#the amount of writing i have to do for english and writer's craft is making me want to throw my laptop off of a very tall building

[freezethebeez]

HAD A DREAM YOU BLOCKED ME & I CRIED ETC. Hi FreezeTheBeez how are you. How has your day been. I really liked the last chapter I'm So glad you she/her'd Ranboo. She deserves it. Put her in a dress make her cry a bit. Great as always. Have a good day Freeze TheBeez

OMG I WOULD NEVER BLOCK YOU EVER!!!and yes Hi Hello my day has been good i am at work and i have coffee so everything is good right now :)

so so glad you enjoyed the she/her-ification of ranboo i love doing silly things with gender and pronouns heehee hoo

the next chapter is taking me forever for Real (it has been at least a month of writing and so much has happened but i still haven't gotten to the bit where tubbo moves out so we have quite a bit of work to do. proofreading it will actually be a nightmare. it is about 20 pages and only getting longer)

Have a good day as well ttrebizond o/

[tarysande]

i saw a post that you reblogged with a comment wherein you referenced working as an editor. i'm a college student looking to go into fiction editing, and i was wondering if you had any tips or suggestions?

I've written a few different posts about this in my "on editing" tag, but most of them are a bit old.

My path to editing wasn't a straight line. I have a BFA in theatre, film, and creative writing, and I took a lot of English courses. I've always been a voracious reader. I've been a writer since before I can remember. I basically started editing when friends came to me and said, "You're good at words. Can you help me with my words?"

I was also lucky enough to fall in with a group of excellent writers/betas/critiquers/editors when I was fandom baby back in ye olde X-Files days. I learned SO much from them. And most of what I learned, I learned either from being critiqued or from critiquing others. I cannot stress how much being an active member of fandom has helped me become the editor I am today.

Suggestions:

Get editing-specific training. You don't know what you don't know--and there's a surprising amount of stuff people don't know, even if they've studied English or writing. There are quite a few certificate programs out there now, but you don't need one of them to get work. You do need to prove that you know what you're doing, though. Usually by being able to pass editing tests or by providing excellent sample edits.

Read, read, read, READ. If you know you want to work with specific genres, read as much from within that genre as you can. Read books on craft, too, whether they're intended for writers or editors.

Find your people. There are some great Facebook groups for editors. There are also major editing associations where you can meet people, network, find possible job leads, etc. I, for example, am a member of Editors Canada and a Professional Member of the CIEP (UK). ACES and the EFA are a couple of major American associations. Australia's is the IPEd. You don't have to be from those countries to join their associations--but you'll probably find that the local ones have the most relevant content.

You DO need to find ways to hone your skills. If you don't want to do a whole editing certificate, you'll want to find courses or professional development related to the work you want to do.

Fiction editing (all editing, really) breaks down into different types of editing. You might like doing all aspects of this. You might find you only like SOME aspects of this. Generally, those types of editing are:

Developmental (sometimes called structural or substantive) editing: This is big picture editing. Are there plot holes? Do the character arcs make sense? Do scenes have a purpose? (Personally, this is my favorite type of editing. I just love getting into the guts of a story.) I do full developmental edits, but I also offer manuscript critiques (developmental editing lite; usually cheaper, but still very helpful for getting to the bottom of big picture issues).

Line/stylistic editing: This type of editing is often about the style and language at the sentence and paragraph level. It tends to be quite meaty. A line editor will offer suggestions for reducing redundancy or repetition, clarifying meaning, polishing dialogue, etc.

Copy editing: Sometimes copy editing and line editing get rolled up together, but if someone hires you JUST to copy edit, it means you're looking at the mechanical issues with grammar, punctuation, etc.

Proofreading: Literally reading the proofs before they go to print. The proofreader's eyes are the last ones on the document. These are the folks looking for the misplaced comma or the wrong page number. Have a crazy eye for detail? This may be your jam.

The various Englishes of the world have major differences. If you want to edit US, UK, Canadian, or other assorted varietals of the language, you have to know those differences--and they're more than just spelling and punctuation.

There's no one style guide for fiction. Publishers often have their own. That said, most of THOSE are based either on the Chicago Manual of Style (US/Canada) or the New Oxford Style Manual/New Hart's Rules (UK).

You also have to figure out if you want to pursue an in-house position or work freelance. Real talk: publishers outsource a ton of copy editing and proofreading to freelancers; some publishers even outsource the other styles of editing. Often, acquisitions editors at publishing houses (the editors who champion a work and try to get their publisher to buy it) do some of the developmental and line editing work.

I don't work in-house, so I can't give you a ton of info on how to break into the side of things. As I understand it, you usually have to be located in one of the big publishing centers (New York, London, Toronto, etc.). And you usually work your way in from the bottom up.

I've done all kinds of editing over the years. Nowadays, I mostly work in fiction, and I mostly work with independent authors or authors who are trying to polish their work before sending it out to agents. While it's true that a publishing house will edit your book (and foot the bill for it), the market is hard right now--especially for first-time authors. Publishers are less willing to take big risks or pour a lot of money into books if they're uncertain of a return on that investment. So, even if you're hoping to go the route of traditional publishing, it's in your best interests to get that first manuscript in the best shape before sending it out.

...this is already getting long! One of these days, I'm going to offer some training of my own, I think. Hopefully!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 1/24/2023

Well, I had my break. Mostly, what I did was download a new phone game where you run a restaurant, and wasted an enormous amount of time on that. No regrets.

I said last week was my break, but it's not really a break because I'm trying hard to only do stuff when I feel like it. I did start a new art piece which is going...slowly. It's going slowly because I'm taking my time, though, and I spent a million years on hands.

I would like to write, and I have two different things I am enthusiastic about working on, but unfortunately, if I sit down and try to write, my head just goes completely empty. This happens sometimes. Hopefully it will pass. It usually does. I've been trying to take care of other chores in the meantime, so that if my inspiration eventually returns, I'll be able to take advantage of it.

I've been trying to re-read some of the older parts of Heart is a Muscle, in preparation for writing a new part. I used to really like re-reading my writing, but I haven't been feeling it, to be honest. In art, there's a thing where your eye improves at a different rate than your hand, so sometimes, all of sudden, everything you draw looks like shit, but it's because you've leveled up in the ability to perceive art, not because you've gotten worse. I don't really ever think about myself as getting better at writing. I am a lazy writer and I do what I want, and I do not strive to improve my craft. I think I maybe have improved (or maybe just changed?) over the last three years, though, which is why my old writing feels so crusty. It's also possible that I'm just sick of my own voice. Kinda surprising it took that long to happen, tbh.

In other news, my aluminum plant cuttings have been growing roots! I'm so proud of them! I might repot them soon, and try to take some cuttings from my fittonia, and possibly my daughter's peperomia (because I want one). She's going on this houseplant journey with me, plus her room has some of the best light in the house. She took one of the pups her paddle plant made to school and gave it to her teacher. 😭😭😭 You have to understand that this is possibly the first time either of my children has had any interest in the things I care about. It's nice.

I made a sourdough bread today that was significantly better than last week's sourdough. I did make the mistake of proofing it in the oven, because the house was cold. I guess it was still a little too hot (I had heated it up to as low as it could go, and then turned it off again), or I should have spritzed my loaf with oil instead of water, or maybe just re-spritzed it every ten minutes or so, but the dough dried out a little and formed a skin, which meant that it couldn't rise and caramelize properly when I baked it. It was pretty ugly, but it tasted good and was very soft and squishy on the inside. The children, apparently, really like the dense, gluey rock I baked last week; they said both loaves were equally good. Whatever, my tasteless children.

I have been trying to keep my sourdough starter fed more regularly, so I've been looking for more things to do with discard (I already do pizza, pretzels, waffles, English muffins, and bagels). This week was sourdough morning glory muffins, which were very good, as morning glory muffins go (Mr. P loves morning glory muffins). It looks like that blog has lots of good discard recipes, so I may try out some more of them.

I guess that about covers it for this week. Will I do anything next week? We'll see!

[thegirlwhowrites642]

are there any themes, motifs, phrases, symbols, narrative devices or anything else that come up multiple times in different stories you've written? what are they, and why do you think they recur in your work?

Such an interesting question! Thank you.

I think I bring back a lot the concept of finding peace in someone in the middle of chaos. It's what attracts me the most about Harry and Ginny I believe. But I think it's something that I put a bit also in Percy and Audrey when I wrote their story. And I know it's something that I enjoy using in my original work. I suppose it is something I wish for in my life.

I'm also going to add a panic attack when it makes sense because for personal reasons it's something very cathartic for me to write. In general, I tend to write a lot about dark themes, and mental health, but also always associated with the contrast of light and healing, which I think it's pretty obvious when you read Back to the Eclipse, my first, and at the moment only, complex and long fanfiction. But knowing my original writing I see simply myself following my usual pattern even in fanfiction. A bit comes from personal struggles and a bit from this fascination I've always held for the themes of light/darkness, good/bad, life/death. It's basically in anything I do just in different forms. From the fact I study law to my end-of-middle-school thesis (it's a thing in my country) that was about Sherlock Holmes and the birth of criminalistic (I was a very well adjusted 13-years-old). I also know a lot about religions for example. And you should read some stuff I wrote as a child, like, why nobody thought of bringing me to, not even a psychiatrist, a priest for an exorcism is a mystery to me.

I love family dynamics. Even when they are ugly. This is more me being Italian I think. In English literature, you have all these orphans and found family, and to be honest, I find it appealing only to a certain point. In Italian literature is all generational trauma!, how to deal with both loving and hating your family!, it's a cultural thing. And, well, not to increase the stereotypes about Italians and family, but family is very important to me. I'm sorry too, a chat between Ron and Ginny, is one of my favourite pieces of fanfiction I've written.

When the story is complex enough I very much love to put in some symbolism (you can always see it in my love for bringing back Harry's bright descriptions of Ginny). Back to the Eclipse has a decent amount of it, from dates to other details (I'm still waiting for people to tell me if they spotted some of this stuff), because I feel like a story should have layers, it should tell you something new every time you read it, it should be worthy of being read again (and because I'm a nerd who loves to complicate her life). I don't think though that I have specific symbols I bring back, I think they should be studied in the context of the specific story and characters.

At last, when it comes to narrative techniques, I have to say that I like to go straight to the point. Some writers like to indulge for pages on creating a frame for a very specific scene but, with the exception of some particular masters of the craft, they are often parts that I can't wait to finish when I read and so when I'm the one writing I don't indulge in that (it often feels like an unnecessary showing off of artistry). If it's necessary for some reason of course I write it but otherwise, I just like to get into the thick of the story.

[stargazer-sims]

Here they are, the fictional J-pop boy group nobody asked for... Sugar Valentine

I'm ridiculously proud of how they all turned out. Senjirō is my bias, though, with Keigo a close second. I… think I accidentally made Sakuharu look a bit like Hyunjin from Stray Kids. Oops 😬

I need to get them out of CAS and into a photo setup, so I can do some proper in-game shots of them, but you can have some CAS screenshots for now.

Anyway...

Sugar Valentine is a five-member group. They sing, rap and dance, and they've written and composed a lot of their own material. Senjirō is learning how to produce, and star dancer Keigo is learning how to create choreography.

Their fans are known as Valentines.

💖

Ryu (Yoshida Ryuusei) - rapper

Ryu is the oldest and the group's de facto leader. He's very serious and doesn't always have patience for the shenanigans of his younger members. He loves all of them like brothers though, despite them sometimes getting on his very last nerve. Ryu is one of the group's writers, and enjoys bouncing new song ideas off Senjirō and the others. In his spare time (what is that?), Ryu enjoys playing video games and teaching himself how to play the guitar.

"Nothing good is ever achieved without passion, patience and hard work."

———

Kēki (Sasaki Keigo) - singer

Keigo is the second-oldest member of the group. His stage name means "cake". He's the most chaotic; the undisputed trickster of the group, but also the soft and cuddly one who's always there to comfort his adopted brothers or cheer them up when they need it. He can often be found in a cuddle pile with Senjirō during their downtime. Keigo is the best dancer of the five of them, and often takes time to help the others learn complicated routines when they're struggling. The fans have nicknamed him “Sweet Samurai” and among the fans he’s most noted for singing this tagline along with his own made-up lyrics to the tune of “Sweet Caroline” in exceptionally poor English. It shows up in just about every “what every Valentine should know” fan edit, and Keigo will never stop being amused by it.

"You don't need to ask where the party's at. The party's here. I'm the party."

-----

Haru (Abe Sakuharu) - rapper

Haru is a fan favourite and, according to his own very scientific internet research, he's the member of Sugar Valentine who has gotten the most marriage proposals from Valentines. Of the five members, he's the least advanced in learning English, and (also according to his own research) has the most fan-made memes featuring his funny English fails. He loves the fan edits the Valentines post online, and everyone knows he's found a new one when they hear him laughing hysterically in his room. Sakuharu's favourite thing outside of performing is making fiber crafts (knitting, crochet, embroidery, etc.) It's his "hidden talent" which isn't the least bit hidden now that the Valentines know about it.

"Never judge anything or anyone at first sight. Most times, the truth is found deeper than the surface."

-----

Senjirō (Aidan Senjirō Okada) - singer

Senjirō is the second-youngest member of the group. He's the quiet, thoughtful one, and the one who's most calm and rational in a crisis. He's also ridiculously intelligent, a fact that the other members tease him about renlentlessy. Regardless of his even-tempered, easygoing personality, Senjirō knows how to have fun. He can be just as silly and chaotic as the rest, especially when he's being cheered on by his favourite sidekick Keigo. Senjirō loves to eat; he'll eat almost anything and can wolf down twice as much food as anyone else (and yet still manages to be the tiniest member of the group). Senjirō writes a lot of lyrics for the group, and works closely with Taiji to put together their compositions.

"Don't panic."

-----

Taiji (Kanematsu Taiji) - singer

Taiji is the baby of the group, and has been aptly nicknamed "Baby Sugar" by the Valentines. He can play a variety of instruments, and does a large amount of musical composition for the group. Music is his true passion. Taiji shares his room with Sakuharu and is happy that he doesn't have to be alone. He's a social creature, loves to perform, and loves being with his friends. What he doesn't like is how the Valentines assume so much about him and the other members or how they simply make things up to suit their own personal narrative. Ryu and Keigo have told Taiji multiple times to stay off fansites and fan-created social media accounts, because all they do is upset him, but for some reason, Taiji can't leave them alone despite the fact that they cause him so much distress.

"Music is one of the elements at the center of life. We have music for celebrating every special occasion, music for grieving, for comfort, and to help us sleep, and we have music that's just for fun. Music is everywhere, and it's everything."

[chaotic---calm]

A very interesting and enlightening read. It's concerning to know that those programs are moving away from simple grammar/spelling rule coding and into shit like user suggestions. I've also seen them advertising the "let us write your sentences for you" option, which gives me a whole lot of pause. Every day if feels like people are getting too reliant on AI and not taking the time to learn to do things themselves, like craft a sentence.

I always use the spelling and grammar check in my writing software (Scrivener), which honestly is not very good. So I also copy everything into Word and run spelling and grammar check there too because theirs is better, though still fairly lousy with the grammar side of things. But it certainly catches small things that I miss (like incorrect comma usage, misplaced apostrophes, homonyms, etc.).

I have never used other editing software like Grammarly purely because I didn't think it would be worth my money or even my time if there's a free version. (I also hated their marketing because it felt so trite and disingenuous.) That isn't to say that I think they're not helpful for anyone or should never be used; I just have the background of an English degree and a lot of writing and editing experience to help me feel comfortable proceeding without additional checks. My stuff isn't error-free, but given that most of what I currently write is fanfic shared online for free, I can't invest in money to pay a proofreader or editor to check my work and so have to rely on myself (and self-editing is always much harder than editing someone else). If I start tackling my original content again, I might try to hire a proofreader to help me if I can afford it.

Also, my second job at the first company I worked for years ago was in the copyediting department of a publisher of scientific and medical journals. They were trying to develop a software that could edit the articles before we passed them on to our copyeditors, with the goal of eventually using it only and getting rid of our team of contractors. Except it was garbage. I saw first-hand how very unreliable AI is at doing work only a human can really do well. (No matter how much you teach them, machines can't use reason and nuance the way a human can.) Most of the time, it introduced more errors than it corrected, just making our copyeditors' work all the more difficult, and the company finally scrapped the project before I left for a different career opportunity. Witness that has made me very wary of any kind of editing/writing automation in general, and only fueled my disapproval of the wave of "let's use AI to take work away from people" that seems to only be getting stronger.

My advice for writers would be to use whatever level/amount of grammar and spell check software you feel you need to help you be successful with your writing projects, but always always fall back on yourself as the solid foundation. If something doesn't make sense, run an online search to double-check the usage rules. Or ask a fellow writer or a mentor. Or just listen to your gut. If you have the money to, hire a real live person to either proofread or copyedit (two different types of work) your content (and pay them what they're worth; those jobs are grueling). And like OP said, watch out for software that "grades" your writing. Even if you're the greenest writer out there, the most neophyte you could possibly be, I assure you that you're still smarter than that AI and know more about writing than it does. They are tools and absolutely can be helpful, but they can just as easily kick you in the kneecap if you aren't paying attention.

So, anyway, I say as though we are mid-conversation, and you're not just being invited into this conversation mid-thought. One of my editors phoned me today to check in with a file I'd sent over. (<3)

The conversation can be surmised as, "This feels like something you would write, but it's juuuust off enough I'm phoning to make sure this is an intentional stylistic choice you have made. Also, are you concussed/have you been taken over by the Borg because ummm."

They explained that certain sentences were very fractured and abrupt, which is not my style at all, and I was like, huh, weird... And then we went through some examples, and you know that meme going around, the "he would not fucking say that" meme?

Yeah. That's what I experienced except with myself because I would not fucking say that. Why would I break up a sentence like that? Why would I make them so short? It reads like bullet points. Wtf.

Anyway. Turns out Grammarly and Pro-Writing-Aid were having an AI war in my manuscript files, and the "suggestions" are no longer just suggestions because the AI was ignoring my "decline" every time it made a silly suggestion. (This may have been a conflict between the different software. I don't know.)

It is, to put it bluntly, a total butchery of my style and writing voice. My editor is doing surgery, removing all the unnecessary full stops and stitching my sentences back together to give them back their flow. Meanwhile, I'm over here feeling like Don Corleone, gesturing at my manuscript like:

ID: a gif of Don Corleone from the Godfather emoting despair as he says, "Look how they massacred my boy."

Fearing that it wasn't just this one manuscript, I've spent the whole night going through everything I've worked on recently, and yep. Yeeeep. Any file where I've not had the editing software turned off is a shit show. It's fine; it's all salvageable if annoying to deal with. But the reason I come to you now, on the day of my daughter's wedding, is to share this absolute gem of a fuck up with you all.

This is a sentence from a Batman fic I've been tinkering with to keep the brain weasels happy. This is what it is supposed to read as:

"It was quite the feat, considering Gotham was mostly made up of smog and tear gas."

This is what the AI changed it to:

"It was quite the feat. Considering Gotham was mostly made up. Of tear gas. And Smaug."

Absolute non-sensical sentence structure aside, SMAUG. FUCKING SMAUG. What was the AI doing? Apart from trying to write a Batman x Hobbit crossover??? Is this what happens when you force Grammarly to ignore the words "Batman Muppet threesome?"

Did I make it sentient??? Is it finally rebelling? Was Brucie Wayne being Miss Piggy and Kermit's side piece too much???? What have I wrought?

Anyway. Double-check your work. The grammar software is getting sillier every day.

[pleasantanathema]

Pleasant’s Writer Recs!

I’ve gotten a few asks in my inbox over the past few weeks asking me for writer recs, so I thought the best way to do this was to compile a list of my fav authors on tumblr and rec my favorite fic of theirs! A lot of these amazing authors are moots—I’m very lucky to call many of them close friends. This list could be much longer, and I could go on for days about every single author, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Most all of these authors, like myself, write 18+ only content. Hopefully this can be a useful tool for authors and readers alike looking for amazing fanfic 💕

@bakatenshii | Angel is so phenomenal with her writing that I almost can’t put her style and amazing ability into words (but I’ll try). Angel’s work is beautiful, masterful, full of poetry, elegance, and smut that will all leave you gasping. Fav Fic: Blitz [Ushijima x Reader]

@blahkugo | Sunnt, Thunnth, Sunny, whatever you call her, she is brilliant. No one writes Tsukishima quite like she does. She is beyond creative and her writing style flows like the sexiest water, it’ll make you thirsty and quench your aches. Fav Fic: Tower [Tsukishima x Reader]

@deathcab4daddy | Tay is all about details, details, details. She fills in every gap and paints gorgeous, sexy pictures and situations for the reader to feel immersed in. Fav Fic: Cerulean Blue [Akaashi x Reader]

@dymphnasprose | Dymphna is all about fun, sex, and slowly filling out her holy bible of smut. She’s amazing at creating realistic sub/dom relationships and her smut almost always comes with a healthy dose of build-up. Fav Fic: Green Scrunchies [Ukai x Reader]

@enjifuckersupreme | Ketsl reigns supreme over pure, unadulterated porn. They are phenomenal at making me the reader wet, and every fic is crafted with so much care. Enji fuckers should bow down at their feet, no one loves and writes Enji like Ketsl. Fav Fic: Attitude Adjustment [Enji x Reader]

@hisoknen | Raph is one of the first dark blogs I ever started reading, and she never, ever disappoints. She writes pieces that chill you to the bone, but warms your sex- her writing is casual, smooth, and realistic, always giving you everything you need, but leaving you wanting a little more. Fav Fic: Sleeping Beauty [Dabi x Reader]

@hoe-doroki | Ana is one of the sweetest writers I know. Every time I talk to her, she’s working on comfort requests or beta-reading for other people. Her writing is such a pleasure to read, as you can tell she pours love and consideration into every fic for her readers. Fav Fic: Can’t Find My Breath [Bakugou x Reader]

@joyousandverywarlike | Zo...holy fucking shit. Zo is a writer who consistently blows me out of the water with her skill. This woman is a novelist blessing us with juicy, rich smut and love stories like no one else can. She is incredibly poetic and her writing is an absolute joy to read; she also writes amazing fics for black readers and has an amazing voice that she uses for asmr audios! Fav Fic: How We Met [Ushijima x Reader]

@lemonlordleah-shinzawa-kitten | Leah is an author who takes immense care with her work. She works incredibly hard to craft sexy, healthy bdsm fics for bnha. She is a great blog to go to for bdsm education, and she’s also got a side blog @lemonlordleah-extra-sour for all you extra naughty readers who like the darker side of fanfic. You should also check out her Patreon! Fav Fic: Between the Evergreen [Aizawa x Reader]

@linestrider | Nyki’s work is like smooth water, it’s calming, refreshing, but she also adds a nice, chill bite to it as well with her darker style. Nyki puts such an impressive amount of care into her work; a word is never out of place, every sentence has meaning, every paragraph gives you something new. It was very hard to choose just one fic to recommend. Fav Fic: What’s Said is Said [Hawks x Reader]

@lookslikeleese | Leese is one of the most fun writers on Tumblr, and by that I mean you just have a shitload of fun reading her fics. They are like little, sexy treats to take in right before bed and feel a little more full than you were before. She is also the Cucking Queen. Fav Fic: Cola [Enji x Reader] 

@messwriting | Lee is also another fun writer! Her writing is exhilarating to read, and you’d never guess she’s a sexy Brazilian whose second language is English based on how well she writes. She’s a little sex goddess who will give you everything you want and more in every fic. Fav Fic: What We Could’ve Been [Tsukishima x Reader]

@mindninjax | Marquie is a full on sweetie with a sexy side. She. Is. So. Creative. Every fic of hers is so unique and her masterlist is a whole reading experience. She writes Bakugou Katsuki so damn well, she’s a master at characterization, even in au’s. She also writes beautiful fics for black readers. Fav Fic: Bound to You [Bakugou x Reader]

@nekokoafanfictions | I first found Ai on Ao3, and then was fortunate enough to come across their blog here on Tumblr! I’ve said this before in previous rec lists, and I’ll say it again, I still read their fics some nights to fall asleep to, they are just that good, every fic will have you coming back at some point to read it again. Fav Fic: City Lights [Enji x Reader]

@present-mel | The. Queen. Of. Dialogue. Mel is a master at making her fanfic feel real, gritty, sexy, and beautiful all at the same time. This woman pours her heart and soul into fanfic, especially into her Erwin series Fragments of Memories. I was so captivated by her work that I just had to become her friend, her work is enchanting and thrilling. Fav Fic: Until the Fire Played [Enji x Reader]

@rat-suki | Annie makes me horny. Like, real horny. Her smut is fantastic and are often little thrill rides within themselves. Fuck rollercoasters, just go to Annie’s masterlist to find a joy ride. Fav Fic: Hell Fire [Enji x Reader]

@rivendell101 | I’m such a big fan of Alisha, that I sent her a request months ago before we even became friends. This author knows how to craft a story, her work is very meticulous with details and her plots are always so spot on. Fav Fic: Sweet Thing [Natsuo x Reader]

@smutbardpeach | Smutbard is the most accurate title for Peach, as her fics read like poetry and song, filled with beautiful language, imagery, and allusions to the brim. If you’re ever looking for something romantic, sensual, delightful, and just overall magnificent to read, this is the blog to go to. Peach’s work is like reading poetry and classics right off the shelf. Fav Fic: Truth in Wine [Hizashi x Reader]

@spicyness | Are you thirsty? Do you like fun, sexy headcanons? Ness is the author for you. Ness is so, so fun and sweet, and is active with her followers and is always posting something new and creative for us to nibble at. Her blog is full of fun thirsts and she’s always a joy to see pop-up on my dash. Fav Fic: Pride [Bakugou x Reader]

@sugardaddykenma | Lin has the most amazing brain. I wish I could just...see and understand how she thinks. Her blog is full to the brim with hilarious, iconic, and down right fucking true headcanons for haikyuu characters. Many nights I have stayed up laughing my ass off and saying “why is that so true?” while reading through her astonishingly creative work. Fav Fic: Haikyuu on Drugs

@thewheezingwyvern | Wyv is a writer who gets straight to the point; her words are poignant, meaningful, and always paint a very clear picture. She is a Shinsou and Aizawa lover/fucker all the way to her core, and she’s amazing at bringing those characters to life in her work. Fav Fic: Salt Lines [Aizawa & Shinsou x Reader]

@thisisthehardestthing | Claudia is one of the most talented writers I have ever met. Period. She has a vocabulary, a depth, an ability to craft the most intense, alluring, and magnificent fanfic you’ve ever read. Most of her work doesn’t even seem like fanfic, it reads like love letters stuffed into the pages of a book that stand the test of time with her marvelous writing abilities. She always awes me, as every single fic is unique and powerful it its own way. Fav Fic: Tocka [Tanaka x Reader]

@tomurasprincess | The Queen of Darkness herself, Mari is amazing at fulfilling all of your dark desires. I’ve never met anyone else who is as active as she is with her followers, as she’s constantly pushing herself to answer requests and give people exactly what they want to see. She has such an expansive masterlist, any dark fic lover can find something worthwhile from her! She’s almost made a Shigaraki fucker out of me, almost. Fav Fic: Wraith’s Touch [Shigaraki x Reader]

@undermattsun | Miki taught me what a skate rat is. Do I understand it yet? Not really, but I fucking like it. Miki is so much fun and is always active with her followers, giving out awesome thirsts, visuals, and headcanons for her fav haikyuu characters. Fav Fic: Flavor of the Month [Matsukawa x Reader]

@vixen-scribbles | Vixen is someone who cares about everyone around her, and her blog reflects that. Amongst all her amazing writing, you’ll always find her recommending her friends and supporting other writers. Her writing is fucking sexy, she knows her way around the bedroom when it comes to fics, and she’s got a lengthy masterlist to fawn over. Fav Fic: Take All of Me [Ushijima x Reader]

@whats-her-quirk | Truly, the best has been saved for last. June’s work is the heart and soul of classic, fucking amazing fanfic. I can’t even explain how much I love her fics, like they will put the biggest smile on your face and have your thighs rubbing together in anticipation. June is writing her fantasies and having fun, and we are privileged to enjoy the ride with her. She knocked kinktober out of the fucking park, with each fic being a new, fresh delight. Fav Fic: Once in a Blue Moon [Karasuno x Reader Gangbang]

This list could honestly be twice as long, and perhaps in the future I’ll make a companion to it as I meet new authors and read more amazing fanfic. Please give all these authors a follow or at least check out their blogs. 💖

[longmonthartist]

A Brief History of K18 Fanfics Part 3 (Final)

Preface

Thanks for reading Part 2 and I hope you all found some enjoyable stories out of the list. I’ll be covering the contemporaries (2020s) this time but just like the previous list, I’ve included a few authors missing.

2nd Generation K18 Writers (Late 2000s to mid 2010s) Continued

IncognitoMan1-2-3-4

While IncognitoMan1-2-3-4 has only written one K18 series: “A Perfect Love”, it was a really well written series of short stories, with some written in 3rd person perspective while the last two chapters were from Krillin and 18’s perspective respectively. All in all some solid K18 stories that won’t leave anyone disappointed.

Shepherds-Glen

Shepherds-Glen, aka Alison is more of a DBZ generalist than K18 specialist. Nevertheless, her K18 stories story: “The Reluctant Mother To Be” is definitely worth a read with the sheer amount of love shared between our favorite couple. How K18 reacted to the news of Marron’s conception was cute to say the least too. This being said, it’s a shame this author, like some others, tend to leave her stories unfinished, so do expected some cozy first few chapters but ultimately no resolution to the story.

Kanthia

Kanthia has written a lot of DBZ stories and amongst them there’s only 1 K18 story and yet that alone is enough to put her on this list. “I Fell in Love with a Black Hole” is a very realistic take on how 18 would’ve behaved right after Cell Games, leading her to eventually seek out Krillin. I won’t go into much detail, as this is a fairly short piece but the writing and characterization more than made up for it. Do give this author a chance especially if you are into more realistic, non-fluff depiction of 18.

LPphreek

Another DBZ generalist who has only written one K18 story. This being said, his masterpiece: “Counterfeit Emotions” is an incredibly detailed and in-depth take on 18’s cyborg psychology and, excuse me for saying this, but one of the best depiction of 18’s mentality there is. If you don’t mind something a bit more real and angsty, LPphreek’s story is a great read both for his character depiction but also for his craft.

Gemini30 (English version by BadMonster-Fr)

BadMonster-Fr is a French author who has written quite a number of stories in French. One of her stories on FF.net, titled: “Love’s Not Away” is a translated version of one written by Gemini30. This is a very sweet and complete K18 get together story. Do give this lovely work a try, all chapters are fast reads, making them good relaxing short reads after work. Oh, did I mention she finished this series, yes, there’s a satisfying ending at the end too.

Draquia

Draquia has written only 1 DBZ story, and that just happened to be “Lovefools Part 1”, a great story portraying 18 trying to save her brother with the help of Krillin. The story has been completed with satisfying ending too and at 78k, this short novel should keep any K18 lover occupied with its engaging and unconventional plotline.

Contemporary K18 Writers (2020s)

By the 2020s, most fanfic authors have already learned all there is to learn about writing structure and format and stories are getting increasingly longer, with many works akin to short novels. All of the 2020s authors I’ll introduce here have written some full and completed master pieces, starting with attention grabbing intros and ending with plot-wrapping conclusions. Needless to say, the development in writing style is thanks to earlier works, as it is simply impossible for a community to progress to this point without prior examples.

Benisadog1

One of the most well established K18 lemon author there is, Benisadog1 has written just about every single imaginable steamy encounter between our favorite couple, with the scenarios ranging from their honeymoon to AUs and even an unlikely adventure they shared with Future 18. Of the three stories he has written so far, “K18 Movie Dates” is a hilarious depiction of K18 getting sidetracked while watching movie, “The Punk and the Geek” is an ongoing AU where punk 18 met office nerd Krillin, and “Krillin and 18 Lemon Anthology Series” a close contender to the best compilation of K18 steamy short stories.

One thing that sets Benisadog1 apart from other lemon authors is the inclusion of decently developed plot that connected the lemon with actual stories, making his work all the more enjoyable to read. On a side note, his chapters tend to be on the longer side and require some time to read through. Rest assured though, this lemon master’s works will not disappoint.

Literal Winter

An incredibly detail and plot oriented author, Literal Winter’s stories all involve very carefully crafted plots and engaging twists and turns that, despite their creativity, still matches the tone of DBZ. While not all of his stories are strictly K18, all of them more than gave this couple the time and respect they deserved and can be viewed as having the K18 side plot within the overarching story. I will give each one of his stories a brief summary below, seeing that I’ve personally read and reviewed all his works so bear with me.

“Facing the Future”, his very first work is a very engaging story of how 17 and 18 went to retrieve cure for a sick Krillin from the future timeline and the collaboration they shared with Future Trunks. While Krillin isn’t featured for the majority of this story, he is definitely involved as it is 18’s love for him that drove the cyborg woman forward.

“Twin Paths” offered a very plausible of why the future androids differ so much from their present counterparts and is totally worth a read.

“Vengeance Granted” portrayed another possible storyline that replaced Resurrection F. Here, the Z-fighters (including K18) had to fight a Frieza who has done something to their beloved dragon balls. While the premise may not be attractive to everyone, I argue this is one of his most creative pieces yet.

He has also written “Our Past Together”, a heart-warming non-action K18 one shot and an entry to K18 month.

Last but not least, his still ongoing work: “Dragon Ball Z: New Future” attempted at describing how post Goku Black Trunks would’ve tried reshaping the DBZ timeline starting from pre-Android saga.

Do give his stories a read, this author has a habit of completing his stories and if you love action oriented DBZ stories with heavy K18 involvement, Literal Winter will not disappoint. Just heads up that he is a Vegeta fan and for those K18 fans disliking Vegeta (I know there’s quite a lot in this community), his stories “Vengeance Granted” and “Facing the Future” may be too Vegeta heavy at times.

SuperSimpleStuff

SuperSimpleStuff is of European origin and although English is her third language, she has written two very engaging K18 stories “That first Time, you and I” and “From birth to rebirth: the incomplete story of Androids 17 and 18”. The best way to describe SuperSimpleStuff’s writing, or SSS for short (she has given me consent to address her as SSS), is that they are very unconventional in both plot and writing structure but can be very engaging, even to the point of jaw-dropping if readers were willing to invest the time.

“That first Time, you and I” for example, is a very well written K18 lemon that focused more on the couple’s psychology while engaging in the act of passion. It might just be me, but rarely do female authors write lemon and when they do, it’s very different than ones written by male authors. SSS is no exception as it’s possible to read from her words the tenderness of K18 in the act.

“From birth to rebirth” is a 17 and 18 story that features a lot of Krillin in some chapters. This story really sets itself apart from other DBZ stories with the amount of OCs in it. In a sense, SSS has crafted a standalone world for 17 and 18 populated with all the characters the twins have come across in their life. While this story is currently on hold (stopped right before Buu saga), the existing 50 chapters more than covered the cyborg twins’ journey sufficiently and detailed their growth throughout the years.

I may be a bit biased with the amount of communication I have with SSS, but do give her stories a try. If you can enjoy the dozens of OCs all with colorful personalities and their interactions with 17, 18, and Krillin, her story can mesmerize you since in her world, 17 and 18 always take center stage unlike DBZ.

AutumnKL/LongMonthArtist

After some debates, I have decided to include myself on this list of contemporaries. Although I shouldn't evaluate my own work, if you love K18, do give my stories a read. I try to do this lovely couple justice.

Final Words

This last post concluded my little write up of K18 fanfic history. It is by no means complete as I am aware many stories, especially those hosted in long-since-deleted DBZ shrines may never see the light of day again. I do hope to bring attention to the many wonderful stories written of this lovely couple though, and if possible, to document this shared bond we’ve all experienced.

Feel free to use this list as an example to compile your own list or better yet, become K18 writers if you haven’t already. It goes without saying that the number of people writing K18 is in sharp decline now that Dragon Ball Super anime has ended and the DBS manga hardly contained any traces of K18.

While this is not a call to action for writers, let me just say that it is never too early or late to get into the fandom as an author. You’d be surprised at the amount of K18 fans still out there eager for good reads.

[pebblysand]

This is a bit of an odd and random question, but what language do you think in?

not an odd question at all, i'm asked all the time! i suppose this is in reference to @thefanficwriterscraft's latest podcast episode, which you can listen to below! (shameless plug, i know, ahha)

generally, it depends 1) where i am, and 2) what i'm thinking about.

on 1) when i'm in ireland, i mostly think in english, cause my brain is sort of wired that way. i forget french due to lack of practice; i've had distant family members tell me i sound "english" when i speak french now, not in the way that i have an accent, but more in the way that my pacing has changed, and i look for my words more. when i'm back in france though, it comes back after a week or two. then i think in french more, which subsists also for a week or two after i get back from holiday.

on 2) if i'm thinking about fic or work, i'm thinking in english 99% of the time because those are things i do exclusively in english, and those are things i only have the vocabulary for in english, if that makes sense. i spent 10 minutes while talking to my mum the other day trying to find an equivalent for the word "call" (as in a work "call") in french. but the reverse is also applicable: if i think about my family or about france in general, i mostly think in french.

i do have one french friend in dublin, and my boss is also french. together we speak a sort of frenglish language, as in: "on cross la street?" (should we cross the street?) or: "je te pingue in the pm" (i'll message you in the afternoon). it's a very different exercise from speaking to my french family who don't speak english at all and thus need me to think of the right french word for everything. frenglish is the lowest amount of effort for me, cause i can just use whatever word comes to mind.

generally, right now, i find:

frenglish the easiest and what i typically think in

pure english mostly effortless but sometimes i'll forget a word or mispronounce something

pure french the hardest

but i've not been home to france in almost six months. it'll probably come back once i do.

i'm actually curious: any other bilinguals following? what language do you think in?

[septiembrre]

I'm a little late but I just saw your post from a year ago about latinx rep in good girls and its sad reflecting back on it and how the show could've done better. Rio was just another stereotype, I hate how he was ambitiously latino and there was just no connection to his culture. Was he first, 2nd, or 3rd Gen? If he was 1st Gen it didn't make sense to have the family speak English. One thing that always annoyed me is how OOC he was at times and how the writers purposely made him out to be like some brown aggressive misogynistic man. They didn't bother making him complex. In a way I'm glad the show got canceled. As a Mexican woman the way Rio was written was racist.

Wah, I’ve been sitting on answering your ask. I wanted to tease your ask apart and respond to it sentence by sentence. But... my brain kept rechazandolo, so now I have feelings dump instead.

Since Good Girls ended, I have been parsing through how I feel about S4 and GG overall — sometimes more positively, sometimes more negatively. Then, I flip to reminding myself it’s not that serious (it's just tv! this is supposed to be my leisure activity!). Then, I waffle back to reflecting.

So, no textual analysis just feels and whining under the cut. I know folks are still mourning the end of the show and I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. Tagging with #ggnegativity.

My short answer is that Good Girls is my beloved, sometimes joyful, sometimes hurtful, complicated little show. Even now that we’re no longer getting new episodes I’m wary of sifting through the information we have about Rio because it’s a mess and it seems like a lot of his character was poorly thought out (ahem, all those dumb messages from Bill Krebs confirming multiple instances of lack of intentionality or care!).

I say this because I was tempted to start responding to you by riffing off of your comment with, “y'know, now that you say that, I think he’s third or fourth gen…”, pero who cares? And the point was never specifically about what gen he is, or even more specifically about... lol, I was going to say it doesn't matter what nationality he was, they just needed to pick one. Ugh, but the wording of that is too glib. The lack of intentionality behind these details feels sanitized to me, it feels very white gaze, it feels lazy.

However, I could have forgiven a lot of this weak character construction if his baseline, plot-related characterization on-screen was more consistent. But, Rio was often used as a plot device in a way that often fell flat for me, a weekly recurring bogeyman whether his antagonism made sense or not. On one hand, I feel for the creative team, because I think they were in a hard place, trying to avoid romanticizing Rio, and trying to seemingly backtrack the sexualization of him in Season 2, but... Idk, it's complicated.

Retrospectively, it’s sitting with me how much Good Girls is rooted in whiteness. While it's something I discerned before (lol, most obviously with 2x13 and in S3 with Lucy's disposability), you know how some shows get to their third or fourth season and finally start investing in their marginalized characters? It’s a crappy thing to hold out hope for, they're crumbs! But, I was. And we did get some Rio worldbuilding. But, ultimately, it felt weak to me -- under-conceptualized or under-worked.

For example, I liked Nick as a Bigger Bad who drove Rio and Beth together. I also thought that Nick's non-existent moral code was a lovely foil to Rio's, and that this contrast humanized Rio in a way that he needed. It also cast a new light on Rio's behavior of the earlier seasons, outside of Beth's perception in a way that I thought was healthy and needed. Great, meaty stuff! However, Nick and Rio's relationship came across as shallow to me. There really did not seem to be a lived-in quality to their scenes. The show really struggled with that element overall -- even with the three lead protagonists (their decades-long history with each other and interactions between their families being largely absent). I wonder why they made that choice.

It's strange because on the flip side we got a hefty amount of contextualization for MLM guy Vance and Annie's bf Kevin... Even that cop who Mick killed! All white men, too.

Me da pena.

Or maybe the thing that bothers me is that those scenes between Nick and Rio didn't center Rio's perspective effectively? Despite the one-on-one scenes being outside of Beth's framing (Rio being a secondary character typically tethered to Beth's story arc), there still was a lot of distance between Rio and the viewer? Like I think of Vance in his kitchen with his wife and child, and the way we as viewers were brought into that to empathize with him, and I think of the distance of Nick+Rio boxing scene or the scenes at the bar. Argh! It's hard to pinpoint without the textual analysis I feel too grumpy to do. It was such a narrative choice to keep Rio aloof and I side-eye it.

Anyway --

Overall, the writing room/show creators/decision-makers didn't seem to consider Latine/x/a/o viewers throughout the crafting of Good Girls and that sucks. It really feels like I'm being told to conform to the white gaze in watching the show, and after 2x13 that makes me feel prickly and defensive. A part of me yearns to do a rewatch to map Rio’s character (and inconsistencies) but I still yield joy from Good Girls — it’s been my main comfort story during the pandemic. I also rendered joy from Season 4 specifically — some of those scenes between the leads at the end were phenom!!

I am leaning into what's bringing me joy right now, so I feel hesitant to stew in critique, even while I also feel some sort of need to make sense of the hurtful racializations. I have a compulsion to write them all down on the same post or list -- somewhere where I can see them all at once and understand. But, at the moment, it’s not a use of my time and energy that feels good. Opting into fics and writing is bringing me a lot of joy during hard times.

I have to close with one final whine, that I am SO fatigued with television options right now. I find myself desperately wishing for more TV out there whose priority audience isn't only white folks. Good Girls isn't alone in its treatment of Latinx characters, or alone in mishandling characters of color or gay characters, or prioritization of empathy for white het male characters, but certainly, creating something more thoughtful shouldn't be so hard.

[thetypedwriter]

Gideon the Ninth Book Review

Gideon the Ninth Book Review by Tamsyn Muir 

It would be only a slight hyperbole to say that a million people have either recommended this book to me or have told me to read it. I’ve heard for years now that this book is incredible and extremely well written and beloved by many. So, if that’s the case why did I wait so long to read it?

I don’t have a good answer. Sometimes a book is on your radar, but either the time isn’t right, other books take priority, or in my case, it’s adult fiction and I held slight trepidation that I wouldn’t love it as much as everyone else in the world seemed to. 

Thank goodness, that didn’t end up being the case and I’ll get into why in a moment. 

First, Gideon the Ninth has the most amazing descriptive sentence belonging on any front cover of any book ever. 

I shall put it here for prosperity and awe: “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” -Charles Stross. 

Now, I don’t know who you are Mr. Stross, but that has to be the best sentence written in the English language since its conception. If that isn’t enough intrigue for you to crack open the novel then I truly don’t know what is or what it would take. 

That being said, Mr. Stross wasn’t entirely accurate, but that’ll be clear soon enough. 

The novel surrounds our main protagonist, Gideon Nav, or, known as Gideon the Ninth, the primary cavalier to the Ninth House necromancer. Essentially, this world takes place in a different solar system with its own sun star known as Dominicus as well as nine planets also known as the Nine Houses. 

Each House has a specific specialty for what is known for, and as summarized helpfully, but also overwhelmingly, at the beginning of the novel, the Ninth House is also known as the keepers of the Locked Tomb, House of the Sewn Tongue, and home to the Black Vestals. 

This meant nothing to me at the beginning and quite truthfully, I still struggled to remember throughout the novel who belonged to the Third House, or the Fifth and what that quite meant, as once again, each House has a reputation and expected skill set that precedes them. 

Not to say that it was poorly written because it wasn’t. Muir just has a lot of characters with specific titles and while she actually does quite a good job of categorizing them and helpfully reminding you who is who, I still struggled with just the sheer amount of information and people. 

Normally, this would be a massive criticism, like it was with the cast of characters in Lore but in this case it’s not Muir’s fault. She’s giving me all the information necessary to understand. It was just my brain that struggled trying to recognize and categorize everyone. If anything, I’m excited to re-read Gideon the Ninth and have it sink in like a second skin eventually. 

Having this large cast of characters, the book revolves around each of the Nine Houses (except for the First House) sending their best necromancer, a wielder of both thanergy (death energy) and thalergy (life energy) in the form of a House Adept, someone who is able to wield this kind of energy either in bone magic, flesh magic, or spirit magic. 

In accompaniment, each Necromancer Adept has a primary Cavalier, a trained fighter that is both protector, companion, and often, necessary energy suppliers to their Adept in both horrendous and acceptable ways. 

The goal of these pairs, having been sent to the First planet, is to become a Lyctor, an immortal servant to the Undying Emperor. The catch is that once the Necromancers and their Cavaliers arrive on the First, the shuttle departs and they are trapped in an abandoned, dilapidated, once-regal and great mansion that boasts hundreds of floors, secret doors, and mystery upon mystery. 

Each pair expects a streamlined process to Lyctorhood once they arrive, a methodical procedure, perhaps some training, and ultimately a test. What they don’t expect is a mellow man by the name of Teacher that claims to know nothing about the process himself, but is the overseer of the First. 

What follows is a mind-boggling search to become a Lyctor and unravel the mysteries of the haunted palace. What the pairs don’t expect is the death of their own, gruesome murders at the hand of someone in their very own positions and an evil danger beyond any of their imagination lurking in the mansion. 

This novel was a great concoction of mystery, action, interpersonal relationships, character growth, dazzling descriptions, and world building. 

The world of Dominicus and the Nine Houses is expansive and rich, something that I haven’t been able to sink my teeth into, and not for lack of trying, but because it is so deep and so layered that I simply need to take several bites to get it all down.

The mystery is fulfilling and strangely, to me at least, reminiscent of a game called Danganronpa. If you know what that is, and even if you don’t, it centers around the idea of a murder mystery, but where the killer is one of your own and the mystery is trying to figure out not ony the who, but the why of what they are doing, amongst a slew of other deadly riddles.

Gideon the Ninth is the same. As people continue to get picked off and brutally murdered, as a reader you find yourself trying to puzzle out not only who, but why someone would commit such atrocities and the motivation behind it. 

The plot itself of Gideon the Ninth was extremely satisfying and alluring. There were times where I personally found that novel bogged down with excessive description, but it was usually broken up with Gideon’s personal brand of crass humor, a very much needed breather with the expansive exposition, that, while extremely well done, well researched, and well written, did get a tad boring from time to time for me personally, even if it allowed for clear imagery as well as adding to already well formed world building. 

In addition to the plot, all of the characters were well done and as fleshed out as they could be considering the amount of characters involved. First, even though this is set in a fantasy sci-fi setting, each of the characters seemed realistic and like they could potentially be real people. 

A large criticism of books I often have, especially in YA, is that the characters often come across like caricatures, and not real flesh and blood humans with both positive and negative qualities. 

Each character, some developed more than others, have both flaws and strengths, even the main characters, which I highly appreciated. Not only does it make the story more real and palatable, but it also is just more interesting to read about as it’s actually based in humanity and the nature of human beings rather than some perfect carbon copy of one. 

Gideon as a narrator was hilarious. She was often crass, blunt, horny, humorous and ignorant. But on the other hand, she was also an extremely talented fighter, actually very sweet deep down, forgiving, and loving. 

This mix in a main character was a welcome one in addition to making Gideon feel like a real person, despite all the bone magic and necromancy, and often her thought process and dialogue made me laugh out loud. 

Another main character, Harrowhark Nonagesimus (What a name!) is Gideon’s Necromancer and main companion. She’s bitter, rude, spiteful, and ruthless. She’s also hardworking, intelligent, and stubborn. 

If you’re catching the pattern here, Muir isn’t just writing archetypes and passing them off as characters. She’s writing complex and nuanced personalities that are intriguing and interesting and well developed. 

I could get into the other plethora of characters like Camila, Dulcinea, Palamedes, Magnus, Judith and so on, but this review would be a thousand pages long so I’ll just settle for saying that every character was well done and lovingly crafted and not one of them, even the annoying ones, were characters that I hated. 

One important thing to note was Muir’s writing itself. It was incredible. Such descriptions! Such characterization! Such detail! Such vocabulary! I was supremely impressed with her writing as a whole and often found myself having to look up words that I had never heard of in my life (always a welcome change of pace). I was blown away by her sheet talent and creativity. 

The last two things I have to note might get me in trouble. 

One, the ending for me was...bittersweet. For fear of spoiling someone, I won’t get into details, but I found it both lacking and simultaneously making absolute sense. I wanted both more and yet, found that everything was just enough. It’s hard to put into words, but if you know, you know. 

I do have a slightly sinking feeling though that the ending twist will somehow be undone in the sequel. I don’t know if this is true (although I will eventually find out), and I can’t decide if I’m going to be happy or dismayed by it. 

Such conflicting feelings are in of itself homage to Muir’s skill as a writer and the complexities of her tale. 

Lastly, the one aspect that might get me into the stickiest of predicaments: Harrowhark’s and Gideon’s relationship. I don’t know if I like it or not. On the one hand, I absolutely love it. It's a hate-to-love slow burn, which really is the only way an OTP makes its way into my heart. I love that they’re so different and yet so compatible, one flesh and one blood and all that other nonsense. 

They see each other as equals, as adversaries, and I adore that dynamic in any pairing. I also love the F/F representation of some badass women and that they’re not traditionally attractive and beautiful. 

One of my favorite lines came from the end of the book where Gideon describes Harrowhark’s face as, “bitter” and “hateful”. I just love when characters aren’t conventionally gorgeous and yet beautiful in the eyes of the beholder and all that jazz. 

Now. Onto the problems. 

Harrowhark’s and Gideon’s relationship is kinda...toxic? It grows into something less so, but it definitely starts off that way. I really hate imbalances of power of any kind and Harrowhark definitely has power over Gideon, power that she creully abuses. I asked myself: if Harrowhark was a man and treated Gideon so abysmally for years, and then Gideon eventually forgave him and loved him despite everything, would I think differently?

And the answer is yes, yes I would. 

Is that fair? Probably not. But I can’t help but think how the dynamics change with the two of them being women, and how in my opinion, I think more is forgiven of Harrowhark because of it, even when it’s not deserved. 

Now, Harrowhark is a complex character and has traumas of her own, but I just can’t help but think of all the things she did to Gideon and the things she took away from her and forced her to do and then think of them together and it’s...not great. 

Overall, my feelings on their relationship are complicated (which is a repeated pattern when it comes to Muir’s writing) and I don’t mind that it’s complicated, it makes it interesting, but I also would be bereft to mention it here. I look forward to seeing how it develops and if my feelings change and grow on the matter as well. 

In total, Gideon the Ninth is a fantastic read. It has everything you want inlaid with characters who not only push the plot along, but incentivize you to read more. It has complicated issues and complicated characters, but that means it’s nuanced and complex and juicy enough to bite into. 

Don’t do what I did and wait years for this novel. If you need a good read, you don’t need to look any further and then let yourself be swept along for the necromantic ride. 

Recommendation: “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” -Charles Stross. I mean. Come on people, what more can you ask for?

Score: 8/10 

[literaticat]

I know they say to avoid infodumps - but aren't they necessary sometimes? Like in the middle or towards the end of a mystery when the whole mystery is revealed along with an epic backstory? Or a killer's exposition when he or she is unmasked at the end, explaining why they did what they did? I've tried to weave it in as much as possible but I still have one big exposition infodump 200 pages (of 300) in. The characters joke about it a bit, meta-style, flagging it as such. Are infodumps ever okay?

Look,,, if I were you, I wouldn't ask me questions like this. I am a dum-dum, OK? It truly does NOT matter to me what POV your book is in, what tense it is in, what eff'in 'info-dump' you have, wHaTeVeR -- I don't care. These are questions for people who know way more about craft than I do. Like WRITERS.

The only time I would care about or even notice ANY of those things is if they glaringly WEREN'T WORKING -- like for example you've chosen to have a distant third-person narrator so I'm not able to know the things as a reader I need to know to make THIS story go or THESE characters compelling. That I'd notice. But, while changing the POV might be what THIS story needs - that doesn't mean that it's the right solution for EVERY story, you know?

In other words - I honestly wouldn't notice an info-dump unless it ground forward momentum to a halt and made the book suddenly a slog to read. And I can't possibly know that about your book - because I haven't READ your book. Maybe it works just fine - in which case, KEEP IT! If people who read it think that it makes the story saggy, do something about that. (But what you do to fix the sagginess may vary case-by-case, and may or may not involve getting rid of the 'infodump').

Here's what I care about: IS YOUR BOOK GOOD? Did I want to stay up all night reading it? Do I want to recommend it to everyone I see the next day? It doesn't matter to me how you got it there. (Sorry?)

Writing is an individual artform. The same methods of creation that work for one person would not work for another. Waking up every morning at 5am and beavering away at your book for an hour and forty-five minutes exactly may work for one person, whereas writing in dribs and drabs, on weekends or at night for random amounts of time might be what other people need to do. Some people are fast, some people are 'slow'. Some people are pantsers, some people are plotters. We accept that, right?

So the same thing is true for all these "rules" about how to write.

Aside from using words / grammar / punctuation in a way that adheres to the norms of the English language for clarity of communication, I truly don't believe there ARE any "rules" that matter in terms of writing. There's plenty of advice out there on ways to make your book ______ -- but there are also plenty of people that don't do those things and are still FINE.

Like people on the internet are always banging on about how you "should NEVER use adverbs" -- ookkkkk but plenty of writers use adverbs as liberally as salt and their books sell admirably.

I am not saying none of it is useful -- A LOT of it might be useful, and it's a good idea to learn and think about all kinds of craft things -- "save-the-cat story structure" and "the heroes journey" and whatever Hemingway had to say about adverbs and yadda yadda - read the craft books, take the classes, watch the TED talks, and then take what works for YOU and helps YOU create a compelling, compulsively readable story, and leave the rest.

[matryosika]

How can I be a better writer ? :( @im-sakura

hi baby!

i am not sure if i should be the one answering such an important question, considering that i am still lacking in a lot of aspects, specially grammar and, in general, the english language.

but still, i wish to help you and encourage you even the slightest bit, so i will try to tell you about MY experience writing. take everything with a grain of salt because this is my perspective!

1) first of all, the first thing you need to be a good writer is to have fun with it. have fun thinking about ideas, have fun crafting the characters, hav fun redacting a summary... in general, just have fun. the more fun you have, the more special your writing will become because they are yours.

i started writing on april, a few months ago. at first i had no intention of owning a blog or keep on writing for an audience. all i had was a fantasy and the urge to put it through words.

by doing so, i realized that it was something i enjoyed. back then i was in the middle of the semester, really stressed and filled with college stuff to do. writing, for me, was an escape to all the stress. it was a small space where i could just be with myself, thinking about stuff i like.

that leads me to the second point:

2) don't stress yourself over writing. the moment you start seeing this hobby as something overwhelming or stressful is the moment were things will start to get more and more complicated. a hobby is something that should bring you joy and comfort, not any negative sentiment.

if you write under pressure, or just write for the sake of writing (e.j. for feeling "productive", out of frustration, despair, etc.), your writing most likely won't come out as good as if you wrote them in a better mental and emotional space.

it's okay to have a writer's block, it's okay to be out of ideas, it's okay to not know how to write all the fuzzy thoughts inside of your head, specially if english is not your first language.

3) be a reader. like i mentioned before, i started writing in april, but i actually joined tumblr on november 2020. from november through april, all i did every night was read, read, read. i read mainly smut, which is the genre i write. i learned about new words, new ways of describing stuff, new ways of portraying the characters and scenarios. as i was reading, i started picking on things i like. for example, as a reader, i love reading stuff that has more dialogues than actual descriptions of the stuff. now that i'm a writer, i tend to include a lot of dialogues and i have received good feedback about that. be a reader and spot the things you like (or don't like) and try to implement them on your writing.

4) research. when i am writing, i always have to have three tabs opened: google drive, google translator, and my trustworthy google search bar. i use google drive and google translator because, since i'm not a native english speaker, they both help me with my grammar. as i am writing, i try to not make my sentences any repetitive, so google comes in handy. i tend to search a lot for synonyms or new words to implement into my writings.

5) look for prompt lists. speaking for myself, i am far from being creative. it is one of the things i struggle the most with daily and, at the beginning, i was incredibly worried that my lack of creativity was going to allow me to just write like 2 o 3 drabbles only. however, around tumblr, there are tons of prompt lists or dialogues to fuel your creativity. from fluff, smut, angst, humor, and many other topics you can think of, there are a lot of prompt lists that you can review and get inspired form!

6) listen to your (potential) audience. if you are starting, then i will suggest you to write whatever you feel comfortable with: character wise, themed wise, etc. have fun with it! but, if you really want an audience to stick with you and follow you, start making sure to run polls or ask for feedback/suggestions/requests. of course, state your limits beforehand. if you don't feel comfortable writing about something (or someone), you are in all the right to do so. don't surpass your limits and write whatever you feel comfortable with, but also take into account other people's opinions when it comes to ideas.

7) do not focus on numbers right away. one of the things i think can bring our motivation down are the numbers. am i having enough notes? reblogs? likes? am i getting followers? how many?

i get that these indicators could suggest that you are doing a good job or that people are interested in you, but they could also ruin the motivation and experience as a whole for you.

don't stress too much over them. having a large amount of notes doesn't mean that they are the best writer in town and having little amount of notes doesn't mean that they are completely awful at it. remember that content and general plot play such a big role into getting someone interested in your work so, maybe, those pieces of writing with a lot of notes and traffic managed to get the attention of people not because of the writing itself but because of the idea or content presented.

work on your creativity, daydream, read as much as you can and always try to improve both your grammar (if you suck at it, like me) and vocabulary!

i wish you only the best, and i am so very honored to be able to answer this question. i promise to improve in the future as well.

[nanowrimo]

Getting Prepared for NaNoWriMo! (With BookTuber FictionalFates and Scrivener)

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Scrivener, a 2020 NaNo sponsor, is an award-winning writing app that has been enthusiastically adopted by best-selling novelists and novices alike. Today, they’ve partnered with BookTuber Joel Rochester, a.k.a. FictionalFates, to help you get prepared for the month ahead: 

At thirteen years old, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time. At that point in my life, being challenged to write 50,000 words in thirty days was daunting and very scary. However, I persevered and I somehow managed to do it, albeit the novel I wrote that year will never see the light of day.

However, now at twenty years old, I’ve learned that NaNoWriMo is a great time to break the spine on a new tale, or one that I’ve been working on for years. (Rebels, I see you.) I guess you could refer to me as a “NaNo-Veteran”; someone who’s participated in NaNoWriMo for many years now. Scrivener has very kindly asked me to impart some wisdom on my experiences, whether you’re participating for the first time or looking to refresh that writer’s memory.

But first, have you announced your project yet? This November, I’ll be writing The Dream Prince, which is an enemies-to-lovers fantasy following two princes, one alive and one cursed to die, who converse through their dreams. They are forced to work together to break the curse, or both war and the plans of an ancient cult will come to fruition.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to how YOU, beginner or fellow veteran, can better your NaNoWriMo experience, with the help of Scrivener! I have used Scrivener for seven years now, and I don’t think I would’ve been as organized with my writing if it wasn’t for them.

NaNoPrep

Usually, everyone takes the month of October to figure out and plan out their projects to write in November. However, we’re not always as organized as we’d like to be, scrambling at the last minute to come up with an idea. Don’t get discouraged — planner, pantser or plantser, there’s definitely ways for you to prep in your own way, and it’s on a sliding scale.

In my experience:

Pantsers (people who write off the seat of their pants) just need to know what direction their novel is going in, and perhaps some minor details about their characters and world.

Planners (people who extensively plan their novel) plan enough that you know the general beginning, middle and end of your novel and that they know their characters to some extent. However, as with most plans, they might be thrown out the window throughout the month as they begin to realize more details about their novel.

Plantsers (a combination of both, this is me!) plan until they're comfortable, and then discover the rest. In my experience, I mostly have the beginning and end planned, and tiny bits of the middle, and then the rest is to be found during the month!

Scrivener makes it super easy for beginners to prep their novels. By using their corkboard view, you can plot cards and rearrange as you wish. Plus, they have templates for character and setting profiles too, making it easier for you to flesh out your characters as you wish. And with the index on the left, you can arrange them into folders, making everything very neat and organized!

NaNoWriMo

November will come and go as swiftly as this year has gone. Whilst on average, it’s roughly 1,667 words per day in order to write 50,000 words a month — our schedules don’t always accommodate that. So I would say to pace yourself according to your schedule throughout the month.

Have a free day? Try to get as much writing done during that day as it’ll make other days much easier to reach your goals.

Need to be productive? Check Twitter or the NaNo Forums, there will probably be someone hosting writing sprints, where you can write for short periods of time in order to contribute to your larger goal.

I’ve found that in the past, spending five 10-minute sessions throughout the day writing 100 words was much more productive than one 50-minute session trying to write 500 words. Small amounts of progress add to a larger feeling of completion.

This is also what makes Scrivener exciting as I’m able to set word count goals and see the progression bar fill up as I write. Just seeing that visual confirmation really keeps me motivated to keep going throughout the month.

Plus, with Scrivener I’m easily able to organize and write my novel on a scene-by-scene level — plus, I won’t have to copy and paste everything into a manuscript as Scrivener’s compile feature does that for me without the hassle!

Have Fun!

Lastly, NaNoWriMo is a lighthearted fun challenge which most of all, encourages writers to write and make progress in their novels. Whilst winning and achieving the 50,000 word count goal is amazing, if you don’t win, the progress you made in November is still something to be proud of.

It’s important during this month to strive for progress rather than perfection. The words that you write during the month of November will only be the first of many drafts, so ensuring the words are down first of all is an essential step.

Have fun with your characters, have fun with your fellow writers. Maybe look to pick up the Traveling Shovel and use it in one of your scenes. This is a time to celebrate the fact that you have chosen to give life to an amazing story, so write it.

Overall, NaNoWriMo is such a fun month to get to know other writers, hone your craft and begin the progress of a novel you want to write. I hope that all of you make amazing progress over the course of November. Who knows, I might see you in some writing sprints!

For now, if you wanted to try out Scrivener, you can try out a free trial for 30 days and revel in the awesomeness. I highly recommend it, especially for those who are getting started with writing novels. Plus, if you use the code NaNoWriMo, you can get 20% off!

Good luck friends, and happy writing!

Joel Rochester is a writer of Welsh and Jamaican descent. As a young child, he saw books as an escape from the real world but he often found those books never truly represented him. He loves to read and write books about emotional boys, daring worlds, and intriguing tales. He advocates for more diversity in media. Particularly, more QPOC representation.

Presently, he reviews and discusses books through his popular social media presence, ‘FictionalFates’. He is also currently studying a BA (Hons) Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Winchester. When not writing or reading, Joel can be found consuming other media. Whether it be video games, Korean dramas, or browsing social media. He also never goes long without a mug of matcha tea by his side.

[turtlethon]

"Return of the Shredder"

Season 2, Episode 1

First US Airdate: November 26, 1988 First UK Airdate (Hero Turtles version): January 3, 1990

Shredder re-emerges from Dimension X with a plan to frame the Turtles.

Turtlethon continues with a look at "Return of the Shredder", the first episode of season 2 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987). A memorable and historic episode in many ways, so apologies in advance if I go on a bit! This one is a story by season one's writers David Wise and Patti Howeth, but with a writing credit for Christy Marx.

"Return of the Shredder" is the first episode to air on the BBC in the UK as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles at the beginning of 1990, opposite Mr Majeika on ITV; The TV scheduling equivalent of being the first jobber to lose to Goldberg.

For most UK kids, this would have been the first piece of Turtles media they'd ever seen. And without any knowledge of S1, it raises a lot of questions. As mentioned in the "Turtle Tracks" recap, things like the comic adaptation and trading cards would do a lot of heavy lifting to fill in the gaps. The other notable thing is there's STILL a lot of ninja content in this episode, and some weapons use. It was largely edited out of the Hero Turtles version but the BBC took it upon themselves to make at least one additional edit.

2021 UPDATE: When I first revisited this episode in January 2020, I only had access to a German dub of the Hero Turtles version for comparison purposes. Since then I’ve been able to acquire multiple English language VHS releases of the TMHT edit of Return of the Shredder, so I’ll discuss the changes made in a separate post.

This episode opens with Michelangelo and Leonardo witnessing a robbery while shopping for groceries. They make short work of the crooks and after making their escape, April interviews the cashier about the incident for the Happy Hour News.

The German dubbers took some interesting liberties when they adapted the above interaction between April and Burne Thompson.

USA version

APRIL: They're heroes, I tell you!

BURNE: Bushwa!

German dub

APRIL: They're heroes, I tell you!

BURNE: BULLSHIT!

This episode includes the first appearance of Burne's girlfriend Tiffany, whose shtick is that she finds turtles disgusting. She considers anyone that defends them a "lousy turtle lover".

(Tiffany definitely went on to become one of those MAGA blondes that has a selfie of themselves in the car wearing giant shades as their userpic)

We then get a scene where the Turtles explain at length their connections to Splinter and Shredder, no doubt much to the relief of anyone watching the Hero Turtles run.

One of the first major turtle mix-ups here, where Raph is depicted talking at length but has Leo's voice. There's a way better one later on in this ep though.

Splinter has a vision that Shredder is about to return. I'd forgotten about this aspect of his character, where he has some vague mystical sixth sense about things and isn't just a wise old man that got turned into a rat. I kinda hate it to be honest.

Krang teleports Shredder to Central Park(?) where he's approached by two knife-wielding muggers, all of which remains intact in Hero Turtles. Why are nunchucks verboten and knives aren't? Your guess is as good as mine...

Shredder sees off the muggers by chopping a branch off a tree that kinda falls in front of them. They're so impressed that they give all THEIR money to HIM and run away.

This isn't even the only time in this episode that he gets people on-board by just wrecking up the place.

At the Slash-For-Cash Dojo, Shredder encounters Smash, voiced by Peter Cullen in sadly his only TMNT '87 appearance.

Ironically, Smash looks nothing like Smash from famous WWF tag team Demolition (Barry Darsow) but kinda does resemble his partner Ax (Bill Eadie).

Persuasion, the Shredder Way:

1) Walk in to someone's place of business and announce you're in charge now

2) When they object, destroy their property

3) Everyone will be so impressed they'll immediately fall in line

London, Tokyo, Paris, Washington. I'm impressed that Channel 6 is apparently so well-connected, considering we typically only ever see about four people working there

Over an unspecified amount of time Shredder turns Smash's useless students into super ninjas. They're all presented with spiffy turtle shell tunics.

WHO MADE THESE? Was Shredder up all night on the sewing machine meticulously crafting turtle outfits for the entire class?

The fake turtles go on a crime spree that mostly involves Smash karate-chopping cash registers and kicking bank vaults while the others watch, making the time Shredder spent training his pupils seem completely worthless. This soon makes the news, and the Turtles end up being blamed.

Shredder breaks into the asylum where Baxter is being held and they escape. They don't take the guy who thinks he's Napoleon with them, and frankly the rest of the series will be a little worse off as a result.

April's Turtlecom has a tiny satellite sticking out of the side of it.

Not a satellite dish, an actual satellite, the kind that orbits the Earth from space.

Donatello what are you doing

I love this scene where the animation just flakes out.  

Raphael = Leonardo

Leonardo = Leonardo

"Something strange has happened, now there are TWO Optimus Primes!"

5.1 billion people on Earth in 1988, and only two of them could teach a person this very nuanced method of kicking a door in.

Bizarrely, these lines of dialogue from Burne and April were sampled in Turtle Rhapsody Remix (from the 1990 TMNT movie soundtrack).

A recurring theme of the series later on will be that Shredder doesn’t know where the Turtle Lair is located, but Baxter just found it six episodes in. I guess they had to relocate after this.  

Our heroes soundly defeat Smash’s minions and grill him for info. He tells them where Shredder is, and they’re on their way.

The whole thing ends with the Turtles tracking down a kidnapped Splinter, some convoluted hi-jinks involving Baxter's rat-catcher and a battering ram, and the bad guys getting away. Pretty standard stuff.

April exposes the Crooked Turtle Gang as imposters. An infuriated Tiffany demands Burnsie debate her in the free marketplace of ideas.

The show ends with the turtles arguing about who April was winking at in her news report, only for her to break reality by responding from within the TV that it was intended for Splinter.

“Return of the Shredder” is a notable outing in a number of ways, particularly given that it ended up being the de facto first episode of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Putting that aside, it also expands on some ideas developed in the first season about the media shaping the public perception of the Turtles, something that we’ll see more of in the future (in “Turtles on Trial” next season, for example). The idea of the team being framed for crimes committed by someone else will pop up again even sooner, in “Invasion of the Punk Frogs”.

Sadly, neither Peter Cullen nor Smash will appear in TMNT after this. Other Transformers alumni will appear in guest roles throughout the series though. One character introduced here who will return is Tiffany, who we’ll see again next season.

As I alluded to previously, this episode was heavily edited to bring it in line with the BBC’s broadcast standards, in fact it might actually be the most censored in the entire run. Some of the changes made are downright ridiculous, and I’ll cover them in a future post.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: The 6 Best Books On The History Of Manga And Anime

  Say you’re a fan of anime and manga who’s looking to learn more about history or craft. Where do you begin? There’s whatever insight you can glean from the work itself, of course. There’s also a good amount of information available online, from animation blogs to translated manga interviews to personal pieces. But when all else fails, turn to the library. Here are some excellent nonfiction books on the manga and anime industry that I’d recommend to just about anybody. I’ve also read at least sections of every book on this list, so you have my guarantee of their quality!

  Image via Penguin Random House

  Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World reaches beyond manga and anime to encompass Japanese pop culture post World War II. But there are plenty of stories in here that fans of anime and manga might find fascinating: 

  The toy car that inspired top developers at Nintendo

How the karaoke machine led directly to idol culture, as music producers sought to produce music that ordinary people could sing

The manga-obsessed student radicals of the 1960s, many of whom came to work on later anime projects like Mobile Suit Gundam

  Author Matt Alt’s choice of interviewees and attention to detail marks Pure Invention as one of the best of its kind. If you’re a curious reader looking for an accessible (and recent!) popular history, I highly recommend this book.

  Image via Bloomsbury.com

  For fans abroad, the history of anime begins with the airing of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy on Japanese television. But this wasn’t enough for Jonathan Clements, a long-time anime and manga scholar who continues to blog on Schoolgirl Milky Crisis. His academic text Anime: A History begins in the 1910s, 50 years before the airing of Astro Boy, in fact, Astro Boy only appears halfway through the book! Clements is concerned not just with the medium of anime itself, but the cultural traditions, historical events, and individual people that brought it into existence.

  One of the greatest obstacles standing in the way of English-speakers seeking to understand the history of Japanese animation — besides, as Clements notes, the haphazard nature of even those resources available in Japanese — is the language barrier. Online writers at sites such as Sakugablog have done fantastic work in making some of this information accessible, but those same writers would be the first to acknowledge there’s still plenty we don’t know. Anime: A History synthesizes countless Japanese-language source texts and interviews about the history of animation, yet Clements is careful to acknowledge that the testimony of individual actors within the industry must be weighed against both their own agenda and the words of others. While Anime: A History would be a valuable text if it was nothing more than a synthesis, Clements’ ambition to build a coherent history of Japanese animation from a production standpoint that thoroughly examines its subject matter and context from all angles is what makes it essential.

  Image via Stone Bridge Press

  Jonathan Clements collaborated with equally prestigious anime and manga scholar Helen McCarthy to produce The Anime Encyclopedia, whose third edition was published in 2015. It’s an enormous text (over a thousand pages long!) that covers everything from summaries and critical appraisals of popular titles to specific themes and tropes to nuggets of cultural history and influence. If I were to criticize this project, I would say that recent anime writing outside the United States exposes The Anime Encyclopedia’s biases; for instance, the magical girl series Ojamajo Doremi only merits a few paragraphs despite its status as a beloved children's series in Japan. Keeping that in mind, it’s an impressive resource that is great fun to browse (and to disagree with)!

  Image via j-novel club

  Mari Okada is one of the most prolific and influential anime writers of the past decade. She’s worked on adaptations, original projects like Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day and KIZNAIVER, and even directed her own films. In her memoir, From Truant to Anime Screenwriter, Okada frankly discusses her personal struggles: her fraught relationship with her mother, her years as a young student when she couldn’t bring herself to attend class, and the process by which she gathered her courage to touch upon her personal experiences in her work. There are chapters of this book that wouldn’t be out of place in an Okada-written drama, which I suppose is the point.

  Okada’s memoir is in part a testament to her work ethic and her willingness to tackle any challenge no matter how difficult or annoying it is. But it’s also a rosetta stone for her work: not just in how it overlaps with her personal life, but in its emphasis on the importance of communication despite how difficult it can be to voice even simple feelings. Whether you’re a fan of Okada or not, I found this to be a great resource for writers nervous of the fraught boundary between fiction and personal experience or for readers who want to know what makes Okada’s work so distinct.

  Image via Stone Bridge Press

  Frederik Schodt is one of manga criticism’s greatest elder statesmen. His book Manga! Manga! put him on the map, not only for its editorial content but also for its translated excerpts of Japanese comics — including what would be, for years, the only available English chapter of Rose of Versailles! Yet that book was published in 1983 and sections can’t help but read as dated now. So I’m recommending the sequel here, 1996’s Dreamland Japan. 

  Like its predecessor, much of Dreamland Japan is devoted to detailing Schodt’s theories as to what manga is and how it works. But the sections of the book I personally find most valuable are the profiles where Schodt writes at length about specific manga artists he either personally enjoys or believes to embody a specific genre unique to manga. The freakish kitsch of Suehiro Maruo; Ryoko Yamagishi’s historical epic Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi (Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun); and alternative artists like Kazuichi Hanawa and Shungicu Uchida. These chapters stand as a stark reminder that despite the recent popularity of manga in the United States, many fantastic comics remain completely unknown to most English-speaking audiences.

  Image via ComiPress

  Finally, there’s Udagawa Takeo’s Manga Zombie! Translated into English by John Gallagher, it’s an eccentric and rewarding text that profiles several avant-garde manga artists from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Udagawa strongly dislikes the market-driven manga hits that would go on to rule the world from the pages of Shonen Jump and fights instead for the careers of authors whose work was published in the pages of pornographic magazines as often as they were in Jump or the alternative magazine Garo. Most of these authors have never been published in English, whether officially or through illicit means like scanlations. If not for the translation of Manga Zombie — or for Udagawa’s further works of manga scholarship — the artists he writes about might vanish into history without leaving a trace.

  The comics detailed in Manga Zombie can be grotesque, ranging from the “fleshbomb style” of artists like Masaru Sakaki to prescient weirdos like George Takiyama. Some might be repelled by the content here; personally, I’m disappointed by the lack of female comics artists featured, although Udagawa (who mentions the girls comic pioneers the 49ers in the foreword to his book) is certainly aware of them. But I love reading folks talking about their favorite work that I’ve never heard about, and Udagawa makes for an idiosyncratic tour guide to some truly unique material. For those willing to brave the world of Japanese exploitation comics, Manga Zombie is a hidden gem.

  What’s your favorite text about manga or anime? Is there an interview you consider especially interesting? Let us know in the comments!

      Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't reading weird fantasy novels and horror fiction, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at: @wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott