back from your thoughts to observe how your mind works. So, What Exactly Is Metacognition? In simple terms, metacognition…

[jidmjiwmi]

Metacognition Blog #6

I feel sad that classes are finally ending and that summer is almost here. The class allowed me to provide more strategies in understanding the text and to understand the work as a whole. It helped me learn the nuances of the ethics of the work and allows focusing on certain aspects. I enjoyed talking to classmate and their discussions were helpful in understanding the ideas beyond the work as well as better nuanced perspectives compared to the perspectives I can gibe to the work.