gpstudios

[gpstudios]

A Bare Bones Guide to Outlining a Fantasy Novel in Three Acts

If you're trying to write a fantasy novel and you're feeling overwhelmed by the process, try to break down your story into three acts as follows...

Act 1

Introduce the status quo - setting, main character, and any struggles they currently face

Create an inciting incident

Show your character's hesitancy to welcome change

Have your character take a chance and start their journey

Act 2

Introduce friends and mentors

Include trials and obstacles

Let your character have a mini success

Have your character doubt themselves regardless of their success

Act 3

Increase tension with more obstacles and rising action

The climactic high point - a.k.a. the final showdown

Show the aftermath and what your character has overcome/sacrificed in order to succeed

[gpstudios]

ok so apparently TERFs believe that when we say something along the lines of "reblog this post to turn everybody trans by 2050" that we're actually serious.

anyway reblog this post to turn everybody trans by 2050

[gpstudios]

this tiktok screenshot ruined my life i need to see the serbian pigeon movie so so badly but it doesn't exist it's so foul to make this bad of a point with something so cool and then take it away from me.

[gpstudios]

IT people and mechanics are convergent evolutions of different evolutionary branches that developed in vastly different biomes. However, due to the introduction of the invasive Computer - an IT's natural companion, prey, and beast of burden - to mechanics' natural ranges (industrial/automotive machines), more and more similarities between the two species are being revealed through their extended contact with each other, and it is now believed that they may, in fact, be the same species with just wildly divergent temperament and plumage, and a much more specific difference in diet and preference for things to tinker and shit to dick around with.

I think they should fuck nasty and create the ultimate repair crossbreed. A handyman that will become the Liger for a new age.

[gpstudios]

I'm grateful for a smooth trip to the neighboring city.

I'm grateful for summer camps at the museum across the street.

I'm grateful I said no to working this summer. I felt some pressure to sign up for June but I'm so ready to be done with this job. I'm pretty sure I'm not going back next school year. There's nothing wrong with the job. I just want to work from home. I also want to be able to wear my nice clothes.

#gratitude #so sleepy but I posted anyway #took me a while to come up with stuff #I'm super anxious tonight for some reason #moment #small thoughts #school year almost over #38?? days of school left???

[gpstudios]

For some reason I'm super tired tonight. I really don't want to do a gratitude post right now but here goes...

I'm thankful for the TACO's help and companionship as I folded and put away the laundry tonight. I wouldn't have finished otherwise.

I'm thankful it's Wednesday. This morning I woke up thinking it was Tuesday...

I'm grateful for the random thought that led me to discovering the next steps in a project I'm working on.

#gratitude #moment #small thoughts #laundry #random thoughts leading to big ideas #the local car racers are out in full force tonight and I'm having trouble thinking #companionship makes the chores go fater #practicing gratitude when I really really don't wanna #I'm calling it a win

[gpstudios]

Realized it's been awhile since I've done a gratitude post. They really help me focus on finding good things especially when it seems like everything is going not so great. It's not about toxic positivity but just realizing that there is always something good happening even if it's tiny. Really helps with my overall anxiety levels and they've been out of control lately.

Feeling the weight lift right off me, and my resting heart rate drop three points, after a conversation with the Eldest Spawn. What could have been really difficult turned out really beautiful.

Playing Minecraft with the TACO for the first time in awhile. Their building skills have just exploded. So beautiful and creative.

Typing up a letter to my grandma then handwriting it. I really like handwriting letters but find it frustrating because I end up writing the letter over and over trying to get the thoughts out in a pleasant manner. Realized that I can type up the letter first which is much less frustrating. Such a weird thing to stumble on but at least I found a workaround for my weird self.

#gratitude #moments #handwriting letters #conversations with kids #minecraft with kids #anxiety #not toxic positivity

[gpstudios]

I so want to do this to. Guess I will start now. Remembering gender takes too much energy and gender is stupid anyway.

My elderly father started talking about how frustrating he finds “the pronouns thing” and I was like. Oh no. He had such a good stand on this, he’s been they/them-ing his cishet siblings for god’s sake! Is he regressing?? And he was talking about how difficult it is to remember, and how onerous it feels to expect strangers to keep track of it, and I’m like oh no oh no.

Then he says, “I mean, the problem isn’t the gender thing. The problem is four words: she, her, he, and him. We got rid of stewardess and turned it into flight attendant. It doesn’t matter if the flight attendant is a man or woman, so we got rid of it. We just need to get rid of those. I don’t need to know.”

“You don’t need to know… people’s gender?”

“No. I don’t care, I don’t need to know, and I don’t want to remember it.”

So we can relax. It’s just a continuation of his crusade to they/them the world. He doesn’t want to remember anyone’s gender. He’s abolishing the genders.

[gpstudios]

It's darkly amusing to me that some people thought my mom didn't "discipline" me enough as a kid, were not shy about making sure both she AND I knew it, and now as an adult I'm one of the only people in my friend group who still wants anything to do with their parents. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

When I was a kid, I broke a ceramic soap dispenser. I burst into tears and was terrified that I was going to be in trouble. My mom told me that it was okay, because accidents happen sometimes, and the important thing was that I didn't do it on purpose and apologized.

When someone else I know was a kid, they broke a dish on accident and got screamed at and guilt tripped. To this day, they have to push down a panic attack at the sound of broken glass, and have had to actively work on healing from that trauma. They will always have to carry that.

I think maybe it's not MY mom who fucked up in the "how to discipline your child" department. Quite frankly, I think the idea of "disciplining children" is fucked up and deeply harmful on a fundamental level.

When a kid does something wrong, you have to teach them how to fix it and do better. Humans are messy and complicated and we don't know everything there is to know just by being born. Children are learning how to be human beings, and that's a really hard thing to learn.

Kids question and fight back against authority that mistreats them, but someone treating them like a human being with human emotions is usually going to have a lot of success. Kids just want to be respected, and it's our job as adults to give them that basic human dignity. The world is utterly terrifying, and made scarier when all the grown-ups seem to hate you and wish you would just shut up and go away, even the ones that claim they want you around.

Kids can be mean, because they're still learning how to socialize and communicate and collaborate. Sometimes you have to give them time to cool off, and sometimes you have to redirect them. Sometimes you have to be firm. Sometimes you have to be an adult, and hone your conflict de-escalation and resolution skills. None of that requires punishment.

And if a child does something truly cruel and fucked up and shitty, and it hurts someone in a big way? My first question isn't "what should their punishment be," my first question is always, "who taught this kid that, and is this child in active danger from them?"

[gpstudios]

"But only 2% of the population is intersex. It's not that common. Why should we reframe or perception of gender for intersex people?"

Completely ignoring the fact that empathy exists. You do realize that 2% of the population in the medical field is considered very common, yes?

2% of children and 0.5% of adults have a peanut allergy and that's so common that they have entire rules around in in public spaces.

0.24-1% of the population has Rheumatoid arthritis. That's an eighth to a half of the number of intersex people!

1-2% of people are estimated to have autism, and that's considered a common condition.

0.1%-2.6% of people will get melanoma in their life time, and that's considered common.

1.2% of people have epilepsy and that's considered common.

Completely ignoring statistics like 6% of women have PCOS (which is a condition that can fall under the intersex umbrella). 2% of the population in the medical field is considered a common condition, and ergo by medical terms intersex is in itself common.

I don't think you realize how big 2% is. That's 2 in 100 people. If you walk into 3 fully filled classrooms (when I was in school a full classroom was 40 students). Chances are you just saw 2 intersex kids and didn't even know it.

So yeah. I think intersex is common enough to include in our discussions around gender and how transphobic rules affects intersex people.

-fae

[gpstudios]

for me the thing about pointless internet debates is that I used to like them when I was younger, but it was because I thought everyone was engaging them in the way I was ("here's a question without a meaningful answer! isn't that interesting? let's spend some time discussing why there isn't an answer") before I accepted that no a lot of people really do have a strong opinion on the definition of "sandwich" or how to pronounce "gif". the most common way to engage with them is to develop a strong gut-reaction initial opinion on the topic and then just stick with that until the debate stops trending. it's frustratingly uncommon to actually learn anything about why the ambiguity existed in the first place.

like idk this might just be me but I think learning about differences in perception or how some words are impossible to define is just more fun than getting performatively angry about it

[gpstudios]

An unfortunate, reoccurring phenomenon I've experienced increasingly is people pestering me about my gender and/or hinting that they're a trans ally (assuming they aren't trans themselves) and goading me into coming out, and then getting extremely uncomfortable when I come out as a trans man. I'm genuinely shocked by the amount of times in the past few months alone I've come out and explained that I'm ftm, a binary trans man who uses he/him, and have been asked "Okay, so can I use they/them?" Or, "why don't you use they/them?"

I am not a passing trans man - not for lack of trying, but due to things that I simply cannot control, hide, or remedy right now. I have been told I look more androgynous than masculine, which is a significant part of why my pronouns are questioned, yes, even by other trans people. It makes people uncomfortable, because my identity doesn't align with their perception of me.

But even if I wasn't doing my fucking best to pass, even if I didn't bind, or if I chose wore dresses and skirts, my pronouns should be respected. You don't get to "compromise" or decline to use someone's pronouns because their presentation doesn't align with the image in your head. You can't just refer to any trans person by they/them pronouns because it makes you more comfortable.

[gpstudios]

every now and again i think "surely it can't be that weird for a child to sort things, it has to be something every child does"

and then i remember that my mother finally had an allistic child after two autistic kids in a row and was baffled and annoyed to find out she couldn't just keep him occupied by sticking a box of unsorted buttons in front of him and let him sort them

like my mother thought, exactly like i do sometimes, that surely every child must just sit there and sort whatever is in front of them but no, actually, most of my non autistic peers didn't do this and thought i was a fucking weirdo for doing it

anyway i still struggle to believe that most people don't find deep enjoyment in sitting there and arbitrarily sorting shit. what do they even do if they need to do data entry? do they just suffer? weirdos.

[gpstudios]

Today I was peeing in a public restroom and overhead a bunch of women with babies st the basins talking about how much they wished genderless toilets existed because it would make caring for children all that much easier.

Their arguments was that caring for children is easier when you can have two parents nearby, especially when you need to manage multiple children. Not only that, another one added, but sometimes single fathers need to help little daughters go to the toilet and are faced with the choice of 1) occupying the disabled people toilet or 2) risking taking their little girls into men's restrooms and having her see someone at a urinal because that's the only way they can keep a proper eye on them. And another one complained that sometimes she needs to change her crying baby's diaper while her little girl needs to go to - and all of this would be easier if only mums and dads were allowed in the same spaces at the same time.

And all I could think about while I finished peeing and heard this was that genderless public restrooms are a female need and would probably be an unanimously held feminist demand (similarly to reproductive rights) if it wasn't for radfems who are so gassed by their hatred towards men and trans people that they refuse to move forward with what should be a very simple and reasonable demand.

[gpstudios]

So, this week I ordered a new couch pillow because I had a husband pillow full of shredded memory foam, and the thing needs to be opened and shifted around about once a week with the way I use it so it doesn't shape up weird and actually fuck up my back when I bought it to NOT fuck up my back.

I now have a wedge pillow, made of one piece of foam. And I ordered a book cushion from etsy, and I just wanna say to anyone who has thought "that adaptive thing seems like it would be useful, but I'm not disabled, so maybe it's not for me?"

It's for you. Trust me. My back hurt because I was slouching weird on the couch. I got a husband pillow. It helped a lot. But, it turns out, what I need is one giant piece of memory foam, not a bunch of tiny bits.

And the book cushion? Books are heavy sometimes. Being able to rest it higher in my lap so it's easier to read and hold? Better for my body.

Also, do you wake up with pain in the mornings? Try a contour pillow and a knee pillow.

Get those extra-strong treaded soles to wear with your heels because you wobble otherwise.

Wear compression gloves when you type. Get those orthopedic shoes because you can walk longer distances in more comfort. Buy the bra that actually supports the weight of your boobs. Get a lapdesk for your computer. Use a neck pillow even at home to keep your neck straight. Wear socks to bed. Listen to audiobooks. Read large print books.

You see something that you think will work for you and improve how you feel? Use it! Let's fucking normalize adaptative shit for everyone!

[gpstudios]

okay, i've seen this one post going around my dash a few times, and at this point i feel a need to say something about it:

vampires drinking from blood banks is NOT more ethical than drinking from live donors! in fact, it's worse!

most adult humans walking around on the street have a pint or so of blood they can spare with no real consequences for their health. (again, this is not true of everyone, so make sure you ask your donors about any health conditions before you get into it, but you were doing that already, right?)

but the blood in blood banks. the blood in blood banks is for people who need that blood in transfusion form to survive. blood shortages are real, and they kill. if you steal from a blood bank, someone could die for your theft.

the only reason that bagged blood is considered the "softer" option is because you don't have to look the people you're harming in the eyes to do it. coward.

[gpstudios]

i learned a while ago that the whole "most of the stars we see in the sky are actually already dead because they're so far away that we're seeing them as they were thousands of years ago" thing is a myth because stars live so long that it's unlikely many, if any, of them have burned out yet, but i'm still glad that myth exists because there's just something about the thought of the sky as a graveyard of stars that gets to me