#they liked like... idk how many but they liked my posts

[optimistic-autistic]

nothing so aggravating as seeing people claim what Hades did was just a misunderstanding because he ''loved Persephone too much''. like i don't know about you, but it's pretty hard for that to turn into building a town based on slavery and later getting a girl and assaulting her (even if it's just implied, he still at least had to pretend to do something like it, because his goal was to make Persephone mad).

[squiddy-god]

Headcanons on Mr Scarletella with a touchy and flirty ahh soulmate? 😰(both sfw and nsfw) pretty please with a cherry on top (WOULD lick and bite that hemoglobin looking mf from top to bottom if I could get my hands on him 🤭)

I too would absolutely devour that man, his spooky ass is not safe. No requested gender for reader so this is gender neutral 

Cw : scarlettella, obsessive behavior, horny thoughts, i mean like really horny thoughts, sweet loving spooky fluff, he's a creep, he's a weirdo, smut and fluff, the first half is fluff the latter is smut, freaky nasty ghost sex. Gn reader nothing specified 

Oh 

Oh this is a little too perfect 

Now i don't know if you literally meant soulmates so i did not focus on it but encase you did mean truly soul mates he will never let that go lmao 

Especially if like we are talking about red stings of fate style soulmates

Spends so much time just looking at the little string that binds you to him PERMANENTLY 

Mr delulu absolutely loves that you are touchy because he wants you to touch him and keep touching him 

Now you mentioned soulmates specifically and oh boy never explain that concept to him because it will only make his delusions so much worse because you are his soulmate

He adores how you cling to him, how your hand fits in his and how you let him engulf your smaller form 

Lets you touch his hair, afterall why should that creepy crawly get all of your headpats 

Truly this is his ideal, letting him touch you and you touching him back is a dream come true

Literally

Like this creep dreams of you, dreams of having you with him always and feeling the softness of your hands on him

Your lips pressed against him

It fills him with a giddy kind of elation that has his grayish skin blushing a deep bloody red

 And the fact that you are flirty??? Hnnngngghhhh spare this man

At first he doesn't get it, he doesn't understand flirting but he understands that this is good attention

But once he catches on, and he catches on quickly, he is overjoyed that you flirt with him so ple do continue 

I think mr sarletella could be described as flirty in his own way, in his own creepy way 

“You like me…very much…desire me…us together very much long time”

You are driving this many crazy tho

He already takes all of your actions as being flirty towards him, so the fact that your personality leans into him delusions is not helping 

Nsfw 

Hmmmmmggghhhhhh 

Run lmao 

Oh wait…haha you can't 

You cant because this man will be turning your legs into jello one way or another, if it isnt because the way he fucks you into the nearest surface its because he is doing it every chance he gets 

Im personally a big fan of the umbrella jokes and the hc that he can feel touch through the umbrella so i'm going to use that

He can feel the slide of your hand against the umbrella, he can feel the way you touch and hold it and he is shuddering in the corner because of it

Your every touch is literally tourcher to him because he wants nothing more then to shove his hands up your shirt to feel you better

 Cums in his pants and i will die on this hill this man is so desperate if you flirt with him at all he is bricked and god forbid you like idk wisher in his ear and plant kisses along his face and jaw

Hes cooked 

He is not lasting if you show him affection

Dont worry tho because nasty freak ass ghost man in red doesn't know what the words take a break or refractory period are 

I said it in my other ghost sex post but i think he is like the #1 fan of bloody sex, he likes it when it's your blood or someone else's (i don't think he has blood) 

Yk what i think would break him? If you had blood on your hands and then like blew him a kiss or something to that effect 

FATALITY 

He thinks you look so pretty in red 

In his colors 

As his 

HIS

And opp hes hard again 

I think he would like to tugg on the red string of fate while hes pounding you into whatever surface he has you pressed against, that way you can feel the little tugg deep in your soul and know its him<3 

[utilitycaster]

A couple things before I do this as I said I would here

I’ve decided it’s more effective in the long term to bring up a handful of people than everyone who’s ever been obnoxious, mostly to maintain ongoing leverage, ie, maybe if people leave me alone they can get away with their lower-key shitty behavior, and if people don’t, then they won’t.

Do not harass nor send hate to the people I've mentioned; take the high ground. Blocking, vagueing and openly going “what the fuck is wrong with that guy (gn)” however is chill, but I won’t be taking anons personally that are pile-ons on these people because that is not the point of this exercise.

Similarly I just delete anon hate or post it if I have a funny enough response for it but it won’t elicit this kind of thing for various reasons I don’t care to get into right now.

If my good opinion is important to you, really, the quickest way to lose it is to treat me expressing my own opinions on my blog as a personal attack on you. I wasn’t specifically judging you until you decided I was; now, I will ruin your day or week and I won’t feel sorry.

Now, I’m going to be honest. The reason I haven’t done this earlier despite the shit I and many others have waded through all campaign is that the vast majority of people who engage in harassment, hate, or “how dare you exist and have opinions that aren’t mine, don’t you know the world revolves around me” will then immediately make a post like this, such as the loser who led to this: (rest below the cut)

source

To be clear I do hope they get whatever presumably important medical procedure this is and I too am in opposition to transphobia on an active political level, however, if you take your own shit out on me, a random woman on the internet, I will continue to fight for what I believe to be your fundamental human rights like gender expression and healthcare but there is no right you have that prevents me from calling you a stupid thin-skinned loser and that I feel sorry for anyone who has the misfortune to love you as I suspect you’re incapable of truly returning it, and also your blorbo still sucks. This has been: if you attempt to treat me even slightly like your punching bag, I punch back.

With that in mind let’s go to the people I’m talking about today. If you're not into this, skip the cut.

I think it goes without saying that warrior/inrecovery was an embarrassing blight on this fandom and imo/dna shippers’ steadfast laxity in taking out the trash is yet another reason why this ship ain’t it chief. I’m posting all of the aliases under which they attacked me and others, but they flamed out during the Laudna addiction metaphor and hopefully got help, though as you can see their blog for the past like, decade, is them attacking people over femslash ships, so idk if it’s gonna stick, pals. Anyway, they have a distinctive style so hopefully if they ever rear their ugly head again I’ll be able to get and post an IP address. I did have some suspicions about Tulsa OK but they are not sufficiently founded. Anyway: you can also find them under tlb/wc (they use that one to make death threats); thatguy/10592; clearcowboy/angel; screechingalpha/nightmare; and holysoul/enthusiast, all of which are still up and have the evidence as of posting

Honorable mention to the person who called me a hypocrite for checks notes liking callowmoore more than Imo/dna (series of asks from November 11th, 2023 in which they harassed not just me but many people who had simply interacted with my posts). I have my suspicions as to who it was [noted tar pit from Westphalia, Germany absintheheartbeat, who I also think sent this Dorym ask] but as I have no proof that’s really all there is. While we’re talking about generic tar pits disconnectedkat is a discourse blog that is just generally a piece of shit and is one of those people who clutches pearls about HOW DARE YOU TRY TO WIN AT FANDOM WITH LEFTIST CAUSES ignoring the big elephant in the room of “countless C3 fans lecturing incompetently about this being a revolutionary anticolonialist narrative and how we’re just status quo loving conservatives and then crying when we point out that they are being shitty in real life.” If you are one of those people reading this and finding yourself getting huffy, do take a look at the people mentioned throughout this and ask yourself: are you okay with them? Because if so, then your issue isn’t “it’s mean to call people stupid and attack them on a moral basis”; your issue is “it’s mean to call me stupid”, and you are part of the problem, and, moreover, I am in your walls.

Theshepardshuffle deactivated but I do want to point them out here just to note that I have in fact suffered more than Job and been more steadfast than any US Marine at the hands of imo/dna shippers for the sin of saying “this ship isn’t very good.” I’d also want to point out that they are why I started checking on people I’ve blocked. See, this is a side blog, so if you block me I cannot interact with you, but I can still see you, and our buddy shep joined tumblr, blocked me, and then posted discourse about me constantly not realizing I could literally see it (and to be clear. I know people I have blocked can see this. I hope they do.)

Anyway, the main event: let’s talk about noted racist idiot hecate astralley/wright (main blog bone/heat), to my knowledge a white American cultural Christian, seen here (archive link if they delete it) mocking someone who found Bells Hells’ behavior justifyingly reminiscent of a conquering colonialist army as their family experienced, and horrifying for it (note: this mention is made with everypigeondeserveslove’s knowledge and permission; they are well aware of this bullshit). Hecate decided it was a good time to be a truly unfeeling piece of shit about this in the service of checks notes convincing people that Bells Hells was an anticolonialist narrative. They did, to be fair, just start reading Wretched of the Earth, so they do know who they’re talking over. I mean about. They also accused me of, when I pointed out this article’s discussion of history and whether it was written by the victors, Godwin’s law, which is not really what that means (saying ‘this phrase has its origins in a lot of hateful groups who used it to evade their responsibility in historical events, and also even if history is written by the victors, that doesn’t mean every alternate viewpoint is automatically wrong’ is simply factual), then turned around and claimed, in a truly stunningly insolent case of putting words in someone’s mouths, that criticism of Imogen and Laudna on the basis of their unkind actions was akin to calling them degenerates (archive)to the point that people were confused. This is an ongoing pattern with that circle; you’ll see it with cringefae/compilation too of just. Making shit up. 

What you need to know about them is in the end they’re mostly just a hypocrite and a loser. They’re really into 9/11 jokes, which to be clear I’m not personally squeamish about, but I also don’t go around screaming about how cruel the fandom is to Aeor, a city that is entirely pretend, while joking about real-life civilian deaths. Absolutely terminal case of caring more about pretend people than real ones. As for the idiot part, interesting to claim at one point that Orym would be saved by the Wild Mother and should, and this is a direct quote from someone who, again, is only now reading the first book listed the “Notable Theoreticians And Theories” list on the Postcolonialism wikipedia page, that he should “read theory” and then claim to have Gotten It From Hearthdell after spending much of the intervening time, as discussed, arguing for the deaths of the gods. In fact, I recommend looking back through their blog in depth for a combination of tiktok-brained politics, an utter lack of empathy, and Consistently Getting It Wrong And Lying And Pretending They Didn’t. 

Second person is cringefae/compilation. When they’re not throwing tantrums interspersed with gifs of the pink My Little Pony, or throwing different tantrums about Kipperlily Copperkettle, or throwing different tantrums about Essek and Verin Thelyss existing within the narrative, you can find them throwing tantrums about how everyone but them is a bigot, often in the main tag. This has been commented on by the general fandom, and it is notable that even others in their circle often won’t touch their vent posts (also many of said posts directly attack others in their circle, which is funny to me). Now I’ll just keep it very basic: I think what’s going on is that cringefae does not think they are a very good person, deep down, but is trying to project an image of being a very good person, and so they have decided that people in the fandom, of which I was public enemy number one before they seemingly discovered the native text block function, are the Real Bad People, and don’t seem to have the ability to process. Now the thing about cringefae is that if you dislike a character OR like but would enjoy them experiencing some fictional horrors and that character is not Essek Thelyss; the Briarwoods; a character I personally like such as Fjord when they are on the warpath (they actually seem to personally really like Fjord and I think high key hate that I like him because they have basically no consistent identity other than contrarianism; they do not seem to like anything, really, other than possibly the pink My Little Pony); or a white cis straight man that they do not headcanon as not that, then they will call you a bigot. Now: you may notice, with a quick perusal of their blog, that they believe Ludinus Da’leth to be a racist who started a race war, which would imply Essek Thelyss is nonwhite, but they have definitely argued against this as well, and recently argued both in favor of Ludinus having a redemption arc and also that they don’t believe in zero-effort redemption arcs, because again, there is zero logical coherence other than attacking people they don’t like for whatever reason. I don’t even have links; just scroll down their blog for a few minutes and you’ll get the vibe (bad). They too have a tendency to make up a guy and get mad at that guy (and have to clarify they're just making shit up in the notes); possibly to assume the worst of the fandom in order to feel better about themself. And whereas I think astralley/wright might know deep down they're attacking real people to defend pretend people and hoping no one will notice and call them on it, cringefae seems to be genuinely too stupid to understand the concept of "it can be interesting for a story to be tragic." They also tend to frequently insult the positions of people in their circle and conflate everything they don't like into one person; again, horse-immorality (deactivated) was one of the loudest "bor'dor is a dog" people and cringefae liked them and now is like IT'S SUPER RACIST TO SAY BOR'DOR WAS A DOG because again, it's not about any position, it's just about finding some arbitrary scapegoat and attacking them so that you can feel righteous, and in doing so, they become a cesspit of a person.

I think the kindest thing you could say about cringefae is that in their incoherence it all kind of cancels out, and absolutely no one really seems to take them seriously. They seem entirely unaware of the concept of crying wolf and how maybe if you say that a woman who checks notes happens to openly prefer the canon art of Jester, Yasha, and Imogen to fan redesigns, canon art that was checks notes designed by women and checks notes drawn by women is a “soft MRA” you might be wildly irresponsible in your accusations to the point of eroding an ability in the fandom to actually point out misogynistic views (also, hanging out with astrall/eywright does kind of fuck your image as caring about the oppressed). It’s accusations as a tool against the people they’ve decided are The Bad Ones. And really that’s the thing. I know we’re all online here, this is explicitly my fandom sideblog and I try to keep it light on politics not because they’re not vitally important but because I do see Tumblr largely as an escape and not as a news source, but I would bet good money this is someone who doesn’t like, do anything other than post. Anyway, just kind of a stream of nonstop constantly shifting incoherent bile worth a block. One of those cases where you're like "have people...just put up with this person in their fandom spaces forever? why? don't fandoms deserve to not have a missing stair like this?"

[houseofthrace-blog]

So nice to see a post like this, the gets Arcane's core theme, and appreciate it.

Love is hard (see OPs tag for how much pain it caused). Love can take you to a very dark path.

But love also heals! Love can bring the best on people. We have seen this in many, many stories (books, series, movies).

But, idk how to explain, Arcane took it to a whole new level for me. This show will always have a special place in my heart!

Arcane really was just like, the love was there and it changed everything.

[sharklovingaquarist]

I dont read what trans identified people respond to me tbh (hard to keep up with even people I like on here) but one responded to my post about gender conditioning being an early process with the hashtag "#terfbullshit" after I talked about how I was molested by a grown man in my Christian private school when I was younger than 5 years old... bruh, idk what you're gonna say to me that proves that's not sex based oppression or conditioning girls. I was constantly bullied by the adults at my school for wearing "boys' clothes" because my parents let me. I was shamed for my weight by the man who hurt me. I was literally bullied by a grown ass woman (daughter of that man) where she would let the little boys hit me because I was crying. I was in PRESCHOOL. You're fucking stupid if you think gender roles suddenly pop into existence as soon as you start puberty. If my parents hadn't told me it's ok for women to act like humans with complex cognitive ability, I would've disconnected from my womanhood. It's mostly "trans women" who get angry at this tho, lmfao you wouldn't know. The roles you grew up with were the pinnacle of humanity, I was raised to perform. Males love to shit themselves over not being able to perform, but how does it feel when your whole identity surrounds the service of others?

Whatever, thank you to the real ones here for being so awesome. The only place I feel safe haha

Edit: imma dox that private school too. Family Christian Academy in Orlando, FL. The principal is a racist piece of shit too. Told my mom I shouldn't be friends with a black boy who was in my kindergarten class. Her parents ran a preschool, and her father would hit us. I can't even recall the SA well. My mind blocks it. One of his rancid daughters physically abused me many times and banned me from wearing dresses because I lifted it as a 4 year old girl. Hope everyone that ran that shit show has a terrible life, trust I know the women are. Must suck being so repressed.

[centrally-unplanned]

Alright, last Current Events Drama post, is not a super valuable activity after all. I have seen a lot of Discourse that goes like "I may oppose these efforts but man the PR strategy of this Musk thing is pretty genius, they have a whole generation of people thinking USAID was funding the Liberal Media now". And they certainly aren't without agency, I agree there is an intentional PR strategy going on. In particular it is not just the creation of narrative, but the creation of momentum - every day is a new discovery, a new victory, a sense of progress.

But this isn't really that hard when your supporters are just really stupid? Like you can make shit up for these people! They don't care, they don't have that instinct that goes "okay hold up I'm going to need to see some sources here". The current Admin didn't make that happen, that is a deep, structural change around the internet flattening hierarchies and all that shit. When you know your audience wants results and also you can just invent results out of thin air then, idk, is this that hard? How could you not deliver that?

It is funny because the actual playbook here isn't even their invention, it is the same as the 2010's "Woke Boom". That entire model was that deep, slow, technical solutions to structural inequalities achieved via grinding electoral politics is boring. That shit is for fucking losers. I am not gonna have a role in that all! So instead we will achieve social change via randomly harassing my progressive coworkers for their black comedy tweets about AIDS until they get fired and have a nervous breakdown. Obviously - just like with the current right, don't be tricked! - there was another side of this movement that was much more serious, a huge side actually (we are just focusing right now). But for so many that serious side was window dressing, the real mush was that you got to feel like you were a part of something, doing something, and at a certain point they started running the show. This playbook being reversed really isn't that impressive (and also, in a sense, inevitable)

I will give the Social Justice aggros though that they had some standards - passing around photoshopped tweets was uncommon. Most of them did actually believe in this model for change (and so invented insane ideologies to justify it, but w/e). That isn't really as true on the right - I should partially walk back my statement above, a lot of these people aren't that gullible? They are just apathetic. So many people retweeting stuff about how The Deep State funnels millions to Politico don't really even care, for them it is a game. It is funny to own the libs. They laugh off your attempts at calling them out for accuracy - you care about that? What a cuck you are.

Which makes it particularly sad when you see the earnest ones, the ones writing essays about the implications of what USAID propping up the New York Times means for our political future. Nothing worse than being a true believer in a church where not only the leaders but also your fellow congregants know it is bullshit.

It reminds me of the Gamestop Meme Stock Crash and its slow, agonizing burn (a not unrelated event!). A bunch of people on the rise of the stock created the idea that buying Gamestop could Stick It To The Man, you could short squeeze the hedge funds, diamond-hands-hold that yield, bring Wall St to its knees - to the moon, baby. And some people bought it! And then the wheel turned, the crash happened, and most of the people posting those memes sold their stock and dipped so fast they had disappeared from the subreddits before they could even begin to say "bro, you thought I was serious?". Leaving a stalwart few holding the bag, spinning epicycles of conspiracy theories to justify why they had it to begin with. Which happens on autopilot a this point. You don't really need any PR strategy to make this happen.

[queenlua]

your post about adding excitement to a story by increasing the pressure on a character was not something i’d heard before and i found it super useful. are there any other pieces of writing advice you find foundational and would be willing to share?

glad you found that tidbit helpful!

first, i’ll give my default caveat of “i’m just some guy on the internet, so take this with however many grains of salt you need”

plus my general caveat on… all writing tips/tidbits/advice? which is:

i find that, past the basics of “knowing about exposition/rising action/climax/denouement” and such, most writing advice ends up operating as a dusty old toolbox i open up now and again.  something in my story's not working; i’m not sure how to fix it; i pull out my little toolbox of tidbits i’ve accumulated over the years and see if any of the screwdrivers and wrenches in there actually fit.  the kinds of tidbits that are useful for me may be ACTIVELY DETRIMENTAL to someone else; someone who chronically overtightens their screws probably shouldn’t be told “have you tried tightening the screws more :D;;;;” or whatever.  and in particular what works for me is probably oriented towards genre-y stuff.

BUT, Y’KNOW, GIVEN ALL THAT

here’s the tidbits i find myself returning to over & over!

* three is a very powerful number.  i have a tendency to write myself into situations where you have Two Interesting Characters Doing Verbal Head-Games With Each Other, and that stuff can be tremendously fun, but it tends to run out of steam very quickly.  adding a third character to the scene combinatorially increases the dynamics available for you to play with.  so if you’re stuck, throw someone else in there.  (relatedly this is why awful dinner parties are Peak Literature™)

* if you’re writing a romance: put a sticky note on your monitor that says “WHY CAN’T THEY BE TOGETHER NOW?”  if at any point you don’t have a good answer to that, you’ve fucked up; rework the plot.

* this is a shlocky tidbit from the South Park creators that totally works: list all the scenes in your story, and then, between each scene, see if they are connected by THEREFORE or BUT versus AND THEN.

so., e.g., “the ocean levels in Tellius are rising, THEREFORE kilvas wants to migrate from their sinking islands and onto Serenes, BUT Reyson is opposed to that move, THEREFORE…”

that gives you a stronger structure than, like, idk, “the war ends AND THEN kilvas moves to Serenes AND THEN Reyson and Naesala get in a fight…”

you want it to be mostly “THEREFORE/BUT” and very few “AND THEN”s.  just a tighter overall plot structure

* each scene should accomplish at least two things.  the most common two things for a scene to do are “advance the plot” and “develop a character”; i have a hazy memory that when i first read this advice, there was a list of, like, 1-3 other things a scene’s allowed to accomplish?  but i cannot REMEMBER that list, lol.  but use your imagination; i’m sure you can think of another valid thing.

i think this is more useful as debugging/editing advice than upfront advice—often, when you’re writing something, every scene will *feel* necessary, but upon reread, you’ll notice your attention is drifting, this doesn’t quite feel tight enough… and you’ll realize, oh, ugh, i just had three scenes in a row that existed Solely To Hit A Plot Beat; why don’t i combine those three scenes into one, condense the action, and also make sure a character’s doing something actually interesting/new while i’m at it.

(i think i see this plaguing a lot of novels that come out of nanowrimo in particular.  i mean, not me, because i don’t have the fast-twitch muscle required to do nanowrimo, but when i read other people’s nanowrimo stuff, it often feels like it was galloping through a bunch of plot beats without bothering to do anything else interesting.)

* if you're stuck on a particular scene/chapter, stuff to try:

delete the current sentence and start over

delete the current paragraph and start over

change the font and reread what you've got so far

open the document on a different screen and reread what you've got so far

print the thing out and reread what you've got so far

open a brand new document and rewrite the whole scene/chapter/etc from the start (NO PEEKING AT THE ORIGINAL VERSION)

go outside and look at a bird for a bit

take a nap

shoot a whiny discord message to a friend about it (even if it's solely rubber ducking, this can be helpful) (though if you have any friends who are good at writing AND ALSO willing to put up with your shit and offer helpful feedback AND ALSO you're not too mortified by your writing dilemma to share it with them, that's even better) (btw, any friends reading this: if you want to opt-in to messages like this from me, LET ME KNOW lmao, i'm really shy on this front!)

if you're DESPERATE: open a new document and just write out, like, "Character X wants Y. Character Z wants Q. These are the sources of pressure on character X. These are the sources of pressure on character Y. I want R to happen but I feel stuck because of M" and so on, just... really trying to dissect what the scene's trying to accomplish? most often, the outcome of this is, i'll notice in that "thinking aloud" document that i'm circling around some central question that I Don't Know The Answer To, and i need to answer that question to usefully proceed. sometimes this will be painfully obvious in hindsight. (e.g., sometimes you'll go back to your outline and you'll realize you've literally just hit the bullet point that says UGH OKAY THEY GET TOGETHER SOMEHOW I'LL FIGURE THIS OUT LATER, and you're like, ugh, fuck, it's now later, why is past-me such a bitch!) but them's the breaks. (in particular, i remember getting catastrophically stuck on a "meet the parents" story until i realized i was... avoiding actually writing out the "meet the parents" scene... which feels "well duh" in hindsight! but, like, hey, in order to write that scene, i needed to commit to some specific decisions on What The Story Was About, the same way artists gotta eventually erase a bunch of sketchy lines to commit to the Lines They Will Actually Be Inking, and that decision point feels hard and scary and no wonder i waffled lol)

okay so that's all the super-specific-concrete advice. here's some stuff that's more big-picture but i've still found personally useful:

* i once went to a talk where a novelist said she doesn't start writing a novel until she knows exactly what she wants it to look like on the bookshelf. as in: is it a schlocky trade paperback or is it a beautiful hardcover thing with fancy paper? does it have IMPACT FONT for the title or something handwriting-y? how many pages is it? and so on.

in service of this aim, she never writes any of the novel (no notes, no outlines, no snippets of dialogue, nothing) until she has that image vividly in her mind + she can't physically STAND not writing it any longer. for her, this process allows her to be sure that she knows what her novel is about—not necessarily in every single detail or plot beat (though, often she has a lot of that in mind before starting), but in terms of "what am i trying to say," "how do i want the world to look at it," etc, and she's found through hard experience that, while it's easy for her to start novels, it's often hard for her to finish them unless she has that crystal-clear image in her mind.

i can’t quite do her purity-of-method (my brain is scrambled eggs; i HAVE to write down snatches of dialogue and such before i get started on something or it all leaks out of my ears), but i see a lot of wisdom in it.  i do a lot of prewriting & thinking & scribbling out little snatches of dialogue and such before i really begin writing. i think everyone develops their own little heuristic for when they can be reasonably confident they know what their story is about, so you should try and figure out what that heuristic is for you & learn to trust it if you can? (a common one you hear a lot is "i have to know how the story ends / what the ending feels like," which makes sense; endings usually have a lot to do with what a story is About. i know NK Jemisin mentioned once she can't really start until she's nailed down the voice, and that also makes sense to me—you read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and it's very clear that her choice of voice is a large part of what drives the story, it has a propulsive force of its own; it's The Thing that blasts the whole thing open for her. for me, i'm not sure i have a tidy heuristic, but there's a point where i've written enough snatches of dialogue plus bits of scenes that i've unlocked some core thing that i'm really excited about—i keep spinning out bits of dialogue and setting and such that are related to that thing, i'm so excited to see how that thing plays out across the story, i look at my outline and see only possibilities and wonder instead of connective tissue that needs to be filled in... and then, yeah, i'll know i'm cooking, but not one second before!)

note that the story is allowed to surprise me & change on me once i get properly started—my longfic changed substantially when i realized Reyson’s perspective needed a LOT more room to breathe than i had accounted for in the outline, and then changed substantially again when i realized the butterfly-effect-style implications that keeping Leanne around had for my entire storyline—the ending wound up being TOTALLY different than what i'd originally planned!—but like, in that case, i don't think my sense of what the story was about ever fundamentally changed; i just added two more huge elements that orbited that about-ness. if that makes sense.

* i think about this passage from Bayles & Orland's Art and Fear a lot. i'm actually not sure that advice is helpful for literally everyone—i do see people who somehow manage to write the same fucking thing over and over, for years and years, and never seem to develop their craft or make any movement toward saying something interesting.

but i do think most people are developing something even when it feels like "the same thing over and over," and as someone who probably tends toward too little output, i found it a useful reminder that returning to familiar forms, themes, and characters across pieces is intensely useful if it gets you in front of the keyboard again, so don't stress over novelty too much. (i find, if i'm still returning to a particular form/theme/character, it's because i feel like i still have some interesting new perspective on it that's genuinely worth exploring. if i have actually exhausted a topic, i'll know it because i myself will get bored, but anyone else's opinion is irrelevant!)

* ursula k le guin's steering the craft is more focused on craft & nuts n bolts than plot-debugging-type-things but i thought i'd give it a shout-out here because i've just found it so perpetually useful over the years. in particular we could all stand to read our stuff aloud more often; that fixes a lot of problems and she goes on about that in detail in chapter 1 haha

* oh, also, re: my "put more pressure on the characters" advice—you've probably already intuited this, but i think i found that framing more useful than the kinds of "raise the stakes / make sure every character has Stakes / Wants Something" advice you're likely to find in screenwriting workshops, because this framing feels like a more... abstract... way of talking about the same thing?

like, often those two types of advice are addressing the same problem, but when i start off thinking about "where is the pressure on these characters," i don't just have to think "time to heap more pressure on them," i can also, like. observe. where the pressure points in my work are. i'm not presupposing a solution. maybe there's a ton of pressure but it's the wrong kind of pressure. maybe there's a ton of pressure but there's nowhere satisfying for that pressure to go. it's very woo/fuzzy but yeah i use the general principle of "pressure" to frame a LOT of how i think about story construction; maybe that'll be useful to you!

* FINALLY, i don't have a nice packaged heuristic/tidbit/tool-shaped thing for this one yet, but i've been thinking a lot about how much perspective really Changes Everything about a work. your choice of PoV should be exceedingly deliberate; you should be taking maximum advantage of your choice of PoV at all times (what do they know? what don't they know? how do they think about the world? etc); also if you're editing something and you're noticing a lot of unconscious perspective breaks, that's a warning sign something's going badly wrong in how you're approaching the story overall—perspective should just be unconsciously correct if you're hitting stuff right imo

OK WOW SORRY THAT GOT SO LONG but hope at least one of these lil bullets are useful for ya! happy writing~

[rookamell]

Would love to hear opinions on this because it's been how many months now and I still can't make sense of that pantry scene with Lucanis. It just doesn't check out in my mind. Because... ok. Yes, he is obviously acting a little bit, he has to be. But it's... so natural at the same time? I don't know how to explain it and I might be wrong but. People say he's acting like he's done it before or at least watched Illario, and I don't think he has. I also don't think his first instinct in a moment like that is to think about Illario and what he would have done because the moment before that ('You deserve better than to deal with my mess' 'you're more than what you're going through) is so soft and intimate and them that I just cannot rationalize that he's completely acting in this moment. Coupled with how he acts toward Neve and the flirty banter with Rook while on the coffee date... I don't know if he's being completely disingenuous here. I think he is flirting authentically, he just gets scared when he realises what he is doing. Personally I think he has a moment of 'i wonder if caterina would approve' and then snaps out of it but that is complete headcanon so I won't harp on it too much. But then I see posts where people say their Rooks were probably freaked out a little because that's not their Lucanis and I always tend to agree because it's so at odds with what we see from him in the act 2 and 3 parts of the romance. It boggles my mind because just when I think I've settled on an explanation I see a post where I'm like 'wait hold on that could be true as well'. I think my favourite explanation so far is from a post I'll like it here if I find it again because I know I have it saved somewhere that says he realises he's making a choice for himself for the first time? On a contract? And that's why he pulls away, not because he isn't being genuine, but maybe that's part of it? Idk I just personally think he's a lot more of a flirty guy than people tend to make him out to be at least... in a certain sense. He says poetic things and reads romance novels and I don't necessarily think the baking lock in is at odds with the pantry scene all that much. Idk. I just have to ramble about it I guess because. I can't fathom. What was going through his mind.

Edit: The post I was talking about is this one by @maythedreadwolftakeyou

[acourtofthought]

Wait I think you’re taking my previous “ask” incorrectly. I am not saying that Azriel shouldn’t be blamed or that Elain should accept Lucien immediately. I am in fact advocating that BOTH she and Lucien take the time they need to accept the bond. All I’m saying is that Elain stans keep doing this thing where they make it seem like Elain should not be blamed at all or that she should never be blamed as much as other people.. repeatedly. It really is infantilizing her because she is an adult and she knows full well that her relationship with Azriel will not be the "smoothest" because she does have a mate. So I don’t know why Azriel seems like he’s the only one responsible. I'm only saying they are BOTH consenting adults in that situation.

I don’t even like Azriel (I think he's a creep at times) and Elain’s okay so I have no problem seeing it from both sides. Azriel’s an ass in that BC period. But Elain shouldn’t be treated like she has no say in the situation, as if it’s all Azriel’s fault. Yes he's way older and should know way better, but she participated in it knowing full well that no matter what happened between her-Azriel-Lucien it would be hard. I think at times Eluciens are too similar to Elriels. One side makes it seem like Lucien will force the mate bond or sth and the other makes it seem like Azriel forced Elain to like him. Elain is an adult. An adult. Elain stans from both Elucien and Elriel truly act the same when it comes to her.

Idk if you will post the answer to this or not, but it's just food for thought I guess. I like Elucien and I think they’re endgame, but my god, both Elucien and Elriel stans annoy me when it comes to Elain. I will not be shocked if Eluciens start acting like Elriels soon, getting angry every time Elain isn’t shipped with Lucien.

Again, I completely disagree with everything you've said. Yes, there is a portion of the fandom that babies Elain but Elucien's are typically not on that side of it. From what I've found, some Gwynriels and some Elucien's take it to the opposite extreme of E/riels. Where Nesta is allowed to be as bitchy as she wants because of trauma, that she's really got a good heart despite it yet the second Elain finally snaps back, "she's not that nice". Where Elain is "manipulating others to do her bidding" though the text literally tells us she's tired of them treating her like a child and telling her what she can and can't do. What exactly should we be blaming Elain for? The cabin? Don't you think at some point it's ok to move beyond that since it's been how many years? Since she already gave a really heartfelt apology to Feyre and owned up for not doing enough back then? Since she now goes out of her way to cook for Feyre's household? To care for the gardens at Feyre's home? We know that will not be Elain's home in the future therefore everything she's doing is going to benefit Rhys and Feyre only. Should we blame Elain for Az telling her they were a mistake? I'm not quite sure what you think she did wrong there. "She knew their relationship wouldn't be the smoothest". I can't believe you're even saying such bullshit. When has any SJM situationship ever been the smoothest? Feyre agreed to marry Tamlin when she knew she wanted Rhys UTM, should she apologize to Tamlin for accepting his proposal? Though I'm guessing you probably think we should blame Elain for not doing more for Nesta though you might have missed the part where Nesta literally said she had her life and they had their's which means she didn't count Elain as part of her life. Where Nesta literally ran the other way when Elain wanted to approach her in the market. Where Nesta told Elain she was boring and accused her of being the reason their father was dead. You know why Nesta was able to be there for Elain over the years? Because Elain never hurled out insults to Nesta and didn't actively push her away. But sure, let's blame Elain for choosing not to be a punching bag. That is not infantilizing, that is showing respect for a girl who is learning to stand up for herself.

E/riel and Elucien stans might annoy you but boy have you ever annoyed me.

[nqueso-emergency]

ngl i think a big reason why i like tevan is how nice all the ppl ive interacted with are. even when we disagree on headcanons, it never feels like there’s any vitriol but a “you do you! 💕” energy to it. im sure there Are shitty fans (no fandom goes without them after all) but idk it makes me realize how much i dislike eddie as a result of BoBs acting like hes gods gift to the show and therefore immune from all criticism ever. it goes into Everything: “hes not misogynistic, he’s just closet gay so of course he treats women badly!” and “chris is wrong for going to texas, eddie is trying his best” and so on.

like. i dont get that from tommy fans. like, yeah, some of em get incredibly horny over lfj (fair) but i dont think i’ve ever seen even the biggest fan fully justify any of his actions as “he was closeted so its fine” but recognize “people do shitty things when trying to stay safe and tommy is shown regretting those shitty things.” its just nice seeing people treat the show with some nuance.

ppl still hate chim for punching buck (which, yeah, might not have been Good but fuck if i don’t fully understand why he did it!!!) bc buck is their widdle guy who can do no wrong ever. i just can’t see the appeal of genuinely treating him like that. i sometimes joke about characters doing no wrong but i love the messy bitches!!! buck is such a messy dude sometimes and i just don’t get people who ignore that to turn him into a golden retriever who can do no wrong. everyone on this show is messy in some way!!! this Has to be “baby’s first fandom” for some ppl and i hope they realize that its fine to enjoy the mess. that eddie isn’t this perfect golden boy. that buck isn’t, either. no one on this show is perfect (except jee, obviously—)!!! i just wish i could like eddie more. it isnt the first time i’ve ignored a shitty actor while engaging with a show (… speaking as a gl** fan who enjoys mess and camp even with the many many problems that show had, lmao), but the actively shitty fanbase he has just makes it so much harder to like him 😔

Agree with all of this, anon.

When I was on reddit and I posted on the main sub to reach out and find like-minded people, I got called names, sent death threats, and my post got deleted as well.

But, through all the hate I received, I still got kindness from bucktommy fans. I got invited to the bucktommy sub, I got people checking in on me... that's the people I want around me in fandom ❤️

[bluedalahorse]

Felice Week Poll: Who should be Felice’s S4 Love Interest?

Posted for YR characters month, hosted by @youngroyals-events.

This is part analysis, part poll.

I have contradictory emotions about the way Felice’s brushes with romantic relationships are handled in Young Royals.

On one hand, I like that Felice’s storyline does so much to center friendships, especially her friendship with Sara. I’m aromantic, so these kinds of stories that privilege friendship matter to me, especially in stories where there’s a heavy emphasis on a romantic plot.

On the other hand, we never see Felice in a fulfilling romantic and/or sexual relationship. Neither August nor Wilhelm treats her 100% great, and we are informed that many other boys have crushes on her, but we never get to see her enjoy casual moments of flirtation or fun.

Unfortunately, these writing choices don’t exist in a vacuum, and also I can’t help noticing that Felice’s story falls into a broader trend of Black characters frequently being unlucky or unchosen in romance. Martha Jones and Bonnie Bennet are other characters who are emblematic of this trend, but the more you look, the more you see it all over.

I highly recommend watching Princess Weekes’s videos where she discusses this trend in more depth with examples from lots of different TV shows. She does an especially good job of addressing how people will say “but isn’t it empowering for a female character to be strong on her own, without a romance?” For white female characters, who are often sheltered and framed as delicate by the patriarchy, forgoing a romance is often empowering. On the other hand… for Black female characters, it’s different. Black women and girls are often discouraged from showing vulnerability or softness and often end up as the unlucky leg of a love triangle, so it’s a departure from the status quo to actually have Black female meaningfully engage in an onscreen romance!

Which is why, in some parallel universe where YR gets a season 4—or at least in more fanfics centered on Felice’s POV and set in the future—I’d love to see her get to have a storyline where she falls in love with someone and they love her back in return. Big swoony teen drama first love stuff, like we get to see Simon have with Wilhelm and Sara have with August. Maybe with a little less in the way of princely drama, but I think you know what I mean. It doesn’t have to be a love story where we assume the relationship lasts forever, and it doesn’t have to undermine Felice’s friendships. Simon getting together with Wilhelm doesn’t undermine his friendships, after all, and Sara and August aren’t together at the end of the series. The point is it should be significant. Let Felice feel the big feelings! Let someone else also feel them back for her!

(I’m also in favor of Felice having an aro or ace storyline as long as it is explicitly named as such, although that isn’t the focus of this post. It is the focus of my fic Doubles Over Couples though.)

So with all that established, I now ask you…

I left off options where Felice would be breaking up an existing ship (wilmon or stedrika) or dating a character we assume to be gay (Nils or Marcus, who both I guess could be bi, you never know.) But you know what? If that’s your jam, go ahead and tell me in the tags. I hold nothing sacred after all.

You can also tell me why you chose the character you chose in your tags. Maybe you have an idea for giving a character a lot of development and taking their arc in a new direction. (Like, idk, why not envision a story about Felice and Alexander?) If you do, I’d love for you to share it and tell me the arc you have in mind.

Please reblog the poll for reach! This should be fun.

[hinamie]

subject, specimen, spectacle;

should i say that you're dead?

[localsharkcryptid]

OP and Void have twisted my arm, can't believe they'd do this, sooo Drittens be upon ye!!! (and behold proof that I'm a very indecisive multishipper and firmly believe cDream should kiss many men, also all these kids have some cat hybrid genes due to Dream being a chimera, hence drittens)

Keta - Drunz, aka wow neither of his parents really know how to raise a kid but Dream is marginally better when compared to Punz. Keta has the most in terms of general shenanigans when he's young, the MOMENT this little guy figures out general locomotion and how to get around the days of peace are OVER. He has a consistent habit of climbing and getting into hard to reach spaces which scares the fuck out of dream, mainly because that's a baby, his baby actually and that's far to dangerous for him at this age - Punz... Punz is indifferent and mostly just "He'll get himself down" but to be fair this whole ordeal is a learning experience for them since they did not have a childhood so yeah this is way outta their skill set. Keta becomes a problem causer as he gets older and basically takes both of his dad's skills in pvp, so more often than not he likes to pick a fight with anyone he can. This probably all stems from the fact that the greater smp still doesn't have a great opinion on Dream, so that bias stretches to the kid whose response is "If they're going to think I'm mean and scary, then I'm gonna give them a reason to! >:(" - I do have one sort of thought out au with Keta and parent shenanigans where he's a technical 'accident' that Punz deals with while Dream is in prison then shenanigans ensue post prison break (I do love trans Dream hcs for the record but my trans Punz hc is stronger - and is a little more interesting for me at least in terms of this idea!)

Lyssa - Dreamnoblade, I NEED TO WORK ON THEM AND GIVE THEM PLOT BUT THEY'RE HERE CAUSE THEY'RE IMPORTANT TO ME AND THEY'RE SILLY. Definitely takes after Techno though and that's important (Dream gets bullied by both his kid and partner and it's very funny).

Demetri - Awesamdream, the only one who actually has a design! Autism squared honestly, that's what this child is - So, so much autism in that little creeper-cat body. Well I say little but they'll probably be 7ft minimum when they're an adult-

Sam and Dream are both mother hens to this kid, Sam cause of his natural instincts (creepers are excellent parents in my headcanons) and Dream cause well, that's his kitten alright. It's just double the parental protective instincts honestly. Demetri is notably nonviolent and takes after Sam's interests with redstone and building - but, they often use said knowledge to come up with traps and they've also got a knack for coming up with neat little tricks n stuff with potions. I've gotta come up with some ideas for a potential story, but they're very very silly and there's probably half a dozen comedic ideas I can come up with after I work out more lore on how Creepers go about raising their young/their habits as babies. ALSO BOTH DREAM AND SAM CALL THEM CREEPLET AND THATS IMPORTANT TO ME-

--

These are the most finalized of the drittens, I have ideas for more but nothing final and sorry if there's not a lot of content here- I've genuinely never really thought too much about all these guys aside from the silly au me and my friends made that's basically just "everyone gets teenager aged kids now and comedy ensues :)" since I didn't think there was a market for this sorta thing (and Idk I'm weirdly anxious about talking about a lot of my ideas in solo posts but I'm really REALLY glad people are interested!!! :D)

i need someone to give cDream a baby i think he could be a good mom

[abnomi]

been trying to get back into animation

original gif below ^^ teehee!

[empty-promises-too-much-to-count]

Okay, you didn't had to fucking call me out like this

[heartorbit]

searching for a star that's still unknown to anyone!