#sorry it’s formatted weird I posted this on twitter first and then copied it over

[parasite-core]

Man so tonight’s pathfinder session was EVENTFUL. After sending the Hand of the Inheritor back to Heaven, we fought and killed Baphomet, which restored Sarenrae and Lamashtu to power. We returned to the material plane, spoke to Iomedae and the Hand of the Inheritor—

The Hand had lost his holy power due to Baphomet’s influence over him, so Iomedae was in need of a new Herald. So she chose Draven to be her new Herald, The Adamant Shield, in his place. We didn’t have time to celebrate however because Drezen was under siege by Aponavicious—

Each of our personal villains was leading a force—Tachtel, Lady Jerribeth, Lady Salzala, and Dirge. Because they were assaulting the city all at once we had no choice but to split up and face them all at once—

So we had a massive combat in which each part was happening in a different location. Hiskaria faced her parents’ killer Tachtel, who somehow remembered the alternate doomed timeline we’d seen and fled from—

Hiskaria fought Tachtel until he possessed Cassandalee’s Herald. Hiskaria made reference to a slightly 4th wall breaking quote that had been said to her earlier in the campaign by a different villain, and suddenly Tachtel froze and came apart—

When Hiskaria examined what was left of his body, she found a bullet hole in his head, but no bullet or casing. We have no idea what to make of it, except that our GM likes 4th wall and timeline shenanigans so who knows what he could pull.

Luna faced Lady Salzala, who had destroyed her moral body and ascended to a point where she could no longer be harmed. Luna fought hordes of Salzala’s experimental angel-demon hybrids while Arushelae gathered the last pages of Salzala’s journal we’d missed in her previous labs.

Luna put the journal together, but it was still warded by magic. Salzala taunted Luna that she was just a useless meathead child that couldn’t do anything to harm her since she couldn’t do even simple magic to get into the journal. Luna told her to shut up and watch.

With a quiet chant to herself ‘It’s a CAN-trip not a can’t-trip’, Luna tapped into the celestial heritage Salzala had locked away from her in her experiments, and cast break curse, removing the wards from the book.

Holding such a personal piece of Salzala’s life and accomplishments in her hands, Luna bound her to the material plane, making her corporeal again. Salzala panicked and created a shadow copy of a younger Luna using all of Luna’s anger to possess and attack her.

However Luna used Salzala’s book to work out a reverse soul jar and cast her out of her body, and accepted her anger back into herself, a part of herself still. However before she could kill Salzala, Arelu Vorlesh appeared in a portal and gave her an escape route to Iz—

Melody faced her demigod cousin Dirge in the Danse Macabre to determine the fates of Shelyn and Zon’Kuthon. They fought and performed admirably, both giving it their all, both arguing their best for why the world needed hope, why the world was hopeless and destined to suffer—

In the end they came to a stalemate. The Danse ended and they were perfectly evenly matched, neither able to beat the other. Melody tried to talk Dirge down one last time, tried to save him from himself. He found her attempt degrading. Instead, he offered a new solution.

Walk the world as equals. She would ease the suffering of some in her way. He would bring the end of the suffering of others in his. Twin gods who understood humanity in a way no others could. Dirge held out his hand. Melody asked if he would restore the Writ and free her family.

He said he would restore the Writ. Whichever members of her family wished to return to the way things once were could do so. Melody contacted the others, and apologized for if she changed too much. Then she took Dirge’s hand.

Black and white light engulfed them. The Danse had ended. Two new gods had been born.

Draven went to face Jerribeth. What he found was Leto, fused into the Glabrezu. His friend took control of her, and forced her to grant him a wish—he wished for her to fling them into the furthest reaches of the ineluctable Prison forever. A portal opened to drag him in.

Draven refused to let Leto sacrifice himself for him. He used his miracle spell-like ability and tried to use it to bring Leto back. The wish and the miracle clashed, and caused the portal to collapse and suck Draven in along with the Jerribeth hybrid.

Draven found himself in a dark place, surrounded by chains. Leto-beth asked why he always had to be so stubborn. They clashed, their wills trying to force the other out, to be the one to overpower the other, so their spell would be the one to succeed.

Draven caught Leto-beth in Chains of Light, paralyzing him. However he couldn’t get past his incredibly tough armor to do any damage—“so this is how my enemies always feel, huh?” he noted—this was basically a mirror match starting out, high AC low attack

Leto remained paralyzed for a bit but Draven never managed to get through his armor, nor could he get through his stubborn disposition—something else they have in common. Finally Leto managed to dispel the paralysis, and began his own assault—

But again��mirror match. He couldn’t get past Draven’s AC either. But unlike Draven he had something to do about that. He began dumping his AC into his attack. Big mistake—

Because then Draven started finally being able to hit once he let his guard down and getting reckless. And Leto still couldn’t hit Draven most of the time because Draven kept his defenses up. And also Draven crit twice. Which went a long way.

Finally Deaven’s stubbornness won out. Leto yielded—although he told Draven this was a mistake, that he should just let Leto do what he was going to do, that if Jerribeth got control again he wouldn’t be able to protect him.

Draven and Leto left the extradimentional plane, and Draven called to Melody to come help him. He needed a miracle and he’d used his only one.

Melody arrived, and used her final mythic point to try to counter Draven’s old wish that created the chains that bound all three of them—Jerribeth, Leto, and Draven—and free Leto once and for all—

She rolled barely above average on her dispel check even with advantage, and without any more mythic points she couldn’t surge it.

It wasn’t enough.

Leto told Draven. He TOLD Draven it wouldn’t work. He should have listened and let him remove them from the equation. Now what were they going to do?

Jerribeth took back control. She taunted Draven, telling him he should have listened to poor Leto.

She said she was going to Iz before Draven decided to do something reckless, since he tended to get aggressive when she was around. “Don’t die :)” Then the Glabrezu hybrid teleported away, leaving a distraught Draven behind.

We didn’t have time to even process that though, because Luna contacted Draven and Melody telling us that a portal had opened up under the Citadel while we were dealing with that and we needed to get back NOW.

So we headed back. And arrived just in time to hear that the portal was connected to Deskari’s personal realm. And then see three locust-like demons step through, and one spear our wizard friend Aravashnial right through the chest. And that’s where we ended :(

[paranoia-assault]

Fate/Stay Night Review

I've been meaning to get around to this for a while, so this post will contain my thoughts on Fate/Stay Night. I'll be going in order of how you're supposed to play the routes. Massive spoilers btw. Also this is copied over from Twitter, so sorry for any weird formatting.

Keep in mind I enjoyed every route, so any negative points I bring up never made me think the route wasn't worth reading. That said, UBW > HF > Fate, so we'll be starting with my least favorite route.

There's 2 reasons why the Fate route is my least favorite. The first is that is has to explain a lot, so it feels like not much happens in it compared to the other two routes. The second is Shirou's "girls can't fight" bullshit. I can't stand Shirou in the 1st half of the route.  Shirou does get better, but this is probably my least favorite version of him. I cannot stand every moment he tries to hold Saber back from fighting and almost gets himself killed because "girls can't fight." It is extremely aggravating.

That said, Shirou is fantastic in the second half of the route. The Fate route is Saber's story, and he plays the perfect part in it. His dream of being a super hero goes perfectly with her wish of being a great king. Seeing these ideologies clash, then come together, is amazing. It's why I like the Shirou/Saber ship despite Shirou/Rin being my favorite. These two were practically made for each other. Last Episode only adds to this, and it made me retroactively like the Fate route more. Saber's ending was beautiful and their eventual reunion even more so.

Illya was also great as a villain. I do think Gilgamesh and Kirei both have routes where they shine better as villains, so when I think "the villain of the Fate route," it's Ilya who comes to mind. Berserker was the perfect threat, and the two together were genuinely terrifying.

Summed up thoughts on the Fate route: Good starting point. A bit slow, and Shirou is very annoying in the first half, but the Saber/Shirou dynamic in the second half makes the route worth playing. 7/10.

Time for my favorite route: Unlimited Blade Works. I fucking adore this route. When I think "Fate/Stay Night," this is the route that comes to mind. If I were to recommend one route, it would be this one. I even plan on watching the anime for it at some point.

The main reason I love this route is Shirou. UBW Shioru specifically is one of my favorite Fate characters. He is confronted with a massive challenge to his ideals. He's pretty much shown they're flawed. But rather than toss them aside, he strengthens his convictions. He denies his future self, determined to be different. Yeah, his ideals might have flaws, but why should that matter? Carrying on Kiritsugu's dream is meaningful to him. The pain is worth saving those he can. Even if it's a thankless, miserable task, he won't turn away from it.

Oh, and let's talk about Archer. I love him. Seeing a pessimistic side of Shirou, a potential result of his ideals, was fascinating. I was genuinely shocked when the twist happened, and it made me deeply appreciate Archer's character. Archer is another of my favorite F/SN chars.

Now, let's talk about my favorite F/SN character, Rin. Rin is great. She was trained to understand and accomplish what has to be done, but has a soft spot not unlike Shirou's that leads her to help others. She had a painful upbringing, but doesn't regret a second of it.

She is the perfect foil for Shirou. She recognizes the pain his ideals are putting him through, but rather than force him to throw them away, she decides to stay with him to make sure he doesn't push himself too far. She tries to help Shriou learn to enjoy himself. Shirou/Rin is my favorite ship in the VN for this reason. They compliment each other so well. Their personalities clash in a way that lets them both grow, and they're genuinely cute together, though you can say that last part about any of the 3 main Shirou ships.

The villains are also great. Caster isn't the same type of threat as Illya/Berserker, but her backstory and dynamic with her Master is really interesting to see. I enjoyed her moments on screen. Gilgamesh was the perfect final boss for this route though. Specifically for Shirou. Gilgamesh' powers match Shirou's reality marble perfectly. Infinite Noble Phantasms. Gilgamesh calls Shirou fake, but that leads to Shirou showing how an imitation can outclass the original. It's such a smart hero/villain dynamic, and the perfect end to Shirou's story in UBW.

Saber even gets some closure in this route, though not as much as in Fate. She gets to be Rin's Servant at the end (which I adored btw), and once again chooses to destroy the girl, moving on from her past. Also, she lives in the good ending which makes me happy.

I also need to talk about Illya. Her scene with Berserker is one of her best scenes in the entire VN. She's barely on screen in this route compared to the other routes, but somehow she made just as much of an impact with that time. I felt so bad for her in that last scene.

Summed up thoughts on the UBW route: This route is where all the characters shone their brightest. Shirou's ideals are handled perfectly, almost every Servant gets the attention they deserve, and the writing is overall high quality the entire route. 9/10.

Finally, Heaven's Feel...I think my thoughts on this route will be the most controversial, as I have very mixed feelings. 

I do want to say this first. I love Sakura. She is a fantastic character, and she deserves the world. I'm glad she gets the spotlight in this route.

I also think Kirei was at his best this route. His backstory, along with his final confrontation with Shirou, were both extremely well written. He went from a despicable villain to a despicable written I love to hate. He almost stole the show as much as Sakura did, honestly.

Rider was great this route. I love the twist that Sakura is her true master, and her protective nature over Sakura was great to see. This is the only route where she manages to stand her ground against Saber for a decent period of time, too. I'm glad she lives to the end.

The highlight of the route, however, has to be Sakura and Rin's bond. Learning that they were sisters, and seeing them slowly and awkwardly get closer, is fantastic. That final confrontation between the two of them blew me away with the spectacle & Rin using the second sorcery. Of course, the hug that ended the fight was the best part. Rin realizing she can't kill Sakura after all, despite everything she said to Shirou, was beautiful. Sakura's horror at thinking she killed her sister, showing she's not a full monster yet, was tragically heartwarming.

Them bringing the sorceries in with Illya and Rin was nice. I like how we got an epilogue that took place two years after the final battle rather than a few months. There is a lot to like about this route. 

...But there's also a lot I don't like.

Zouken and Assassin are just...okay villains. I don't think they're terrible, but they're not as interesting as any of the other villains in F/SN. 

My main complaint is that this route introduced too much. So many elements are here that aren't even touched on in previous routes. Zouken, true Assassin, the crest worms, the true Holy Grail, Angru Mainyu, these are all elements of the route that I'm just supposed to accept only come into play under these circumstances. Sometimes it feels like they came up with it all after the other two routes were written. None of them are badly written per se, it just feels so out of nowhere that I couldn't fully get into the story here. 

As for what I do think is badly written...I don't like Shirou in this route. He feels more selfish than in the others, often pushing aside others' feelings. The main moment that comes to mind is when Illya goes with Sakura. When Shirou finds her, he slaps her and yells at her, not accepting her feelings of wanting the end of her life to be meaningful. And there is no way to escape her death. The route makes that clear. Shirou also throws away his ideals for Sakura, which I don't like. The route before this one had him stick to his ideals despite being given evidence of the despair it will lead to. Yet here he tosses them aside without that, simply for one person.

Maybe badly written was too harsh. Shirou's fine, I like him more than in the first half of the Fate route, but he just doesn't seem to fit with the other instances of Shirou, and there were often times he frustrated me. Again, I did love his confrontation with Kirei though.

Now for the romance of this route. Shirou/Sakura. I'm sorry, but...I'm not a fan of this one. It's cute, even made me emotional at times. I think these two can have a great relationship. The thing is, I don't like how it happens here specifically. I think these two are way too dependent on each other, to the point that one can't live without the other. Just look at the bad ending where Rin kills Sakura and Shirou gives up entirely, or the normal ending where Sakura wastes away her life after Shirou's death. There's even a physical dependence due to the state of Shirou's body at the end of the route. It's honestly worrying how much they need one another.

I think they can grow past this, and I'm sure they do since the true end is a happy one. I don't hate their ship. It's my least favorite of the three, but I can easily see it being someone's favorite. Hell, I know someone for who it is. The ship isn't awful, just has some issues.

Back to the route as a whole, it is certainly the most ambitious, but I think they got carried away at times. It's certainly more geared toward horror as well, especially with those bad endings. Not that that's a bad thing, even if I'm not often into horror.

Summed up thoughts on the HF route: A spectacular finale to the VN, but it has a few hiccups along the way. There are a lot of great character moments and interesting ideas that make it worth the time. The true ending is beautiful as well. 8/10.

Overall thoughts on F/SN: A great time that I would recommend to anyone who can get it working on their computer. Fantastic characters and cool concepts drive what can be just decent writing at times, and the high points are really high. Definitely worth the lows. 8/10.

Quick add on for my thoughts on the prequel, Fate/Zero: An amazing first half that got me attached to so many characters, but it falls apart in the second half due to Gen Urobuchi's more problematic writing tendencies. Those have been discussed to death, so I won’t go into detail on them here, Still, the show has enough moments that make it worth watching. 6/10.

That's my experience with Fate so far. I'm about halfway through the first arc of FGO, so I'll make a thread summarizing my thoughts on each singularity when the time comes. Also I want to read Fate/Hollow Ataraxia if I can. Overall I can say I’m glad I got into this franchise, and I’m excited to engage in more Fate content.

Anyway, this review took me 80 minutes to write, and another 15 to copy over here. Clearly I’m pretty passionate about this franchise.

[larriefails]

First off, I’m not a rad nor a larrie, I’m a louie who hates both. I was just commenting on that because I’ve been in the fandom since 2013 and the de facto leader comment not only came from the boys but also during a billboard interview. In the billboard interview, they highlighted how Louis was the one taking the business calls and talking to their team about certain things. Also it’s not completely impossible to believe that once the 1d train ran out the big producers/names didn’t care to +

Work with him, because he was no “harry styles” liam is the same he even said that Simon didn’t want him on his label as a solo artist despite him having a great rapport with him. But there were other times louis’ business contacts were brought to light such as when he went to the Brits in 2016 and a reporter commented on how he was constantly on his feet to greet big name record executives and businessmen. He has the connects in the business that’s all I was trying to state.

Look, 99% of the time when I reply to an anon “you sound like a conspiracy theorist” it’s not because I think they believe in Larrie or because they’re rads, it’s because they fucking reason like conspiracy theorists

And your reasoning here is just… conspiracy theory mess. I don’t care which parts of it you believe or not, I don’t care what your personal feelings on these specific sets of conspiracy theories are. It doesn’t matter, the point is that you’re reasoning like a conspiracy theorist

I was gonna put this in a separate post, but I think it fits here very well (I might still make a separate post about it who knows)

A few days ago, I saw this video on twitter of a woman talking about her own death like it was nothing in a very matter of factly way, wearing a wig and using a very funny tone. Someone in the replies linked to her IG page so I went to look at it, and when I saw comments telling her “thank you for accepting my follow request” I realized she was usually on private and I’d just been very lucky to find her profile to be open, so I followed her just in case with the intention of watching her funny videos later

Since she was a new follow she continuously appeared on my recent IG feed and I soon realized how relevant what she was saying was to my interests

This is the woman

One day she posted this, and my alarms went off

Let me clarify that I don’t care if she’s a professor or a therapist or not, I followed her because I thought she was funny and that she’d go on private soon, this was all a complete surprise to me. The DM rang close to home to me, seeing as I’ve read Larries for a while now, it was all too familiar, her reply was too

Then she posted this

Once again, I said it before and you can read it here X it doesn’t matter if she’s a professor or not, if their suspicions are real or not, if she’s lying or not, because going through UCLA’s professor roll call is a step too far, and confronting her about it, even more so. And the way she presents it.. she’s right. She just linked the website, she never claimed to work there. If you go to her page, she’s very careful with the information she provides, so the people that want to prove she’s lying have very limited resources. They go with the preconception that she’s lying so they try to find ways to prove their preconception

You have the preconception that Louis was the de facto leader of 1D, so you’re working your way backwards to prove it. You’re looking at bits and pieces of interviews that will prove your theory right, but that’s just not what reality is

“The de facto leader comment not only came from the boys” .. no it didn’t, though? They didn’t say this. Do you know where the “the boys say Louis is the leader” comments come from? Stuff like this

Context for that interview? The Hot Desk, August 2011 X

One Direction had exactly ZERO songs out, this interview was recorded before they even released WMYB. All 5 of them had written on 3 songs of their first album that would come out in November. Savan Kotecha was still running the show. Louis was still 19 and he hadn’t been in show business for a year. How much of a leader that conducted business meetings do you think he was? I’m not gonna watch the entire interview to see the context, but this is not Zayn saying Louis was the de facto leader, this is Zayn kidding

What to even say about this, which is from the video diaries in X Factor?

Or this?

What? No, no they’re not, like, they’re just not, they’re standing in a circle and looking forward

This is just ridiculous

Does the person that created this gif set not realize that this is the performance where Louis doesn’t sing at all? It’s Torn at judges’ houses. It’s infamous for the fact that only Liam Harry and Zayn sang. This is all for dramatic effect because X Factor was a reality show

Louis liking motivation chants means he’s the leader? That he goes to business meetings? I’m so confused

That’s not because “he’s the leader” that’s because he’s the class clown

If accepting an award means he’s the leader then I guess this meme fits 1D very well

They all accepted awards, Christ

Anyway….

And that’s an entire gif set that was solely engineered to show that Louis was the leader and that “the boys said so”…. but they actually didn’t? The only two times it comes up they answer jokingly and it’s before Louis could do anything remotely leader like. But that gif set is so popular, created by a Larrie but that spilled out to the general fandom enough that I saw it on my dash reblogged by non CT blogs X

And it created this notion among some people, especially those who have Louis as their fave, that the other members of 1D had in fact said that Louis was the de facto leader, when they didn’t. It’s conspiracy talk, scouring through hundreds of MILLIONS of milliseconds of footage to pick 9 of them and put them in a gif set to prove a point they’d already decided on

There are also three news articles linked (copying and pasting directly from the source, sorry for the weird formatting idk how to take it off)

1: That’s the number of hotel rooms in Mexico City used for dance rehearsals. The guys locked down a room for three hours. Louis took control of the rehearsals and even helped conceptualize some of the routine.

That’sabout 1D learning the choreography for Best Song Ever

How exactly does it prove that Louis is the de facto leader for him to take over 1 dance rehearsal when everyone in 1D had confessed they couldn’t dance a million times at that point? Louis had some musical theater experience, so that’s that..

Harry: Louis is still loud and mischievous - he likes to test the boundaries. He’s quite outspoken. You need someone like that, because he’s great at standing up for us as a band.

That’s perhaps the most “leader like” comment any of them have ever made about Louis, and it’s not really about him being a leader once you put it by itself instead of surrounding it by “look at all the times they said he was the leader,” right? It’s just more of a testament about the fact that Louis was louder than the rest, which we already knew. If someone had asked me six months into my journey in the fandom who I thought was the loudest in band meetings I would’ve said Louis. That doesn’t mean he’s the leader. A leader has SO many more characteristics than being loud and outspoken. In fact, a lot of leaders aren’t loud or outspoken at all

The last link they put is once again, what How I Met Your Mother explained as the cheerleader effect X which taken away from the time period sounds quite misogynistic but let’s not dwell on that. Basically, it’s when a group of women appear hot when they’re all together but not individually. When you have the gif set all together, it looks like “wow, these are hot arguments as to why EVERYONE thought Louis was the leader,” but look at them individually, see their context and they’re not as hot now, are they? Especially when you realize, once again, that these are very very small morsels of time taken from very very large portions. That’s how Larries operate

Several people in your management and inner circle have described you to me as the unofficial businessman or leader of the group. Is that a fair assessment? I’ve sometimes felt like that, but to be honest most of the time I’m the immature one who needs to be told to get focused. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I have to be kind of be on board with every minor detail and [I’m] quite opinionated.

And that last link is also the Billboard interview you mention in your ask. Do you know when it’s from? December 2012. One Direction had just released Take Me Home, their second album, which according to the interview that Larries love the most to base their sabotage conspiracies, didn’t very much involve 1D’s input at all

Savan Kotecha: I think by album 3 (Midnight Memories), yeah, not all of them, there was definitely one or two-one especially-that was like, kind of bitter about the fact, that, you know

Ross Golan: They were a boyband?

Savan Kotcha: And he was not the talented one. He wasn’t the singer, and he wasn’t the star. And you know which one I’m talking about…

Ross Golan: Of course.

Savan Kotecha: And he then started having something against me and against that process, I think. And, you know, maybe we could have been more inviting in the creative process during album 2 (Take Me Home) and not been so…authoritative.

At that point, Louis STILL wasn’t in a position where he could really be the leader. None of them were because the creative process wasn’t inviting still. It wouldn’t be until the third album

The conclusion here isn’t that Louis isn’t outspoken, or that he didn’t care about business or that he didn’t defend the band, or that he didn’t want to write more, or that he didn’t want to make connections. No one here is arguing that he didn’t care at all or not giving him credit for anything. The point I‘ve been making for days now and that people don’t seem to get (one way or another, because I’ve gotten very unpleasant messages about how he’s not equipped to be a businessman and shit like that that I’ve just decided not to publish at all), is that things don’t have to be black and white

I don’t think ANYONE was the leader of 1D. I think that Louis’ personality made him stand out more in certain aspects (such as meetings with their team), and because people need to label everything all the time, instead of describing it as it was, it took the position of “de facto leader”

The problem here isn’t even that people believe he’s the de facto leader, that wouldn’t concern me at all in and of itself because who cares? It’s not hurting anyone… The problem is that it puts an excessive amount of weight on Louis’ shoulders, I also explained this. It’s this dichotomy of a person who basically carried the whole band during its five years but that also is completely defenseless and at the mercy of binding contracts to even choose the socks he wears

These sort of preconceptions aren’t harmful by themselves, they wouldn’t be harmful in a normal band. I wouldn’t have a problem with this preconception if Louis was Calum Hood and this was 5SOS, my problem is that this is One Direction and preconceptions and conspiracies have tormented these guys for YEARS. No conspiracy and no preconception is innocent, they all have to be dismantled, we have to examine EVERYTHING that leads to absolutes if we want a chance at healing the fandom, and I don’t mean the 1D fandom because that’s gone now, it’s never gonna heal, I mean Louis’ specifically

If we want a chance at him being left alone from Larries these things have to go. Stop seeing him as this commodity that you can just paint over and start seeing him as a person, not a caricature

That interview also doesn’t say anything about him taking any calls business or otherwise. I don’t think anyone has ever said it and I have no idea where it came from because I’ve found zero sources. The interview doesn’t mention him “talking about certain things“ either, it’s just what I pasted here. That’s all of it. Everything else comes from years and years of stretching this one question out of this one interview done when Louis was still 20 and 1D had less than 2 years in the music industry. It’s no exactly the smoking gun y’all think it is, guys. Same with the Savan Kotecha podcast

Then the rest of what you say is just noise, man. IDK what to tell you. It’s just noise. If Louis had ran the show BTS for five years, then he’d have access to the best producers and writers on speed dial, why would he not being Harry Styles hinder how he’s perceived by the people that work backstage? They’d recognize the person that was “the backbone of 1D” for who he is because those things spread in the business. If LOUIS said that wasn’t happening, then it’s because your preconception was wrong and you took a bunch of things out of context to create a “narrative” that simply wasn’t real. Louis was dedicated to the band and wanted to write for it and involve himself in the creative side and he GENUINELY WAS IMPORTANT for the band, but he wasn’t its backbone or its de facto leader

Simon didn���t wantt Liam on his label probably because he couldn’t afford him, btw. He decided to stick with Louis because they’ve been thick as thieves since 2014 and those contracts cost money and Syco is a very small label with very limited resources, so they couldn’t offer anything to more than one member. I’m  aware that I’m making assumptions here, but they very much align with reality, especially now that Syco lost so many other acts and now that Fifth Harmony disbanded and Syco landed only Lauren (Camila being like Zayn) and having to leave Ally, Dinah, and Normani go to other labels. That doesn’t mean they saw no value in them (in fact, I think Lauren is the one faring the worst), it’s just that they can only afford so much

And how much can you grin on one report written by the HUFFINGTON POST in 2016?X I’m talking about the “Louis hugged industry people that one time” comment you made. Once again, I’m not saying he doesn’t know anyone. I’m saying I BELIEVE WHAT HE SAYS. If he says he can’t easily get the producers and writers he wants, then I’m going to believe him. And that one report doesn’t really change anything for me. It’s, once again, very conspiracy theorist behavior to put more weight on an isolated report from an untrustworthy source three years ago than on Louis’ own words. If he really had enough reach to be friendly with everyone in the industry, then he’d be able to get any producer he wants

You can’t have this dichotomy that you present in this very ask of “they’re not picking up the phone because he’s Harry Styles” but he was the de facto leader of the biggest band on the planet for five years and everyone in the music industry knows him. It just doesn’t mesh together. You’re placing him in the same impossible position Larries are placing him and that’s harmful. He needs fans that see him as a person and you, I’m sorry to tell you, do not. You see him as a caricaturesque figure that can both be incredibly important and incredibly subjugated

“He has the connects in the business is all I was trying o state” 1. no that’s not all you were trying to state. 2. According to himself, he doesn’t have all the connects. He’s clearly close enough to be friendly with Rob Stringer, but that doesn’t mean that Rob Stringer will lift a finger for him and according to Louis, he’s not.. But that doesn’t mean that Louis can’t get ANYONE or that he’s being sabotaged. As always, truth lies somewhere in the middle. The only reason it’s harder to spot in this case is that people stretch it on every possible side so much

I know this is long as fuck and I probably lost any person that was willing to read my drivel in the first place, but I just really think it’s important that you start taking what LOUIS SAYS ABOUT LOUIS as fact, instead of twisting it around to present alternative facts that would present a reality that will please you more. It starts at “Louis was the de facto leader” and it ends as “he’s been faking fatherhood for three years and lied about his mother’s last few days” Sick..

[dtkrippene]

Managing a blog page for a group or organization can be fun and rewarding – a phrase that should immediately toggle the cautionary button.

It’s that time of year for our annual writer’s group conference in mid-March. Since I blog somewhat regularly on WordPress, I was asked to revamp an outdated WordPress page to post presenter profiles, interviews, and conference news. Essentially, I’d be the ‘ghost in the shell’ to solicit, edit, format, and post articles by other group members.

Hey, I use WordPress all the time. How much trouble could it be?

Looking back, I ignored the ‘check details before proceeding’ indicator, and thought I’d share a few things I learned.

Get a Clear Mission Statement Before Proceeding

Valentina Conde – Unsplash

The group gave me carte blanc to redesign the page, which included an upgrade to a premium page for a small annual fee with access to better template options, widget buttons, and customary links. Nobody had to learn HTML tech-speak or pay a monthly “mortgage fee” to fancy-pants web designers.

That part was the easy.

Once the docket was approved, we created a process for members to sign up for one or more of the over twenty articles slated to print over a time frame of four – five months. First solicitation was met with a silence akin to a high school gymnasium at 2:00 AM. It took a bit of prodding by group officers to get things rolling, but eventually folks stepped up.

Create a New User Account for the Blog

Ludovic Toinel – Unsplash

I blew this one big time. As a WordPress Premium Plan user myself, I hoped to minimize the setup time by creating a new page while logged in with my own account, then adding others for administrators. Updating a page whose original owner hadn’t participated with the group for isn’t the best way to go. Page could be accessed by anyone.

I didn’t have problems with approved members accessing the blog and creating a post, but like Facebook, the WordPress folks like having an “owner” available for everything. Since I revamped the page while signed in on my personal account, only way I can unlock myself is if I delete the account. The annual bill hits my account every year like the return of robins in spring. Every year I have to rebill the group. I’m still working on a third-party Paypal invoice option.

Twenty-twenty hindsight; start fresh.

First, sign out first from any personal WordPress and Email accounts that are open.

Create a new group email and sign-in credentials if one is not available. I found Gmail to be work best. May sound like a Homer Simpson “duh”, but make sure officers know how to access it.

Then go to WordPress and create new account, using group email.

Have fun building the chosen template to fit your needs.

Be sure to include group’s mission statement in the blog page “About” profile.

Have more than one administrator assist with the management of it. I suggest offering a cocktail or two before making your pitch.

  Select Template to Suit the Group’s Brand

From: blogaholicdesigns

I love WordPress because they take the pain out of designing a page. They have lots of them for writers and authors, and the web is chock full of outside designers who create WordPress compatible temples.  You want it to be easy to read, not splattered with visual frilly things that distract from the text. Save that for a personal blog that celebrates all things unicorn.

I stuck with the same template I use for my personal page because I’m lazy, and the Chateau Theme has a good balance of widget placement, logos and link options.

I’ll not go into details of initial page set up. WordPress is fairly easy to navigate, and numerous Youtube videos exist from people who don’t get out much. Best advice I have in how to organize the page:

I’ve always believed a picture tells a story, even if it’s a simple message. Not everyone agrees, but to me, a blog page becomes it’s just another bunch of words in an overcrowded blogosphere universe. And since the graphic is the first visual a reader sees, make it a good one.

I went all out on my personal page on dtkrippene.com. Took me weeks to find that perfect graphic to represent my brand, “Searching For Light in the Darkness.” For a writer’s group, we agreed something less snazzy to be appropriate.

  Ready, Set, Blog – Wait …

To fill in that vast empty draft space, articles authored by other group members should be submitted with the following criteria.

Micah Boswell – Unsplash

Article typed in Times-New-Roman, 12 Font, preferably on Word for Window’s, or compatible program like Open Docs. The days of handing a secretary handwritten notes for letter dictation ended decades ago, and I don’t have time to retype an entire draft. Cutting and pasting on that blank template above saves a pile of time. Avoid fancy fonts; work this on the WordPress draft if you want them.

To this day, I still get articles inside the body of an email or formatted in a weird font that I must reformat. As a result, I transfer all summitted articles to a separate Word document by copying text, using “Paste Special – Unformatted Text” to remove hidden formatting problems that don’t translate well on WordPress, followed by changing the pasted text to NTR 12. Even then, I frequently have to use WordPress’ “Clear Formatting” Button (little eraser symbol) on pasted text.

Patrick Goth – Unsplash

A useable headshot for profile or interview, not a thumbprint taken from google images, or blurry selfie shot. There won’t be enough pixels. Do not include the photo inside the Word document; which requires screen-printing to clipboard, then opening a photo program to access pic for saving as a jpeg, only to get a photo the size of a postage stamp. Most professional agents and authors will provide a media kit upon request. The upside with WordPress, if the photo is too large, it’s easily reduced in the body of the draft.

Marco Djallo – Unsplash

Editing isn’t supposed to be in the job description, but it ends up as one. Minor faux pas for punctuation and a missing word happens to everyone, but I’ve had to practically retype some submissions. There’s a lot more to it than typesetting. When I write an article for someone else, I treat it as if I’m submitting to an agent. I mean – we’re supposed to be writers.

  Include social media and website links if doing a presenter profile or interview. The most time-consuming chore with posting someone else’s work (aside from chasing down useable photos), is searching the net for said links. Why is this important? It’s a common courtesy in a profile piece, and the more links we have inside the article, the greater the SEO search linkages the article will have, which leads to greater exposure. The pros know this.

Get article author’s bio and headshot. The point of volunteering to submit an article is exposure for the author. “Written by Such-n-such” is about as invisible as the dialogue tag – “said”. If article author hasn’t created a bio, this is the time to draft one. Call me old-fashioned for thinking readers want to see a human face, I tend to reject avatars. It might be acceptable with Twitter and Instagram, but if an article author wishes to remain anonymous, so be it. Unicorns and cute pugs are not writers.

Leio Mclaren – Unsplash

Article should include author’s social media links as well. I remember asking one article author if they had any social media links included in their bio, who answered with “I don’t use social media.” I almost followed up with “how does anyone know you exist as an author”, but sighed – que sera sera, and quit asking.

  Pay attention to tags and keywords. For the conference, every article should be tagged with: Writing, Writing Conferences, Writing Craft. If the article is a profile or interview, add tags to identify the skill set, like ‘Author Voice’, Query Letters’, or ‘Staging Fight Scenes’. If an author of YA fantasy, tags should include YA and Fantasy. If the profile is about a publisher or book coach, include the publisher’s agency name, ‘Marketing’, ‘Self-Publishing’, ‘Indie-Publishing’, etc. It helps fine tune SEO search engines, so browsers looking for book writing tips don’t end up with suggestions on how much to tip.

  Share the article on other Social Media accounts. If the group doesn’t have a Facebook Page, get one (sorry, didn’t mean to shout). To paraphrase the words of a NYT bestselling author who spoke at a past conference, blogs exist in a ‘tsunami of content’. To break out of the isolated bubble of a few group members and family friends who might read it, group postings need a social media sprinkler to let others aware the group exists. We’ve found contacting and liking other writer groups and interested parties pays big dividends. Fellow group members who participate in social media should also help broadcast the news. Ask any RWA Chapter Group; many of them have the best communicative share net on the planet.

From: imfunny.net

When posting the article link, Facebook automatically pops the first paragraph and the picture embedded in the article. It may appear to save time, but what often happens is the photograph displayed may not be the article header pic (if article contains more than one photo). Even if it is, the photograph won’t paste to Facebook Photobook. Took me a few iterations to discover the best course of action is to type in the article title, followed by pasting the article link, then physically attaching the article picture from file. Sounds convoluted, but the article graphic becomes a permanent record on the Facebook page, and it won’t be a cat selfie.

  And if You’re Still a Gluten for Punishment …

Vance Osterhout – Unsplash

Our group page goes into hibernation after conference activity ends, until the next cycle begins six months later. I’ve been taught that leaving an active website unattended for long periods of time, can undo all the connections gathered. Personally, I don’t blog often, but I try to be regular. As if I wasn’t having enough fun with the group site, I suggested the platform was available to membership during the off months to:

Announce a new book, short story, or article that appeared in a magazine

Offer a poem, or short story for others to read.

Allow other writerly folk who have something to share with the group

Invite blog sharing from other sites. We’ll post your article, you post ours.

Share your writer’s journey.

Share a valuable lesson learned that may help others

Share successes. Share disappointments. We’re all in this together.

The list is endless.

The submissions for off-season, unfortunately – haven’t been.

A Side Note on Other Blogging Platforms

Markus Spiske – Unsplash

I’m a diehard WordPress user, because I’m too lazy to relearn another platform. But if you’re interested in what’s available, check out The 10 Best Free Blogging Platforms in 2018! (Pros & Cons). What you’ll find is – free gets you in the game, but it’s going to cost a bit more for any kind of customization.

I still run across writers and authors who feel the need to have someone design a custom blog website to be unique. If you want a primer for how much this stuff costs, read How Much Does a Website Design or Redesign Cost? [2019 Guide] for a hefty dose of sticker shock.

From: digitalsynopsis.com

I’ve lost count of those who claim to have a brother, cousin, uncle-of-a-neighbor who has some chops in programing. I’m all for unique, but if it’s a group site, the major issue is what happens if the programmer/administrator gets hit by the proverbial bus? Time and time again I’ve seen website “owners” disappear, leaving the hapless writer stuck with an HTML intensive site without an instruction manual.

I’m sure I missed a few things, but I think I’ve confused you enough. If you remember anything, stick with simple. You’ll be glad you did.

This ghost-in-the-shell thing is hard enough as it is.

  May You Blog Well and Prosper

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By the way, we still have openings for the GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™, March 21 – 23, 2019. Check out the amazing line up of speakers and get an opportunity to pitch your book to agents and editors.

You can learn all about the presenters on the GLVWG WordPress Blog.

A lot of work went into those articles. Throw us bone will ya, and give us a like.

  Ghost in the Shell – Group Blogging for Fun and High Blood Pressure Managing a blog page for a group or organization can be fun and rewarding – a phrase that should immediately toggle the cautionary button.