#we are trying our hardest to NOT be an authority figure because historically it ends terrible for us due to The Mental Health Issue

[mantisgodsdomain]

Slowly, yet painfully realizing that we're probably the exact type of person that random fandom guys would miscast as a father.

[sagiow]

🎀, 💞, 💌? please and thank you!

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

uuuuuggggh... it's sometimes funny? and then it's not anymore? and then it is again? and then it's super sad? and you probably wanna punch me for it ?

I really don't know what people like most about it!

I overanalyze the crap out of everything in canon; I fact-check all historical details I sprinkle into my writing and find names with relevant meanings for my OCs, so you may end up learning a thing or two if you Google any place or person I casually namedrop. And that's your good influence (as well as that of all Mercy Street Alumni) at work here, dear friend <3.

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

I am laughing so hard because I don't really do 3 of those (although I do try to fit in a figurative figure or two in later edits because Real Authors would), I'm sure the technical stuff is patchy at best (I blame the French), so all that's left in the characters. But that is, truly, the most important part of a story for me in fanfic: that the characters be true to the blorbos we all fell in love with in the source material, and, by extension, that their dialogue and voice ring true. So I do go through many mental "WWXD?" loops and read dialogue out loud to check that it sounds all right. And, incidentally, my biggest fear is alienating readers when I push the characters out of their "known zone" and risk having our respective headcanons clash. But such are the risks & perils of writing!

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

The answer I should be giving out right now is "There are NO WIPs in my folder! The computer is down for the season! Spring has arrived and my life now consists of sun, cold beer and baseball!"

But, I kid you not, it's still snowing. And I have my Fridays off with no kids in the house. And I am procrastinating doing my taxes.

So, along with a cold beer, I do have a WIP. Because people such as you and @undisclosed-serendipity and @divinecomedienne leave really nice comments in which you ask nicely about Jungle Cruise Crossovers and Companion Epilogues and Romantic Reunions and @combat-librarian even started an emo band called Sleeper Car Smut.

So I am taking the scenic route myself and tackling the hardest of the bunch, which is "WTF is Eli doing after Cherished?" I am still not sure whether this will be In camera - Epilogue 2 or a canon-compliant standalone because I am still not quite sure WTF he is doing and how long he's gonna take to do it, but it's already 3K words and 95% dialogue. Stay tuned!

Thank you for the ask! List found here!

[xiaq]

Hi, I have a question re:sex and Christianity. Small background: I still go to church, and I still live with my parents even though I'm not much younger than you, because housing is very very expensive where I live (pretty common here, I would say about 2/3 of my friends live with their parents and we are decently privileged kids)

Anyway. How does one get over purity culture? To be clear, I've never been told in church not to have sex, I've never gotten the gendered lessons that you got. But I am terrified of having sex. My first real, multi-year relationship just ended and while there was hand stuff etc, there was never any p in v sex (lol I feel 12). But I still had insane anxiety about being pregnant despite being on bc. And I think its because I know my parents would be so disappointed if I had sex. And if I was pregnant I could imagine all the gossip. And honestly I think im from a pretty open church, b/c one of our previous ministers kids recently got married at 8 months pregnant and lots of church people were at the wedding and supportive and her parents were there and everything.

I dont even think I particularly like sex, i might be on the ace spectrum, but how do I remove it from all the anxiety that's tied to it so I can even give myself the chance to find out???

(Asking because it seems like you've been pretty open about purity culture/removing yourself from it)

CW for sex talk (again)

How does one get over purity culture?

Oh man. That really is the million-dollar question, huh? Obviously, I can only answer re my personal experiences, and this is something you should talk to a therapist about, but I can tell you how I’ve tackled it with my therapist at least.

Purity culture is, at its core, an ideology that is perpetuated by shame. If you’re indoctrinated into purity culture when you’re a kid, the concepts become baked into the way you construct your identity, your perception of self, and your perception of your sexuality. It’s practically intrinsic, by the time you’re an adult, to feel shame any time you’re reminded you have a body, much less a sexuality.

According to the chapels I sat through every week as a kid, a girl's body could be 3 things: an intentional stumbling block for men, an accidental stumbling block for men, or unnoticeable. Women were to strive for the third option so as to keep their (and their male friends/authority figures) purity intact. After all, if a boy, or even your male teacher, had impure thoughts about you, it was your fault for tempting them (which, holy shit. I still can’t believe that was a thing I bought into for so long. If my 45 yr old grown-ass teacher had impure thoughts because he could see my 12 yr old collarbone, that sure as hell wasn’t my fault. But I digress.) The Only time a woman’s body can be something else, is when she gives it to her husband, at which point she must suddenly flip the switch in her brain that she is now allowed to be a Sexual Being and she must perform Sexual Duties despite living in outright fear of her own body and sexuality for years (decades?) up until this point. Jesus take the wheel.

Purity culture isn’t a thing you can just decide to walk away from if you’ve grown up in it. Because its ideology is insidious and internalized. So first you need to submit to the fact that you’re going to be fucked up about sex. It sounds like you’re there. Second, you need to interrogate what you believe. If you’re leaving religion behind entirely, you’ll approach removing yourself from purity culture differently than if you still identify as a Christian. It sounds like you might be the latter, which meant, for me, separating what’s actually biblical and what’s shitty, contrived, doctrine that I was told is biblical but is actually more political than spiritual. This helps you address the shame issue.

You need to throw away I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Lady in Waiting and all those ridiculous books you read and reread in the hopes of somehow obtaining impossible marriage perfection and look into actual scripture interpreted within its historical context. I could write a book on this, but the TL;DR is that the text of the Bible was written, translated, curated, and changed multiple times over thousands of years by human beings with human biases and, often, personal and/or political agendas. It contradicts itself! Reading it as it is—a flawed historical document—rather than some sort of God-breathed perfect document—is incredibly freeing. When you do, you’ll probably realize that purity culture is bullshit on a spiritual level. Which is a good start, if that matters to you. Because any time you start to feel shame or guilt you can ask yourself: does God actually care if I wear a bikini or touch a dick I’m not married to? Probably not. Wear the bikini. Touch the dick.

The most important therapy session for me was when my therapist asked what I would do if I got to heaven and God was actually the God I’d been raised to fear. What would I do if he condemned me for being bisexual and having premarital sex and becoming educated, for arguing with men, and failing to isolate while menstruating, and wearing mixed fabrics? If Montero had come out at the point, I probably would have said I’d pole dance down to hell. Instead, I said I would spit on heaven’s gates. If a god that cruel and that pointlessly demeaning really exists—a god who would create in me condemned desire—I won't worship him. The good news is, I’m 99% sure he doesn’t exist. At the very least, he isn’t supported by scripture.

Okay. The final thing you need to do is figure out what you actually want, sexually speaking. This bit is probably the hardest. I’m still in the early stages of this myself. You say: “I dont even think I particularly like sex, i might be on the ace spectrum, but how do I remove it from all the anxiety that's tied to it so I can even give myself the chance to find out???” Bro, I wish I had an easy answer for you. For me, whenever I’m feeling anxious about Sex Things, I tell myself: 1. My God does not equate my worth to my sexual habits. 2. My partner does not equate my worth to my sexual habits. 3. I do not equate my worth to my sexual habits. It seems silly, but reminding myself of those three things is massively helpful. If, after I’ve sorted through those, I’m still anxious or uncomfortable, I stop doing the thing. I evaluate. Am I overwhelmed and I need to try again some other time? Do I just not like the thing? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Sometimes you change your mind. Sometimes you just don’t know. That’s why having a partner who you trust and who’s willing to patiently explore your interests (and respect your disinterests) is so important. Half the battle, for me, was having a partner who told me they’d be ok with no sex at all. Because that took the pressure off me. If the bare minimum they need is nothing, then anything more than that is a bonus! Hooray! This is maybe TMI, but let me tell you. I thought I was asexual* right up until I was able to have moderately non-anxious sex. Never in my life did I think I would initiate a sexual situation but… I do now. It’s a fun thing to do with a person I love and, holy shit. I am furious that I nearly missed out on it.

Finally, re birth control: I don’t know how you can approach that fear in a way that works for you. If you don’t want to ever have penetrative sex, that’s fine! If that’s a point of anxiety you can’t get rid of, then don't push yourself to do it. If you find out you like other sex things, do the other sex things! If you don't like doing any sex things, don't do any sex things! Also, have you considered sleeping with people who can’t get you pregnant? Always an option if it’s an option you want to consider. ;)

Okay. I hope this was even a little bit helpful. Sorry if it’s a little convoluted, I typed it up in bursts during my work breaks.

*This is not at all to say that asexuality can be “fixed." Rather, it’s to say that things like purity culture can drastically confuse your sexuality in general. If you’re asexual, then this process is still important to discover what you like/dislike. Then you can be explicit about those necesities and find a partner who’s a good fit (if you want a partner at all, that is).

[star-anise]

I think I am having vicarious stress about how immagrint families are being treated at the American border too. Also other horrors happening in America though I live in Canada. How do you cope with that? If this question is annoying or personal you dont have to answer. Is it weird to feel post election stress after the 2016 election although I am not American? I heard American college kids had almost ptsd levels of trauamtic stress after the election in America.

It’s funny, today I was on the phone with a grad school friend who does front-line crisis mental health work in the USA, and grew up being heavily involved in the Democratic Party. She said, “I have such an issue with this rhetoric now, like, ‘don’t look away.’ Bitch, I haven’t looked away for two years. I’m fucking exhausted.” Because things like that are intended for the people who do look away, who are conservative and apathetic, but often they only reach an audience that is already engaged with the issue, and they land like hammers on people already trying their hardest.

And yes, freaking out about the shit that goes down in the USA is a fine old Canadian tradition. To quote Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 comments to the US president at the time: “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

(And Canadian politics are definitely negatively affected by the USA. My province just lost its NDP government because its Conservatives “aren’t as bad as those crazies down south!” and I have a sinking feeling the Cons will cakewalk to federal victory too in October)

You might also notice that on my blog, I post about political issues in only a small number of cases: 1) I have a unique observation I think needs to be added to the world, 2) It’s an issue I genuinely haven’t seen covered yet, and I know people who would want to know; 3) It’s a feel-good story meant to comfort people who are fighting the good fight; 4) It’s advertising an immediate, low-barrier thing people can do right away to directly affect the situation; 5) It’s a resource to help those fighters be better activists. And I do my best to always tag political posts with a standard set of tags to let people ignore them, so if somebody wants, they can follow me and just get my cats’n’fandom content.

The audience I usually have in mind when I blog are people like my friends: Smart, compassionate people committed to social activism, but without limitless amounts of money, health, time, or attention. Some of the people who follow my blog are DC lobbyists directly fighting the Trump administration’s policies. Some of them are crisis workers and EMTs and librarians and deal with the ragged edges of human existence in today’s society. I know I don’t have the nerves or capacity to be their news source; they can follow anyone else on Tumblr for that. So what I try to be is the friendly cat cafe they can go to at the end of a long shift to relax.

My response is really guided by a blog I followed a lot when 9/11 happened; I was following it to learn about getting published as a fantasy author, but its authors were New Yorkers and socialists and military veterans, and they had a lot to say about the false witch hunt for a justification for starting a war in Iraq in 2003 and the slow erosion of rights and freedoms of Americans and “enemy” POWs and the incredible damage the American war machine does when it gets going.

They’re not blogging as much now, but when Trump was elected, they released two posts that I found to be deeply useful:

Defense in Depth - Tl;dr: It is important that those of us in resistance to the world’s outrages don’t attack each other for having different priorities, because we need a diversity of targets and approaches.

Taking It Back - Tl;dr: Our enemies WANT us to be overwhelmed and horrified and frozen in shock and catatonic. That is a deliberate tactic they use. Whenever we seem to catch our breath, they create a new outrage for us to get upset over. We need to learn how to set our own pace, resist the lie that you have to be upset and horrified all the time, and focus on taking care of yourself.

I’m also really affected by Rebecca Solnit’s book “Hope in the Dark” where she points out that activist movements have two effects. The first is to influence whatever issue they’re actually agitating about. The second is to give people the tools and experience they need to become citizens who change their societies in deep and enduring ways.

One part of the problem is finding ways that you can make the world better that feel really concrete and achievable. That’s a whole other discussion, that depends a lot on what you’re good at, what your resources are, what you’re capable of. People feel a lot less terrified if there’s something they know they can do. 

But even once you’ve figured out how you’re fighting to make the world better in some small way, you probably can’t do it 24/7; you’ve got to keep mentally resilient the rest of the time.

So what do I do to cope?

I focus on easy-to-do, ordinary hobbies that bring me joy, especially ones that get me off my computer and out of my head. I garden; I just bought a bike; I’m getting my sewing room back in order so I can go back to making costumes and working on the @betterbinderproject.

I make sure I keep social connections where we can relax and enjoy each other. That means being codependent with my cat, babysitting my nieces and nephews, exploring my local bi/pan meetups, going to historical re-enactment events, texting with my friends about Tumblr drama, talking to my colleagues during slack moments at work, and enjoying the fandoms and fanworks that bring me joy.

I do my best to look after my physical wellbeing. Which for me means stretching, yoga, taking my psych meds and vitamins, taking painkillers, looking after my cuticles, using moisturizer, braiding my hair, getting massages, and always making sure there’s a cake in the kitchen. My emphasis isn’t whether I’ll get some disease 30 years from now; it’s making sure that inhabiting my body today is the least unpleasant that it has to be.

I try to look after myself; I go to therapy, look for jobs, keep up on my business paperwork, budget my money, work on upgrading my skills, and develop my 5-year plan. I work really hard on doing this without being stressed, because my habit of procrastinating and only getting around to this stuff when I’m in abject terror isn’t good.

I also, and this feels weird to say or suggest, try to educate myself on issues that are not the crisis du jour. I watch TV shows about the Russian revolution, listen to books about Indigenous language reclamation, read the diary of a World War II servicewoman. This isn’t an attempt to expand my list of crises to worry about, but because I find my ability to cope with the present immeasurably helped by knowing that people have faced other, different crises, and how they dealt with them. It’s… background research in resilience. With the added bonus that it helps me stay intersectional and aware of when we might be only seeing the most privileged part of a crisis situation.

[unicyclehippo]

hey! if you're still taking prompts, maybe you could write something about ellie and dina on a scouting mission and in one of the houses they come across an old playstation, and when they get back to jackson they set it up and play it on one of their days off? basically something similar to a scene in uncharted 4, except its filled with soft, gay competitive banter

‘it’ll be written down in the histories of our people!’ jesse announces, bouncing up onto the overturned barrel and spinning to face them, arms outstretched, raised like he’s preaching to them. ‘on this day, on this very day, two of our own—ellie and dina—singlehandedly -‘

‘we’ve got four between us, actually,’ dina heckles from her place at the edge of the encroaching crowd.

‘ - brought to us a machine! a great machine! one that recalls the hallowed days of old wherein children could play inside for hours on end and not have to work!’

‘come off it, jesse, kids have always been put into terrifying situations in which their very lives are at constant risk.’ max grins at the low murmur of laughter that brings. ‘next you’re gonna tell us that they didn’t have to hunt for their own food.’

‘okay, i genuinely am not clear on how much you know about the before time,’ jesse tells him, the grandeur dropping from his voice. ‘but ellie and dina—‘

‘dina and ellie,’ dina calls. ‘it’s alphabetical.’

ellie, lured by the worry of what havoc even a small crowd can do riled up, takes her place at dina’s side, shakes her head. ‘it sounds wrong.’

‘you’re just saying that because your name comes first usually. you don’t want me to come first.’

‘i think i’m usually pretty good about that, actually,’ ellie mutters. a tiny grin flickers over her lips and then is gone. ‘what’s jesse doing?’

‘brief history lesson and also trying to get our names recorded in some book of historical excellence or something. maybe electing us as gods? not sure.’

‘gods, huh? hey, jesse!’ ellie waves to get his attention and her friend waves, hops off his claimed pedestal to join them.

‘well well, if it isn’t the two most adored hunters in town,’

‘adoration is fleeting business, yada yada, anyway, shouldn’t we maybe see if the thing actually hooks up to the generator before we start making any promises?’

‘sure,’ jesse allows, and he flips his hair back off his face, sends a beaming smile down at them. ‘but when it does—and it will, if there’s any kindness in this universe -‘

‘debatable.’

‘absolutely not.’ ellie places a hand over dina’s mouth, points a warning finger at jesse. ‘you promised no philosophy if i was in earshot, you promised.’

he relents, hands raised in surrender. ‘anyway, when it works, i will be giving you some kind of award.’

‘do you even have any authority at all?’

‘i’m thinking...knighthood?’ he muses. ‘presidents?’

‘gods?’ dina suggests, still muffled behind the hand she hasn’t bothered to dislodge. ellie drops her hand. ‘or angels. captains. queens.’

ellie leaves them to it and makes her way toward the hall.

//

‘hey! ellie-girl! just about ready to turn this bad boy on!’ tommy is on his hands and knees surrounded by a box of wires that have been upended on the floor. scavenged scrap material mostly but by the looks of things, they’ve managed to piece meal all the connections they need to get the television hooked up to this gaming thing. ‘glad you’re here, i really think you’re gonna like this.’

there’s a buzz in the air, as much from the generator as it is from the excitement of the other people here, some helping, most just watching and pretending to be doing something else like pouring coffee or looking for a place to hang an empty picture frame.

tommy ignores them all and scrambles up—pauses to rub at his knees and grumble—and makes his way to the couch where a small device sits. he taps a few buttons and grins when it lights up. without a moments hesitation, he holds it out to ellie.

‘what?’

‘take it. you found it, you should get to play first.’

‘me? i don’t know how—‘

‘it’s easy,’ he laughs her denial away. ‘and i’ll teah you.’ he presses it into her hand, and ellie knows she sees his fingers linger on the controller. ‘press that button—it’ll boot it up.’

‘i’ve got two boots-‘

tommy closes his eyes. breathes out long and slow. when he opens his eyes again, it is to see a very pleased smile on ellie’s face. ‘you and joel,’ he grumbles. ‘you’re not funny.’

‘i am. he’s not.’

‘no. neither of you are. just - just push the damn button, okay?’

ellie shrugs. pushes the button.

the television screen blinks on with a symbol she doesn’t recognise and the chirping sound of something activating. tommy guides her to a colourful box with a strange little orange creature and the description he gives makes no sense at all. a running game? collecting fruit? tropical island?

‘this sounds stupid.’

‘maybe. addictive though. i bet you can’t beat the first level.’

ellie frowns at the screen. the glare slides across to the man she considers to be her uncle and she finds him watching her, brows raised, a sly grin identical to when joel knew she was going to embarrass herself. like when he called her over so she slipped on ice that one time, ellie recalls.

‘that’s a trap,’ dina says, dropping into the space next to her. she brings her feet up under her, knee digging comfortably into ellie’s side. ‘he’s goading you.’

‘i’m aware.’

‘what are the terms?’

‘no terms,’ tommy shrugs. ‘i just think she oughta play a bit before she dismisses the whole thing. can’t say for sure it’s stupid until you see for yourself, right?’

//

the game is most definitely stupid. it’s the second week in a row that ellie has snuck into the hall to use her free hour on the device, and the stupid sounds the creature makes and the stupid incessant music is haunting her in her dreams.

‘you’re really very bad at this game.’

ellie sighs. hangs her head. pausing the game, she turns to watch her girlfriend step in from the kitchens and make her way over, leaning over the back of the couch. the television lights up her face and the light only makes the amused gleam in her eyes seem brighter.

‘it’s funny, you know, because you’re very good at everything else.’ she cocks her head to the side, nods slowly like she’s figured something out. ‘yes. i’m more attracted to you now.’

ellie can’t help but laugh. ‘more attracted because i’m bad at it, or because you’re better at something? see, i think it’s the second one.’

‘yeah. don’t know what it is.’

‘you’re a narcissist, maybe?’

‘you say the sweetest things.’ dina steps around the couch to sit at the opposite end. she sets her feet in ellie’s lap immediately, ellie bringing her free hand down over dina’s shins. it’s ingrained in her now, to be close to dina, to touch dina in these small ways. it’s just nice.

‘that wasn’t meant to be sweet.’

‘mm, but you mentioned me and i love me.’

‘narcissist.’

‘grouch.’ dina’s laid out lazy and comfortable, chin dimpling as she squishes her face down to grin over at ellie.

‘beautiful.’

‘flatterer.’ she nudges ellie with her foot, nods to the screen. ‘play the game.’

‘i’m bad at it.’

‘i know, i want to make fun of you. think of it like...the game is your entertainment, bullying you is mine.’

ellie laughs. turning her attention to the screen, the laughter fades to a simple expansive warmth in her chest and she chuckles again. ‘this is the hardest level yet,’ she warns. ‘you’d better have some good mockery saved up, i’m going to die a lot.’

‘i’m sure i can think of something.’

[wordsnstuff]

How to Outline Effectively

-- Outlining is a fairly important part of writing a longer story, especially full novels or even series, so I figured I’d create a guide to making an outline that is actually useful during the writing process so writers like me, who are more likely to write if they have a solid plan, will feel less lost. 

Outlining is surprisingly hard, and nobody does it exactly the same way. There’s no one right way to do it, but this is what is the most helpful to me and hopefully this article will help you understand what the true purpose of an outline is, how to create one that’s actually useful, and how to get everything you possibly can out of it.

Purpose Of Outlining

First, I must specify that, in this context, an outline is not simply a summary of the course of events within your story. It is also a detailed plan that will guide you in your writing process. An outline allows you to enter the task of completing a first draft with a good to fair chance of eloquently intertwining all of the essential elements of your story. Many authors do commit to creating an outline, but not an effective one. 

Not only should an outline provide a timeline for events of the story, but lay out a base plan for the execution of symbolism, orchestration of character and conflict development, introduction of world-building elements, and premeditate the domino effects that plot points will cause, whether to the main plot or subplots. These details make an outline useful, or at least more useful than the alternative, which only explains what happens without giving the Why or the How.

What To Outline

When it comes to creating an effective outline, it is important to remember that it is for you. You are free to create an outline that includes all or some or none of the things listed below. However, your story will include every single one of these things, and whichever ones are not planned beforehand will be more likely to challenge you when it comes to writing the actual draft.

Events

This one is fairly obvious, but I have some additional suggestions when it comes to creating a timeline of the events occurring in your story.

Outline the plot progression and the subplot progression. It’s helpful to outline these on the same timeline so you can see where subplots begin and end parallel to the main plot. I recommend color-coding to create a visual of your storylines.

When you plan an event in your story, make sure to specify why that scene is included and what purpose it will serve, to its corresponding subplot and the main plot overall.

Limit the amount of large events and small events that can occur. You should be able to determine which is which. I try to limit myself to 30 events total, or 10 main events and 20 smaller ones that build up to the larger. This isn’t a rigid limit, but it keeps you from biting off more than you can chew. This may seem like a lot of events, but smaller events can be things like a discussion between two characters or a scene in which a character is, say, driving to work and inwardly reflecting on something that recently happened.

It’s important to remember that more than one event can take place in a single scene. An event does not equal its own scene. Do not organize your timeline by scene. You will end up writing your story scene by scene rather than event by event, and you will regret it, because when you start telling a story based on the place it happened and when, you’ll leave out details and will be more likely to neglect opportunities to utilize subtext and symbolism.

Symbolism

Symbolism is not paid much attention when it comes to writing things outside of an educational environment, but it shows up in writing, whether intentionally by the writer or not. However, intentional symbolism adds depth and context to your story that cannot be obtained in any other way. Meaning and emotion are conveyed through symbolism, and your story will suffer if you don’t give it at least some of your time. Here’s some things you can do and some things you should remember when you’re outlining symbolism:

Find opportunities for symbolism in your story and utilize them to the best of your ability. If you want your character to have an object that they can’t live without, connect that object to something important that has happened in their life or make it symbolize a value they hold above all else or a belief that they will never abandon. 

Symbolism is best used to develop three things: plot, character, or background. 

Symbolism is best conveyed through objects, smaller events, rules, or relationships.

Specify the reason the symbol is being included in your outline. If you’re adding a symbol just so you can say that there is symbolism, you’re doing it wrong. Symbols should teach the reader something or convey a message to them, and if it does neither, don’t include it.

Development

Planning out the development of your conflict, characters, and theme of your story is one of the hardest parts of outlining because it’s not always possible to predict how your characters will turn out. Writing is a weird, personal, unpredictable process and sometimes our conflicts, characters, and themes end up developing on their own. However, it’s good to have some sort of idea what points A and B are, and which points are between them.

Conflicts develop mostly through a mixture of smaller, less significant events, and slow burning feelings that eventually bubble up in the climax. Those smaller events need to build up nicely to that climax. If you neglect this, it will result in lack of suspense due to no emotional building. The climax should feel like an explosion in the reader’s chest, not a leisurely stroll through a boring park.

Your character will be developed in the reader’s minds through the three main things we remember about a person: their actions, their words, and the way they present themselves outwardly. Any or all of these things may change over the course of the story, and that’s where the development will reveal itself. Your readers may empathize with your characters’ thoughts and feelings, but they won’t remember that as much as the three things listed above. Focus on planning the development through those three areas.

It’s very nice to have an outline that has detailed the plan for conveying the theme of your story. This is very easy to forget about while actually writing, and one or two footnotes about “This character’s action connects to the theme of subtle racism in America, because this gesture they’re described as using relates to a historical reference of blank blank blank” etc. can help a lot. Find several clever little ways to sprinkle in your theme throughout the book, but be intentional and very careful, because your theme is the easiest thing for critics and nitpickers to get snippy about.

Allow room for your story elements to develop on their own during the process. However, be aware of when these details stray from the original plan and think critically about them, because little changes can completely screw large plans.

World Elements

World building is one of the most fun parts of writing stories, mainly in the science fiction and fantasy genres, but it’s oddly strange to fit in pre-planned details while writing the draft. This is simply because you’re more focused on the plot and development of conflict and characters. There are little ways you can plan time for world development in your outline, though.

Plan short scenes that revolve around or at least rely on the reader learning details about the world, whether that be politics, magic systems, leadership in fictional worlds, or simple details that provide a sense of familiarity. 

A good example of this is Harry Potter. JK Rowling is a queen when it comes to world building, and that universe is so fully developed with locations and lore and languages and political systems. Yes, there were seven books, but that’s an astounding amount of information that was never developed in a clunky, information-overload sort of manner. She wrote several smaller scenes where the trio were simply discussing the events within the story and used those opportunities to introduce new locations, items, lore, etc. that created a world that millions still feel is a second home to them.

Remember to continue building the world as you go. There will come scenes where you find little cracks to fit in facts about the world. Use them. Just keep track of those little details in a separate place or something so you don’t contradict yourself later. You could keep a “___ textbook” or something where you organize information about your world so you can either track new details or refer back to things you’ve already specified.

Have rules for your world. Every great magic system or alternate universe in fiction has its limitations, and if you simply say “nope, no rules in this system” your readers won’t connect to the system and world as a whole as wholly and your world-building will be seen as lazy. That’s just the way it is. It’s also a lot harder to create conflict when there are no defined limits or rules in a fictional world or system.

Domino Effects

Every action, expression, or event has its own consequences. Everything in your story will have a ripple effect, and maybe your readers won’t see every wave, but they should feel most of them, and that’s a hugely neglected part of outlining. Anticipate how each scene will affect the plot progression, character relationships, emotions, etc. because readers sense when events don’t connect.

For each scene, specify what led up to it and what it leads to. An example would be, “Steve heard his mother talking to his best friend on the phone, then he drove to his friend’s house to ask him what it was about, then it leads to a fight when Steve finds out his friend and his mom are seeing each other.” This specifies the initiation of the event, the event, and how the event leads to further conflict. You can sense how Steve and his friend and his mother’s relationships will be changed, and how the characters will likely be acting for the foreseeable future.

I prefer to write down the events of my story on a single piece of paper, organized in three sections. The first being cause, the second being event, and the third being effect. This is a simple way to keep track of the domino effects in your story.

Again, you don’t need to plan every single wave that every single event causes, but you should plan how you’re going to include the relevant ones in your draft.

These domino effects are not linear all the time. Effects of some events may not show up until several scenes, or even chapters later. A lot of waves take time to build and then come crashing down at the very end, so keep those in mind too. Plan the long term effects of larger events as well.

How to Utilize Outlines

Outlines are a waste of time if you aren’t going to actually use them to their full potential. It’s also crucial to note that your outline isn’t set in stone when you begin writing your draft. You can and should be adding to and amending your outline as you go along. That being said, here are some ways you can use an outline to aid you while you write you draft.

Keep track of world-building and what limitations may be imposed on your world or characters by details you add as you write.

Use the outline to keep track of how far you are into the story so you can be intentional with foreshadowing and revealing information at the opportune moments.

Have your timeline parallel to your development trackers and sprinkle in moments that show that development.

As you continue writing your story, acknowledge the domino effects in mind so you can set up future events that might need that context.

Create little “symbolism milestones”, so you know when the height of a symbol’s importance shows up in your plot and you can emphasize on that symbol in the actual writing.

etc..

Bottom line is, you can outline however you want and use that outline however you see fit, as long as you’re using your time wisely and creating something that will be helpful to you. My main advice is to just keep the aforementioned elements in mind when considering what to plan for your story beforehand. Happy outlining!

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[scifigeneration]

Yes, there is a war between science and religion

by Jerry Coyne

Doubting Thomas needed the proof, just like a scientist, and now is a cautionary Biblical example. Caravaggio/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

As the West becomes more and more secular, and the discoveries of evolutionary biology and cosmology shrink the boundaries of faith, the claims that science and religion are compatible grow louder. If you’re a believer who doesn’t want to seem anti-science, what can you do? You must argue that your faith – or any faith – is perfectly compatible with science.

And so one sees claim after claim from believers, religious scientists, prestigious science organizations and even atheists asserting not only that science and religion are compatible, but also that they can actually help each other. This claim is called “accommodationism.”

But I argue that this is misguided: that science and religion are not only in conflict – even at “war” – but also represent incompatible ways of viewing the world.

Opposing methods for discerning truth

The scientific method relies on observing, testing and replication to learn about the world. Jaron Nix/Unsplash, CC BY

My argument runs like this. I’ll construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional rather than absolute. These tools include observing nature, framing and testing hypotheses, trying your hardest to prove that your hypothesis is wrong to test your confidence that it’s right, doing experiments and above all replicating your and others’ results to increase confidence in your inference.

And I’ll define religion as does philosopher Daniel Dennett: “Social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.” Of course many religions don’t fit that definition, but the ones whose compatibility with science is touted most often – the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam – fill the bill.

Next, realize that both religion and science rest on “truth statements” about the universe – claims about reality. The edifice of religion differs from science by additionally dealing with morality, purpose and meaning, but even those areas rest on a foundation of empirical claims. You can hardly call yourself a Christian if you don’t believe in the Resurrection of Christ, a Muslim if you don’t believe the angel Gabriel dictated the Qur’an to Muhammad, or a Mormon if you don’t believe that the angel Moroni showed Joseph Smith the golden plates that became the Book of Mormon. After all, why accept a faith’s authoritative teachings if you reject its truth claims?

Indeed, even the Bible notes this: “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”

Many theologians emphasize religion’s empirical foundations, agreeing with the physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne:

“The question of truth is as central to [religion’s] concern as it is in science. Religious belief can guide one in life or strengthen one at the approach of death, but unless it is actually true it can do neither of these things and so would amount to no more than an illusory exercise in comforting fantasy.”

The conflict between science and faith, then, rests on the methods they use to decide what is true, and what truths result: These are conflicts of both methodology and outcome.

In contrast to the methods of science, religion adjudicates truth not empirically, but via dogma, scripture and authority – in other words, through faith, defined in Hebrews 11 as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” In science, faith without evidence is a vice, while in religion it’s a virtue. Recall what Jesus said to “doubting Thomas,” who insisted in poking his fingers into the resurrected Savior’s wounds: “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Two ways to look at the same thing, never the twain shall meet. Gabriel Lamza/Unsplash, CC BY

And yet, without supporting evidence, Americans believe a number of religious claims: 74 percent of us believe in God, 68 percent in the divinity of Jesus, 68 percent in Heaven, 57 percent in the virgin birth, and 58 percent in the Devil and Hell. Why do they think these are true? Faith.

But different religions make different – and often conflicting – claims, and there’s no way to judge which claims are right. There are over 4,000 religions on this planet, and their “truths” are quite different. (Muslims and Jews, for instance, absolutely reject the Christian belief that Jesus was the son of God.) Indeed, new sects often arise when some believers reject what others see as true. Lutherans split over the truth of evolution, while Unitarians rejected other Protestants’ belief that Jesus was part of God.

And while science has had success after success in understanding the universe, the “method” of using faith has led to no proof of the divine. How many gods are there? What are their natures and moral creeds? Is there an afterlife? Why is there moral and physical evil? There is no one answer to any of these questions. All is mystery, for all rests on faith.

The “war” between science and religion, then, is a conflict about whether you have good reasons for believing what you do: whether you see faith as a vice or a virtue.

Compartmentalizing realms is irrational

So how do the faithful reconcile science and religion? Often they point to the existence of religious scientists, like NIH Director Francis Collins, or to the many religious people who accept science. But I’d argue that this is compartmentalization, not compatibility, for how can you reject the divine in your laboratory but accept that the wine you sip on Sunday is the blood of Jesus?

Can divinity be at play in one setting but not another? Jametlene Reskp/Unsplash, CC BY

Others argue that in the past religion promoted science and inspired questions about the universe. But in the past every Westerner was religious, and it’s debatable whether, in the long run, the progress of science has been promoted by religion. Certainly evolutionary biology, my own field, has been held back strongly by creationism, which arises solely from religion.

What is not disputable is that today science is practiced as an atheistic discipline – and largely by atheists. There’s a huge disparity in religiosity between American scientists and Americans as a whole: 64 percent of our elite scientists are atheists or agnostics, compared to only 6 percent of the general population – more than a tenfold difference. Whether this reflects differential attraction of nonbelievers to science or science eroding belief – I suspect both factors operate – the figures are prima facie evidence for a science-religion conflict.

The most common accommodationist argument is Stephen Jay Gould’s thesis of “non-overlapping magisteria.” Religion and science, he argued, don’t conflict because: “Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings and values – subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve.”

This fails on both ends. First, religion certainly makes claims about “the factual character of the universe.” In fact, the biggest opponents of non-overlapping magisteria are believers and theologians, many of whom reject the idea that Abrahamic religions are “empty of any claims to historical or scientific facts.”

Nor is religion the sole bailiwick of “purposes, meanings and values,” which of course differ among faiths. There’s a long and distinguished history of philosophy and ethics – extending from Plato, Hume and Kant up to Peter Singer, Derek Parfit and John Rawls in our day – that relies on reason rather than faith as a fount of morality. All serious ethical philosophy is secular ethical philosophy.

In the end, it’s irrational to decide what’s true in your daily life using empirical evidence, but then rely on wishful-thinking and ancient superstitions to judge the “truths” undergirding your faith. This leads to a mind (no matter how scientifically renowned) at war with itself, producing the cognitive dissonance that prompts accommodationism. If you decide to have good reasons for holding any beliefs, then you must choose between faith and reason. And as facts become increasingly important for the welfare of our species and our planet, people should see faith for what it is: not a virtue but a defect.

About The Author:

Jerry Coyne is Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[margridarnauds]

2, 8, 9, 20, 30, 31, 32, 40, 51 (for the abominaton)

Thanks!

2. Favorite part of writing.

I love the feeling that comes with putting the thoughts that I’ve been visualizing in my mind on the page, I love getting to work with characters that I love dearly and putting them where normal circumstances wouldn’t, I love dealing with a wide cast of characters that help me learn more about myself.

8. Favorite trope to write.

In general, I like to write emotionally constipated characters dealing with their gay emotions for the first time. Also, I tend to work with straight-up fix-its or dealing with post-canon events (and, when I say “post canon” I mean “post my very, very specific version of canon).

9. Least favorite trope to write.

This is probably surprising, but I tend to not be fond of actually writing depressing endings. Like, even in the universes where I kill characters off, I like to at least give them some closure, even if it’s an afterlife AU. (Which…the Afterlife AU for Pour la Peine is going to be fun if I ever get around to it).

Also, I don’t like Modern AUs all that much, even though I have numerous ones for 1789. It’s probably mostly a matter of translating 18th century politics to the modern age. That and I hate writing anything set in the modern age on principle.

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.

Tw: References to animal abuse, bullying, and Lazare being a 13 year old with slightly homicidal tendencies (BUT HE’S STILL VALID)

Lazare didn’t know how he got involved. One moment he was gritting his teeth in anger at them, his rage reaching a boiling point after one of the punches caused Ronan to cry out, the next one of the bullies was on the ground crying, Ronan was putting another one on the ground nearby him, and he had his hand wrapped around  Denis’ throat, feeling his fingernails tighten around skin that had never been bruised before. All those military exercises his grandfather had made him run had their uses, he thought, as a strange thrill ran through him. Thibault Denis couldn’t do anything now, couldn’t hurt anyone; he was completely under his control. No matter how much he tried, flailed, choked, the little pretend tyrant was weak. So this was what authority meant. All that time when his grandfather had tried to explain it to him, and he’d never fully understood it.

“Lazare!” He was vaguely aware of Ronan shouting, and that was enough for him to release his grip. The boy fell to the ground, looking at him like he was Death incarnate, all widened eyes and quick breathing before he ran as fast as he could, his legs barely supporting him. The others followed suit, and it was just him, Ronan, and the cat. He flexed his hands, remembering the touch, looking at Ronan, wondering how he would look at him now that Lazare had hurt one of his own, but if he’d seen anything unusual, he hadn’t noticed, lavishing attention to the cat instead.

“Why would someone do something like that, huh? It’s just a cat, it wasn’t harming anybody.” Ronan held the wretched thing in his arms, petting it, with its torn ear and matted, faded fur and bony spine. “It probably just wanted to make friends.”

“The world can be cruel.” It had been the first thing he’d been told, when he was left on the steps of the Chateau de Peyrol and greeted by a stern, sharp man who introduced himself as his grandfather, and it had been something that he’d made sure he’d remember. The world had been cruel since time began, it would remain cruel. All that was important was ensuring that he himself did the best he could in the role he was given and to support the Crown in its efforts to keep order amidst the destructive forces that would bathe the world in fire otherwise.

Ronan shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be.” He held the cat a little closer, letting it burrow its face into his chest weakly, its pink tongue flicking over his fingers slowly. “It doesn’t have to be.”

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.

There was a sadness in du Puget’s eyes, and Peyrol felt like he was a schoolboy again, missing some obvious point that he had just explained to him in vivid detail. Only instead of the immediate reprisals, he got this. A beating he could deal with, scorn he could deal with, pity he could not. “We are all human beings, Monsieur de Peyrol. We are all human beings with a child’s longing for the companionship and love of our fellow man. If you cannot do that basic amount for him, then you will never deserve his trust or his love, no matter how many livres you pour into it.” 

31. Hardest character to write.

In general, any of the kid characters. I HATE writing children in general, and in the first part of the Abomination in particular SO MUCH rests on selling the kid versions of Ronan and Lazare and their relationship because literally the rest of this universe depends on them. I consider having to type “How do children make friends” and “What do children do with friends” to be on par with me trying to think about how long it’d take me to bang the man who (hypothetically) killed my father as far as Signature Abomination Moments.

For the non-historical characters of 1789, I’ve talked repeatedly how hard Solene is to write because of how little we get on her and how downright contradictory a lot of it is (see: her talking about how ambition and bloodlust have blinded Ronan…while she and the girls lynch a baker and march to Versailles. You go girl?) And you want to do a solid job with her, especially since her storyline touches on subjects that are STILL pretty damn sensitive, but you also don’t want to accidentally put her into any of the contemporary stereotypes of The Fallen Woman, The Victim, The Fury, etc, or any of our modern stereotypes when it comes to what a sex worker should look like and behave. That and trying to develop her relationship with Olympe is going to be slightly harder than usual, given that I still…need to figure out how they’re going to meet. With Pour la Peine, it was easier, since they had an easy way to meet up (Ronan’s funeral, RIP bro), but here, this is taking place in the canon era.

On a larger level, writing ANY of the historical figures that we have a decent amount of documentation for is hard, since these are people who are still highly controversial to this day and who can kind of….shift between different sources. Not necessarily the ones they wrote themselves, but, like, if you ask ten different people about Robespierre, you’ll get ten different responses. You’ll think you’ve caught onto him, and then he slips away. Likewise for Antoinette or Fersen or De Launay. Even Papa du Puget is rather hard for me to grasp, not the least because I know that the sources I need are locked behind an archive in France, untranslated and mostly obscure. (Funnily enough, the easiest for me to grasp is the Marquis de Sade, because the man’s just a dick. I will proudly proclaim the man’s a dick. He deserved to spend the rest of his life rotting away and I consider it an eternal tragedy that far better men than him in every way died during the course of the Frev while he managed, despite himself, to survive.) With some characters, like Danton and Desmoulins, I sense that my interpretation of them is going to be much different than the normal interpretation of them.

Basically, there’s a lot of pressure with them that isn’t necessarily there with the canon OCs, I don’t have as much freedom, and it can be damn hard to put them into a given situation to see how they’d react. (Incidentally, I’m going to put a tentative guess that they won’t react well to L/R. Just a guess. Though I’m sure Lazare can win them over with his A+ social skills, charm, and tact.) 

32. Easiest character to write.

Laz and I get along very well at this point, even as I torture him.

40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why?

Fanfiction, actually.

With original fiction, there’s a lot of pressure when it comes to constructing the world you’re working with and the characters and how they interact with it. And, believe me, it’s a lot of fun, but it’s also damned hard to visualize it. Like, I fucking specialize in Early Irish Lit, and yet my retelling of CMT is hard to write 90% of the time because I have a hard time working with this world and how it works (which…given that the rules themselves weren’t concrete in the original lit, I don’t feel all that bad, but still). To tell you the truth, even after looking at tons of pictures of longhouses and hillforts and costumes from the Book of Kells, I still can’t get a decent idea for this stuff. It’s even harder for the main WIP, where I have to do a lot more construction, working with inspirations from multiple time periods, and it’s a real mess because I’ve never entirely gotten those inspirations under control and the characters keep shifting out from under me.

With fanfic, on the other hand, you have characters, you have a setting, and you have a decent idea with how the world works. Now, you can always do what I do and completely throw canon out anyway, BUT you still have some basics. No matter what, I have some baseline for the characters and some baseline for how the world works and I can build my research off of that.

51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words.

Doing this for the first part because it’d be literally impossible to do it otherwise.

A gloved hand on a black walking stick, a slightly bent, silver wolf’s head gleaming from the top.

A sea of golden wheat over flat land as far as the eye can see, a sharp blue sky hanging over it.

An old, faded book with a decrepit spine.

A blue parrot locked in a gilded cage.

Two boys against a tree on a slightly chilly summer night, looking at the stars, unaware of what they hold for them.

[not-another-imagine-blog]

Lights Will Guide You (Auston Matthews)

Anonymous said:

I need some Auston Matthews fluff in my life

Anonymous said:

Any Auston in the works?

Anonymous said:

Christmas imagine with Auston Matthews please!

Word count: 1630

Author’s note: FINALS ARE OVER THANK GOD! Now I can actually write (also The Office gif doesn’t have anything to do with this imagine but I think I’m going to be posting Christmas gifs with all of my holiday imagines coming up).

Clicks, sniffles and sighs fill the air from various students as you nervously tap your foot on the ground, staring down at the last of your finals for this semester of college. Of course, your last final is in your hardest class: Biology. You’ve been studying for a week straight, armed with an arsenal of flash cards and the knowledge that you need a 70 to keep your B, or an 80 to make an A. As your professor continues to make his rounds around the room, handing out the tests, your mind drifts for a moment to all of the things you have to do before you go back home for winter break. Your phone buzzes, startling you out of your thoughts. Sparing a quick glance to make sure your professor isn’t looking at you, you glance at the screen.

Auston: Good luck on your final! Don’t stress out, you know the material.

You smile at Auston’s message, quickly replying with a bunch of hearts before sliding your phone back into your pocket. Auston’s seen how stressed out you’ve been over the past couple of weeks, carrying your notes with you everywhere you’ve gone and constantly going to his apartment to study, not being able to find a quiet enough spot anywhere on campus. You look up at your professor as he clears his throat, motioning to the class that they can start. You eagerly flip the test over, looking down at the first question.

“Crossing over occurs in what phase of meiosis?” A wave of relief instantly washes over you as you automatically fill in the answer. Auston was right, as he usually is, but you’re not ever going to let him know that.

“So when do you leave?” Auston asks. You’re both in your dorm room, Auston laying on your bed and tossing a stress ball into the air as you sit on the floor, figuring out what to bring for your three weeks at home.

“Probably tomorrow. I don’t have any more finals, but the school’s kicking us out of our dorms on Friday, so there’s really no other reason to stick around.” Auston shoots you a look and you laugh, realizing what you just said. “Besides you, of course.” You throw a random t-shirt that you haven’t seen in a couple of months in the pile of clothes you’re leaving at school.

“That’s my shirt!” Auston shouts, sitting up and rolling off your bed.

“What?” Auston grabs the shirt that you just threw and picks it up, displaying the front of it. It’s faded, so it’s obviously been worn quite a bit, and it has the ZSC Lions logo on the front of it. Now that you think about it, you do vaguely remember taking it from his apartment when the team was on a long road trip. “Well how did that get here?”

“I’ve seriously been looking for this for a month.”

“Funny, because I lost it in my closet like, a month ago after I stole it from you.” Auston looks at you, debating on what to do with your his shirt.

“I’m taking this back.” He decides, holding it to his chest.

“That’s perfectly fine. I have plenty more of your shirts hidden away.” You mutter the last part to yourself, but Auston’s head still snaps up, a smirk on his face.

“What?”

“Nothing.” You say all too quickly. “When does your family fly up?” Auston had discussed the holidays with you before. It was just easier for his parents and sisters to fly up to Toronto so that they could spend more time with Auston, as opposed to Auston flying down to Arizona for two days.

“Friday.”

“Your mom’s gonna think I’m skipping town to avoid your family.” You joke. Auston sits down next to you on the floor, looking at all of the odds and ends that you still have to pack (and, you’re sure, more of his shirts).

“Are you sure you have to leave tomorrow? We haven’t even done any holiday couple things yet.” Auston whines.

“Okay white girl, sorry you don’t have anything to post on your Insta this week.” You jab as Auston gasps, putting a hand to his chest.

“Rude, (Y/N).” You smile cheekily while Auston slides his arm around your shoulders. “I don’t even want you to stay in my city. I’ll drive you to your house myself.”

“Your city?” You question, laughing. “Neither of us are even from here!”

“I’m loved and adored by more people here.” Auston counters. Your mouth falls into a thin line while you try to think of a comeback, eventually conceding defeat.

“You suck.” You groan while Auston shrugs.

“But seriously, I feel bad that we haven’t done anything. You’re leaving for almost a month, and by the time you get back it’s just going to be winter, not the holidays.”

“We’ve both been really busy this month, Aus. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I still want to do something with you.” You think for a moment, coming up with a plan.

“Let’s go, then.” Auston looks at you, confused.

“What?”

“Let’s go do something. It’s only six o’clock, and I’m almost done packing. Let’s go fulfill your holiday couple dreams.” Auston’s up before you can even finish your sentence, pulling you up with him.

“I have the perfect idea! I’ll drive; let’s go.” You’re mildly surprised at how fast Auston’s put his plan into action.

“How long have you been planning this out?” Your question falls on deaf ears as Auston leads you down the two flights of stairs and to where his car is parked.

You look out the car window, watching as the apartments and restaurants of downtown Toronto slowly fade into the large, historic houses that reside in the suburban area.

“What are we doing all the way out here?” You ask. You’ve never been to this part of Toronto, usually preferring to just stay on campus or hang out with Auston.

“Just wait.” Auston says. The car slows to a crawl as you look out again when Auston tells you to. A slight gasp leaves your mouth as your eyes fill with the sights of gorgeous, stately houses all decorated with Christmas lights.

“Oh.” You want to say more, but can only manage to make noises, the lights too hard to tear away from.

“Pretty, right? Mitch and Steph did this last week; Steph knows how much you love Christmas and Christmas lights, so she gave me the idea.” You turn to look at Auston, who can’t stop smiling at your expression. “Do you like it?”

“I love it. This is the best white girl couple thing we’ve ever done.” Auston parks the car on the side of the street, glancing at his phone.

“It’s not too cold out. Do you want to walk around and look at some more? We can drive, too, if you don’t want to walk.” You shake your head, zipping your winter coat up.

“No way. It’s going to be so much better if we walk.” You open up the car door and step out, Auston meeting you on your side. Your gloved hand meets his as you both start to meander down the sidewalk, commenting on the different lights every so often.

“I can’t wait until we have our own place one day. Our house will be the brightest on the block.” Auston says absentmindedly, still looking up at the lights as you stop walking. Sure, you guys have talked about the future, but never anything concrete. You’ve only been dating for four months; neither of you have even said ‘I love you’ yet. Auston suddenly realizes that you’ve stopped walking right as you realize the same, jogging to catch up to him. “Why did you stop walking?” Auston asks.

“It’s nothing.” You shake your head. “But...were you talking about when ‘we have our own place one day?’” You ask, not wanting to come off as mean. Auston thinks for a moment, going back through what he said.

“I did say that, didn’t I?” He asks, looking very deflated.

“No, it wasn’t bad. I’m not mad at you.” You hurriedly reassure, not wanting to give off the wrong impression. “I just...were you serious?” Auston nods after a long pause.

“I was, yeah. I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but I did mean it.” You look down, watching your breath leave your mouth in small puffs. When you were a kid, you used to always pretend that you were a dragon. Now, you do the same, not really knowing how to continue the conversation. Auston grabs your hands in his, making you look up at him.

“(Y/N), I know we haven’t even been dating for a year, but I’ve never been this serious with anyone in such a short amount of time. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I know that I want you to be there with me.” You shift your weight from one foot to another, desperately wanting to say what you’re feeling, but not knowing if it’s too sudden.

“I think I love you, Auston.” You say in a rush. You both stare at each other, the cold making you squint your eyes slightly as you shift in your coat. Finally, Auston smiles, and all your nerves leave.

“That’s good, because I know I love you.” You can’t help but to smile back, your eyes fluttering shut as Auston stoops down to kiss you. You’re sure that this looks like a cliche Instagram post right now; you and your boyfriend kissing with a background of soft lights twinkling. But honestly, you don’t really care, because this is something that you’ve never felt before.

[xtruss]

Why Our Reliance on Cars Could Start Booming

— BBC News | Mark Johanson | Worklife | December 3, 2020

Until earlier this year, Alley Vandenbergwas a regular bus rider. She’d wake up each morning and take line 15 from her apartment in the City Park neighbourhood of Denver, Colorado, to her office at a financial institution in the bustling Civic Center Plaza. Because the commute was just 2.5 miles (4km), the investment supervisor left her car at home so she could avoid the hassle of driving through the heart of downtown at rush hour. It also saved her the $200 cost of monthly parking. Then, the pandemic threw a major wrench into her seamless commute.

“In May, when my office started asking people to return, my bus route had been cut to fewer runs, and capped at 15 riders per bus,” she says. Pre-Covid-19, the bus was always standing room only by the time it got to her, “so I knew I would just end up sitting at the bus stop for an hour or two, watching buses go by because they were already at capacity”.

This, coupled with news of riders not following guidelines for mask-wearing and social distancing, led her to swallow the additional costs and commute to work by car.

She’s hardly alone in making the change. Ridership on public transport has plummeted to historic lows both in the Americas and Europe, including on the London Underground and New York City Subway. Meanwhile, recent reports suggest that, despite our apparent embrace of biking and walking during the pandemic, many people can’t wait to get back into their vehicles. And they might even use them more after Covid-19 passes. Transport planners warn that this rapid shift back to the comfort of cars may be setting the stage for post-pandemic gridlock that could hamper economic recovery in cities across the globe.

A November report by automotive-services company RAC claims that the pandemic may have set the UK back decades in attitudes of driving versus taking public transport. Out of the 3,000 car owners surveyed, 68% considered their vehicles essential for daily errands, up from 54% last year.

Reluctance to use public transport was at its highest in 18 years. Some 54% of respondents said safety was a top consideration, but only 43% agreed that they would use their cars less if public transport was improved, which was the lowest figure since 2002. “The pandemic had the effect of making drivers who already had cars realise that they would depend on them more than ever,” says Rod Dennis, a data-insight spokesperson for RAC. “The million-dollar question is whether or not this is a deep-rooted change.”

The generation that has been historically least interested in car ownership, Gen Z, may offer some clues. Auto Trader, a digital marketplace for cars, says 15% of its website audience in the UK between June and September was aged 18 to 24, compared to just 6% during the same period in 2019. Rory Reid, Auto Trader UK’s YouTube director, noted that “the pandemic has shifted young people’s views of car ownership and gotten them to hit the road earlier than usual, as they look to rely less on public transport and try to minimise risk of spreading coronavirus”.

And, perhaps surprisingly, fears over the potential environmental risks of increased car use don’t seem to be a top concern for many around the world. A YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project survey of 26,000 people from 25 countries showed that an overwhelming majority accept human responsibility for climate change. Yet the poll, conducted between July and August, found that the majority of respondents also plan to drive more in the future than they did in the past. For example, take Brazil, where 88% of respondents believed in human-induced climate change. Some 60% of those same people said they would use their car more after the pandemic than before, while just 12% said they would use it less. More than 40% of respondents in the US and Australia also said they would drive more after the pandemic compared to just 10% who said they’d drive less.

Car traffic, in some places, has already exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Greater Paris hit record levels in late October ahead of a new national lockdown, with jams stretching to a cumulative 430 miles. Road congestion levels in outer London have increased nearly a fifth above last year. Traffic in Perth, Australia, is now 18% above pre-pandemic levels.

Many leaders around the world, most notably President-elect Joe Biden in the US, have announced aggressive plans for an economic recovery spurred by investments in green energy. However, these figures suggest targets set by the Paris Agreement may already be in jeopardy.

Concern over the safety of public transport has been one of the major factors luring people into cars in recent months. However, studies in France, Japan and Austria that have looked at the first wave of the virus have shown little evidence tying major coronavirus outbreaks to buses or trains. On the contrary, these studies showed that, with measures like social distancing and mask wearing in place, infections on public transit were actually quite rare.

Nevertheless, transit administrators have worked around the clock to enact new safety measures aimed at luring back riders. These include reducing capacity, enhancing sanitation measures and tapping into technological innovations. The latter has been a major focus of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It moved more than a billion people in 2019. However, earlier this year, year-on-year ridership dropped by as much as 93%. At the same time, new car registrations in the city climbed 18% above 2019 levels.

Transit Innovation Partnership, a public-private initiative from MTA and the non-profit Partnership for New York City, released a live subway map in October to eliminate paper maps and notices as well as aid with ease of travel. It also launched a Covid-19 Response Challenge in July, which received nearly 200 ideas for innovations that could increase customer confidence by making transit safer, healthier and more responsive. Eight winning companies are currently demoing their technologies, such as air-filtration solutions, antimicrobial LED lights and real-time passenger crowding data.

“It’s absolutely critical to empower the transit agencies to be able to try these new solutions with a strategic approach and move forward,” says executive director Rachel Haot. “There is no going back to how things were before, so we need a completely new framework, and that’s going to require change.”

As a result of this experimentation, as well as strong health-messaging campaigns and steps to encourage mask use, ridership on the subway has steadily increased. But it still remains about 65% lower than last year. Like so many transit systems around the world, the MTA is now facing a financial crisis due to the huge loss of operating revenues.

Kate Laing, programme manager of mobility management at climate leadership group C40 Cities, says transit systems will likely have to slash operations if they can’t come up with the money. She adds, “They will almost certainly find themselves having to cut services in areas where they don’t have guaranteed fares, so we’ll see a welfare and accessibility and equity disbenefit as a result."

A pre-pandemic study from Pew Research Center showed that one in 10 Americans use public transport on a daily or weekly basis, mostly in the metropolitan areas of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC. Among those urban dwellers, 34% of black residents and 27% of Latinos reported taking public transit, compared to just 14% of white residents – meaning any cuts could hit people of colour the hardest.

Additional people in cars, and not on public transit, could mean more than just environmental and infrastructure impacts. Gridlock can act like a hand brake on the economy, hampering the flow of workers and goods. Consequentially, cities that include investment in public transport as a core pillar of their economic recovery – and continue to infuse money into beleaguered systems after the pandemic wanes – will likely fare better than those that don’t, says Laing. She adds it will also be key to find ways in 2021 to incentivise public transport use, since the decisions we make to get on it are typically based around time and cost.

“Everyone loves driving, except when everyone else drives,” she explains. “When we take the bus, it’s because it’s a hell of an inconvenience to take a car because you can’t park, or it’s just too expensive or you can’t afford one in the first place.”

To avoid post-pandemic gridlock, she says, cities need to “put in place measures that make it inconvenient to make a bad choice and really convenient to make a good one”. These include investing in bus and bike lanes, charging fees for street parking, maintaining new outdoor dining zones and, once economies bounce back again, looking into congestion pricing.

Could measures like these lure back those who’ve avoided public transport due to service cuts and safety fears? Vandenberg, the investment supervisor in Denver, says that “once we have a vaccine and things are under control, I'd definitely be willing to look into public transportation again”.

For her, the car commute remains a temporary fix. But for many, it’s a shift that’s becoming more ingrained by the day.

[bughead-fic-request]

I would like to thank @leaalda for making these amazing banners.

This is an effort to spread the word about all fan fiction writers in our little fandom. If you would like to be featured or nominate a writer, please contact me. Please reblog this post if you can and check out some of @ficmuse work!

1. First things first, if someone wanted to read your stories where can they find them.

I post all of my work on AO3

2. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’ve been a writer and a poet since childhood. Professionally, I’ve worked for a major Internet service provider, been an executive secretary, made collections calls and even sold windows door to door. I just completed an art history Capstone in Roman and Greek art and am contemplating graduate school. I’m also a mom and a wife. I’ve worn a whole lot of hats in my life.

3. What do you never leave home without?

Something to read. I carry my Kindle in my purse. I read a lot of romance, mystery, and historical fiction.

4. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Depends. If I’m really immersed in something I’m writing, I’ll pound the keys until 2 am or later. Ideally, I’m in bed by eleven.

5. If you could live in any fictional world which one would you choose and why?

Westeros! Ice zombies? Dragons? Bring it on.

6. Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met.

I’m a fangirl with a travel budget, so I’ve met some actors from my various fandoms, including James Marsters from Buffy and William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek. I like attending conventions. I’ve met Charlaine Harris, one of my favorite authors. That was a big thrill, too.

7. What are some of your favorite movies/TV?

TV: X-Files; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Friends. Movies: While You Were Sleeping; Fifth Elements; Pride and Prejudice (2005).

8. What are some of your favorite bands/musicians?

Music is a really important element of my life. I need music while writing, cooking, driving, you name it. My all time favorite bands include Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Garbage, and Muse. Musicians? Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan.

9. Favorite Books?

Jane Austen; I waffle between Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries. Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles. Dorothy Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.

10. Favorite Food?

Any configuration of a potato. Baked; fried; mashed. I’m a potato fan.

11. Biggest pet peeve?

Passive aggressive people. Just tell me what I’ve done to piss you off and I’ll try to make it right. If you can’t do that, we’re at an impasse.

12. What did you want to be when you were little? What do you want to be now?

I’ve always wanted to be a published author and that’s still my dream.

13. What are your biggest fears? Do you have any strange fears?

Oh, boy. I have a phobia about driving on the highway. It’s very weird. I’ve gone way the hell out of my way to take side roads instead of highways.

14. When you are on your deathbed what would be the one you’d regret not doing?

When I was fifteen, I had the choice to go to boarding school in England. At the last minute, I backed out and went to a school in Pennsylvania instead. I really regret that; my whole life would have been on a different path.

Okay… lets talk about your writing!

15. Which is your favorite of the fics you've written for the Bughead fandom?

I’ve only written a few, but the BLT universe (Bizarre Love Triangle, Long Live Rock) is my baby. That’s my blood, sweat and tears, right there.

16. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

Fugue. The idea of Jughead as a murderer was so preposterous, I had to figure out a way to make it real and believable.

17. How do you come up with the ideas for you fic(s)? Do you people watch? Listen to music? Get inspired by TV/movies?

I get inspired by music more than anything else. Usually, finding the right song is the key to unlocking a story for me. But it can be other things. I eavesdrop like crazy and I also am very moved by neon signs and photography. I often look at moodboards and listen to a fic specific soundtrack while I’m writing.

18. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

I’ve been writing a fic with Betty as the POV character. The plot is inspired by the movie Groundhog Day. She keeps repeating the same night over and over. It’s funny on film, but I think it’s too repetitive as a story. I haven’t given up on it yet, but it is really kicking my butt.

19. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?

Archie and Betty hooking up in Long Live Rock was just such a bummer.

20. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?

Jughead’s backstory about how he got his beanie in Bizarre Love Triangle.

21.Favorite character to write?

Jughead, for sure.

22. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you've written?

For Long Live Rock, I had to write a lot of song lyrics. I’m particularly fond of some I wrote for Jughead: Fortunes have been made and fortunes have been lost /Princes earning money by moving rocks Princesses waiting tables in a neon glow/What we had we'll find again and never let it go.

23. Best comment/review you’ve ever received?

I really love it when people just get so flipped out that they can’t even articulate their feelings and it’s a lot of capital letters and exclamation marks.

24. How do you handle bad reviews or comments?

Unfortunately, I have a thin skin. I can handle the occasional nasty comment, but when it’s message after message of people hating what you do, it’s demoralizing.  My husband has repeatedly suggested not reading the comments on Ao3, but I feel an obligation to respond to each reader unless they are being a complete and utter asshat. The hate mail I received on Tumblr for parts of Long Live Rock was just unbelievable. That stuff, I just delete and try to ignore. That being said, constructive criticism is great. But that’s rare and far between. I get a lot of “this is great” or “I hate this with the fire of a thousand suns” and not much in the middle.

25. If you could change anything in any of your stories, what would it be?

The inevitable typos that I can only notice after I post them. Each one causes me physical pain.

26. What is your favorite story you’ve ever written? Any fandom?

My first real labor of love was a story called The Countess which was based on the BBC TV show of Robin Hood. I had a massive fangirl crush on the bad guy, Sir Guy of Gisborne. I shipped him with Maid Marian and despite the fact that she DIED, I still wanted a happy ending for my OTP. Did I mention that he killed her? Because that was the canon ending of that ship! So, I literally resurrected her, made the hero of the canon story the villain, and gave the full monty love story and a happy ending to Marian and Guy. It made my heart happy. It still does, because that canon just pissed me off to no end. One of the great joys of fan fiction is the ability to tell canon to go screw itself.

27. What are you reading right now? Both fan fiction and general fiction?

I haven’t read much Bughead fic because it lessens my ability to get into the headspace of my own AU. However, I am fortunate to have a plethora of fic recommendations from my dear @jandjsalmon waiting for me. As for fiction, I am currently reading a historical mystery called Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson.

28. Do you have an advice for writers that want to get into this fandom but might be scared?

Don’t be afraid that your work isn’t good enough. Your work is always better than you think it is! You are your own worst critic. Trust that there is an audience for every story. We are a very welcoming community and you are guaranteed to find someone who will appreciate the work of your imagination.

[trentteti]

December 2017 LSAT Recap

When the scores for the most recent LSAT are released, test takers receive a series of documents: their score report, their question responses, the score distribution, a copy of their exam (unless you happen to take the undisclosed February exam), and the like. Most normal people, who see the LSAT as merely a hurdle in their path two a law school and a legal career, just look at their score and discard the rest.

But for the decidedly not normal and exceedingly nerdy — read: LSAT instructors — those discarded documents tantalize us. We love to pour over each released exam to analyze the questions, try to discern trends, and to predict changes in what is tested on the LSAT. We often compare each LSAT release to Christmas morning. We’re a very sad lot. But it was nonetheless very fitting that the December 2017 LSAT drop occurred so close to Christmas, giving us our favorite gift of all: the opportunity to gain insights into the LSAT that we can then pass along to our students.

So today we’re going to look over each section of the December exam to try to shed some light on some perplexing questions, to discuss which concepts this exam emphasized and downplayed, and to place this LSAT into the bigger picture of recent exams. If you took the December exam and are now hard at work filling out your application materials, hopefully this will be a revealing — and not too traumatic — walk down memory lane. If you’re studying for a future exam, hopefully this will be somewhat prescient in what your exam might look like.

So enough preamble, let’s do some quick hits on each section …

Logical Reasoning

• The first thing I check out with Logical Reasoning sections is the question distribution. Although an LR section could conceivably discuss any topic — and there were some bonkers topics, on this and every other exam — there are only a few different kinds of questions they ask (about 18 common question types, according to our classification system). And the number of each type of questions included remains fairly constant over time, although there have been some changes on recent exams.

The biggest change to the question distribution for Dec 2017? There were a ton of Strengthen questions. By my count, there were 11 overall. I believe that’s more than any other LSAT, ever. However, this is of a piece with a larger trend on recent LSATs. Strengthen questions have become increasingly prominent over the last few years. So much so that they have recently overtaken Flaw questions as the most common question type.

• A few of these Strengthen questions were presented in an unusual way. Often, an LSAT question will ask you to select the answer choice that “most logically completes” the argument. You look up to the passage, and you see a big blank space following a word like “therefore” or “thus.” Those words tell that you’ll be “completing” that argument by providing the conclusion. Since you’re trying to infer what a supported conclusion might look like, those questions are what we call Soft Must Be True questions.

Several questions on the December exam asked you to select the answer choice that “most logically completes” the argument, but when you looked up to the passage, it used words like “because” and “since” before the blank space. That means that you’re adding a premise to the argument that will support the conclusion already included in the argument. In other words, these questions were asking you to pick an answer choice that would strengthen the argument, not draw a conclusion from that argument. These were Strengthen questions.

Your approach to Soft Must Be True and Strengthen questions are very, very different (for one, you should prefer weaker answer choices on Soft Must Be True questions and stronger answer choices on Strengthen questions), so realizing that these were Strengthen questions was pretty important.

Still confused on the difference between the two “most logically completes” questions? It’s simple. If the blank space follows words like “therefore,” “thus,” “hence,” or “so,” treat it like a Soft Must Be True question. If the blank space follows words like “since,” “because,” “for,” or “as,” treat it like a Strengthen question.

• Another interesting tidbit was the number of Disagree questions. The typical LSAT will have 1 or 2 of these questions. This one had 5. Plus, there were 4 Disagree questions on the September 2017 exam. So it appears as if Disagree questions are becoming a little more prevalent. And I, for one, see this as a welcome development. For a test that prepares students to enter law school — where they will learn about our two party, adversarial legal system and spend quite a bit of time pouring over old legal cases and describing the two sides of the suit — it makes sense that test takers will see several questions that test their ability to describe a disagreement.

• Otherwise, this was a pretty normal test in terms of question distribution. Other than Strengthen questions, Flaw, Necessary, and Soft Must Be True questions were the most common question types, as they pretty much always are. There were two Parallel and two Parallel Flaw questions, as always. There was only 1 Describe question, 1 Role question, and 1 Sufficient question. And there weren’t any Main Point, Crux, or Explain questions. But those are less common question types, so getting one or none of each isn’t unheard of.

• There were a few questions that lodged themselves in test takers’ memories following the exam, and, unsurprisingly, these were the most interesting questions to unpack. One question that stuck out for many — which has shot straight to my short list of favorite LSAT questions ever (again, see the above statement about LSAT instructors being a sad lot) — was a Soft Must Be True question about T. Rex bones. Apparently, some fossilized T. Rexes bear evidence of bite marks that could only come from another T. Rex trying to fight them or eat them. The question then told us that these bite marks would have been impossible to inflict on a live T. Rex. Which should have led the astute test taker to deduce that the bite marks couldn’t have come from live combat, but instead would have to come from a T. Rex mawing on the dead T. Rex’s rotting corpse. The right answer required a bit of common sense and outside knowledge — that eating dead kin constitutes cannibalism — but if you figured that out, then bang a gong and get it on to the next question, because you aced that one.

Also, we predicted there would be some death metal on this exam. And this question literally gave us a cannibal corpse.

• The hardest question, I thought, was a Strengthen question about Caligula, the vilified Roman emperor, alleged freak, and subject of a very bad 70s film. This question asked us to support the position held by modern historians, who claim that Caligula isn’t as bad as he’s made out to be, since there isn’t that much documentation of his evil acts and the historical accounts of him were written by his enemies. Usually, getting a Strengthen question right is just a matter of figuring out what’s wrong with the argument. On this question, figuring out that part was easy. Just because enemies of Caligula described his bad behavior doesn’t mean that their descriptions were inaccurate. Befitting the Latin language Caligula spoke, that’s a classic ad hominem attack.

However, finding the answer choice that fixed that problem — by showing the enemies’ descriptions were inaccurate — was pretty tough. The right answer showed that these descriptions were inaccurate in a very oblique way. It said that the bad behavior attributed to Caligula is very similar to the bad behavior attributed to other cruel tyrants. That opens up the possibility that the enemies are either lying about the cruel stuff Caligula did (and using the older tyrants as their inspiration) or are confused about who committed the cruel acts (and misattributing them to Caligula). And either would buttress the position that Caligula — who reportedly engaged in incest and fed humans to wild beasts for pleasure — really wasn’t all that bad of a guy. Pretty damn difficult. What this question asked of you, at the end of the day, well, Caligula would have blushed.

• Aside from that question, how difficult was Logical Reasoning overall? Well after doing the exam, I assigned a number from 1 (least difficult) to 5 (most difficult) to each question. Not exactly the most scientific of methods, but I probably wouldn’t be doing this if I were good at math or science. Anyway, the average difficulty of each question was 2.68 for the first LR section and 2.65 for the second. So, there you have it, very average difficulty!

Reading Comprehension

• My students’ reports following the December exam suggested that this Reading Comprehension section was uncharacteristically easy, especially after many, many exams of excruciatingly difficult Reading Comp sections. I held out hope that students just felt that way because I did an especially good job of teaching them the strategies of how to do this section. While I know our approach to Reading Comp is sound, my ego is reluctantly taking this L, because this was a pretty forgiving section.

• One noteworthy thing about this Reading Comp section? All but the last passage were organized around answering an explicit or implicit question. This is a common rhetorical device on Reading Comp passages, and identifying it can help you understand the passage and destroy on the questions. That’s because the main point of the passage will always be the answer the author agrees with (or a summary of each answer described, if the author doesn’t agree with any). So the first passage asked whether the “Chinatown Chinese” dialect from San Francisco’s Chinatown was a distinct Chinese dialect (Answer: Nope). The second passage asked whether life developing in our universe was really as improbable as some cosmologists believe (Answer: Probably not). In the third, comparative passage, passage A asked why comedians don’t use the legal system to protect their jokes (Answer: it’s expensive and uncertain, and social norms do the same thing) and passage B asked why chefs don’t use the legal system to protect their recipes (Answer: again, social norms do the same thing). By my count, just recognizing this would have directly answered or helped answer 13 of the 20 questions distributed among these passages.

• San Francisco’s Chinatown was discussed at length in the first passage, so let me use this space to offer my hot take. Aside from a few decent bars, San Francisco’s Chinatown is hugely overrated. Los Angeles’s Chinatown, which is smaller and not even the nexus of Chinese activity in the city, is much better. NorCal types, don’t @ me.

• The second passage is all about the theory of the multiverse — that there are an infinite number of universes, occurring parallel to ours, in which things played out differently than they did in our universe. The concept of infinite parallel universes is pretty wild if you think about it — literally every possible scenario exists in some other universe. Since LSAC brought that up, I think this opens up a great opportunity for you to write an explanatory essay on why your LSAT score isn’t up to some schools’ standards. Just explain, as calmly and rationally as you can, that although you didn’t get a 180 on this LSAT, there is a version of you in some other parallel universe that earned a 180 on the LSAT, and that the admissions officers should take that into account. Hey, if they’re going to take past scores into consideration, they should take parallel scores into consideration as well.

• The final passage illustrated an important lesson many test takers unfortunately fail to learn for Reading Comp. So many test takers spend way too much time trying to understand every last detail of the passage, and don’t give themselves enough time to answer the questions. Now, understanding the structure of the passage and the author’s attitude are the most important tasks in Reading Comp, and you should take adequate time to do those. But you don’t have to understand every last little detail.

Parts of the fourth passage, about how a novelist and social theorist named Charlotte Perkins Gilman took her understanding of Social Darwinism and used it to support a feminist theory of human progress, were confusing as hell. You could have easily wasted 10 minutes on them. But the questions, I thought, were super easy, and really just depended on you understanding which camp of Social Darwinists Gilman belonged to. So remember: focus on the structure and author in Reading Comp. If you need the details of a passage, you can always re-read the relevant parts of the passage.

• Using the 1 to 5 scale for the Reading Comp section, the average difficulty was a 2.75. That’s a half-point lower than the September 2017 section and a full point lower than the June 2017 section. Is this the end of brutal Reading Comp sections? I wouldn’t bet my life’s savings on that. There is still far more evidence of tough Reading Comp sections to come. But we’ll see February!

Logic Games

• Finally, logic games. After a few exams of straightforward games with straightforward deductions, which followed a few years of the LSAT getting a little bit wild with some of its games, December 2017 gave a set of straightforward(-ish) games with straightforward(-ish) deductions. I’d place the difficulty of this section somewhere between the notoriously easy September 2017 section and some of the really difficult recent sections, like say, December 2016.

Now, I heard many frustrated test takers who found this to be a really difficult games section. I understand where they were coming from, as these games were decidedly more difficult than the games they did on their final practice exams, assuming they took the September and June 2017 exams last. But these weren’t really mind-melting or unfair or even usual games. I suspect a big reason so many found this lot of games difficult was that this section was the last of the exam, and students had to tackle them while fatigued.

• The common element to each game was making scenarios. Every game benefitted from the use of scenarios. If you made the right set of scenarios for each game, they were actually really easy (I completed all four games in about 20 minutes). Unfortunately, none of these games included the rules that obviously lend themselves to scenarios. Like a giant constrained block in an ordering game or a “must be together” relationship in a grouping game. So test takers had to get a little creative to find ways to construct scenarios. But those ways were definitely there.

• The first game was a “combo” game — combining an ordering game with an In & Out grouping game. Basically, a travel agent (which, btw, is a profession that’s antiquated even to me, who is part of an age group that could generously be referred to as “Washed Millennials”) has to select four of six Asian cities for a tour, and then schedule the selected cities from the first to fourth city traveled to.

The key to constructing scenarios in this game was realizing that, since Hanoi and Taipei were cities that must be included in the tour, the only cities that could fill out the remaining two open slots were Jakarta, Manila, and either Osaka or Shanghai (a rule forbid selecting both). Selecting two of three is always a potential way to make three scenarios, and that was the route to take for this game. Making one scenario where the last two cities were Jakarta and Manila, one where they were Jakarta and either Osaka or Shanghai, and one where they were Manila and either Osaka or Shanghai answered every question.

• The second game was a straightforward 1:1 Ordering game that used a difficult, but common, ordering rule: that a player had to be either before or after two other players. Rules that present two mutually exclusive options are pretty much always good for two scenarios. These scenarios combined nicely with another rule that presented two mutually exclusive options — that a player was either before or after another player — to create scenarios that helped out with each question.

• The third game was a source of consternation for many test takers, with many failing to figure out what type of game it was. The game involved a passenger railway system needing to close some of its six stations. So some stations would be left open, and some would be closed. Some open. Some closed. Open/Closed. In/Out. “Open” and “closed” may be the binary, but it’s still not all that different from an “in” and “out” binary.

This is an important lesson — a game may seem strange at first blush, but odds are that it fits in the paradigm of a safe and familiar game. And you’ll be so much better off doing that game using the same set-up and rules as a game you’ve down dozens of times before. For those studying for the next exam, btw, this was very similar to game 2 in the October 2005 exam (in which light switches are either turned “on” or “off”) and game 1 in the 2008 exam (in which dancers are either “on” or “off” the stage”).

Once you figured out this was an In & Out game, where the “In” group was stations left open and the “Out” group were stations that were closed, scenarios presented themselves with the first rule: that either N or R had to be “In.” That restriction combined with other rules and, by making the deductions in each scenario, the clever test taker should realize that N and R couldn’t both be “In.” There were many unrestricted players in this game, but the scenarios still provided a framework to quickly answer every question.

• The fourth and final game was admittedly difficult. Again, many test takers struggled to even set this up. Here’s an easy tip for setting up games, though: scheduling is an act of ordering. So whenever you get days of the week in a game, it’s an ordering game. So in this game, we had to schedule a day, Wednesday through Saturday, for an environmental consultant to examine the air quality on floors 1 through 8 of a building. The consultant would examine two floors each day, making this an Overbooked Ordering game.

One hard part of this game was the first rule, which prevented the consultant from examining consecutive floors on the same day. Seems inefficient, but sure, do your thing environmental consultant. Anyway, I suspect many got hung up on symbolizing this rule. But it’s more important to understand and apply the rule. This rule just means that if, say, floor 4 is examined on Thursday, floor 3 and floor 5 couldn’t also be examined on Thursday.

A pretty unique set of scenarios emerged in this game. The game placed a series of mutually exclusive options on certain floors. Floor 3 could only be examined on Wednesday or Thursday. Floor 4 could only be examined on Thursday or Friday. And Floor 5 could only be examined on Friday or Saturday. As on the second game of this exam, these mutually exclusive options were the basis of scenarios. These constraints, plus the first rule, which prevented floors 3 and 4 and floors 4 and 5 from going on the same day, gave us four scenarios: One were 3 was on Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, and 5 on Friday; one where 3 was on Wednesday, 4 on Thursday, and 5 on Saturday; one where 3 was on Wednesday, 4 on Friday, and 5 on Saturday; and one where 3 was on Thursday, 4 on Friday, and 5 on Saturday. Again, these scenarios helped on pretty much every question.

• Hopefully the above descriptions make clear one point about learning how to do logic games. Practice making scenarios! It can even be worthwhile to do games multiple times — once with scenarios and once without. Experiment on each game, and see which approach is better. This will help you begin to recognize which types of constraints are most useful for scenarios, and will help you choose the most efficient path for each game on your exam.

• Here’s a final point about games: If you’re reading this blog (and made it this far into the post), then you clearly take your studies very seriously. Bully to you! Hopefully that means you’re practicing more than the typical test taker. If so, you should want a difficult games section. Nay, you should crave a difficult games section. You’re going to be better equipped to handle more complex or unusual games than others. Take it from a guy who has taught hundreds of people — most fear difficult games more than anything on the exam. However, with the right practice, difficult games are the most conquerable “difficult” part of the LSAT. On the easier games sections this year, most people did very well on logic games. To distinguish yourself from the crowd and get a good score, you had to do really well on a much more difficult to master Reading Comp section. Trust, it’s a lot easier to distinguish yourself on a difficult games section. So don’t fear difficult games. You can master them. And then tests like December’s will be all the more conquerable for you.

Final take-aways

• So in all, this wound up being a slightly more difficult test than September or June 2017, but with a slightly more forgiving curve. For the December exam, you could miss 12 questions and still get a 170. This is much more generous than the 9 you could miss on the June 2017 exam and a little more generous than the 11 you could miss on the September exam.

• It also caps off a year when the LSATs were all fairly straightforward and predictable. At least more so than usual. Once 2018, with its slightly revised schedule of LSAT administrations, begin to roll around, we’ll see if this old dog of a test still has some tricks up its sleeves, or if it’ll be more of the same.

December 2017 LSAT Recap was originally published on LSAT Blog

[scripturient-manipulator]

2 / 8 / 11 / 22 / 25 / 28 / 39 / 47 / 49

2. What was your favorite book growing up?

Oof, so many. I adored the Warriors series though, some really great books about the society and culture of some feral cats that had no holds barred in terms of angst and crossed love and character death.

8. What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten?

Thankfully I have a lot to pick from here. @highfantasyorbust gives great feedback, there’s nothing like sheer ecstaticness about your writing while pointing out a thing or two to fix. Besides that, I think there was a tidbit that really helped. Before Perfect World got published there was a beta reader who said “I noticed that Farid 305 used the word “via”. Why would he do that? Every word says something about him”. My immediate reaction was “it’s not dialogue, it’s just a word while he goes through the first Father’s memories, it’s just words”. Thank everything I didn’t reply that way. I think that was what tipped me over into listening to the advice that even when you’re not doing first person the words still come from someone; in the case of the third person limited of Perfect World, from Farid 305.

11. What’s your favorite book cover?

I really adore Bordertown’s cover, as well as A Madness So Discreet, the latter’s is so striking.

22. Do you start with characters or plot?

Most of the time I start with plot, just because since I discover who the characters are as I’m writing them I need something for them to be doing while I learn about them. So I’ll have a vague idea that I pants my way through as they all come to life and change it up.

25. What advice would you give to young writers?

Don’t worry. Don’t worry about publishing or anything else, just write for the sheer joy of it because I remember doing that before rules cluttered up my head and needed to be actively ignored. But also reach out. Don’t be afraid to include characters like you if you don’t see yourself in pages, and let yourself experiment with stuff that’s not anywhere. Do you want to write YA without any love triangles in it? Go for it! Do you want to write historical fiction and cut and paste real newspaper clippings in here and there? Yes please, that’d be really fun to read. Do whatever you think would be fun.

28. What do you find hardest, the beginning, the middle, or the end?

The beginning’s easily the hardest. Because at that point I have perhaps a handful of traits for  handful of characters. In the beginning of my Camp Nanowrimo project for instance, I knew that two of them were trans women and one was cis and the trans Shariah (a leader) had endless faith in people. …Cool. Right then I’m still fumbling around, trying to figure out who these characters are, because I can’t plan them out, it just doesn’t work for me. So unless they click it feels like they could be anyone because I’m not feeling their uniqueness quite yet. The beginning’s definitely the hardest.

39. What’s the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had?

Okay so I’m gonna bring us back to a long time ago because it’s odd but also I think it’s really cute. Back in fourth grade I wrote my first full story. 100 handwritten pages, it was about twin daughters of the Loch Ness monster. They were human while their siblings were full-on like Nessie, don’t ask why. But basically someone one night stole one of the twins and left her on the side of the road and therein embarked a story about her learning who she really was and giving a completely classic Disney speech about how we should love each other for our differences, not be scared. I also had an idea that never came to be written about a Land Of The Impossible where anything you said was impossible suddenly was, and anything that was possible suddenly wasn’t. Very a la The Phantom Tollbooth.

47. If you could steal one character from another author and make them yours, who would it be and why?

Hm…well I dearly love Luna Lovegood so I’d totally steal her. But I’d also steal Elv from Alice Hoffman’s The Story Sisters even faster, because that girl went through horrors and throughout the book you can’t tell if what she thinks and believes is a giant coping skill or if it’s really happening. This is a book that activates my mania and she’s a character you just want to hide away from the world and help.

49. If you could write a collaboration with another author, who would it be and what would you write about?

I’m pretty sure @highfantasyorbust and I could whip out some fucking brutal fantasy that could destroy you and make you laugh.

~Jessica

[veilchenjaeger]

Another brilliant one. As a(n aspiring) historian, I wanna add so much to this - like the issue of sources and looking at them critically. On the one hand, you can’t just go and take a piece of evidence we have, point at it and say “That’s definitely queer”, because you can’t jump to conclusions as a historian. And a lively discourse and criticism of existing theories - including someone going as far as posting a “In Response To” on JSTOR and dragging a theory because they think it’s bullshit - are vital to our ability to understand and explore history. After all, jumping to conclusions and cis/straight people projecting their world view of “Gay is bad so it didn’t exist before the 60s” onto existing historical evidence is what got us into this situation in the first place.

On the other hand, see the video above. It’s so important for queer people to have a history that’s not just AIDS crisis and persecution, and “Uhh, possibly this person might have kissed a girl once but we aren’t sure because our sources are shit” just doesn’t cut it.

On top of that, queer history has been actively erased - and is still being actively erased - thorough the history of academia. Nowadays, methods aren’t as drastic as literally changing the gender of the people Catullus or Sappho write about in translations. But the old interpretations of source material that try their hardest to deny any kind of queer evidence are still very much present, and that gets dangerous when they end up in history books or are seen as historical facts even by historians although there could very well be another interpretation. (You can find evidence for and against absolutely anything, and if your academic predecessors accumulated a bunch of evidence with a homophobic bias, that’s what you inevitably end up working with unless you invest blood and tears in re-examining all those sources yourself. One person just can’t undo all that bias. We’ll get to that.)

And then there’s the thing where today’s modern historians, writing books in the year of 2k19, gloss over queer history almost constantly. I routinely check every text I come across on a few specific historical figures for discussions about their either very certainly queer or quite possibly queer sexuality, and I come up with a lot of works where sexuality either isn’t mentioned at all or queer theories are dismissed as minor and something “some authors suggest that maybe”. In the same vein, heterosexual encounters - even if they are 100% speculative and the person in question is confirmed to have been queer - are often played up as incredibly important to a historical figure’s psyche.

That’s a very generalising view of historical academia, and I’m also talking about a lot of more popular historical science here. But the issue is very present both within universities and the works that actually get out there and are read by people who don’t spend their days digging through archives, deciphering Roman inscriptions, and screaming at each other about the legitimacy of Herodotus. The few instances when queer history is actually visible in the sources and even discussed in an academic context are actively omitted by writers.

Plus, the video talked about the issue of a lack of education, and this is a major problem in university as well. If you don’t specifically go digging for courses on gender and sexuality studies, queer history is barely even mentioned. (Again, exceptions exist and some lecturers are awesome, but I have been studying history for 5 semesters now and have yet to come across any actual exploration of queer history.)

Like, we, as queer people (and queer historians), have a bias. We wanna have this legacy, this evidence that we’ve always been around, so we actively look for it, and we tend to be too overjoyed when we find it to critically engage with the source material.

That’s a bias we have to be aware of. But in the end, cis/straight historians are biased too, especially cis/straight historians who have close to no contact to queer people or haven’t actively engaged with queer topics, and who just never think of that being an option. I’d say they’re less likely to pick up on things that seem a little queer (pun intended) in both sources and literature, and they’re more likely to eat up the biased POV that was created by conservative historians.

My personal opinion is that the latter bias is the dominant one in academia in general and historical studies in particular, and has been for... uh... ever. (Or maybe since the Romans, they had their own bias going on.) So we need people who pick up on these things and who go and look for the queer stories, who go and re-examine the old theories and interpretations and call out homophobic/transphobic bias in the old academic works. We need people who look at things through a queer lense and offer another set of theories that actively include queer people. We can still discuss them and criticise them, but I’d say that it’s important that this POV is present and part of the historical discourse.

One day, I’ll write a book on “Advocating for a Queer Historical Science”. For now, deal with me slapping rants onto other people’s posts.

Why is queer history so difficult to learn about? 

A twitter thread about gay WW1 soldiers went viral this week with the hashtag #emilyxaver - and then turned out to be fake. 

 Here’s why that matters…

[guardianofjunmyeon]

The Khan, The Prince, and The Enslaved Princess (part 1)

Pairing: Sehun x OC

Genre: Fluff, Historical, Future Smut?

Description: Sehun is the last Chinese Prince. Suho is the Khan trying to unite the Eastern world. Senayt is a princess who was kidnapped and now lives under Suho.

Warnings: Violence? Sex? Abuse? What are warnings tbh??

Part 1, Part 2,

The forest was dark, and the sounds of the wildlife around her was deafening. She could barely make out her own hand in the dark, much less the figures beside her. The anxiousness of those around her mixed with her own was manifesting into the nonstop shuffling within the foliage. Her heart was beating loudly against her rib cage, and she found herself hoping that this mission that her Khan had set her on would end quickly. She had done her part; hoping that maybe this was enough to prove her loyalty to the Khanate, she has worked as a spy to direct them to this location within untamed southern China.

She sat in the brush behind the cabin that they had finally found after months of searching, and waited impatiently for the Khan’s men to finally burst in and capture the young lost prince that the entirety of the Eastern world was looking for.

The Khan’s best warrior, Yixing, was peering into the flame lit cabin through a dirtied window in the wooden exterior; she tried not breathe as she waited beside his other men that were also waiting for the signal to invade. Without removing his eyes from the singular window that looked inside, he lifted his hand and suddenly everyone was in motion. The men beside her rushed to his side and burst through the door. She sat and watched in the dark.

She could hear their shouts and the sounds of metal clashing against metal. She had no idea what lay in wait, but she knew that she has no place at their sides in this moment. She could fight and hold her own of course, but this wasn’t something she was to be involved with. She only need be there to watch as it all unfolded.

She watched with narrowed eyes as the sounds got quieter, and in the darkness she could see a woman in a dark robe kick through the doorway. When she blinked the woman had vanished from her sight.

“Senayt.” She looked up at the sound of her whispered name. Yixing stood in the doorway searching for her in the dark. She stood and stepped over branches to get to his side. Yixing, the man who she owed almost as much to as the Khan himself. A brave warrior who had managed to save her from a life within the Khan’s harem, instead allowing her to learn to work and fight at his side. For saving her from a life of being just another palace whore, she works her hardest to prove herself as a worthy pupil to the handsome and fearless man who she follows.

Reaching his side, she saw the blood on his clothing and face. The candlelight from within highlighted his strong features, and she found herself swallowing down the intimidation she had consistently felt when standing next to him -or rather standing below him. When he saw her face he sighed in relief. “It’s fine. You’re safe right now.” The hand that was not holding on to his blade rested on her shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly. She knew that he knew they weren’t safe yet, not truly. Until they return within the capital walls, neither of them are safe. Especially with their needed new addition. She only nodded in turn as he turned around to search the now lifeless cabin for the prince.

Following her master, she stepped inside over the slain bodies of the men who came in to support Yixing. All those who joined them on this journey now lay slaughtered at her very feet. She didn’t really like any of those who joined them on their trip, but they were the Khan’s men after all and their lives would be honored. Turning her eyes back to Yixing, she looked at him in awe, she knows that he really lives up to his name. The best warrior of the Khan is the only one who lives after this bloodbath. That one woman wiped out everyone sent to find the boy. She was lucky to be unfound in the night that surrounded them.

“He should be here.” Yixing murmured. Her eyes fell on the lone rug in the otherwise empty room. An auspiciously placed piece of decoration. Following her line of vision, Yixing picked up a corner of the dirtied thing and threw it to the side. A doorway sat beneath it. He looked to her briefly before grabbing onto its handle and tossing the door open. Dirt and dust cloud around them. Yixing waved away the debris to look inside of the dark hole.

She treaded over to peer inside next to her master, and there inside sat a young boy. The last living son of the Chinese Oh dynasty. The 5-year-old Prince, Oh Sehun. He looked up at his two captures with scared eyes, and she found herself pitying the young boy before her. She was only a few years older than him, but she could understand his situation almost entirely.

Not even 5 years ago was she captured on her way back to her own kingdom. She was traveling with company along the silk road when those around her began to drop after being taken out by arrows shot by Mongols, and since then she has found herself at the mercy of Khan Suho.

She was taken in as a prisoner, and knowing of her status as a captive she still owes the man her life. He could have killed her. He could have tortured her, but he didn’t. He only kept her. Albeit it as another unofficial addition to his large harem she was still grateful to be alive. Because of her young age at the time, master Yixing was able to take her in as his own apprentice to save her from a life destined to be a concubine. She owed much of her current fortune to master Yixing. Without him, she would have been permanently trapped within the walls of the harem as a young girl, but instead she was out fighting and spying with the best of the Khan’s men.

She wasn’t sure what was to come of the young prince.

With him, the Khan now has leverage over the entirety of the rest of Southern China, so she was almost positive that the boy would live.

As a slave to the Khan probably, but he would still live.

She held her hand out to the young boy and offered a small smile. “Take my hand. It is okay. You are safe with us.”

The boy didn’t move, and she patiently waited for him to willingly grab on to her hand so that she could help him out. She could feel Yixing getting restless next to her. If they didn’t leave soon, they might run into more trouble and he was already wounded and tired.

His small hand found hers after what felt like hours, and she gently guided the young prince out of his little shelter. He was small. He shook in their presence, and she could only attempt to understand his mindset.

Here he was, standing in a room of dead bodies with a man covered in blood and a girl with skin like dark copper. It must be quite a lot to have to be exposed to in one sitting.

“Who are you?” his voice was small, but it did not waver. She fought a smile at the courage that the boy displayed even in a situation such as this. He really is a young prince.

“We do not have time for pleasantries right now young emperor. Let us take our leave, and we will explain what we can when we have a moment.” Yixing picked up the boy and carried him out to where their horses were waiting. Senayt followed behind, keeping her senses on high alert in case anyone tried to attack them. With the boy, they were even more vulnerable. Hopefully they could reach their capital without facing many more attacks.

**

“What do you think will happen to him when we return?”

“He’ll be brought in front of the Khan of course.”

“I mean after that. Is he going to be okay? He won’t be hurt right; he’s just a child.”

“You’re just a child as well,” Yixing said with a chuckle.

“I may be a child, but I was not the emperor of China. Even I know how important he is.”

Yixing sighed and wiped the last of the blood off of his sword. He placed it in its sheathe before looking into the brown eyes of the young girl in front of him. “You worry too much. You should be focusing on your own safety. You’re only a teen, and yet you talk of the boy as if you are old enough to be his mother. Whether he lives or dies is not your concern, Senayt. Our mission was to bring him to the Khan and that is all. The Khan can do as he wants with the boy. Whether that be to chain him up or to cut off his head and parade it through the streets it is his choice. We have no authority to interfere with his decision.”

They both heard the almost inaudible gasp and turned to its direction. The boy emperor looked at them with tearful eyes as he heard the two elders talk of his potential death. He turned and walked away from them with haste, back to the place where he was supposed to be sleeping.

Yixing and Senayt shared a look before Yixing stood on his feet. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“No. I will,” She said standing on her own. “I…I think that I can help ease his heart. You’re still bloody after all.” She bows quickly after having spoken so quickly and out of turn.

“You are right. Go to him,” He said with a small smile before sitting back down on the ground in front of the fire.

“Thank you, master.” She jogged off to the spot behind a tree where they set up a resting place for the young prince only to find him staring up at the sky above them with tears brimming in his eyes. She knew that he could hear her approaching, but he made no move to look at her. She sat a distance away from him and watched him as he looked up at the stars.

“Am I really going to die?” his voice was quiet, and the courage in his voice from earlier was almost nonexistent now. Her heart broke.

“I don’t know.” She replied honestly. He let out a short sob. “I don’t know,” she repeated louder this time “…but I don’t think so.” He looked over to her with a quivering bottom lip. “I think you will be fine. You are the emperor of China after all. I’m just…a princess from a kingdom far from here. All the way in Africa, but I’m still alive.” She said offering him a shy smile. “You shouldn’t worry about it. The Khan is a kind man. He doesn’t seem it at first, but he isn’t a monster like people make him out to be.”

The two sat in silence. She turned her gaze to the sky while he kept his on her. The girl was interesting. He had never seen anyone like her before. With her coarse brown hair, and smooth deeply tanned skin she was nearly the opposite of the women he was used to seeing. She was pretty though, even he knew that. He wasn’t sure why someone like her was here beside him offering words of comfort, but he was grateful nonetheless.

She clicked her tongue and looked back at the boy who had not turned away from her. His eyes now dry but observant. “I should return to my master. Rest up, we have a long trip ahead of us.” She stood up quickly, and walked with haste away from the boy. He was young, but she still felt intimidated in his presence. He had almost no experience with the world, but his eyes seemed to hold the wisdom and knowledge equal to 1000 old souls.

It was intriguing, but oh so unsettling.

[jobsearchtips02]

3.28 M Apply For Joblessness

WASHINGTON– A record 3.28 million employees requested welfare recently as the brand-new coronavirus hit the U.S. economy, marking an abrupt end to the nation’s historical, decadelong run of task growth.

The number of Americans declare claims was almost 5 times the previous record high. The surge was for the week ended March 21 and might increase further. Pennsylvania, Ohio and California were amongst 10 specifies reporting more than 100,000 claims, leaving joblessness systems overloaded.

Millions of U.S. services have actually revealed layoffs or furloughs, as their cash flows dry up. Numerous state and regional authorities have purchased inessential organisations to close in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, bringing the great American task device to an abrupt stop.

Up Until March, U.S. employers included tasks for a record 113 straight months, triggering payrolls to grow by 22 million.

The strong labor market kept the U.S. economy humming for a decade– directly through a European debt crisis, Japan’s tsunami, a Chinese economic downturn, a domestic production depression, unstable energy costs and an international trade war.

And After That, in a matter of days, it stopped.

The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the global economy. WSJ’s Greg Ip describes what the Federal Reserve can do to stem the damage. Illustration: Carlos Waters/WSJ.

Millions of Americans, currently afraid the brand-new coronavirus could infect them or their families, now have 2 new concerns: When will the job maker start again?

” We haven’t seen this big of a complimentary fall prior to,” stated Keith Hall, previous director of the Congressional Budget plan Workplace and advisor to President George W. Bush. “Not even throughout the Depression … It’s really like an instantaneous Fantastic Economic downturn.”

Mr. Hall stated the unemployed rate in the coming months could approach the 20%that some economists price quote took place throughout the Anxiety. Northern Trust Chief Economist Carl Tannenbaum stated if half the employees in hard-hit markets, such as restaurants, retail and personal services, are laid off, the unemployment rate could rise 10 percentage points, to more than 13%. That is well above the post-World War II record high of 10.8%at the end of the 1981-82 economic downturn.

The number of out of work claims filed recently in Pennsylvania increased by 363,469 to 378,908, with 5.8%of the labor force seeking help.

Those figures didn’t capture everybody seeking assistance. Denzel Buie stated he was stymied by crashing sites and unending phone-call waits when trying to sue. The 25- year-old was laid off from his union construction task on March 20 when local authorities closed down projects, consisting of the welding and wall building he was doing at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. At the start of recently, the state purchased restaurants and bars to shut down.

The increase in claims last week was 17 times higher than the previous record one-week dive.

Mr. Buie stated his layoff was a serious blow to his family, that includes a 3-year-old daughter. His better half, a secretary, was laid off a week earlier when the specialist’s office where she worked suspended operations.

” It’s not like I can go get another job,” Mr. Buie stated.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine mandated bars and dining establishments to close dine-in services on March15 The state had 187,784 new out of work claims recently.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Have you or someone you understand been impacted by the unemployment crisis?

.

Pennsylvania and Ohio supplied an estimated variety of claims, the only 2 states to do so, according to the Labor Department. A department expert stated the estimates were likely due to the high-volume of claims gotten.

Job losses swept throughout the nation hitting states with differing mandates for social distancing. California, with tough limitations, had 186,809; Texas, with less, had 155,657; while New Jersey had 155,454

In Rhode Island, 6.4%of the manpower– almost 1 in 15 workers– looked for benefits, the highest share in the country. The state’s guv announced that, reliable Tuesday, March 17, there would be “no on-premise food consumption” at restaurants, bars and coffee bar.

In Nevada almost 6%submitted claims. The preliminary wave of layoffs struck the hospitality, restaurant and tourist industries– the lifeline of Las Vegas– hardest. Casinos closed March 17.

The claims information likely do not fully catch the seriousness of the layoffs. Employees aren’t needed to file for claims the week they are let go. If a person is ill or busy caring for kids or member of the family, they may postpone filing for advantages, specifically if the process needs a lengthy wait. New York state, one of the areas hardest struck, had a reasonably little level of claims for its population, less than 1%of its workforce.

Unemployed Claims Jump Amid Pandemic

Lots of states saw new out of work claims rise, recently, as coronavirus cases have continued to increase.

New unemployed claims vs. favorable coronavirus cases

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500,000

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250,000

10,000

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In addition, more companies laid off workers this week, as extra states ordered unnecessary services to close.

Economic experts are divided on whether the slump is short-term interruption or the start of an extended economic downturn.

If the country can get back to organisation quickly, dining establishments, airlines, hotels, and others might rapidly employ back the workers they have let go or furloughed in the shock.

But there are other circumstances.

The money crunch now hitting services and families likewise could induce them to pull back further, starting a down cycle that feeds on itself. All of that could damage company and household confidence, leaving long-lasting economic scars.

Getting back to work therefore hangs on how quickly the infection itself is tamed.

” This is occurring with dizzying speed, and therein lies my concern,” Northern Trust’s Mr. Tannenbaum said. “The shock and wonder from the forthcoming work numbers might be damaging to the country’s psyche.”

Large corporations were at first reluctant to lay off workers aggressively, in part due to the fact that they expected the infection to pass rapidly and didn’t wish to part with workers. Finding and keeping good employees in what was a tight labor market had been hard.

Now, pressures to fire people are constructing beyond the industries most directly exposed.

General Electric Co.

‘s jet-engine company stated Monday it would lay off about 10%of its U.S. workforce, or about 2,500 workers.

The job market isn’t evenly dark, in part since the effects of the crisis are spreading out unevenly.

Walmart Inc.,

Amazon.com Inc.,

and.

CVS Health Corp.

are amongst about a lots big business that have actually stated they are looking for to hire almost 500,000 workers in coming weeks. The companies are handling a rise in need for food and other household products that have actually taxed their shops and storage facilities.

” We are employing,” states Jeff Stevenson, who runs a white wine marketing organisation that concentrates on remote sales called VinoPRO Inc. “We literally had our single largest sales day of the year last Wednesday.”

Though those mini-booms are motivating, financial experts don’t expect them to totally counter the pressures millions of other employers deal with to lay off employees as sales and cash streams dry up.

Joe Olivo is president of Perfect Communications, a little New Jersey industrial printing business that produces direct mailings for universities and nonprofits and promotional material for retail businesses. In February, company was flourishing. Profits was up 28%from a year previously, and he was wanting to include five more individuals to his payroll. Under pressure to keep workers and respond to rising minimum incomes in the state, he rose pay between 2.5%and 11%for his workforce in 2019.

Then, in a matter of days, orders dropped 70%. He has currently let five part-time employees go and cut shifts to about 30 hours a week for the other 50.

” Right now the lending institutions are stating, ‘We get it,'” he stated. Without cash circulation, tough decisions loom about whether to let more people go. “I am striving not to do that.”

Jacqueline Martin, a massage therapist based in Albuquerque, N.M., generally quits to 16 massages a week, charging at least $50 for a one-hour session. She hasn’t worked much this month and isn’t qualified for joblessness insurance coverage under existing programs.

” Massage is touch, and that’s how this is spreading out,” Ms. Martin said. “I can’t Skype my massages.”

Amongst lots of other measures, Congress is considering broadening coverage to include self-employed individuals like Ms. Martin.

Mr. Hall, the former CBO director, is amongst the financial experts who expect the economy to recover at a slower speed than it agreements. He pointed to a factor for hope: The labor market has actually defied expectations in the recent past, drawing a bigger share of Americans into the workforce than lots of anticipated and reaching low unemployment levels few believed possible.

” We kept getting fooled,” he stated.

— Chip Cutter contributed to this article.

Compose to Eric Morath at eric.morath@wsj.com, Jon Hilsenrath at jon.hilsenrath@wsj.com and Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com

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