#writing tutor in Toronto

[tossawary]

The new "Scott Pilgrim" animated television show is going to reignite my burning desire to write a Scott Pilgrim AU for SVSSS, I know it. I don't have time, but I still WANT to write a Modern AU about these losers fucking around Toronto, and "getting out of the city to clear my head" only to reveal that they went to fucking Mississauga or something, and, idk, getting stuck on the 401 for some reason.

I don't like matching characters up perfectly to other characters in AUs, or forcing them along the exact plots of the media being used as an AU, because I like letting Fusion AUs unfold as naturally as possible. It makes things more surprising and it keeps the characterization strong.

But Shen Yuan is Scott, obviously, who desperately needs to level up his emotional maturity. Luo Binghe is probably a combo of Knives and Ramona, and it's HIS "exes" of some kind that Shen Yuan needs to fight (the final "ex" is revealed to be Shen Jiu or something, probably). Airplane Bro is Shen Yuan's roommate (it's Shen Yuan's apartment) and it STUNS Shen Yuan to realize that his stallion-novel-writing older roommate is gay. I don't really know what Mobei-Jun is doing in this AU, but his most important "superpower" is probably that he's the only one who actually owns a car AND has his full G license.

The truly exciting thing would be bringing in Shen Yuan's sister (the one who apparently reads gay non-con bondage erotica and accidentally scared Shen Yuan with it) in as Stacey Pilgrim. It would be fun to explore Shen Yuan's family dynamics for once.

Also, you can totally keep demons and the System and potentially even transmigration in as background elements, because that's just what "Scott Pilgrim" is like. Yeah, yeah, the Secret P.A.T.H. on Spadina Avenue that you can take to the Cultivation Realm so that you can level up your fighting skills over the summer break, we've all heard about it. You can also get there on a Go Train from Union Station, but it's only running at like 7 AM for some reason.

"Once upon a time, in the far off land of Toronto, Canada... Shen Yuan is dating a high-schooler..."

"HE'S IN UNIVERSITY! AND WE'RE NOT DATING! I'M JUST TUTORING HIM."

"Lol, okay, bro."

[yanxioustrikas]

dmitri

link to the latest art of dmitri

this post is simply called dmitri, and this is hopefully everything you need to know about them! or just some fun facts lol

(this was sitting in draft since SUMMER, and since there is another rise of ocs in supablr, i thought this would be a good opportunity to revise and post this)

biography

full name: dmitri mikhailovich sokolov

pronouns: he/they

sexuality: bisexual

gender: genderfluid

age: 16 (debut), 17 to 18 (super league junior career), 19 to early 20s (post-super league junior)

birthday: may 23

height: 191 cm/6'3 ft

nationality/citizenship: russian-south african

ethnicity: russian + cameroonian

residence(s): st. petersburg, russia (birthplace), johannesburg, south africa (permanent), toronto, ontario, canada (for uni)

language(s): russian, french, english, afrikaans (fluent in first three, limited proficiency in afrikaans)

significant other: hiram romilly-choucair

family

father: mikhail sokolov

mother: nadine bahanag

sibling(s): matvey (older brother; oldest), avdotya (older sister; middle)

pet(s): squeaky (white maine coon cat)

super league junior profile

team: invincible united junior fc

jersey number: 17

position: midfielder + captain

award(s): rookie of the year, star of the match (x10), slj captain of the year (x2)

post-secondary profile

type: university

location: toronto, ontario, canada

program: fashion design - bachelor of design

varsity sports team: men's ice hockey - goaltender

extracurricular clubs: francophone club, visual arts club, cameroonian student association, literature club

possible future career: fashion designer, fashion journalist, or dressmaker

hobbies and interests

ice hockey

soccer

visual art (won a few high school awards for his artworks)

creative writing

sewing and designing

flute

dance (contemporary ballet)

russian and french literature

cooking (not great at it so they call their sister for help lol)

making mocha

strawberries

extra stuff about his family because they all have interesting lives lol

mikhail (father), he/him

a therapist, specializing in cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotherapy, and is among the best psychologists in johannesburg

did practicum at the oasis, and used to work for cognito fc for a year

ex-ballet dancer from a wealthy (and horrible) classical ballet family in moscow

other interests include dance (for old time sake and to pass on the sokolov techniques to his kids), sudoku, pilates, cooking

nadine (mother), she/her

a corporate lawyer working at one of south africa’s high-ranking law firms

cousin of el matador’s female lawyer (both also attended the same law school)

during her youth, she played defence for the u-18 cameroon's women's national soccer team

other interests include yoga, cardio, playing piano, reading classical books

matvey (brother), he/him

a flute player studying at a prestigious conservatory in london, england

has a huge platform on various social media for showcasing his passion for music

part-time job as a music tutor

other interests include reading philosophical literature, working out, photography, playing ice hockey at a recreational league (defender), dance

avdotya (sister), she/her

a food science major and a culinary enthusiast

was a contestant (two-time champion) at a national (russian) junior chef competition

currently co-president for her university’s culinary club

other interests include painting, playing intramural ice hockey (forward), dance, weightlifting, journaling

squeaky (cat), he/him

a male cat who is very talkative and friendly

was adopted from a shelter in johannesburg at 5 months olds

loves to watch the birds from inside the house, but never chases them if outside

dislikes eating fish itself, will eat if the fish is eaten with something else in the bowl

the kids love hockey and dance sm

[ilyasorokinn]

works in progress,

here’s a list of things i'm either currently writing, plan on writing, or just ideas. crossed out means being editing and to be posted in the next few days. please be patient and know i have school, and have other things to do. thank you :)

standalone fics,

✷ tutor girl (quinn hughes) - quinn's struggling in one of his classes, so he finds a tutor. (part of "the hughes gang" series.)

✷ untitled (freddie andersen) - alma, still too young to understand what her dad does, goes to a game and doesn't recognize him in his goalie uniform. (part of the "andersen adventures" series)

✷ y/n and hayden christensen being in love for 10 minutes straight (hayden christensen) - the title pretty much explains what this is about.

✷ sid the kid: the greatest of all time (sidney crosby) - told in documentary form, sidney crosby discusses his life from the moment he was drafted to joe. (part of “the crosby clan” series)

✷ a change would do you good (erik johnson) - after 13 years, all good things must come to an end. (part of the "life with the johnsons" series.)

✷ untitled (jeremy swayman) - jeremy runs the boston marathon, and along the way, his favorite cheerleaders are there for cheer him on. (part of the "swinging with the swaymans" series.)

✷ untitled (jimmy garoppolo) - jimmy knows how hard it si to move, so he tries to help make the move as seamless as possible.

✷ untitled (sidney crosby) - although not everyone is a sidney crosby fan, everyone is a y/n crosby fan. (part of "the crosby clan" series.)

✷ untitled (jeremy swayman) - jeremy talk about his family or the five times jeremy gushed about his family. (part of the "swinging with the swaymans" series.)

✷ untitled (jeremy swayman) - the swaymans attend their first all-star game. (part of the "swinging with the swaymans" series.)

✷ barzal's in toronto (mat barzal) - with mat barzal going to the all-star games and the games going old school, what better person to invite. tobe a celebrity captain than y/n y/l/n-barzal? (part of "the golden boy" series.)

✷ mic'd up (william nylander) - leafs fans love the nylander kids, so what better than to have them mic'd up for their dad's playoff game? (part of "the nylander diaires" series.)

✷ untitled (matt rempe) - matt rempe is just so proud of his girlfriend, the olympic gold medalist.

✷ i wish you were here with me (elias pettersson) - elias wishes that y/n was there with him or a fic inspired by "right now" by one direction.

series coming soon,

✷ i love you so series - a series of fics based on the song “i love you so” by the walters.

✷ the love story series - a series of fics based on different romance movies.

✷ taylor’s house series - a series of fics based on different harry styles songs.

✷ meet me at midnight series - a series of fics based on the “midnights” album by taylor swift.

✷ feels like series - a series of fics based on different gracie abrams songs.

[ taglist ]

[tefllemon-blog]

Inclusive materials in ELT with Tyson Seburn

Interview with Tyson Seburn: Inclusive materials in ELT and LGBTQ+ narratives in ELT classrooms 

Join me for an another insightful FRESH CHAT with Tyson Seburn, a prominent voice in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT), as we delve into the critical topic of inclusivity and representation in ELT classrooms and textbooks. 

In this interview, Tyson shares his perspectives on the current state of ELT materials, highlighting the significant gap in resources that reflect diverse and queer identities. 

 📚 Topics Covered: 

 - The importance of inclusive and queer representation in language learning 

- Challenges faced by educators in incorporating diverse materials 

- The impact of inclusive content on student engagement and learning outcomes - Strategies for creating and sourcing inclusive ELT resources 

- Tyson's personal experiences and insights from his work in the field 

 👥 About Tyson Seburn: 

Tyson Seburn (MA EdTech & TESOL, University of Manchester) is a lecturer in and assistant director of an EAP foundation year at the University of Toronto and tutor on Oxford TEFL Barcelona’s Trinity DipTESOL course. He has volunteered on local and international teacher association committees, most recently as IATEFL TDSIG Coordinator. 

His personal and professional experiences inspired his interest in Queer and racialised ELT experiences, and thus ways to better practices and materials. He discusses critical and inclusive pedagogies via his online spaces (fourc.ca and @seburnt). 

He is author of Academic Reading Circles (2015) and How to Write Inclusive Materials (2021). 

TESOL course: 

TEFL Lemon offers an online 180-Hour Higher Certificate in TESOL, which is fully accredited by ACTDEC. Module 19 on our twenty-module course is all about Cultural Awareness, something all TEFL teachers must have, as we are teaching language to people all over the world. Having an understanding of cultural diversity is an essential part of what we do, so much so, that we have dedicated a full module to it, as well as focusing on what is is like living and teaching abroad. 

Our TESOL course improves and grows month-by-month, and this interview with Tyson will be added to Unit 19 in the supplementary videos section. 

To take our course and get 20% OFF the cost, go to this link and use our discount coupon below: https://www.tefllemoncourses.com/checkout/Course/20305 

20% OFF coupon: BIG20 

📢 Connect with Us: 

Twitter: TEFLlemon 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TEFLlemon/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TEFL_Lemon 

#ELT #InclusiveEducation #QueerRepresentation #TysonSeburn #LanguageTeaching #DiversityInEducation #TeachingMaterials #LGBTQ #Education

[ireadpastmybedtime]

Normally when I write one of these, I say that so much happened I don't even know how to begin. And in some ways I feel that way this year, but in other ways it feels like this year kind of dragged on, like I spent a lot of it treading water, waiting for something to happen. Things did happen of course - we got Jo in March and spent the spring adjusting her being around. It felt so crazy at first, having this extra creature in the apartment, and now I can hardly imagine our life without her here, snuggled right in between the two of us, exactly where she belongs. We didn't travel as much, but I went to Toronto and met my nephew and got reacquainted with my sister. I had a fun summer of teaching writopia workshops and leading afternoon electives, and found out that teaching College Essay is more fun than I ever would've guessed. I went back to Wricampia and had a wonderful time with instructor friends, and a... memorable time having Covid for the last third of it. I went from drowning in the uncertainty of what to do with myself and the listless lack of fulfillment of scrounging for hours, to getting a second job as a literacy tutor, using my degree and my minor and my experience. I didn't write as much as I meant to, but I wrote a story that I'm proud of and that got accepted to be published next year. And only yesterday, we went for haircuts and D spontaneously went from years of growth to completely short. I read some amazing new books and talked to interesting people of all ages, from different places, with different experiences from me. After a lot of feeling stuck in a fog of uncertainty, I feel like I'm finally emerging, collecting myself, looking forward instead of back. I hope this year, we can be adventurous. I want to go exploring. I want to go new places, taste new things, try new things, and I want us to try them together. Fingers crossed. Here goes.

[odd-cinema]

Reflective Blog (CMNS201)

         For the sake of this assignment, I went back to my Media Audience blog post and the critique I got in my evaluation. As it was early in the course and I was focused on making progress, I overlooked the deeper meaning in what I was writing as it pertained to the course. As per the tutor’s thoughts, I was missing the importance of my role as a prosumer in media. A prosumer is someone who can act as a consumer, producer and distributor of media rather than taking a position as being “passive receptacles of media” (Klein, 2017). I spend a fair share of time as an audience to film and feel very passionately about it, which drives me to write about my thoughts through apps like Letterboxd. I take the time to write my reviews, reference external influences of my thoughts, and promote the films that I believe people should see and enjoy. As a consumer, I pay for a subscription to this app that allows me aesthetic benefits and ad removal for my experience with the app and can imply a bit of prestige for other users who look through my account (Savage, 2014). Letterboxd then has my money to improve user experience and pay staff, but the data they collect from myself and all users is free to them and increases their profit as well.

A concern I outline in my blog post is the impact of targeted media and advertisements online that can lead to an echo chamber of ideologies and impact mental health as well. I focused on the internet in expressing my concern for audiences, but this extends further to traditional media and examples of media convergence as well. Gasher et al., (2016) touch on the anomaly of cultural products and how audiences are exposed to cultural products and hidden advertisements because those with a vested interest can control things like what is advertised, and the costs associated with them. This is important to my previous argument because similar to how people experience curated online, people have always chosen what shows, movies, newspapers and more that they invest their time into. For example, if someone is tuning into the same show each week, whether broadcasted or through streaming, they could be influenced by the intentions of those with vested interests over time. It sheds light on the importance of diverse programming and voices in media, to break up the penetration of single influences and ideologies.  

This ties into the important topic how media is regulated with the audience in mind, whether that be traditional media or new media. In a Canadian context, the CRTC has struggled at length with improving legislation as technology and media have rapidly evolved (Shtern & Blake, 2014). Not everyone agrees that the CRTC is always necessary in holding power over broadcasting and telecommunications, but that overlooks the impact of allowing media concentration (specifically vertical integration) to dominate the market more than it already does (Shtern & Blake, 2014). Despite the intervention of regulatory bodies, there are still many issues such as the “lack of ownership diversity, leading to a situation in which four major companies exercise considerable control over Canada’s broadcast and telecom systems” (Shtern & Blake, 2014, p. 94). This means that audience members have to exercise more critical thinking and consideration of the media they consume, but also that platforms online that allow diverse voices are more important than ever.

References:

Gasher, M., Skinner, D., Lorimer, R. (2016). Mass communication in a digital age. In Mass communication in Canada (8th ed.) (pp. 336–361). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Klein, R. (2017). CMNS 201. Introduction to Communication Studies. Study Guide. Edmonton: Athabasca University.

Savage, P. (2014). Audiences are key. In L. R. Shade (Ed.). Mediascapes: New patterns in Canadian communication (4th ed.), (pp. 127–149). Toronto, ON: Nelson Education

Shtern, J., Blake, S. (2014). Power and politics at the CRTC: The recent past and uncertain future of Canada’s communications regulator. In L. R. Shade (Ed.). Mediascapes: New patterns in Canadian communication (4th ed.), (pp. 84–106). Toronto, ON: Nelson Education.

[slackville-records]

Paul Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld; November 25, 1924 – May 30, 1977) had a sound on alto saxophone that remains highly recognizable. His ambition, he said, was to sound like a dry martini. He began by playing clarinet in high school and was tutored in music theory by his father, a theater organist and arranger. Paul studied literature at San Francisco State and, although he did not pursue a writing career, he displayed considerable talent. A short, witty piece entitled “How Jazz Came to Orange County Fair” was published in Punch in 1973. This was an excerpt from a book that Desmond was purportedly writing called “How Many of You Are There in the Quartet?”

Desmond first met pianist Dave Brubeck while both were in the Army, and in 1947 they connected again. Brubeck was studying at Mills College and playing nights with a trio in San Francisco. Desmond began sitting in with the trio and with Brubeck’s experimental octet at Mills.

In 1951 Desmond joined what was to become one of the most famous groups in jazz, the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Desmond’s airy, melodic style was a perfect balance to Brubeck’s forceful, polytonal playing. Their uncanny rapport and ability to interact kept the music exciting and fresh. The group’s popularity had spread via college campuses, but a Time magazine article featuring Brubeck brought them international attention in 1954, the same year that Paul recorded his first album as a leader, The Paul Desmond Quintet - Desmond.

In 1959 their Time Out album, which experimented with time signatures, was an enormous hit, and “Take Five,” written by Desmond in 5/4 time, was the first jazz instrumental to sell over a million singles. Other of his compositions such as “Audrey,” “Desmond Blue,” and “Wendy” are often visited by jazz musicians.

After the Quartet disbanded in 1967, Desmond recorded a duet with Brubeck, guested with Brubeck’s musician sons, and played in pianoless groups with guitarist Jim Hall and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. He frequently played in Toronto, Canada, leading a quartet that included guitarist Ed Bickert, bassist Don Thompson, and drummer Jerry Fuller.

Desmond’s wry humor was intact even as he was dying. Doug Ramsey in his book Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond reports that when asked if he wanted a memorial service, Desmond replied, “I don’t care. I’ll be dead.”

Source: Sandra Burlingame

[uscaacademy13]

USCA Academy can help you apply to the University of Toronto without OUAC application. We have a team of experienced advisors who can help you with your application, from choosing the right program to writing your personal statement. We also offer test preparation courses and tutoring services to help you improve your chances of admission.

[rankedtutors]

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[classinsession]

Private Tutoring in Toronto is a great way to provide one-on-one attention for students and get them the help they need with their education. Tutors provide a one-on-one environment where they can work on the student’s weaknesses and help them improve.

[classinsessionto]

Writing Tutor in Toronto | Class In Session

Are you looking for an effective writing tutor in Toronto? If your child begins to fall back into the classroom, could use a little more support, or wants to move forward, our tutors will encourage him or her to succeed.

[justforbooks]

Peter Robinson was the creator of the immensely popular Inspector Alan Banks crime series, set in Yorkshire – the books sold almost 9m copies in 19 languages and spawned a successful television series (DCI Banks, 2010-16) starring Stephen Tompkinson as Banks.

Robinson, who has died aged 72 after a brief illness, first introduced Banks and the fictional Yorkshire town of Eastvale to the crime-reading world in 1987 with Gallows View. The gruff Yorkshire cop, complex as the best crime cops are expected to be, but with a belief in fairness and justice, was an immediate success, with Gallows View shortlisted for the best first novel award in Canada and for the UK Crimewriters’ Association’s John Creasey award.

Although he had not necessarily intended to write a series, Robinson went on to produce a Banks novel a year – as well as award-winning short stories. He was regularly nominated for and frequently won awards in Canada, the US, France, the UK and Sweden.

A native of Yorkshire, Robinson lived for most of his life in Toronto. He once said he started the Inspector Banks series because he was homesick in his early days in Canada.

He was born in Castleford, West Yorkshire, to Clifford Robinson, a rent collector, and Miriam (nee Jarvis), a cleaner, and grew up in Armley, a working-class suburb of Leeds (also home to fellow writers Alan Bennett and Barbara Taylor Bradford). It is not too much of a stretch to assume that aspects of Inspector Banks’s adolescence in the 1960s, as described in Close to Home (2003), the 14th novel in the series, mirrored Robinson’s own.

He described in one interview how he spent the lively summer of 1965 “with his ear glued to his transistor radio and his eyes on the passing girls”. He went to Leeds University to study English literature. While there he wrote poetry and gave public readings around Yorkshire.

In 1974 he moved to Canada, to take an MA in English and creative writing at the University of Windsor, Ontario. One of his tutors was the prolific and highly esteemed American author Joyce Carol Oates, who taught him, among other things, to take his writing seriously.

He then moved to Toronto, to York University, to take a PhD in English. There he organised various poetry events and helped set up a small press with friends, whose publications included a volume of his own poems. He settled in the city after meeting his future wife, Sheila Halladay, a lawyer, there.

Although he continued to write poetry occasionally throughout his life (some of which he placed in one or two of his novels, attributed to various characters) he once explained that things he would previously have put in his poems he now put in his prose.

In each Banks novel Robinson explored the character of the policeman a little more, but always keeping him grounded in his sense of decency and justice. Robinson was teaching at different colleges from time to time during this period – including a year as writer in residence at his old university, Windsor.

In 1990 he published a stand-alone novel, Caedmon’s Song, a psychological thriller in which two young women in different parts of England find their paths crossing in an alarming way.

In 2000 he made a step-change with the 10th Banks novel, In a Dry Season, which had a more complex (and haunting) plot, set around secrets long hidden in a village flooded to create a reservoir and revealed when the reservoir dries up. Oddly, his fellow Yorkshireman Reginald Hill, creator of that bluff northern detective Andy Dalziel and his university-educated sidekick, Peter Pascoe, had the same idea of using a flooded village and dried-up reservoir in On Beulah Height, published around the same time.

Hill won the US Barry award for On Beulah Height in 1999 and Robinson the same award for In a Dry Season the year after. In addition it won the Anthony award in the US and the Martin Beck award in Sweden. In 2002 Robinson was awarded the Dagger in the Library by the UK Crime Writers’ Association for most popular author of that year, voted for by libraries.

He claimed it got harder as time went on to maintain the high standard he had established for himself in the series, but it was not noticeable in his output. Banks went on through divorce, further success in his career and no let-up in the complexity and sometimes brutality of the cases he investigated.

Robinson visited the UK regularly – he and Sheila had a cottage in Richmond, North Yorkshire – and he was a well-known and welcome presence at crime fiction festivals around the world.

In 2009 the University of Leeds awarded him an honorary doctorate. He and his wife later endowed the Peter Robinson scholarship at Leeds to help students from less advantaged backgrounds study English – preferably students with an interest in creative writing.

The first episodes of the Inspector Banks TV adaptation came along in 2010, with Tompkinson well received playing the title character. It ran for five series.

Robinson had completed another Banks novel before he died. Standing in the Shadows is due to be published next year.

Sheila survives him.

🔔 Peter Robinson, writer, born 17 March 1950; died 4 October 2022

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[brian-in-finance]

Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh on good times, bad times and Belfast

The longtime collaborators discuss shooting their Oscar-tipped new film, set during the Troubles, in the middle of a pandemic

Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh, who first worked together in 1985 © Alan Davidson/Shutterstock

Judi Dench spent a lot of time on TikTok during the first UK lockdown in early 2020, tutored by her grandson and performing hand-jivey dance routines. It would not be her last performance of that year. In the autumn, she travelled to Northern Ireland to act in the coming-of-age drama Belfast. This time her director was Kenneth Branagh. His lockdown had been spent writing the script, a highly personal tale of a young Ulster boy set in 1969, when the Troubles flared into a 30-year tragedy.

Last September, the film premiered to acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. More festival triumphs followed for the rest of 2021 in Toronto, Rome, London and Rio. Now Belfast has become the bookmakers’ favourite to win Best Picture at the Oscars in March and has seven nominations for this weekend’s Golden Globes.

Yet the long stretches of Covid limbo in between have left both Dench and Branagh disoriented. Even this joint interview in central London feels strange, they confess. “My rhythms have gone,” Dench says. “I tell myself, ‘That’s because you’re in your eighties, you stupid old person.’ [She is 87]. But actually, lots of people are wobbling.”

The family in ‘Belfast’: Lewis McAskie as Will, Caitriona Balfe as Ma, Judi Dench as Granny, Jamie Dornan as Pa and Jude Hill as Buddy © Rob Youngson/Focus Features

Branagh, 61, nods energetically. “We’ve had so much uncertainty, all our emotions are right at the surface. I feel bizarrely close to tears a lot now. I said this to Jude only yesterday.”

To each other, Branagh and Dench are Ken and Jude. Their dynamic has the easy double-act bounce of performers at play — and longstanding colleagues. “Too long,” Dench says. Branagh dates their first meeting to 1985 and a glum BBC rehearsal studio nicknamed the North Acton Hilton. “I was 24. I still remember Jude sweeping in, very swish in high suede boots.” (Dench disputes the verb: “I’ve never swept in anywhere.”)

‘Ghosts’ was the first time I saw Jude in the last moments before a scene. She is like an Olympic athlete. Just this utter laser focus — Kenneth Branagh

The production was a TV adaptation of Ghosts by Ibsen (to whom, coincidentally, Dench recently discovered, she is distantly related). She recalls a tale from the set. The director had gathered his cast for a near-silent rehearsal exercise, in line with the play’s grim overtones of syphilitic madness. Moments passed. Then another actor, Michael Gambon, made a deadpan joke about potatoes. “Ken and I went to pieces. Just howling. Neither of us could stop. It was the tension. Until a voice came over the loudspeaker and said ‘Miss Dench and Mr Branagh, you may leave.’ We were literally sent home.”

Even so, there were lessons to be learnt. As Branagh remembers it, “Ghosts was the first time I saw Jude in the last moments before a scene. She is like an Olympic athlete. Just this utter laser focus. I thought ‘Jesus Christ, Ken, forget Michael Gambon’s potatoes, you’ll do well to keep up here.’”

Branagh and Dench with Emma Thompson on the set of TV drama ‘Look Back in Anger’ in 1989 © TV Times/Getty Images

Such is their bond. “We’ve worked together 12 times since,” Dench notes, their collaborations including 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, multiple Shakespeares and playing the Bard and his wife in the 2018 film All Is True. Branagh was already a rising star when they made Ghosts. By 1988, at still only 27, he was directing Dench in his film of Henry V. It won him Oscar nominations as Best Actor and Best Director.

Belfast goes back even further, both social history piece and Branagh origin story. Not everything in it is autobiography; the greater parts are. Like the unnamed family at its centre, his own were Protestants in a Catholic nook within a wider Loyalist enclave as sectarian riots engulfed the city in August 1969. In the movie, the parents of the young hero, Buddy, debate leaving for England. In reality, the Branaghs quit Northern Ireland after the riots. Their middle child was nine when they settled in suburban Reading, 20 miles west of London, young enough to quickly lose his accent. Adult acquaintances have long been surprised to learn he is as much a son of Belfast as George Best or Van Morrison (who wrote the film’s score).

Branagh draws winning performances from his cast: scampish newcomer Jude Hill is his alter-ego; Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe the parents. Dench plays the grandmother, a kitchen-apron matriarch. (“Like Buddha,” Branagh says.) She has fewer actual lines than the other leads. She also makes the whole movie work. The final shot is Dench, a wordless close-up, brilliantly articulate. “I don’t feel in any way that I’m key to the film,” she says with feeling. But the moment reminds you of the complex figure behind the cosy British “national treasure” she is often simplified into: a mischief-maker who once bestrode London in high suede boots (“I should have worn them today”); a Quaker; a precision talent.

For all the proprietary claims made on her by the British media, part of the real Judi Dench remains hers alone. “I don’t want to go into the business of being a Quaker, but it does give you a private, quiet centre.” She gestures to herself and laughs. “Whatever anyone may think of this fluttery thing on the outside.”

From left: Kenneth Branagh, Lewis McAskie, Jude Hill, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe on the set of ‘Belfast’ © Rob Youngson/Focus Features

Branagh recreated the streets of his childhood for the film © Rob Youngson/Focus Features

When the Belfast riots broke out in 1969, Dench was already a theatrical star. She was also conscious of the looming Troubles. Like Branagh, she is less an icon of Englishness than is sometimes assumed. Her mother was a Dubliner. “Ma was still alive in 1969 and we had relatives in Belfast, so we were very aware of what was happening. When the British troops went in, it was like the start of Covid — people felt it would all be over in three weeks. But I don’t know that I ever thought that.”

When the British troops went in in 1969, it was like the start of Covid — people felt it would all be over in three weeks. — Judi Dench

I ask them both if they are optimistic about peace in Northern Ireland now. Branagh gives a long, heartfelt answer, citing the need to bequeath hope to new generations, lauding the “imperfect miracle” of the Good Friday Agreement, the collective resistance to violence among ordinary people. Dench glances up. “I want to be,” she says.

When she isn’t speaking, Dench sometimes gazes at the floor. She disclosed in 2012 that she was experiencing macular degeneration — the sight loss condition that makes it impossible, for instance, to recognise faces. For some time, she has had to have scripts read to her. So it was with Belfast. Branagh started writing early in the pandemic — reminded, he says, of finite time and aware “there was a story to be told”. His grandmother was transposed from real life as linchpin of the fictional family, and he always wanted Dench to play her. “I hoped something here would frighten Jude. Because she likes to be frightened into playing a character.”

Is this true? “Oh, I’m always fearful,” Dench says. “I used to joke when I was doing plays at the Old Vic in my twenties that this was the one where I was going to be rumbled.” After so many fine performances, what is she afraid of? “Not doing the thing justice.”

Judi Dench with Jude Hill, who stars as Buddy © Rob Youngson/Focus Features

Beyond humour, you sense what really brings her and Branagh together is perfectionism. For Dench, helping a pal make his movie also offered the chance to work with the kind of director she values, “One who tells you to do it better — and Ken can tell you how with a word.”

There was also the simple appeal of a job. In lockdown, Dench found her work ethic nagging at her, without any actual work to occupy it. “I kept thinking: ‘I ought to learn the sonnets.’ Have I learned the sonnets? I have not.” Belfast, she says, was a godsend. “We were all in masks, and because I can’t see now, I was forever starting conversations with the wrong person. But to be part of a unit again — oh, the relief.”

While shooting in 2020 meant frequent tests and colour-coded walkways, a counterintuitive joie de vivre also kicked in. “Precisely because there was such care taken, it meant Covid wasn’t the first thing you thought about.”

Often filming with a skeleton crew, Branagh says making Belfast could feel like friends shooting the breeze. “In fact, we had to spend a lot of money on Covid protocols to achieve that. But it felt appropriate, because the film is about the fragility of community and enjoying the good times. And we were a fragile community, doing just that.”

Now Branagh’s small, personal movie is an awards season heavyweight. Yet despite 40 years of fame, his life away from the camera has been largely kept out of sight. You wonder if he feels exposed now, with something so much like his childhood in front of audiences and Oscar voters. “I’m not a very public person. So it does feel vulnerable-making. But I always felt this story could reach beyond the narrow confines of me.”

In cinemas in the UK and Ireland from January 21 and in US cinemas now

https://www.ft.com/content/051f1c1a-34a7-4ced-b441-1a2f809b1c22

Remember… to each other, Branagh and Dench are Ken and Jude. Their dynamic has the easy double-act bounce of performers at play — and longstanding colleagues. — Financial Times

[coldtomyflash]

I've seen your speech pattern analysis on Flash characters. I was wondering if you had any advice on how to create speech patterns for OC characters?

oh heck this is one of the coolest questions i’ve ever received.

i’m gonna try not to go overboard/overwhelming and just give a bit of advice, and then if you want more details please come back and follow up!

There’s a few things to think about up front with character voices / speech patterns. The biggest and most obvious is language and cultural background. The second is personality. The third is personal history. Fourth, briefly, is gender. And the final one I’d say is idiosyncrasies to avoid ‘same voice’.

Culture and Group Dynamics

Depending on the setting, there’s a decent chance you’ll be writing characters from different cultural backgrounds. Even if you’re focusing on a single culture, there will be subcultures. Even if you’re focusing on a single narrow group of people, there will be age and generational differences.

Think about where your character is from. If it’s a fantasy world, that’s still (and even more, in some ways) important. What country, what ethnicity, what mother tongue? Did they grow up urban or rural? High socio-economic status or working class? What sort of educational background and peer group did they have growing up (and presently) and how does that factor into their vocabulary and mannerisms, if at all.

All of these can influence how people talk. There are regional accents and different modes of speaking to signal your group membership. There is code-switching across groups, for those who have had to learn multiple linguistics codes to survive and thrive in society. 

How much slang does this group and therefor this character use? What references (modern, outddated, topical, etc) do the rely on? What kind of references (pop culture, music, academic, etc)? What colloquialisms and proverbs do they say? Are these the same or different to their characters, even within the same culture, subculture, or group, and is it because they’re from a different place/sub-group or because of their idiosyncrasies?

You can use these to help your reader get to know more about your character’s background without having to spell it all out directly. Speech patterns and style are a great way to show instead of tell when it comes to details that are hard to drop in organically in other ways.

An important caveat: don’t write a bilingual character who switches languages in speech unless you’re ready to do a bit of research on that. In AATJS I did an absolutely horrific job of this because I was thinking more about fronting the fact that character was Italian rather than thinking through how people actually talk, and it came out exotifying and embarrassing. It’s important to make sure that the way you use language to bring in a character’s cultural and/or ethnic background feels authentic and manifests is a way that respects that language and its users. You can write a character with a complex cultural history without using multiple languages if you’re unprepared to do research and talk to bilingual speakers.

Personality

Probably the most salient thing in a writer’s mind when they’re trying to write character voices: is this the funny character? the serious one? the brainy one? etc.

Don’t overuse stereotypes and archetypes for creating speech patterns (or characters in general) if you’re trying to make a rounded, 3-dimensional character. Instead, go about three levels deeper.

Think about whether they’re introverted or extraverted, whether they are neurotypical or neurodivergent, whether they are introspective enough to express their own emotions clearly or whether they stumble when asked why they did a particular thing or feel a particular way (most people don’t or can’t clearly articulate exactly why they did something or how they feel, and come at things a bit sideways to circle around their motives and interior realities when pressed to make them external and concretely verbal).

Is this character calm, is their voice soothing, do they speak slowly? Are they excitable and loud and is their speech free-flowing? Are they angry? Do they swear? Do they use references for humour or are they more into puns? Do they laugh at their own jokes? Do they talk with their hands?

This character has social anxiety: how does that manifest in her speech? Does she clam up and get very quiet when she gets nervous, or does she go rapidfire and a little too loud (does she process by turning in or by distracting herself by turning outward)? Does she get very careful and deliberate in choosing her words (is she a bit high-strung?)? Ask yourself which fits best with the other elements of her personality and what you want the reader to know/interpret about her. 

This character is incredibly smart and a bit awkward: how does that manifest in their speech? Do they tend to use 5-dollar words, or do they expend a lot of energy choosing their words more carefully (how considerate are they to their audience when speaking and does that influence their speech)? Do they stumble over their words and explaining things, or are they good at making points with clear language learned from a lifetime of tutoring and helping others?

This character is the bff, who tries hard to make sure everyone else is happy first: how does that manifest in his speech? How does he switch between his happy-mask versus his more authentic self, and what changes in tone, word-choice, and inflection come in when he does?

-

Personal History

I’m only drawing a distinction between this and personality (archetype, really) so that I can draw attention to ways to add simultaneously unique and shared layers to characters that are distinct but related to group dynamics.

Here’s sort of what I mean: the level of education of a mother (or primary caregiver) of an infant can determine that infant’s vocabulary size. While we can break down all the ‘why is that’ layers to this, the one I want to point is to the simple truth that the more education a person does, the more specialized language they end up learning over time. This doesn’t have to be formal education though -- the more you learn about something and the more you read and access new knowledges and perspective, the more and more words you learn, and then if you start using those words, they trickle down to those close to you.

So.

What’s your character’s educational background? Is it the same as their friends who you are also writing? Is the same as their family’s? How does this character’s family influence their speech? Are they formal, informal, warm, authoritative? 

If you’re writing siblings, they’ll have some shared things! But also some very different ones! Me and my sister talk nothing alike in terms of vocabulary, but a lot alike in terms of mannerisms whenever we spend a bit of time together!

If your characters grew up around each other, they’ll have a lot of the same references. People from the same cities or regions will have things specific to that region, either due to sub-culture effects or because of local references. 

The city of Calgary, Canada for instance has the Plus15 which are a connected pedway system between the buildings in downtown, so named because they are 15feet above the ground. Drive 3 hours north to the city of Edmonton, and you have an underground pedway just called the pedways, no special name. Go a few provinces east to Toronto and their underground pedway system downtown is called PATH. These are all known to locals and part of the vernacular, but are opaque to people outside those cities. And the whole idea of them is probably opaque to people who aren’t from super cold cities that don’t require building-connecting pedway systems for pedestrians to get around high-density areas like downtown (or university campuses) without going out into the cold. 

Friends, families, and groups are like that too. In-jokes, shared histories, speaking in references. What are your characters’ relationships to each other and how does that history influence the way they approach talking to each other?

-

Gender

I don’t want to spend too much time on this one because ugh, gender. What even is it?

But like it or not, it has an impact on our speech patterns. There are cultural and societal norms in how men and women are likely to speak, and breaking those norms will be noticed regardless of whether you’re trans, enby, queer, or not. There are norms that people who are queer may fall into as well, sometimes without even noticing at first. A lot of these aren’t about word choice per se but instead about mannerisms and tone and body language, but some overlap or are specific to language.

Speaking in broad generalizations here, women use more emotional language and tend to speak with more hesitancies/qualifications. So more “i think, i feel” and less “it is”. More conversations that front emotions and dig deeper into those, with longer sentences to explain in detail. The obvious caveat is that personality matters more (i.e., is this a person who likes to talk about their emotions in detail or not) but it is something to consider because there will be general but subtle differences that you can use to help further distinguish your characters’ voices. 

Sidenote: this can also be exacerbated by different cultural backgrounds and languages (a simple example is Japanese which has different words for “I” depending on your gender as well as your personality, familiarity with the other persons in the conversation, and situational appropriateness, so interesting ways that gender and social expectations intersect in language).

Anyway this isn’t typically a huge problem except that I’ve found that a lot of writers have a tendency to overgeneralize the speech patterns that fit with their ascribed gender due to early-life socialization, or conversely to overgeneralize patterns that fit with their gender identity (when not cis) either due to heavily identifying with their gender identity’s speech model (or sometimes possibly due to a knee-jerk sort of backlash). I say this as an enby who both struggles with it and notices it and tries to edit and correct for it. 

I could get into all sorts of examples of ways this can lead to voice issues, but in general i think the point here is to make sure you’re writing any given character in view of that character’s personality and history, with gender only as a modifier for how some of these might come out in subtle ways but which can be important to help tell us about your character (and if you’re writing queer characters, it’s all the more important to consider how their relationship with gender and socialization might impact which speech models and styles they identify more with).

-

Idiosyncrasies

So, you’ve got a character. You’ve got their personality and history down. You know how they manifest in their speech. And you’re still getting some ‘same voice’ issues.

People really are unique snowflakes. Let that be reflected in their speech.

This person uses contractions differently than that one. This one says “ain’t” and that one says “isn’t.”

This person makes Simpsons references and that one doesn’t like Simpsons, and makes Brooklyn Nine Nine references instead. That other one doesn’t use referential humour much at all. This one loves old movies and hasn’t seen any of the new stuff so they make references all the time but no one ever notices.

This one loves the word “excoriate” and that one doesn’t even know what it means because what the hell, who uses the word excoriate?

This one talks about food a lot, it overlaps with their interests. This one uses metaphors. This one grunts in response. This one exclaims. This one says “like” and that one hates it. That one refers to themselves in third person. This other one uses reflective language an usual amount (e.g., “love me some candy”). This other one keeps misusing the word inconceivable and that one speaks almost without contractions but still comes off as more charming and humorous while correcting him.

I have an aunt who says “girl” or “girlfriend” a fuck-ton and she has been my whole life and I don’t know why because none of her sisters do, but she does and it annoys me so much the way she says it. I swear a lot when I’m feeling casual despite never ever doing it in a professional or even slightly-less-than-relaxed space, so the idiosyncrasy of comfort levels has a massive impact on my vocabulary in ways which, I promise, almost no one who meets me first in a professional space expect.

Let your characters be individuals and try to make them as unique as possible without overdoing it, or over-relying on a single verbal tendency or habit. 

-

And ... that’s all I’ve got for now. Completely failed at being concise. I meant to give like 2-3 bullet points or examples for each, not paragraphs, but here we are. That’s one of my verbal tendencies: long flowing verbosity :)

Hope this helps! 

[purekesseltrash]

My Fic List

Whelp, decided I should do one of these.  I have mostly written for Hockey RPF and BNHA, as you have likely already seen!

My BNHA Fics

Bury Them Deep

- “Shouji Mezou's entire life has revolved around being a goalie and playing hockey since he was five years old. After being drafted in the third round in the NHL, Shouji has two more years of college before moving on to playing professional hockey like he's always wanted. Or at least like he always thought he wanted. An injury that ends his season throws him into a tailspin, forcing him to take a look at his life and how he is going to live it, especially after meeting his fascinating new goth history tutor.”

(This bad bitch is 81k total and is chock full of my red hot hockey takes and midwestern references.  I love it very much and it is a sweet baby.)

The Rooftop Necromancy series AKA my black metal band AU:

Downhill from Here 

- “ Hizashi just wants to tour the country with his best friends with their metal band in their shitty van like they've been planning for years. He'd successfully hidden his crush on one of them for years, after all, he would definitely be able to make this work and keep things fun and uncomplicated. Until Aizawa decided to start acting weird. “

(In which I take you all on a nostalgic trip to 2006-2008 metal culture and you can see the black metal love song that my dumb ass wrote.)

The Perfect Mistake

- “ It wasn't as though Hizashi had planned on breaking up with his boyfriend while they were on tour in a tiny cargo van with no room and no peace. He would have much rather preferred to do it when they were home and he could easily go and crawl back into his mom's basement. But he didn't have a choice. “

(As relationships tend to do, theirs goes through problems.)

Rooftop Necromancy

-"He’d even ended up leaning into the crowd when someone’s elbow had connected solidly with his nose and thrown him back. They’d gone quiet as Hizashi got himself up to his feet, ripped off his now bloody ‘Within Temptations’ tshirt from 2004, whipped his hair back from his face and screamed, “That’s what I’m FUCKING talking about.” into the mic.

They went wild for it, cheering as blood ran down his nose, past his mouth and dripped onto the stage, leaving him feeling like an otherworldly monster performing an occult ritual. Metal, he thought dazedly to himself, why in the fuck had he ever stopped doing metal."

(I hyperfocused so hard at the idea of Mic as a metal head that I wrote this in seven straight hours and WROTE THROUGH THE ATTEMPTED COUP ON DEMOCRACY WITHOUT KNOWING IT.  It’s a bit rough, but it’s got some good parts and it spawned the whole damn series.)

Hands Up

- "But of course he had, they had always been able to read each other and what they meant. That had often been their problem, if he was going to be honest."

(In which they figure their shit out.  Basically it was written when I was thinking alot about how my own mental health had evolved through the years.  It’s basically the story of two people who are both very good for each other and also very bad and how they deal with that.  It’s probably the most personally meaningful thing I’ve ever written.)

The other BNHA fics:

Waking Up With Ghosts

-"Hizashi opened his eyes to a world that belonged to ghosts. His headphones were gone and the gray, grimy world that he felt more than saw was muffled and still. This was bad, he hazily thought."

In which we follow Hizashi shortly after the events of 296. How he's found, how he finds out and how he has to tell.”

(I fished this one out of the garbage of my Google Docs because I’d written most of it and forgotten about it.  I dragged it out, prettied it up a little and threw it up on AO3.  It is by far my most well read BNHA fic, go figure.)

Leave Her Johnny

-”Captain Hizashi Yamada has combed the Seven Seas looking for the elusive smuggler Eraserhead. He has spent years searching for him, tracking his movements and trying to anticipate where he would be next. But he had never considered what would happen when he finally found him. “

(I wrote a paragraph of this and was immediately like ‘I MUST CREATE THIS’.  I take some chances writing wise in this as the whole thing is done in a Victorian Era ish style of writing.  But I think it’s effective and the ending is likely one of the best that I’ve ever managed.  I’m proud of it.)

Gold Rush

-”"That earned him a laugh and Mashirao’s smile made something in his chest ache, something that made him want to hurt. Why had he ever left?

“I’m really not,” Mashirao was saying but Shinsou just shook his head and kissed him once, twice and wished he could take the sunny afternoon and make it stay forever. Make it stay forever like Mashirao somehow had, while the neighborhood had adjusted without Hitoshi’s permission.

“You are,” he said, “And I love it.”

I love you, he should have said.  But as Mashirao’s eyes softened and the blonde pushed him back against the bed, Hitoshi knew he didn’t need to say it."

(You know how sometimes you listen to a Death Cab for Cutie song about gentrification over and over until a fic comes out?  Because that’s basically what happened here.)

Black Sun

‘"But then he remembered the way that Shouji had eaten the night after, one hand curled into his hair as he hung back in the corner. Shouji hid when something was wrong, like a wounded cat trying to find a dark place to either live or die and he was being released tomorrow. Now was the time to push or he’d find Shouji right back on his bed, staring at nothing."

Something happened to Shouji on the beach. Tokoyami is sure of it.‘

(Aaaaaand Death Cab for Cutie strikes again.  But heyo, my first published ShouToko and it is SOFTTTTT)

In the Far and Mighty West

Mic came closer and despite himself, Shouta could not find it in him to feel afraid. “You won’t understand, not really. I’ll try, though. I’m like Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan or a jackalope or that fish that your friend caught that he swears he brought in but that you’ve never seen proof of. I’m the herd of dogies moving sweet and steady in the right direction, I’m no stragglers to worry about, I’m that perfect dog that’s there to keep them in line. I’m that group of good friends that you would kill for, I’m the woman who you’re dying to come home to, I’m that promised home of milk and honey. I’m Mic.”

Shouta stared at him dazedly and licked his lips, feeling drunk and stupid as he stared at the man. “You’re… magic?”

“I suppose you could call me that.”

(Cowboy!Erasermic.  Inspired heavily by American Gods and my own love of folk heroes.)

In Your Violence

- “'Mezou frowned, eyes narrowing. “Are you trying to say that you’re scared that I’ll be killed by having faith in you?”

“It would be in your best interest to stay away from me,” Fumikage finally said, his voice falling flat and quiet. “I am destined to be a monster.”

'Mezou gets the call he fears, the one that says that Fumikage has lost control again. But this time it's different, in more ways than one.”

(I listened to Silence by Marshmello until I went insane in this is the result.  Featuring some of my super depressing headcanons about Shouji!  But it’s not awful.)

My hockey fics that I still like:

Hufflepuff Halfwit  

- ““Zhenya, the wind is coming from the west, I will not remind you again. You shut that window before the house stinks of factories!” She snapped and Geno stared at the owl as though maybe it would know what to do. But instead, it had given a little hoot and wiggled inside, only to drop it’s letter on the counter.

He turned his head very slowly back to look at his mother, who had suddenly gone very quiet. “It… just showed up, Mama. And um. It brought a letter.” He waited again, looked back at the owl who had begun to nose at the pirozhkis in interest and then looked back at his mother with the best puppy dog eyes he had ever attempted. “Can I keep it?”

(This is a part of my hockey/Harry Potter au that still legitimately haunts my dreams.  It’s basically a Sid/Geno in Hogwarts but I really love the world building I got to do with Koldovstoretz, the Russian school of wizardry.  Don’t read ‘On the Word of a Slytherin’ though, I’m not as proud of that one.)

The Prince  

- “What the fuck.” Matt breathed out, sitting back heavily onto his hotel bed as he stared at his phone.

‘This is Henrik.’ The text read. ‘I would like to meet you. I will book a room in Pittsburgh at your convenience. Let me know what time will work for you.’  - 

(Listen, it’s Henrik Lundqvist/Matt Murray smut, I feel like that is novel and interesting and worth your attention.  I wax poetic on goalies in this, as you do.)

The Zoo of Toronto 

- “No one missed it when a massive porcupine had shuffled in between the reporters with a single minded focus, pushing media away until it was able to grip onto Phil’s suit pants and try to pull itself up. He hadn’t been able to do more then besides pick the animal up before it could shred his pants to shreds and walk out of the locker room before the decision had been made with the Toronto media.

Phil Kessel was guilty.” 

(Not gonna lie, this is probably my favorite of the hockey fics I’ve written.  And it’s Phil/Carl, which is never found anymore but it was a good pairing.)

[humansofnewyork]

“I never saw myself as a smart person.  Definitely not book smart.  Maybe smart in other ways.  I never liked school all that much.  No matter how hard I tried, I could never reach past a B.  I even got a tutor in high school, and she was great, but my grades didn’t really improve.  I was intimidated by how well other students could write and speak.  I didn’t think I’d ever reach that level.  I figured that college just wasn’t for me.  After graduation I took a year off and backpacked through Southeast Asia.  I loved it so much.  I didn’t want to leave.  When I came home I decided to major in history, because at least I could keep learning about Asia.  I’m almost finished now.  I made it through with about a ‘B’ average.  Last term I even got nominated for an award by my favorite professor.  His name is Arne Kislenko.  He’s a little bit of a hard ass.  He expects a lot.  He doesn’t even post lecture slides.  But he has stories and tidbits for everything.  Even though I almost failed his class, I registered for two more because I learned so much.  I wrote my final paper on Thai Foreign Policy from 1932 to 1945.   He handed it back with a note that said: ‘See me.’  He told me that he was nominating me for the Dean’s List Essay Award.  I was the only student he chose.  I didn’t win, but I didn’t care.  It showed me what I could do if I write about a subject I care about.  It was the first time I’d ever been recognized for something academic, and it came from the smartest person I know."   (Toronto, Canada)