#reading an entire book of writing advice without writing at all in between

[strxnged]

"Am I to patronize sleep because children sleep sound? Or honey because children like it?"

C.S. Lewis (1966). "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What's to Be Said," Of Other Worlds

i wonder what lewis would have to say about our culture's urge to degrade any and all media which teenage girls enjoy.

[physalian]

What No One Tells you about Writing #3

Opening this up to writing as a whole, because it turns out I have a lot more to say!

Part 1

Part 2

1. You don’t fall in love with your characters immediately

But when you do, it’s a hit of serotonin like no other. I’d been writing a tight cast of characters for my sci-fi series since 2016 and switched over in a bout of writer’s block this year to my new fantasy book. I made it about ⅓ through writing the book going through the motions, unable to visualize what these new characters look like, sound like, or would behave like without a ‘camera’ on them.

Then, all of a sudden, I opened my document to keep on chugging with the first draft, and it clicked. They were no longer faceless elements of my plot, they were my characters and I was excited to see what they could accomplish, rooting for them to succeed. Sometimes, it takes a while, but it does come.

2. Sometimes a smaller edit is better than a massive rewrite

Unless you’re changing the trajectory of your entire plot, or a character’s arc really is unrecoverable, sometimes even a single line of dialogue, a single paragraph of introspection, or a quick exchange between two characters can change everything. If something isn’t working, or your beta readers consistently aren’t jiving with a character you yourself love, try taking a step back, looking at who they are as a person, and boil down what your feedback is telling you and it might demand a simpler fix than you expect.

Tiny details inserted at the right moment can move mountains. Fan theories stand on the backs of these minutiae. One sentence can turn a platonic relationship romantic. One sentence can unravel a fair and just argument. One sentence can fill or open a massive plot hole.

3. Outline? What outline?

Not every book demands weeks upon weeks of prep and worldbuilding. I would argue that jumping right in with only a vague direction in mind gives you a massive advantage: You can’t infodump research you haven’t done. Exposition is forced to come as the plot demands it, because you haven’t designed it yet.

Not every story is simple and straightforward, but even penning the first draft with your vague plan, *then* going back and adding in deeper worldbuilding elements, more thematic details, richer character development, can get you over the writer’s block hurdle and make it far less intimidating to just shut up and write the book.

4. It’s okay to let your characters take the wheel

I’ve seen writing advice that chastises authors who let their characters run wild, off the plan the story has for them. Yeah, doing this can harm your pacing and muddy a strong and consistent arc, but refusing to leave the box of your outline greatly limits your creativity. I do this particularly when writing romantic relationships (and end up like Captain Crunch going Oops! All Gays!).

Did I plan for these two to get together? No, it just happened organically as I wrote them talking, getting closer, getting to know each other better in the circumstances they find themselves in. Was this character meant to be gay? Well, he wasn’t meant to be straight, but you know what, he’d work really well with this other boy over here. None of that would have happened if I was bound and determined to follow my original plan, because my original plan didn’t account for how the story that I want to tell evolves. You aren’t clairvoyant—it’s okay if it didn’t end up where you thought it would.

5. Fight. Scenes. Suck.

Which is crazy because I love fantasy and sci-fi, the actiony-est genres. Some authors love battle scenes and fistfights. It comes naturally to them and I will forever be jealous. I hate fight scenes. I hate blocking and choreographing them. I hate how it doesn’t read like I’m watching a movie. I hate how it could take me hours to write a scene I can read in 5 minutes. I hate that there’s no way around it except to just not write them, or put in the elbow grease and practice.

Whatever your writing kryptonite is, don’t be too hard on yourself. It won’t ever replicate the movie in your head, but our audience isn’t privy to that movie and will be none the wiser of how this didn’t fit your expectations, because it’s probably awesome on its own. It could be a fight scene, sex scene, epic battle, cavalry charge, courtroom argument, car chase—whatever. Be patient, and kind to yourself and it will all come together.

6. Write the scenes you want to write first

And then be prepared to never use them. It can be mighty difficult working backwards from a climax and figuring out how to write the story around it, but if you’re sitting at your laptop staring at your cursor and watching it blink, stuck on a tedious moment that’s necessary but frustrating, go write something exciting. Even if that amazing scene ends up no longer working in the book your story becomes, you still get practice by writing it. Particularly if you hate beginnings or the pressure of a perfect first page is too high, you’re allowed to write any other moment in the book first.

And with that, be prepared to kill your darlings. Not your characters, I mean that one badass line of dialogue living rent free in your head. That epic monologue. That whump scenario for your favorite character. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out anymore, but even if it ends up in the trash, you can always salvage something from it, even if that’s only the knowledge of what not to do in the future.

7. “This is clearly an author insert.” … Yes. It is. Point?

No one likes Mary Sues, because a character who doesn’t struggle or learn to get everything they want in life is uncompelling. The most flagrant author inserts I see aren’t Mary Sues, they’re nerdy, awkward, boring white guys whose world changes to fit their perspective, instead of the other way around—they don’t have anything to say. I’m not the intended audience to relate to these characters and I accept that, but I don’t empathize with the so-called “strong female character” who also doesn’t have flaws or an arc either.

A good author insert? When the author gives their characters pieces of themselves. When the “author insert” struggles and learns and grows and it’s a therapeutic experience just writing these characters thrown into such horrible situations. They feel human when they’re given pieces of a human’s soul. They have real human flaws and idiosyncrasies. I don’t care if the author wrote themselves as the protagonist. I care that this protagonist is entertaining. So if you want to make yourself the hero of your book, go for it! But make sure you look in the mirror and write in your flaws, as much as your strengths.

[monsterswithimagines]

Undisclosed Desires - Part 1

Joe Goldberg x female!Reader

Summary: Twenty minutes before he would have met Guinevere Beck, Joe meets you instead. You intruige him, but it will soon become clear that there is something off about you.

Words: 610

This first part is short, but later parts will probably end up being longer. Anyway, Joe Goldberg is my current obsession. I just had to write fanfic.

Masterlist

Hello, You.

You look unsure of yourself. You've walked into Mooney's without a purpose, and now it looks like you're not sure why you came in at all. You wander through the isles aimlessly, glancing at the books without really seeing them. You're not even reading the titles. Then, you stop. You've found something that intrigues you.

You're in the isle F through K. Are you sending me a message? I'd like to think so but no, you're looking - really looking, this time - at our collection of secondhand Stephen King books.

You seem like the type to be a King fan. You’re tiny, can't be more than 5’5”. You're not fat, but you've got a round face that could trick people into thinking so, if you covered up your body more.

You're wearing a Guns ‘N Roses tank top and army-green cargo pants, and Doc Martens. You want people to be impressed when they look at you. You like the attention. I don't know who you're trying to fool, though. It's clear you wouldn't hurt a fly.

In any case, you look like the exact sort of girl who'd enjoy King's more outlandish books. I expect you to go for Desperation, or maybe Pet Sematary, but instead your searching finger glides across the spines of the books and stops at Joyland.

You slide it out from between the others. You look at the front cover, not the back. Appearances are important to you.

Suddenly, you are approaching me. You set the book down on the counter carefully. Almost reverently.

“Hi,” you say.

I like your hair. It's a deep brown, not dyed. You've got a wolf-cut, but you have curls so it looks messier than you probably intended. Your hair covers your ears fully, but I just manage to catch the sparkle of an earring.

“Hi,” I answer. “Just this today?”

“I made a deal with myself when I came in here. Only one book. I have an addiction to buying books.”

I smile, because that's good. It means you might come here again. But then again, I've never seen you before. What if you're not from around here? Just passing through? You could walk out of my life forever, after this.

“Oh yeah?” I ask, casually. “How come I've never seen you here before, then?”

“I just moved here. Trust me, you're going to see a lot of me.” You laugh. “I had a very personal relationship with the woman who runs the bookstore in my old town.”

A ‘personal' relationship? Are you hinting at something? Do you want to have a personal relationship with me?

“Came there that often, huh?”

“At least twice a week.”

“Do you just read that fast? Or…?”

“I read pretty fast, yeah.”

If you were somebody else, I might suggest you get a library card. But if I say that to you, you might actually heed my advice, and then you won't come here as much. Better not to poke that bear.

“Well, here's to hoping I see you again, then. That'll be $ 13,99.”

You hand me your card. You could pay with cash, but you want me to see your name.

“(Y/n). I like your name. It suits you.”

You shrug.

“And your last name… German?”

“Dutch,” you say. “Like I said, I just moved here.”

Funny, I don't detect an accent at all.

I ring you up, pack Joyland for you in a paper bag, and hand it to you. Your smile lights up the entire room. Your teeth are a little crooked, but not unbearably so. It's sort of adorable.

“Thanks,” you say, and: “See you later.”

Then you're leaving. I miss you already.

[soracities]

oooh please tell us what writing rules are garbage I would love to hear more

it's not that they're garbage, which isn't what i said, just that they annoy me and even then what annoys me is not the "rules" themselves (because i do believe they can be useful depending on what you're writing) but when some of them are put out as the only way to write something as if storytelling is a one-size fits all approach, as if you can reduce the millenia-long history of literature into a fail-proof formula that will work for all writing across all cultures with no room for experimentation.

i think there are as many ways to tell a story as there are stories and how you tell something and the kind of language you use will vary depending on what language actually means to you as a writer. hemingway and faulkner both famously took digs at each other for their styles (even though i think there was a lot of admiration between them) but they are also two very different writers with two completely different approaches to language and how they use that language to say the things they want to say: neither is inherently better, or more right, than the other--their approaches were just right for them; if faulkner wanted to write using the "older, simpler, better" words hemingway loved, he would have. if james joyce wanted to depict dublin the way dickens depicted london, he would have done so. but they didn't.

someone once posted an excellent breakdown by jeff vandermeer of the different writing styles employed by different authors which i was silly enough not to save at the time, but in it he gives an overview of the structure of their sentences, and how complicated or "rich" the language is, without pitting one style against the other. and to be honest, i think writing advice that encourages you to examine and look at that relationship with language, and what it holds for you (and others) and why, is probably more helpful than blanket statements like "stay away from ambiguity" or "avoid long sentences" because neither of those actually mean anything--a sentence is a vessel but it's also a tool, like a hoghair brush or a palette knife; the value of its impact is not an essence that exists in and of itself, but entirely dependent on how you use it, otherwise all literature would just read the same way.

strict adherence to a particular form or structure within a language does not automatically make for better writing, especially not when so much literature actually consists of, and is built from, works and authors actively rebelling against those same traditional forms and structures (but which is also not to say that those forms and structures are inherently useless, either). you can say that long sentences "risk distraction" or are "ineffective" but then where does that leave someone like laszlo krasznahorkai, whose prose runs on like some kind of breathless, hypnotic incantantion for 20, 30 pages without a single full stop in sight? or a book like solar bones by mike mccormack which is made up of a single sentence going on for 200 pages? i'm not saying long sentences can't be boring or tedious, but in all honesty so can short sentences--so can any writing that follows the "rules" to the letter. if something is poorly written, the "rules" matter very little; if it's well written, they matter even less.

all that said, telling people to "avoid long sentences" is not inherently a bad thing because i think the core of it is wanting to ensure your writing remains clear, which is a fair point--but it's an issue, to me at least, when it turns into one of those dictums or pronouncements that actively narrows the potential range language can actually have. clarity is not always about length, or whether or not you cull all of your run-on lines--mihail sebastian drew a very nice distinction in one of his novels when he said "[is] there’s a single way of being clear? A notary can be clear, or a poet, but they don’t seem to me the same thing". a long sentence can be clear, but its clarity exists on different terms to a sentence that is five words long, because its relationship to its content is different. and at the end of the day, that relationship is really what it's about for me and it's distinct to each work and its author.

writers use the language and form they use that best allows them to say what they want to say. no one in their right mind is going to dismiss zadie smith for not writing like angela carter or angela carter for not writing like hemingway or hemingway for not writing like beckett or beckett for not writing like mallarmé. robert frost and sara teasdale were no more correct than the beatniks were. i love pared down, beautifully concise prose, but i also adore books that relish in language and all the various, multi-coloured layers of it, books that eschew (traditional) plot and books that question their own form and the reality of that form, and books that tell a story as straightforwardly as possible.

to be honest i think one of the most formative things i came across, years ago now, was this piece by gary provost, which really sums up the whole notion of "writing rules" for me:

this is not about do's or dont's. it even breaks the first writing rule i learnt in school ("never begin a sentence with 'And'"). but what it does is center an intimate understanding of language, where it can go and how it can get there, and what you want that to do. that's where it's at for me!

[enigmaticexplorer]

Writing Advice: Third Person Point of View - The Problem with Head-Hopping

A personal pet peeve in fanfic—and even some published books, unfortunately—is an author head-hopping.

I understand that not everyone learned about writing point of view in primary school, and many fanfic writers are new to writing and might not even realize they're writing head-hopping.

So, this post is an educational means for those who are interested in learning how to improve their writing.

I'm going to give a quick overview of point of view, a breakdown of third person point of view, and how to spot head-hopping in your writing.

What Is Point of View?

Point of view (POV) is the perspective (voice) from which a story is narrated.

There are three POVs.

First person

Second person

Third person

Third Person: Limited vs. Omniscient

In third person POV, the author is narrating the story through third-person pronouns (she, he, they).

Third person POV is subdivided into two categories: third person limited and third person omniscient.

Third Person Limited

In third person limited, the narrator is an external observer who knows the thoughts and feelings of ONE character at a time.

Here's an example from R.F. Kuang's, The Poppy War, page 341:

The Cike were stretched to their limit, especially Rin. Each moment not spent on an operation was spent on patrol. And when she was off duty, she trained with Altan.

Note that this paragraph—the entire book, actually—is from Rin's POV. We have access to Rin's feelings, thoughts, and observations throughout the book, while also seeing how other characters are acting.

But we are only in Rin's head. We do not have access to the thoughts and feelings of other characters. This is third person limited POV.

Third Person Omniscient

In third person omniscient, the narrator is an all-knowing observer who has access to the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of ALL characters in the story.

Here's an example from Jane Austen's, Pride and Prejudice, page 104:

As they drove to Mr. Gardiner’s door, Jane was at a drawing-room window watching their arrival; when they entered the passage she was there to welcome them, and Elizabeth, looking earnestly in her face, was pleased to see it healthful and lovely as ever.

Notice how we have access to both Jane and Elizabeth's 1) physical locations, and 2) thoughts. Even though Elizabeth is in a carriage and Jane is inside a house, the narrator is all-knowing and can narrate both of them at the same time.

The problem I see from many fanfic writers: they attempt to write in third person omniscient when they're actually writing shoddy third person limited, constantly switching between the POVs of multiple characters.

This is called head-hopping.

Head-Hopping vs. Omniscient

Head-hopping is when an author shifts between the POVs of multiple characters without a scene break. Meaning, the author is inside Character A's head but abruptly—and randomly—shares the thoughts, feelings, and/or observations of Character B.

Here's an example:

Kathy arrived at the cafe in hopes of showing Brittany her completed sweater. It was the first time she had knitted and she was eager to share her hard work with her best friend. Brittany took one look at the sweater and cringed. She hated it, but she didn't want to hurt Kathy's feelings. She didn't know what to say.

In this example, we are inside both Kathy and Brittany's heads. Both characters have distinctive voices, and because of this, the narration of the story is inconsistent.

It's jarring to read, and pulls you out of the story.

Here's the same example written through omniscient POV:

Kathy arrived at the cafe with the intent to show Brittany her completed sweater. After hours of hard work, the opinion of her best friend was important. At Kathy's approach, Brittany observed the sweater in her friend's hand and wrinkled her nose. The sweater was hideous.

In this example, we are inside the head of the narrator. The narrator is telling the story through its voice, rather than the individual voices of Kathy and Brittany.

Remember: Omniscient means the reader is inside the NARRATOR's head, not the characters'.

The Scene Break to Denote POV Switch

Back to my definition of head-hopping: Head-hopping occurs when a writer suddenly switches POV without a scene break.

Like the first example of Kathy and Brittany—there is no scene break between their thoughts. If the author wanted to write from both Kathy and Brittany's perspective, the author would have to include a physical break to alert the reader to a switch in POV. See below:

Kathy arrived at the cafe in hopes of showing Brittany her completed sweater. It was the first time she had knitted and she was eager to share her hard work with her best friend. ~~~~~~~~~~ Brittany took one look at the sweater and cringed. She hated it, but she didn't want to hurt Kathy's feelings. She didn't know what to say.

The squiggly lines demonstrate a switch in POV, and the scene would then continue in Brittany's POV. [Please note that a single paragraph space (as seen in the first example of Kathy and Brittany) is not a scene break. It is a paragraph break, and therefore cannot be used to demonstrate a switch in POV.]

You can write multiple POVS throughout a story. These will all be in third person limited POVs.

For example, each chapter in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series is dedicated to ONE character. Throughout that chapter, the reader is inside the head—reading the thoughts, feelings, and observations—of that singular character.

Individual chapters can also have multiple POVs (again, these are third person limited POVs). These are denoted by a divider or additional paragraph space.

For example, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn switches between the POVs of multiple characters in each chapter. The switch between his characters' POV is shown by an additional paragraph space.

Why Should You Care about Head-Hopping?

If writing head-hopping makes you happy, then keep at it. It's fanfic, and most readers are so desperate for content they don't care.

But, if you're interested in improving your writing, here are a few reasons why head-hopping is problematic:

It's jarring to the reader, and takes them out of the story. Frequent head-hopping can confuse readers as they struggle to keep track of whose perspective they are currently experiencing. It disrupts the flow of the narrative and can make it challenging for readers to form a strong connection with any one character.

It makes it harder for readers to truly immerse themselves in your story. Consistent use of a single POV allows readers to immerse themselves in the story's world through the eyes of a specific character. Head-hopping disrupts this immersion by constantly pulling readers out of one character's perspective and into another's.

It hinders character development. When the narrative constantly shifts between characters, there may not be enough time or focus on any one character's growth and development.

It takes away the emotional impact of the scene. Head-hopping can prevent readers from fully empathizing with or understanding any particular character's emotions, motivations, and inner conflicts.

Even well-established authors struggle to write omniscient without head-hopping. It's a nuanced subject that can be confusing to understand and difficult to overcome.

Again, this post is simply to inform writers about third person point of view and the subtle differences between its subdivisions. It’s not an attack on fanfic writers.

[aadmelioraa]

Hi! I was just wondering, what is the difference for you between the Scrivener categories you use? What makes a certain section redrafted vs revised vs punched up vs polished? Thank you!

Hey!! I am more than happy to elaborate on that post. Here are the scene (or chapter) draft categories I use via the "Label" function in Scrivener, and what each category means to me:

To Write. Any scene that I haven't fully drafted, ranging from an idea in my head to a few bullet points to a scene that doesn't yet have a beginning, middle, and end. Lots of ellipses and all caps notes to myself [ADD CONVERSATION WHERE X AND Y ARGUE ABOUT DINNER PLANS] at this stage. I am a planner-pantser hybrid—I usually start writing without a real outline, and then create and reshape my outline as I continue writing new scenes, the outline evolves as my draft evolves and vice versa. 

Drafted. I have written a full version of the scene. It has a beginning, middle, and end. I have hit all the major points I want to hit. It's messy, but it's on the page. These scenes comprise the Rough Draft.

Redrafted. At this stage, I follow Matt Bell's "Rewrite Don't Revise" advice in Refuse to Be Done (highly recommend this craft book!). Once I have a Rough Draft version of the project (the entire book has a beginning, middle, end, and enough essential connective tissue scenes to prop it up), I print that off* and open a fresh Scrivener file. I hold myself to Matt Bell's no copying and pasting rule, and it's honestly been a game changer mentality for me. I refer to my Rough Draft and my Revision Plan Outline as I create a new draft that is both leaner and more fleshed out as needed. The Revision Plan Outline is the roadmap of the book I wrote (the Rough Draft) spliced with a roadmap of the book I want to write, including new scenes, stronger versions of the scenes I already have, and notes about what needs to be cut. *This is probably obvious, but you don't need to work from a printed copy, you can open your Rough Draft doc side by side with a blank doc if that is more your speed. The important thing is to start with a blank document rather than making revisions to your Rough Draft. It might sound insane, but I've found that it allows me to let go of what I would otherwise struggle to cut, and opens me up creatively to write new material.

Revised. Once I have the fresh, stronger, more intentional version of my scene, I go through and check that it's doing what I need it to do in terms of character work and plot points. It's not only a complete scene in that it begins and ends where I want it to, it's also functioning as part of a whole. 

Punched Up. This is my favorite draft stage in most ways, I just find it really fun and satisfying. My goals are to make sure that the tension is properly threaded, that the emotional beats are landing how and where they need to, that the humor is working, that each character's voice is coming through, that my language is vivid and interesting. 

Polished. Here I am making final cuts and changes, taking things at a line level and evaluating individual word choice. Nitpick city, but ideally in a productive way.

Right now in my current WIP I have an array of scenes at every level in a single Scrivener file. Most of them are Redrafted or above (I already completed a Rough Draft, printed it off, and am working from that and my Revision Plan Outline to create a new version of the book) but there are plenty of scenes in my Revision Plan that didn't exist in the Rough Draft. I will once again shout out @bettsfic and her invaluable developmental insights, you can check out her substack here and read more about her services here.

Anyway, this is what works for me, it definitely won't work for everyone, but hopefully you find something useful here! I will note that you can use the Scrivener "Draft Status" category to function in a similar way as the "Label" category, allowing you to use "Label" to denote POV or something else. Labels are visible in the sidebar (you can find options under "View," and Draft Status shows up in the corkboard view (it's stamped over the notecard for each scene if you select that option).

[goawaypopup]

Here's an AU I've had in my mind ever since reading the side books.

When he sets out into the continent in the original books, Lief is almost completely unprepared. The Shadow Lord's regime has cut off information flow between population centers, and Del's recorded history is almost all in the off-limits library, so there really wasn't a lot he could have done to avoid this. All he has is his memory of his father's copy of The Belt of Deltora, a vague little pamphlet that he keeps forgetting at bad times, and which helps not at all with dealing with the dangers of the continent itself.

Unless... Jarred chose a different book to steal from the palace library all those years ago.

Secrets of Deltora, an in-universe guide to Deltora's locales by Doran the Dragonlover, was also hidden away in that library. It was far more richly detailed and practical than The Belt of Deltora, and in its writing Doran expressed his distrust of the advisors and his fear that the Shadow Lord was preparing to strike - also containing a hint at the location of Withick's Belt of Deltora booklet in one of its illustrations. And it has a similar narrative recounting of Deltora's founding, the powers of the seven Belt gems, and their combined ability to ward the continent against the Shadow Lord. It would be an entirely plausible choice for Jarred if he had had some extra time to find and read it, and conceal it about his person (seeing as it was, in fact, extremely forbidden to touch).

If, growing up, Lief or his father managed to decode the secret message in Secrets, he would have lacked no information from not having The Belt, up to the urging to ignore the tradition of keeping the Belt locked up. Indeed, he would have a distinct advantage, knowing that the complete Belt was capable of waking and summoning the dragons, as well as all the travel advice and recorded dangers found elsewhere in the book.

What does this mean for him when he finally sets out to recover the gems?

This time, considering the question of which hotspot to visit first, Barda and, ahem, Lief's father are confronted with a very different picture. The elaborate, detailed descriptions of all the ways plants, bugs, snakes, and wild animals can kill you in the Forests of Silence, and the terrifying undead telekinetic armor guy, plus the sheer scale of how many places a gem could conceivably be in the three forests. Versus: nothing at all in the guide for the Valley of the Lost, which was the only site formed AFTER Doran's time. Just some rumours of a valley cloaked in mist. So it seems clear that Barda's bravado will not prevail with better information at hand - the entire journey is going to be in reverse.

Starting at the Valley may be for the best, as it is comparatively harmless for a party with their wits about them. Forewarned of the region's Grippers, they do not fall victim to any embarrassing incidents, though they might be shocked by the Jalis' absence.

Unfortunately for Lief and Barda, they will not have the aid of Jasmine or any mind-clearing gemstones this time. And god knows whether the Belt is still capable of burning the Guardian with 0 gems present - let's hope it doesn't come to that. But honestly, I think they could pull this off, with the assistance of their usual excellent luck. Especially if they manage to guess the name without completing the clues. This does mean... they're going to be thinking that Endon was a corrupted traitor the entire time. Oh boy! Time for Deltora to buck the bonds of monarchy entirely?

The diamond is an excellent first gem. Its courage will probably do at least as well as the topaz did at suppressing Lief's burgeoning PTSD, and its added physical strength will come in extremely handy for the fights ahead.

The Maze of the Beast will be much, much more straightforward with the Shadow Lord's forces not yet on alert. There will be far fewer Ols in the area and any that remain will be much less on guard against the duo. The whole ordeal with Tora and Dain and the Resistance and the pirates probably won't happen either, so rather than being shoved into the Maze, Lief and Barda can adequately prepare for it. They could ideally leave a rope ladder or something and avoid having to leave though the blowhole.

The Dreaming Spring is clearly described in the guidebook, along with its status as a much-needed source of scarce water in the north, so they're quite likely to visit it on the way to Dread Mountain. The incident that gained them the Kin's assistance, however, is unlikely to play out the same (the Rithmere Games have probably not occurred yet, Doom has not freed the Karn pod's captured finalists, and the Grey Guards do not pass this way for another while yet.) They might have to trudge through horrible cold woods for weeks instead of being carried by warm women.

Unless they had their own incidents with Doom, they won't glean anything in particular from the Kinrest and Dread Mountain writings. Despite Doom having been swept up in the changes in this timeline, it seems likely he's still in similar places at the same times. He could have been near Amethyst territory in books 1 and 2 prior to visiting Tom's shop.

Dread Mountain is where I'm going to leave it as having too many divergent possibilities to make a solid prediction. Jasmine and likely Prin are absent, the Lily nectar is absent, the Ruby is absent, there may or may not be Spring water for the using. If they happened to take the exact same path up the mountain, Lief is dead at the bottom of the very first gnome trap if nobody tripped him before he could step in it. There are roughly twelve hundred deadly poisonous arrows killing alternate timeline versions of them left and right. It's pretty rough.

From there, if they live, they're probably going all sorts of exciting directions away from canon. Perhaps the illustration of the Belt of Deltora in its proper order will clue Lief off that he's doing it wrong sooner. Perhaps Lief drops the book in Glus water, or didn't bring it with him, and has to start using his exceedingly unreliable memory for many more, more vital pieces of information. Perhaps the perceived perversion of the monarchy that Barda served so early on in the quest causes him to snap and throttle Lief with his bare hands. Perhaps, at some point, Doom will receive a smack upside the head and regain his memory, and remember about the kid he left in the deadly, deadly jungle over a decade ago.

But most importantly, this time they will have dragons at their disposal immediately if Lief manages to assemble the Belt correctly.

[mrhaitch]

what are your views on booktok?

because in my opinion, it has caused a great deal of overconsumption and oversaturation in the literary industry. it's harder for authors who genuinely have a story to tell publish their books out there just because they don't contain the popular tropes or smut. (just to clarify, i grew up reading fanfics and i absolutely have nothing against smut or tropes, i write them myself. but they are not an indication of well-written literature.)

not to mention the rise in the romanticization of violence against women and toxic relationships. that was always there, but booktok kind of increased it in the name of being morally gray. morally gray characters can literally exist without being literal SAers. and it genuinely confuses me because booktok is a female dominated industry.

ive been reading since i was 6 years old and i was so glad when i found there was a community for readers on tiktok. i used to love booktok back in 2021 when people actually gave book recs based on plots and characters and depth and not how much smut it has. it couldve easily been a safe space for POC authors to publish books filled with representation and diversity and instead it turned into whatever it is now.

im also bitter because the girls who used to bully me for reading percy jackson and harry potter in middle school now claim to be readers while refusing to read anything that has no smut in it and reading books with worse plots than what i used to read on wattpad when i was 13.

(im not an elitist i swear i read and love books that arent just classics)

I believe I've talked about this a bit before, but I share your concerns. In fact I think it's part and parcel of people misusing and misunderstanding what social media is good for and what it's bad for.

Novels are complex media, the discussion of which requires time, space, nuance, and reflection. Tiktok affords users none of those, as it is focused entirely on quick, attention gabbing sips of raw dopamine. As such only the most salacious of story beats can be emphasised, as they're the most attention grabbing, which creates an atmosphere where books with MORE salacious content get more exposure.

The publishing industry, while made up of a lot of very smart and very passionate people, is collectively stupid - more so now that publishing houses are falling under the ownership of venture capitalists looking for a quick buck. Any trend or gimmick that's popular can and will be wrung until it's dry and howling. You'll be able to track this in real-time:

An excellent book becomes a cultural flashpoint, and people talk about it and recommend it to damn near everyone.

People who want to be published and successful and view those things as ends within themselves will try and distill that flashpoint into tropes, which they deploy themselves.

The market floods with more of the thing people like, and everyone's happy. The trend intensifies, each new iteration of those tropes becomes more and more basic - less a story which features those tropes, more a series of tropes with some narrative in between.

Then we hit peak saturation, and the appetite comes to a dead stop. Seemingly overnight readers will collectively nope out of the trend, and then start pushing back at it, complaining they're sick of having the same tired stuff shoved down their necks.

After which it's a case of waiting for the next thing. For examples see: Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, Game of Thrones, 50 Shades of Grey, and all of their respective derivatives.

Best advice - completely ignore it. Sidestep the whole fetid quagmire and do your own thing, it'll die out on its own.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

When you are writing a new chapter for a fic, how do you decide what to put in, and what to leave out?

I see a lot of advice about killing your darlings - whittling the scene down until it contains only what's necessary to advance the plot.

But I also see advice that says it's okay to include more than this, because you need to advance the characters as well, by giving them quiet moments in between all of the plot advancing parts.

I really struggle to find the balance. I love writing the quiet moments, and fleshing the characters out, but sometimes these moments run away on me, and I end up with a bloated mess that barely advances the plot at all.

Do you have a process or a rule-of-thumb you follow, to help you decide what does or doesn't make the cut?

How easy do you find it to remove stuff later, when you realize the story is better without it? Do you cry and have wine while you bury your dead, or are you a ruthless assassin? :)

Oh man, great question.

I’m going to answer for what for my original fiction. I don’t heavily edit my fanfics in any meaningful capacity, as any of my readers can attest, since that is my hobby and editing is work. Also, since it is my hobby, I am pretty self indulgent with what I include. I meander and wander all over the place with my plots and don’t keep them as tight as they probably need to be.

Exhibit A, the visual representation of the plot of Thus, Always 2.0 (one line being present day and the second being the past):

But for my original fiction, there’s a very long, drawn out process of editing.

For House of No Return, the current book (known as The Venetians in my tags), I wrote out the first draft. In that draft I put all the self indulgent stuff I wanted. Character studies, side plots, random asides, plot cul-de-sacs, and so on.

Then, when done, I rewrote the entire thing. Top to bottom second draft. This is because, by the time I was done with draft one, I knew my characters a lot better than when I started. I knew, more clearly, the story I wanted to tell. I had a better vision of how the plot should work.

Once the second (or third) draft is done, I let it sit. Ideally, you should let it sit for a few months. I don’t have patience and am riddled with a deep need to always be writing, so I can usually only make it a few weeks.

When I take it back out, I print out the manuscript and read it in one or two sittings. This is because I need to remember what the fuck I was doing. As I read, I make margin notes of where I bump or where things drag a bit. My second read through is much more methodical. I sit with a note book and jot out a detailed outline as I read. When I eventually type them up they usually look something like this:

As I read through the outline, that’s where I can see if there are baggy parts that need trimming. When I note them, I decide whether to completely remove, or shorten, or shift to another part of the story, or if I can convey any central information in other areas.

Sometimes colour coding helps – highlighting all the parts that are faster paced in red, the slower bits in green, the pure character study bits in blue (or what have you). The visual representation helps me, at least, see if there’s a part that’s bunched up with only one colour and may need to be broken out a bit.

I make edits to my outline in blue, usually, of what needs to be added or changed when I go to do the next big rewrite.

--

Throughout this whole outline review process, I’m also thinking through what sort of plot pattern/design best serves the story. There are a lot out there and each has a purpose and can strengthen aspects of the story that’s being told.

Good reference: Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison.  

For House of No Return, it’s a pretty classic mountain form: start | rising action | point no return | climax | resolution.

Something a bit like this with the little plateaus representing times when the plot slows for a bit to allow the reader a break and an opportunity to sit with a character or an emotion or some new information.

These breaks can also ratchet up tension and help keep people on the edge of their seat. The horror genre is a great example of this. You know that when we’re having a quiet character moment, or a humourous moment, we’re about to get something horrific on the other side of it and we’re in trepidation until it happens. But the book can’t be all horrific moments or else the audience gets bored.

(Unless the author is Doing Something/There’s a Purpose Being Served in having 85,000-100,000 words of only horrific moments. Which can abosolutely be the case! Again, it’s about what you’re trying to do, how to best tell the story, and fundamentally what that story needs to be.)

Grief and trauma writing also benefit from the breaks. I think about this in fics where it’s all bleak torture and there’s no resting or lighter moments—it’s hard on the audience. Which, again, can be the author’s intent! And that’s fine! But usually if you want to keep people going with you on the journey you need to give them breaks. That is just reality.

So, when writing the classic model I would say write, write, write. Get every thing onto the page. Every little indulgement moment, every little character study etc.

Then think about how you want the story to be paced. Do you want it a heart pounding fast paced piece? Then yeah, trim it down to mostly bare bones with just enough breaks for character study/get the audience invested in who they’re reading about and to give them a bit of a breather. But it should be super tight, over all.

Steep, steep, steep – little moments here and there for a break – then shattering fall and people should be reading going “what the fuuuuck is going to happen next??” (Grady Hendrix is a master of this.)

 Some traditional mountains, though, are slower.

There's a long, langurous start. We’re all along for a gentle ride then it begins to build bit by bit until we realize we’re riding down the Tuscan hillside in a cart with no breaks.

This is the sort of story where you can really relish your character studies and soft moments between people and little side bits. But you do need to keep enough movement to keep the audience interested. This is one that is harder to pull off because the balance can be tricky.

I tend to write like this. Hilary Mantel has books that hit this kind of approach. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic is a good example of a slow burn start but a good ride at the end. Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions is another example.

-

All that said, not all stories need to follow the traditional approach! Some are meant to be tangled meditations. A lot of weaving, a lot of introspection, the story is more about the journey and not the destination. Sometimes the plots look a little like this:

Peak Literary Experimental Fiction shit right here. This can be a lot of character study, a lot of philosophical musings, a lot tangents or backtracking or jumping around a little. Justin Torres’ Blackouts is a great example of a meandering story that is as much about the characters and their conversations as it is about queerness and history.

Other stories are meant to be rolling hills or waves: up and down, up and down.

Jane Austin has a bit of a wave quality to some of her stories, not all, but some. Long, drawn out family epics that span generations tend to have this quality to them. Books like Pillars of the Earth tend to be more wavey than mountain climax.

-----

Anyway. I've done a diversion myself. Back to editing.

When I’m doing my trimming, I don’t have an exact process for determining what makes the cut or what stays. I go with my gut on a lot of it. Sometimes, there are scenes that are hitting the same note but coming at it in different ways.

Cristof’s anxiety over his friend’s gambling addiction, and his guilt around feeling as if he is enabling it, is something I overwrote in the first few drafts because I was trying to understand the psychology of their friendship and Cristof’s own inner demons. Therefore, as I trimmed, I picked three key things that the audience needed to know about Cristof and Jacopo and made sure those were captured. I cut and trimmed accordingly.

However, I do have some babies that get reused in different places once I realize the original scene wasn’t working.

This stupid joke was originally in a completely different scene and was said by different characters but that scene wasn’t working and so I had to cut it. But I was very enamoured with this little interaction, so I found a way to incorporate it.

-

It’s also important to remember that some character studies/the resting pauses can be brief. By all means write out the full seven page version but I bet it’s possible to trim it down to a really powerful short beat that can pack a bit of a punch. Writing out the full seven pages is sometimes necessary to get at the heart of what you’re trying to say. Then cut it back.

I had a full multi-page version of this paragraph:

But it’s a rest-beat in the middle of the apothecary/barbershop scene that is moving the plot along, and therefore this memory/character beat needed to be tight. Still, we get a bit of a glimpse at Cristof and Nicolo through it, and while it might not seem important on the surface, we do need to care about these two idiots and the fact that they’re dumb about each other and in love.  

-

Quiet moments can also be interspersed within action. You can weave them through, so you have:

Active Scene/Plot Moving

Restful introspection or memory

Back to the Active Scene.

If done right it can give a bit of a melodious, wave-like quality to what you’re writing. It’s not for every story, nor every scene, and shouldn’t be overused (I may be guilty of that), but it allows you to still get in those meaningful character moments without stopping the plot too much.

As for the ease with which I kill darlings? Depends on the darling. Some are easier than others. Some I like, but if I can incorporate the important bits in another fashion then I’m fine with it. The more I write, the more I edit, the more ruthless I become.

--

A lot of this is, fundamentally, all about practice and doing it a lot. And also all writing rules aren’t rules so much as broad guidelines and each story has its own needs and requirements to make it work.

Apologies for the long reply. I'm not sure it's what you're after but I hope it helps. There is, unfortunately, no "quick trick" that I have to do it. It's really just a very involved process.

[disease]

Hi, I know you’re not a therapist or anything so you can absolutely ignore this but idk where else to put it… I feel like you are somebody who would understand.

I’m a young woman who found out about Gen January last year. I have never, ever felt more connected with a person. I can’t even listen to their music without feeling physically ill, when I look at a photograph of them it’s like looking at an old lover who’s died (I apologise if I’m using wrong pronouns by the way I’m just not sure which to use so I usually use they)

It was okayish, just an admiration until I had a manic episode (I’m bipolar) and subsequent depressive episode where I became convinced they were literally living in my body. Like I could feel their presence 24/7, everything I did was to do with them, I couldn’t read anything that wasn’t read by or related to Gen in some way. I couldn’t even look in the mirror because I would see Jackie. I became so jealous of her I couldn’t listen to any of Gen’s music past 1990 because the specific way that they loved with pandrogyny was everything I had ever wanted - Genesis was everything I had ever wanted. Genesis was the love of my life I thought.

It felt like all the confusing feelings and emotions and authors I have liked and poets and painters I’ve admired and just EVERYTHING was shared by them when I never even knew it. The more I learnt the more I felt connected. I couldn’t sleep at night because all I could do was just think about Genesis, and Neil, and all the versions of who they were in their lifetime. It felt like being reborn in a way… I felt like a prophet for them. I’ve never related to anybody more in my entire life. It’s like I found my twin flame but I know so many other people think that about Genesis as well. But I can’t explain it, this just feels different.

It subsided a bit when I got a boyfriend but Genesis is always in the back of my mind even now. Even after being medicated, I still feel like we are connected somehow and I feel this sorrow for them almost 24/7. It feels like I have lost a child. Like some sort of grief. I’m not the best at putting my thoughts into words, but I just can’t handle this. I love Genesis so, so much. More than I can write down or explain. I get this stomachache when I think about their life and how beautiful they were.

Do you have any advice or any helpful words? I’m really struggling. I feel so crazy. Sorry that this is so out of the blue. Sending love! ❤️

this message is extremely touching—and you shouldn’t feel ashamed by the intensity of your emotions toward Gen! however, i’m glad to hear medication helped to some degree, as these situations can prove to be very exhausting.

regarding Gen—as last i knew ‘they’ sufficiently addressed the Pandrogyne—they certainly had an incalculable influence on countless many during their lifespan on this realm. speaking for myself, i’ve worn a psychick cross pendant for years, along with it having been my first tattoo. Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth was/is yet another brilliant idea of Gen’s… but, as we know, Gen disbanded from the concept upon feeling that it had shifted into somewhat of a religious cult. its intention was always to be an influence for artistic expression and self-empowerment—sort of an evolution from COUM Transmissions—but nothing beyond those basic principles alone.

fast-forwarding to more current times, i felt it to be such a privilege that they utilized contemporary media (notably Instagram) to remain virtually connected and provide further documentation. in one of their conversations with Carl Abrahamsson, i recall them accurately predicting the potential significance of technology, and what it could/would become. [i highly recommend obtaining a copy of this book: Sacred Intent.]

when Gen eventually did transcend beyond their mortal vessel, i recall this same feeling as you’ve noted… somewhat of a ‘unity’ between them & self. unselfishly, it was a relief to know they no longer had to suffer from ongoing cancer. but, beyond that, there was purely this feeling of their presence still being here… perhaps a universal feeling which then manifested into S/he Is (Still) Her/e.

the only advice i could provide given the circumstances are essentially the root of what you’ve already been doing: learning about, discussing, and manifesting the lessons & artistic creations they provided to the universe. if you’re an avid lover of music, do recall the role they played in pioneering both the Industrial and Acid House genres. if Gen desires anything from you, it’d likely be at the core of their teachings in TOPY, which was recognizing and seizing your unlocked potential as a Human Be-ing. forgive yourself for your behavior in the matter; then continue to be influenced by the infinite wisdom of their words and actions.

S/he Is Still Her/e. 丰

[rigelmejo]

hey all! mejo back (after disappeared in the void for a while) with some language studying advice! (and as usual, take it or leave it, what works for one does necessarily work for another)

If you don’t know where to start, and you’re a beginner. I suggest: write down what you want to DO with the language. What do you want to be able to do in the language you decided to learn. This list will help you figure out your long term goals. Once you know your long term goals, you can figure out the shorter 1 month long and 6 month long to do in order to work toward those long term goals. And it’s okay to have 5 year and 10 year long term goals! It’s okay to aim for one thing now like “play my favorite video game in it’s original japanese” or “read my favorite author from the 1500s in the original language” or “be able to have a conversation about the current housing market,” and then later decide you’d also like to add “Be able to write a research paper without errors” or “be able to write a novel in my target language for teen reading level and above” or “be able to make youtube videos about my specific interests in the target language” or whatever.  My first long term goal with french was “learn to read enough to understand this book from the 1930s I found in a thrift store.” Then the next one was “be able to read these 1800s french history books I found that look interesting.” Then the next one is “learn to speak well enough to do job interviews” and I guarantee after that it will probably be “learn to write emails and essays without errors so I could feasibly work in french.” Just... really... setting long term goals will help so much, if you haven’t decided on any yet. First, if you write a goal you’re more likely to achieve it! Second, it’s a lot easier to figure out WHAT you need to study to “read X specific book with specific vocabulary” than it is to figure out what you need to study to “become fluent” and every vague thing that may entail. Even if your goal is “fluency” you need to know what that means to YOU. And what does it mean first, as in the first goals you’ll work on. Because your first goal is probably “have a conversation about my job and life and interests” before the later goal of “be able to discuss my tax bracket and explain to someone how to fill out this tax form.” (Unless you work as an interpreter for tax preparation, in which case you may well NEED to learn to explain taxes way before you learn how to say you did X as a kid and love to do Y hobby in your free time). Each goal will take some similar kinds of prep work as far as what you study, and some unique stuff you need to study. To accomplish both goals you need to learn a LOT of vocabulary, and grammar. But you’ll have to decide which vocabulary to learn first, which activities to practice doing first, and your long term goals you care about Right Now are the ones that will decide those things.

If you don’t know what study material to use, and I can’t emphasize this enough, please use a free one. And hey if you DO really like some paid resource? Buy one. Just one. And then use it until you have completed the entire thing. If you’re a perfectionist like me, or just indecisive, it’s easy to debate between 12 different paid learning programs and courses, or to buy several and finish using none. You can ignore this advice once you’ve gotten to say B1 (intermediate) level and have learned enough to figure out how you personally learn, what works for you, and what you need. But if you have no clue at all what you need in order to learn? Then just do something and STICK with it. Everything you need to learn a language already exists for free and is available. If you want a paid program that’s fine, it may be nice to follow a strict well designed course. Either way, just pick something and stick with it until it’s finished. Don’t spend $1000 on 5 different things. If you spend money later, once you’ve made progress, then you’ll have a good idea of WHAT study materials and study resource structures work well for you and you’ll be more likely to use those materials fully to make them worth the cost. I mean you can spend tons of money cause in the end do what you want. But if you want to succeed and make progress in learning a language, I promise even if you spend no money you can make as much progress as anyone else. So deciding to spend money once you know what you personally want and need could save some money, over spending right away before you’ve stuck with any study plan for several months and explored what works or doesn’t work for you.

You learn a language by simply: studying some NEW stuff regularly, and practicing the stuff you studied before. As long as you are regularly learning some new things, you will keep increasing your knowledge of the language, and you will make progress. For well rounded skills, you eventually want study all 4 areas reading, speaking, writing, reading. This will involve first, learning new stuff. So for example in reading it would involve learning new words regularly, and learning new grammar patterns. And second, reviewing that stuff by practicing understanding it. For reading that would involve reading stuff that uses words and grammar you studied. You’ll do this process, however you want (because there’s SO many ways to study and then practice), over and over. Your study plans will all boil down to doing this. Make sure you do a bit of both studying NEW things regularly, and practicing what you studied, and you’ll make good progress. For me I’ve noticed progress stall when I stop challenging myself and avoid learning NEW things, and I’ve seen some SRS anki lovers stall progress when they avoid practicing understanding things they studied (such as avoiding having conversations or avoiding reading). You can expose yourself to NEW stuff in a million ways, and practice in a million ways. If you use a textbook, then you might study new things by reading each new chapter and it’s new vocabulary list and grammar points. Then practice them by reading the excerpts, doing the conversational exercises with the vocabulary lists, and doing listening exercises with the words/grammar in the audio. If you use a tutor, then a tutor might regularly use new words and you ask “what does that word mean?” over and over, then you practice by using the word in your own sentences back to the tutor. If you use books, then you might look up new words every time you run into them, and practice understanding them each time you run into those words again. You can adapt to what’s enjoyable for you. So if you hate reading but like watching shows, you might do this with shows instead of reading materials. If you hate talking like with a tutor but like writing, then you might write journal entries and look up new words you want to be able to write about then practice writing with them. Now eventually, yeah, you’ll have to practice writing, reading, speaking, and listening if you want to be fluent in all 4 areas. But if your goal is “read this X novel” then you can cater your study plan to mostly reading activities for a while. 

As long as you’re regularly studying some new things, and practicing what you’ve studied before, then the biggest factor in progress will simply be hours you’ve studied. So the goal is to do whatever you can to study regularly, to add to the total amount of study time. One day, hundreds or thousands of hours later, you’ll be as fluent as you want. All you have to do is keep studying for enough hours, and you’ll reach your goals. So I suggest for your peace of mind, to stop caring what the “best” study method or resource is. I mean, look into it if you’re curious and interested in that kind of thing (I definitely am lol). But in the end, the best study methods/resources for you are WHATEVER you will KEEP doing. Learning a language is about studying consistently for enough hours to make the progress you want. So if you find a ‘great’ study method but you avoid doing it so you only do it 15 minutes once a week? It sucks. If you find a less popular study method, but you enjoy doing it and can easily do it 1 hour a day? Then it’s the best method FOR YOU. I know some people say they swear by textbooks, and textbooks DO work if you stick to them. But if you avoid them intensely then they won’t work for you. Some people LOVE SRS like anki, but if you avoid it or like me it takes 1 hour to study 10 little words? Then something else is going to suit you better. 

And again, regarding hours studied: you will not be fluent if you only study 100 hours in a year. Be realistic with yourself. Look up the “hours it will take to reach fluency” for your target language, you’ll find some estimates for how long it takes to reach roughly B2. Some are probably better or worse estimates. FSI’s estimates get thrown around a lot, and some people argue real language fluency takes 2 times as long as FSI gives since FSI assumes students study outside counted class hours. It doesn’t really matter too much for my point though. My general point is, if you’re an english speaker and study a language similar to english like French? Estimates tend to say 600 hours or more. If you’re an english speaker and study a language quite different from english like Chinese? Estimates tend to say 2200 hours or more. So what does this mean? It means if you’re studying a similar language, plan to spend hundreds of hours to see the progress you want. If you’re studying a language that’s quite different from what you already understand, plan to spend thousands of hours to see the progress you want. So if you’re an english speaker studying French do NOT feel bad if you spent 30 hours studying and still feel like a beginner, it’s normal! You may feel like a beginner for another few hundred hours, that’s okay, that’s normal. Make sure your expectations are reasonable. If you’re an english speaker and you’re studying japanese which is much different, don’t feel bad if you’ve spent 1000 hours studying the language and still can’t read a print novel! Or that novel is very slow to read through and requires you to constantly look up words. If you’ve only spent 600 hours on japanese, be nice to yourself if you still find trying to watch a show difficult! You’re a beginner in terms of hours studied! And then, on the flipside... if you studied French for say 500 hours and still struggle to follow a simple conversation on a tv show that’s like “I’m going to the store, do you want me to pick up anything for you? No that’s okay, have fun.” Then that’s a sign for you to focus on improving your listening skills, because they’re lower than you would probably expect them to be after 500 hours. Or that’s a sign you may need to change your study plan: perhaps (like me) you spent a lot of hours on reviewing stuff and very few hours on learning NEW stuff, and you need to alter that ratio a bit. The estimates might be very rough, but having a vague general idea of “its going to take me 800 hours to do what B2 (upper intermediate) scales say I should be able to” or “it’s going to take me 2000 hours” will help you manage your expectations and check your own progress is going how you want it to. If you’re learning japanese and only studying 1 hour a day, you have to be reasonable and understand it will take MORE YEARS to see progress than if you were studying french 1 hour per day. You’re not failing, you’re not necessarily doing anything wrong, it just takes more hours of japanese study to see equivalent amounts of progress you’d see in french. If you hate how many years its going to take, you can up your japanese study hours per day. But just know you are NOT failing or doing anything wrong if your japanese is still at a beginner level after 600 hours, when your french level was good enough to read novels at 600 hours. 

If you never made significant progress in studying a language before, then an initial hurdle may simply be figuring out how YOU learn a language. There’s many ways to figure out how you learn a language. I suggest you take a month or two and just search online about this and try out a few learning methods and figure out what works for you. For me, goal setting was a major thing that helps me learn. So for me I set some goal like “read a 300 unique word graded reader in chinese by month 3 (mandarin companion).” That was a clear short term goal that would work toward my long term goal of “be able to read webnovels.” That was a goal that would require a few study activities in 3 months: learning at least 300 common vocabulary words (and more if I can - I used some common chinese words memrise deck and cram studied, took about a month), learning some basic grammar (so reading some grammar guide summary online which i did for 2 weeks),  learn at least ~500 common hanzi (I found a book with hanzi and mnemonics and I’d read about a chapter a day and reread old chapters if I had time in a day, for a couple months). The first month I definitely spent most of it just looking up ways to learn hanzi, ways to study 500 words. I tried a word list (didn’t work for me), tried a few youtube lessons (too slow for me), tried a vocabulary book (too boring to focus on for me), and finally found what some guy did using memrise and copied him and just crammed (not the way memrise is supposed to be used lol) but cramming works for me. For hanzi I tried Heisig (did not work), tried anki (did not work for me), tried a different hanzi reference book (no mnemonics so didn’t work), then tried a book that had stories for hanzi meaning and pronunciation including tone ALL written so all i had to do was read a chapter for 1 hour every day and push through. That one worked. For grammar, I already knew I did well just reading through grammar guide summaries (from months of figuring out what worked back when I studied French). The second and third month, I stuck with the 3 things I’d found that worked. Then the third month, I tried to read the Graded Reader. I saw where I was successful, and where my skills were weak (things I’d need to add to studying in the future study plan). For me, taking a long term goal then figuring out a short term goal I can accomplish soon (or try to and see what aspects I didn’t work on well) helps me a lot. For me, I could break the short term goal down into specific study activities to prepare for it. Then I could try out the activities and see which worked and which didn’t (a lot did NOT work for me as you can see above). I do this process every time I make a short term study goal for the end of the month, except over time I clearly learned what works and does Not work for me. For example, one month I made a short term goal “do Listening Reading Method for a whole novel.” You might have seen my blog posts on that lol. I failed. I only got through 30 chapters instead of 106. I did not feel like doing the study activity daily, so some days I crammed 5 chapters then didn’t study again for a week. After a month, I learned that while I think Listening Reading Method is COOL, I just personally can not focus on it enough make it a regular study activity. I avoid it too much, which brings down my study time lower than if I’d spent the month doing stuff I could focus on easier (like watching a show or just reading on it’s own). And vice versa, sometimes I make a study plan like “listen to entire condensed audio of show this month, then see if at the end of this month a new audiobook chapter is easier for me to understand” and at the end of the month I realize I listened to 2 hours or more of audio a day, and easily fit it into my schedule. So maybe I learn “okay this study method is GREAT for me to do, I do it easily and I’ve made X progress and can understand a new audiobook chapter 30% more than I could before this month.” My point is... a lot of the hard work when you’re studying on your own is coming up with your own study plan and making sure it works for you, or changing it if the plan does not. You can avoid some of this hard work IF you use a pre-made study plan (like a textbook or college course, coursera free course, podcast, or even just copying the study resources and routine of someone else etc). But even if you use a pre made study plan, you’re probably going to have to try a few pre-made ones until one works well for you. So give yourself a couple months initially to just explore what’s working or not working for you. You want study activities you can do regularly (so not ones you avoid), that are exposing you regularly to new stuff to learn and practice of stuff you’ve studied, that are moving you closer to your long term goals. (For example a BIG goal for you is to speak to people, then reading novels and looking up words may not be as useful a study activity as talking to a tutor 4 times a week. You might do both study activities, but you might find one more useful for the bulk of your time).

This is related to the ‘hours spent to learn a language’ thing. Look up CEFR (A1 lower beginner, A2 upper beginner, B1 lower intermediate, B2 upper intermediate, C1 lower advanced, C2 upper advanced) and read the descriptions of what people generally can do at each language proficiency level. If your language has a different popular grading scale for language level, look it up (JLPT for japanese, HSK for chinese) and read the descriptions of what people can generally do at that language level. Just like ‘hours to learn a language estimates’ this may be generally useful but not super specifically critical. What I want you to focus on is generally, what should you be able to do as a beginner. Generally, what should you be able to do at the intermediate level etc. Then decide for yourself: how long do you want it to take you to get to the level of being able to do beginner level things? Intermediate level things? This is how you’ll decide how many hours a day you study. (I’m about to be REALLY rough estimating here so look up more if you want specific hour estimates for time it takes to get to X level in a specific language). If for example you’re studying French, and French takes 600 hours for ~B2, then make a guess it will take maybe half as long 300 hours to get past beginner level (A1-A2) stuff and start studying intermediate level stuff (B1-B2). As in, by 300 hours you should be able to do beginner stuff, and be able to START DOING and learning how to do intermediate stuff. So if you want to be done studying beginner stuff within a year? Then plan to study 300 hours or more your first year. And this is where it gets more important, in my opinion. When you pick a structured study method like Glossika, a college course, Pimsleur, Coffee Break French podcast, ANYTHING... look at the course contents description and see how much it teaches. Does it only teach beginner level stuff? Then if you use it, prepare to be DONE with it in 300 hours or less. I have wasted a lot of time using a beginner resource longer than I should have, by going through it slower than I intended to. If I’m spending 1000 hours on the first 500 words I’m studying in chinese, I messed up. HSK 4 (which is lets say for simplicity’s sake is ��lower intermediate’ B1) is supposed to be around 1200-2000 words learned. So by 1000 hours of chinese study, I should have already learned that many words. If I’m still studying 500 beginner words, I am covering new material slower than I probably should be. For me personally this problem cropped up for me more when I A. used pre-made study resources (like Pimsleur and Assimil), B. got perfectionistic and started reviewing way too much instead of making sure I studied new things at least 50% of my study time. If you’re a beginner, please stop and think about this kind of stuff for a few minutes before buying any study program. Here’s what I like to (very roughly) use as my deciding factor: lower intermediate level usually expects learners to be familiar with at least 2000 common words, and to be able to start reading basic things (like texts of ‘how are you? what do you want for dinner’) and start being able to read simple stuff (like comics and novels for kids) and watch some shows (in genres about daily life and familiar topics) with some level of comprehension and the ability to follow the main idea if you pause to look some words up every few minutes. If you can do all that? You’re probably lower intermediate at least, or high upper beginner (A2) and will probably be intermediate level soon. If you are looking at a new language learning resource and you’re a beginner? Then you’re going to want to look for resources that will teach around 2000 common words or more, at LEAST basic past/present/future grammar. (And ideally some listening AND reading skills practice but sometimes both aren’t in one program). The Old Glossika programs tended to have 3000 sentences, probably a bit less unique words but still probably over 2000 unique words. So Old Glossika courses are fine for a beginner, they teach beginner level information. Your goal would be to get through the Old Glossika course in the amount of hours you’re guessing you’ll need to get to intermediate or less (for french it might be ~300 hours, for chinese it might be in ~1000 hours). If it’s taking you LONGER to get through the course, you’re probably procrastinating or its not clicking well with you so you’re struggling to learn from it. If you’re an intermediate learner? Old Glossika courses are going to mostly waste your time, because you likely know almost all of the content they teach. If you have weak listening skills (like me) then you may find glossika useful to practice listening (so practicing what you already studied), but it’s not a full course you’ll rely on alone to make progress. If you are a beginner, and you use Pimsleur (which last time I checked for like japanese had only 800 words), then you’re going to want to get through that course in less than 500 hours (if ~1000 hours is roughly half the time for intermediate B2 fluency, and 1000 hours is when you’ll want to have studied 2000 words already). And once you’re done with pimsleur, you’ll want to find a language learning resource to teach you the NEXT 1500 common words you need to learn. This kind of contemplating will also help you rule out “money wasting” programs for you. Rosetta Stone is... quite the thing... and when I used it, it would take me 1 hour to study 20 words. That was too slow a rate for me, since with reading I can study 50 new words in an hour AND review hundreds of words as I see them. So I prefer to read over using Rosetta Stone. Some very ‘cheap shot’ language learning resources will claim to ‘teach you to fluency’ and only teach 500 words. lmao. 2000 words is only starting to shift into intermediate skill level, and fluency is above that! so 500 words is not going to get you to fluency, that’s a lie lmao. Now... those 500 word programs may still be useful, if you’re using them shorter term and you’re a beginner who needed to learn them anyway and likes the resources teaching method. BUT I think where a lot of learners mess up, is they read that the course claims “teach to fluency” so they spend 2 years on that course. Because they were putting in those ‘600 hours for french fluency’ or whatever. But the actual course only had 500 words, so they’d never reach fluency using only the course. So after 2 years they feel miserable that they’re still beginners after completing the course that claimed fluency, and give up. Duolingo is probably the biggest app that causes this in learners (from what I’ve seen). Duolingo, for many of its courses, teaches 2000-3000 words. If you fully complete a duolingo course, it should put you at either A2 (upper beginner) or B1 (lower intermediate) in vocabulary. So how long does it take in a college course to cover 2000 words? 2 semesters, 1 class for A1, 1 class for A2. In college, you’d have learned 2000 words and started intermediate classes after 2 semesters. So if you’re using duolingo, and want to make progress just as fast? Then finish the duolingo course in less than a year. (We are ignoring how the classes would also teach writing, speaking, listening too, while duolingo is not going to be building those skills as much, but you get the general idea). LOTS of people spend 2-4 years on duolingo, then wonder why they’re still a beginner. That’s why. Because a person using some other resource (or self studying) probably already studied those 2000 common words within 1 year. You didn’t. Because you thought duolingo would teach to fluency, as the app sort of implies it will, so you took your time going through lessons assuming intermediate to advanced level skills is what you’d end with. Incorrect. At the completion of duolingo, you’ll be (at best) a lower intermediate level in the language you studied. If you’re going to use an app (or resource) like duolingo, look up how many words it actually teaches, and decide when you want to be through the lessons. Duolingo works fine if you study 1 hour a day, finish it in 6 months to a year, then go on to intermediate resources to study from. Some people on youtube who’ve shared success using duolingo tended to study like that. But if you study 5-15 minutes a day, like the app sort of encourages you to? then you are going to take many more days/months/years to get to intermediate since you’re doing less study time per day. First: no study method works “way faster” than another, except the study methods you can easily focus on and do versus the ones you can’t. So in the end anything you can do is going to be hours studied=progress. Duolingo takes just as long as reading and looking up words (if you can focus and easily do either activity), to make progress. If you spend 15 minutes a day on either you’ll make progress slow, if you spend an hour on either you’ll make progress faster. (It should be said, at least for me personally, I do like study methods that show MORE NEW STUFF per hour... so you can slightly increase progress rate if say like me reading you encounter 50 new words an hour, but in anki you can’t focus and only encounter 5 new words an hour). Second: check what a language learning resource actually covers. A lot will claim to teach you to fluency, but check what actual words/grammar/skills they teach. And then plan accordingly. Duolingo will only get you to A2/B1, so know you’ll need to make a plan to learn intermediate stuff when you’re done with it, and not to spend more time on it than you’d like to. Old Glossilka courses will only get you to B1 in listening, so plan to do other stuff for learning intermediate level stuff. Pimsleur (last time I checked) gets you only to A2 upper beginner (at best), so plan something else to teach the rest of the beginner stuff and move into intermediate stuff, do not expect pimsleur alone to get you to fluency. 

For the people that need to hear this: you’re allowed to study any way you want. You’re allowed to study the ‘traditional textbook and explicit grammar instruction way,’ the ‘comprehensible input’ way, a combination, or another way that you found/came up with. Truly just do WHATEVER works for you. Whatever gets you studying new stuff regularly, and practicing stuff you’ve already studied, WILL work. There’s absolutely endless debates about the right method for learning languages, and some people really stick tightly to one specific method (that works for them). You’re allowed to do that, and allowed to do it with the method other people around you aren’t doing even if they say your method ‘isn’t as good.’ You’re allowed to use several methods, at once, whatever you want and works for you! You’re allowed to use a method even if people say ‘it doesn’t work.’ Because honestly, in 300 hours, 600 hours, 1000 hours, you will sure KNOW if it worked or not. Based on if you’ve made improvements in what you can do in the language. I saw a guy who did 2000 memrise common word chinese cards, no hanzi study, read a bit of basic grammar, and then brute force read novels in Pleco. Worked for him. I saw one person who did NO preparation and just started brute force reading chinese webnovels with a click-translation tool, it worked for them (I could never do it lol i’d be exhausted, but that’s what worked for them). I saw one person who did Genki 1 textbook for japanese, then genuinely just watched anime with NO subtitles and no word lookups (they would rewatch episodes, watch episodes in english then again in japanese for context clues, etc) for like 2000 hours then passed the N2 listening test for JLPT. I saw one person who learned by Listening Reading Method for hundreds of hours (who can focus way better than I can lol). One person did a speaking/listening japanese class (so minimal kanji study), Genki (so like 1000 vocabulary words learned), then learned more words by watching japanese shows and using english subs to guess audio japanese word meanings (so yes... to the right person subs in your native language can be useful to language learning even though it’s against general advice). there’s some people who just brute force studied 10,000 sentences in anki then got tutors for speaking/writing practice who passed N1 JLPT tests in a few years. There’s Kato Lomb who learned a lot from reading novels and looking up words, guessing words from context. A lot of reading (my favorite method). There’s people who did amazing with audio flashcards (japaneseaudiolessons.com founder learned primarily that way, i do quite well with them too). Some people do great just going through a comprehensible input lesson plan and learning primarily IN context by doing (like Dreaming Spanish youtube, or the book French by the Nature Method I used to learn a lot of french). Some people do excellent in college/formal courses (they are designed to get through through beginner, intermediate, advanced, and capable of passing language level tests). Some people learn primarily by chatting with people, and preparing to chat (there’s a guy who made a youtube video “learn french in 30 days” and the title is clickbait of course, but the study plan was solid - it was 5+ hours a day of picking topics he could not speak on, looking up all unknown words and grammar and writing scripts, then video taping his speeches on those topics, watching the video and noting his errors or having a tutor watch and help him catch errors and correct them, practicing giving unscripted speeches on the topics and video taping and again checking for errors, then practicing conversations on the topics with language partners in free conversation... as you can see the study plan included learning new words and grammar, practicing speaking and writing and listening). You can make progress in a ton of different ways. Don’t feel you aren’t allowed just because some random person somewhere didn’t find it to be the right method/methods for Them. 

[the---hermit]

How We Read Now by Naomi S. Baron

I don't know where this book review will go, but to be honest I can predict it will kinda look like a rant at some point, because me and this book got beef. The worse 25 euros I have ever had to spend for uni. This is one of the books I have to study for my history of libraries and reading class, and if it weren't for that I would have dnf-ed this pretty quickly.

This is a non-fiction book that focuses on the differences between physical, digital and audiobooks. Its aim is to analize data to conclude on which is the best option for learning. It is said that the audience it is aimed at is made of teachers, educators and parents. I don't know if it was reading it from a student perspective, but the tone of the author felt so patronizing. It was incredibly annoying, and the worse thing is that I agree with a good amount of what the author is writing about, but the tone was so annoying it made it difficult to read and to agree with. There's so many things I didn't like about this book, I don't even know if I'll remember all of them. The general critique I have read about this book is that it's pretty dry, because there's a lot of statistics, and technical stuff about researches and analysis they did. It's true, but it's not the worse part of the book in my oprion. Firstly this book is so repetitive it hurts. If you could eliminate all the times the author adds unnecessary lines to say "as we have said in chapter x" or "as we will see in chapter y" the book would miss a good 50 pages at least, it was so overdone it made it difficult to focus on what the author was trying to say (and to be honest at a certain point it looked like it was simply a way to make the book longer). And then as if that wasn't enough the chapters in which she tries to give advices on how to have the best results from different types of reading the tips are always more or less the same for all three kinds of books, so again repetitive like crazy. While we are on the topic of these tips let's just say that they are beyond the line of being banal. I spent all that money and time to have someone tell me that to have a productive reading session I have to focus on what I read and minimize the potential distractions. As I mentioned reading it from a student perspective made the tone of the author feel incredibly patronizing, anytime she talks about students it feels like she comes from the point of view that all young people are drowned by technology and social media to the point of being stupid. I am not saying this is the opinion of the author, but it's the feeling I got while reading the entire book, and it was so annoying. Another thing I personally didn't like at all is how this person is trying to find the way™ to get people to read productively, almost without considering that not only everyone has their preferences but depending on what and how you study and who you are things might change drastically. The general idea given by the author is that at the end of the day you should mix mediums but physical books are the best for learning/studying. I do agree, because I prefer physical book, but the way this opinion is carried in the book made me want to disagree just to go against the author. Not the most mature way of dealing with this but that was my natural reaction. Overall the writing annoyed me so much to the point I struggled to focus, and against the author's advices I did way more skimming than close reading because of how repetitive this thing was. I do not recommend at all this book, it's not worth it. Read articles online if you are interested on the topic, this was a waste of money, ans if you couldn't tell I am still very much pissed at this book.

I read this for the non fiction prompt of the 2023 genre bingo.

[literaticat]

Hi Jenn. After all these years agenting, do you still find it exciting and challenging (in a good way) or do you sometimes have to find new ways to keep it from becoming mundane at times? Hope I'm asking this right. I guess what I mean is, what advice do you have for others in the publishing field - agents, editors, authors - or even any job (!) to keep things fresh and stimulating without becoming dull and repetitive?

I find it exciting and challenging, and very rarely would I characterize it as dull or repetitive or mundane, actually. (Even theoretically "dull" activities like data entry or whatever -- while maybe ANNOYING sometimes -- are still of short enough duration that they aren't really any of those other things!)

There's just always some new project, challenge, puzzle to figure out, and one day rarely looks just like the next. (I guess it might from an outside perspective -- like "okkkkkay, she's sat at her computer for 8 hours... the next day she's sat at her computer for 8 hours..." these seem the same! BUT I PROMISE THEY ARE DIFFERENT!)

So where MY problem comes in is not in boredom or anything like that -- it's more: A) PANIC because no matter how much I do, there's literally always more to do. I can't get to inbox zero, the inbox doesn't have a bottom. I can't finish a to-do list this week, or any week, things are just getting added as fast as I can do them. and B) PROCRASTINATION - like right now is my "day off" but I started to low-key panic about the things I have to do. Like, I have to -- HAVE TO!!! -- do my taxes and clean my house, because my mom is coming in a couple of days and the house is a wreck AND I know while she's here I won't have time to do my taxes and whatever whatever -- so instead I'm SCREWING AROUND ON TUMBLR. -- so B is both a result of, and cause of, A. That's my struggle. (And if anyone has advice, hmu.)

I guess my advice if you DO have a repetitive job is, try and break it up into smaller bits, and do other things in between? Like, I can't give notes on multiple books in a row, or read multiple contracts in a row -- I can do ONE, and then I have to do something entirely different, using a different part of my brain. Like I can edit a book, then update social media -- then I can do a contract, but then go outside and just read a published book -- then I can look at queries, etc. But if I tried just editing a book or reading contracts or looking at queries all day long, I'd die.

So if you are a writer, maybe you have dedicated time that you know you can be head down, butt in chair, just writing your face off -- a time when you are by yourself and don't have to worry about feeding any children or animals or anything like that. Focus on that for that dedicated stretch of time -- no looking at email or the news. Then take a break that is totally different -- walk the dog! Make an omelette! Call your mom! -- then, go back to work, but this time, you are editing something you wrote last week. Then, give yourself a treat, have a cup of tea, look at social media. Then, go back to work, but this time you are doing admin -- updating your website, or getting shit together for an event next week, or whatever.

ALSO, I got this piece of advice from a productivity expert (paraphrasing, and also, advice that I should actually take myself but I just remembered about it right now!) Basically, rather than having a lengthy to-do list that feels daunting -- your daily to-do list should be THREE ITEMS. Pick three. ONLY. THREE.

Then when you do those three things, you're done for the day -- you can give yourself a gold star and stop -- OR, you can try for another three.

I do find that when I actually focus -- like, OK, I have ONE HOUR to do this task and only this task, head down, timer on -- or OK, I am going to sit here and do THREE AGENDA ITEMS -- then I actually do them. Whereas if I have a nebulous long list, it's much harder to do!

OK NOW I AM GONNA GO DO MY TAXES BYE.

[shelbbswrites]

What are your thoughts on EJ’s talk with Ricky? And his talk with Gina? I’ve really only seen these two scenes but they were both so significant to me in that we really see how EJ has (sort of) moved on from the last season. Though there is an overall somberness to him (like you mentioned in your review), I like that we got to see EJ making progress towards figuring out his life after high school

First of all, thank you for reading my review. That means a lot!

His talk with Ricky isn't much of a talk. It's more of EJ telling Ricky what he needs to hear, no matter what it has to do with EJ. I'm also not entirely convinced that EJ knows Ricky well enough to give him this life-changing advice. I wish we had seen them interact as friends outside of their romantic love triangles so their supposed brotherhood and EJ’s advice landed better.

I wish that conversation had been between Ricky and Big Red. I understand that EJ has a perspective that Ricky or Big Red don't (yet), but Ricky and Big Red’s comments in the finale underscore how underutilized their friendship is in Season 4. Big Red knows Ricky better than most people and could've offered him advice — even over FaceTime!

As for Gina, I really liked the first part. That mutual understanding. Gina apologizing for how she took her own insecurities out on him. The risotto joke? I could’ve gone without it. I feel like a lot of the season unnecessarily undercuts Ricky/Nini and EJ/Gina.

But yes, I like seeing EJ live a life that’s for him and not what his dad wants. That's SO rewarding after all this time. Those pressures are something he and Gina really had in common, which makes it all the more unfortunate that we didn’t get to hear them talk about that more during Seasons 2 and 3. But I digress.

I’m happy that EJ is doing better, and I’m shocked that I like the idea (because we never really see it to KNOW) of him and Val. She was the only person there for him and listened to him last season, so I’m here for their relationship.

I could write books about EJ Caswell in Season 4.

[kookaburra1701]

Summer WIP tag game!

I was tagged by @thana-topsy, I am so excited about what might happen with Halfway to the Sky, I am 💓vibrating💓 and also 👀 at a potential Dark Brotherhood story

I tag @ms-katonic-of-tamriel @mswhich @canonicallymoriche

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

I am working on a trilogy of novel-length fics called Wives of Shor (WIP snippet here: Moth to Flame.) It's a fic that started out as a pastiche of bodice-ripper romances starring Kaidan and Lucien Flavius getting sex-pollened by Sanguine, but it has become a tale about loving someone from an entirely different background than you, having a crisis of faith, and learning how to move on and live a good life when you've done unspeakably terrible things in the past.

I'm planning on having the entire first novel written out + at least most of first drafts of the second and third before beginning to post, so it will be awhile.

OK the game says one but screw that here's some other WIPs I'd like to chip away at, even if they aren't my highest priority:

A Wives of Shor prequel that explains why Lucien only made it to Falkreath before deciding that he REALLY needed some protection on the road.

A fic that explains why there's a bandit trapped in a hay bale in Swindler's Den when a) hay bales require industrial machinery to produce and b) who the hell was baling hay inside a cave. It will also explore the character of Ennis, the goat farmer in Rorikstead, and his relationships with other characters from Rorikstead.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death a short-ish novella that explores how Thane Bryling navigates the transition of being ruled by High King Torygg to his young bride, Elisif the Fair. It was inspired after I noticed that the Holy 80s High School Movie Girl Trinity of Jock-Prep-Goth was present in Bryling, Elisif, and Sybille Stentor. (Yes, all the chapter titles are Emily Dickinson poems ha ha)

I'd really like to get the full summary/outline of a fic my friend TheInducer and I yes-anded into existence. It involves a retelling of the Odyssey by way of Mor Khazgur needing to find a new Chief after theirs went missing. TheInducer did a great write-up on the theory we came up with on r/teslore: Durak is (probably) from Mor Khazgur.

And of course, I continue to hope I will be seized once again by the fit of utter depravity that caused me to write 2K words of Sanguine/Hermaeus Mora tentacle porn a few months ago called La☆Blue Daedra so I can actually finish it and inflict it on the rest of fandom.

2) Rec a book:

The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbitt. Her first novel is often overlooked by more celebrated/literary ones like Tuck Everlasting but to me this book is the quintessential fantasy story, and it's a very fast read without sacrificing vivid world building and descriptions. Here's my favorite, I think about it whenever I'm struggling with trying to describe something:

There was a lovely greenish glow in the forest, a glow pierced everywhere by tree trunks like fingers thrust into an aquarium full of tinted water; and Gaylen slipped between them like a small fish. With the trees all around him and the rain dancing on the leaves high over his head, he felt as if he were going deeper and deeper into a world that existed tranquil and quite separate from the one he had left behind.

3) Rec a fic:

I have an entire bookmark collection of The Elder Scrolls fic recs!

If I must pick one for this tag game, it would be Like Lightning by Jotting Prosaist. This fic single-handedly changed my opinion on 2nd person POV. It's absolutely masterful and I couldn't imagine experiencing the story it tells any other way. Mind the warnings, it goes to some very raw places.

4) Rec music:

Uh, my musical taste is...eclectic. I guess right now I've been on an early European music and metal kick, so I guess Corvus Corax fits the bill.

5) Share one piece of advice.

Floss daily, check your fire extinguishers and smoke alarms twice a year.

[neewtmas]

So I found a post by @chdarling that was full of questions for writers (because apparently we're weird) and though it might be fun to ask some of my favorite writer mutuals (that I can remember in the next 2 minutes) to answer the questions. There were 40 in total so I've just shortened them into 21. Number 11 is optional.

Have fun :)

What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

Do you have any writing superstitions What are they and why are they 100% true?

If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end.

If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place

Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written?

Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written?

What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

Omg thank you so much for thinking of me!! That's really nice🫶🏻🫶🏻

I have to preface this by saying that i'm not a "real" writer in the sense that I'm writing original stories, i'm just doing fanfiction (at this point). I might not be able to answer everything, but I'll give my best.

What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I usually write in a grammarly document and there is a default font that I don't know if you can even change. I also don't really care though

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

I think if I had an idea that was so groundbreaking that I had to get it out into the world I would but otherwise... I'm a slow writer as it is so that would just make it so much worse

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

I don't think it's particularly cursed, rather it's probably very basic - I just put on comfy clothes, light a candle and listen to ASMR/ some sort of ambience background music that fits the mood I want to write about

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

I don't have a specific word, but what I absolutely LOVE to write about is how the light looks like in a room. morning light, afternoon sun, dawn, dusk, golden hour, etc. I think that's a fantastic way to set the mood.

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

I don't think I have any. I don't really have any in general either

6. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

I'd definitely kick dialogue. You can convey almost everything through actions, gestures, facial expressions, etc. A story that only consists of dialogue would be hard to write and probably terrible to read imo

7. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

I mean I don't really have any original characters to kill off, and even then I would probably be hesitant to do so - even though I think it can really make a story hit so much harder. In fanfiction, I rarely write about character death.

8. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

I do, but only to people I trust. So far I haven't had any bad experiences. I also know where all my books are.

9. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

I write in my books, I underline, I use post-its, I do not dog-ear my pages (that's terrible IMO), I have also read in the bath before. I used to be really strict about keeping books as pristine as possible, I didn't even write into books I had to read for school that I couldn't care less about. But now I think that a book that looks well-read is the best kind of book.

10. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

I used to lay my books over the back of chairs or at the edge of tables

11. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Okay so I do have something in the works currently, which I won't give too many spoilers about, but it's a George x reader that is sorta enemies to lovers. It's also a little bit of a different setting than usual bc reader is a solo agent as opposed to in the agency/new to the agency.

12. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end.

I'm gonna be honest I can't really choose one singular passage, so I'm gonna talk briefly about one of my favourite things I've written recently, which is George x reader titled Nightmares. This is one that was extremely fun to write, because I started out with like a little idea for one scene, and it really quickly developed a life of its own and I just had to follow that. That's something that only happens sometimes when I write. I also liked how I got to include scenes from both the show and the book and how it was a really nice mix of angst and fluff.

13. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

I'm gonna take eternal happiness with my one true love. I'm not a perfect or even really good writer by any means, and currently I'm absolutely fine with that. In theory I would love writing a book, but in reality I simply don't really have an idea big enough to warrant a whole publishable book.

14. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

I use grammarly bc english is my second language and it helps with typos and weird grammar mistakes that I might overlook. I have a document for everything I've written but it's not super organised or anything. The most organised place is probably my masterlist.

15. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place

I really just think about the source material and think about 'what would they do?' that's pretty much the extent of it.

16. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written?

I actually think Lockwood is really hard to write. Or all characters in general that have this confident, charismatic nature bc I am not confident and charismatic at all lol

17. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written?

Probably Newt. He is just such a sweetheart.

18. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

19. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

it only exists in English, and I actually can't remember if we learned to use it in school or not. I don't have really strong opinions, I sometimes use it, sometimes don't.

20. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

I don't have an endless amount of unfinished WIPs. I have one that I write and finish and post, and then I start a new one. I think that's probably somewhat unusual.

21. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

Writing (fanfiction specifically) is a way for me to connect with the world and the characters similarly to reading. I often have this strong urge to think myself into a book universe and writing is just one way to do it. Also going back and reading nice feedback I got is a great motivator.