#this was actually a very helpful exercise I'm learning I read a lot of books by white authors and uhhh I should fix that!

[nadiawrimos]

mid year book reading tag - 61/100 books

Best book you’ve read so far in 2024 Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Best sequel you've read so far in 2024 Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

New release you haven't read yet, but want to Not in Love - I'm waiting patiently for my library hold to become available (and every day I get closer to just buying it already)

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year I don't really keep up with release dates I just go off the vibes

Biggest disappointment Bookshops and Bone Dust - I thought Legends and Lattes was just OK but I DNF'd this one

Biggest surprise Annie Bot - my favourite kind of book, the one where I go into it not knowing what to expect and being blown away (I haven't finished it yet, I'm only halfway through but I'm thinking it might end up being a favourite from this year

Favorite new author not 'new' but new to me - Emily Henry, Leigh Bardugo, Ali Hazelwood

Newest fictional crush Gideon the Ninth

Newest favorite character Misery Lark (Bride)

Book that made you cry Icebreaker because I wasted $20 and hours of my life I'll never get back

Book that made you happy all books make me happy (except Icebreaker)

Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received) my own book Breath of Fire printed from lulu with cover design by @thespooniewrites

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? *looks at bookshelf*

Renegades

Afterworlds

The Traitor Queen

The Adult

The Familiar

The Anthropocene Reviewed

A Court of (whatever the 3rd one is)

my yoga books

my own drafts

+ whatever else I can get my hands on

[jcollinswrites]

How the fudge are you writting so fast??? I sit down to write and end up with nothing or reworking plot instead of writing 😭Have any tips you want to share? Perhaps the ingredients to the dark ritual you perform to get the motivation and remain focused 👀👀👀

So, first of all, you'll need half a newborn, shaken, not stirred…

lol jk (don't shake babies)

Believe it or not I'm the same as you, so here are some stuff that helped me tremendously, especially with my squirrel ADHD brain:

NUMBER ONE that I needed 20 years to learn, is that… forget editing, man. You can't edit if there is nothing to edit, so first you have to sit ya ass down and just fuckin' do it. It doesn't matter if it's shit at first. It's called work in progress for a reason. Who cares if it's shit? You can edit it LATER when the whole thing is already done. What you're reading in my game is literally my first draft. Lots of scenes might change later. In fact, I'm already changing scenes in the background, I'm just not always telling you. It doesn't matter. If anyone gives you shit for it, tell them to kindly fuck right off.

Have a plan for the book (written down. Not just in your head). Don't even start writing until you have a plan for the entire book. It doesn't have to be detailed. Mine is just bulletpoints, but you should know which chapter will contain what, including plot points, character development, relationship progress etc, otherwise you'll get lost, especially in a big IF. And then as you get closer to the next chapter, you can work out more details in the plan to help the actual writing.

If you don't feel like writing a scene, then don't write it. Leave a placeholder word there (I use 'mandarin' because that word likely won't come up anywhere else in the text), and instantly move on to another scene that you have inspiration for. Later, you can just search for 'mandarin' and add the scene when you feel like it. If you accidentally come across any MANDARINs in my game, that's the reason lol.

If you are writing an IF, it helps to start simple. Write the story until a choice comes up, then write the title of the choices, and continue ONLY with the route you feel the most inspired for atm (use mandarin for the rest). Don't let your momentum die by getting bogged down in choices. That's why I have so many greyed out choices when I start a new origin or chapter. I just write write write until the end of the chapter, THEN I go back to whatever choice is the simplest to add, and put the variations in the already-existing text if needed. Repeat until all the choices are written and coded in. This way, the text might feel more organic too, because you already have a pre-written skeleton that you can just add variations in.

Keep notes. It helps to have them on paper, next to you, so f.ex. when you make 9 different deities to choose from, you don't have to go back to the beginning of the chapter every single time to look up which deities those were and what they mean, you can simply turn your head to the side lol.

Take regular breaks. Exercise, stretch. Keep a daily schedule. Eat and drink enough. Try to keep a good health. Your brain won't work if it's starved.

Know yourself and your habits, and be honest with yourself. I know of myself that once I start working on the big plot points, I won't have any motivation to come back to the beginning again. That's why I'm writing all the origin stories first, because I know that if I start going into chapter 2, I definitely won't feel like coming back to start yet another route from the very beginning. So if you don't feel like doing something, then just… don't do it. Or do it simpler. Do it smarter. Trick that asshole brain into cooperating.

Last but not least, guys, 90% of my motivation COMES FROM YOU! Your engagement, your messages, your feedback, every little interaction is what keeps me going! So write me! I will answer! (if you aren't a dick). Literally, about anything. Even if it's just "hey I really liked this small detail here", that will already make my day, seriously. I LOVE talking about my work, and I'm pretty sure every author is like that, so keep engaging with writers, because that's 90% of the reason when a novel gets finished! I'm writing for YOU! Your enjoyment, your fun, because I love telling stories, but those stories don't mean anything if no one is reading them.

[highlynerdy]

"Aithusa has seen her father's mate in his memories and smelled him on her father's skin when he comes to visit, but this is the first time she gets to meet him for herself."

Nepenthe and Lavender by @0hheytherebigbadwolf

My latest fanARTifact is an entirely handlettered, handbound, and illustrated book of this beautifully fluffy fic (and it has actually been in various states of progress since March 1, 2021.) More below the cut!

So as I said above, I actually started planning this fic over two years ago. Which, yeah, I don't really want to talk about because adhd is a hell of a thing. I love love love this fic (and this entire series) and I was inspired by The Black Hours and other gorgeous manuscripts with metallic on black paper.

I ordered some black paper from Canson for the text block, used Arabic gold finetec paint mixed with water and gum arabic as my ink (I used three pans of the gold paint...), and a Nikko G nib with a straight pen holder for the calligraphy. I really wanted to use one of my broad tip nibs, but I just couldn't my Uncial letters small enough with it. I used Uncial since that was technically the alphabet/font they used in the Arthurian time period.

The paper was cut down and folded into signatures of three and then I drew out light pencil lines for the text and for the margins. Every single letter was done sooooo slooowwllly because if I messed up on one page there was no way to erase it, which meant I would have to do basically four pages worth of lettering again since they were all connected.

And I did mess up.

More than once.

I think the most heartbreaking mistake was at the very end when I was trying to erase my pencil lines and I just ripped a page completely in half. The tears were real, folks.

Once I finished lettering - which took hours and hours and hours over many weeks - it was time to assemble the text block and sew it. I used gold silk thread I had leftover from Arthur's scarf (which is also used as the backdrop for the photo shoot) to sew the block together and I love how it gives just another little peek of gold to the book.

I painted the end papers in a vaguely floral pattern with the same gold and also some silver finetec paint, glued them all together and put them in my book press and then promptly didn't work on it again from October 2022 to July 2023. Sigh.

But once I committed to getting it done, I asked @swanfloatieknight to help be my accountabilibuddy and make sure I finished it this week. I tested out so many different cover designs, from fabric and thread, to paper, to finally settling on this all over design done by my cricut. Historically accurate?? Nah. I'm about as historically accurate as BBC Merlin.

I tried my hand at gold foiling and that was a disaster so I just used a gold silk ribbon to give the color a little bit more color. Once it was bound, I painted in a triskelion and Aithusa on a double page spread I left intentionally blank.

And it was finally done!

All in all, I'm pleased with how it turned out. Was it an exercise in patience? Yes. Did I learn a lot? Also yes. Mostly that handlettering an entire fic is madness and also this is far too small to case bind, but I'm a stubborn ass and it was happening regardless.

All total, I probably worked on this for about 50+ hours. It was most definitely a labor of love and I'm so happy that it's finally done.

Thank you for inspiring me to take on such a project by writing such wonderful fics, @0hheytherebigbadwolf! And thank you for everyone who reads these long fanARTifact posts. ����

[eldstunga]

Hi! I really love your art! The lines are so bold but the colours so natural that it feels distinct but grounded?? I'm obsessed with the shapes in your work

I was wondering if you had any advice for drawing bodies? Whenever I try it either my proportions are off or an arm ends up looking like a calf or something.

First of all, thank you <3 That's so nice and I think "lines bold, colours natural" is some truly aspirational words to say about my art, I'll strive to be what you say I am <3 I do not, unfortunately, have any great tips on drawing bodies - it's a very wide topic and fundamentally just really bloody hard. I fail horribly 9 times out of 10. How to approach it I think varies a lot with like...HOW you are struggling, and who you are as a person. For proportions and anatomy there are definitely books to look at, and some rules of thumb that can help you - anything from "the shoulders are about 2.5-3 heads wide" through "feet are the same length as the forearm", "elbows are in line with the navel and the navel is two sternums down" etc etc. For me, realising just how big the ribcage actually is and learning how to use that as a unit of measure was a big event (the torso is about two ribcages long). Look at references, Draw over low opacity references and try to look for patterns that help YOU. Like... "Hm, do the shoulders line up with something useful?"

Having a good ref model to double check things helps too. The pen is pointing to about the bottom of the ribcage. But there's also stuff like maybe you're getting too hung up on construction and then it might help more to try to draw from references by ONLY blocking in a silhouette first. This helps me sometimes still:

Or you could be like me, struggle with all of the above and then some - like how to make poses look natural and/or dynamic? Weight distribution is a whole other topic.. gah, it never ends, but it's fun to learn.

Lastly, this took me way too long to realise and I think it should be said: Do not fret too much about STUDYING. The unfair thing is that the better you are at something, the better you will be at actually learning from doing studies and exercises or reading books. We accept this with many other disciplines and sports but rarely art. Mileage is king, and mileage is best gained from having fun and enjoying what you do. If you find studies suffering and frustrating you're probably better off just drawing what you enjoy and fuck it if it isn't "pushing your boundaries" or whatever. Eventually you'll get to the point where studies start to give more than they take, and then you're home free. I'm not gonna recommend a billion resources you likely won't enjoy but here are some things I genuinely found helpful lately: * a physical anatomy model, they're pricy and not necessary but being able to just look at it every now and then, turn it over etc helps. * The "Morpho" series of books, they do not teach anatomy, but they are very useful quick reference books and much more easily digested than most anatomy material. Just try to find a real anatomy book to read once your appetite is up as well.

The zig-zag/Lightning bolt method for arms and legs, fuckin' thing revolutionised how I sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCkmB030GpQ

Gottfried Bammes "The Complete guide to Anatomy for Artists and Illustrators" This thing is insane, it's from the 50's and like 600 pages long. You could absolutely kill someone with it, but a lot of the pages are more philosophical or art history you can skip and despite its age and fear factor this dude writes in a witty, clever and just wonderful way that I've seen nowhere else. Fantastic photos. By far, FAR the best anatomy book I've ever seen. It's not a book I'd recommend for someone starting out, I would not have been able to digest it like four years ago, but once you get to a certain point it's amazing.

That's a lot, uhhh, feel free to ask me for more specific tips this was a bit of a rant. Hope some of it was useful!

[motziedapul]

Engaging with fiction in good faith allows you to build empathy by experiencing things through the eyes of other people

and refusing to engage with certain fiction because of a hard line moral stance against The Wrong Kind Of Fiction just makes you a less empathetic person over all.

The thing is, I engage with a lot of fiction that I would object to in real life. Sometimes I also run into fiction that I'm not particularly happy or comfortable with, but because the story is compelling, engaging, genuine and earnest and presented in a vulnerable, earnest, human way, my surface level distaste is overridden by my connection with a stranger who I've been given the opportunity to know.

I just read a comic by a gay man that has heavy drug use, written in a way that has an intimate knowledge of the kind of life and culture a lot of gay men run into, full of casual sex and hard drugs and sudden death and violence. The protagonist isn't a bad person, but he's also not the best person, but you root for him all the way through. And then he has a really bad trip and dies.

I don't feel particularly comfortable with any of that, but I was engaged all the way through. And by simplistic metrics many people might not consider it "good gay rep" or whatever because it involves a gay man doing all the hard drugs, being promiscuous and then dying, but it was written authentically, by a gay man who clearly has had experience with these things, and encourages you the reader to seek help and provides resources if you've experienced something similar.

I do not accept the idea that you should always have a moral stance on the fiction you consume. You don't have to make excuses, or have caveats, to justify the "problematic fiction" you've engaged with, maybe even enjoyed. Because a lot of fiction, particularly indie fiction, is a conversation between a creator revealing something honest and vulnerable, and a reader learning about the lives of others and experiences they will never have.

And it is a silly exercise to try to give that sort of conversation a (very ironically named) Common Sense Media review because it's got violence and drugs and kinky sex or whatever.

It is easy to stick to fiction you're comfortable with. I've done it, I do it. But in my experience, allowing yourself to engage with other people's stories, comfortable or not, is healthy for you as a human being in learning empathy and compassion for other human beings. Try reading some books in the local library, or do what I did and buy a bunch of indie comics and books from a convention full of indie creators (easy) and actually read them (Dark Souls Hard Mode).

And who knows, maybe you'll find something that'll change your life, or help you grow as a person. Or maybe you'll find a cool new thing you like.

[colorfuldonutrunaway]

I made a character sheet for one of my ocs. Took a lot of bravery to do it, but I made it.🥲 I wasn't sure how to handle the two boxes under the main picture, and I should add that this character is AroAce.🏳️‍🌈

Metrics explained here:

*Name: Peter Romanov was named purely by his mother. I would go into detail about how his patronymic works but I'm not very sure on how it works in Russian culture, so I'll keep my mouth shut. Anyways, Roman prefers to be called, well, Roman because he despises his first name for some reason.

*Nicknames: If you want to avoid a death glare, call him by Roman or Wolf.

*Race/Species: Before he became the Wolf, he was a first-generation Russian American human. After getting diagnosed with a supposedly rare fatal muscle wasting disease, he secretly began injecting himself with wolf DNA on the genetic level. This was actually working really well...until an assistant startled him during one such procedure and he injected a massive amount into his cells...and mutated into his current state. The unstable state of his cells means that every 5 days, he turns back into a human, and after five days again, he returns to the Wolf, rinse and repeat.

*Age: 30 as of 2024, being born in 1993 after his parents left Russia for the Americas.

*Gender: Born Male, identifies as such.

*Alignment: Wanting to follow the pursuit of knowledge and science for the betterment of mankind, Roman ignores the fact that he was stripped of his license to run a laboratory (after the genetics incident) and continues operating to create new inventions. Problem is, he can't patent them under his own name...

*Class/Job: As stated above, Roman shouldn't be operating a laboratory. He was banned from the high council of intellectuals and was forbidden from ever using their tools to create or invent again. That hasn't stopped him from creating a laboratory from materials gathered on the black market, hiring minions from criminal origins, and operating secretly underneath a normal Pennsylvanian town as a scientist.

*Perception and Communication: He takes advantage of his improved wolf senses to observe every detail around himself. As for communication, he's a great orator and debater, but he can get frustrated if people don't understand his high tech jargon.

*Persuasion and Mediation: He listens well and can use it to his advantage when trying to persuade someone into doing something for him and when mediating an issue between two groups. He's not the best at it, but he's good enough for most scenarios.

*Literacy and Creativity: Raised by a genius mother who noticed that her child's intellect was increasing at an abnormally fast pace, she opted to guarantee that his childhood was to be surrounded by folklore, documentaries, and educational materials. This led to a man that could be omnidisciplinary in Engineering, Robotics, programming (Python/HTML/C++), Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Genetics, mathematics, and neurology. Not surprising for an IQ that reached 300 at 16 years old. (he refuses to do actual medicine though.) He also grew up speaking English and Russian at home.

*Cooking: He can bake, but actually making original meals is kinda hard for him. Especially as the Wolf, because it's led to him just settling for any food with meat in it, even if it's raw.

*Tech Savvy: From as young as 4 years old, he was fixing phones and taking apart cars.

*Combat: Roman took martial arts classes at 16, but rarely uses what he's learned. Especially after becoming the Wolf, because now he has boosted strength that allows him to easily knock out people with a punch or throw them. Not very good with guns either.

*Survival: He learned basic survival skills from the numerous books he's read, but has never really exercised it or gone camping to hone it. As the Wolf, he does have some natural instincts that help.

*Stealth: Ugh. He's never had a reason to be stealthy as a human. This worsened when he turned into a hybrid, because his clunky, furry body is harder to hide. Being 6 ft 7 inches in Wolf form doesn't help.

*Street smarts: Roman has never known a normal childhood due to his rapidly increasing intelligence netting him media attention and breezing him through school. Therefore, he's never been able to make friends with kids his age, and his overprotective parents kept him from exploring the world, leading to his street smarts being shockingly low.

*Seduction: No...just...no.

*Luck: Not anymore or less lucky than a normal person.

*Handling Animals: When in Wolf form, it's very difficult to handle animals without them freaking out on him. In human form? Animals love him.

*Pacifying Children: He's good at distracting kids with a story or a piece of candy, but his stronger senses mean that a child crying is painful to listen to.

*Strength: Probably due to his wasting disease, he's weaker in human form, (as in, weaker than the average human), but notoriously strong as a Wolf.

*Dexterity: Pretty average. Struggles in Wolf form due to not being used to the big furry paws.

*Health: As mentioned before, weak in human form, strong and vibrant in Wolf-man form.

*Energy: Usually in the middle.

*Beauty: Considered handsome in human form. Considered cute fluffy doggo in Wolf form.

*Style: While he's usually in a lab coat, whenever he ventures into the town, he's wearing designer clothes that fit his Wolf form well.

*Hygiene: So for some reason, Wolf still has human lymph nodes in the usual spots, meaning that he also sweats from those areas. So he has to shower daily or else he develops a pretty wild smell.

*Intelligence: From the age of 2, Roman's brain suddenly developed at an insanely fast speed. Nobody knows why this happened exactly, but they had no choice to accept it as Roman began to pass classes flawlessly, finish entire novels in hours, and do complex equations by himself. He's graduated highschool by the age of 12 and helped teach college classes at the age of 15.

*Happiness: Despite his current situation, he's really good at seeing the bright side of things. Roman actually enjoys being in his Wolf form, and feels more free now that the council isn't constantly watching over his back.

*Spirituality: Raised Christian, Roman became agnostic around his pre-teens, and had stayed that way since.

*Confidence: He's very confident in his skills, but not to the point where he thinks he's infallible.

*Humor: His humor tends to vary greatly. While he doesn't make jokes himself, he does find other people's jokes and references entertaining.

*Anxiety: Like with the Happiness stat, Roman doesn't let much get to him. His Wolf affliction actually saved his life, as it stopped and partially reversed the progression of the wasting disease, leading him to be relatively positive.

*Patience: He's learned to be patient with the average person since they can't make hundreds of calculations a minute in their brain like he can, though it does have limits if he can tell if someone is intentionally trying to be an obstacle in his mission.

*Passion: Developing his love for science from his mother, Roman wants a world that is as free from suffering as humanly possible, and he will invent and create as much as he can.

*Charisma: While he gives off a cool and professional aura, his social development was still stunted by his strange childhood.

*Empathy: He can feel like other people, but he sometimes thinks that other people blow things out of proportion, or can solve their problems more easily than they think.

*Generosity: Gives to those that severely need it, doesn't give to much of anyone else.

*Wealth: How does Roman fund a laboratory and a couple dozen minions? Hacking banks obviously. He's good enough that the possibility of police discovering that it's him doing it is so unlikely it's insane, and he usually steals enough that it can pay the bills and all of his minions while still having some left over for leisurely pursuits.

*Aggression: He can be fierce when he needs to be, but prefers giving off a stoic energy usually.

*Libido: Never had much of one at all. Being aromantic asexual helps in making sure that this isn't ever an issue he needs to care about anyway.

I'll add more later, but I'm tired and it's getting late.

[tokidokitokyo]

Photo by Bruno Souza on Unsplash

2024年8月31日

To be honest, August was really just an exercise in staying afloat. I was able to continue my little habits since I've been doing them so long that they are just something I do in my spare time. But anything else was really hit or miss! I also realized I had forgotten to set goals for August so I guess it worked out since I didn't miss any goals! Sometimes life just happens, so I try not to worry too much about it. Now with September and a new Japanese preschool year beginning (yes they follow the American system at this school), I want to try to focus on making significant improvement again.

実は8月が忙し過ぎて勉強じゃなくて他のところに集中しました。毎日の小さな勉強習慣をいつも通り続きましたが、他の目的は少し雑でした。後、7月に8月の目標を書いてなくて、実は目標を達成しなくても大丈夫でしたね。たまにそういうこともあるから、何とかなるのであんまり気にしないように頑張ります。そして9月になって、息子の幼稚園の新しい学年（そうです、日本風の幼稚園だけどアメリカの学年なんだ）が始まったので、これからまた上達するためにまた動力しようと思います。

August Progress

I spent most of my time in August on Listening and Speaking, and the least time on Vocabulary and Kanji. Listening was primarily listening to (children's) TV shows, podcasts, and conversations, and the Speaking study time I recorded was primarily conversations (with ママ友s and this time I recorded in-depth conversations with my son and husband because my son can participate in actual conversations when did that happen).

I feel like I did a lot of Reading in August but less Grammar and Writing, because I had so much going on and I was just trying to keep on top of all my responsibilities and also trying to get enough sleep.

In July I didn't do a study habit check-in, but let's see how I did in August:

Study Habit Check-In:

〇 = Great, △ = Decent, ✖ = Not Great

Read daily - read something almost every day 〇

Write sentences 4 times a week - definitely not, but that's ok, I was busy! ✖

Review kanji and vocabulary flash cards daily - nope, no, not at all ^^; ✖

Review 1-2 N3 grammar points weekly - I did review grammar points but it wasn't as often as once a week △

Learn 1-2 N2 grammar points weekly - I reviewed a couple of N2 grammar points but did not learn any new ones △

Listen to 1 podcast a week - yes! 〇

Continue to work on hiragana with my son - not sure where we are at this point, we are reading books and I am trying to pinpoint which characters he knows and which ones he doesn't know; characters like ちゃ and じ (I learned today these are called 拗音・ようおん) are understandably difficult for him; since we practice every day I call this a win 〇

September Goals

I'm super motivated for September, let's gooo!

I want to get back into my study materials such as:

新にほんご500�� (Kanji, Vocabulary, Grammar drills)

日本語総まとめN2 (Kanji, Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening, Reading workbook)

外国人のための日本語敬語の使い方 (85 Basic Expressions of Japanese honorifics for Quick and Easy use, aka Keigo)

日本の歴史366 (daily history lesson)

I also got really excited and checked out way too many textbooks on the Japan Foundation (Libby) so I'd like to go through those as well.

And finally, I'd like to take a tip from some of the ママ友s (those are mom friends) and start taking time on weekends to work on hiragana recognition with my son (very mindful). Making it fun helps keep his interest, and we are fortunate to have collected a lot of Japanese children's books in a range of levels to practice with.

How is your studying going? Any new study tips or new classes? Feel free to comment or DM me! Happy studying!

皆さんの勉強はどう？新しい勉強方法や授業を始めたの？コメントやDMをどうぞ！上達できますように！

[bsdndprplplld]

tips for studying math

I thought I could share what I learned about studying math so far. it will be very subjective with no scientific sources, pure personal experience, hence one shouldn't expect all of this to work, I merely hope to give some ideas

1. note taking

some time ago I stopped caring about making my notes pretty and it was a great decision – they are supposed to be useful. moreover, I try to write as little as possible. this way my notes contain only crucial information and I might actually use them later because finding things becomes much easier. there is no point in writing down everything, a lot of the time it suffices to know where to find things in the textbook later. also, I noticed that taking notes doesn't actually help me remember, I use it to process information that I'm reading, and if I write down too many details it becomes very chaotic. when I'm trying to process as much as possible in the spot while reading I'm better at structuring the information. so my suggestion would be to stop caring about the aesthetics and try to write down only what is the most important (such as definitions, statements of theorems, useful facts)

2. active learning

do not write down the proof as is, instead write down general steps and then try to fill in the details. it would be perfect to prove everything from scratch, but that's rarely realistic, especially when the exam is in a few days. breaking the proof down into steps and describing the general idea of each step naturally raises questions such as "why is this part important, what is the goal of this calculation, how to describe this reasoning in one sentence, what are we actually doing here". sometimes it's possible to give the proof purely in words, that's also a good idea. it's also much more engaging and creative than passively writing things down. another thing that makes learning more active is trying to come up with examples for the definitions

3. exercises

many textbooks give exercises between definitions and theorem, doing them right away is generally a good idea, that's another way to make studying more active. I also like to take a look at the exercises at the end of the chapter (if that's the case) once in a while to see which ones I could do with what I already learned and try to do them. sometimes it's really hard to solve problems freshly after studying the theory and that's what worked out examples are for, it helps. mamy textbooks offer solutions of exercises, I like to compare the "official" ones with mine. it's obviously better than reading the solution before solving the problem on my own, but when I'm stuck for a long time I check if my idea for the solution at least makes sense. if it's similar to the solution from the book then I know I should just keep going

4. textbooks and other sources

finding the right book is so important. I don't even want to think about all the time I wasted trying to work with a book that just wasn't it. when I need a textbook for something I google "best textbooks for [topic]" and usually there is already a discussion on MSE where people recommend sources and explain why they think that source is a good one, which also gives the idea of how it's written and what to expect. a lot of professors share their lecture/class notes online, which contain user-friendly explenations, examples, exercises chosen by experienced teachers to do in their class, sometimes you can even find exercises with solutions. using the internet is such an important skill

5. studying for exams

do not study the material in a linear order, instead do it by layers. skim everything to get the general idea of which topics need the most work, which can be skipped, then study by priority. other than that it's usually better to know the sketch of every proof than to know a half of them in great detail and the rest not at all. it's similar when it comes to practice problems, do not spend half of your time on easy stuff that could easily be skipped, it's better to practice a bit of everything than to be an expert in half of the topics and unable to solve easy problems from the rest. if the past papers are available they can be a good tool to take a "mock exam" after studying for some time, it gives an opoortunity to see, again, which topics need the most work

6. examples and counterexamples

there are those theorems with statements that take up half of the page because there are just so many assumptions. finding counterexamples for each assumption usually helps with that. when I have a lot of definitions to learn, thinking of examples for them makes everything more specific therefore easier to remember

7. motivation

and by that I mean motivation of concepts. learning something new is much easier if it's motivated with an interesting example, a question, or application. it's easier to learn something when I know that it will be useful later, it's worth it to try to make things more interesting

8. studying for exams vs studying longterm

oftentimes it is the case that the exam itself requires learning some specific types of problems, which do not really matter in the long run. of course, preparing for exams is important, but keep in mind that what really matters is learning things that will be useful in the future especially when they are relevant to the field of choice. just because "this will not be on the test" doesn't always mean it can be skipped

ok I think that's all I have for now. I hope someone will find these helpful and feel free to share yours

[hologramcowboy]

Hello! You mentioned in some recent posts Jensen Ackles' acting became histrionic lately. Can you please expand a bit more on that? I read histrionic acting leans heavily on emotions, exaggerating them. Is that so? I'm not sure I got that right.

Thank You.

Hi, there! Thank you for the beautiful question.

Acting has evolved a lot over the years, so untrained actors who have a background in soap operas often actin histrionically, basically overacting and mimicking emotions instead of feeling and instead of making natural, organic choices.

Nowadays, acting is all about how real one can get, this means truly embodying the psychology of a character as opposed to playing an idea of that character which is what histrionic acting is.

A high tier actor will ensure any character choice made is not only high stakes, risky but also organic. Example: they choose to walk with a limp for said character and instead of merely mimicking a limp they do inner work and acting exercises that organically cause that limp.

Another example is Meryl Streep adopting a certain voice for a character, it never feels mimicked, it’s organic, on the other side, we have Jensen who fails to adopt Dean’s voice organically (he is copying JDM anyway) and as a result it comes off fake and breaks the spell of his acting.

These days even soap actors are trained to be realistic in their potrayals so, I think, in Jensen’s case, it’s a matter of him still applying things he learned ages ago without ever studying what is now modern and castable. All of which can be easily avoided through private or group coaching. All the actors who constantly book are constantly training and they never submit a self taped audition or go to one without getting private training on it first.

Jensen has a great potential but he seems intent on simply replicating histrionically his idea of what Dean was over and over again and by doing so not only is he typecasting himself on the wrong type, he also runs the risk of coming off as a very limited one trick pony and those aren’t exactly in high demand. Jensen’s been lucky so far that his friends have been casting him, without their help, I can guarantee you there’s no way he would have booked much with his current level of acting. If it wasn’t for Kripke, Jensen would have slowly faded.

I look forward to seeing his new projects unfold and I hope he will actually do script analysis, character analysis and also get private coaching. Competition is high in the acting world and an actor that never trains stagnates.

[reflectionsofthesea]

Hiii I’m back! It's been a pretty stressful and busy time at work, so I'm less online than usual, but still learning finnish daily! It's actually being my saving grace: getting to detach myself from work,routine and stress and just putting my head into something completely different that I enjoy doing. Putting a read more because I wrote a lot here:

I've been progressing with my exercise book, and learned how to express the need to do something 'i have to...' and also the imperative tense. Really useful stuff. I also finally finished trascribing all puhekieli 'basic rules' on my notebook!

Some new stuff in my daily learning routine:

I started listening to podcasts and short stories! I was a bit intimidated at first, but now I've been enjoying doing it every day when I am cooking, cleaning the house or even when drawing/working. I'm listening to a beginner's podcast and can basically understand a good 80% of it, which is making me feel so proud and motivated hahaha. The crazy thing is that even if I don't understand a couple of new words, I can follow the conversation and the topic and I always know what the host is talking about, it's crazy. I'll definitely continue listening to podcasts and stories daily because I think it's helping A LOT and truly making me feel like I'm making huge progress and my brain is enlarging lol.

I started using LingQ! The importing videos/podcasts feature is super useful, and I imported some videos in finnish from youtubers I found and having LingQ generate subtitles in finnish for me and translation in english, so I can study them is so useful. That way I can exercise listening to more puhekieli and expand my vocabulary. It helps that the videos are super fun and entertaining themselves, so I genuinely want to know what's happening hahaha. (one was a Sims4 house building video, another one a travelling vlog)

I tried writing some 'stories' for the first time, this is also an advice I heard from a video, that helps with getting your brain used to constructing sentences and phrases. I already did this in a smaller way, writing very short sentences practicing different grammar rules to commit them to memory, but this exercise really makes you put more effort into building longer and slightly more articulated sentences, like phrases you'd say to someone when having a chat, or thinking out loud. I decided to pick some random themes and just write what I can about them! The pink underlined words/verbs/adverbs are things I had to look up because I didn't know how to say yet. I think this is a pretty fun and creative exercise to do though, and I can see how it can make your brain faster at producing sentences on the long run :) It will be fun to keep doing this when my vocabulary grows and I can say more stuff! (I saw a writing exercise idea on tumblr that was describing your Dnd characters and something about their personality/stories, and I really want to do that!)

Overall, I'm feeling really good and motivated. I remember feeling a bit stuck a month ago, and now that feeling is gone, and I feel like I improved a lot. I really think implementing new exercises like the written stories exercise and especially listening a lot has been so useful and important into me feeling like I'm growing more in this language. I'm really glad I fought my inner doubt and saboteur and just did it. I also gander at posts written in finnish here on tumblr and realized I understand a good 70/80% of what's written in there. Sometimes more or less, depending on how long the post is or how specific the words used are. But that's pretty crazy to me and really satisfying!

Also, if you need some inspiration for your language learning journey or some good tips (like the listening to podcasts and writing stories I'm currently doing), please watch this video! It really inspired me to keep going in my journey :)

[windvexer]

Thanks for answering my last ask, because well… I’ve been going by the book for literally EVERY CARD, pulling muddled readings 60% and then pulling more cards when cards don’t make sense to me, and I’ve been wondering where I went wrong. *obviously I know the whole “your personal method works best” but in this case it’s not working for me* But yeah, thank you chicken, it was really helpful bc I’ve been hitting a wall for a while and I think I needed to hear this.

Here is one way of reading tarot as a simple oracle which does not use spreads.

As far as I'm aware this is my original system. For me, it provides sterling omens that can be arrived at simply enough (once you are used to it) without using the book meanings.

The problem with book definitions is that sometimes they are very difficult to associate to any specific problem, and not everyone can read intuitively.

So perhaps you'd like to try elemental dignities. First, assign each card one of the four Western elements (earth/air/fire/water). This is easily done for the suits. The task is more difficult for major arcana. Lists of major arcana elements can be found.

Or, simply take all the major arcana out of the deck.

Next, assign a few qualities to each element. These qualities may be ones that also make sense for spellwork or other rituals, but remember that here our goal is divination, and it's fine to assign qualities that only make sense for divination.

Here is a starter list if you'd like to use my qualities:

Fire (wands): Very fast (the fastest). Passion and desire (carnal and otherwise). Intensity. Aligns with questions of want, creativity, and fulfillment. The spark of life and what makes us "glow." Force to get the job done quickly.

Air (swords): Fast. The mind and intellectual pursuits. Knowledge, rationality, objective truth. Matters of learning, education, and skills. Aligns with questions of knowledge, truth. Deceit and betrayal. Cleverness to get the job done precisely.

Water (cups): Slow. The heart, subconscious, and the current that runs underneath things. Feelings, poetry, and subjective truth. Matters of emotions, relationships, and bonds that tie. Aligns with questions of motivation, feeling, and wellbeing. Wisdom to get the job done best.

Earth (pentacles): Very slow. The physical bodies of things, and the institutions and structures that we use to care for and manage bodies, and create physical things. Labor, money, wealth, debt. Matters of physicality (a friend being present in body, versus in spirit). Discipline to get the job done completely.

Alright. Now, if you don't work with elements very much, you may actually need to spend some time getting on the same page with them. That's alright - it's part of the fun! (and good exercise if you want to expand your elemental sorcery)

Because next, what you've got to do is assign an element to your question.

I can't remember if you said or not what your original spell was about, that you were reading on.

But let's say that it was a job spell. To me, that would be an Earth question. If it was about a person discovering a career path that they're passionate about, maybe that would be a Fire question. If it was about discovering a career path that is best for their wellbeing, perhaps that would be a Water question.

There is a lot of ambiguity here (is a question about a friend who is a suspected backstabber in the workplace an earth, water, or air question?) but all you've got to do is pick the element you think works best for your question.

Alrighty. So we've cast a Fire spell, let's say, and we need to know how it will go. All the major arcana have been taken out of the deck. Now, find the Wheel of Fortune and shuffle it back into the deck.

Shuffle shuffle shuffle.

Hold the deck face-up, so the pictures are facing you. Pick up cards one at a time and set them aside until you find the wheel of fortune.

The card on top of the wheel of fortune is the best possible outcome for the spell.

The card beneath the wheel of fortune is the worst possible outcome for the spell.

Here is how you judge the omen:

A card that matches your question's element is a very good omen.

If my top and bottom cards are both Fire cards, that is great for my Fire question.

A card that opposes your question's element is a very bad omen.

Earth and air oppose each other

fire and water oppose each other

If my bottom card is Water, that means the worst possible outcome for my Fire question is very bad indeed.

A card that neither matches nor opposes your element is a decent omen.

Earth and water are good friends with each other

Earth and fire are just buddies

Air and fire are good friends with each other

Air and water are just buddies

Suppose my question is will this business deal go well? Which I have chosen to be an earth question.

I shuffle. The cards are as follows:

On top of the Wheel of Fortune (best possible outcome): Cups card

Beneath the Wheel of Fortune (worst possible outcome): Swords card

Now I can see that the watery cups card is good friends with my earthy question, and the best possible outcome is just fine - not perfect, but a good deal.

Unfortunately, the airy swords card opposes my earthy question - the worst possible outcome is very bad indeed.

Perhaps now I'd like to know how to prevent against this worst outcome - I may perform the operation over again, this time instead of the Wheel of Fortune using a card related to victory or protection (perhaps for a business deal I'd choose the Emperor or the Chariot), and choosing new meanings for my top and bottom cards. Perhaps this time the top card will be "best thing I can do to prevent a bad business deal" and the bottom card will be "worst thing I can do."

Because if you'd like a little more detail, you can start accounting for the elemental meanings and the card numbers.

Now, here is a note - if you are just asking for outcomes, it is easy to apply the "opposite element = bad outcome" rule. But if you are asking for guidance, opposing elements can begin to function more as warning signs than bad omens. Let's see this in action below:

Now I ask an airy question - what is the best way to stop this business deal going bad?

And instead of the WoF I choose to use the exact same swords card that was my bad omen the first time around.

I shuffle the deck and find that swords card.

On top of the swords card (best action to take to prevent a bad deal): Page of Pentacles

Underneath the swords card (worst thing I could do; would make the situation worse): Nine of Cups

Well heck! My most positive card is enemies with my question's element. How may this be resolved? To answer that, let's take a look at what to do with the card's position in the suit.

I guess you can use numerology if you want, but we're after something a lot more simple.

Aces may be high or low (that is, an ace card may be weaker than the 2 or stronger than the 10 -- choose for yourself)

Cards gain intensity as their numbers go up (the 6 card is twice as intense as the 3 card)

Furthermore, the court cards gain the following attributes (courts can be tricky, so feel free to remove them from your deck entirely):

Pages function as novices, learners, observers, students, and apprentices; lowest on the social ladder; outsiders looking in

Knights function as competent workers, people who get the job done, the person who goes out and does things; middling on the social ladder; involved in the situation

Queens function as leaders, middle managers, and delegators. The person to talk to in order to get the go-ahead. The person with many answers. Higher on the social ladder; managing the situation.

Kings function as bosses, executives, and rulers. The person who sets the game plan that the queens abide by. May be out of touch or even have fewer pragmatic answers than the queen. The person with the vision. Highest on the social ladder; controls the situation.

Let's mash a couple of things here together to try and understand why being a Page of Pentacles will help stop this Airy situation from going bad.

Because of the element traits of earth (discipline, jobs) and the significance of the page (novice, learner, low on the social ladder), I can determine that in this situation, the Page of Pentacles represents as behaving as a humble student of business is a great outcome for me.

Because of the element traits of water (feelings, connection, emotion) and the high intensity of the number nine card, I can determine that in this situation, the Nine of Cups represents me behaving in an intensely subjectively emotional way, perhaps to try and force a friendship with that business person.

I know that the Page of Pentacles card must reflect something positive and helpful (it is the best thing for me to do!) and that is how I derive the more helpful meaning.

I know that the Nine of Cups must be something unhelpful and perilous, which is how I derive the less helpful meaning.

How do I resolve the Page of Pentacles as being the opposite element of my airy question?

Here, I determine that my ideas of what it takes to succeed are backwards. The way I am seeing this situation is upside-down - by behaving as if I am so friendly to this business person, I would ruin the deal. What they want to see is that I am ready to learn the ropes and be easy to work with.

Well, anyway. I could go on and on as there are many nuances to this method.

If you've made it all the way to the end, now you can have an extra tip! If assigning an element to your own question is too difficult at this time, make the oracle even more simple. Fire is the best possible outcome, air is a good outcome, water is a fine outcome, and earth is the worst outcome.

Interpret only one card - either on top of, or beneath the Wheel of Fortune (as this variation is so simple that drawing 2 cards often doesn't make sense).

[gowns]

In regards to your repression post: aside from the obvious answer (therapy) what are some exercises or things we can do to tackle/acknowledge/defeat repression? If you can suggest any.

i think it really is so individual to different people. therapy will help (it helped me; i found a very progressive therapist who is familiar with trauma). a lot of self-reflection.

for me: reading about zen helped. i'm not very good at meditating (too much bonkers stuff going on up there) but i really like reading about zen concepts and what people get out of it. books that i read that helped me grasp zen were, in this order, the long quiet highway, you are here, nothing special, then goodbye things and the concept of minimalism (what are the things in your life that matter to you, and what is clutter?). also, previously i have been helped by reading books about how trauma manifests in your body, like "the body keeps the score," but now i know that guy is problematique so i would check out alternative books like what my bones know.

that was all kind of like the baseline stuff that was scaffolding for helping me get to a better position to grasp what came to me last year...

... which was a deeper understanding of my own sexuality, identity, how i relate to other people, how i present, feeling embodied instead of disassociating, actually feeling sensations instead of it all being mental. in other words, a deeper acceptance of the fact that i am gay and that queer sex makes me whole.

now, for me, that all started with deep vulnerable conversations with friends about sexuality, identity, desires, dreams. long, long conversations. having more LGBTQ friends. being more in community with people. putting myself out there more, not isolating myself, feeling like an island unto myself.

--

i must repeat: i think that the seed for unrooting repression can be many different things, for many different people.

for me, i found myself in a position where i was a parent of two, in a seemingly cis hetero marriage, experiencing years of isolation. this isolation was mostly self-imposed! my partner has always been very supportive of me in anything i wanted to do. i just had no concept of my own wants and desires anymore. i had been in a caretaker role for so long that any concept of a personal "want" was buried deep underground.

how did this happen? i have always been against the status quo, in concept. but i felt a nebulous social pressure to "perform" motherhood, marriage, nuclear family structure, to wear makeup a certain way, to have sex a certain way... i was living in an unquestioned "normalcy" which was actually actively harmful to me.

i am usually coy about this on this blog, but i'll tell you right out, i started actively dating again and engaging with new sexual ideas and i was astonished that it just... made me feel so real, so myself, in a way that years of therapy and different medications have never done.

over the past several years, in periods of re-experiencing trauma or being triggered, i felt asexual. i would often have to be very drunk or very high to enjoy sex. i felt separate from my body.

now i feel whole again. i feel lit up all over.

like: i sat down and tried to learn the piano this year, and i was amazed that for the first time, in a very long time, there was a connection between my brain, my hands, my ears, and i was capable of being fully embodied in that way too, being able to use my hands to make music, having the plasticity in my brain to learn new things.

--

tldr: i think the answer is different for everyone. for me, it was embracing my nature as an unabashed flirt and local lothario. for you? it could be writing a love song and performing it. it could be finally writing the book laced with details of family secrets you've always been afraid to write. it could be just, like, buying a leather harness, and enjoying the sensation of the leather against your skin. we're only here once (in this form of consciousness)! enjoy the ride!

[der-schmetterling15]

What I learned after doing Duolingo, Busuu, Clozemaster and Babbel lessons every day for 60 days

So, a few months ago I realized my skills in German actually suck because I'd been using A1 language most of the time (I teach beginners up to B1 level), and I had not been reading or listening to spoken German other than movies and series. As a result, imposter syndrome and terrible self-esteem hit me really hard, and I decided to take action. At the moment, I can't afford conversation classes or a German course to get my B2 certificate (and I clearly wouldn't pass a B2 test). I had been doing Duolingo for years and I managed to achieve a streak of 784 days, but the German lessons were too boring for me (I had finished the entire German course, but they added new content). I didn't want to lose my streak, so I decided to start another language there just for fun (I was tired of Spanish as well), then I chose Italian, and it's been amazing so far.

After searching for some materials online, I decided to download Busuu again. I took a placement test and they told me to do the B2 course. However, I felt like I needed a recap on some topics, so I started B1 course there (I'm finishing this week!) and it helped me a lot. Interacting with others while having your exercises corrected is actually great, so as correcting people's exercises. Besides, I started a list on Quizlet to help me memorize new words and expressions.

As for Babbel, I paid for one year of German because the price was really good, and they sent me to B2 as well. I finished all the B2 contents and did the B1 courses as well, and they gave me two live classes for free. I was terrified of participating in them because I wasn't very confident I could speak to foreigners, but I did it and it was really nice. The teacher and the other participants were amazing, and the cultural exchange was very beneficial.

I discovered Clozemaster after interacting with a polyglot girl I follow on Instagram. It may be simply "fill-in-the-blanks", but it really helped me memorize some structures and also review stuff I hadn't seen in a long time.

I was feeling so awful before that I considered quitting German and doing something else (new information: I monetized my hobby and now I hate my life lol), and of course the impossibility of moving to Germany made me feel even worse. I can't apply for DAAD scholarships because I am not interested in academic studies at the moment, PLUS, I'm not getting any younger... A friend and former student recommended the Bundesfreiwilligendienst, and I am doing lots of research on that.

In conclusion, after doing all this for the past 60 days, I felt that I really improved my writing and listening skills (I had also stopped watching German tv shows because this made me really sad). I've been also searching for upper-intermediate books that can help me until I can pay for a course. Maybe next summer I'm going to Berlin for an exchange program, and then I'll try to travel to other cities and speak German there as much as I can.

[straightlightyagami]

I have a question. Where did you learn most of the maths you know? Was it school? If it was any online resource, do you mind sharing? Somehow, looking at your posts makes me want to get back into maths, but I don't know where to start (?) 😭 Thank you!

Also, what's your favourite branch of maths?

Hi anon, thank you for the ask ^_^ I'm happy that my posts made someone interested in math! Sorry for taking so long to answer.

I am not sure what my favorite branch of math is, I don't feel like I know enough math to decide yet. I like most of them (some definitely more than others). Some math I learned from classes, but I learned a lot of it from reading on my own or online resources. I will share some that I think are helpful. Obviously coming from a pure math perspective.

it's harder to find things for more obscure or specialized topics, but for most stuff you are likely to study, if you want to know about a specific math topic or are having trouble understanding, enter it into a search engine and you immediately find at least a couple of articles and videos explaining it.

if you're stuck on a particular proof or problem, try seeing if anyone on math.stackexchange has answered it, maybe ask it yourself.

you can (legally) find free textbooks and resources on math libretexts.

you can find recommendations and links for specific topics on the r/math subreddit, for example.

for olympiad math, check out the aops message boards and contest collections. I personally wouldn't really recommend olympiad math as your first "reintroduction" to math, though. the problems can be fun but they're not really like high school or college or research math afaik, it's its own thing and some people like it and others don't. it might be a good introduction to proofs though.

actually the first thing you should do is understand the basics of how proofs work in math because it's all based on that.

general tip for reading textbooks: make sure you completely understand all proofs, maybe even try proving the theorems that appear in the book yourself before reading the proof given. if there are exercises, do most or all of them because it helps you really understand the topics (in higher level math books they're not repetitive like they are in secondary school, so you should do all of them).

review stuff you learned in high school because you need a good grasp of basic math to move on to other math.

basic discrete math, combinatorics, and graph theory are good for an introduction to how proofs work. also probably very different from stuff you learned before in a good way. I would say like, basic abstract algebra is good for this too. it might be a little intimidating to start with though, not sure.

If anyone has anything else, please add!

[scummy-writes]

How do you deal with writer's block? How do you execute ideas even with writer's block?

ohhh this is a good question. I may not have good answers.

It may depend on the type of writer's block you have, as I feel like there isn't just one singular over-encompassing type.

Sometimes, the writer's block is having all the inspiration, but nothing is coming out. This one plagues me the most because 90% of my fanfics and similar nowadays are just me daydreaming 24/7, and writing some of those daydreams down. Like a lil movie in the background. In theory I could write so much, but I struggle with actually putting pen to paper and considering the actual word choices used.

What I end up doing here is read or....write.... So the reading I try to find a published book that is different from my usual writing style and removed from fandomism, this is to personally help me distance myself from fanfic a little, to see how the pacing in a longer piece may be- which can help with learning to describe 'smaller' scenes and movements, or see how the writer handles scene transitions and similar. And, well, I read! And when I'm reading, I will usually pick the writing apart.

"I really like the way the writer described this movement, how could I describe that in my own words?" , "Wow, you can see how these last few paragraphs built up the foreshadowing for this turn of events, lets break down how they did that." , and... well... sometimes it does turn into "Yikes!! I really dislike that!!! If I were to rewrite that in my own way, how would that go...?"

And I've found that I often struggle to finish books, because I'll get that train of thought going so much that I'll have to put down the book to actually write.

Another thing I will do is that I will open up a wip, have it in a window taking up half my screen, then open a blank document to put on the other half, and rewrite everything word for word. This often helps me catch mistakes, odd sentences, and similar, and it's an easy way to simulate actually being able to write without having the 'blank document woes' where I'm too scared to defile a blank document. I find that once I get in the process of this with some good music, once I catch up to where my wip left off, I've rewritten a few sentences or added in more details I thought of with a fresh mind, and I'm able to go past where I initially left off.

(thats how I set up the screen)

If it's the type of writer's block where you have NO ideas, no will to write and only the vague *want* to write............ you may need some rest. A lot of people talk about social batteries, on how people need to recharge after a social function with some alone time or similar, and then their battery feels recharged! well... You need to do that for creative outlets as well!! You need to make sure you're taking care of your body, and also your mind. Recharge your creative mind by reading, watching, and listening to new or old and beloved things! Play a fun video game with a story that's interesting to you, read a cheesy romance novel, maybe even just clean some dishes and daydream as you do so. Once you remove 'gotta write gotta write gotta write gotta write' from the equation, and chilling out a bit, you end up getting inspired again after a while.

Typically with this one, I will end up writing notes that are very. bland.

So... if it's neither of those, or you have tried a lot of these things, then my next advice would be to try some basic writing exercises. Look up prompt lists, try to write the first thing that comes to mind when one catches your eye- i dont care if it's shakespeare or dahl, you just smack it down on paper. Much like drawing, you gotta do warm ups with writing! it helps a lot when you're stuck! If prompts don't work, move on to rewriting a classic story scene or story in general with your favorite characters, think about how they would act in the situation instead and rewrite it. If its fanfiction, look at some of the events in the game or routes, rewrite it with you or your mc, or how you wished the route/event went instead. write with friends! have friends send you prompts or detail a vague outline for you and try your hand at it!

If it stems from being too embarassed to read what you're writing.... turn the text itty bitty and just Type, to where you ignore what you're seeing and are managing to get words down. You can always make the text bigger when you feel less embarassed!

That's what I can offer off the top of my head!! I think there are plenty of more tips than this that exist out there, absolutely, so maybe some folks reading this might be able to offer to explain what helps them!

[adenthemage]

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately 

🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing? 

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

Just some asks for an amazing friend!

AH thank you Cel!!

🥤 -> Ah, well you and Trauma, for followers yet unaware! I also wanna shout out Ghost and Teela, their stuff is INCREDIBLE!!

🍓 -> I guess I just found I always had too many ideas, when I watched a show or read a book, for where things could go, or missed opportunities. So I'd write them out, mostly for my own fun haha. I also looooved english classes in school, whenever we'd read classics and analyse the techniques used within I found myself very much wanting to try them out myself! Fanfic was a good outlet for that, when I didn't want to spend too much time making characters and story elements from scratch. I've only very recently gotten into the habit of posting any of it!

🔪 -> Hmm! Hard to say. Maybe intentionally going down some UFO conspiracy rabbit holes as research for a Bishop fic counts?

❄️ -> I'm a huge sucker for accidental adoption or found family. But I also LOVE stories where things get Worse. Relationships waver and crumble, characters corrupt themselves, stuff like that. And that's a lot less common! Though I suppose that's a little too vague to pin a specific writer too, huh.

Alright! For a more specific example: Dragon ball! That franchise is FULL of concepts that it just leaves on the table, begging for a deeper character-driven piece. And I don't really see a lot of it capitalized on, which is surprising! But maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places?

🦋 -> I've been trying to get back into exercise to win back my old athletic physique. I wanna be ripped I wanna be able to throw a guy into the sun.

🦴 -> TMNT 03 does a lot for me, as is known loL. It's definitely a formative piece of writing for me, with the blend of family dynamics, darker themes, and the underlying kindness of the narrative.

As I mentioned, too, I read a lot of the classics for lit and poetry, too, and learning about them was a STRONG influence on how I wanted my writing style to be like. Among them was Kafka's Metamorphosis, which was my favorite of all of them. I love the way the inciting incident is never explained, and nothing else fantastical happens. I love the slow breakdown of the family's willingness to help, and the bleakness of the world around Gregor. I love the way it ends and how it leaves you with such conflicting tones. I need to read it again actually it's been forever.

☁️ -> Haha so, when I first made my DeviantArt account I think I wasss 12, or somewhere in that age range. I was really into Sonic, and I had my edgy OC Violet the fox who I was absolutely obsessed with. So when I made my account, I called it Violetthefox0001! And I ended up having a decent little following over there. So when I branched out to other sites, when the Sonic craze had died down a little, I changed "the fox" to "Vulpini" to make it a little less overt. Alao the word Vulpini just looks pretty, doesn't it? Especially next to the word Violet.