avrablake

[avrablake]

I probably put way too much thought into it but I do enjoy making a more in depth story rather than winging it. I like to actually think about the worldbuilding, make sure things actually connect and make sense. I am a big history nerd and I feel like it's the closest I can get to writing my own history.

#both. both is good

[avrablake]

So...

Before I actually start, work up, and finish with the first Standard Issue for @archsarmedadvice , I was thinking of bringing back Setting Conditions, with a mini-series of sorts detailing some of the 'building blocks' of military theory and how a writer might make use of them.

And yet, every time I look for more than five seconds at one of these DOD infographics, I want to gouge my eyes out.

#interesting #reblogging for reference #wip inspiration

[avrablake]

I’m becoming bored with the anti-feminization of fantasy novels. I’m all for heroines who take up a sword, or who chafe against the expectations of their society. But can’t we have more heroines who like dresses and housework and embroidery and family life? We don’t just need heroines who do stereotypically masculine things. Because that perpetuates the sexism–women are only welcome if they’re just like the boys. We also need to show that stereotypically feminine tasks and roles can be heroic.

To that end, here are some suggestions:

The princess who arranges her own marriage, because someone’s got to make the alliance to save this kingdom and it may as well be her. (Extra points: her parents want her to be a knight, but she runs away from home because she would rather get married).

A heroine who really, really loves babies and want to get married and start a family.

Women who love doing embroidery,and comparing patterns and making up new designs. And maybe they embroider a map or two for the adventure, because paper can tear and get wet, and that’s not a problem for fabric.

A woman who has to wear trousers for a portion of the adventure–and hates them. They might be slightly more convenient for running, but they’re uncomfortable, and her legs are too warm, and can’t she please get into skirts again?

Mothers as fantasy protagonists. Caring for their children while also dealing with the demands of the fantasy plot. Queens who negotiate treaties and care for the demands of the castle and then go back to spend time with their children. 

Women who don’t get married and aren’t pressured to get married, but have a happy, successful single life–working as a spinster or running a farm or having any other sort of successful business.

Fantasy societies that are built around the fact that women get pregnant and have children. Bringing your children to the meeting of the fellowship is totally okay! You can run the castle while your children play at your feet! Women aren’t trapped in the house caring for the babies because babies are welcome!

There are loads of interesting things that can happen if stories go beyond the tropes and include the reality of female life. (And if anyone knows of fantasy novels that include some of these things, please point me toward them).

#yes this

[avrablake]

“he would not fucking say that!” then put him in a situation that makes him say it, we wanna see him squirm

#love doing this #how so figure out my little guys

[avrablake]

Camp Nano Update

Sooooo

I ended up sick for a week.

Then I got some vaccine boosters that made me feel sick for a week.

So writing this month ended up not really happening.

I’m ok with it. It was just a goal I set for fun and to recharge my motivation a bit.

What I did do is finish organizing all my beta feedback for Beyond the Darkness. I’m feeling ready and excited to dive into more edits.

I’ve also been playing around with formatting and getting used to how that all works.

Overall I think it’s been a good writing month, even though I didn’t stick to my goal.

#camp nanowrimo #camp nano april 2024 #writing update

[avrablake]

Petition to add more disabled magical creatures in fantasy

Like picture a mermaid. When they have to be on land their tail turns to legs, but because their body is used to lower gravity their joints tire easily and are chronically in pain.

Also depending on how deep in the ocean they live, it’s likely they have circulation problems because their body is used to the water pressure holding everything where it needs to be and now their blood is always fucking pooling in their legs and they have to wear compression socks everywhere.

Wheelchair user mermaids. Partially/fully blind mermaids because who needs to see when there’s no light at the bottom of the ocean?

Mermaids with sensory issues who have to wear headphones all the time because sound is so much louder up here on land and they are constantly overstimulated. And also the sun is simply Too Bright™.

Mermaids who have POTS because in the water postural changes make no difference and their bodies don’t know how to stabilize with so much gravity.

I’m really fixated on the mermaids rn but PLEASE feel more than welcome to add more!!!! I wanna hear about disabled dragons

#😮🫨 #vibrating

[avrablake]

I feel like my answer to this is kind of boring.

Fight Club and The Boys.

People who don't see these as cautionary tales but role models to emulate.

And not just the weirdos who idolize Homelander. Billy Butcher may be fighting on the righteous side of things most of the time but he is not a hero.

This was posted in The Last of Us subreddit and I guess my annoyance there would be that some people thought there was a definitive answer to the philosophical questions the ending elicited. (with regard to season 1 of the show)

The ending was very intentionally supposed to make different people feel a certain way depending on their relationships and circumstances. We are supposed to discuss and debate the morality rather than authoritatively say "this is the correct interpretation."

Also, it's easy to say you'd do the most objectively moral thing when things are hypothetical.

#anna karenina and paradise lost #you do not want to get me started

[avrablake]

🔹 Saying that it's okay to write or read about dark and taboo topics but only when they're portrayed in a certain way is still censorship.

🔹 Wanting to ban or forbid media that you believe portrays a negative topic in a positive light, by glorifying, romanticizing, or fetishizing it is still censorship.

🔹 There is no objective metric to decide if a story is portraying a negative topic the 'right' way.

🔹 Just because a piece of fiction doesn't explicitly condemn or portray an evil action in a bad light in the text doesn't mean the author thinks its good or is trying to persuade the audience that it is good.

🔹 Survivors of trauma will not always write fiction about their trauma in a way that seems 'right' or 'normal' to you.

🔹 Banning fiction because it portrays dark, taboo topics in a way you consider gross or disgusting is still censorship.

#censorship

[avrablake]

I like it best when characters heal but not all the way and it's implied they'll never heal all the way

[avrablake]

The Tumblr reblog sensation is returning. But like the Sayians or Shakespeare’s folios, it has the potential to develop in many forms.

Visit kamehamehamlet.com to be notified when we have more details.

Follow this blog for a peak behind the curtain.

And read on to learn more about the show, how we got here, and where we’re going.

Thank you for waiting just a little bit longer.

Revival Project Q&A

Who are you?

Hi! I’m Daniel Cole Mauleón (@writepictures), the writer of Kamehamehamlet. In 2015 I co-founded the theatre company Play-Dot Productions with KHH’s director Shalee Mae Cole Mauleón.

What is Kamehamehamlet?

Kamehamehamlet: Good Night Saiyan Prince, was an hour-long one act play, performed during the 2015 Minnesota Fringe Festival. It’s a staged retelling of Vegeta and Freeza’s battle on the planet Namek. Marketed as a Dragon Ball Z and Hamlet mash-up, the parody quickly shuffled off its weighted gi, revealing it was actually a Waiting for Godot spoof. After five performances, Vegeta hung up his helmet of spiky hair. Seven years later, K (@amokslime) wrote this incredibly gracious post on Tumblr, which inspired two people to reach out to me via Reddit to ask if I had a script or a recording of the performance.

I want to pause the semi-marketing voice and say a heartfelt thanks to K. Kamehamehamlet was brought to life by an incredible team of artists during a summer I’ll never forget. We got laughs at jokes, gasps at fight choreography, and we broke even on the budget (a Fringe miracle TBH). K’s post gave me the chance to revisit that show through someone else’s eyes. The mix of pride and humility it stirs up is truly indescribable.

If there is art which has changed you, and especially if the artist is still alive I encourage you to non-intrusively share that with the artist.

Is there a copy of the script?

Yes, I’ll speak more about that at below.

Is there a recording of the performance?

There was, but I genuinely lost the files. And that’s for the best, honestly. It was a last-second attempt, filmed from two cheap cameras (with different qualities and resolutions!), both at bad angles and with truly awful audio. Trust me. It’s better this way.

That said, I do have other archival footage from rehearsal's, tech, etc. that I look forward to sharing for those curious.

What’s next?

This is the question I’ve been asking myself over the past year and the reason it took so long to post anything. Especially since one thing I want to do differently this time is make sure that any artists involved are meaningfully compensated for their time and skill. However, I can’t plan without a better estimate of what kind of support we would have, and I didn’t want to share our intentions without concrete details.

Right now, the best way you can support this project is by signing up for the announcement on kamehamehamlet.com.

The second best thing you can do is to share with others about this project, if I’ve learned anything reading through the comments on K’s post, it is that there’s a much bigger audience for KHH than I could have ever imagined, and you likely know at least one more person who would be interested.

And while I don’t want to promise anything I can’t deliver on, I will share that I’m planning on making the script available this year and I’ll be writing a separate post about that in near future.

If you’ve read this far thank you so much.

Photography by Ann B. Erickson. Vegeta is played by McKenzie Shappell. Freeza is played by Cayla Marie Wolpers. Costumes by Sarah Noel Simon.

#I have a mighty need

[avrablake]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (2 things actually)

Vocaloid voices were obtained with permission and the people who provided their voices were compensated. Not only that every vocaloid song is created by an artist using the vocaloid software, by entering in notes and lyrics and sound combinations. The software is their instrument. Vocaloid artists are musicians and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

And the second thing is:

It’s not ai that is bad in and of itself. It’s how ai models are trained and subsequently used. We all use some form of ai everyday: spellcheck, autocorrect, predictive text, auto-enhance in your photos app, portrait mode filters, etc. .

As the ai witch hunts begin, it’s important to remember what it is we are fighting against. Ai tools created ethically and used to enhance our workflow rather than replace the creative process can be powerful tools that make us better writers and artists.

Ai tools created by stealing the works of other artists in order to replace the creative process all together. That’s the thing we hate.

And remember folks, it’s not your job to be the art police. If you see art you think was created using ai, keep scrolling. DNI. All you are doing is giving them more views.

But also, these ai witch hunts are not helping real artists. They are hurting real artists as more and more artists are being accused of using ai.

this is going viral on the tweeter currently so. for you also. miku is not ai!!

#saw another artist bullied off social media last week #this is not the way to help artists! #ai #anti ai

[avrablake]

they should invent sleeping that makes you less tired

[avrablake]

it's always so fascinating and heartbreaking when a character in a story is simultaneously idolized and abused. a chosen prophet destined for martyrdom. a child prodigy forced to grow up too fast. a powerful warrior raised as nothing but a weapon. there's just something so uniquely messed up about singing someone's praises whilst destroying them.

#nix #the monster #the weapon

[avrablake]

bkak 🎸

#awww look at them #haikyuu #others art #hinata boke

[avrablake]

sanji-kun!!

#he’s annoying and that’s why we love him #amazing drawings!!!!! #as always #others’ art #hinata boke

[avrablake]

i am a tragedy enjoyer before i am human

#wip inspiration #trying to weave iris more into the main story

[avrablake]

They must suffer. For the narrative.