#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.

[alliluyevas]

finished the tunnels series because i wanted to know how it ended after reading the first two books when i was about twelve. here’s a representation of the books:

[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

[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.

[somerandomdudelmao]

i was writing this all out in the tags of one of your recent updates (part 9 of 'donatello') when i realized i might as well just send it to you directly before i hit tag limit. (i hope you don't mind haha) this recent comic really reminded me of a concept that i've seen in your work that i haven't seen commented on a lot (though i could be wrong.)

casey jr and donatello's relationship as you've portrayed it is interesting in a number of ways. one i've been thinking about recently is the aspect of physical touch, and how you use that to represent the underlying themes/ideas behind their dynamic (and the story as a whole).

in the series, donnie is generally the least physical of his brothers, in that he prefers to be the one to initiate contact. (as a fellow autistic, i relate to this on a visceral level /lighthearted.) however, in your portrayal, this rule bends for casey's sake.

you've been setting up casey to follow in donatello's metaphorical footsteps for a while now, with this coming to fruition (to an extent) in recent storylines.

but going back a bit further. there's this major theme of... i guess i would call it 'responsibility?' that has been weaved through the story from... basically, day one.

in the first comic, his conversation with f!leo following leo's brief foray as a nugget (one of my favorite lines from this series overall is "...and leo-nugget." amazing, genuinely), casey admits to him that it was scary being responsible for someone that could get hurt so easily.

in one of the following chapters, we see the question asked: 'but who is there to save you?' (this chapter being a bit of a microcosm of the theme/story as a whole haha.)

though it was a chapter i had originally assumed was just for funsies and angst opportunities, i now realize i was wrong (though, i don't know exactly how intentional you were being with all of this, so i could be missing the mark here.) it actually sets up his arc rather nicely -- with casey being the one to save donatello when he was injured/knocked unconcious.

now, bringing this all back around to the original intent of this ask: how physical touch is used to represent their narrative dynamic (is that a thing? 'narrative dynamic'? am i just making shit up right now? whatever its fine /rehtorical)

taking everything in account, i want to return to a specific moment that really struck me in the comics leading up to donatello's death. it's the time where the resistance is being attacked, and donnie, despite being sick, goes out and uhhh... extirpates the problem (its always fun to see donnie go apeshit with dangerous weaponry /positive.)

during his dramatic reveal and attack, casey is by his side, clutching onto him not to cling, but to physically support him (at least, that's how i think that moment was supposed to be interpreted? i could be totally wrong here.)

i can't help but feel this is emblematic of the larger themes at play here-- i.e., casey's arc in relation to donatello.

i can't help but find it interesting how donatello, backbone of the resistance--

(despite his soft shell... which is why him no longer wearing his battle shell when he got sick was actually symbolic foreshadowing of-- *sound of gunshots*)

[editors note: i'm gonna stop myself right there, before this goes from ungodly long to "will break your dash and ask box if allowed to continue further"]

-- and certified plot mechanic (oh, so that's why he named it convenient plot-twist serum... finally, the mystery has been solved /joking /lighthearted), who is a very independent/self-sufficient character, allows casey jr to subvert his rules with casual touch. enough so, that when he is so weak that he can barely stand, he trusts casey jr to keep him upright.

out of everyone, he trusts casey.

casey jr, who, at the very beginning of the comic, saved donatello's life, physically carrying him back to the base. and casey jr, the one who, now, has rescued donatello from a fate worse than death, only to once again bring him back to safety.

(...can you tell i'm a little bit obsessed with your comic? lmao)

[also to note those most recent panels: a return to the "norm," with casey clinging to donatello's side, also providing a nice parallel. i know it's because he is very much reunited with his uncle who has been dead for two years, but c'mon. let me have this /joking.)]

anyway, i hope this made sense, and if you did manage to get through my pretentious (and probably somewhat far-fetched) rambles about the "symbolic narrative significance of touch" in a fanwork about the teenage mutant ninja turtles (/lighthearted), may i just say: i am in love with your work, and can only aspire to tell a story as engaging, heartfelt, and clever as the one you have woven.

you are a blessing to this fandom, and i am so excited to see where you go with this story.

I have to say that I didn't specifically do the mental planning for all of this. Most of this theme is simply because I do what I feel will be right. It's more of an intuitive desire than a prescribed plan, so it was pretty surprising to me to see this thought actually being formulated haha

Thank you:>

[yuurei20]

March, 2023 Interview with Twisted Wonderland Creator Toboso Yana

This interview can be viewed in its original form in the App store.

*Disclaimer: This is a fan translation and is not endorsed by anyone associated with Twst. Speaking on Yana's behalf makes me very nervous so I am very careful (and hire a professional proofreader for projects like this), but results may vary! Thank you for your understanding!

The Passion of Toboso Yana, the Creator of the Game’s Concept and Characters

Where did the inspiration for the world and characters of "Disney's Twisted Wonderland" come from? 

The person who painstakingly took care of every creative element and holds the key to the entire project is well-known manga artist Toboso Yana.

“I love constraints and aiming to do the best I possibly can when surrounded by hurdles.”

- Toboso Yana (concept and scenario creator, character designer)

“I have a manga series—Black Butler—that is still ongoing, so I had been turning down offers for long-term projects. But then I heard about this, and I love Disney’s works and their characters, so I said I’d do it without a moment’s hesitation. Before I even saw it my editor told me that I would be taking this one on for sure, like a line straight out of a western TV show, and he was absolutely right.

At that time, however, the only thing that had been decided was that it would be a game themed around Disney villains. We started working with Aniplex without knowing what it was we were actually going to make. 

Initially we thought ‘Well, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Disney is Hollywood,’ so our initial proposal was that the characters were young actors performing the different Disney IPs in a musical theater format. That was rejected. 

Disney has a lot of rules to ensure that their works are accessible to everyone regardless of age or gender, and a lot of our other proposals after the ‘training up actors for the theater’ idea were also turned down.

After that we came up with the idea of setting the game in a school, as a genre that is gaining recognition both in Japan and abroad.”

It took Toboso Yana about six months to come up with the idea that eventually became what the game is today. As she began creating stories and illustrating different elements, the world of “Twisted Wonderland” began to take shape.

“Working on my manga I would often submit different ideas over and over again until I received an OK, and then I would work closely with my editor to brush up on what had been approved. I think those experiences really came in handy.

Personally I love constraints and aiming to do the best I possibly can when surrounded by all the hurdles and decisions that come with game production. In the pre-development stages we were all communicating weekly with one another as I drew ideas for the rhythmic games, user interfaces and battle scenes. I think a big part of the fact that we were able to release Twst at all was that we were able to break through the parts of the game that we just couldn’t imagine or verbalize using the power of illustration."

The Message Entrusted to the Villains

In the main story you get to know seven dormitories and their unique students. You learn about the different sides to each of these characters, and, over time, the weaknesses and problems of these spiteful students who all seem to hate each other.

The depth of the storylines and character development also required a lot of effort from Toboso Yana. 

“The story and the characters were created almost simultaneously. The story itself is an homage to the fates suffered by the different Disney villains, but when fitting the characters into the story, they shouldn’t be on a radically more developed stage than the story or vice versa.

The full main plot that I was to share with Disney seemed linear and uninteresting, so I submitted character details and sub-plots at the same time.

I received very thorough checks and made corrections to what was returned to me to be resubmitted in a process that took about a year before I was really able to start writing the scenario for the game in earnest.

And since Disney’s works are universal stories, villain underlings are often a bit comical and subservient to their villain…so there was some difficulty coming up with multiple, individual characters based on them. 

For example, coming up with four different students based on the card soldiers from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, and creating a character based entirely on the poison apple from ‘Snow White’ was not easy. 

Basically I would put myself in the position of a card soldier and think about how the poison apple must have felt, then I wrote that down and built upon it. 

There is no way that apple wanted to become poisonous; it was forced into those circumstances against its will by the Queen just because it was the most appetizing option. Maybe that is what its thoughts would have been? etc.

While working out each character’s personality we created a huge character guide before the game was even released. Since we only had one or two lines for the voice actors to record in the beginning we had them read that character guide, and there were a few times that they showed genuine surprise at the sheer amount of information that was available for them to work with.”

And what’s beyond this story of villains facing their own weakness and frustrations that Toboso Yana has created? Therein lies a positive message that she hopes will reach the game’s users.

“Happy endings in Disney works come from righteous actions and love, but I believe that the villains are characters who do not get saved during the story. That is why, through this game, I want to portray the message that even if you get beat up all the way to a bad ending, you can grow from it and live your life without feeling discouraged.

Acting lame, obstinate, without hesitation, being open and honest—it’s not as bad as it sounds. 

I would like to paint a positive picture of living honestly with yourself and not worrying about others.

In today’s society there are so many people who live in fear of failure and are always walking on eggshells, but nobody’s flawless. It is exhausting to try to live your life so that no one will hate you.”

An original culture woven into costume

One of the elements of Twisted Wonderland that has had the most heart poured into it is the costume design.

Toboso Yana explains the struggles behind creating entirely unique designs meant to reinterpret the worlds of the movies upon which the seven dormitories were based.

“I started the design process from the dorm uniforms based on the original works and their worlds.

I wanted the costumes to be modern while also portraying the worldview of each dorm within this school where different countries, cultures and time periods all exist simultaneously. 

I also had to be constantly aware of whether some things were too close to existing cultures or fashion brands. For every look that actually made it into the final game, I created almost three times as many different designs for everything.

For example, for the designs for the Pomefiore dorm uniform, the more elements that were added, the wider the disconnect from the original, classic animation. It was very difficult, but eventually I settled upon using the silhouette as a starting point and reconstructing it from there, rather than focusing on individual elements. By incorporating what Japanese people consider to be classical (kimono), I was able to come up with a design reminiscent of the simple but elegant impression of the original ‘Snow White.’

For Diasomnia’s dorm uniform, I wanted to incorporate the relationship between Maleficent and her black-armored minion goons into the design. For that I chose leather as something that is both classical and rigid. I also incorporated harnesses, which were trendy in the world of high fashion at the time that I was making these designs.

While keeping the high fashion of the real world in mind, I also placed a lot of importance on expressing the unique culture of Twisted Wonderland itself through the clothing that appears in various events. For example the clothes in the ‘Harveston’s Kelkkalot’ and ‘Tamashina-Mina’ events aren’t reinterpretations of existing costumes. The starting point was designing a possible clothing history based on the daylight hours and the climate of those areas.

A region that is often deep in snow with short daylight hours is likely to develop a culture of embroidery, as people would spend long hours indoors. In hot climates, people might dye breathable materials such as cotton and linen, and maybe end up with something like this or that, etc. That was the thought process. That is how I design costumes based on the different textile histories and cultures of Twisted Wonderland.

The costumes for some of the events took almost two years to complete, including constant checks and revisions. There are often times when people will spend actual money in order to acquire these costumes, so I don’t want the quality to be anything less than one might expect to find at a fashionable store.

A member of staff at my own studio, D-6th, holds professional certifications in Western-style sewing and pattern making, so everything from the backs of the costumes to how they would be worn has been designed so that they could actually be functional. Since it is a world of magic, however, fantastical and dreamlike designs are just as important as realistic ones, so sometimes we decided, ’This part would look too awkward if it were sewn on, so let’s pretend it has been attached by magic.’"

The Epic Story of Twisted Wonderland

Since its launch in 2020, the world of Twisted Wonderland that you, the main character, have wandered into, has been developing spectacularly along the main story by Toboso Yana. Here, she explains the passion that comes from the creative development process:

“We have been able to achieve some degree of success through the combination of myself (who had only ever drawn manga), Aniplex (who were unaccustomed to creating games targeted at a female audience) and F4samurai (who handled the development and management on-site but had never attempted this genre before). 

I think one of the reasons for this is how close all three of us were able to work with one another. I enjoy every meeting that we have. Despite having no idea how game development works I am always coming up with these ideas, and they are always so accommodating and are never caught off guard. It feels like we have always been working by trial and error together.

The text of the first book is 35,000 Japanese characters long but book 6 has over 250,000. Up until about book 3 users are still getting to know the characters, so we prioritized helping people come to understand the world of Twst and keeping things compact. After the game was released, however, it felt like people were reading much more deeply into the story than we had anticipated. So now I include much more information than was provided during those setup chapters.

Going forward things are going to be on a much larger scale, incorporating not only the vertical and horizontal axes of the story but also expanding upon elements such as a present, past and future. 

Look forward to Book 7 (currently on chapter 2)!

What I thought of while writing the story is that villains can become extremely strong if they can keep their mindset flexible while developing mutual understanding without compromising their own identities.

The core of this game consists of becoming stronger while reaching an understanding with the strengths, weaknesses and points of view of those who are different from you.

I think that this might be similar to the stance that we all share as we create it. 

I think that I have become tougher myself since I first got involved with the development of Twst. I am a manga artist, and this is my first attempt at creating a game. I was surprised, at first, by how many situations there were where my skills were completely useless: meeting the different team members for the first time, being so unfamiliar with the culture of the gaming industry and the strictness of being judged as part of a global work instead of as an exclusively Japanese form of entertainment.

As a result I have reached the point where I am able to adapt my approach to different challenges when my first attempts fail, rather than simply fight them.

Since the characters in the story are villains they do not admit defeat, but they will admit when their opponent does well. Even if they don’t like each other, they will recognize each other’s abilities. 

We will continue to develop this game that emphasizes the spirit of villains that cannot be discouraged, and we hope that our users will continue to enjoy it."

[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.

[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.

[mossnrocksnbogwater]

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.

[galwithalibrarycard]

I watched Starkid’s new musical Cinderella’sCastle. I have some thoughts:

- I’m very unimpressed by the music and lyrics. It’s possible the electro pop style isn’t for me; at least I definitely don’t think it works for a whole musical. It sounds too samey and very few of the songs are memorable. The lyrics feel slapdash and nonsensical a lot of the time. More importantly though…

- A lot of the live singing is very, very rough, especially all of the Narrator’s falsetto. Jeff Blim could make those notes sound okay with autotune in the demos (I actually really liked the demos), but he cannot hit the constant high notes at all in this filmed live performance. I should not be cringing at the vocals in a musical. That’s a big problem. I think he needs to either write to his actual vocal range or cast a different actor who can go that high and still sound clean live. I also think the stepfamily’s Facade song sounded really rough at parts, and I know those women are good singers, so maybe it’s the vocal direction and their character voices dragging them down.

- The book has problems with incorrect word usage, like the writers were trying so hard for fantasy dialogue and cadence that they forgot to make sure their sentences made sense. You and your forebears will rule there forevermore” is wrong. “Forebears” means “ancestors”. The word you meant to use is “descendants”. And the stepmother saying, “I worried you’d befallen some awful fate” is incorrect usage. It should be “I worried that some awful fate had befallen you”. Get a copy editor on that script! (I say this as nicely as possible. I know that I’m more sensitive to usage and grammar issues than most audience members because I am a copy editor, and I don’t usually correct people without being asked, but professional musical books don’t usually make these mistakes. Not a great look.)

- I agree with the reviews I’ve seen that say the book relies way too much on un-funny sex jokes and crudeness. I didn’t laugh once. And I’ve enjoyed and laughed at many a previous Starkid show, so that’s saying something. The prince specifically is deeply obnoxious, and not in a fun way. James Tolbert deserves better material.

- I dislike that the troll forms of the stepmother and stepsisters all look exactly alike. Make the stepmother puppet bigger, a different color, let her keep her wig or give her a funny hat, anything. She should stand out as the biggest and scariest troll. In general, a troll should feel larger than life; these troll puppets have no character. The actors are trying, but these puppets are stunting their great performances.

- Things I liked: The actors were all trying their hardest with rough material, and they did a great job. Bryce Charles has a great voice and makes for a likable lead, and I wish I could see her in a better show. I’m in love with Kim Whalen as usual. Sir Hops-a-lot and Crumb are adorable and everything Joey Richter does with his puppet characters is a delight. The costumes are nice!

- The adaptation of Cinderella is very predictable, of course, but there’s one twist on an element of the tale that’s extremely creative and I liked a lot (even if it gave the stepsister the theoretical power to foil Cinderella’s comeback just by taking off her shoes, which seems like a plot hole).

- The fairytale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” already did the evil troll princess bit and did it better, and I wish that story would get adapted more often (and Cinderella a bit less often, LBR). Castle isn’t all bad, but I don’t think ALW has to worry- modern musical theatre has sadly still not given us a Good Cinderella.

[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.

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

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

[girldragongizzard]

Chapter 19: Twisted Nerve

Tuesday I take for myself, and go to the DMV to update my State ID before counseling.

Oh, counseling, AH-HAHAHAHAA!!!

If I'm a myth, a story, maybe I should be seeing a literary analyst instead. Or an editor!

I avoid other people I know to give them their space, but I message them about it, to let them know what I’m doing. I might catch Chapman before counseling, but by then I’ll be ready for it and sie might be too. I hope. I still plan on joining Rhoda for evening tea if she invites me. She can have more space if she needs it, though.

What did I do most of yesterday, after my talk with Rhoda and the Kims?

I practiced with Wentin, and I started setting up plans to meet with the Mayor again.

I’m gonna keep glossing over practicing with Wentin. It’s an experience that I don’t need to share much of. Or want to.

It’s still a nightmare, after all.

But confessing my revelation with Rhoda and then spending time with Wentin again right after has me introspective in the lobby of the DMV.

As I’m waiting for my number, and watching other people wait, too, then to hobble or walk up to the counters, exhausted and confused, I’m asking myself questions.

For instance, if I’m a story, what’s my plot?

What are my themes? What’s my message or moral? Do I have one?

What kind of weird bullshit am I destined to experience next, as a dragon waiting in the DMV?

I’m not disguised as a human.

I actually don’t think that that would make this go easier.

I have this really weird intuition, or suspicion, that the clerk with the camera would look annoyed and ask me to take my disguise off. And I’d rather save that disguise for special occasions, like meetings with the Mayor, or showing off my favorite dress and tiara while I drink coffee in the morning.

Am I going to wear my tiara when I meet with Mayor Chisholm?

Yeah…

I’m totally going to.

But here? Nah.

It’s not that I want this to go smoothly, actually. It’s that I’m trying to choose my trials, I think. Strategically, like I’ve explained.

But, like, even if getting my ID renewed with an accurate photo of me and my new name and gender marker does go smoothly, it’s still going to be fundamentally funny.

I’m a dragon in the DMV.

It’s practically a one panel funny in the actual printed newspaper.

It’s so goofy what we call newspapers nowadays, too. And that the weekly calls itself the weekly, still, even though it updates its website every day. It just considers its news cycle to be weekly, rather than daily. It takes its time to investigate things, unlike the daily.

That’s a tangent. Sorry.

I’m a fifty year old – oh, there’s my number.

I get up from my spot in the aisle near some chairs and walk up to the window that my number is above.

“How can I help you today?” the clerk asks without really looking up from their computer.

I place the open envelope that’s in my mouth onto the counter and say, “Hello.”

The clerk looks at me and then looks down at the envelope. 

It has a hand scrawled note on it that says:

Hello, I can’t talk well without AAC. I am here to update my State ID with my new name, gender marker, and up-to-date photo. Everything I need is in this envelope.  Thank you, Meghan Estragon Draconis

It’s actually my hand writing, and not at all what I think of as girly, unfortunately. But now I see it as draconic. It was always legible but scratchy. It’s easier to do in human disguise, but now I think I know why I’ve always had trouble with it.

The claw marks needed to get out somehow.

“OK, let me take a look at this and see what you’ve got. Can you answer yes or no questions?” the clerk asks. Her name is “Sheela, she/her”, I see on her nametag.

“Yes,” I say.

“Wonderful!” she smiles. Which surprises me. I don’t think I’ve seen a DMV clerk smile before.

Sheela flips through the contents of the envelope and nods, licking her finger occasionally. Then she arrays it out in front of her.

“I’m going to get you entered into the computer right now, then I’ll give this all back and I’ll need you to sit back down,” she says. “Then, when your name is called – your new name – go on up to that window over there, and Gavin will ask you your questions and take care of your ID. OK?”

“Yes. Thankyou,” I say.

She smiles again, then takes a couple of minutes to do her work before filing everything back in the envelope. She points at my note as she hands it to me, “Just show Gavin that when you go up there.”

“Thankyou,” I say again.

“Have a nice day!” she says, then presses the button to cycle numbers.

And it takes a little while, then it goes pretty much the same with Gavin. Except that I think he’s a trans man, because when he sees my deadname and name change form, he gets excited and congratulates me. And then it feels like we’re queerly flirting at each other without saying anything out of script for the rest of our interactions.

Oh, and changing my gender marker is so simple. It’s just answering the question of which marker I want. I can change it every time I update my ID, as many times as I want. There’s even the X to choose from. I go with F.

And it turns out that they have the camera set up to be adjusted for dragons already.

Which makes this feel like a fantasy.

I mean, honestly, poking my nose out of my apartment four weeks ago to meet Rhoda, who said, “Good morning, Sleepy Head. Still a dragon today?” was plenty fantastic already. Along with everything else that’s happened since.

Sometimes it’s been like a children’s picture book, and sometimes it’s been almost but not quite like a grimdark web serial about world shattering supervillains fighting against cosmic forces beyond comprehension. But fantasy, either way.

But, like, the DMV has already got this stuff figured out? That’s silly. Isn’t it?

Only, having it figured out means everything goes more smoothly, and that’s valuable to everyone stuck in this place.

It’s probably not the same in other states.

Heck, it might not be quite the same in Spokane or Wenatchee.

As I stand there and wait for the flash, I ask another question of myself. One that keeps coming back to me.

Am I a person?

Not, should I have the same rights as a person? Or, can I act like a person?

More fundamental than that.

Am I even alive as an entity that resembles a person sometimes?

Closer to, do I exist? Except I know I exist.

It’s a kind of silly question to ask, because I have the agency to ask it and then decide whether or not to try answering it. Of course that makes me a person. But it keeps popping up.

“OK!” Gavin cheers at me. “Come on back and get your stuff. You’re all paid for. Your temporary ID is being printed right now. And all you have to do is take that and then wait for your new ID to arrive in the mail. It’s been an honor doing this for you Meghan! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week! And here you go!”

And I’m done, and I’m weirded out that there wasn’t more to it than that. And that no one was blatantly grumpy. It was such a different experience the last time I renewed my ID.

“Oh,” Gavin says. “Do not forget to swing by Social Security and update them, too. It’s easy, though, and a lot less work. Just one half a form. Do you need the address for that?”

“No. Thank you,” I say.

“You’ve already got it?”

“Yes.”

“Fantastic!”

Then, when I’ve got everything together, I head to the door to go outside where the thermals off the parking lot are not so great in this fall weather, but they’ll have to do.

And as I reach the door, a man comes through it and holds it open for me.

He looks familiar to me in that way where I’ve seen only a rare class of people dress like that, and he’s wearing a single unique accessory that should identify him if I were only more familiar with him specifically. His tie. It’s nothing. Just some distinctive stripes.

And as I step up to him, I then notice his eyes.

And our eyes meet as I plod by, heads turning to maintain contact.

I can’t exactly say that we’re not transfixed, but we’ve both got lucid control of the rest of our bodies, despite how rigidly locked our gazes are.

“Hello, Meghan,” he says in a strange, almost mechanical male British voice.

To be continued…

[youngsheldonfangirl2001]

Crafting Creativity: Exploring the Writing Process

Part 1

Hey everyone!

If you're as passionate about Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory as I am, I need your help! I'm looking for dedicated fans to join me on an exciting fanfiction project that dives into a prequel of Young Sheldon.

Here's the plan: we're going to create an engaging story featuring new OC siblings for the Cooper family. These new characters will add unique dynamics and interactions with the familiar Cooper siblings, promising lots of fun and drama. Imagine the possibilities of adding fresh, original characters into the mix of Sheldon, Missy, and Georgie!

What I'm looking for:

Fanfiction Writers: Whether you're a seasoned writer or new to the scene, your creativity is welcome! We'll be working together to weave an intricate and compelling storyline.

Beta Writers: Help shape the narrative with fresh ideas and collaborative brainstorming sessions. Your input will be key to developing our story.

Beta Readers: Your keen eyes and constructive feedback will be invaluable. Help us ensure our story flows well and remains true to the characters we all love.

Beta Editors: Polish our drafts to perfection. Your skills in grammar, structure, and continuity will elevate our fanfiction to a professional level.

Co-Writers: Join me in co-writing the chapters. Collaborate on plot twists, character development, and dialogue to make our fanfiction shine.

We'll use Google Docs to collaborate, brainstorm, and draft our untitled Young Sheldon fanfics.

Even though I'm a fan of both shows, this will be my first fanfic for both fandoms. I'm recovering from long-term writer's block, so I need all the help I can get. No experience writing for this fandom? No problem! We're here to have fun, learn, and create something amazing together.

I've written other fanfics on AO3 under the username Princess Shuri 16, and the goal here is to have creative fun with fellow members of the writing community.

Our combined writing communities on Tumblr, AO3, and beyond are filled with talented individuals. Let's harness that collective creativity and passion to make a fanfiction that the Young Sheldon and Big Bang Theory communities will love!

If you're intrigued and want to embark on this creative journey with me, please reply to this post. Let's bring our ideas to life and make a fanfiction that will be talked about for years!

Can't wait to hear from you all!

[deliahscrush2003]

beta reader here!

beta & alpha readers wanted for fic projects will beta in exchange!

Hey everyone!

For those that don't know me, my name's Lou (she/her) and I have recently gotten back into revamping the numerous fic projects I had in my vaults and trying to get back into my writing again.

I have put out this post to say that if anyone is also in a similar situation with their own fics, I am offering my fellow fic writers to beta & alpha read fics in exchange for coming on as an alpha or beta reader for my own projects.

As a beta & alpha reader, I am willing to not only check for grammar, punctuation, spelling and formatting but also:

identify weaknesses in the plot.

identify pieces in the story where engagement was high or lacking.

identify points in the story where clarity is needed.

help develop characters (both oc & canon)

canon check pieces of information (for canonverse/compliant fics)

|| if you have specific needs, feel free to check with me ! ||

As a writer, I am looking for someone to help with:

identifying inconsistent tense.

identifying where engagement was high or lacking.

identifying points in the story where clarity is needed.

writing relationship development (platonic/romantic)

editing plot structure and fluidity.

writing descriptive settings.

identifying monotone or repetitive parts of the story.

Most importantly, I am looking for people who can approach my story as both a reader passionate about the fic and a writer/editor passionate about helping improve the story.

My projects are also multi-chapter (150,000) and usually part of a wider series (minimum of 3 parts) ; therefore, I am open to working on fic projects that are of equal length!

The fandoms that I write and will read for are:

Fairy Tail, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Game of Thrones/House of Dragons (TV), X-Men (movies), Teen Wolf, The Last Kingdom, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Harry Potter (fuck JKR tho), The DC Animated Films/Young Justice, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Walking Dead (universe), Scream (movies), The Vampire Diaries/The Originals, The 100, Glee, Pretty Little Liars, Percy Jackson, Criminal Minds, Wolfblood, The Chronicles of Narnia, Outerbanks, The Maze Runner, Grey's Anatomy, Tower Prep, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, FATE: The Winx Saga, Stranger Things, Star Wars, Resident Evil (Gameverse), Power Rangers (the movie), The Hunger Games, Five Night's At Freddy's, Pacific Rim.

The fandoms that I have as WIP right now are:

Teen Wolf, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Chronicles of Narnia, The 100, Game of Thrones.

The rest of the fandoms listed are in the worldbuilding process, which I also welcome help with if anyone is interested in bouncing ideas back and forth and fleshing out each other's fics!

This is the link to my Ao3 if you want to understand my writing style.

if you're interested in one of the projects I have for these fandoms (as a beta or just as a potential reader), send me a DM or a ask!

The type of fics that I enjoy writing/reading are (with consideration that Ao3 is my primary writing platform):

M-E Rated (For that reason, I prefer to work with 18+ betas)

Plot-heavy but with a well-written romantic subplot (requirement)

Specific tags/plot I enjoy/write: Time-travel, Fix-It, Canon-Divergence, What-Ifs.

Canonverse fics.

Both OC (has to have the potential of good development, though) and Canon Character-centric fics.

Found family, healing from trauma, redemption arcs.

Crossover/fusion fics (where the original fandom is set in the universe of another fandom)

Zombie-Apocolypse fics.

Dark twists on characters, plots, and the wider canonverse.

-

The type of fics that I steer clear from or don't enjoy reading/writing:

G-T Rated.

No romantic subplot at all (I am a romantic girly, sorry to say)

A Mary Sue OC/Reader-Insert or Mary Sue plot.

Reader-inserts.

Established Relationships (unless I can read the build up first)

Specific tags/plot: P*dophilia, Incest (outside of canon-typical), Mpreg, Omegaverse (only under special circumstances).

Modern AUs, Human AUs, No Power AUs.

No Comfort, No Happy Ending, Major Character (Permanent) Death.

Character bashing (I do read fics that bash, but I find it hard to beta for them only because I like to discuss characters objectively - but there are exceptions, so feel free to check)

Anything that attempts to glorify or justify racism, homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, xenophobia, ableism, sexism, bigotry, abuse, r*pe or anything even remotely similar.

(feel free to check with me tho, I am open to discussion of everything except the bottom dot point)

Because I believe beta reading to be an experience that should be enjoyable and insightful for both the reader and writer, I am open to :

Discussing any ships, character arcs, or plot points that my betas personally wanted to see in the show or are very passionate about (read: this does not mean I will change my entire story but that I am open to possibilities)

Analysing and critiquing any of the above media (read: NOT BASHING, but genuine analysis of how different media were handled to apply to our own form of writing)

Giving out and receiving fic, tv, movie and book recs to aid in inspiring each other during the course of our writing, but also to support our fellow writing community!

Even if you're not interested, please repost so it can reach those who are!

[troius]

I am genuinely asking this cause this is a plot point I've been stuck on: how would you write Ichigo getting his powers back? The Shinigami ex Machina twist felt like bland fan service but I don't know how else it should go.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've been thinking about this a lot, and I don't really think it's too hard! It's kinda sad, because all the heavy lifting has actually already been done-- we have four whole volumes of set-up. We've established:

Ichigo was depressed because he was powerless. This provided an in for a gang of con artists to sucker him in with the promise of making him feel better about himself. The lesson he has to learn here is his own self-worth absent his powers (which thematically will result in him getting his powers back).

Ichigo and his friends completely fail to communicate with each other throughout the arc, thinking that keeping things secret will keep their friends safe, only for it all to blow up in their face. The conclusion therefore must also involve these idiots finally talking to each other.

How I, were I Kubo's editor and yet completely immune to the commercial pressures of Shonen Jump, would do this after the cut:

We're going to start our divergence when Ginjo and Ichigo arrive at Tsukishima's mansion, with maybe a slight change to establish this thing earlier in the story because it sort of came out of nowhere. But rather than bring in Ichigo's nonpowered friends and family for a second round of trauma, I'd suggest keeping it tight on Ichigo's desire to kill Tsukishima. This is what he thinks will solve his problem. He fights his way shockingly easily through the other members of Xcution (it's almost like they're not really trying...) before getting to Tsukishima.

And naturally, Orihime and Chad intervene. But instead of being strangely stoic about it all, they're acting like you would expect people to act if one of their best friends was trying to kill the other. Orihime is full-on crying as she heals and shields Tsukishima. Chad is screaming to Ichigo about how this isn't what Ichigo used to take pride in. And most importantly, they're actually trying to restrain him and stop the fight instead of just passively protecting Tsukishima when attacks happen. As the fight spills outside, Ichigo can't win the fight without hurting them.

And so finally, finally, Ichigo resorts to dialogue. He tries to talk them out of it. And Chad and Orihime, who still have all of their memories of Ichigo even if Tsukishima is weirdly in some of them, listen. They're not going to harm him either. Ichigo, breaking down, apologizes for failing to protect them. Orihime and Chad tell him he doesn't need to apologize for anything, that they're fine. Even Ginjo and Xcution stop fighting each other. It's all very sweet. And that's when Uryu shows up and seemingly ruins everything.

He drops out of seemingly thin air with a massive licht regen that completely demolishes where Ginjo and Tsukishima are standing. Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad are astonished, verging on furious. But Uryu responds that those two are the ones who attacked him. The dust clears, and rather than being dead by Quincy powers, the two of them and the rest of Xcution get the drop on the Karakura kids. Uryu, Chad, and Orihime are all quickly taken down, and Ginjo takes Ichigo's fullbring.

Ginjo and Tsukishima do their villainous exposition. Ichigo has his full-on breakdown. But his friends are there too, and share in his pain. Uryu tells Ichigo that he's arrogant for assuming its his job to protect them. Chad points out that all their instincts to protect worked disastrously as they concealed the truth from one another. Orihime says that what matters here is that he, and everybody here, aren't hurt. Rukia calls him an idiot.

OH SHOOT, RUKIA'S HERE. She says that the four of them really made a mess of things, but that Isshin sent a message to her through Urahara that something was wrong. Ichigo says that she didn't think she cared, as she hasn't been in his life for 18 months. Renji (who is also here) points out to Ichigo that she is an immortal soul with a job, and that if he wanted to see them he should have asked! And then Rukia points out that it won't be a problem going forward, as Ichigo can see them now.

Because Ichigo has his powers back! No magic sword necessary-- we already established when he was training with Ginjo that his powers were coming back. Rukia gives the above spiel about how Ginjo couldn't steal them, and then informs him that she and Renji are taking him in. Xcution naturally does not take kindly to this. Our six hearts each pair off with a Fullbringer (Orihime did some healing during all this), and if people ask for it I'll do a second post about how I'd pair those fights off.

But I'll leave it at this for now. That's how I would thematically tie off the arc.