#ooooh no i should do one for just Reading in general

[bitterlyromantic]

curled in a tight ball muffling ur squeals because he said "good boy"

[zith-ipeth]

Tough afternoons and big problem solving (Dog Days 8)

Many blessings to yall

Today was, strange, I havnt cried like sad tears at college yet, but this week did it for me. I was thinking a lot and realizing that, while I say it often, I never really had to live in the real world. I had a really traumatizing experience in middle school, (zith lore drop ooooh.) and also started getting dysphoria. I spent highschool recovering from that trauma and alleviating my dysphoria. While I graduated with ok grades, I was running on autopilot, and of greatest importance…

I never learned how to do the small things

Because of my trauma and my recovery, because of my politics and my identity, I’ve become amazing at solving and working on these big, massive problems, to the point where I can’t even start work on small ones.

Tell me to figure out the way life could evolve on an exoplanet? Ofc I’m your gal, I don’t know a lot right now but I’ll figure it out! Tell me to write a two paragraph explanation of how the planet was discovered and who discovered it? Boom I’m out cold dead on the floor.

Today was a lot of the second, and college has been that in general, I’ll be thinking these massive thoughts about violence and ethics and radical action vs assimilation, and then I have to like, go do a reading about what an intersectionality is and write a paragraph about it. Like I could go off about intersectionality, especially in the communities I’m a part of, for hours, but like god forbid you make me summarize a chapter.

I know this page is a lot of positivity, but sometimes stuff does get rough. Days arnt just the good parts, but I had some good moments today. I got to talk to my women and gender studies professor about therianthropy (she’s such an ally and said I should do more research and make it a project) I got to wear maybe my new favorite outfit! Lots of good talks and a nice walk down to the water!

Sometimes things are sad and bummers, even for me, the biggest “light at the end of the tunnel” enjoyed

Stay strong silly creatures, and I’ll keep fighting! Even if school is hard, by the time I’m done with college, I’ll be able to project my howling even further, and reach the ears of those who need my help the most!

Sorry for the long post! I’ll be keeping it shorter in the future! Lots to say!

Run fast, bite hard, bark loud

Peace, love, and gratitude

-Zith Ipeth

[eri-pl]

Ok, so I have a very silly and probably barely applicable question, but what with Morgoth-canary and I think I remember a post where you said you had very strong opinions about Maglor's voice (I don't remember them, it was one of those "blink and it's gone" posts of my feed ! But I'd like to read them if you feel like it - although I don't know the first thing about music so it's just really sheer curiosity), so I was wondering if you had thoughts about Morgoth's voice ? What could Ainuric voices be like ? And did taking permanent physical form affect his voice ? Probably, right ? He wouldn't have been able to modulate/change it quite as much as before, maybe be stuck with a classically villainy "evil" one ? And then in the void he would have no voice anymore.

Ooooh! Thank you for this question, it's great!

First, Maglor. He is a bass. Well, not really, because I'm certain that Elves have wider vocal ranges, but his speaking voice is rather low, and his singing voice is varied, but can go super low, vibrations-in-your-bones low, and his songs are generally low on pitch. Like the sea. The sea does not squeek.

This is one of the headcanons I will argue about. I am rather strong in my opinions about Maglor. I would rather agree on "Maglor in the Darkness Everlasting"* than on tenor Maglor.

Oh, so now to the king of fools, lord of nothing, Melkor in his various iterations. Starting back when he wasn't such an idiot yet. Standard Morgoth content warning: we'll be doing a short recap of his history. No details, just allusions to events.

So, Ainulindale. which is my favorite chapter. Melkor was the greatest of the Ainur, which means, I think, he had a relatively wide vocal range, well wider than all the other Ainur.

But also, he was a little bint (word thanks to dfw), and taking into account all the band kid stereotypes… OK, tbh I know exactly one professional soprano, who also plays violin, and she's really nice and the only other things she's got in common with Melkor are the fear of spiders and cool hair. But, this being said, the personality stereotypes say that Melkor should be a soprano.

The Ainur's voices aren't gender-coded, I would say. If they even had the idea of gender at that point.

So, he can do many things, but he generally sings in a high pitch, because this makes everyone notice him.

Also, musically... so, this is that thing called chromatic notes. It's a think that jazz does (and I love jazz, I have mental associacions with jazz that would make tolkien chase me with an axe, but let's not digress). Like: when you compare Chopin to Mozart; Chopin is way more chromatic.

So, Melkor doesn't do it. He sings his own dumb melody, which is in a dissonance to everyone else initially (which means it is chromatic in the context of the whole Music), but internally it is simple. It is fifths, lates I would say he just repeats one note on and on, just in many octaves. And the note is probably B. Or maybe G flat.

OK, in non-musical terms: imagine someone is playing a piano (in a normal, mostly-white-keys way), and someone else is banging on the black keys, and then only on all the Gb keys. It's loud but primitive. And doesn't fit until you go Chopin and everything becomes lyrical and so sad, and then he can't really break it, I can't explain it well.

TLDR: Extremely simple harmony, but loud and not in the normal key.

Also, I wanted to talk about power chords but I don't think you want another musical tangent. (They're not as cool as they sound, they're empty-ish inside but it kinda works in the context)

Then they all go to Arda and at some point begin speaking properly. Iirc it's only after the Elves, but I assume the Ainur did have some sounds associated with them even before.

So Melkor's general sound landscape would again be empty inside. Some very loud tones, because they feel majestic: thunder rumbling, ice grinding, earthquake and the murmur of volcano, you can feel it in your bones and it's terryfying. Some very high tones, because they are effective and hard to miss. Evil screeching. No middle tones, because he's an idiot he finds them boring. Empty shell, like an epic movie soundtrack compised by a first-year student of music school and played on a midi. All the trappings but none of the actual work.

His voice, during the Black Rider phase would be similar. Low and rumbling and terryfying, but everytime he gets emotional it becomes high-pitched and has this infuriating timbre of when people talk with a very tense throat. It makes him sound insecure. Because he is. And when beaten by Tulkas he screams like this.

Then we have the parole and I do hc that he actually meant to be better, only he imagined it like "I stop breaking your stuff, and messing with the little beings, and you start listening to me like you listen to Manwë (= you do all I want you to do)" and was not really interested in putting in the effort. So the whole idea broke at the first problems (the city is so pretty, not everyone likes me, Feanor).

Anyway in his Aman phase I imagine Melkor with relatively low voice, but not so low it's weird. He fits in the nornal Elven spectrum. Baritone? Getting higher with the pitch when needed, but rarely he would let his emotions show enough to go very high.

Also, the sweet manner of talking that Sauron had as Annatar or in Numenor, but not so self-deprecating. Less of a "I'm but a humble servant" and more of "I am pretty cool, hey, want to do cool things with me?" The general vibe of a bad boy in a teenage romantic drama. Elongated syllabes, using all the most recent and fashionable Noldorin mannerisns (sa-si all the way!). Also, a lot of whispering, when he spreads the gossip and what not. "Sexy voice" but with his lack of understanding and respect for bounduaries it often feels creepy.

Then he grows more and more sinister, more focused on revenge against the Noldor (well, Feanor) and the Valar. His voice becomes more like a low-key Disney villain. The pitch is unchanged, but the tone is full of suggestions of subtext. It's never clear, but a lot of insinuations are hanging in the air. this kind of slithery, musical intonation in a sentence, elongating of wovels, slightly question-like tone too often. (I can't give you a good example, Scar would be a good example, but only in the Polish dub)

Then he does the Ungoliant business and gets stuck in his Dark Lord form. So, I would say low, booming voice, but flat (=not many overtones, the voice sounds shallow). Loud and with echo, but somehow not as majestic as he would like it. And when he gets scared or lusty or anyhow agitated, he starts talking faster and in a higher voice and with clenched throat.

And he gradually deteriorates, due to Silmarils and general awfulness, and his voice becomes more raspy, more noisy. At the end it's impossible to ascribe a set pitch to it, just like to white noise. Still it doesn't have tones in the middle, but the highs and lows are a mess, and closer to each other, the lacking middle is more narrow. And he doesn't speak much near the end, he's not that interested in any communication. Especially after trying to talk (ekhm) with Lúthien ended like it did. His voice rusts.

And at the end it's just panicked screams that sound more like ….not even an animal. More like a mindless dark creature than like a person. Switching between threats and pleading and pure panic, always full of hatered and disdain. Loud but always so very flat.

And then, upon hearing all those screams, Manwë realizes that the brother he remembers is gone, and that he can't do anything about it— how can you do a reprise without one of the main singers? And even if you could, how can you be happy forever missing someone you love? He doesn't know. I don't know. I am sad.

On one hand the very idea of Second Music is so wonderful and answers so many questions and Aegnor and Andreth and Elrond and Elross and all that and more— and I can't imagine Manwë thinking about this idea and not thinking at the back of his head "my brother won't be with us" and not being sad. I am not saying it's not possible. Just that I can't wrap my mind around it. Or my feelings.

Yes, this is one of my attractors, one of the topics I usually land on. Because. Reasons. Which I will not ramble about because they are personal. But it does make me sad. A lot.

I have some scenes in my head when people Valar talk about this, Nienna obv, she doesn't get it either, many people would probably say she would get it idk

Anyway that's it. That's the post. Sorry it's not more concrete.

[the-way-astray]

I was trying to figure what an earth was going on with you and all your asks (I don't interact with you much but it looked really funny) and ended up seeing your really cool positive Keefe essay thingy?

In honor of that I think all the Keefe girlies should go around and share something that they HATE about Keefe. I'll go first.

I absolutely DESPISE how Keefe treats teachers in the first books. Like I get that teachers can be kind of annoying but arrrgggg brother what are you doing?? You're not funny. You're not cute. shut up.

ooooh, that's a good one. i hate it too, i just didn't mention it in my rant for some reason. like him causing trouble and the pranking in general grates on me because it just feels so wannabe bad boy and is in general very cringe to me. and yeah, he is literally so disrespectful to his mentors!!!! like some *cough* lady belva *cough* deserve it, but i'm sure most of his teachers were just tired and wanted to stop having to deal with this kid. even alina, if you read her notes it genuinely seemed like she cared about him, she was just a bit out of her depth when it came to his family life (and why should she assume that he's had a poor family life, anyway? that's not really her fault). and he treats her like shit!!!! yeah, she's shitty. but there's literally no way keefe could've known how shitty before she came to power, so he's just making this random person's life absolutely miserable to get back at his parents. why is he like this???? he didn't have to clean up his mess either, i bet. typical keefe.

[platinumrosetail]

Ok weighter block and request block is Killin me so I thought about this ask

Can you do any 5 ships from any fandom you do x female half spider baby reader

Like reader is in her egg and the egg falls into one of the ships hands and then they say the reader there's now please and thank you

Ooooh interesting. Also everyone who reads this If you don’t like any of the ships I ship then either skip that ship or move on from this post as I don’t care if you don’t like it that’s your opinion and I’m not going to just stop shipping them because you guys don’t like it as it’s my opinion and we all have different opinions and different ships so do take that into consideration before you go wild and comment something you shouldn’t as I’ll just delete it anyway, this is your first and last warning, thank you.

Warning: noob author, female child reader, platonic yandere characters, and others.

Characters: sinbad x jafar (magi), tighnari x cyno (genshin impact), muzan x yoriichi (demon slayer),

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Magi!sinbad x jafar:

Drakon found an egg while out picnicking with his wife, he believes the egg was either abandoned or something happened terrible happened to the egg’s parents.

(Remember that she said half so the spouse could be female and the spider half could be male or we could go the male x male route as magic does exist and it could help make that happen and maybe even without magic.)

He decided to bring you to his king and his wife so that they could decide on what should happen next.

Sinbad was curious on why one of his oldest friend brought an egg to him and his wife until he heard the reason.

Jafar decided to take care of the egg as if the egg is in the wrong hands like kou empire then danger will soon come with whatever is inside the egg becoming a weapon of sorts and didn’t want that to happen again like it did with him.

(It’s been a long while since I last seen magi sinbad so I could be remembering it wrong or something but I think that kinda happened with jafar like he was turned into a weapon until he met sinbad and all I could be wrong.)

Sinbad was onboard as he was thinking of having a child with jafar, he wouldn’t mind if the first one wasn’t from both him and jafar as it would help them get started on how parents should act.

When you hatched you were nothing like sinbad, jafar, and the generals were thinking you’d be, it would seem you’re arachnes what with the spider features you have but there’s also some other creatures feature they can see but it’s less than your spider half of what they can see.

Your spider half allows you to climb on walls (unless the other half is also something that can climb on walls then ignore that lol) so you’re a troublemaker if you want to do something but your parents, uncles and aunts won’t allow you, though jafar seems to always be able to get you down whether it’s by coaxing you, getting you down with his strings or using his weapon on his strings to climb up there and get you himself. You mostly get this influence from watching sinbad and what with sinbad teaching you some things you shouldn’t know which gets him in trouble, the two wouldn’t have it any other way.

Genshin!tighnari x cyno:

Collei found an egg while scouting with some of the other rangers she described to bring it home as she could tell by the state of the nest that the parents are no more.

Tighnari was surprised to see collei carrying a fairly large egg after getting back from routine scouting to make sure the forest is in check.

Once she explained what she saw tighnari decided to raise the egg as there was no telling what could happen to it once it hatch especially with the fatui and their experiments that they do on people and creatures.

Cyno was surprised like tighnari first was at the egg being in his shared home with tighnari, though he soon understood when both tighnari and collei explained what she had seen and the possible outcome of the parents along with what might happen if the egg falls in the wrong hand seeing as how they don’t know what could be inside the egg until it hatch’s.

They took care of you until the day you hatched, making sure you were warm and such, there were a few scares but thankfully nothing bad has happened as far as they know.

The day you finally hatched was when it was thundering outside making tighnari, collei, and cyno plus the others in the small village stay inside so as to now get soaked and sick.

You were a hybrid, with your spider half being the most noticeable feature than you other half. Thankfully all his equipment to do a check up on you were inside the house so he can give you a check up after you hatched instead of going out in the rain which would most likely get him sick and that won’t be good especially with you just hatching the same day as the storm and you can get sick as well if he does, you were checked up and the results came out fine as you’re healthy like any other baby born.

Demon slayer!muzan x yoriichi:

Yoriichi had found an egg while scouting for any demons that would come that night but all he found was the egg.

Yoriich brought you to muzan and suggested that they adopt the egg and care for it.

Muzan out of fear of angering yoruichi and having his end by him agreed, not knowing that he will also get the same parental instinct to take care of you.

Muzan made sure that the upper and lower moons are to take care of the new demon heir and if harm should come to the egg then he would gladly make them wished they protected the egg better.

Muzan kept the egg away from Douma as he knew that the rainbow-eyed upper moon is unpredictable what with him having no emotion and to make sure that the egg is safe he leaves it with kokoshibo and akaza as he knows those two are more responsible than Douma.

Though sadly the two usual babysitter had to be unavailable as they were on a mission to find the blue spider lily and the rest of the upper and lower moon wasn’t really trustworthy to take care of you except maybe nakime but she is busy as well, so muzan sadly left the egg in Douma’s care not without giving Douma a warning that he should not bring danger to the egg and protect it at all cost or else consequences will happen.

You had hatched in douma’s care a little before muzan had arrived so while waiting for muzan douma began telling stories about muzan even though only he understood himself as your still just a baby and too young to understand him talking, all you knew is that this male with the rainbow eyes is not your mother who you heard through your egg all the time in the past. Muzan arrived a minute or so later expecting to see his child still in a egg but is shocked to see that there is a baby with spider like feature surrounded by egg shells, he immediately knew that you had hatched as he can see the slime that is usually in a egg on your small spider hybrid like form who is giving a bored look at Douma who still is telling stories about muzan. Muzan quickly left with you after rewarding Douma with more of his blood and went to his home to introduce you to yoriichi.

(A/n: hope y’all like it! I sadly couldn’t do 5 fandoms as it was hard to find two other fandoms that could go with this but I still hope y’all like it 😁 anyway I think that’s it so hope y’all have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)

[sincerely-sofie]

Hey! Just wanted to say thanks for making a story so well written I feel like I get second-hand depression every time I read the last two chapters. :)

I think I had more of a thing I was trying to do when I thought I should make an ask, so uh... any advice for a very average artist/writer who struggles with finding motivation for writing?

As payment, I offer you this picture of a dog.

Thanks so much for your kind words! I'm real insecure about my writing and it's clarity, so to hear that it's emotionally powerful means a lot to me, hehe :>

Ooooh man. Do I EVER have advice for artist/writer combo creators who struggle to find motivation for writing. C’mere buddy. Lean in reeeaaal close. Your fellow average artist/writer is gonna tell you a secret. Come on. Even closer. You ready? Okay.

The world has conned you into thinking motivation is necessary to write, or even do anything in general. It's a scam. Motivation is nice, but it's just the icing on the cake. You need a cake in the first place to even enjoy it.

(If you're interested, I’ve written about making your own motivation in the past. Intrinsically created motivation is a lot healthier of a sort of motivation to seek out than extrinsically located motivation, which is the motivation I’m mostly referring to in this post. I figure I’d link to it in case you’re having trouble getting enough oomph to want to even consider writing in the first place, as the rest of this post assumes you’re fairly comfortable with the writing process, but have trouble getting it done.)

Before I wrote The Present is a Gift, I had never truly finished a writing project— I had co-written the script for a video game that never got made and wrote the first short story in an anthology I started and never concluded. Other than that, I had nothing but a massive field of stories that I'd endlessly flit back and forth between, adding to each project I landed on for a time, but never lingering long enough to actually see anything to completion. I loved all of my projects and wanted to do them justice by finishing them, but I never was able to do anything close to that. There were multiple reasons for my struggle to do substantial work on my projects— but the greatest reason was by far my refusal to use anything but motivation as a reason to work on projects. I’d wait for myself to feel motivated to write anything. And I would only be motivated so frequently.

I attribute my newfound ability to break from my pattern of abandoning and rescuing projects over and over to one thing— I set up a writing routine.

I chose a time that worked best for me every weekday to pour myself a massive mug of my favorite edible battery acid (tropical punch Tampico, for anyone curious) sit down at my computer, put on my headphones, turn on one of those multi-hour-long pomodoro timer youtube videos that have pretty music in the background, and write. This was also in combination with an attempt to win at NaNoWriMo, a writing challenge where you try to write 50k words in November, which gave me a daily word count target to try and reach or exceed. NaNoWriMo’s deadline was also helpful— and so was a promise I made to myself to not work on projects other than TPiaG before it was completed— but the real reason I actually managed to write TPiaG was because every weekday I’d do my writing routine.

I was not motivated whatsoever at the start. I was anxious, intimidated, and very reluctant to write. But I committed to writing TPiaG to completion, no matter how I felt about it, because a lot of people wanted to read the story, and I didn’t want to let them down. Not the healthiest driving thought process, I will readily say, but it got me to sit in my chair at first. As time went on and I shook off the rust and reluctance, I wouldn’t feel as anxious about writing. I didn’t feel intimidated. I would wake up and think to myself “OH BOY, IT’S WRITING TIME!” and leap out of bed to start my routine. Motivation only came after I had already been writing every weekday for about three weeks. And the motivation stayed for as long as I kept up with my writing routine.

Don’t get me wrong— motivation is important. But waiting until you’re motivated to do something is a very unsteady way to go about life, and in my experience when that thought process is applied to writing, it means you’ll never finish anything and never be satisfied with your work. There’s a quote that I love that says “the motivation comes after you show up.” And it’s absolutely true.

Motivation loves momentum. You can set bait for it by writing consistently for a while, whereupon it will make its way into your brain and make itself at home for as long as you keep up the momentum you’ve gotten. If you just wait for motivation to stumble into you, you might get lucky, but only that— lucky. You won’t have gained any skills in cultivating your own motivation, and when that lucky motivation fizzles out, you’ll be left waiting for the possibility of another brief flash of motivation to take its place before you’re ready to write again.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

As many as I can write in 30 minutes let’s go!

Starting with a couple of asks about our post from yesterday.

Anonymous asked:

I'm guessing the bunny is because of Deuce's hometown event and the fox is because of Ace dealing with Fellow.

Yes and no! It’s one of the reasons, but these two also have pretty strong vibes of these animals, especially Ace. He is such a sly little fox pup sometimes lol

Anonymous asked:

That recent Ace/Deuce post had my mind absolutely working overtime with ideas.

But they all just kept coming back to the White Rabbit Fest, even when it didn't really fit a fox Ace kinda thing.

Anyway, besides that, I really love Ace/Deuce ship stuff, so seeing you do art of them is an absolute treat!

Thank you so much, Anon! <3 I am very happy that you like it!

They couldn’t allow Ace-the-fox to enter the rabbit arena lol poor foxy.

I really like this theme for these two. Should draw it again at some point…

Anonymous asked:

Hi! Have any of you considered posting fanfics (novels)? 👀 Love your work as always btw, take care

Hi, Anon! Thank you for your kind words :)

I am not really a writer, so I haven’t considered it. I love coming up with headcanons and I think I am pretty good with dialogues for our comics, but writing a proper story (even a very short one) is just way too difficult for me. I can’t even write these replies fast enough… so I’ll stick to what I do best and keep drawing <3 Out of the two of us, Katsu is the writer, but Katsu’s main focus right now is Nebula. To be completely honest, fanfics in general aren’t our cup of tea… (That being said, Katsu did write a couple of fanfics before, albeit not twst-related)

eh-nonnie-mouse asked:

Do you have a Cara account or is it only bluesky?

Only bluesky for now :(

It seems like Cara is mainly a portfolio app, which is good (especially if it’s AI free), but right now we don’t really see the point in posting there – it’s not for art of yaoi boys kissing, which is the majority of things I draw. Things could change of course, but right now we’re sticking to bsky.

unofficialwheatdog asked:

The the way you draw Fellow Honest

My husband

it makes him so much more handsome like I have to kiss him the second he's on screen

How dare you worsen my obsession/j

(jkjk I love your art and if it's ok with you, I very much want to save the fellow honest image just so I can stare at it for five hours pls and thank you)

I am so happy you like how he looks in my style!! Especially if it worsens your obsession lol

Of course, feel free to save it and look at it; enjoy your fluffy husband lol

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

FELLOW AND GIDEL ARE HERE!!! They look so good in your style!!

Thank you so much!

Anonymous asked:

Just saw your recent replies and IT MAKES ME SOOO HAPPY!

Let's GOOOOO fellow (heh) Top!Gidel x Bottom!Fellow likers!!!

And reading your replies about their ship! UGH👌👌👌 Ryu such good taste you have! Oh dear.. I love it all!

I am honestly (..heh) looking forward if you have more art of them specially the shippy ones 👀 I'll be on the lookout. Also thank you for the food! 🙏

Hehe I am happy you’re happy Anon!!

Thank you so much for being so excited, I hope we’ll post a lot of stuff with these two in the nearest future…! <3

Anonymous asked:

OOOOH I SAW MOBS BOSSES X FELLOW ADDED TO THE LIST.... I do rly like the idea of fellow & gidel, but mob bosses x fellow is soooo juicy for art and hcs...... thoughts? plans?? plz plz plz this is living in my head RENT FREE... 😍

Thank you so much, Anon!! <3

Well we do have a lot of sketches with Fellow and his bosses (nsfw ones)… and we do have an ask with hcs about them, so if everything goes well, you’ll get more juicy stuff soon. Let’s hope! 💪

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto

4.5/5. Releases 7/17/2024.

Heat Index: 8/10

Vibes: rivals to lovers, celebrity classical musicians (?), "I wanna fuck you so bad it makes me look stupid"

Gwen Jackson is a naturally gifted violinist, having been taught by shop owner Mabel. Graduating from playing for tips on the subway to being offered first chair in the Manhattan Pops orchestra means fulfilling a dream. Not so happy about it is cello player and musical prodigy Xander Thorne--who happens to be a member of a band Gwen was (is) a fan of. But she's a fan no longer, sensing Xander's resentment... and something else. As the two are inevitably drawn to each other's talent--among other things--they have to figure out whether their blossoming relationship is more important than their long term goals.

OOOOH, this one hit. As someone who doesn't know much about classical music (honestly, a big question of mine was: is the fandom around famous classical musicians this intense? Like, I believe that it is, I've just never experienced it) I was sucked in by the passion in the story and the way Julie Soto seamlessly blended Gwen and Xander's obsession with music into their growing fixation on each other. There's a delicious tension in the first half of the book, flitting between anger and irritation and kinship and desire. And once it bubbles over... whew.

I really enjoyed Forget Me Not. Not Another Love Song has made me a fan. I'm ready for whatever Julie Soto writes next, because this is what I want from a contemporary romance: a sense of reality heightened by drama (and angst), high heat, and FURIOUS passion. This is a good time.

Quick Takes:

--Dude. I may not be very knowledgeable about classical music, but I do know that it should be properly utilized as a Sexy Device in romance novels. (And to be real? In fiction, as a general rule.) This book may utilize classical music in the sexiest way possible. Like, often when I read early reviews going "the X scene!!! omg omg!!" I kind of expect to be let down. Not because the scenes are bad, but because they're so hyped.

The cello scene? In this novel? Lives up to the hype. Like, more on that later, but... It's not just about the physical things that happened when Gwen and Xander play. It's also about their focus one each other when they're supposed to be playing, the way she in particular drives him to distraction. I will say--the rivalry stuff lasts longer than the true resentment. It becomes pretty clear, pretty quickly that Gwen doesn't really hate Xander. And that Xander wants to fuck Gwen's brains out.

But uh, I was not upset about that development. I feel like a lot of authors try to pull off "seething sexual tension" and fail. This was an absolute win. I know in my heart that if I saw these two playing in real life, she would be desperately trying to pretend she didn't notice him; and he would be playing his ass off while ROCK. HARD.

--All that aside, I also think that this actually feels like two people in their early to mid twenties falling in love? Like, the finances are probably off, but you kind of have to handwave some capitalist hellscape stuff to set a contemporary romance novel in a big city in this day and age... But the way they act, the mistakes they make, the exuberance they both have for falling in love, the DUMB HORNY moments... it all read right to me.

I also appreciate that Xander, for all that he is a hot and talented dude by whom Gwen is intimidated at first (until she isn't) and with whom she is infatuated, still strikes me as a dude. Like, he's gifted and he's deep and he has mommy issues like crazy and manipulative entities in his life. But a lot of how he reacts to things--it may not be rational, but it is human, especially for someone who's really still figuring his life out. He's a mess! And that's okay! Sometimes he and Gwen don't make the right decisions in their relationship, but that doesn't mean the relationship is broken beyond repair.

--There's some really juicy familial and professional drama beyond the romance, and one thing I loved is that there isn't a clear "good side" or "bad side". Some people have their shitty moments because to be human is to be intermittently shitty, but not inherently, wholly bad; some people just choose to be shitty all the time, and they aren't on designated sides. There isn't a single perfect option when the choices are presented to our leads.

There's a lot of gray, basically. And I like living in the gray of a book.

--Julie Soto is setting up her own universe, and I'm seeing the places these characters could go. It's not just about setting up future books, though; it's also about creating a community for her leads.

The Sex:

UGH. This book was hot. Like, it's honestly a relief when I read a contemporary romance novel that's this sexy. Yes, there is the cello scene, and much "then I will sit here, consumed with lust until for the rest of the evening". But there is a lot more. I feel like this is one of the hotter tradpub contemporaries I've read in a while. They're all over each other, they're vocal, there is a scene in which things are done while people are on the phone...

I'll definitely be rereading some of those scenes.

In conclusion, Not Another Love Song is fun, swoonworthy, and passionate. It's exactly what you want an author's second novel to be--topping the first, while maintaining all the things you loved about it. I'm so excited to see what Julie does next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

I liked your pov Jay so much. Can you write Jay's pov during the experiments and arrival in the metropolis?

ooooh now THERE'S something to think about . . . it would def be way too long to fit in a tumblr post BUT i can def do some outlines for a potential fic right here and now ;))

(also please keep in mind my knowledge in gamorra itself is lacking so i'll have to do some reading on that first to properly come up with something, so these are just more general thoughts!!)

okay first things first we need to establish a timeline

i don't think we got a proper one???? i could be wrong and if i am feel free to point me in the right direction, but the only thing i can remember is that jay was experimented on for six months

jay is seventeen (THAT'S CRAZY WHAT) when we meet him, so let's rewind and say . . . he's twelve when bendix gets "voted in" and separates him from his mom

(i say "voted in" because i fully do not buy that he actually got elected. so he had money and promises and whatfuckingever. what could he do that sara couldn't??? what made him so much better??? how could sara nakamura be doing that much less of a job where people would vote for a foreigner who knew nothing about them??? what the fuck is up with that genuinely)

they probably don't waste any time running experiments on him. it was definitely painful and scary and let's not forget that bendix was forcing the gamorrans to work for him, too, so we have a couple of options for this: - gamorran scientists experimented on and hurt jay. people that jay had known and grown up with, maybe, running around their labs as sara discussed with them ways they could help better the people's lives. and you could say that bendix might not want the people he turned into prisoners working on something as important as his post-humans project, but we have seen that gamorran scientists were working in his labs when jay and jon went to free them, and that's the whole reason jay could pass through in the first place. because they were gamorran and proud. because they knew jay and believed in him. - the other option is that gamorrans had no fucking clue what happened to their former president and her son. jay talks a lot about not knowing whether his mom was dead or alive but the same applies to him, too!! he was a public figure just as much as she was!!! jay is someone who loves his home, his country, and his people!!! gamorrans probably knew him as the president's kid who helped where he could and was always on the frontlines with his mom!! and then he was gone!!! they never heard about him again!!! rumors abound that bendix murdered a child and they will NEVER forgive him for it, because jay was THEIRS

anyways

i will say that the way jay describes him escaping experimentation is fishy to me . . . bendix still had sara imprisoned. he should have had maximum security on jay. jay would have been leverage for him to use against her to do whatever he wants. but he escaped so easily???? just because he could phase???

i'm thinking maybe jay didn't have full control of his phasing back then because why would he??? he was an untrained twelve-year-old and was physically and emotionally weak. he didn't know what was going on. when he phased he probably thought that was IT for him. he was probably intangible for so long that everyone thought he genuinely couldn't be worked with anymore

can you imagine how scary that was?? how terrified jay must have been?? how he thought he wouldn't be able to touch another person, feel their warmth and solidness and the breath in their bodies??? how he had nothing to ground him???

jay nakamura woke up a living ghost and probably thought he would have been better off dead

he was so so relieved when he learned how to get it under control and become solid again

ANYWAYS. so. jay gets taken at twelve. experiments for six months. he fades away. they consider him useless and leave him alone. he breaks out. the revolutionaries find his boat, and he ends up in metropolis

okay i have some THOUGHTS about this

i already covered the fake-birthday thing in my other post but something i HAVE been thinking about is whether jay tells other people he's gamorran

he's trying to keep his identity hidden. he can't risk being caught. and if people DO know he's gamorran, what then??? he can't tell them about bendix publicly because who the fuck would even believe him. who would believe that gamorra has refugees.

thus i imagine for the most part jay lets people assume that he's japanese because it's easier that way. anything he really wants to say, he saves for the truth

anyways!! metropolis!!!

i'm assuming the revolutionaries have, like, less-than-legal contacts for helping people get settled and safe because, unlike jon, they are definitely not on friendly terms with both local and federal law enforcement

they get jay and the others all the papers and certificates and whatnot

so according to my timeline i would say jay would probably be thirteen by now (assuming his bday passed within those six months of experimentation) or at least close to being thirteen

i'm not entirely sure where he stays during this time? i can't imagine he'd get an apartment to himself starting now because there are a whole bunch of loopholes he'd have to jump through and he's probably lacking the money considering he just ran away with nothing from a dictatorship

maybe a safehouse that the aerie and wink have in metropolis, or maybe he gets placed with a foster family during this time? in any case he gets his living arrangements done and enrolls in high school

also i imagine he's pretty hyper-independent/self-sufficient (because he literally has nobody else to rely on) and thus holds any friends he makes at arm's length. he's guarded. he throws walls up. pretty ironic for someone who can pass through anything, no?

the thing about jay is that he's a former president's son through and through, so he's still perfectly charming and amicable to said friends who don't even realize that they don't know him all that well. jay is just THAT good

his first two years of high school are all about recovery and adjustment. and maybe he won't ever fully recover--a part of him will always ache for all that was ripped away from him, and a part of him will always be afraid of rumbling storms and boats and anything that sounds just as sharp as gunfire--but it's enough for him to maybe consider metropolis a place he could be happy in

i want to say something happens in junior or senior year of high school that makes jay realize that, no matter how little of it he has, he does have the power to do what he can, and that's how the truth begins

i guarantee you 100% jay started out with a basic face mask and shaky low-quality phone camera footage and zero editing. he had to build the truth from the ground up with what he had access to in metropolis, and i imagine that wasn't a whole lot

i'd probably end with his high school graduation and summer break and his acceptance into metropolis u?? oh and moving into his new apartment!!! a new beginning. one that jay is in more control of. one where he isn't afraid.

one where he wasn't expecting to fall in love and yet . . .

[noodyl-blasstal]

Tale as Old as Time

It's @taznovembercelebration day 26! Look how far we've come! Today's prompt was "familiar" and I also used an AU generator (you'll never guess what I got...)

Read below or on Ao3, missed yesterday? Catch up here.

--

“Did you see that next door’s open?” Taako asks, cool, calm, motives impenetrable.

“Raven Tattoo?”

“Yeah.” He’s nonchalant, inarguably casual.

“So you met hotboy then?” Lup asks.

Fuck.

It’s fine, Taako doesn’t have to admit anything, Lup doesn’t have a warrant. “Who?”

“Tattoo goth next door?”

“I’m not sure.

“You don’t know if you met the man who owns the shop you just told me was open?”

“Nope.” Says Taako, liar supreme.

“He’s your type, is all I’m saying.”

He is. But that is precisely none of Lup’s business so Taako keeps his mouth shut.

“It’s a tale as old as time, you know.” Lup says as she wraps the brown paper around her spray. “Tattoo artist, florist, can I make it any more obvious?” She winds twine to keep it in place.

“Ah yes, the ancient tattoo shop florist love stories which echo through the ages, they’ve got at least four Disney films with it as a central premise I’m sure. Do you remember the one where the handsome florist’s sister is a complete dingus?”

Taako barely dodges out of the way of the stem cut offs that Lup lobs at him. Thankfully he’s had years of training.

“Fuck off, goofus. Have you spoken to him yet?”

“No.” Taako says, quickly.

“Uh huh.”

Flawless lie.

“So what was he like?” Lup asks.

Double fuck.

It’s not fair that she’s using her twin powers for evil.

“Taako wouldn’t know.”

“You realise our shop is 90% windows?” Lup picks out some more roses for the ‘November, remember!… to tell them you love them (with flowers)’ promotion. The make-the-worst-promotion-name-and-people-will-tell-their-friends-about-it approach has been working well so far.

“I have eyes, Lulu.”

“Well so do I, genius, so cha’girl saw you look out the window, wait until goth boy was on the move, rush out to pretend to run into him and follow him back into his shop.”

Triple fuck.

Taako was so sure she was busy with the flowers, he didn’t expect to be observed taking actions. That was cheating, probably.

“Taako learned from the best.” The best defence is a good offence and Taako is going down swinging.

“Things with Barry aren’t the same!”

“It’s very interesting, Lup, that you should bring him up. Who said anything about Barry? Taako certainly didn’t mention Barry, which means that when you think of the spurious accusations levelled at Taako about flirting you think about Bluejeans. Interesting, very interesting, considering you’re just friends.”

“We are friends”

“Uh huh.”

Taako dodges another trimmed stem. Maybe if he aggravated Lup less he wouldn’t have to sweep as often.

“Not just friends, though, are you? You wanna ride the denim train into the sunset!”

“I can’t believe you just said those words with your actual face.”

Taako can’t either, frankly.

“Denim what now?” Barry asks, looking excited.

They need a bell for the door right now. They need one yesterday.

“Nothing!” Says Lup, high and panicked.

“Ooooh, say no more.” Barry winks dramatically.

Oh good, they’re going to have to make him some kind of denim train for Candlenights.

“Taako’s got the hots for tattoo boy next door!” Lup says, throwing Taako so hard under the bus that he didn’t even have time to yank her under with him.

“Classic love story, bud. Tattoo, flower shop, you know how it goes.”

“That’s not a thing and Taako’s not interested in hot goth boy! Now stop talking about it!”

“Hello.” Says Kravitz from the entrance.

They’re getting four bells for the fucking door. Taako’s going to invent time travel and go back and put them all on and never ever ever complain about how loud and annoying they are.

“Hi.” Taako says, casually. Throws up a quick prayer to Istus that maybe, just maybe, Kravitz didn’t hear him. Because Taako is interested, Taako is very interested.

“I was just bringing you a pack of the stickers you liked, I printed some extras.” He’s definitely frostier than he was 30 minutes ago. “Anyway, I’d better be going.”

“No!” Say Taako and Lup in tandem.

Kravitz looks alarmed, and Lup’s doing the wide eyes which mean she’s all out of ideas having tried precisely nothing. Taako needs a reason for Kravitz to stay and he needs a good one.

“I’m thinking of getting a tattoo.” Taako says desperately.

Kravitz raises an eyebrow but doesn’t smile. He’s so hot, even when he’s pouty. He’s also got a laugh like honey and didn’t act weird when Taako mentioned that he enjoys fishing - usually everyone’s shocked and they get to do the ‘wow, what a left field hobby’ chat. Kravitz had definitely been interested before so Taako needs to fix this right now. If he gets a tattoo then Kravitz has to interact with him, how long can they take? 10 minutes is probably enough to explain.

“You are?” Asks Kravitz at the same time as Lup and Barry.

“Yep.” Taako’s dripping confidence. This is great, it’s fine. He can just get a tattoo from a place he’s not familiar with because he thinks the guy doing it is hot. What’s a little stabbing among hopefully-soon-to-be-more-than-friends?

“Right.” Kravitz sounds worryingly unconvinced.

“What’re you going to get, bud?” Says Barry, choosing violence and genuine curiosity.

“Yeah, Koko, what’re you thinking of putting on your body forever and ever? I’m sure you’ve thought this through carefully.”

“Mongoose.” Taako doesn’t even flinch, he’s a master of his craft. They want to play? He can play. He’s a professional, baby, he’s sliding down the floor piano on his knees while everyone claps.

“Oh.” Kravitz sounds slightly more positive than he did a few moments ago.

“You wanna talk through ideas at some point, kemosabe?” Taako may as well clear this up sooner rather than later.

“I thought you weren’t interested.” Kravitz says pointedly. Okay, so he definitely heard, and maybe the huffiness hadn’t entirely faded. Taako might have to work slightly harder at this.

“I’m very, very interested.” Taako looks hard at Kravitz and hopes he understands.

“I’ve got a bit of time now. My next appointment isn’t for a few hours.” Kravitz is trying his best to sound like he doesn’t care, Taako can tell, but there’s a note of hope in there under the surface. If he just sifts through the dirt he can see that they’re on the same page. Kravitz had better not just be excited about the possibility of getting a new client. Hopefully Taako wasn’t going to have to resort to getting the tattoo on his ass in the hope that giving Kravitz an eyeful would encourage forgiveness.

“Go ahead, I’ve got this.” Lup nods at Taako.

“I can help Lup out if there’s anything urgent here, bud.” Barry adds. Setting a definitely-just-friendly hand on Lup’s arm and smiling goopily at her.

They were gross and Taako hated them.

“Okay, lead the way handsome.” Taako tugs off his apron and gloves and rounds the counter, swipes one of the rose bouquets as he goes.

“Handsome, is it?” Kravitz asks quietly, holding the door open for Taako.

“Very, very handsome, in Taako’s expert opinion.” Flattery could also be the truth.

“But handsome isn’t something you’re interested in?”

“Handsome is something Taako is very interested in. What he is not interested in, is his sister being all up in his business. Look!” Taako grabs Kravitz by the shoulders, before he can even register that Kravitz is leaning down, eyes closing, he’s spun him to face the windows of the flower shop.

“See!” Taako points at Lup and Barry, pressed against the window and panickedly trying and failing to look like they’re doing anything else but spying.

“Uh… er… yes. Yeah. There they are.”

“So if we could continue that kiss somewhere that isn’t visible to them I’d like that, I’d like that very much.”

Kravitz grabs Taako’s hand and tugs him into his shop. “We’re in luck, I know a place.”

--

I hope you enjoyed! Wanna read some more? Find tomorrow's prompt here.

[stillfrownyclownlol]

I spent like 4 hours watching Deadmeat last night sooooo more slasher au *gets stabbed right in the heart* ❤️

These are bit..."gorier" than usual lol (so I put it under the read more~), not that you guys can't handle some gore! *Points to Tyler* :) (did you guys see the uncensored version? Great stuff, I could imagine the practical effects they could use!)

-I think Ash and Aiden should play tag, aaaand I think Aiden loves the chase because the most dangerous (read: the most fun) hunt is with another human, aaaand I think he should just fucking tackle and pin her to the ground while Ash is screaming bloody murder in the woods :D

Aiden: Tag. You're It :)

Then she just caves his skull in with a rock cuz she's such a girl boss.

-Ooooh. And she should definitely try to crawl away while leaving a blood trail, and she can hear his footsteps behind her, and she's sooooo desperate to escape...and then Aiden grabs one of her braids like "Gotcha! :)"

So then Ash cuts her hair after that because character development and also that's traumatic as hell

-He has a smiley face mask because OF COURSE he does. How is Ash gonna explain that emojies trigger her? Beats me

-Aiden: I'd kill for you. PLEASE let me kill for you *Biggest eyes ever*

Ash: No!!! Wtf is wrong with you-?!

Aiden: Aw snap *kicks a corpse out of frame*

-Barron is an asshole counselor from a "rival camp" that was harassing Ash and her friends, and he's the first guy to disappear lmao (Aiden put him in a woodchipper :D)

-would probably let her live if she went on a date with him. Probably...

-I bet he'd have some terrible jigsaw type traps at his house because he's rich and bored and insane.

-Thinks it's cute when Ash is hitting him until he bleeds. "You're such a tease!"

-In general, Ash wonders what she did in her past life to deserve the most lethal stalker ever...sorry Ashlyn, you didn't do anything! Scream 1996 just altered my brain chemistry permanently :(

[onewomancitadel]

A smattering of general updates:

I played Tears of the Kingdom. I didn't really enjoy it. I understand why it was popular though; I'm just not the demographic for these types of video games anymore. I didn't find it creatively rewarding and after a time I sat there thinking 'I would rather be writing right now', and since then I have learnt that writing is made easier by doing things which are not writing, because it makes me miss it. My dad also doesn't really like it but for some reason has played hundreds of hours in it. I don't know either - I think he will take anything called Zelda at this point.

I spectated the Doctor Who David Tennant Special and watched some clips of the new season. I'm not a fan of RTD, and not a DW fan anymore (not for a long time), but it was an interesting study in how studios try to attract old and new fans.

I read a lot of books, and that lie people tell you about all books being good for you is a lie, because a cyberpunk anthology of short stories made me so angry I got heartburn. I think people who say that are saying so because they wish that they could read a lot, in which case I say, yes I think reading is a gift and we should engage with it, however, sometimes I get so physically angry from something stupid/bad I've read because bad writers exist that it gives me actual pain. I am reading Howl's Moving Castle right now and it's very joyful; I am very surprised by the liberties the animated film took! However so far I do think both experiences are worthwhile, and if you enjoyed the Ghibli film, I very much recommend checking out the original book if you want to revisit that world again. The prose is straightforward but a little whimsical, and Howl is very, very funny. I have laughed aloud a few times.

Well, you know I rewatched Dark, and it's funny that during my exile I said 'this is like if RWBY got the ending it deserves' and then, er, I found out it's not renewed yet, and that's still up in the air, which for the entirety of RWBY I have only had one true moment of doubt of such a thing, and that was a while ago.

On that topic, yes, I still ship Jaune/Cinder, believe Cinder's redemption is likely, etc., although there are some more external concerns I would wager now than before. Before I thought it very possible to do without any commercial influence, and it depends what compromises they do or don't end up making or having already made. My analysis of Jaune's arc in V9 may not hold water as much (e.g. if you lean towards the view there were rewrites to cater to growing the audience, or perhaps it's two ideas married? I'm not sure) so I'm going to think about it more, and there always has been a tension in RWBY between what is being expected/baited and what is foreshadowed/said/actually happens.

I figured out how to write again and what was blocking me, so there's that. To talk about it a bit more, since my break I have worked every single day on writing. My key takeaways are that you need a delicate balance of delusion and self-doubt to get anything done - you don't know you can do something until you actually do it - and every excuse I invented for not writing was not the reason I was not writing. I can write with a migraine beginning to set in on an uncomfortable desk where I can't even rest my elbows properly on the end of a bed with no back support without aircon in the middle of summer before I've even taken my hair out from bedtime plaits in my pyjamas. I didn't even expect to get my fic done right before midnight, actually I was like 'well lol that's not going to happen, I'll write anyway though, fuck New Year's' because I wasn't doing anything, and then I finished and looked at the time and was like ooooh. I actually completed my goal! So I'm very proud of that. Anyway writing is breathing, to me, I go crazy if I don't do it, no matter what it is, and every single piece of nonsense advice of productivity was not helpful, ever, but I did figure it out. Also admittedly I got a fire burning under me again because I found out I was actually right about Raven, in which case I took that as a sign from heaven I was on the right track. One should hope.

I am excited about Dune Part Two, yes, although I am trying to avoid Villeneuve talking about the film because I know all the marketing is basically directed at people who aren't Dune fans, and I have to see it for myself to see what it's worth. I enjoyed the first film, and Villeneuve seems excited to direct Dune Messiah, in which case I am willing to do whatever possible to make that happen. Because that's about as complete a story you're going to get in a major motion picture adaptation and it would be So Fucking Good.

[olderthannetfic]

Hi there! I hope you're having a nice day.

Little bit of a rant and a bid for advice, if you or your readers have any. I hope that's alright.

I'm currently writing a fic or maybe multiple fics (plot bunnies be running rampant in me brains) about a rarepair of two guys. I'm a bi woman and have basically zero social skills, so in order to properly understand other people's body language, I like to look up guides or articles about body language between two people, although I know those things are full of bullshit and don't mean anything, and it's hard to find articles for example about whether another woman's body language indicates interest in you if you're a woman yourself, but eh, they're still better than my brain which is usually like "eh, could mean this or that or this or that or this or that or- basically could be anything, I wouldn't know that lol, now I'm tired and will shut off, bye" aka useless as well.

The results I've found have been absolutely useless. I like writing characters in a slightly plausible-sounding way, so I like incorporating body language as in acting choices or subconscious body language (or whatever a proper term might be) in my writing to make it sound more in-character. So for stuff like this, I usually just think "ok what is that person's expression and if I do it, what would that indicate me to be feeling currently", and I don't know if other people do that or if that's just me being bad with social stuff and intuition about it again, and if I should really try to get re-evaluated for autism which I have been advised to think about doing multiple times in multiple direct and indirect implicative ways such as people being like "hey btw are you autistic? no? you sure?" or "I know you got a negative diagnosis as a kid, but maybe that was wrong and you might wanna do it again because of all your social struggles and sensory stuff etc.", heh. (Have been diagnosed with ADHD though, so that might also just be it.)

Sorry for the rambling. English isn't my first language, so if anything sounds strange, that's to blame.

My question or rather bid for advice is: I am wondering if you or your readers might have any advice on where to find resources for reading body language and romantic or sexual implications in body language between two parties, in this case between two guys.

(Hopefully this is not too nonsensical or insensitive or something like that because that's not my intention. I just really don't know how to human or if there actually is some difference on how different people of different genders flirt consciously or subconsciously or if that's some weird unnoticed transphobic bio-essentialism shit that I hadn't yet noticed and sorted out of my head because I don't want to be transphobic since that sucks.)

--

Weeell...

If people have links to guides, that's great, but I do think that in the context of fanfic, people often write flirting that they find sexy or they write whatever the canon style of interaction is and recontextualize it as how these particular guys flirt.

They're not usually thinking "What does flirting look like in general?" and then having the characters behave in a new way.

A lot of our interpretation of body language in written fiction has to do with information we get from the POV character about how they're feeling internally. For the non-POV character, we may have the POV character's thoughts on what the body language means, but we're generally interpreting it based on media cliches and based on knowing this is a ship fic.

So the other dude acts like he doesn't like our POV dude and the POV dude is like "Alas, my pining is unrequited!" and the audience goes "Ooooh, it's one of those fics!"

If the goal is writing certain types of fic, you may not need a guide to How People Really Act as much as one to How Fans Interpret Such and Such a Behavior from Canon as Subtext.

[onomatopiya]

writer tag game!

hiiii thank you @avi-why for tagging me this game seems so fun :D

1. is there a common piece of writing advice that you disagree with? alternatively, is there one you think (generally) most people should follow?

oooooh okay! generally i dislike any hard absolutes like "don't use adverbs ever" because i mean. no piece of advice like that will ever be universal and it's important to consider what Your Piece of writing needs rather than trying to fit a set of ~arbitrary guidelines~

as for advice i think works, i think consistency in writing will always be key to improvement. i like. very heavily stagnated in actual writing after covid (i was like. good lord i was 15 then. wild) because i got bogged down trying to make my book Perfect. and i think if i had actually written more during that time i would be a much better writer now! more writing = more improvement and practice makes pretty damn close to perfect etc etc

2. you can have dinner with any author, living or dead. but the catch is that after the dinner, you and that author will team up against a third writer in a no holds barred cage match throwdown. which 2 authors do you pick?

OOOOH ok. i'm currently very enamored with andrew joseph white and lee mandelo's writing because they both write GORGEOUS prose so maybe one of them? OOO or r.f. kuang . i think tolstoy should get got in the cage match. cry old man

3. have you ever experimented with poetry, plays, or screenwriting? what was the result?

YES i have and now i have a web series. help girl this was not supposed to be longer than a short fiction piece and yet. also shameless self plug you can read my web series about a dead girl haunting her own narrative HERE: https://gloryburning.substack.com/

i do want to experiment more with poetry though!!! that's one medium i haven't really dipped my toes into so to speak

4. what type of rancid twitter discourse would your current wip generate?

oh god what discourse WOULDN'T rr spark. i definitely think having an aroace mc weaponize someone else's attraction to him is probably um. discourse worthy. my top fear is that someone unironically ships lahar (romance and sex repulsed aroace) with anthony (horrible white savior who has no semblance of self) some other notable things that happen in the book:

diversity loss the capitalist kendall roy ass character (anthony) is gay

people of color get to KILL

ruh roh! tragedy :(

horrible horrible body augmentations with dangerous and ableist implications

so much murder. so much assassination. god bless

5. what author would you love to be compared to? what author would you hate to be compared to?

OOOOOOH . uhhhh i love so many authors oh god. i do love neil gaiman i would be so floored if someone compared me to that guy. OH and terry pratchett . probably would not want to be compared to like. jkr. booooo

6. design the ideal piece of merch/swag for your wip.

oh this one is so me bait. i have serious merch and then deeply unserious merch

7. free space: what's one thing you really want to talk about in your writing that no one ever asks about?

I LOVE soulmate horror and just. idk taking different concepts and hitting them with my aroace beam. i love aroace horror i love aroace people. and i think there should be more weird aspec fiction

and question time. putting them below the cut along with tags

what's the first story you can remember writing? how does it compare to the way your writing has evolved? where do you see your writing going in the future?

what parts of yourself (if any) have gone into your current wip? alternatively, how would you fare if you were suddenly dropped into your own wip?

what's one quality of your writing that feels completely unique? what's one thing you want to improve upon in the future?

make or share a meme that you feel captures the essence of your wip.

what are your goals as a writer? do you want to publish? is your writing for your eyes only?

which of your characters is your favorite to write and why?

free space: feel free to be self indulgent--do you have any aus or your wips? if so, what, and if not, what aus/fanfic would you write of your work?

tagging: @macywrites, @cream-and-tea, @saltwaterbells, @coffeeandcalligraphy, @wren-is-writing, @encrucijada, @snowinks, @chayscribbles, @cuntylittlesalmon, and anyone else who wants to do this

[sigurdjarlson]

Ooooh!! Pls tell us how they are dropping the ball in TWW. I’d like some tea ☕️

So like I do like some aspects of TWW but imo Khadgar’s fakeout death and Dalaran falling was done quite poorly

Like if you’re gonna kick the expansion off with what we at the time assumed was a major character death you could have at least…had more than 2 characters care about it

I think that’s what bothers me the most? Alleria and Anduin express genuine grief. Mostly Alleria though. Jaina does for a few seconds. And then no one else in the game like ever mentions it.

No members of the council of six, no Medivh, no citizens of Dalaran who may have liked him, nothing.

Turalyon doesn’t say one word about it :(

It just doesn’t work because his death has 0 impact on anyone except Alleria. No one even MENTIONS it except her and Anduin

We have Alleria’s vengeance arc that personally I think could have been much more impactful

For a successful fakeout death you gotta make it impactful, emotional, etc.

And you do that by showing the grief it causes other characters and the effects it has on their actions or what the absence of that character does in general

They do this with literally only Alleria which imo probably doesn’t work for some people either

Like lbr most players haven’t read Beyond the Dark Portal. Their friendship in the game exists mainly in some flavor text and what they try to throw in there in the beginning of the expansion. A little bit in Legion (which was years ago)

They do nothing to make new players attached to Khadgar before killing him (they’re probably like who is that Lmao) or even just refresh the bond some current players who aren’t obsessed with him like me have with him

There’s some very sweet text between him and the player character in the beginning quests (“I’m glad to have you by my side.” I’ll give them that)

For god’s sake Dalaran falling doesn’t seem to do much of anything. Think of Teldrassil (regardless of the shit writing that led to it) how they have you desperately try to save civilians and ultimately be overwhelmed by the smoke.

They show how significant of a loss this is in various ways, show the refugees, suffering, etc

You get a few stragglers from Dalaran who express very mild grief about it imo. Most of it is “it’s a shame we lost so much knowledge” which is very valid Dalaran was full of it but like…where’s the emotional impact bruh

Then of course they give us Khadgar back

On one hand I’m happy he’s not dead. The cinematic was very sweet.

On the other…what was the point except to make Alleria make some impulsive grief fueled decisions?

Literally what was the point of any of that when no one cared and it did not impact much of anything significantly alskdkslf

Personally I think they should have drawn it out longer, really let the loss sink in..but to do that they’d have to actually acknowledge he died lmao

I still don’t like how he got one shot by Xal either. This man can hold his own with Gul’dan and various other powerful characters.

You could have let it be a fight that she just ends up winning but have him actually get to fight. He deserves that.

Idk I just think it was all written very poorly and mainly for shock value. It didn’t do justice to the character but I suppose I should just be happy they let him live

Idk this expansion in general doesn’t really make you feel like anything happened. it leaves you in a lot of ways going “what was the point…of any of that.” By the end of it?

Xal is fun in a way but she’s also very..one dimensional. Some people find that refreshing to be fair. Just someone straight up evil for evil’s sake. I think it’s a bit lazy that she doesn’t have much of a motivation except that.

And they try SO hard to make her the Uber powerful threat and she’s ~so cunning~ but to do it they nerf other characters and make them make dumb decisions and that’s also lazy :|

Like don’t get me wrong there’s some strong aspects to the expansion. (Especially in side quests. We got some real good side quests this expansion but the main quest itself is lacking in some serious ways particularly in regards to how it started)

Mostly I just don’t like that no one cares Khadgar dies. It drives me nuts lmao.

Literally being Medivh’s ass in. That could have been painful. The character he has the closest bond with.

Legion era writing I miss you…

They wanted a Varian’s death situation (except surprise he’s alive) but it didn’t work because none of them put any effort into having other characters react to it except Alleria ._. They rushed it and just kinda dropped the ball.

We got some good stuff. I like the Earthen, Neurbians and Kobolds. I like the Magni stuff with him, Dagran and Moira

I really like Faerin and some other new characters too.

It’s just..I have more examples of them dropping the ball but my brain isn’t working lmao. Mostly I’m mad at how they handled Khadgar and Dalaran which was supposed to kick off the expansion

Also why Thrall in the loading screen (which implies he’s gonna be a big character this expansion) with Alleria and Anduin when he literally doesn’t show up until the end and does absolutely nothing but bring the horde fleet

I guess we should be thankful they kept Metzen on a leash there. It could have been all Thrall all the time but I just think it’s kinda funny like they just threw him in there for no reason (Metzen probably)

I also do hope there are consequences for Anduin bailing on his kingdom. I love him. I totally get it but you can’t tell me his people aren’t gonna lose complete faith in him after he runs off AGAIN Like that.

I don’t mean he should be punished for having completely reasonable reactions to trauma just that..decisions do have consequences especially in regards to running a Kingdom

He’s gonna need to work to regain their faith in him or at least he should have to but idk if Blizz will do that. Like this should severely weaken his people’s faith in him as a leader.

[ohmeadows]

I'm curious how can you manage to write something so deranged (complementary) and it's still amazing?? Like I've been trying to write something that's out of my comfort zone but always stop halfway or chickened out because I don't know where or how to write the character. Is there a tip or notes that you can share with us? I love your stories btw and I've read all of them. Thank you so much for sharing 😘 I hope you're successful in everything that you do.

okay let me see what advice i can give!

first tip: pick a work you think does this really well and print it out. grab some highlighters. go over it like a hawk, highlighting the places you think they nailed that you struggle with. is it because they use some special verbs? are they speeding up or slowing down action? skipping over details you think you have to include or it won't make any sense? take note of what verbs they use, how they choreograph, how they set up the space and scene. this is a bit of tedious process but it teaches you so much about how others do it if you're willing to put in the time, and is just a great writing habit overall imo.

second tip: i chicken out a lot too! sometimes i have to turn that shame around. like okay, what's stopping me. i'm posting something online and no one knows who i am irl, check. sometimes i make an entirely new ao3 account just to feel safe about it. sometimes that shame can be utilized in the characters. shame when used right can be really hot, because you want to show how much a character wants something, can't stop thinking about it, even though it makes them melt from shame. and then keep upping the ante until they can't resist the desire anymore.

third tip: contrary to popular belief i think almost any kink i feasibly care about can happen with any character if you build up the setting well enough. the simplest formula is framing it as a problem character A has, and character B offers a solution. limited POV to one character means limited knowledge, so you can also play with "oh my god why are they behaving so annoying/sluttily/weird around me? ooooh oh ok they want to do [nasty kink]" and then comes a period of reflection, wrestling with it. i sometimes straight up project my own thoughts into this zone to process and be able to actually write it hahaha. it's really sexy and good tension to show the internal friction of wanting something and getting just a taste, and realizing ah shit you want it even more now.

fourth tip: if the kink is really far out of your comfort zone, write like a stepping stone guide building up to it (say, lactation might be too far out. okay. breastplay? tit bondage? sucking on nipples really intensely? nipple clamps? oiled up breasts?). and see how far you can go along it. maybe you need to stop halfway in one fic but the next time you can go a little further, and the third time you make it all the way. it is completely fine and actually really cool to explore the same kinks over and over and i promise readers won't get tired!

fifth tip: this is more something i love to read than what i usually write myself, but: character A comes across a kink in media. they begin to research it, think about it, and maybe tell character B or B finds out through accident. turns out, B is intrigued and into it. this formula works really well in building up, pouring research into it, allowing yourself to linger in doubts and details and hesitations... this whole thing, is it a trope? it should be. i love it. and it works so well with so many kinks!

okay i hope even a smidge in here was of use to you, and if you need any help with more specifics or generics my askbox is always open!