#plot twist: I am the editor

[mirilich]

I am angry and it's late, time to write a strongly worded post to the editor.

What went wrong? - chapter 1

aka "The Graveyard of Dreams"

It's blue.

It's always the blue one that screw things.

This never happens when its white or grey, it's always blue that is the cursed color.

The European masters of the past had to use lapis lazuli powder to create blue pigment for their paintings, it was an expensive color so it was mostly used to paint the robes of virgin Mary.

Mesoamericans came up with their own formula to achieve the blessed color, their technical mastery were such that the so called 'Maya blue' had remarkable durability, withstanding for centuries. It is said that this pigment was used to paint the bodies of human sacrifices for the gods.

Society forgot it's origins, manufacturing blue commodities with absolute disregard for the past but the Blue never forgets.

I had a PLA printer. I knew it was a very cheap brand, it constantly had problems but I persisted until a blue filament produced so many failures I gave up.

Years later I get a resin printer, everything is doing great until we bought a blue resin on sale. I usually go for white and grey but hey, it was on sale. It was working fine for a while until suddenly all prints started failing, my usual maintenance was not proving fruitful at solving anything, I was not even getting misprints, nothing, absolutely nothing was happening.

I decide to go deeper and remove the vat, I check under it and discover the resin was leaking. I clean it and try again, still nothing. Time to go deeper, I slowly start disassembling it, to my horror I find blue resin leaking inside the printer, atop the electronic components plus the print screen had cured resin all over it explaining why nothing was being printed.

I check the price of a new print screen, its almost the price of an entire new printer.

It's the Blue once again taking its toll. It did not forget it was once the color of the gods.

[babyleostuff]

writer in the dark

you found working on your manuscript in bed a blessing and a curse at the same time. the blessing: warm covers and soft pillows. the curse: your boyfriend.

🖋️ THEME: fluff, late night conversations, pouty and dramatic cheol (nothing new) 🖋️ PAIRING: idol!seungcheol x writer fem!reader 🖋️ WORD COUNT: 1.1k

the gentle, fruity scent of your freshly brewed tea minghao brought seungcheol from his last trip to china filled your bedroom from where it was standing on your bedside table. of course, that would only last only until your boyfriend came out of the shower, thoroughly sprayed with his favourite cologne he wore even to bed. as much as you enjoyed it during the day, sometimes you felt suffocated with the scent at night, especially when your boyfriend went into koala bear mode. which happened at least five out of seven nights. 

you sighed and rubbed your eyes, feeling tiredness settle in your muscles. your fingers felt tense and you’d go as far as to say sore from the hours you spent typing on your keyboard. but the deadlines were quickly approaching, and your agent would not appreciate another delay in the schedule. the second book in your next trilogy was one of the most anticipated books for the upcoming year, so there was no room for tired and sore fingers. 

even though they felt three taps away from falling off your hand. 

“which chapter are you on?” cheol’s head peeked out from the open bathroom door. 

without sparing him a glance, you reached for the cup and took a sip of your tea, careful not to burn yourself. “not telling you,” you said, scanning through your document for any comments from the editor. 

“oh come on,,” he mumbled, and with a towel over his head, walked over to your side of the bed. ”you never tell me anything. i always play you my music. i even let you help with the lyrics.”

“right,” you nodded. “ i’m still waiting for the credits.”

from the corner of your eye you noticed a small pout forming on his cherry lips. you wondered if he’d even learn that you’d never show him anything before the final draft, if he was lucky. writing was such an intimate thing, and you weren’t sure you’d ever be able to show him something that wasn’t nearly perfect in your eyes. 

he’d definitely claw his eyes out if he saw what your first drafts looked like. 

“look, baby, writing songs and books is not the same,” finally, you turned your head, meeting his big, brown eyes. “there’s no point in showing you anything without any context and how would you feel if i told you the plot twist?”

he sighed and pulled the towel over his face. “i hate it when you’re right,” he groaned.

you got back to reading feedback left by your beta readers and editor, while seungcheol busied himself with the rest of his night routine, providing you with a nice background noise. as much as you loved writing with music, it was nice to listen to something else. 

‘what about the characters though?” he plopped on his side of the bed, fully clad in his baby blue PJs. “one of them surely must be extremely handsome, strong, dependable and smart.” 

a giggle escaped you. “are you sure you’re not talking about yourself?”

“no,” he simply said and scooted closer to you. “it’s just that every successful book has a character like that. just making sure you didn’t forget to write one.”

“thank you for informing me, when i’m 90% done with the final draft,” you said and looked down at your boyfriend, who was making himself cozy between all the pillows. he truly was a princess. 

“see, if we’d talk about it sooner you wouldn’t have an issue,” seungcheol grabbed your computer from your lap and pulled the covers to cover your upper body. 

“cheol, darling, how am i supposed to write with my hands under the blanket?”

he whipped his head, eyes distraught and wide, as if you’d just said the most cancelable thing he had heard in his career. 

“writing? we’re going to bed. you’re definitely going to bed,” he said. 

“i’m not,” you laughed and reached for your computer, but before you could grab it he whipped it out of your reach. “baby, what are you doing?” 

seungcheol gently grabbed your chin in his hand. “you’ve been doing nothing but sit at your pretty ass for hours and hours. i get that writing is your job, but it’s not healthy. what about your eyes? your back?”

“what about you and kkuma?” 

“not the point,” he said, unamused. “the most i’ve seen you this week was during breakfast and maybe in the evening if you haven’t already passed out. you need to rest.”

“but-.”

your head crashed against his soft chest, as he wrapped his strong arms around your shoulders and pressed you closer to his body that you knew as well as your own. 

“i honestly don’t care what you have to say, honey,” he said and pressed his lips against your forehead, then reached to switch off the light. “sleep. now.”

“okay, dad,” you mumbled, but draped your arm over his tummy nonetheless. you weren’t made of stone; obviously you missed him as well. you were just better at hiding it. 

a couple of minutes passed and you could feel your eyelids getting heavier with the second. your boyfriend was right in one thing – you really needed that rest, because not even the cologne managed to bother you. 

“you know,” cheol’s voice gently pulled you out from your sleepy state. “if you need to revise any of the sexy scenes we can do that now.” 

you slipped your hand under his PJs and ran your fingers over his tummy, making him shake with laughter. “you cannot be serious, choi seungcheol.” 

“i’m always serious when it comes to sexy time,” he ran his finger over his cheek. 

“first of all, did you just call fucking sexy time? and second, didn’t you tell me to rest?” 

his quiet giggle made your stomach warm with love. you loved writing, words, and imagining magical realms in your head, but if there was one thing you hated about being a writer was that you’d never be able to convey something as beautiful as your boyfriend’s voice on paper.

“yeah, but i figured you’d have an even better sleep, you know?” 

you shook your head. “you’re delusional.”

“oh, sorry for wanting to make my girlfriend feel good.”

“i already feel good. like this,” you said, and nuzzled further up cheol’s neck, placing a small kiss on his jaw.

“yeah, because your extremely handsome, strong, dependable, and smart man is actually real.”  

“one day i’m going to make you sleep on the couch,” you grumbled. “now let me sleep.”

you could feel his lips widen in a smile against your forehead. “i love you,” he whispered, which was the last thing you heard before falling asleep, enveloped in warmth, fluff, and his cologne.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

30 Sickos, 3.5 Stars, and Pervert Writers

As I gear up to publish Detente for the Ravenous, I've been thinking a lot about these tweets. I know that my writing is solid, but it's not groundbreaking. My designs are fun, but they're not revolutionary. My prose is simple, my plots well-trodden. The fights and monsters kick ass, but god help me my romance is milquetoast at best. It's not what I'm interested in. I'm interested in the 30 years war and Catholic kaiju.

We like to quantify things, online. When I'm shopping for games, I sort by "most popular" and "highest rated." I don't want my time to be wasted, I don't want to spend my money sub-optimally. It's easier to connect to folks over a movie that 3 million people watched as opposed to a podcast listened to by a few hundred. I am not criticizing the impulse. Life is too short, and none of us have enough money.

But as a creator, whatever that means, I think I have to get comfortable with my shortcomings, and be honest about what I actually care about. I am not interested in writing a novel that appeals to all people. I am interested in writing a novel where they assassinate Pope Kissinger. That doesn't mean I won't ever try to improve my romance, or make my character arcs less predictable. But if I am gonna write another book, I have to write it for me, not for my imagined literary agent or Big 5 editor.

There's this great manifesto on itchio by “Average Urotsukidōji Enjoyer," called "Good Writers are Perverts." It touches on this sentiment that I've been stewing on, and I think this passage crystalizes what I'm trying to do with my own work.

I know my best work is the work of the pervert, the ex catholic who grew up on Naruto, the military history dork who trained for years to save lives instead of taking them. That is the stuff that makes me want to create, the hope that I can take all my stupid interests and life experiences and twist them into something at least partially interesting, to hit that 3.5 star rating that isn't all things to all people, but is at least one really good thing to a few people. If a handful of young folks get ahold of my work and it changes their lives in a small way forever, then I'll be happy.

I hope that as art becomes less profitable, as financial incentives only encourage the bland and inoffensive, the tried and true instead of niche and experimental, more artists double down, go deep instead of wide. I'm not afraid to fail, I'm afraid of trying so hard to be loved that I stop giving a shit about the craft

[tfone-continuity-au]

hello!! it's my first time ever asking a question on tumblr lol

I saw the animatic a few weeks back and I kinda forgot about it since I couldn't find this blog- fortunately, My Way got stuck in my head, which was a great reminder to try and find this again XD

anyways uh questions

What is the basic plot of this AU, and what prompted you to make it? (WHY DO BOTH BEE AND ELITA DIE ANSWER ME GRABS YOU BY THE SHOULDERS /silly)

Do you intend to make some sort of masterpost for this soon?

What program did you make the animatic on? And how long did it take you?

and uh yeah that's it :D

Oh my gosh hi ;D!! Welcome!! And yea dw I might’ve misplaced a hyphen or two in the animatic so that probably didn’t help lol

Anywho!! The basic plot for this AU is, of course, continuing where TFone left off! In specifics though, this all came from the simple idea of:

“What if Bee tried to fix the rift between Megs and Optimus during the war?”

With TFone giving Bee an actual relationship to D prior to the war, the idea he’d still try to fix things and mediate between them even as their situation devolves was a really appealing twist on the format to me.

So, the AU basically takes the war and history we know and interjects it with a “3rd party” mediation via Bee’s attempts as he kinda represents all the bots fighting regardless of the side. Finding bits of middle ground, compromise, rules of war, etc between the them even as it descends.

Starting from this testy alliance to defeat the Quintessons, to conflict and battles over land, resources, or control, until finally an all out civil war for rule over Cybertron.

It focuses heavily on the characters and their relationships with one another as the world caves in… and I’ll be bringing a fair good bit into this because character dynamics ;>

;D as for that middle question there… all I’m gonna say is trust me. I have agonized hours over those two scenes. Their deaths each mark a turning point in the war and are critical to story. Elita’s especially, but she gets alot of time in the spotlight before it and arguably one of the most important parts! She’s definitely become a favourite as I’ve been outlining and writing all this eheheh

Also there will be an alternate “happier” ending to this because even I’m coping LMAO

Also I do intend to make a masterpost! I didn’t expect the animatic to blow up so much and was unprepared for the popularity XD

I am currently writing the first 5 chapters for the fanfic that will accompany this and tell the bulk of the story. Once they’re done, it all goes live at once on AO3 to kick it off! Then I’ll pin the masterpost for everything with links/explanations ;]

I used Procreate for the art and LumaFusion Video Editor for the production of it! Was around 5~ months of work whenever I had the time to squeeze it in!

Thank you so much for your interest and reaching out ;Dc!!! Really makes me excited other people loved my nonsense as much as I adored making it!!!

I hope this answered your questions and feel free to ask if you or anyone else for that matter has any!! I love yapping about this nonsense Ehe

[pagerunner-j]

Fair warning, this is probably going to be incoherent. I haven't slept much and I am in a mood.

-

I have so many criticisms of CR campaign 3, and a fair few about the finale in particular, but here's where I'm drawing a line in the sand. The sort of complaints from people who've put all their energy into clinging onto a pet tragedy, and then whining about how this story "undoes" it, are doing my head in. It's exactly like the complaints about Donna's story in the DW 60th anniversary specials and I hated hearing it then, too. Because a plot that's still willing to grapple with the long-term effects of something tragic, even though the story eventually turns in a different direction, doesn't erase the fact that the tragedy happened. It's just a story that's willing to let its characters change and circumstances soften until eventually, finally, they might find somewhere to put those burdens down. It's a story that's willing to take a breather in the end and be kind.

What in the world is wrong with that?

Seriously, that's the part we're choosing to be up in arms about?

This?

There's a very real point at which I feel like this attitude is a twisted-up mess of some weird sort of sunk-cost fallacy, crossed with grimdark nonsense. Like, to return to DW, Sally Sparrow brooding through life going "sad is happy for deep people" was not supposed to be aspirational. That was self-absorbed drama-queen bullshit from the get-go. Spending all your time wallowing in misery (and especially other people's misery. Fictional misery, even. I mean, how selfish is that? You want all the woe in the world to be melodramatic about, but none of the personal consequences you claim to be All About, because ugh, that might...suck...? Yeah, no kidding) and pretending that that's more real and worthy and smart, and that it gives you a superior perspective to everyone else? It doesn't. It's not a healthy way to live. And insisting that everyone else has to put up with a sad thing forever, too, because you've pinned that much importance and your own self-worth on it, is really just you dumping your own misery on everyone else in order to go on proving your case.

And it is so much worse (warning here from Editor Page: personal rant ahead, because yeah, this is why I'm getting so angry and frustrated) to do that straight at people who've lived through years of very real tragedy, who are desperate for any of that to get lifted and find reasons to keep trudging on, somehow, somehow, wanting some shred of hope fucking anywhere, please, and who really don't need sanctimonious lectures about someone else's own supposedly superior understanding and how I guess people are just shallow and stupid if they aren't willing to wallow in the murk forever while droning on about how that means they know better. Even if they fucking don't. Give it a rest.

...and, um, yeah, that might be me projecting a wee bit. just possibly.

But I'm exhausted with listening to people who maybe need to stop listening to themselves talk for a bit and could use a smack upside the head with the perspective stick once in a while.

The perspective stick I'm holding says this:

The consequences you won't shut up about still happened. And "consequences" doesn't only mean misery and death and that's it forever. As far as I'm concerned, consequences matter a whole lot more if you still have to live with it. That you have to accept that certain things have permanently changed you and you're still bearing the marks, and even if something good comes along, you're still going to have to do the work to figure out how you fit with that, now. But that still doesn't exclude the possibility that better things could come of it. If you can't believe that, what's the point?

Groaning on about how tragedy is forever and it's worthless if it isn't is honestly the easy, lazy, selfish way out. It's collapsing under grief and then insisting that the rest of the world does, too, because otherwise you're feeling called out and invalidated about the fact that you gave in. And personally, especially after spending a good decade absolutely clinging on by my fingernails trying not to do the same, I'm not fucking here for that. Ever.

So yeah. tl;dr: Some of y'all self-absorbed drama queens need to get the fuck over yourselves and try letting some joy back into your lives once in a while.

Rant ends.

*faceplants into a pillow*

[garkgatiss]

{{esquivalience}}, The Auteur, and Doctor Who the TV Show

alright so this novella.

First, its provenance: I was googling the Twist at the End song last week because it's catchy as hell. I ended up on the Tardis wiki and realized that there was a song by the exact same name that appeared in a licensed DWU novella that was published April 9th. As in, last month. Which is weird. It's hard to say how weird, but given the timing, it either has to be a) pure coincidence (lol), b) someone who worked on the show abusing their advance knowledge of plot details for personal gain, or c) intentional coordination between showrunner and novella-writer, a la Joe Lidster writing John Watson’s blog for BBC Sherlock.

The likelihood of (a) is decreasing by the week. I feel like I have to entertain the idea of (b) happening, but it's hard to square why a DWU-writing supernerd who is also involved somehow with the production of the show would risk a lifetime of blackballing from DW for a bit of cheap promotion for their extended-universe tie-in novella. I am so sorry to be saying this, but I think (c) might actually have legs.

The novella's title is {{esquivalience}}, which is a fake word invented in real life by editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary. The invented word means "deliberate shirking of one's official duties", and it was added to the dictionary to protect the copyright of the electronic version. In S9, Face the Raven showed us a “trap street", i.e. a fake street drawn on a map by a mapmaker to identify any copyright infringement of said map -- a dictionary entry for a word made up by the dictionary editors operates similarly as a copy-trap. The definition is apt for a copy-trap as well, because anyone illicitly copying a dictionary is themselves shirking a job they ought to be doing themselves... it's clever, it's very fun, we're off to a great start.

{{a crash course in esquivalience below the cut}}

THE STORY:

The unnamed protagonist applies for a custodial job at this library that serves basically as a databank for the history of everything in the universe. If a book about something is thrown away, that something ceases to have ever existed. Exhibit A: Protagonist works in the Dead & Dying Language Department. They throw away The Book of Belgian Dutch, and a) a couple coworkers with Belgian Dutch heritage either disappear or get completely different names/family trees, and also b) everyone quickly forgets that Belgian Dutch was ever a thing to begin with.

The librarians cover for this accidental deletion of reality by copying/fudging a new book on "Belgian Gerench", their name for what they replace Belgian Dutch with. They try to catch most of the people who were deleted, bring them back, and fit them into that new language/culture/ethnicity bucket they just made up.

(The narration explains that because both Belgian and Dutch still exist separately as concepts, there aren't too many knock-on effects in terms of loanwords in other languages that needed to be modified/recovered. It also explains that time-traveling back to make an exact copy of The Book of Belgian Dutch wouldn't work because of the universe's copyright laws or something.)

Protag then comes after the head of their department, the Head Dictionary Contributor, or Head DC. They find him in a hidden room called the Internal Reference Room. Instead of languages, the books here hold the life stories of every employee, which auto-update as the person lives their life, but can also be edited or destroyed to alter that person's reality. Protag sits down with the Head DC's lifebook and starts adding and erasing things.

It turns out that Head DC knows how wrong editing these books can go from personal experience. Years ago, wanting to leave his mark on the universe, the Head DC chose to add his own copy-trap into The Book of Dutch -- the fake word "esquivalience". This action seemingly created the concept of cutting corners at your job, leading to the insufficient vetting of Protag for this job and therefore their subsequent hiring, which results in Head DC's eventual death.

Head DC pleads with Protag for his life, but Protag is undeterred. They finally tear out the final page in Head DC's book, which kills him. Protag then writes themselves in as Head DC. Settling into their new role, they turn their attention to The Book of English (8th to 25th Century). They first look up the dictionary entry for “esquivalience”, which says it came to English from Dutch, and then flips to the entries for “ravel" and “unravel”, described as contranyms from Dutch roots, both “meaning variably to tangle or to fray”.

This is the central story of the novella. There is also a Prelude and Postlude that describe the lives of two young men, first in a reality in which they never meet, and then in a reality in which they do meet and fall in love (their meeting is enabled by one of them skivving off work in time to make it to see the movie where they first meet -- esquivalience!)

Just before the Postlude, there is also printed the lyrics to a song (see below), and an excerpt from The Book of English, this volume covering the 4th to 5th billionth centuries of history. This excerpt again gives the definition of “unravel”, but refers the reader to an appendix for the full list of definition, and notes they are “largely in usage as reference to Unravel, The” and “N.B. to be used with extreme care and caution”.

NOVELLA-SHOW CONNECTIONS:

Mavity [Wild Blue Yonder]: Mavity happened all the way back in Wild Blue Yonder, so it's not necessarily surprising to see it in a novella published in April 9, 2024, but there's a whole scene establishing that the M has seemingly replaced the G in all Romance languages, while Domhantarraingt in Irish-Gaelic is unaffected.

Rope [The Church on Ruby Road]: We're all learning the vocabulary of rope now! The Unravel is what the novella calls the meta-historical revisions caused by making edits to the books. There are also rope/weaving metaphors everywhere. Again, the rope themes of the TV show predate the April 9 novella just far enough that in theory it would have been possible for the novella to have taken inspiration from the 2023 Christmas Special. Except. The wiki page for The Unravel credits ownership of the concept to Jamie H. Cowan, the author of the novella. Not just that, but The Unravel was used – with credit to Jamie – in a DWU short story collection published December 26, 2023 – the day after The Church on Ruby Road aired.

Dot and Bubble [Dot and Bubble] : At this point, “Dot and Bubble” is a contextless episode title to me, first announced on March 31. In the novella, we get this:

The Twist At The End [The Devil’s Chord] : Just before the novella's Postlude, there are the lyrics to a song called “The Twist At The End”. Just listed there, no context, like an azlyrics.com entry. They are not the same lyrics as the song in The Devil's Chord, but then, meta-historical revision would kind of be the point, wouldn't it? There's just this sentence to connect it to anything happening in the narration: "Somewhere, in the far distance, as ______ continued to erase, an old 1960s Earth tune began to play."

EDITED TO ADD: @corallapis has pointed out to me that not only did the existence of the song "Twist at the End" by John Smith and the Common Men leak, but the novella's author tweeted about it in December 2023.

The Chumerian languages of the planet B’llauit, for instance, needed much consideration. Particularly Krulvan. There was still a great deal of work to be done in compiling the post-technoweb aspects of Krulvan. Like how most emotional words and phrases contracted more and more, until finally, they were little more than abbreviations. The old dot-and-bubble effect.

A parent’s love was no longer expressed post-technoweb as “Kal-at lur amoi”, but instead as merely “KLA”. Which needed to be carefully distinguished in the relevant encyclopedia from another abbreviated Krulvan phrase “Kal’ati Lepr’en Acrumpsal” – which was something rather equivalent to the expletives of other languages like “D’Arvit”, or “Bleno”.

It's only a brief mention in the book, so it's possible in theory that it was added after the episode titles were released, or even after the novella’s publication (Amazon allows post-publication changes up to 10% of the text, and it’s not possible to track those changes). I’ve included the second paragraph because it’s interesting that the example they’ve given is the word for a parent’s love, which we can see as a running theme in this season of DW (though Moffat has said before that the only thing he writes about is a parent’s love, so who knows).

Not the strongest evidence of two-way coordination, but we may learn more when the episode airs.

Dutch [Space Babies, Boom]: Yeah, as in, the Dutch language. The words “spoor” & “smelt” both get a "oo, good word!" callout, spoor in Space Babies and smelt in Boom. These words both have Dutch roots. Splice, the daughter's name in Boom, is not only from a Dutch root, but also means the joining two pieces of rope. I read this novella just before Boom dropped on Disney+, so I can personally confirm that this is not a post-hoc addition to the novella. It hardly could have been anyway, this element is much more integral to the novella’s narrative than any of the other pieces.

The Auteur

This is where this all becomes relevant to the “Doctor Who is a TV Show” theory.

While the Protag is shredding the Head DC’s book, the Head DC is in the room, and what follows is an extremely meta narrative-aware pre-death monologue from the Head DC. He's pleading with Protag to stop changing things in his book, but he also refers to an "It" whose power surpasses them both.

He held eye contact with them as they looked up, “You didn’t pick up Belgian Dutch by chance. It’s how it plays. In weaving coincidences.”

“Just stop reading. Stop changing things. Stop, and we can be spared. Be free! If you keep going, then it will get what it wants. It is a happening [sic]. Out there, and in here in the basement. Everywhere. It will win if you keep going.”

“One day, you’ll make the same mistakes. Goddamn, you will. Because it’s all already written. It has already written it all. The paths, the choices. Rewrites, erasures, and even the contradictions. If you don't just... stop... it will... Unravel us all."

The "It" in question is presumably the author. Like an author writing a story, "It" plays by weaving coincidences, "It" gets what it wants when we keep reading, "It" has already written everything.

The Head DC mentions a special disposal chute, which had recently appeared as if by magic, which enabled Protag’s destruction of Belgian Dutch. Head DC’s references to this “It” suggest that his decision to create a word meaning cutting corners caused his eventual death, not by inventing the concept of cutting corners, but by creating a set-up that the Auteur, a godlike being that cares only for the rules of narrative, was compelled to write a satisfying follow-through for. The Auteur changed reality in order to weave a narratively-satisfying coincidence.

The Auteur is a character from the DW-spinoff series Faction Paradox. The creator of the Faction Paradox universe describes it as “on the surface an SF universe, but it works on the same principles as traditional folklore.”

I am but a humble Moffat scholar, so explaining the character of The Auteur is immediately getting into lore that I cannot even begin to decipher.

But it seems plausible that in the show we’re dealing with a godlike being, someone along the lines of Maestro or the Toymaker, but instead of caring only for the rules of play, cares only for the rules of narrative.

And this being, The Auteur, is altering reality and creating the narratively-satisfying coincidences in 14’s and 15’s timelines, possibly starting all the way back with the coincidence of 14 regenerating as David Tennant and immediately bumping into Donna Noble.

And it seems plausible that this season was created in cooperation with these DWU authors to whom concepts like The Auteur and The Unravel are licenced, and the novella is a tie-in text full of references to the current season to lead savvy superfans on a merry chase that foreshadows the season’s big bad.

Because I... don't really have another explanation for the existence of this novella at this point.

[mossnrocksnmarshwater]

occasionally, unbidden, lightlark comes to mind.

It is not a stand out book. It is a YA schlock that eventually gets sex in the second book. It's not HORRIBLE in terms of prose but it's not great.

But it has bad worldbuilding. But a lot of books have bad worldbuilding. Why am I entranced? There are a thousand books like this, I'm sure. It's shlock. That's the whole deal, there's always more like this.

But why has Lightlark grabbed me like this? There are so many other books it could have happened with, both better and worse. And yet-- it's lightlark and it's fumbling bumbling worldbuilding that have captured my mind.

Why was her name Isla Crown? That's such a dumb name.

Why choose to make the shadow people the villains? There was such poor motivations set up.

Every time something was introduced, it bent back on prior admissions and made prior worldbuilding worse. It contorted on itself, the plot twists bending and untwisting themselves by virtue of existing simultaneously.

Alex Aster I wish you had listened to a good editor.

[olderthannetfic]

How much planning do you think is good to do for fanfics? One of my dear friends goes in with a concept, a handful of cool scenes in mind and just makes up the rest as she goes along. Another plans everything in advance, from start to finish, before she does a first draft. I've been an editor for both and have helped both brainstorm things for years, but I haven't written a story of my own before. Now that I'm about to start, I find myself unsure if I should be doing more planning or not. I have a premise, I have a mystery for the characters to solve and I know the answer to that mystery, and I know how it gets resolved. But there's a lot things I don't know about how we're going to get from the beginning to the end. How much am I supposed to know before I start writing fanfic?

--

How much of a pantser are you?

It's the same as any other writing: it depends on your personal style. I don't think most people do well with an outline so exhaustive it contains stage directions, but that's absolutely how my brain works.

For a mystery, you should probably know the major plot twists and red herrings ahead so you can make sure they all logically flow to that ending you have planned, but it also depends on the flavor of mystery. If you have an intricate conspiracy, it really needs to all work together. If you have a thriller, a man with a gun can come through the door any time you need word count and don't have ideas.

But in general, it's just all over the place and you can only know what type of writer you are by attempting projects and seeing how they go.

[dawn-in-waiting]

A Dynasty of Monsters

This week I also read ''A Dynasty of Monsters'' by David Annandale:

And I thought it was... not very good. Which is a surprise, because the author, David Annandale, has written dozens of books for Black Library. 40k (he's responsible for the Commissar Yarrick books), Age of Sigmar, some fantasy Warhammer. He has worked on long novels, short novels, audiobooks... And the book is well regarded online too, I've seen lots of people praising it.

To be fair, I think the plot was interesting, a city that prides itself on its purity needs the help of twisted vampires to survive an oncoming army of beastmen. Good, there's conflict there, they're going to clash. Loved one of the POV characters kind of falling for a vampire. A half vampire, half lizard-bat-dragon centaur. Girl, good for you, absolute monster fucker. She starts seeing the ideology of her city as prideful and full of hatred and learns to love the honesty of the monstrosity.

The Avengorii vampires end up coming as quite endearing. Their main flaw being that they are mindless blood hungry monsters only kept sane by the will of their queen, Lauka Vai. Which robs them of personality, in my opinion. They only exist as long as Vai allows them to exist, and at some points she sends everyone into a blood frenzy, regardless of their wants and feelings at the moment.

But the writing wast just not very good. It felt like a paycheck job. The team came up with a model and they tasked someone with writing a book to sell that model. A lot of the themes are shallow and unexplored. ''The humans are purist dicks and the vampires and noble beasts'', and that's repeated every single time, by every character in every chapter. Why are the humans assholes? Because they are. They are better than anyone else, they don't care about the poor, they live on a big platform on a city made of marble and diamonds. And the vampires are victims of hatred and prejudice, but they refuse to act against them because they're going to be the bigger person and teach them a lesson.

There was repetition, almost every vampire mentions ''Lauka Vai's lesson'' twice every time they show up. Yeah, I get it, she wants to show humans they are hypocrites, it's quite obvious. It's even spelled out three times in the novel, stop talking about ''the lesson''.

Near the end of the novel someone writes a song called ''The fires of the Colonnade'' and it's referenced in almost every paragraph. People sing it, people whistle it, talk about it, march to it... You never get to hear what it really says, because the writer is not a song writer, so you get a ''It's very cool, trust me, but you don't get to hear it''.

Some stuff is probably an editor's oversight. ''The Avengorii approached and blood rained from the sky, forming pools of blood on the field. The beatmen marched over the pools of blood. Pools of blood darkening under the shadow of the army advancing over them''.

I felt like I was reading Gart Marenghi: ''Something was pouring from his mouth. He examined his sleeve. Blood? Blood! Crimson, copper smelling blood, his blood. Blood, blood, blood…''

I understand that is cute to criticise a novelist for its writing when I sound like a cat that just learned to talk, but I am pretty stupid and this is my blog? so I write what I want.

So overall, I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, but it seems like people online thinks otherwise.

I move on to ''The last Volari'', another AoS soulblight novel. Hopefully it's better. It has a sequel coming out soon, so that's a good sign, right?

[inamindfarfaraway]

you said in tags once that you were thinking abt a Charlie and the chocolate factory animated series where the other kids get redeemed?? tell me more??? pls??

Gladly! I’m so happy that you’re interested in this! Sorry this answer took so long. I probably should have posted about my ideas sooner, I’ve been sitting on them for a while. But I only started actually consolidating them into a document after getting this ask and then I got really perfectionistic about making it good and finishing each section before I shared it (I am writing a full Season One outline because God help me). I will share the Chocument in its own post soon! The word count is currently over 25k! So look forward to that!

For now, here’s the show’s premise, backstory and some character notes. As concise as I can be (not very). It’s mostly the story of Season One, the book retelling, that I’m still ironing out.

Many thanks to my mutual @cornfieldsrambles for being my supporter and sounding board on this from the start. You’re the best, Corn.

OKAY SO

Premise:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but it's a 2D-animated musical kids’ show called The Chocolate Factory. The foundational twists are that the characters are three-dimensional and the narrative doesn’t always take Wonka’s side. As a result, the tour goes differently. Charlie still wins and the four naughty kids still make mistakes and suffer for them, but this time we actually see them learn; they have redemption arcs and recover from the bad parenting that shaped them. The adults are held more accountable, rather than portraying the kids as innately problematic. Charlie also has more agency, flaws and an arc. By the end of Season One, the Golden Ticket winners all apprentice under Wonka together as a team and start to become friends. My aim is to keep (a charitable, idealistic interpretation of) the spirit of the book intact while applying realistic psychology, dynamic character writing and a deeper, more nuanced approach to morality. 

Major themes: childhood and maturity, parenting, morality, responsibility, creativity.

The original story is so mean-spirited and many retellings escalate that even further. Why not try retelling it kinder and fairer?

Backstory:

It all started with my reblog of this post on the 9th of May, 2023.

The arguments were compelling, and inspired me to imagine a rough AU idea in the tags where the five kids become a team under Violet’s lead.

Corn loved these tags so much that they drew fanart(!!!!! ☺️🥰). Completely unprompted.

Then, after I gave some character design ideas, beginning to see this AU as my own continuity from the start despite the original post being specifically about the 1971 movie:

Their enthusiasm and our delightful DM exchanges are why just another one of my countless tag rambles grew into a large, prolific chocolate plot bunny. Many aspects of those character designs are now outdated, but I still like art style.

I have since reconsidered my dismissal of Charlie - the 2013 musical handles him really well, which inspired me a lot - he will be the protagonist of the series. He's also finally black, as Dahl wanted but his editor forbade! He is my precious little boy. I love him. (Though the show often basically has an ensemble cast, hence the title just being The Chocolate Factory because all the main characters are of similar importance and develop relationships with the factory.)

He and Violet are both foils to Wonka, reflecting the two main sides of his personality, the altruistic artist and the shrewd businessman. Each of the kids has something in common with him, but they have the most. Recognising himself in the naughty kids, having his expectations about how the tour will play out defied, seeing the good in humanity again and getting a support system who force him to deal with issues leads Wonka to improve himself to an extent; he never stops being a amazing, unsettling mad genius with an unconventional moral code, but he gets less cynical and self-righteous about it. I don't want to get into loads of detail here, but I'm trying really hard to do his iconic, captivating personality justice while somewhat deconstructing and then reconstructing it. He also doesn't have a backstory. He just Is. But he can Be a better version of himself.

The Oompa Loompas are fairies! Like, traditional folkloric fey. Creepy They're mostly controlled by the time of the story, because they have a deal/debt arrangement with Wonka and are directing their energy to working for him instead of kidnapping or cursing people, but they will cause problems if they're offended. Wonka Gets them. That should tell you a bit about him. Oh, and their magic has nothing to do with why his products are like that. While they use it for their jobs, the actual chocolate making and most of the factory's technology is all him and he says it's just science.

I'll save most information about the kids for later, but I will say that Augustus Gloop is very different. He's always the simplest of them, even across all the adaptations. Just a cruel fatphobic joke. So I'm pivoting his whole character away from gluttony. He does have issues with food, but they're more symptomatic of deeper problems and related to fatphobia and toxic diet culture's effects on mental health, and they're not his defining trait. His real fatal flaw is envy, and he might be one of the most complex and tragic characters? I just. I have to handle him with care, but my vision for him feels worth existing.

Thanks again! I hope that this taste of my project was a sweet one, and that I reach a place where I can share the Chocument soon (oh my God, is this a real pitch bible? What am I doing?).

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

If you had to pinpoint the main issue of MLB, the root of all evil if you may (aside from Astruc), what would it be?

If we're going super high level, it would be narrative consistency (I believe this is a synonym for "narrative coherence" or, at least, I've always used them pretty interchangeably and googling one finds you stuff on the other). I wanted to get an official definition of this term and wikipedia gave me this from a larger article on the theory of narrative paradigm:

Narrative coherence is the degree to which a story makes sense. Coherent stories are internally consistent, with sufficient detail, strong characters, and free of significant surprises. The ability to assess coherence is learned and improves with experience. Individuals assess a story's adherence by comparing it with similar stories. The ultimate test of narrative sense is whether the characters act reliably. If figures show continuity throughout their thoughts, motives, and actions, acceptance increases. However, characters behaving uncharacteristically destroy acceptance.

I also found a pretty good overview of the topic on the blog of a random editor. You can follow that link to read the whole thing, but I wanted to highlight this section on characters as I thought it was particularly relevant to the stuff I talk about on this blog:

Your characters will have their own personalities and behaviours that the reader will become familiar with as the story develops, so if you deviate from these patterns, the reader will notice. That’s why it’s important to maintain character consistency – that they would act in a way that is right and in keeping with their personality, rather than making them act out of character to make elements of the story fit.

As you can hopefully see from the above sources, the stuff I've talk about on here, and just generally thinking about the show, most of the issues with Miraculous have to do with the show being narratively incoherent. Characters do whatever the writers want them to do. Plot lines get dropped and picked back up then dropped (Lila) with no rhyme or reason. Big, meaningful setups lead to nothing (Gabriel learning all the temp heroes identities). Twists come out of nowhere (Kagami being a senti). They all indicate that something is majorly wrong here.

I am not involved in the production of this show, so I cannot tell you where all of these issues come from. It may be that the writing staff doesn't know what they're doing or it could be that unknown forces like marketing are driving the writers to do things that they'd rather not or it could be a mix of the two. For example, I'm pretty sure the magical charms we get in season four were only added to sell stuff like this and this, which is why I try to approach this show without pointing fingers at anyone too specific unless there's some hard evidence to back up what I'm saying. All I know is that this show has a massive writing problem and I'll end with a little advice on how I avoid this issue. It may or may not work for you. It all depends on your writing style.

When you sit down to write a story, it's very normal to not have a clear path for how to get from story point A to story point B. You don't need to find that path before you start writing. You just need to keep in mind that B is your goal and start figuring out how to logically get there.

I often describe this process as taking a journey with a known destination, but no planned route. However, just like with a road trip, the further you go, the more limited your options become because of the choices you made. If you skipped stopping at an interesting city or landmark, you can't change that fact and we're not turning the car around just so you can get a picture next to the big ball of string. You had your chance and you missed it. Accept that and move on.

Similarly, as you write your story, you have to own the choices you've already made on your journey. If you choose to let a character in on a massive secret (Alya learning Ladybug's identity), then you have to fully own how that choice would impact all elements of the story (Alya's opinion of Lila) not just the short sighted elements you wanted it to impact (note how Lila's not a thing in season four? Almost like they didn't plan out how to handle her and Alya at the same time?) Own the route you committed to and find a way to tell the next part of the story in a way that feels like it's on the same route and you'll be fine.

Does that mean occasionally having to give up on cool ideas that you really liked? Yep, but that's the nature of story telling. It's part of the reason why people are told to "kill their darlings." That's just a thing you have to learn to do if you want to be a good writer.

[writingtips-resources]

WELCOME TO

The World of Words and Whispers!

I’m Amber Wycis, the heart and soul behind this little corner of Tumblr.

My journey with words started, 8 years ago, as a ghostwriter who loves writing stories behind the scenes. It was a mix of late-night writing sessions, endless cups of coffee, and the occasional moment of staring at a blinking cursor.

But every moment has been worth it

Over time, I built a team of writers, editors, designers and together we created ProGhostWritingHub—a platform where we all can work together. But somewhere along the way, I realized I had stories of my own to tell.

So, I took the leap and became an author myself. I recently published my second book " Dare to Love the Enemy" and decided to share my first debut novel " The fairytale Unfolds" as a free gift for my readers—because every story deserves to be shared, and every reader deserves a good story.

I created this blog as a collective space for everything I am and everything I do—from writing advice to publishing tips, tricks or guidance, from personal reflections to behind-the-scenes glimpses into my author and ghostwriting journey.

If you're a fellow writer, a curious reader, aspiring author, published author or someone just passing by, I hope you find something here that makes you feel at home.

Beyond sharing writing advice, I also want to encourage aspiring writers to consider ghostwriting as a career. It’s a fulfilling path that not only hones your skills but also allows you to make a living doing what you love—writing.

You’ll find plenty of tips, tricks, and insights from my own ghostwriting journey right here on this blog.

What Can You Expect from This Blog?

Here’s a little peek into what you’ll find:

Writing Tips & Tricks: Practical advice to strengthen your writing i.e. Outlining, plot twists, writing prompts, charchter building, world building, story structure etc with free templates, guides, workbooks and more.

Publishing Guidance: Lessons from my self-publishing and ghostwriting experiences.

Personal Reflections: Honest thoughts on writing, creativity, and life as an author.

Ghostwriting Career Tips: How to build a career, find clients, and get success as a ghostwriter.

Free Resources & Tools: Helpful goodies for writers.

Community Engagement: Chats, Q&As, and shared creative spaces.

Masterlists for Easy Access

I’ve organized the blog into three masterlists so you can easily find what you’re looking for:

Writing Advice Masterlist

From character development, plotting and world-building, story structure to writing your novel and editing.

Publishing & Ghostwriting Masterlist

Everything about self-publishing, agency work, and ghostwriting tips. Community & Personal

Reflections Masterlist

Chats, events, and my own musings on the writing life.

You’ll find these masterlists pinned on my blog for quick reference SOON.

This blog is more than just posts and masterlists—it’s a space to connect, learn, and grow. Whether you dream of publishing your own novel or building a career as a ghostwriter, or JUST getting writing tips & resources, I’m here to guide and cheer you on every step of the way.

Welcome aboard, and happy writing! ✨

[tryslora]

...but is it Hugo worthy?

The subconscious can be an evil thing.

When I was a teenager (15 to be exact) I already knew I wanted to be a writer, and had been working at my craft (such as it was) for three long years. I was starting to submit stories (they were rejected). I was growing up in fandom, attending literary SF cons, and on Labor Day weekend in 1983, I was at ConStellation—the World SF convention in Baltimore.

I attended the Hugo Award ceremony, and there I watched Connie Willis win her first Hugo for her Novelette “Fire Watch” (yes, I went and fact-checked my memory on this part). During her speech, she referenced being a teenager and listening to someone else give a speech about winning a Hugo… and I thought… this is my defining moment. I will never forget this. And when I win my own Hugo, I will reference this story.

I have obviously never won a Hugo.

I came to realize long ago that the words I write are not the kinds of stories that win the big awards. This is okay! And this is not a pity party. I write accessible fiction—popcorn fiction, I call it. The kind that has fairly simple language, character-oriented plotlines, and hopefully makes a reader want to sit down and read the whole thing (eat the whole bowl) and maybe grab the next because I’ve whet their appetite.

I know this is how my brain works. When I aim for a more literary style, I end up with incomprehensible text, plots that make no sense, and allusions that are weird enough to take a person out of the story. So… I don’t.

But I still have this expectation baked into my skin—into my soul—that the way to be a Real Writer is to write the kinds of stories that make someone say “this is the best thing I’ve read all year” and nominate it for an award.

Sometimes I read a story (of any length) by a writer who is my peer in some manner and I feel the imposter syndrome bubble up, surrounding me until I can’t think—can’t breathe—any more. The story is so good and sometimes is buried under independent or small press publishing where I know it won’t get the eyes/readers it deserves. I want to scream about it from the rooftops. This story, this amazing story that won’t have a ton of eyes on it, is in my mind Hugo worthy (or Nebula worthy… substitute in whatever proper award fits in your mind).

I also hear that little voice that says “well, isn’t it good you didn’t apply this anthology/magazine/press” or worse yet “you are in this too, and your work isn’t nearly this good” because that’s what I internalized as a teen. That this is the only way to be good. That this wonderful story I am reading, which twists words and plot in unique and fascinating ways, is the only kind of story that merits praise.

I don’t think that voice will ever completely go away.

I do feel better as I continue reading the anthology/magazine/whatever and realize that not every single story in it gives me that same “OMG” reaction. When I sit down and think about it, I know that love of a particular story is subjective. There is no truly objective way to judge the worth of words (despite what our high school English teachers tried to tell us). What a story is, and how it is told, may touch my soul and no one else’s. Or vice versa. I’ve read entire anthologies that are highly regarded without a single story striking me as amazing.

Sometimes I think back to what we say about writing fanfic: write what you love, and there is someone out there looking for this exact story who will be thrilled to find it.

I try to remind myself of this when I fall into the “is it Hugo worthy?” downward spiral.

For every story that sells, someone loves it enough to buy it. And they love it enough to think that there will be others who love it, too.

For every story that is written, there might be that editor out there—the one with all that love for the story (and it might take several failures before finding that one with the love). The trick is drafting the best set of words to tell the story to trip that moment of “I love that” in a reader’s eyes. 

The words don’t have to be necessarily elevated. Floofy. Literary. But they have to tell the story that I want to tell.

And if that story is one fluffy popped kernel in a bowl, that’s okay. My goal can be to make my reader reach for the next, rather than being award-worthy. It’s okay to be a delicious salty snack; people talk about those with joy, too.

I will probably never win a Hugo. I am still delighted every time someone bumps into me at a con and says “Oh, that’s how I know you!” after hearing about the books, stories, and fics I have written. Touching hearts is joy in itself.

[readingtillmidnight]

Beyond the Bounds of Infinity: An Anthology of Diverse Horror

Release date: 10 July 2024

Genre: adult cosmic horror anthology

Synopsis

Welcome to a world of horror viewed through a kaleidoscope lens. Embark on a journey to untangle the writhing tendrils of human terror in a dimension where the possible and impossible blend; an unstable realm where comfort can be found in the coldest pits, and dark gods feast upon the sweetest suffering, where infernal sounds birth silent letters that drift along midnight shores and the unexplained lurks beneath crumbling urban structures. Step over the edge of what you think you know, and find yourself…Beyond the Bounds of Infinity!

Featuring stories by L. Marie Wood, S.A. Cosby, Jessica McHugh, and Mary SanGiovanni. alongside newer voices like Cassius Kilroy, Jessica L. Sparrow, and Vicky Velvet—Beyond the Bounds of Infinity offers a collection of weird fiction and cosmic horror stories that are diverse down to the cellular level. From Taíno folk horror to the horror of identity in a world that just doesn’t understand, from cozy to apocalyptic, and everything in between, let these authors show you what fear really is, and what it means to them.

Review

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

This book begins with a foreword by the editor about how he was inspired to create this anthology; to put together a collection of diverse cosmic horror stories by diverse authors to push back against the genre's racist and xenophobic origins.

This anthology does exactly that. There are a good variety of authors of different races, orientations, genders etc. and the stories are also incredibly varied in terms of character diversity, plots, and Horrors™️. This anthology recasts marginalised people as the protagonists of their stories, with some stories even subverting cosmic horror's xenophobic origins to portray the oppressors as what they are.

My enjoyment varies from story to story, as do the writing styles, but for the most part I found most of the stories to be at least interesting and engaging. Some of the stories take on more experimental approaches to storytelling, though some attempts are more successful than others.

I'm going to go ahead and shout out some of my favourite stories from this collection, in no particular order.

My personal favourite was The Silent Letter by Chris Nelson. The author does an excellent job of setting up the premise and nails the writing. I was totally unnerved reading it and had to take short breaks between sections.

Effigies of Monstrous Things by Pedro Iniguez begins quite straightforwardly, but the set up pays off big time. The twist is excellent, and the gore was gruesome. I am not good at visualising in my head, but the descriptions were so vivid it gave me the ick. In a good way!

Another story I quite enjoyed was Fractures of Her Reflection by Amanda Headlee. Although I found it to be among the less terrifying stories of this collection, the premise is really interesting, and I found the protagonist to be rather compelling. I wish there was more of this story, I would love a whole book of this, but I suppose the beauty of short fiction is that it makes you crave more. Unrelated, but while I was reading the hospital scene the song Chihiro by Billie Eilish came on, and it was like watching the epic climax of a movie with an amazing soundtrack, which elevated my experience of this story for sure.

The Things We Did in the Dark by Julia Darcey was rather straightforward, but surprisingly tender and sad.

In the House, There Were Teeth and There Were Eyes by Ichabod Kassius Kilroy is super weird, possibly the weirdest story here. I have no idea what's going on, but I liked this. I think. (Also the author has the coolest name ever.)

I have included the list of stories, as well as content warnings, although it's possible that I may have missed some, and I'm straight up not sure how to warn for some things without giving spoilers, so do be warned.

The Birth of Sound - Timaeus Bloom

CW: none?

Fractures of Her Reflection - Amanda Headlee

CW: gaslighting from a medical professional, medical content, hospital, injury, past death, car accident mention, past abuse

Live Free or Die - Danny Brzozowski

CW: transphobia, hate crime, blood, injury

The Silent Letter by Chris Nelson

CW: death, coma, gore, body horror

Effigies of Monstrous Things by Pedro Iniguez

CW: body horror, gore <- every other story has this, but take this one seriously

Six Underground by Vicky Velvet

CW: death, violence, confined spaces

You Have Joined the Livestream by Jessica McHugh

CW: sexism, misogyny, implied murder

Cracks by Mary SanGiovanni

CW: death, injury

The Things We Did in the Dark by Julia Darcey

CW: blood, death, darkness, confinement, confined spaces

In the House, There Were Teeth and There Were Eyes by Ichabod Kassius Kilroy

CW: blood, death mention, body horror, blood, bodily fluids

A Dampened Embrace by Christopher Hann

CW: death, body horror

24 Points by S. A. Cosby

CW: death, gore, body horror, injury, self-mutilation

On the Shores of Midnight by Marnie Desdemona

CW: death, starvation, vomiting, drowning

Like Ants We March by Jorja Osha

CW: death, off page police brutality, gun violence mention

Burning Slumber by Jessica L. Sparrow

CW: self mutilation, eye gore, colonisation, mentions of sexual assault, murder

Passage by Cyrus Amelia Fisher

CW: death, starvation, non-graphic cannibalism, self harm for ritual purposes, blood

The Comfort of a Cold Pit by Michelle Tang

CW: past physical parental abuse, non-explicit eye gore

Gyges by Vaughn A. Jackson

CW: blood, fire, severe burns

Beggars Can't be Choosers by L. Marie Wood

CW: a little blood, held hostage

[notnun]

I Upended Yet Another Campus Urban Legend (我又弄崩了校园怪谈[无限]) | 榆鱼

Links: Novelupdates | Sleepy Little Mushrooms (Chrysanthemum Garden)

Tags: Infinite Flow, Horror, Mystery, Romance, School Life, Supernatural, Yaoi

Chapters: 222

Read on: 03/15/2025 to 03/19/2025

I've had my eye on this one for a while as SLM translated it! It was really worth the wait!

Lin Yi has entered the diploma mill Unnatural Engineering University, which has lot of.. Rules. Such as "There is only one gate on campus. If you find multiple gates, stay where you are and contact your advisor. Do not try to walk through the gate." or "The school will only provide hot water from 7:00-21:00. The rest of the time, please keep the tap twisted tightly shut.". Students are advised to follow the rules closely, unless they want to be targetted by the Rules.

Lin Yi enrolled here for a reason. He wants to experience as many Rules as he can.

He has to.

I think its rather hard to write a summary for this novel, as most of the things I want to mention are major spoilers 🫠 I really love and was surprised by this novel, its a really good infinite flow!! Lin Yi is a little weirdo and his chemistry with Qin Zhou is perfect. The author mentions that they're scared easily, and yet the atmosphere of the novel is really eerie. The second to last Rule World is probably my favourite because of the atmosphere!!

Lin Yi is awkward, extremely smart, and a little.. Unnatural. From the beginning, there's something a little off in his actions and train of thought. He has his own little world and aside from his goals, his curiosity really drives him. I wish I could talk more about him, but his identity and why he acts like he does is The major plot point of the novel. Just know that I love him, ok?

Qin Zhou is extroverted, smart, and incredibly capable. As the president of the Student Union, he runs the school and keeps the closest eye on the Rule Monsters. His initital attraction to Lin Yi and how it evolves to his overwhelming love at the end and AND DESPITE IT! [spoilers redacted!] is sooooooo good I loved the bits we saw of Qin Zhou's perspective on things. Lin Yi also worrying over how everyone entering the Rule Worlds with Qin Zhou rely on him too much is also *chef kiss* very good.

I absolutely loved almost every single instance in this novel. While not completely new, each one is presented to you in a compelling way that just makes the reader want more. Lin Yi's thought process and approach to solving the Rule Worlds is always interesting. Each mystery, and the eventual discoveries about the Rule Monsters themselves, felt new because of it! Also I don't think I've gotten this attatched to a Boss monster in an infinite flow (that you aren't supposed to like) since reading Top Horror Novelist. The 4-4 Rule Monster is my favourite 🥺

This novel also has a really good supporting cast! Ou Ying, Cheng Yang, and Ren Li all have their own little things and grow along with Lin Yi. I especially am glad that the author gives Cheng Yang a few times to shine when deducing the main plots of the Rule Worlds in the later levels, its nice to see a 'dumb' character get to the heart of things.

Overall I think you can see I enjoyed the novel... I will definitely reread this sometime in the future! And I'll definitely keep an eye on this author in the future 👍

How was the translation? Okay. SLM has an consistent issue in their translations of which they would definitely benefit by having a dedicated editor going over their uploads before they release it, but it doesn't make the translations unreadable. Typos, some oddly translated phrases, mild grammar mistakes.

Would I recommend the novel? Yes!!

Would I reread the novel? Absolutely.

Trigger Warnings: Gore, Torture, Disfigurement of humans for display purposes, suicide, Human experimentation, Vehicle accidents, Animal death, Animal abuse, Witchcraft/curses, Use of animal death in witchcraft, Corporal punishment, Child abuse, Mind control, Human trafficking, Slaves, Child abandonment, Calling a child 'mentally retarded', Drowning

Arc names and detailed triggers under the cut:

1) University

Gore

2) 7-7 Monster

Gore, Torture, Disfiguring humans to display them (Human swine, Vase girl)

3) University

Suicide mention

4) 2-6 Monster

Suicide, Gore

5) University

6) 16-8 Monster

Human experimentation, Gore (mild)

7) University

Suicide

8) 4-4 Monster

Vehicle accident

9) University

10) 8-4 Monster

Gore, Animal death, Killing animals for a curse, Witchcraft/Curses, Animal abuse

11) University

12) Off-Campus Monster

Gore, Corporal punishment, Child abuse, Vehicle accident (mention)

13) University

14) 1-3 Monster

Gore, Mind control, Human trafficking, Human slaves

15) University

16) 0-1 Monster

Child abandonment, Calling a child 'mentally retarded', Corporal punishment, Drowning (mention)

17) Extras

Child abandonment (mention, Jiang You extra)

I can't wait to come back to this novel in a year or two. Thanks for reading my review 💜

[uhreo]

Hello! I'm not really sure what to put in this... But! Let's start off with my name—I'm Oreo, you can use any pronouns to address me and when it comes to my sexuality—I'm pansexual.

I like to read, write, and ramble about my blorbos. I created this blog for the sole purpose of sharing ideas that have been bouncing around inside my head, and I like to hear what others have to say about pieces that I've written so I decided—why not make a blog?

I'm also of legal age (18+), I won't disclose what my actual age is due to how it makes me kind of uncomfortable...? Anyways, I might have moments of radio silence but don't worry! I'm still lurking around and probably drowning in heaps of school works—yes, I am still a student. Hence why I tend to have busy days or take small breaks.

My interests? Well... Honestly, my interest towards things tends to go off and on like a light switch. Twisted wonderland is one of the things that have kept me interested for quite a while now, I was here when the twst x reader tag was still quite empty and not a lot of twst writers existed back then... So yeah, quite a while. Oh! I also like mythology and folklores, I love hearing about different ancient stories from various countries—I think that might be one of the key reasons why I like monsterfics... I also like documentaries and as of now, I'm quite obsessed with watching documentaries regarding (pre-)historic times.

I don't really have a preferred genre when it comes to reading contents, as long as the plot interests me then I'm reading it! But I've been quite interested in content that deals with psychology—for example, yandere content. I like reading this sort of thing because I like seeing how different people portray the idea of someone being obsessed with someone to the point of insanity/madness. That doesn't mean that I support/like what happens in these fics/stories! Fictional things should always stay fictional.

I love editing/making gfx or graphics! I've been editing for 5 years now. My edits are still a bit mediocre compared to other editors due to how inconsistent I am with editing and practicing... Haha... Anyways! I also like making friends but I'm too shy ( no, not in a kawaii uwu way.. ) when it comes to the actual first time talking with someone who I find interesting or want to be friends with.. That's why I prefer to just reblog their posts and try to show my support and appreciation under the tags. If you'd like to be friends or mutuals with me then just hit me up with a message through my inbox or ask box! I would love to chat with any of you guys. I also consider people who comment on my posts as somewhat-of-a-friend! <3

If you'd like to know what twisted wonderland dorm I think suits me most... Well, I think I'd fit in with Ignihyde. While I might seem like an extrovert and the outgoing type of person, I'm actually quite introverted inside and I prefer to actually be alone or do things by myself because of how working with others sometimes puts a lot of pressure on me. I'm also quite knowledgeable when it comes to technology (at least I think so..)

My favorite twisted wonderland characters are mentioned in my pinned post so I might be a little biased when it comes to them.

— penned by the lady bride. 💐