#no I’m not mentally ill why do you ask

[goferwashere]

In order to help get my homework done easier I pretend that I’m in the world of media that I’m currently obsessed with and it helps a lot

[great-tusk]

ughhh I need to stop having mental breakdowns over little things.

[edge-oftheworld]

one thing I love about following celebrities/artists who are honest and proactive about their mental health struggles etc is I can’t count the number of times someone I know is going through something and I’m like ‘I’ve got a song for u’ and how much of my life involves telling myself ‘if [redacted] can do something/get better/etc then so can i’ (and having actual real evidence of it in front of me) and I can’t understate how much I appreciate these things.

but at the same time it involves a whole lot of watching people I care about suffer and you learn to read the signs and infer between the lines in songs and interviews, and yes we can never fully know what they don’t share with us, but when they do share things it’s not a big stretch to be like ‘this seems like it’s what life is like for you and I have taken encouragement from it but you deserve so much better’. and it’s easy to find ways to get angry at a predatory industry and realise things that could be hurtful if you’re already fragile.

and we can advocate for some things and help ourselves and the people around us feel better but it’s hard to meaningfully reach your faves as an individual. and there are things we can’t say on the internet in too much detail, speculation becomes the harmful kind of gossip, and so sometimes it’s a whole lot of internally saying ‘you’re doing incredibly well to have gotten to where you are but I wish for your sake things would get better faster’

[crimston-7]

sometimes i draw and i’m like ‼️‼️ man this is so cool ‼️‼️ and then sometimes i’m like 😰😰 what have i created and why is it from tartarus

[goldensunset]

i cannot stand those quirky overly-friendly-to-the-point-of-crossing-boundaries teachers and professors who make you do icebreakers or fun facts about yourself at the beginning of the semester bc their questions are always the exact sort of stuff that you never wanna answer. but they just keep asking bc they think you’re just being shy and cute. ‘what are your hobbies? what kind of music do you like? what’s a topic very personal and important to you?’ MAN i am not subjecting myself to public humiliation like that for being very far removed from the norm nor am i opening up about my deep-seated personal problems. i don’t know you i don’t respect you you are not entitled to anything outside of my graded work. i’m just trying to prevent everybody in the room including you and i from becoming incredibly uncomfortable. just take the hint when i deflect your questions and pretend to be boring

[lambentplume]

i’m trying not to beat myself up for not having postgrad plans 😭 yes i am moving at my own pace unfortunately i don’t LIKE my pace,

[stergeon]

for the writer ask

💭🚦💛 💌

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

this is a real marketing major-ass answer (from your local marketing major), but i love sharing knowledge and telling stories. writing’s one of those things that’s a bit of a compulsion for me—i’m always writing something. i took a five-year break from fiction writing before i stumbled ass-first into fanfic last year, but even in those years when i was focusing on my career, i was writing guides and trainings and a ton of other stuff—just not anything fun, lol.

writing is also so cathartic. sometimes i set out to tell a specific story, but at other times, a particular emotion gets me in a vice grip and i have to put it to words before it’ll go away. my stories tend to wind up as emotional dumping grounds as a result.

i don’t write things pulled directly from my own life, but there are bits and pieces of myself and things that have happened to me scattered throughout stuff i’ve written, and usually when i’m about 75% of the way through a piece, i’ll realize it’s absolutely related to something i’m currently going through. funny how art works that way, even when you don’t intend for it to.

and occasionally i just have a fire lit under my ass about an issue and i get so hot about it that i gotta compile my thoughts. looking at you, silver snow

🚦 What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

look, i would love nothing more for them girls (pick whichever girls you please) to have a happy ending where they kiss and are stupid in love for the rest of forever. i love reading those kinds of stories. but in my heart of hearts, i love an ambiguous ending. i like when there are still questions after the story ends. i like thinking about where things could go or how the characters will go on after the events of the story. like, shared space could be read as having a happy ending, but i don’t really think it is. and with the victors; the vestiges, well. you’ll see :0)

come to think of it, i’m not sure i’ve ever written a happily-ever-after, but i don’t think i’ve ever written a 100% bad ending, either. i read too many bury-your-gays stories and watched too many sad european queer coming-of-age films in my youth to ever be happy putting that kinda thing out into the world. i want to write about love with all its ugliness, but not despair or hopelessness. i think what most appeals to me about an ambiguous ending is that lingering feeling of hope. it’s not the same as the kind you get from a happily-ever-after, and something about it speaks to me.

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

honestly? how to take criticism. i took a creative writing class in high school where we had to read our work out loud and then receive feedback on it from the other writers in the class, and that did a lot for me. going into that class, i’d already been writing for forever and had won some little local writing contests and such, so i was a wee bit of a pretentious douche. but i’d never gotten real critique before beyond, essentially, spelling and grammar checks. it humbled me lol. it made me grow so much as a writer, and i could see where i needed to improve or where my head was wedged way too far up my own ass for others to follow. it also helped me recognize strengths i didn’t know i had, and that was huge. it’s easy to get into a self-doubt spiral when making creative work, and good, constructive criticism can do so much to help avoid that.

to this day i love critique. i like knowing what worked or didn’t work so that i can continue to improve as a writer and do better next time. did my themes land? did something really work, but another part fall flat? i’d love to know!! i try to treat everything i write as practice for the next thing, and frankly that’s helped take some of the pressure off so i don’t go into total Perfectionist Mode.

i know critique is kind of a sensitive topic in fan spaces, but i think that’s because a lot of people have gotten unsolicited criticism that is purely critical and isn’t constructive. but getting good, constructive criticism will do so much to help a person grow as a writer. it’s scary, and sometimes it hurts! writing is very personal for most people, and it stings when things aren’t received the way you think they will be. but i know i’ve grown more from having my failures pointed out (and, very importantly, having the good things about those efforts acknowledged) than anything else.

💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?

actually Just answered this in another ask!

[s1xseasonsandamov1e]

not to be all typical teenage “i hate my parents” but do they just lose all sense of empathy the second they turn 50? is that like. a thing?

[mars-ipan]

honestly i don’t really think any mental illnesses have been like “destigmatized”- not fully at least. i think the stigma has just changed from demonization to “that’s not a real problem get over it god”

[canichangemyblogname]

I would never in a million years tell people to abstain from voting. I will always encourage people to vote, never as the end-all-be-all of political action, but as a form of political action and political voice.

I would also never look someone in the eye and say something like, “Vote blue no matter who.” I’m not going to lie to someone, and I’m not going to pretend the two party system isn’t the 4th circle of hell. I’m not going to pretend like the Republicans aren’t fascists and an increasingly aging, rural and niche party, and I’m not going to pretend the Democrats aren’t an exceedingly broad party with few ideological commitments, but what commitments they have are conservative.

Absolutely get out and vote. Also get out and organize. Protest. Run for office. Sit in. Work on campaigns. Go to local meetings. City council meetings. PTO meetings. School Board meetings. County board meetings. Planning meetings. Contact elected officials, repeatedly. Start community movements. For example: Join or start a movement to address local zoning laws that discourage density & low income housing. It can be both an environmental-based and supportive housing-based coalition. Same goes for a local movement to provide people fresh groceries.

If you want to see change, it is essential to get involved in every corner of public-political life. Get creative. And vote for the person, not the party. Broad, sweeping statements from white “progressives” who like to hear themselves pontificate more than take steps to enact change like “I won’t vote because the system’s inherently broken” ignores just how many tools are at our disposal to enact change. It also writes off decades and centuries of community organizing movements and tactics pioneered by black and brown and indigenous political activists. And it ignores how much they have reformed.

It’s really actually fucking frustrating. It ignores how the 2 party system is the 4th circle of hell. The 2 party system forces people to rely almost exclusively on local changes and movements for larger, national problems. It gives next to no room for third parties, forcing communists to run under the same party as genocidal warmongers. It means “coalitions” are too broad and ideologically fractured. Or, it makes it easier for the ideologically insular and fringe to find mainstream platforms. It leaves a lot of people unrepresented, ideologically. And we circle right back around to how people are forced to rely on underfunded, grassroots movements to see representation.

But fuck if those community movements aren’t really fucking important. And fuck if they haven’t helped reform things, starting at the local level.

And I will *always, always* stress how important local elections are. A lot of those offices don’t even have a party affiliation. And if there is a distinct lack of information for voters in your community, that’s something you can fix. If you see a need, fill it.

[cherryview]

!!!!

[seilon]

sudden vivid memory of being 14-15 years old and daring to wear knee-length boy’s shorts to a local summer festival in one of my first public acts of transgenderism and despite that being the most mundane thing on earth (especially considering I was still not allowed to cut my hair at that point so i by no means looked mistakably like a guy or anything) being verbally torn to shreds to the point of sobbing by my mother upon getting home because I was apparently making myself (and her by association) look bad and being a flagrant humiliation in front of my friends’ parents. i guess sometimes i forget how scarring and often terrifying simply Existing as a trans kid was lol

[dqrkdreams]

the radfem koolaid of every country’s men oppressing their women but also having their own problems while doing so.

idk if cis women are aware of this but u can actually talk abt how difficult it is to be a woman living under patriarchy without wildly misrepresenting the experiences of men living under the patriarchy. i’m watching a comedy special where a thin white woman just said that men aren’t affected by weight gain and i would like to know on what planet being a man protects you from the disgusting and deadly culture of fatphobia we’ve cultivated. i would like to know on what fucking planet a thin white woman is more affected by gaining an inch around her waist than a fat man having to deal with being dismissed by doctors, passed over for jobs, and treated horrendously by fellow human beings. like. trust me, i lived as a woman for almost three decades and still am seen as a woman, i understand the urge to vent about the patriarchy. but you can so easily do that without completely ignoring intersectionality or speaking on experiences you don’t understand or quite frankly don’t care about.

[a-thousand-tiny-little-ants]

I am so, astronomically close, to adopting the depressed look. Not the emo look, I could never pull it off, and I don’t listen to emo music anyway. I’m just about to give the fuck up.

[rockmonopoly]

Not to be dramatic but sometimes I want to bash my head into a fucking wall oh my god. Guy #355325632563245 has tried to tear down my self esteem again. This happens with every man I enter a talking stage/go on dates/a relationship with. Like why am I surprised this has been happening since I was 14.

[modgirlyreposts-revamped]

I legit just saw someone associate this song with Wally and the “Home is the true villain” theory, and I’m reeling from how well it fits him, especially since one of the lyrics is “it isn’t worth it Darling, he’s never gonna change” which makes it sound like we’re directly talking to and addressing Wally by his last name, and my thoughts are going at a million fuckin’ miles someone plz help me-