#trying to tell myself this recently !!

[sergle]

I think I'm going to make a temperature blanket this year

[deanpinterester]

hello! i haven't seen anyone on my dash talk about Lebanon yet so i thought i'd bring it up in case there are those who don't know:

as of Sept 24th, more than 500 are killed and hundreds more are injured from airstrikes and bombings (CTV article linked here for further reading).

no doubt more info on how to help will come out (or probably already have) but for starters i've donated to Doctors Without Borders / Medicins Sans Frontieres (Canadian website linked but they're available in other countries as well) and hopefully anyone who is able can donate too.

[spaciebabie]

at first getting diagnosed with cptsd was like, "yay my trauma has been validated (it always was valid)!" and i really thought that was going to be it, but then i started to do research as i do whenever i realize i have something and learned that!! the way i experience socialization is!! quite horrid actually!!

[mochasucculent]

Here's my extremely curated Jayvik playlist btw, it ain't got a lot rn but I have a few heavy hitters in here that I'm placing gently in your palm

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

If Solar were to do something on the channel I think it’d pan out like this

[fictionadventurer]

The worst part about reading in a genre where you have low expectations (in this case, Christian historical fiction) is that when a book impresses you, you have no idea if it's actually good or if you're just overly impressed because it was a fraction of a degree better than the usual garbage.

[outlying-hyppocrate]

i have officially returned. ask me anything.

[grzybjek]

woag hi fellow antek :))))

oh hello!!!!!!! hiiiii!!!!

[puhpandas]

as someone who isnt super excited for sotm for certain reasons I am really glad that like. it's clear that since ruin theyve been setting up for carnival and sotm IS carnival. so now that carnival is finally coming out, afterwards theyll be moving on to other plotlines since the main villain stuff is sorted out

I'm just rlly happy to finally see a clear direction for how the story is gonna be playing out with like "okay these games were leading up to this so after this will be open possibilites" instead of like. absolutely no info about each upcoming game and being left guessing before it releases and just having to wait and see what's in it and if anything you're looking forward to will be in it

it feels like they have a plan and a solid direction for what they're trying to do and after carnival releases thatll be all that buildup coming to fruition. & we already know from the Scott interview that theres another release 'beyond sotm' that's 'super exciting' so maybe thatll be focusing on another big currently untouched (which is basically all of them) plotline, or even the big campaign game that dawko has been calling security breach 2

[otome-dissection]

can't let gang know that I fw the catholic fujoshi miku song on a totally unironic and slightly personal level

[nomsfaultau]

Writing advice

Writing Mandatory Family Reunion has gotten to the point of emotionally convoluted that I'm making scene roller coaster charts and color coding parts of the text by topic. Which, I highly recommend these writing tools. A roller coaster map is something I picked up from theater, and is useful for structuring emotions. A quick example below:

Its where you plot a timeline oscillating between positive and negative emotions, and how quickly they're switched between. It helps to know where you want the emotional peak/pit for a scene/chapter/story, so you can arrange plot beats accordingly. Many stories try to have escalating conflict, so you can use this method to gauge the intensity of reactions to crisis in order to achieve this. The problem I had with my chapter was whiplash between emotions, so by charting it out I could see where transitions needed to smooth jarring flips between emotional extremes. Flooring the gas pedal can also be bad, so the roller coaster method lets you see how quickly you switch between major emotions, and where breathing room may be helpful.

There is a problem with the axis being positive to negative. While capturing the intensity goes alright, it's hard to distinguish different types of emotions. Anger, fear, and sorrow are all negative, but also feel very different to a reader. So at peaks/plummets I made little notes about the majority emotion there. I found the roller coaster method made it easier to understand how my character's would react based off their accumulating emotional/mental state, and you can multiple to track the journeys of multiple characters.

As for the color coding method, I use it for structuring ideas. I took sections of the text in a scene and colored them based on the topic. Using comment options can also be super useful. A following example, redacted so I don't spoil my readers lol:

This helped with tracking the development of an idea in a scene where many interweaving subjects were being covered. I first focused on just how that idea changed over the course of the scene, and the next and next. Then, I looked at the transitions between each colored block, mostly the last/first two sentences between the concepts. That way I could see if there was a clear flow of logic between one topic to the next. Then, I started rearranging the parts into a way that structured a more solid scene. The scene felt a little bit like a puzzle, trying to get transitions to line up, switching around colored paragraphs into an order that made sense both for the individual argument angle as well as how it contributed to the other topics. I personally was using this for an internal monologue heavy scene, but I imagine it could also work pretty well for conversations.

Anyway, these are just some tools I use when I dislike a scene but can't figure out why. Visualizing the story can really help when trying to structure the ideas and emotions. Happy writing!

[camgoloud]

you ever just. become overwhelmed by a sudden out-of-nowhere wave of tenderness and affection and longing for reconnection directed towards someone to whom you no longer speak for Very Good Reasons

[simgerale]

me after attempting to get back into sims and realizing i had a lot more to do than play the game

[bmpmp3]

post ankle-twisting clarity

[coriander-candlesticks]

Today's thing I'm turning over in my brain: resisting the urge to go "this person whose insights I respect does this thing x way so if I do it y way I'm Wrong and Bad" because like. That's not true? At all? Obviously there are limits but the limit is, like, being a folkist, not conceptualizing incredibly individual aspects of worship in slightly different ways.

Offerings, for example. I tend to offer steam in place of burning offerings for meals because I don't have a good way to burn food at the moment and it feels wasteful. If applicable, I'll also set aside what seems to be the best portion and eat it last in recognition of the offering. This is because I:

1) have makeshift altar spaces atm that don't leave much space for more involved meal offerings

2) conceptualize food offerings to ouranic deities as something you share in thanks (even w/ libations, you drink what you don't pour out). Offering the steam (analogous to smoke imo) and eating the meal/drinking the beverage is in that category to me. It's also a way to actively remember the gods, because I'm consciously leaving a portion for last, have dedicated something I can physically see, etc.

3) live in a house that bugs get into easily and have no intention of drawing the little fuckers towards my room or altar spaces b/c I left too much food out for too long. This is also why I eat unwrapped food offerings after a certain point (usually the end of the day) on top of wanting to avoid waste.

On top of that, any sort of prayer or offering takes effort because everything takes conscious effort for me. Regardless of whether it's a food or meal offering, or a libation, or a devotional/dedicatory activity, I'm not only managing to actively remember it and the gods but am also taking the requisite time and energy to complete it.

Engaging with the Hellenic community has really helped me stretch my "doing things differently is okay" muscles which has been nice. Call that character development lol

[jils-things]

i feel so silly for saying and realizing this only recently but i only noticed now that norto.n's doll model has his nose more rectangular(?) (roman or bumpy at best?) not sure how to say, but its like its trying to indicate that its long which gives off a more mature look - unlike some other male survivors who have cute, slim and maybe and little pointed? (gives it a more youthful look) i'm bad at describing but that's how i see it!

i thought ppl drew him like that as a fanon concept but damn it's in his model!!