#tbh I've thought about writing a fictional story based off of this because it would make a really good soulmate au but ehhhh

[jaymie-the-magpie]

Uggghhh, dude, I just want to cry into a tub of ice cream or something. I knew this guy over a decade ago, and he keeps showing up in my dreams. And it's like, every time I'm finally over him, he shows up in my dreams again! He was my first love, even if it was one sided, I fell head over heels for him back then, and was convinced he was my soulmate. I know it's silly, but he keeps haunting my dreams, and I never want it to stop! I just want to see him again! It's driving me crazy! Every time I go to sleep I pray that I see him again. It's agonizing that the person I love most in the world is a person who likely only exists in my dreams. And I couldn't make it stop or control it even if I wanted to! I've tried! And the worst part is, my dreams always feel so real. I'm always completely convinced that I've found him again, and he loves me the same way that I love him, and then I'm ripped back into the world where we haven't talked in years, and I haven't seen him face to face since I was nine years old. It's torturous, and I should probably be locked in a loony bin for it. I hate this, but I don't, I just hate that I love it. I hate that I look forward to seeing him in my dreams, and that I savor every moment with him. I just want to tell him this in the wild hope that he feels the same way, but I won't because that's fucking weird and I'll just sound like an obsessive fucking stalker. God damn dude, soulmate aus don't have shit on my fucked up brain.

[aprillikesthings]

stuff about an au fic where they go on the Camino that I haven't started (and won't until next year) but am seriously considering writing, and I know I've mentioned it before, but--

so I've half-joked about writing a fic where Catra and Adora go on the Camino. A good portion of it would, obviously, be based on my own experiences. They'd be sleeping in the same albergues I did, doing the same km per day. Like I'd literally be going through my tweets and facebook posts (...which is why I literally can't even start the fic until late April of next year, when those posts come up in my fb memories lol, I'd be copy/pasting my posts into the doc to use as inspo), and tbh I could probably even hotlink some of my photos (...the ones that don't have me in them) into the fic

And I already know how I'd structure it, to some extent--there'd be really upbeat "blog posts" Adora writes in first person mixed into swapping 3rd person limited scenes.

What's funny to me is that, of course, the first time I thought of this I asked myself: why the FUCK would Catra do the Camino? and of course the answer is "because Adora asked her to," and obviously they're not a couple at the start of the fic and are by the end lol

(do they have their first kiss in the square in front the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, or do they do it earlier than that? hmmmm. either way it'll be fun to write them lying in separate bunks at some albergue or another, struggling to sleep because they're thinking about each other. the next morning they both blame a loud snorer for their lack of sleep.)L

OKAY ANYWAY so here's the thing I worry about:

I did, in fact, do the Camino in part for religious reasons. I went to mass as often as I could, I prayed the rosary most days, I prayed for people I knew all the time, I did morning prayer in both big and tiny churches, and evening prayer sometimes. And some of the most profound experiences of my Camino were faith-related.

And......I don't know how to work those in, or if I should.

Catra I figured out first, she'd be a lapsed Catholic with very mixed feelings about God and The Church. I know a lot of people like that.

And the temptation is to just make Adora an Episcopalian, like me. Or even just someone who grew up Episcopalian, and she's not sure if she's Christian necessarily, but she has neutral-to-good feelings about it.

BUT. My worry is that if I include some of my own experiences re: faith, it's going to sound like I'm evangelizing to people.

Which is not the point of the fic, obviously!

I dunno. I am probably over-thinking this. I feel like I can just write an author's note that's like: "Hi, I'm not trying to convert anyone; but this fic is based on my own experiences, and so I included some of the religious stuff."

Some of those experiences I've rarely shared with people, because they're hella personal. (I think I've posted about them to the Episcopal subreddit and that's it.) Like some of them I don't even think I've told my partner. So it's...kinda weird to put them in a fictional story with a focus on the romance?

But also there's stories from my Camino that I can already figure out how to work into the fic--

Like the time a few of us got into a, uh, vigorous discussion about religion at the dinner of an albergue in Navarette, and it was mmmmostly this Korean-Australian dude who was bordering on anti-theist, arguing with a woman from Texas who was a "non-denominational" evangelical. And I kept trying to butt in to point out that there's another way of looking at a lot of the things they were arguing about, but it was difficult because I could barely get a word in edgewise. And by the time we were all done eating, I got so frustrated I stood up fast (and my chair made a hideous scraping noise on the floor) and everyone stared at me as I announced "SO ANYWAY I'M GOING TO CHURCH" and walked off. And I did go to the church, which was open, but they weren't having mass that day, so I just whipped out my phone and the Venite app and did evening prayer and then just sat for a bit admiring the HUGE retablo and trying to identify the saints/biblical stories.

^literally that one! Look at it. It's INSANE. The full-sized image was too big for tumblr lol. Also I can spot St James, and Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven, and baby Jesus being presented at the temple, among other stuff.

I just want to point out: Navarette is small. And yet. Look at that fucking retablo--the actual altar is at the bottom of the photo. Not every small town had a church that ornate, obviously; some were far smaller and plainer than that. But it was always wild to be in some small town of a few thousand people and it would have a church that was built in the late-medieval era and was far grander than the diocesan cathedral at home.

ANYWAY in my fic it would obviously be Adora trying to get in a word in edgewise and failing and then announcing she's going to church, and Catra would follow shortly after and just silently sit next to her. And then they'd have a discussion about the other people arguing where Adora would be like "well, they each only know the Christianity they grew up with," and Catra's like "they don't have to be assholes about it though," and then Adora's shushing her like "omg don't say things like that in a church" but she's giggling.

Ugh. I just. I don't want to write a fic where the plot ends up being "Adora and/or Catra find God." Especially given how much of the show's plot was in response to Nate's religious trauma. The fact that his trauma is from conservative Calvinism wouldn't make it any less shitty.

Lots and LOTS of non-religious people do the Camino. In fact, the people there for religious reasons are absolutely the minority these days, even if lots of other people would say "spiritual" reasons. So it wouldn't be inaccurate to leave most of the religious stuff out.

(I've repeatedly joked: The Camino is a long walk about Jesus. The amount of Jesus is optional to some extent, but if any Jesus bothers you, the Camino might not be the long walk for you.)

ANYWAY I have like six months to think about this before I could start writing it lol

[dross-the-fish]

feel free to skip if you're uncomfortable. I saw your post about the things you don't support in writing but what are your thoughts on things like rape-fic or CNC?

First and foremost I think I will never write them or read them. I am a rape-survivor and though I have managed my trauma well I am not in a place where I want to see or interact with it in literature or media.

In terms of whether or not they're ethical? That's a grey area. Context matters pretty heavily when depicting those topics and there is definitely a way people do it that is toxic and perpetuates harmful misconceptions about sex and consent.

To a point you can argue it's like BDSM, the people creating and engaging with these scenarios are adults writing about other adult characters and they retain control over the fantasy so there's no actual consent being violated. Though I certainly think there is a conversation to be had about why these fantasies are so prevalent, especially among women. There's also an issue with the predator characters sometimes being intentionally or unintentionally racially coded but that requires its own separate conversation. It also makes a difference if the writer is identifying with the predatory role vs the victim role which is also it's own conversation but I think for the purpose of this ask I'll focus mainly on female consumers who identify with the victim as that is the most widespread scenario in fanfic and the "romance" genre.

Take this with a grain of salt, I haven't really done a lot of research into this so most of this is speculative and based on conversations I've had with women who enjoy this kind of content. I could be way off in my observations but I noticed common threads in all of my conversations.

I think genres like smutty "bodice rippers" written by and for women don't have widespread popularity for no reason and the reason is rooted in internalized misogyny. It's a symptom of generations of women feeling ashamed of their sexuality. The main appeal of these kinds of narratives seems to be that the female protagonist has little to no control and is therefore not responsible for initiating or perusing any kind of sexual gratification. She remains passive rather than active, through that passivity she can retain a sense of moral purity and even innocence. Why do those things matter? Because historically and even in some sense currently, that is the measure of a woman's worth.

I've spoken to women who say that they inexplicably feel a sense of guilt if they take a proactive role in the bedroom and I find that more than a little troubling tbh.

In most of these stories the female protagonist is not given power because power would mean she could be held responsible for her own debauchery. It opens her up to criticism, slut-shaming and accusations of "asking for it."

In summary I don't think there's generally anything wrong with kink but I think it's beneficial to examine where the kink comes from and why a particular fantasy or kink is widespread. Fiction is shaped by reality and consumers of fiction are obligated to some extent to understand what they are consuming and why they are consuming it. At the end of the day all I ask is that people engage critically and be willing to unpack whether what their consuming is in itself harmful or a symptom of a more widespread harmful ideology.

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

15 Questions, 15 Mutuals

Tagged by @andromedaexists! It's cool your names have connections to family and saints, and that you've tried so many things/sports. Your cats sound adorable (though this goes without saying for cats perhaps).

As for myself:

1. Are you named after anyone? Yes! My mom wanted to give me a "hippie" name like Freedom or Windsong or something, but my dad would have none of it. In one of their rare instances of compromise, they settled on naming me after a folk/pop singer who was big in the 70s. If I decide to change it at some point, I'll probably choose something very similar in spelling/sound.

2. When was the last time you cried? Like two days ago while thinking about a scene where a character experiences Gender Thoughts (positive). And the day before that while listening to talks on medieval history about humans being humans. Then last weekend, while watching Puss In Boots with my partner. Look, it's not outright sobbing and tears, but I do mist up a lot, okay? For someone who had to numb their emotions to survive much of their childhood and teen years, I appreciate this actually. That despite whatever pain I've experienced it couldn't stop me from recognizing and overflowing at the pleasure and beauty all around me.

3. Do you have kids? No, and no plans to. I'm content with my affection for the children of others in my life.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? I think so? I definitely used to, though I think I've cut back on it significantly.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people? The way they speak and how they communicate in general. Accents, idioms, whether they're confident (and if that confidence is bravado or well-founded), is their choice of words vibe-based or definition-based, etc. I'll recognize someone's voice before their face tbh. 😅

6. What’s your eye color? Brown. I get compliments on them.

7. Scary movies or happy endings? Both? Depends on my mood. I always love a "hard-earned happy ending", though. Those Situations really did a number on my blorbos, but they kept on keeping on. That sort of thing.

8. Any special talents? Defying expectations, I guess? I often apply for jobs/sign up for experiences where the people in charge just go, Um, are you sure you're supposed to be here? And I'm like, Sure, why not, let's go. Then I do pretty well at whatever it is and they're impressed, mostly because they thought I couldn't/wouldn't stick around. People also seem to generally like my baking.

9. Where were you born? Northern California, USA.

10. What are your hobbies? Writing, reading, little art projects, video games, gardening, baking, thinking too much, harassing various invertebrates, sea creatures, and neighborhood animals with my affection/fascination

11. Have you any pets? A cat named Mimi! She was a stray I agreed to adopt from a friend on Discord while drunk. This remains my best decision made while under the influence.

12. What sports do you play/have played? I did martial arts for the last seven years, including fighting in like 4 tournaments. I put it aside since college takes a lot of my energy now. Also, training is expensive, and the culture around it sucks pretty often. I'd like to get back into it one day, just with people who value it for reasons similar to mine.

13. How tall are you? 5' 8". I'm too American to be measured in cm (joke joke this is a joke the metric system and I are buds).

14. Favorite subject in school? Before college, lit/reading. As an adult, I really enjoy history and anthropology related stuff too.

15. Dream job? Making a living off my silly little gay vampire stories. But I'd settle for translating fiction between Spanish and English.

Copy/Paste for mobile users: 1. Are you named after anyone? 2. When was the last time you cried? 3. Do you have kids? 4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? 5. What’s the first thing you notice about people? 6. What’s your eye color? 7. Scary movies or happy endings? 8. Any special talents? 9. Where were you born? 10. What are your hobbies? 11. Have you any pets? 12. What sports do you play/have played? 12. What sports do you play/have played? 13. How tall are you? 14. Favorite subject in school? 15. Dream job?

No pressure tags (and no pressure to answer any questions you don't want to ofc) @vacantgodling @korblez @space-cadead @afoolandathief @cljordan-imperium @late-to-the-fandom @thecyrulik @blind-the-winds @muddshadow @theskeletonprior @rosieartsie @letsmakeitwrite @k--havok @likegemstone @thatndginger

[not-poignant]

🧐 & 🏆 for the meme game!

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

Yes and no.

I think the main thing about me is that I spend a lot of time researching in general. I read a lot of non-fiction, and most years, I read more non-fiction than fiction. I read widely, across a lot of subjects (one year I went through a phase of just getting out books at the library on elements in the periodic table, and vulcanology, and that was it), and very eclectically.

And then I also have additional personal areas of research I have always targeted, like media studies, film studies, queer studies, some acafandom stuff, folklore and fairy tales, sex in history and being queer in history, PTSD and affect and panic disorders, environmental studies, ecology, regenerative agriculture, ecosystems, animal ethology, corvids, taxonomy, unusual animals etc. These are areas where I actually own books and have like...dedicated non-fiction bookshelves.

So because of that, I actually have a fairly broad range of eclectic (but very incomplete) knowledge, and some deeper knowledge around subjects like trauma. I don't need to research PTSD before I start writing an entire story about PTSD, because I both have it, and I have 40 books on the subject that I've read. I might quickly do a cursory search to make sure some of my knowledge is up-to-date but that's about it.

But then I also do a lot of research about random things sometimes. Like I spent two hours trying to research how deep the leaf litter in a karri forest is for a line I wanted to write in Underline the Black and I both didn't need to write the line and didn't find the answer I wanted (it was based off a fact I thought I'd learned years ago, but I couldn't corroborate it online, but nor could I disprove it, but I wasn't confident enough in the factoid to put it in). So I often do random deep dives on things like this.

Some stories require more research than others. Underline the Black broadly requires hardly any, as in, I do no research of any kind before the majority of chapters. But I did do a lot of research on hormones and hormone structures (and again, because of my personal experience with a hormone / neuroendocrine cancer, I have some knowledge on hormones in general) as like a building block for the worldbuilding. I know a lot of that off by heart now, so I don't need to go back and check that research, but that time does inform the story.

Mallory & Mount conversely has taken some research, mostly into political and criminal control structures all around the world so far. It's taken a lot of worldbuilding, but because I know a bit about biology, taxonomy, evolution, and world culture/s already, I don't necessarily need to collect as much broad knowledge, and instead deep dive instead. Like, I already know about the chemical make up of granite and where it's found and what land masses it's found in and what countries and how it's quarried. But I might need to research where you'd find pink granite and what that's been used for specifically, y'know?

Basically writing is one of the best places to spend the labour of being a non-fiction obsessed little gremlin creature who just wants to learn about nearly everything.

But honestly very little of my research actually ends up in the stories, because it's all very dry and tbh often unnecessary (no one actually needs to know how deep the leaf litter is in a karri forest), and I'm wary of infodumping. I usually try to have an 'infodumping' style character (like Temsen) to get away with it, lmao.

OH, and I've spent way too much time looking up wine and local wineries on Dr Gary's behalf, because man, I do not give a shit about wine.

The Gentle Wolf had a surprising amount of research into the duties of a barista, and into chocolate making. I'd say I watched around 20 hours of chocolate making videos for professionals, because I needed the lingo that professionals would use vs. home cooks. And I watched 'how to clean a cafe coffee maker if you're a barista' video re: learning about the daily / weekly / monthly maintenance of your machines if you're making professional coffee, lmao.

99.9999999% of it didn't make it into the story, but I felt confident that what did make it into the story would feel at least a little realistic to people who were in those fields, which is always the goal. The dream is for someone to go 'I can tell you have experience in this area because you know about X' when I actually have no experience in that area at all, lmao, and that's happened a few times now.

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

For comments, Falling Falling Stars.

For kudos, The Golden Age that Never Was (3,800)

-

From the fandom meme!

[stitchthesewords]

Here's some fun, non-to-lightly spoilery Rift AU thoughts for everyone!

So Ren in Rift AU is inspired by the faon interpretation [maybe closer to canon? I havent watched s7] of Mayor Scar mixed w the Red King from 3rd Life - Specifically, Ren is inspired by @mochiwrites's Scar in her Good Crimes AU [Which if you haven't read you ABSOLUTELY should]. I just love how she wrote Scar to be publicly one way and Privately another, and while I certainly don't imagine that Ren the King is quite as beloved, the inspiration is there.

Originally, Rift AU was tagged w Watcher Grian but I changed that because I want to mess with the Rift as it's own separate force and leave the Watchers for something else. I think the Watchers [And Listeners! *looks at Martyn*] function more as an ancient, ANCIENT religion, maybe even older than the ancient cities.

Also another original idea that's been put to the side for now is that the Warden was a watcher - I don't know where I was originally going with that idea, but it was my first pivot after deciding Grian wasn't going to be the watcher.

For anyone curious, and because I don't know if I'll name it directly in the stories or just leave it more ambiguous, I'm basing Scar's mobility issues and chronic pain off my own experiences with Cerebral Palsy, among other things. I have a very mild for of Cerebral Palsy that left me with a weaker right side and mobility issues and I absolutely wanted to make sure Scar was still disabled even if he isn't wheelchair bound. I imagine that he certainly has a wheelchair for bad days, but those would be like. Really bad days. The staff - to - cane that he has, made out of the same magical wood as his tree, is probably good for most of the sort of bad days.

Rift AU actually started as a way for me to explore sculk and ancient cities in fiction, which is funny given that we are now 17k in and counting with no mention of either. I have plans for it, but the story needed more work up than I was originally anticipating, which is great! I'm really enjoying returning to my roots with fanfiction, which is the whole reason I started writing Rift AU in the first place

Obviously I'm sort of picking and choosing what elements from hermitcraft [and the life series] I want to include in Rift AU but I am a little bit grumpy that I started writing it before I really fully understood the king plot [When I started, I had only watched Grian and Etho. Now I've caught up on Ren, Impulse, Mumbo, and Cleo, with plans to watch Pearl, Tango, Zedaph, and Doc next. I also really want to watch Beef and Iskall lol] because now I really wanna jam the whole royal council shenanigans in there and I'm not gonna be able to without probably retconning Scar and Ren's relationship which I refuse to do!

Obviously, Mumscarian and Treebark are in the story, and there's also going to be platonic Soup Group and platonic Team ZITS [bc. Skizz deserves to be here. I love him]. I won't tell you ALL of the pairings that end up in the story because a. I feel like we're be here all day but b. some of them are spoilers but I AM planning on having Solidaritek [Apparently team ranchers is only for platonic or something???] and ZedBeef and also Ethubs all make their own appearances. There might even be some like short stories following a few of the other couples in the story because I have attachments to Ethubs in particular. IDK if you can tell but Etho is my favorite hermit and I used to watch him all the way back in 2011 on his singleplayer world. I remember the boat dispenser. My baby girl.

One of these days I will genuinely type up an essay about my latent energy theory but in case anyone else is interested here's a very short tldr version: Redstone, Glowstone, End Rods, debatably sculk [I havent decided if it falls into the same category yet tbh], etc etc all power themselves via latent energy. That latent energy is compatible with electricity in some way, as evidenced by the fact that lightning rods can be used to power redstone machines, but it's different. More in between electricity and magic - either because it actually is or because it's not as understood by the people who work it. That same latent energy is the stuff magic feeds off, like is seen in Changing of the Season to help rejuvenate Scar. Whatever it is is old. Older than the Ancient Cities since they knew to build redstone machines to distract the Warden. It's older than the end cities, too, since end rods exist. Arguably it has always been and will always be around in some way.

Also this might not interest anyone else but thoughts on vampires and elves. Vampires are more closely related to Zombies, whereas Elves [Who are Fae, which means the Vex are included here] are more closely related to Endermen than anything [<- that will come up again] - and then the Warden and sculk are like. Very distant cousins of vampires. Sort of. Their trees connect somewhere.

[jeannereames]

Hi, Dr. Reames! How do you handle the responsibility of being a woman writing MLM love stories? There's been a lot of harsh critics towards women writing BL lately, I've been wanting to write one myself but as a woman it now feels kinda wrong. I thought of using a pseudonym, but that feels somehow even more wrong, like cheating or something. What do you think about his problematic? How can we make it better or surpass it?

In my original attempt to answer, I dove into a discussion of fair representation among fiction authors, Big Publishing’s perpetuation of bias, and the problem of appropriation vs. authentic subaltern voices in fiction. IOW, an academic-ish essay. All those things are worth discussing, and maybe I will at some point. And perhaps the seriousness of the question deserves it.

Yet there’s a simpler answer to this question. Perhaps it's a bit…sassy, but may be more helpful in a bank-shot sort of way.

I’m not a woman author of M/M Romance.* I’m not a Romance author at all, in fact, and I do happen to be queer. Fwiw, the complaint is usually about [white] cis-het women writing M/M Romance.

I am a historical fiction author, and an SFF author. I wrote a lit-fic coming-of-age historical about Alexander the Great and Hephaistion; I plan to continue that story at some point. In addition, I have an epic fantasy that’s 4-of-5 books finished, and another contemporary fantasy that’s 1.5 books of 3. None of those is a Romance. All do have love stories as part of a much bigger plot, and all have queer characters. In two, queer characters are the chief protagonists. In addition to those three series, I have a solid idea for two more stand-alone books that I’ve written only the opening for, one contemporary SF, one time-travel.

The ONLY (true) M/M Romance I’ve toyed with writing would be an anti-Sparta manifesto wherein my main characters are a helot slave and a member of the Perioikoi. I’m sure that would go over like a lead balloon because my entire goal in writing it would be to showcase how godawful ancient Sparta actually was, and poke hella lot of holes in the Spartan Myth perpetuated in M/M romance and historical fiction generally. (Ergo, I will [probably] never write this thing because the Haters would come out of the woodwork, and I’d rather spend time on stories I like.)

Anyway…

What qualifies or disqualifies an author with regard to a story depends largely on what the book is about—it’s focus.

I’m not writing a gay man’s experience in the modern world. If I were, not being a gay man would matter. It wouldn’t disqualify me from writing said-novel, but it’d create a steeper climb.

Yet being a gay man doesn’t qualify someone to write a historical novel about Alexander the Great.

Being a (published) expert on Hephaistion, Alexander, and ancient Macedonia matters rather more, as does being a (published) expert on ancient Greek sexual morēs, and an expert in ancient Greek social history.

It also helps if I can develop 3D characters and form a coherent plot arc, not just vomit my research notes all over the page. (E.g., the PhD in history is great—but so is the BA in Creative Writing.)

That’s what qualifies me to write the novels.

If a gay guy had those same qualifications, or at least a lot of them/did thorough research, he could write a novel about Alexander too. But tbh, just being gay might get in the way more than help. Why? Modern gay experience is pretty damn different from ancient Greek, and writing modern gay men in chitons or togas would piss off gay male historians of the ancient world just as much as it’d piss off me.

This is a problem with M/M Romance set in the ancient world—maybe more of one than being a cis-het woman. I’ve attempted to read a few. Two were okay; I wouldn’t especially recommend them but finished them. One I like: A.J. Demas’ Sword Dance, although hers isn’t historical romance so much as historical analog based on the middle Roman Empire. (Not unlike what Guy Gavriel Kay writes.) She’s also got a PhD in history. (I have good hopes for the rest of the series, but other novels to finish first.) The rest of the M/M ancient historicals I tried were varying degrees of Yeah-no to stab-my-eyes-with-a-spork. It doesn’t help that the relationships in them seemed equally unrealistic.

But that owes to the fact I’m not really a Romance reader. I very much enjoy a love story embedded in the larger plot, but that’s a different animal from a Romance, capital R. Which is almost certainly why some of the biggest complaints about Dancing with the Lion among M/M readers is that the romance isn’t central enough and the sex isn’t hot enough. Well, no. That’s not what I was trying to write in the first place.

There are a couple (at least two that I know of) self-published M/M Romances about Alexander and Hephaistion. The little bits I read of each were worse than the worst of the professionally published M/M ancient history Romances—which is probably why they’re self-published. No, I won’t name them; that would be crass. Yet I mention them because, near as I can tell, both were written by gay men. This only underscores my point that being gay does not magically confer talent to write about Alexander (or anything else). The books are bad not because the authors are gay, but because the authors can’t write. Amazon (et al.) is rife with badly written self-published novels by people of all backgrounds and walks of life.

Anyway, it takes a lot more to write well about Alexander the Great than having a dick and liking dick. If it’s only about personal experience, not being Macedonian, and not being born in the 4th century BCE would be equally disqualifying. Then nobody would be eligible to write about him.

-------------

*MLM makes me think “multi-level marketing” not “men love men.” 🙃

[emelkae]

This or That Tag

Thanks for the tag @avrablake! This was fun :D

Historical or Futuristic

I will 100% of the time gravitate towards futuristic stuff. Don't care what the genre is. Love me some sci-fi for that reason :)

Opening or Closing Chapter

Writing-wise, I love that super exciting opening chapter. Reading-wise, the closing chapter is where all that emotional stuff is at.

Light and Fluffy or Dark and Gritty

I... okay, I wanted to say dark, but I thought about it and I usually tend more towards light stuff with darker elements as opposed to dark stuff with lighter elements. So. Light and Fluffy :)

Animal Companion or Found Family

This isn't fair :( But yeah Found Family all the way. Why not Found Family that includes an Animal Companion?

Horror or Romance

Horror! Horror!! Horror!!! I'm fine with romance, don't get me wrong (I love a good romantic subplot), but if I had to choose between only horror and only romance, I'd choose horror.

Hard Magic System or Soft Magic System

Soft. So much more freedom that way. I respect people who can craft a good hard magic system though.

Standalone or Series

Standalone. Not that I don't like series. Tbh, my bookshelf is pretty dominated by a bunch of series... but I think I'd rather read a lot of standalone books by the same author than one series.

One Project At a Time or 2+ Projects

One at a time, although my wips are knocking and scraping at the insides of my brain :) All of the time :))

Fantasy or Sci-fi

*sigh* There's a reason I write in the fantasy/sci-fi, speculative fiction genre...

Character Description or Setting Description

Character character character. I am awful at description in general,

First Draft or Final Draft

First drafts are. Not my favorite. It's very easy to think "I can't write" based off of first drafts.

Literary Genre or Commercial Genre

I love experimental stuff! Unfortunately, I've been too exposed to how soulless the commercial genre can be and I would much rather read something kinda weird.

Love Triangle in Everything or No Romantic Arcs

Again, I'm completely fine with romance, but I think if I had to choose, I'd choose no romance arcs! Only because platonic (friend and family) arcs are so important too.

Constant Sandstorm or Constant Rainstorm

Idk, I was thinking about sandstorm dynamics vs rainstorm dynamics and I just love how soft rainstorm ones are! Not that I don't like sandstorm ones. Bahhhh this makes me wanna write both.

No pressure tag list under the cut!

@kiyasepicverse @antique-symbolism @odysseywritings @ghost-town-story @the-finch-address

[simonjadis]

I've always felt divided on shaming others for shipping "problematic ships." Don't get me wrong. I get the icky implications of Reylo but at the same time, well, I don't want to be that "No Fun Allowed" guy to teens and young adults who are just chilling. Sure, plenty of those shippers can be problematic (see how Finn is villainized unlike Kylo) but they don't speak for everyone.

That is super fair!

To be honest, I don’t really see Reylo as falling under the major “problematic” umbrellas. Imo, most Reylo shippers are thirsting after one or both parties, which is fine. My Star Wars OTP is Sheev/Vader. I don’t ship Reylo but it’s not a NOTP for me by any means. (I find Kylo and Snek disappointing as characters and as the only Dark Side representation in the series, but Kylo has nice hair and nicer tatas)

I remember seeing arguments after TFA came out where people equated Kylo’s (attempted!) mind-reading to sexual assault or to abuse. While it’s very fair to not want to ship someone with their abuser, I think that an enemy from the opposing faction is a very different concept, and that fantasy violence between enemies should not be misconstrued (remember the hubub about Mystique vs Apocalypse in 2016? That kind of sentiment is what made female superheroes relegated to having long-range energy powers and then passing out for decades. Let’s not go back to that).

I absolutely agree that it’s horrifying to see Finn, who has literally done nothing wrong, be villainized. It’s always a mistake to pretend that a rival ship is awful so that you can feel more secure about your own, but it’s extra bad when it’s the series’ first leading black character. That said, from my perception, I don’t think that those condemning Finn represent the majority of Reylos.

More generally, I think that what someone ships, in their imagination, only rarely reflects who they are as a person or their real-life values. It’s pretend.

While we’re right to judge books, films, shows, and games on things like representation, those pieces of media are not the same as fanfic, let alone smutfic. Fanworks are distinct in multiple ways.

Gonna get into this: cw for a reference to incest

For example, when Supernatural first launched, I watched the pilot live in 2005 (I am 1000 years old) and immediately shipped the only two actual characters, who both happened to be hot guys: Sam and Dean.

(Note: I don’t actually ship them anymore, but tbh I haven’t watched the show since Season 8 and even before that, I had grown to despise them both – one of the perils of writing a very long-running show with lots of personal drama is that characters do things that cannot be forgiven by some viewers. But that’s irrelevant.)

Only later would I learn that they were largely inspired and even named after Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, two bisexual main characters from On The Road who were lovers, and who were based upon real men who were also lovers. (Which goes into part of why Supernatural is fucked up – notably, Castiel was also inspired by Constantine; another case of a straight character based upon a bi character, and that’s without getting into the issues with race, gender, and worldbuilding)

At that point, fandom culture (in my experience at the time) only treated incest as a squick – something that some people personally disliked, as one might be turned off by mpreg or watersports, etc.

Why wasn’t it a squick for me? Who knows tbh. I have zero brothers and I’m gay, so I never had to develop a feeling of aversion like that.That’s my best guess. I didn’t exactly fetishize those ships, but if there were only two hot dudes in a story, I didn’t think anything of it.

(Note: I think that incest ships may be specifically appealing to some fans because the bond between the characters is already secure? A similar appeal to the “found family” trope but the opposite thing. That’s just a theory)

However, upon coming to Tumblr, once I got over my culture shock of seeing people treat imaginary pairings as not squicks but moral indictments, I did come to understand where a lot of people are coming from with this!

For some people, it’s not just a personal squick, it’s an extra-strong aversion because they’re leery of incest being fetishized (for example, most real-life twins do not find twincest jokes funny!). More often, it’s people who were abused in real-world incest and cannot fathom why it would be someone’s kink or even factor into someone’s ship.

The solution to any sort of ship that’s going to remind someone of the worst moments of their lives is to do what I did in bold, above: use a content warning. If your fic contains sex abuse or incest or whatever, please tag your work. The same is true with fanart. If you want to share your other media with friends or the fandom at large but worry that your kinks may be off-putting, literally just make a second art/writing account or a separate blog to share those.

Don’t deliberately take people bag to the worst moments of their lives.

HOWEVER

We’ve seen a lot of people write about how they don’t want to see fandom treated like Catholicism (or, alternatively, as Protestantism; the word that they’re looking for is orthodoxy).

People have every right to ship whatever vile things they like. That goes for things that personally horrify or squick me. All that they need to do is be respectful in public spaces and to upload their work/commentary in the appropriate places with the appropriate tags, warnings, and readmores.

I think that people who don’t feel especially powerful or in control in life are the ones who get the biggest kick out of things like gatekeeping, exclusionist rhetoric, and being fandom police. Others are simply well-intentioned but became carried away. Not all antis are bad people, but it’s not a healthy thing about which to frame your personality and your online brand.

Your personal dislike of something doesn’t make you a morally superior person. As someone who hates mushrooms, I know that it’s tempting to believe otherwise, but it’s true.

And wielding social justice language as a cudgel, especially one that just happens to validate your opinions on a piece of fiction, is disingenuous and harmful in so many ways.

Ships (or kinks, etc) don’t equate to someone’s real-life values.

(Side note: anyone else notice that people who wouldn’t bat an eye at someone writing Age-Appropriate Wolf fanfic, when the characters are highschoolers but played by adults, are quick to condemn people who ship cartoon teens together, even though those teens are literally ink on paper and are absolutely voiced by and drawn like adults? I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it needs to stop. It’s literally just pretend!)

(Other side note: I understand that a lot of people are uncomfortable with shipping real people, even though said shipping has been a part of culture for millennia. My thoughts on that is: literally just act like an adult about it! Don’t tweet them fic or fanart, and don’t show it to them at conventions or whatever. The same thing goes for actors who play fictional characters. Talk show hosts should also maybe stop showing fanart for shock value but that’s a whole other conversation)

If you’ve gotten carried away with fandom-policing or something else, hey, that’s part of being a person. I’ve done it too! What matters is to be a better person. Making mistakes and becoming a better person are part of what it means to exist.

[tartts]

would you recommend and i darken? i've been hesitant to go blind into ya since tog betrayed me

i haven’t read tog but i feel like and i darken is a whole different ball park tbh? like completely different in every way. like yes it’s young adult (supposedly, there’s some aspects of it that idk about and i feel like the violence/sex may escalate as the characters get older but that’s up to the author on how to write that) but tog is fantasy and it’s super long and drawn out and i’ve heard everything’s gone to shit with it but

And I Darken:

not fantasy. there’s no magic. just normal people in the 1400s.

it’s historical fiction and even then, it’s actually based off real historical events and real people.

it’s centered around Vlad the Impaler’s life, except the author changed Vlad into a girl for her narrative, so... Lada the Impaler

And I Darken is the first book in the trilogy. only a trilogy. the second book is coming out in June i believe. no ridiculously long series like tog

From what I’ve read about Vlad the Impaler’s actual life, And I Darken was like.... surprisingly accurate. the author did her research before. i could tell.

so, Lada and her younger brother are the children of basically the king of Wallchia, who is allowed to rule because the Ottoman Empire says he can.

their father does some shit (i don’t remember what) and they end up getting taken as political prisoners by the Ottoman empire (in exchange for their father’s cooperation or something so their father can continue ruling) when they’re children and are forced to grow up there

however, the book is told from both the perspective of Lada and Radu, how they end up meeting the son of the sultan, and how that son becomes the sultan. the three of them grow up together.

Lada is not..... very approving of the Ottomans and doesn’t understand their religion and doesn’t agree with certain aspects of it. (however, i feel like this is warranted given the fact she is a political prisoner and is being forced to assimilate to their culture and given her personality, she definitely doesn’t want to be the woman she’s expected to be by them)

even if the book could be seen as islamophobic (i’ve had only one person tell me tbh and i personally don’t see it at all but i am white so note that), Lada’s skepticism and disapproval (mainly of the multiple wives aspect) is balanced by Radu’s perspective. He loves the ottomans and their culture, he loves islam, he ends up converting to it, etc, and it’s real. he really does take comfort in their religion and that’s good for them. i think that representation was very nice.

even then, Vlad did end up going to war with the Ottomans irl (which i’m sure will be covered in the later books), so unless the author wanted to completely butcher the story to fit the modern perspective better, there’s going to be some conflict. that’s just how history works. this did take place in like the 1400s after all.

Radu is gay! and, surprisingly, no, the author didn’t add it just to be more new school or to get the gays(tm) to read it. Radu was gay irl (or possibly bisexual, it’s hard to tell with history) He was the sultan’s male consort irl, but he did end up marrying a woman and having children, I guess.

also it’s amusing to note that Lada is very ugly (in the book. idk if vlad was irl or not) and Radu is very beautiful and even in history Radu was called like Radu the Fair, Radu the Handsome, Radu the Beautiful.

There’s technically a love triangle between Lada/the young sultan/Radu, because Lada is conflicted with her feelings about her homeland and heritage and still cares for the new sultan, and Radu is gay and he cares about him too. Not much has happened between the sultan and Radu but I’m sure that will be explored in the later books. tbh i think this is the first love triangle i’ve read about that wasn’t a girl trying to decide between two guys, but a guy having to choose between siblings lmao)

basically yeah And I Darken is just about them growing up together and I think it ends off with Lada being an older teenager? there’s some war and some fighting and some life threatening dangers. all that good stuff. i really loved how it ended and am excited to pick up the next book to see where their story goes.

Personally, I liked it quite a bit. Lada is a very interesting and ruthless character and I do love ruthless characters. Lada is all sharp edges and sharp wit and Radu is soft and caring and balances her out quite nicely and I’m glad we got to see everything from both perspectives. However, I did not know at the time that it was going to be a trilogy, so in my head I guess I assumed there was going to be a bit more head impaling because I thought it would cover her whole life, not just the beginning of it. So I thought there was going to be more action than there was? There was action, yes, but just not what I had envisioned. Anyway, I’m definitely excited to see where the trilogy leads because it DEFINITELY shows promise and will be purchasing the other books when they are released.

Okay if you have any more questions let me know! It definitely doesn’t have a big fandom but I think it’s underrated for sure. Hopefully the next books are really good. It may become one of my favorite series.