#on RP

[thefreelanceangel]

thanks for that post about plagiarism. it would've helped me a while back if i'd seen it earlier. it took me a long time to realize a friendship i was in kept me around because they wanted to use my characters with some serial numbers filed off.

Oof. That sucks so hard, hon, I'm so sorry.

I know not everyone has the ability to just "think of a character" off the bat, and that creativity can be a struggle. I also get that while comparison is the thief of joy, it can be really hard to avoid it when seeing some things held up and praised to the high heavens.

I think a lot of people miss what makes people hold something up and praise it, which is where so much of that 'filing the serial numbers off' happens. (I suspect there's also an issue with fandom at large and the 'this is how I write this canon character, which is different how YOU write them' interfering with interpreting creative rights.) And what is it that makes people hold something up and praise it?

That genuine spark, that true bit of creativity that inspires the original creation. People respond to enthusiasm, to genuine admiration, to the authenticity that someone brings to their original works. You can't copy that, even if you copy their external character design and notes, beat for beat.

I could absolutely make a pretty sun catte airship captain, but I could never replicate what makes @riftdancing's Blink so fucking memorable and so striking. I could easily (!) put together a duskwight paladin, even make them some flavor of undead, but I'll never touch the core of what makes @iron-sparrow's Yein so instantly identifiable. It's not hard to take the outward appearance of a pretty midlander and go find flavors of inspiration from published novels, like @ahollowgrave did for Odette. But I would end up with something flimsy and forgettable if I did.

What makes your work yours is something that just cannot be copied. Because what makes your work yours is you. And there is only ever one of you. There has never before been a YOU. There will never again be a YOU.

In all the timelines of all the possible dimensions in all the worlds, you currently exist, and that's a miracle beyond imagining. How could anyone manage to touch the wonder and unique beauty that is you just by copying the outside?

That is why I find plagarism so sad, such an utter failure. Because it demonstrates a clear lack of comprehension about what makes art.

[monsoon-of-art]

[sothisisablog]

[psycheterminal]

Treat anything on Discord as media that will be lost

Do not use Discord to host your files. Do not rely on Discord to preserve your text. DO NOT RELY ON DISCORD FOR ANY KIND OF PRESERVATION OR HOSTING!!

It CAN be lost, it WILL be lost! You must consider Discord as a part of the Core Internet, controlled by one company that hosts the servers.

I thought it was impressive at first that it replaced IRC, but now I am horrified. If the company behind Discord went under today, how many friends would you lose?

How many relationships? How much writing?

You may think this won't happen, but I remember when AIM went down and along with it, entire novels worth of interaction with my oldest friend.

IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. NO COMPANY IS INFALLIBLE.

Back up your files! Download anything you've saved to Discord NOW, before the API changes go into effect! And DO NOT RELY ON THEM FOR HOLDING IMPORTANT FILES!

[ot3]

i dont like the idea that kids these days are doing their fandom rps with ai chatbots. that's how you're supposed to make lifelong friends as a weird really online teen.

[ellierenae]

write unpublishable things. it's good for you.

[maelancoli]

Writing Intimacy

i often see writers sharing a sentiment of struggling with writing kiss scenes which honestly bleeds into other portrayals of physical intimacy. i see it a lot in modernized styles of writing popularized by the recent trend in publishing to encourage short, choppy sentences and few adverbs, even less descriptive language. this makes intimacy come across awkward, like someone writing a script or clumsy recounting of events rather than a beautiful paragraph of human connection.

or just plane horniness. but hey, horny doesn't have to be mutually exclusive with poetic or sensual.

shallow example: they kissed desperately, tongues swirling and she moaned. it made her feel warm inside.

in depth example: she reached for the other woman slowly and with a small measure of uncertainty. the moment her fingers brushed the sharp, soft jaw of her companion, eliza's hesitance slid away. the first kiss was gentle when she finally closed the distance between them. she pressed her lips lightly to gabriella's in silent exploration. a tender question. gabriella answered by meeting her kiss with a firmer one of her own. eliza felt the woman's fingers curling into her umber hair, fingernails scraping along her scalp. everything inside eliza relaxed and the nervousness uncoiled from her gut. a warm buzz of energy sunk through her flesh down to the very core of her soul. this was right. this was always where she needed to be.

the first complaint i see regards discomfort in writing a kiss, feeling like one is intruding on the characters. the only way to get around this is to practice. anything that makes you uncomfortable in writing is something you should explore. writing is at its best when we are pushing the envelope of our own comfort zones. if it feels cringy, if it feels too intimate, too weird, too intrusive, good. do it anyway! try different styles, practice it, think about which parts of it make you balk the most and then explore that, dissect it and dive into getting comfortable with the portrayal of human connection.

of course the biggest part comes to not knowing what to say other than "they kissed" or, of course, the tried and true "their lips crashed and their tongues battled for dominance" 😐. so this is my best advice: think beyond the mouth. okay, we know their mouths are mashing. but what are their hands doing? are they touching one another's hair? are they scratching or gripping desperately at one another? are they gliding their hands along each other's body or are they wrapping their arms tightly to hold each other close? do they sigh? do they groan? do they relax? do they tense? are they comfortable with each other or giddy and uncertain? is it a relief, or is it bringing more questions? is it building tension or finally breaking it?

get descriptive with the emotions. how is it making the main character/pov holder feel? how are they carrying those emotions in their body? how do they feel the desire in their body? desire is not just felt below the belt. it's in the gut, it's in the chest, it's in the flushing of cheeks, the chills beneath the skin, the goosebumps over the surface of the flesh. everyone has different pleasure zones. a kiss might not always lead desire for overtly sexual touches. a kiss might lead to the desire for an embrace. a kiss might lead to the impulse to bite or lick at other areas. a kiss could awaken desire to be caressed or caress the neck, the shoulder, the back, the arms etc. describe that desire, show those impulses of pleasure and affection.

of course there is the tactile. what does the love interest taste like? what do they smell like? how do they kiss? rough and greedy? slow and sensual? explorative and hesitant? expertly or clumsily? how does it feel to be kissed by them? how does it feel to kiss them?

i.e. examine who these individuals are, what their motives and feelings are within that moment, who they are together, what it looks like when these two individuals come together. a kiss is not about the mouth. it's about opening the door to vulnerability and desire in one's entire body and soul.

[i9evabae]

  𖦹 ׂ 𓈒 🐇 ໋ cute  symbols ／ ⋆ ۪

♡ ̆̈ ୨ৎ. ᰔᩚ ⋆.˚ <𝟑 𓍯

๋࣭ ⭑⚝ ˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗ 𐙚˙⋆.˚ ⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩 .𖥔˚ ♡?

𓆉 𓆝 𓆟 𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊 𝜗𝜚 ˙ᵕ˙ᰔᩚ

𓊆ྀི . . 🃜🃚🃖 ✎ᝰ. ⊹₊ ⋆ ⋆｡𖦹°‧

[unownroamingthroughspaceandtime]

[kirk-hammett-bl0g]

Eyeballs!

[bedrock-to-buildheight]

Death the farmer vs an orphan, a depressed alcoholic, and a rancher

[dayslily]

UPDATED DISCORD FORMATTING ♡ updated reference sheet for those newer to discord (or those who aren't familiar with markdown in general) ! my last post didn't include links, headers, or lists. you can access the google doc version in the source link.

[very-uncorrect]

Edit: I've muted this post because apparently it reached some sort of higher plane of existence and is getting a shit ton of likes and reblogs and it's clogging up my notifs lol

[nabesthetics]

[pokemonranch]

We are in the middle of a heatwave in Sinnoh and these guys have been poppin' up like Shroomish!