#which is not to say they're not good writers

[peterparkouryo]

impossible to ignore you | ‹𝟹

‹𝟹

prompt; The boy from the train asks you out on a date.

warnings: disgusting amount of fluff and slight angst in beginning bcuz reader is delusional.

word count: 1k

a/n: twitter is my new addiction pls follow @/arvinsfav i'm tryna reach 1,000 followers ilyyy. also i am so so sorry this is so bad, i barely read fanfics now so my inspo of words and storytelling is kinda horrible bcuz of the writers block :( forgive me i promise to do better next time.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ taglist

-

You found that school has always been a drag. No matter how many social events Midtown tried to throw at the student body, nothing could ever make you enjoy an eight hour torture of sitting through classes (lunch excluded). 

However, there was one good thing that made just a little bit of appreciation in you getting an education slightly important. 

Peter Parker.

After properly meeting him on the train a few weeks prior, you found yourself seeking him out, wanting to know whatever you could about him without making it stalkerish, or overall weird.

A couple of your friends mutual to the boy had told you how insanely sweet he was, and even though he has his disappearing moments, he still finds a way to be there when needed. To you, that's a certain admiration you revel in with anyone.

Sure the two of you talked here and there, but given your growing infatuation to the boy, its a more so awkward exchange than genuine chemistry. There were even times you had to ask yourself if you were the problem or if he's just not as people person as you thought he was.

For instance, today in Spanish Class, you were stuck on the Spanish word for 'Phenomenal', so naturally you ask the smartest person in the room for help, and since you were in a sort of acquaintance relationship with Peter, you turned and shot your question to him.

Peter's reaction to your question however was far from how he interacted with you the weeks before, and you felt something stir in your gut, a bad feeling almost. Not only did he half answer, but he lacked eye contact.

You read somewhere that during conversations, eye contact is a super important thing to have and it shows that a person enjoys talking to you, and they're hearing what you're saying by maintaining such an aspect.

Maybe the little overlydramatic side of you could be reaching and he might just be really shy, but it also made no sense, because Peter did seem like he liked your company, at least for a little while.

As your thoughts of what if's invade your mind, you walk down the hall after asking your math teacher if you may use the washroom (he made a dumb math joke before you left), you notice a familiar set of brown curls exit the boys' washroom, and you stop in your tracks just as he did.

You look him over in his blue Midtown sweatshirt, which he probably got from school spirit week, holding a hall pass from the detention classroom. 

"Hi." Peter says.

"Hi." You say back.

The strained silence set an unwanted tension between you both and Peter quietly fiddles with the makeshift pass in his hands before clearing his throat.

"You look nice today." He softly smiled at you and you blink in genuine confusion as the butterflies in your stomach flutter at his compliment.

"Thank you." You respond and awkwardly place your hands behind your back.

A few more seconds of quietness go by.

"I hope you know I'm not ignoring you on purpose, or—I don't want you to think I hate you or something." Peter explains, to your relief.

Being under the impression the boy hated you, or just fizzled out interest overtook your mind more than you'd like to admit.

All you could do is nod in response, thankful but still a little worried.

"It's just...I don't really know how to talk to you." Peter admits and continues, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'm not mad at you or anything." You reassure, smiling in hopes he believes you.

Peter looks around in deep thought and takes a deep breath. You could feel his nervousness practically oozing from him.

"Look, I'm just going to say it because my aunt told me I should be more confident and upfront, no matter the outcome—" He rambles and you furrow your eyebrows with a confused smile. "I really like you, I know its technically been a few weeks, but I don't know..." Peter shrugs.

Your heart drops to the bottom of your stomach listening to his words, hearing the boy you were so infatuated with and even asked around about openly admit to liking you. It was almost impossible to ignore the feeling of happiness rising in you.

"You like me?" You bite the bottom of your lip and grin.

"Well, yeah." Peter shows you a half smile.

"I like you too." You ultimately admit.

Peter's half smile turns into an even bigger one.

"You do? I mean—That's awesome, maybe..I could hopefully, successfully ask you on a date? If you want to go, not forcing you or anything." He watches and waits for your reaction.

You felt like you were in a dream and one simple pinch would wake you up from this fairytale.

"I would like that." You agree and you swear Peter's smile grows inhumanly larger.

"Okay, cool."

"Cool."

A more comfortable beat of silence goes by.

"I should probably get back to...dentition before the Coach think I skipped or something." Peter explains to which you nod in understanding.

"Right." You press your lips together as he starts to walk past you.

The boy stops in his tracks and turns to face you. "Is it okay if I take you to a science related museum for our date? Because I know some cool facts unless you think that's lame, then we could go to Delmar's or something, but if you don't like sandwiches either—" You stop him before he continues with his habit of rambling.

"Both is fine." You chuckle and Peter nods at your submission.

"Okay, both it is."

Peter turns around and unknowingly fails to notice you watch him just about skip his way back to detention and you smile at the adorable gesture.

Almost completely forgetting your bladder needed relief, the five minute conversation finally coming to an end, you make your way to the girl's washroom with a more confident pep in your step.

taglist:

@victoriousskylar @ietss @astrogirl0666 @hahehwjavaja @superlegend216 @b4tm4nn @imawhoreforu @sunsettee @myfangirlinessononeblog

[somepsychopomp]

Tips for Writing a Good Fic Summary:

I firmly believe that no writer should ever have to say "I suck at summaries", "my summary is bad but my story is good", "idk what to put in my summary" etc.

Why?

It makes you seem unconfident or disinterested in your own writing, which therefore puts off a lot of potential readers

It can come off like you didn't try

When tons of people say "I suck at summaries", it lowkey lumps you in with all the other writers who also don't know how to write summaries, and can make the premise of your fic seem less interesting or unique as a result

And quite frankly, I think every person who's ever slapped this kind of disclaimer on their fic absolutely can write a good summary if only they had some guidance and practice!

So, here are my go-to strategies for how to write a summary that functionally conveys the premise of your fic while also making it sound fun and interesting:

(Disclaimer, a lot of fellow fic writers out there have already internalized at least a good portion of what I've written below. This guide is designed for fanfic newcomers who may or may not still be learning how to write, largely because I most often see them posting the dreaded "I suck at summaries" as a shield, excuse, or preemptive defense of their works. I also want to say- no shame. We all have to start somewhere, and I just want to help out as much as I can.)

1) The In-Universe & Out Strategy:

I'm explaining this one first because if you've ever spared even a passing glance at Ao3, you've definitely come across this summary archetype before. And I'm super guilty of using it, too. But hey, if it works, it works!

This strategy is actually two summaries in one, the first being a blurb explaining the plot in a way similar to those you'd find printed in published books, with the goal of highlighting the drama or central conflict in the story and/or main character(s).

But it's also combined with an "out of character", typically much shorter summary that explains the premise by referencing its tropes or general format. The example below is one of my own fic summaries:

Let's start with the easier "out of character" component of this two-parter, that being the very last line of the example summary. This portion is technically optional in any summary, but has its many uses. The most important of which is that it offers clarity and guidance for your readers, and informs them of what exactly they're getting into if they were to click on your fic.

Also, it always comes second because the technical, "out of character" component is not you as a fandom participant trying to sell your story in an engaging way, it's you as the author explaining what it is you've made using familiar terms like "pre-canon"/"AU", etc.

And to be clear, I personally believe it's always better that your potential readers' first taste of your story (that being your summary) is immersive and enticing rather than plain and technical. So this smaller blurb should always go after your actual summary. Think of it as the cherry on top.

And you can make this portion of your summary very easily. Just state if your fic is an AU, if it's a "5 times X happened and the 1 time Y happened" fic, etc. All you have to do is tell your audience plainly what the main draw of the fic is, and all that takes is 1 sentence.

Aside from that, why does this format work and why is it so common in fandom spaces?

Well I referenced it before, but it offers something that most summaries in published books do not: clarity.

Yes, a good fic summary should tell you who the central character(s) are and a general idea of what happens in it. But summaries are also often used to build intrigue. You want your audience's curiosity to be piqued, so if you make your summary (and by extension your story) sound cool and mysterious, or full of adventure, or intensely cerebral and thought-provoking, readers will be inclined to click on your fic to find out how it ends.

But also, mystique offers uncertainty. And some readers might not like a fic if they can't quite parse out what exactly it'll be about. So, having an additional line or two after your "real" summary to explain the premise the way you might quickly explain it to a friend, gives that balance of intrigue and clarity.

But how do you write that first part? The actual summary?

2) The Cheater's Strategy:

It sounds a little dramatic, but honestly I consider this my "cheat sheet" way of making a summary because it's very much a shortcut that works.

And that strategy is: you sum up the first chapter of your fic. Nothing more. You do not allude to what the overarching plot is, you act as if chapter 1 is all you've got. But why would you do that?

Here's the thing about fanfics, based heavily on my experience in both writing and reading them. When you've got a fic that's more than 5-8 chapters long, or it stretches beyond 10-15k, oftentimes the first few chapters are all set up for your premise and the real meat of the story (the solving of the mystery, the big battles, the winding adventure, the burning portion of the slowburn) will come after.

When it comes to the cheater's strategy, you're going to ignore all the best portions of your story just so you can explain the boring set-up period where you position all your characters in the right places so they're ready to go on their (mis)adventure.

If you think that sounds like a bad idea, let me ask you this: When you pick up a mystery novel at the bookshop, does the summary give away who did it?

No! And you're not going to, either.

Also, it's implied and expected that the longer your story is, the more it will develop, change, and grow. So if you can sell your initial concept idea enough for a reader to click and read the first chapter, you very well could hook them and keep them seated for the rest of your story.

And remember what I said about building intrigue? This strategy is designed to build intrigue by suggesting there's more than what meets the eye.

Here's another example:

That might sound dense. And it's long. And it sounds like maybe a lot of stuff goes on in chapter one, but literally all I've done is explain the initial premise of my fic. (Note- this summary is for an Epic the Musical fic, which is a musical based of the Odyssey. Would highly recommend but that's beside the point)

The point is, this is an AU. But I didn't employ the Out of Universe strategy this time around and say it's an AU because it's obvious to anyone in the Epic fandom and it does not need to be further clarified.

What mattered to me in this scenario is that my potential reader sees my summary and knows that Odysseus the main character is a man who is married to the goddess Calypso, and is currently living in paradise. But in canon (both in Epic and in the actual Odyssey), Odysseus rebuked Calypso's advances because he wished to remain faithful to his actual wife Penelope.

The suggestion or implied understanding here is that something bad happened that caused Odysseus to discard Penelope in favor of Calypso. (Spoiler alert: the bad thing was him being brainwashed by a woman who would eventually become his abuser.)

And in this case, it's the suggestion of something gone wrong that builds the intrigue and curiosity for me without me having to add anything extra.

In the bulk of King of Ogygia, Odysseus goes on a strenuous mental journey to rediscover his true self with the help of various Greek gods, while also physically fighting back against his abuser. That all sounds pretty important to the story, right?

And it is! But I didn't want to include any of that and risk spoiling the overarching story. Anyone who'll be interested in chapter 1 will probably willingly continue reading to see how the story develops because that's just what you do when you find a story you like.

But let's say you're not writing an AU or a complicated, multi-chapter story spanning tens or hundreds of thousands of words.

If your fic is short and sweet, your summary should be as well. Next up,

3) Keep it Simple Strategies

(Yes, plural. This section is more like two different ideas lumped into one sum, but it made the most sense to put them together so please bear with me.)

Maybe you've got a neat little one-shot or a short fic (like 10k words or less) and you're not sure how to write it's summary precisely because it's so short. Or maybe you just prefer simple, direct summaries as opposed to the lengthy, dramatic kind.

Here's my next example from a 3k one shot I once wrote:

To be clear, this is a NOT an ideal summary. Far from it. But it's from a fic I wrote 6 years ago and I've definitely grown and changed as a writer since then. Let's dissect and rewrite this summary together.

Firstly, it does the bare minimum of telling you who the main character is (Kirishima), who he's being shipped with (Izuku), and the setting (a gym). And from a technical standpoint, that's almost all you have to write in order to reach the textbook definition of a summary.

But I didn't even really explain what the conflict or actual plot is, only suggested that that plot would be Kirishima trying to get together with another character who, in this setting, is a personal trainer.

It's succinct, I can at least give it that. But it's so short and plain that it doesn't really spark much imagination, does it? In all honesty, if I saw this exact summary posted at the top of Ao3, I'd skip right past it because it's so unimaginative and bland 😭

But the fic itself is only 3k, how do you build intrigue for a story that most readers can digest in about 30 minutes or less?

Let's start by identifying the main character and make a short list of their most important emotions or characteristics. Here, I would characterize Kirishima as being hopeful (that he can score a date), in love, and active (in a physical sense).

So I should try to channel these primary components into my summary. I could say something to the effect of:

Kirishima has been hitting the gym a lot more often, but it's not to improve his strength. There's a new personal trainer and he's got Kirishima's heart rate spiking better than cardio day. But can he work up the nerve to actually ask Izuku out?

Obviously, he'll ask out the cute trainer and they'll go on a date, but that's not what's important to a ship fic. It's the journey to the inevitable getting together that we want.

What makes this summary a little more engaging is that it's a lot more playful than the original. The gym pun and usage of "strength", "heart rate", and "cardio" really emphasizes the setting and premise. It helps sell the idea that this fic is a lighthearted romp while also hitting all the basics of who we're supposed to care about and where they are.

Here's a marginally better example summary:

Same fandom, different ship, similar premise. One character has a crush on the other, their crush is unaware of their affection at first, and the name of the game is winning them over.

But what makes this summary better than the previous example?

Well, it explains itself quite well by hitting all the minimum details. With four short sentences, it introduces who the two most important characters are and what their deal is. One of them is a god, the other is a mortal. It's a fantasy setting. The romance is one-sided.

But those minimum details coalesce into something greater than the sum of its parts. You also get the sense that Katsuki is dangerous and hot headed because he's the god of war, and you know that the object of his affections is more bookish and not quite interested in the brutish type.

How will they ever get along?

You thereby implicitly understand that the conflict of the story is figuring out how the ship will inevitably become a ship despite their initial differences. We could call this the Opposites Attract strategy, where the summary focuses on the juxtaposition between the two characters in the central ship, and makes that the central defining feature of the story. Got all that?

Good!

But making lists or divvying up character traits might seem confusing or tedious for some. (IMO if you're a new fanfic writer just starting out, it's worth a try to treat these simple strategies as writing exercises for your stories/summaries, even if you end up not using/posting them.)

If you as a writer want a more direct approach, try:

4) The Excerpt Strategy

All that stuff I said earlier about generating intrigue and hiding the meat of your story?

Well, you're still sort of doing that with this strategy, but not really. Instead, you're going to let the fic do the talking for you.

And by that, I mean your summary isn't really a summary at all, and is instead a brief excerpt from the fic itself. Here's some examples from various fandoms I've written for, including some where I've let the fic speak entirely for itself and others that I've combined with Strategy 1:

But how do you choose the right excerpt to represent your entire story?

In my opinion, a good excerpt needs to fulfill a few key requirements:

It has to convey who the main character is or what the plot is, so it will probably be from early in your fic.

Likewise, it can't give away the ending/big reveal because it looks careless. (And does not build intrigue!)

It can't be too long or else it'll seem bloated and readers might skip over it.

It also can't be so short that it ends up being confusing.

And most of all, it can't be so out of context that it ends up being baffling. Like if my fic's summary was just the line "And then all the kangaroos got wet" sure that could convey that my fic might be wacky and/or crack, but it's also distracting, uninformative, and doesn't really convey anything about your characters or plot.

Yes, oftentimes all of the above can be a hard checklist to fulfill, I know from experience. Hence why a lot of writers, myself included, combine it with a brief out-of-character explanation of the fic to cover all our bases.

The third and shortest example is arguably too brief for a proper summary, but it does one thing I really like by establishing the tone. It's sensual and a little sarcastic, offering a hint of danger, and is cushioned from failing by not fulfilling requirement #4 b/c of its supplementary summary.

So, why choose this strategy over any other?

Well, it advertises your writing style and unique voice more than a typical summary would. Sure, a regular summary kind of reflects who you are as a writer already, but I've definitely noticed in my own experience that the way I write a summary might be more formal, less formal, more dramatic, less dramatic, or just plain different from the voice/tone/perspective used in my actual fic.

And remember- that's because a summary is designed to GRAB attention. A fic is designed to MAINTAIN attention. They aren't quite the same and each has its own needs & goals.

And last but not at all least:

5) No man is an island

You really want to learn how to write good summaries?

Read more fics. Read more books. Read their summaries.

Go to your local bookstore or library, or visit your own book shelf, and study how others have written their summaries. What's important to each story in order to make a publishable summary? Is it the character's powers, the world they live in, the time period, the setting, their relationships, their enemies, their conflicts? Or something else? Or is it a combination of the factors above? And how do you make each factor as enticing as possible?

Does a sci fi novel have the same summary structure as a Jane Austin novel? Probably not! So if you have a sci fi fic in mind, it might do you some good to see how sci fi authors characterize their works. (Or maybe think outside the box and do take inspiration from an Austin blurb? Anything is possible in the world of fiction.)

Alternatively, go to Ao3 (or your preferred platform) and read how others in your community portray their fics. Comb through the fics you've bookmarked and study their summaries. Did they entice you? If so, try to figure out how and why. If not, what compelled you to click on the fic regardless?

And don't be afraid to draft out your summaries and revise them the same way you'd do so with your actual fics. Granted, I know there's lots of people out there that post fanfics without editing them, and that's fine. This should all be for fun, after all.

But if you want to put your best foot forward and give your story a strong advertisement, experimenting with the wording and structure of your summaries might do you some good!

Ultimately, when I say no man is an island, I mean it in the sense that artists study other artists all the time, and have been doing so for thousands of years. Crafting an effective and compelling summary is arguably an art itself. So, learn from those around you. Take advantage of your predecessors and the fellow writers in your community.

And that's that!

But we're not quite done here. My parting gift to you all is one last strategy, one that can be readily combined with nearly all others. It's called the Try & Try Again Strategy:

Start with a shitty first draft of your summary. It can be as bad and uninformative and bland as you want because it's just for you and no one else will ever see it. In fact, it should intentionally be as simple and plain as possible. Something like "Percy Jackson goes to the store"

Then tack on an extra detail, something to make it a little more exciting or elaborate. Maybe you've identified that your summary needs to convey what the initial premise or inciting incident is, as opposed to something like a romantic pairing or the setting. So you write a newly revised summary: "Percy Jackson goes to a store and a bomb goes off inside."

But you want to add a few more details to make it just a little more exciting and informative: "Percy Jackson thought he was about to have an ordinary day when he's framed for a pipe bomb explosion inside a deli market." (Now we have the central conflict- Percy is being framed for a crime! But how can we make it even better? How do we build even more intrigue?)

Keep trying: "Percy Jackson's day went from mediocre to horrible as he's framed for an explosion inside a New York bodega. Follow his misadventure as he runs from the local cops, finds the perpetrator, and most important of all- gets his groceries home by dinner time."

But wait, you might say. That's not a strategy. That's just doing the same thing over and over again to varying degrees of success.

To that I say yes, it most certainly is. And that's basically all writing is. It's trying to bring your idea to life, identifying what's not working along the way, and fixing it.

But starting with a seed is how you get a flower.

And if you've made it this far, I just wanted to say thanks for stopping by! Have fun writing! ♥️

[yanderedrabbles]

I really-really love your writing - I think it's so detailed and beautiful and I really often feel like I'm reading a published short story collection when I binge-read trough your blog. I love the way you write the yandere men and I also like how each reader is different, some people don't like that but I love it when reader-inserts have their own quirks and personalities. It's so clear that you love what you write about and put so much thought into crafting the pieces, even if they're just short drabbles.

That being said, I've read pretty much everything on your blog, but I had avoided yandere soldier for a long while, because him being russian kinda put me off (as someone who lives in eastern europe I am absolutely terrified of russian soldiers and not in the fun way), but since I loved your other work so much I decided to give it a chance, because it kind of seemed to be a historical setting, which means I can distance myself from my fear and enjoy the piece as is, and oh god it was phenomenal. I love me some men who are convinced they are saving someone but are really just subjugating them to another kind of hell. He knows he's bad, but he does these horrible things anyway, because he wants to. One thing you also do very well is describing the atmosphere. I felt as if I was teleported into 1950s or 60s. Even in your earlier work (because I did read those too, what can I say besides that I'm obsessed) and the Wendigo was so good, I'm literally shaking thinking about it. I loved it from start to finish, the cold atmosphere, the uncertainty, the realization that no matter what you do or how far you run this entity will catch you... all around, amazing work!

Sorry for writing such a long paragraph, but I am mostly a silent reader and I really wanted to tell you how good of a writer you are. <3

anon I'm so flattered!! You're really spoiling me, I swear. When it comes to the personality of the MC, it's a tricky line. Sometimes I try and keep them a bit bland - classic y/n - but other times I want you to feel like the sassy, sexy badass that you are.

Aaah, I have a bad habit of portraying military men/cops as utter bastards. But I'd like to think they come in different flavours of evil. Yandere! Soldier is in that space where he's horrible and he knows it. But unlike say, Yandere Military Contractor, he's apologetic about it. He feels guilty about it. Not to the point where he'll let you go or stop doing it, hell no. But to the point it leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Makes him realise exactly how evil he is when the mask is down. So fun.

[ladyloveandjustice]

She was actually Oracle in this! Idk what her current backstory was, DC's been doing that everything is canon thing right??? No clue, but I was just able to pretend she has the backstory I like and worked pretty well for that specific comic. And yeah the comic definitely portrayed her as having a easier time getting through to him and also a little bit more sympathetic to what he was going through than Bruce, which was kind of nice to see.

He actually called her when he was having some sort of panic attack/PTSD thing going on after he killed the dad and she was essentially kind of calmly walked him through it and figured out the next step.. it was pretty sweet. And waited till after that to say you know, she's really not happy he asked her to help him and then killed someone. That's when he was like "omg I let her down :(". It does also imply he thinks she's cooler than Bruce which is. super funny and valid and correct.

It's been a while since I've read Babs stuff that's not WFA and maybe she was a little too forgiving, I don't know, but she seemed mostly in character a lot of the time , it made me miss her a bit

(well. honestly it's so weird to say 'in character' in comics because so many writers means they're portrayed so many ways, so it's more like "the characterization I like which is clearly the correct good one" You do have more of leg to stand on if you go back to their original characterization, like "does this line up with something the Babs who debuted as Oracle in the Suicide Squad and went through these experiences would do? Does this make sense?" which is generally how I think about Babs).

I had to cut myself off from binge-reading the comics from that Jason doc out of intense curiosity, but I forgot how extremely funny it is when comics cannot decide if they want a character to be an antagonist or ally and just settle with constantly swinging them back and forward all the time which is 100% what they keep doing with Jason and it's just so unintentionally comical if you skip around and binge-skim a bunch of comics it's like

"Ok Bruce I won't kill people"

"Good"

Jason: "I changed my mind actually"

Bruce: "JASON YOU PROMISED!!!"

Jason: wait I've changed my mind again!!! I never realized killing people actually meant I could potentially orphan children like how I was orphaned.

Bruce: how...how did you not realize that until now??*

Jason: idk!!! anyway no killing for me for a while I'm gonna go hang out with Catwoman she's cooler than you anyway (Jason you are so correct)

Bruce: no I'm upset. how about If I drug you so anytime you feel like you need to fight you'll be overcome with crippling fear. I think that's a cool and fun and smart thing to do to my son who already has really bad PTSD from that one time he was brutally tortured and murdered and totally not a great way to get him killed again.

Jason: Bruce???? what the fuck?? (does immediately almost die)

Selina: Bruce??? what the fuck???

Me: Bruce??? what the fuck???

Dick: it's okay Bruce is being affected by some mind altering/controlling/whatever thing that happened in some issue you didn't read. Probably. Maybe. let's all stay 50 feet away from him for a while.

Me: wow. well what was even the point of all that then. I guess they decided Batman needed to be a loner again like they do every six months only to take it back later.

Lmao I'm so relieved I don't have to keep up with comics anymore this is such a roller coaster, WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING, how would I even explain to a normal person. Glad to confirm comics are as much of a mess as ever. A mess I have lingering nostalgic affection for but. a mess.

*(I actually did find this arc pretty compelling, Jason running into a kid that had roughly his exact backstory, going to find the dad, and just killing him when he finds out he's an abusive peace of shit who's been drugging his kid, but then being like "holyshitholyshit I didn't ask this kid permission if I could kill his Dad I was still pretty upset when my abusive Dad died and if his mom dies from the overdose I've orphaned him just like me and he'd go to the State and I know all the fucked up things that can happen to you there aaaaa" I mean it's good drama and development, it's just. when you sit down and thinks about it. the concept he'd never thought of it before until he was confronted with a kid in his exact situation is just kind of unintentionally funny. I know realistically he could know that intellectually but not like, have it sink in until he actually met a kid, and that's what they were going for, but it's still very funny.

Like this implies that if Batman had ever just sat down and been like "Jason. you realize bad people have families right. You were upset when Two Face killed your Dad even though he sucked remember?" Jason would have been like "omg you're right" and we would have saved SO MUCH TIME.)

(I respect that Bruce didn't actually call him out on it and instead focused on the problem at hand too bc I would not have been mature enough to do that. Rare Bruce Wayne parenting W.)

(Also the part where Jason was like "you know I've grown used to letting down Bruce because I do that all the time but letting Babs down has me WRACKED with guilt" like Jason I totally get that. I'd feel the same way.)

anyway comics are dangerous I could get addicted all over again while complaining about half of what I read I was literally reading all day again I'M CUTTING MYSELF OFF.)

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

i have seen a lot of posts about lucanis & illario lately, that specifically call out that some of the things Lucanis says about him are kinda mean. usually in context of 'yes what illario did was fucked up but they BOTH went thru the fucked up training and lucanis says shit to him too' etc etc. and i'll be honest as someone who does have a contentious/estranged/very-low-contact sibling relationship. everything lucanis said came off as super mild to me and they should both be WAY nastier to each other actually. yes even when you include their dynamic in wigmaker job which was both more lighthearted And heartfelt. but like if you want realism they should be going from that to 1 minute later annoyed enough to break out the super cutting remarks dragging up the worst things the other has ever done/said, specifically becuause they know it will hurt the other most. then i would believe it more tbh.

[ruthwritesalot]

It definitely is something I'm trying to unlearn. I think I've gotten better at just reading again in the past few weeks, which is really cool because reading is also just a really fun thing to do. If anything, I've read some things where I positively noticed techniques I could use for my own writing. I agree that it's important when you're engaging with newer writers. I think for me, the overly critical lens ironically comes out more when I'm reading finished, published work, which also isn't great, but then those thoughts stay in my head. I don't think I ever give people constructive criticism unless they've specifically asked (past me is a different story, but I mean at least in the past few years), other than that I only post the positive thoughts I have. I also try my best to meet people where they're at, like you said, some things just aren't helpful. And it's important to also understand that while something might not be your thing, there's tons of people who love that thing. But in all of this, I recognize that I fuck up sometimes to and sometimes say things that come across differently than I intended.

The question thing is also a good point. I think I could do better with that, especially when I'm giving people feedback as more of a favor than actually being completely invested in the story (because it's not my thing or some other reason). I try to point out as many positive things I can find as well, but yeah questions is something I should work on.

I also think it's wild that people send you things directly asking for feedback, if I'm understanding that correctly? Or did you mean a person you already had some kind of relationship with? I guess it's fine if it's done respectfully, but asking someone for feedback without giving something first is just something I don't think I would do lol. Because feedback is also labor intensive.

Something I think about a lot is how people who are like particularly driven in a trade or craft or whatever - like, this is going to be my career type of driven - are typically very weird and kind of shitty about engaging with that thing.

I am reminded of this when I see people lament about not getting feedback on their writing. I get it. I've been there. Writers, from my experience, are weird about reading the work of other writers.

In the same vein, I've noticed the worst audiences at stand-up open mics are other stand-ups. And if you go out to eat with a chef or someone aiming to be a chef, a lot of the time it's going to end up a little weird at some point. People who engross themselves in any kind of niche WAY beyond what the average person might will inevitably have a strange relationship with it.

Not to say this is something that should be blindly accepted. I think a chef should be able to eat their own cooking without apologizing for some poorly executed technique that I have never heard of, much less noticed in the meal. I also think a writer should be able to read and give feedback on the work of other writers to some extent. In my personal opinion this is better accomplished by just going out and doing that. I try to when I can. It's difficult, because it does require more like mental and emotional labor than reading something by someone I don't personally know. But I try and do it when I can.

More practice, less preaching I guess. I don't know. I didn't sleep great but I'm energetic.

Stand-ups are probably a lost cause though but that's fine.

[pynkhues]

Okay apparently there was a whole thing last year of someone talked to Chris Stack after seeing him Stereophonic and he said he was invited to film IWTV s3 in April, but he couldn't because of another project, which we now know is Stereophonic's West End run beginning in May. So multiple thoughts. For one, that seems to confirm at least some Nola flashbacks, since I doubt they'd only film one or two and have him be in one, though of course anything's possible. I figured there would be Nola flashbacks but it's cool to have some strong suggestion that there might be several. And maybe now he can do it! Since the filming would be happening when the show is running rather than in rehearsals. I also wonder if filming was initially supposed to BEGIN in April, or if it was beginning earlier and he was just being brought in in April? Maybe it suggests filming was supposed to start earlier, since if they film the episodes in order, you'd think Nola flashbacks might be in the second half of the season, at least. Plus there was what that person told you about Sam being on call to start filming by February, though I wonder if that was definitely to start filming or that he was on call to work on other things. If they were supposed to start filming in April, then April to June is not a big shooting difference. Though I guess even Feb 1 to early or mid-June isn't a HUGE difference, it's four months, so...who knows! And of course we don't REALLY know how long it takes them to make the show, they've never had a "normal" production season, so that doesn't tell us that much. Hmm.

That's super interesting about Chris Stack, anon, and if it's true, definitely seems to imply that there are going to be a few NOLA flashbacks, which deeeelights me, haha.

I actually don't think the person I know was wrong? I deleted my original post about it for y'know. Reasons. But the producer I know had spoken to his Aus agent, who said Sam wouldn't be available due to IWTV from end of Jan/the start of Feb at the latest, which - given it seems like he's been in America since the first week of Feb recording and rehearsing - has been true? I think I might have misinterpreted that (full disclaimer!), to be about filming, but that could be a Sophie Fuck Up as opposed to the person I know being wrong, because they were asking in the context of his schedule to film something else, not to know the schedule for the show.

But yeah! I guess we'll find out soon enough given April's literally tomorrow, haha.

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[itischeese]

Should I (attempt to) go back to posting weekly with less polished works, or post less often but much more finalized works (ie actually edited)?

(please note that the piece I posted most recently was, in fact, edited.

Also, If I post polished works less often, I will inevitably post much less of what I write; only the stuff that can be made good.)

[peaceblank]

Man, it's so annoying how recently there has been several things that really emphasize just how much it takes for some people to accept a character is jewish.

Be it from heavily coded in the text with an added word of god, to literally shown or out right stated in the text. Somehow, people will still crawl out of the woodwork to say, "well that doesn't mean they're jewish".

Meanwhile, in almost every piece of media a character could do absolutely nothing in regards to any religion and everyone will immediately just assume they're some flavor of christian. It is treated as the default and not something that has to be revealed. You do not need to dig and sift through the characters entire existence to justify having them celebrate christmas, but god forbid you have the briefest hint of giving them some other religion. People will come out of nowhere asking you why you would do this, demanding you cite your sources for why you would dare sully this character like that.

[coolspacequips]

Have been reading this sci-fi romance and like UGH u ever really wish a book was just at least a little better??? There's stuff in this that's interesting but also a lot about it that's so... Juvenile and kinda undercooked lol...... But it's so hard finding good romance bc for a lot of romance readers this is enough, except even then not really since they prolly didn't fuck nasty enough in this book for the ppl that just need the merest pretense to read smut (which is fine if that's what u like there's just an oversaturation of this, esp when you can have a light plot/heavy smut story with slightly better writing and internal world building without having to explain and describe the 'boring' parts 😅)

[throughdarkeningskies]

when I was a teen and I read everything I could get my hands on, I had this rule in my head to seperate 'literary' fic from 'chick-lit'. and the rule was this: if they have sex and its bad its literary. if they have sex and they enjoy it its chick-lit.

alternate variations:

- if there are dark serious themes explored and everyone is dark and serious about it it's literary. if dark serious themes are explored but the characters crack jokes about it its chick-lit

- if a man writes it its literary and if a woman writes it its chick-lit

- if its written with the most dry boring-ass prose possible it's literary. if its written the way an actual person would talk its chick-lit

[aeide-thea]

[fic crit, amatonormativity (blogger's own) cw]

revisited a story that i remembered really enjoying, but have had difficulty digging up for a reread because, as it turns out, it's a good 200 pages deep in the relevant pairing tag, and—

turns out that i do still really dig it, and also that the other thing i remembered about it is equally still true, which is that it totally fails to really resolve the emotional side of things! like, it's a fic full of Plot and briefly- but vividly-drawn OCs, and people from the main characters' pasts who show up in ways that work for the story but are also random enough to lend verisimilitude, and we get to see the elements of the foil's day-to-day life—what keeps them busy and burnished when they're not off Adventuring with our protagonist—in generous, engaging detail, and all of that remains really satisfying and compelling to me; but it's billed as a fic ft. a pairing, and yet all we see of that is an established, undiscussed level of ambiguous intimacy that's lovely and warm but queerplatonic at absolute most, and doesn't get tied into any sort of bow by the end, even a friendly one.

and the thing is—there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! if it weren't for the pairing tag i probably wouldn't even find it unsatisfying: it'd just be lovely warm plotty genfic, and i'd enjoy the hell out of it! but i am, for better or for worse, amatonormative enough that when i see a story with a pairing tag, i do personally expect some combination of Romance Feelings and/or sex to appear on the page, unless the author's notes inform me the relationship is queerplatonic or similarly asterisked, and having that expectation go unmet feels like a disappointment even when the fic is on all other fronts the opposite of disappointing. which i'm fully ready to accept is my own failing, rather than the story's! but. idk. pondering and processing. :)

[corbinite]

I don’t want a fionna and cake series. Please hbo just let this show have a narratively satisfying end pleaaase. The ending of adventure time was so good and such a good sendoff and it only WORKS if it’s an actual ending, it only works if we’re actually saying goodbye. Literally the whole message of the finale was that sometimes you have to let things end and accept that things will never be how they were, and that there’s beauty in that acceptance because no matter what changes it doesn’t erase what you had. You cannot literally have that be the entire THESIS of the last three or four seasons and then keep drawing it out for cash and nostalgia

[longagoitwastuesday]

Do you have favorite actors for the various roles in "Cyrano de Bergerac"? I would love to hear your thoughts!

I do! I actually rambled a lot about this while I was watching the different productions I could get my hands on (I tagged it "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "I talk too much").

My favorite productions are the one with José Ferrer and the one with Benoit Solès, and those actors make the best Cyranos in my opinion. Though that's probably something in part beyond the actors' choice, their dynamic with their respective Roxane and Christian are the best ones, I think, and I find how Cyrano moves around these two particular characters at the core of a good Cyrano characterisation.

José Ferrer's use of his voice, which is arguably Cyrano's true most characteristic feature, is unmatched imo (although McAvoy does a very good job with this too), and he manauvers very well several of the different aspects of the character, such as his playfulness, his shittiness and longing. By the end of the play you believe he is the most beautiful man on Earth. Cyrano, however, is a bit pathetic (not just in a "pathos" way), and I'd say Ferrer gives off an air full of dignity very fitting of many scenes, but that eats almost entirely this aspect of Cyrano; Benoit Solès manages this very well, while also playing well with some of the other ones, such as the playfulness, the longing, the pain and the despair. Both Ferrer and Solès are hilarious, tender, a bit shitty, vulnerable, playful and sad. Albeit neither of them portrays 100% what Cyrano is, I think both come pretty close in slightly different flavours, and by the end of the play one ends up being terribly fond of them.

My favourite Roxane is Clara Huet in the production with Benoit Solès, but Mala Powers in the 1950 film is a close second. I think they portray wonderfully Roxane's spunk, and her mix of honest playful cheerfulness and her haughtiness, her intelligence and wit, and how much like Cyrano she is.

I've not come to love for now any Christian as much as I've loved Ferrer, Solès, Huet and Powers, but again I think the Christians in the 1950 film and the Solès productions are very very good. I love the dynamic they have with their Cyranos, especially the one Christian and Cyrano have in the 1950 film, enhanced positively by the added scenes (they actually work so well in showing their developing as friends, their deep love and care for each other!). I don't want to expand too much on this to avoid spoilers (beyond the already known 'Christian dies' ones I mean), but some things they do with both these Christians are a thing of genius, and both feel vulnerable, kind, ready to fight and truly desperate at times; I like when they do that.

There's an Italian production which has a Cyrano I truly enjoy as well, despite how they dumbify him more than I usually like my Christians. His mix of anger and deep pain when he discovers Cyrano's feelings for Roxane were so well made, and his physical presence makes you identify who Christian is even before the play starts.

The Podalydès production has two different Christians. The one in the version on youtube isn't bad, but @ride-a-dromedary likes Éric Ruf a lot. I actually adore him based on the clips and gifs she's posted of him, but I haven't been able to find the version with him online, so I can't know. But he truly seems one of the best. Based on what little I've seen, I love his intense gazes and subtle gestures.

I'm not entirely sold on any Le Bret, De Guiche or Ragueneau yet.

I think the German musical has a decent Ragueneau in vibes, and the 1990 French film does as well. I found his poem made song for what I think is a Spanish production (I'm not sure if it's a fan creation based on the Spanish production), and while I've not been able to find that production online, the song works well in vibes too I think.

The German musical's Le Bret in vibes is very good. He encompasses well his deep love and worry for Cyrano while also being done with his shit. They truly feel like close friends. The 1950 film kind of combines Gaston de Castel-Jaloux and Le Bret into one character, which sadly changes Le Bret's dynamic with Cyrano a bit, but that's a very good Le Bret as well. The one in Solès' production is pretty good too. He has my favourite delivery of the scene in which Le Bret chastises Cyrano for risking his life sending letters.

De Guiche is complicated. I think productions often make him too pathetic and laughable or too bad, so bad it makes the last act kind of not make sense. The 1950 one, the 1990 French one, the Kevin Kline one and the Solès one are all good, but I am not passionate for any of them either.

And basically that's it!

[artemisdesari-blog]

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.