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DAY 15

GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 15

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R u talking to me, sir?

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shout out to fanfiction authors for giving me awesome shit for free on a daily basis

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Honest Advice On Relationships And Life In General By This Balloon Artist 

 "I try to make commentary about, or poke fun at, social media. The balloons were a social media trope often used in bridal showers and gender reveals, so they were a natural progression of that idea. I love the contrast of profound, funny, or challenging quotes spelled in silly balloons. And since another common cliche is endless selfies, I tend to put myself in most of the photos. They often make people cringe, but the cringe is the point,“ Michael told Bored Panda.

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Tips on Character Motivations

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Motivations are key to understanding your characters, describing them effectively, and making them come alive for your readers. Here are a few of my tips on crafting those motivations and using them to enhance your story. 

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Base Them on Experience

A character’s base needs and desires come from somewhere, and their ultimate goal(s) don’t pop out of thin air. If someone grew up in a family of poverty or neglect and your story revolves around the family they’re beginning to build on their own, it would make sense that their experience having nothing would make them want to give their children everything, and be as affluent as possible so that their loved ones never struggle as they did. Motivations should have a direct connection to the bests and worsts of their life, because those are the moments that shape people and their expectations.

Make Them Understandable, If Not Reasonable

This goes especially for villains or morally grey characters. Just because a person’s motivations result in harsh actions or cruelty doesn’t mean they came from a place of malicious intent or insanity. Some of the best characters and the ones that really stick out are the ones who make a little sense. Motivations that the reader can empathize with, especially in antagonists, can really enhance the impact of that character on the story, and the reader. 

Subtext is Everything

Motivations can be stated plainly within the text, but true ambition and priority typically live between the lines, popping out with every move they make in a new direction. One of my go-to tricks is thinking of it this way:

What do they want? (be open with this in the text)

What do they think they need? (be open with this in the text as well)

What do they really need? (Imply this sub-textually)

What are they willing to do to get what they want? (reveal gradually)

Furthermore, what has determined that boundary? (reveal at the end)

This is a good way to structure your character arc so that the reader isn’t bombarded with fragments of information, some ultimately unnecessary, while still understanding the character’s profile. 

Plan Strategically

Their motivations should ultimately serve to further the plot in some way. The characters, setting, and world building should all complement each other and tie into the plot, and even if your story isn’t character driven, it’s important that they’re necessary to the plot, otherwise their motivations and development in general just isn’t relevant. Your main character’s motivations should either aid or inhibit the conflict resolution, and create an internal (and usually external) arc that develops parallel to the events of the story. They should all be tangled together and make sense as a whole, rather than pieces of a good story being smacked against each other. 

Give Them a Resolution Within the Story

If a character’s motivations don’t reach some kind of crescendo or resolution within the story, that motivation probably isn’t well suited to the plot you’re weaving. Everyone has a plethora of personal goals and aspirations to choose from, so if you get through your first draft and realize that one of your main characters’ motivations make sense, but don’t tie into the story, don’t be afraid to change them. A lot of the time, their typical behavior won’t dramatically shift, but a few of the larger decisions will, as well as their reactions to certain points in the conflict. Shifting the focus motivation won’t change who they are, but it will impact the decisions they make in order to reach their goal.

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Louder for the idiots in the back.

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If you ain't gay, you get to be an ally. I don't get to be straight when I'm an asshole.

Personality and sexuality are not mutually exclusive, being nice don't make you gay, bb.

Hey

What if I said

Everyone who’s kind hearted and accepting of others should belong in the LGBT+ community

Because you can’t charge my stance on that.

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Progress on a piece for pride/BLM

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on the policing of queer language and terminology

I think it’s important when you stumble upon a debate about who is or isn’t ~allowed~ to use certain terms then you should always take a step back and ask yourself the following two questions:

If we forbid a certain group of people from using certain terminology then who actually benefits from that ban?

What harm would be done to whom if said group of people just used the terminology in question?

Example A: When there’s discourse about whether or not bisexual woman are allowed to use “butch/femme” then you can pretty much stop bothering with any arguments about historcal accuracy if you just ask:

Who benefits when bi women are forbidden from using “butch/femme”? —- the answer is: biphobes, because they would succeed in alienating bisexual women from queer spaces and it would make it harder for bi women to talk about their sexuality if they are only granted a limited vocabulary to do so. Ultimately that’s leading to more bi invisibility and more bi people who don’t feel “queer enough”.

What harm would be done to lesbians if bi women used “butch/femme”? —- the answer is: none, because bi women are just as capable as lesbians are to understand what it’s like to be a sapphic woman and the existence of bi butches and femmes doesn’t take anything away from lesbian butches and femmes.

Example B: On the question of whether straight cis people should be allowed to use “top/bottom” (be it for piv sex or pegging or whatever else they might be doing in their bedrooms):

Who benefits from forbidding straight cis people to use “top/bottom”? —- the answer is: well, probably biphobes again? because they tend to see every m/f couple as inherently straight even if one or both partners in that couple are actually bi. but most importantly, and that’s admittedly where this entire post was supposed to lead to: gatekeepers who think they have the authority to decide who is “queer enough” benefit immensely from that. bear with me, I promise it gets clearer when we jump to the second question…

What harm would be done to queer people if straight cis people used “top/bottom”? —- the answer is: none. However, restricting people’s access to queer language, even if a ban seems to be directed at straight cis people only, ultimately also hits queer people. Specifically queer people in m/f relationships that ~look straight~ and closeted and questioning people. Maybe it’s just my personal experience with running this blog but I have read countless messages by people who were still identifying as straight yet started questioning their sexuality but they didn’t dare to use queer terminology and labels in case they turned out to actually be straight. They were afraid of overstepping a boundary or infringing on queer territory that they as “straight” people don’t belong in. If we keep insisting that certain language is only for Certified Queer People that ultimately alienates those who are in the process of discovering they are not actually straight and/or cis. Add to that the plenty of messages from bisexuals who weren’t sure if they were “queer enough” to exist in queer spaces and use queer lingo, especially if they were in an m/f relationship.  And hey, even if we talk about actual real straight cis people who use “top/bottom” then so what? Why would you care about how other people describe their sex lives. If they find those terms useful then who are you to deny them that?

Those are just two examples that came to my mind - one I see frequently, one we’ve recently been asked about. There’s probably other such debates out there and maybe not all of them are as unfounded as these two but when you start asking about benefit and harm then you’re beginning to see how much of it boils down to gatekeeping. Gatekeepers are people who think they have some God-given power that gives them the authority to decide who is allowed to enter their sacred club. They restrict the use of ~their language~ as if language is a product that you can own but only if you’re “queer enough” or “queer in the right way”. If you’re one inch too straight for their taste then you have to hand in your queer dictionary? 

tl;dr: Placing bans and restrictions on queer terminology ultimately causes more harm to queer people than benefit.

Maddie

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Seven years after, I see you again 😚

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Rick Sanchez is a pansexual, autistic Hispanic man can I get an amen

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First time in my life i've ever been a 7.

Tag yourself I’m 5

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“The page is long, blank, and full of truth. When I am through with it, it shall probably be long, full, and empty with words.” - Jack Kerouac, Atop an Underwood

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I voiced every one of these in my head

Iconic vines as bad hipster edits