#v.ii info

[fairytalesfromthesmp]

Fairytales from the SMP: Volume II Collab Rules and Information

There will be 15 fairytales maximum. Artists and writers will be assigned to one fairytale each. There will be no repeat fairytales.

Although fairytales are not repeated, ships can be (ex: both Cinderella and Rapunzel can be dnf, they just have to be written by two different writers)

Writers can act as beta readers for other writers. This does not change that only one writer is assigned to write one fairytale.

Please do try to reach out to a designated beta reader before going to another writer.

This is a positive event. Do not write neg of or over-vilify anyone. If you cannot be neutral at minimum in your works, do not write that character. This is meant to be a hostility/toxicity free environment.

Adhere to cc boundaries as much as possible while creating for this collab.

Do not ship Dream with Tommy, Tubbo, or Ranboo. I don't expect that anyone would, but I don't think it hurts to explicitly say it.

No sexual or underage content.

Relationships do not need to be romantic ships.

If you are banned from the discord server, you will be removed from the collab as well.

The minimum word count is 1,000 words. There is no maximum word limit. Chapter fics are allowed.

All fics and art should be ready to publish at least one part by the deadline week. All fics will be published in a collection to ao3 only. All art will be published to tumblr using the tag # fairytalesfromthesmp. Deadline dates are July 28-August 3, 2024. Posting dates should be coordinated between the writer and artist.

Fics can be set in whatever universe you want (dsmp, Minecraft the game, modern fantasy/fairytale, classic fantasy/fairytale, etc). You’re not limited in setting. Artwork must correspond to the paired fic.

Please keep all fic and art info within the collab and server. This rule applies to ALL collab members.

Notes:

Please dm this blog if you are interested in joining! If you would like to be a writer or a backup writer, please provide your ao3 username. If you would like to be an artist or backup artist, please have examples of your artwork available.

Backup writers are allowed to be beta readers as well. In a pinch, as per the rules, if there are no other beta readers available, writers may also act as beta readers for their fellow writers. However, it’s preferred that beta reading is kept strictly to the people in the beta reader role, if possible.

Backup writers and backup artists will need to be able to create within a shorter timeframe, should they be swapped in. Please do not apply for a backup position if this is not feasible for you.

Communication for this collab takes place on discord. This is required in order for everyone in the collab to have all the necessary information.

[eciohcon-moved]

so i’ve been thinking about how to deal with what happened by the end of chapter 4 and i decided that ashley’s pleads for sal’s insanity were finally taken into consideration a year after the final trial.

during the following year, they assigned sal a new therapist, whom declared him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and in need of urgent treatment. ashley’s testimony served well to back up the therapist’s allegations and sal was considered guilty but mentally ill and committed to a psychiatric facility, away from nockfell, for an indetermined period.

but since sal has never suffered from schizophrenia, his ptsd and depression went completely undiagnosed and the medications he’s forced to take only serve to deteriorate his mental state more and more. 

[bookenders]

Good Metaphor, Bad Metaphor, Who’s to Say?

I’ve seen some advice posts about this goin’ around and thought I’d add my two cents.

[All images in this post are line breaks.]

What is a Metaphor?

A metaphor is a literary device wherein one thing is compared to/equated with another without using the words “like” or “as.” So, rather than saying “it was hard to get to know her,” one might say “she was a closed book.”

What Makes a Metaphor Good or Bad?

Good - fits tone/narrative voice, often in character, tells us something, accurate

Bad - inaccurate, cliché, forced, does not fit with the tone/theme

In simple terms, good metaphors aren’t noticed (or, rather, noticed in a good way) and flow with the rest of the writing. Bad metaphors don’t work and take the reader out of the story.

It’s like puzzle pieces. The blue goes in the sky, not the lava.

[Continued below the cut:]

Basic examples of in character metaphors (ft. my improvised prose):

If I’m writing about a person who loves space, their pulse would skyrocket, their thoughts would orbit one topic, their confusion would be nebulous, and their smiles would burn bright like distant stars.

If I’m writing about an accountant who was passionate about their job and hated art, I wouldn’t say that they did things in broad strokes, or painted their paperwork with the sweat of their brow, or minded their calculations as a modern Michelangelo, everything planned and ready to bleed black and white on paper canvas.

I’d say that their mind clacked through figures the way a gray matter abacus operates, exacting and precise. I’d say they held their clients’ futures in their Atlas hands, dedicated to keep them afloat in uncertain times. 

[I’m gonna look at accurate and tonal metaphors in a minute, so hang in there until then, because they need context to be understood.]

BUT.

Because there’s always a but.

If you’re consistent, it can work out just fine.

It’s all about tone and mood, really. If you’re writing about trees, don’t compare everything to race cars unless your character is a former driver who is now a lumberjack trying to fit in and make sense of his new job, or you compare everything to race cars. That sort of thing.

Douglas Adams can write Douglas Adams metaphors because that’s his absurdist style of humor. Unless the voice of your story is like that, or your POV character thinks that way, it’s probably best that you don’t pepper in absurdist/surreal metaphors.

Okay, But How Do You Write a Good Metaphor?

If I had the answer to that, I’d never need to edit my work again.

But let’s take a stab at it, eh?

To reiterate, a good metaphor is accurate, is fitting of the tone/voice, reveals information, reveals character, and/or echoes the theme of the story.

Alrighty, let’s look at some good metaphors (in my opinion, anyway) and examine why they’re good:

“Every night I stunned myself with gin.” (Jac Jemc, “A Violence”)

First of all, it’s accurate. I can see it in my head even without knowing the exact context. Getting black-out drunk is a sort of stunning. There’s a “person vs. self” conflict in the story, as well, and a theme of self-punishment, which this metaphor mirrors. That’s what makes it work: it’s accurate, flows with the tone and theme, and doesn’t pull you out of the story. You read it and think, “yeah, that fits, that makes sense.”

On a side note, if you wanna take a look at acoustics really quickly, there are all those elongated “n” sounds that bring a numbing sensation to the sentence, like your tongue is falling asleep just reading the words. It’s practically a borderline hum.

This metaphor works because it is accurate, mirrors the story’s theme, and reveals information about the character and their relation to their world.

“Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest, // You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.” (Walt Whitman, “I Sing the Body Electric”)

Poetry is a little different than prose in this case, but it is also where some stellar metaphors can be found, since poetry is a true home of figurative language. I mean, look at these lines. A woman is the creator of life, the bearer of life, and the exit of life. “The gates of the body,” going in and out. Gates of the soul, finding and leaving. It’s all a bunch of very clever ways to refer to a woman’s sexuality and body separately, but also at the same time.

He calls attention to both the concrete, with gates, and the abstract, with the soul and rest. Which is what the entire poem is doing. He’s “singing the body electric,” praising all the body can be in both an physical and metaphysical sense. 

This metaphor works because it is accurate, tells you how the speaker feels/reveals character, and fits the narrative tone.

“It surprised [the protagonist] how fond he had been of his teeth. His tongue, a flat sleek seal, used to flop and slide so happily among the familiar rocks, checking the contours of a battered but still secure kingdom, plunging from cave to cove, climbing this jag, puzzling that notch, finding a shred of sweet seaweed in the same old cleft; but now not a landmark remained, and all there existed was a great dark wound, a terra incognita of gums which dread and disgust forbade one to investigate.” (Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin)

I admit, I love Nabokov’s writing. And look how gorgeous this is. Now, I haven’t read this novel so I don’t know the context, but this is an excellent extended metaphor (which means it’s a metaphor that goes on for a while and explores several different aspects of the comparison).

A tongue as a “flat sleek seal”? Accurate, visceral, visual. The following description mimics the motions a tongue makes when running over the teeth, picking things out of them, examining them from the inside. “Finding a shred of sweet seaweed in the same old cleft” is like finding something between your teeth. And when a tooth is pulled, it does feel like something great and wide is missing. A “terra incognita of gums” - the undiscovered area, what was hidden from your tongue’s previous explorations and a place you don’t really want to touch because it’s weird and kinda gross now. 

This metaphor works because it’s accurate, echoes the theme of the passage, and tells you something about this character and the way they feel.

“Put out the light, and then put out the light: If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me: but once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume.”

William Shakespeare, Othello v.ii

Let’s get classical for a minute. This is one of my personal favorite Shakespeare metaphors. I’ll take this one beat-by-beat because Middle English.

The first line refers to both the lantern he’s holding and Desdemona (his wife’s) life. First he puts out the flame he’s using to see, then he kills her. He goes on to say that if he puts out the light that is the flame, he can light it again no problem, but he can’t do the same with her life. This is the point of no return for him. 

The extended metaphor here is the candle and light. There’s fire language (flaming, quench, heat, light, relume, etc.) and direct comparisons to said fire. And we have a direct allusion to the story of Prometheus, the Greek titan who created humans and stole fire from the gods to give to them, with “Promethean heat.” Putting out a candle = putting out the light of her life, the fire gifted by Prometheus, but Othello can’t light it again because he is not Prometheus and cannot find it again. There’s also a running theme of passion throughout the play, and what happens when passion is stoked too high (there’s another metaphor for ya) and spirals out of control. 

This is also an example of how a cliché can work in your favor. There’s no direct reference to passion in this passage, but passion is often compared to heat and fire. By using fire as a comparison for life, Willy is using that cliché to his advantage by allowing the audience to connect life and passion via this metaphor. Clever, yeah?

The metaphor works because it’s accurate, it fits the tone, and echoes Othello’s character.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, shoot me a message! I’m always happy to help!

Some extra sources if you’re looking for a more in-depth look at metaphors and more examples:

Metaphor: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

How to Avoid Clichés and Bad Metaphors

Grammarly: What Is A Metaphor? (Also Metaphor vs Simile)

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