#TL;DR is u just have to draw a lot of figure drawings and keep doing that forever lol but make it fun for yourself so you can keep at it

[lnmei]

How I Approach Figure Drawing

Got asked about tips for figure drawing and...I have a lot to say! I thought to just catalogue what I’ve been doing to build up my figure drawing knowledge and habit, so hopefully this is a useful reference for anyone interested in figure drawing :)

make it a habit (but take it easy!)

This is probably the most important and most annoying tip ever lol I’ve been figure drawing for 7-8 years (on and off! I don’t pressure myself if I have other things to do) so it really just takes time. Given that, my biggest tip for figure drawing is to figure out how you can have fun on this forever journey, so everything below is what I do to have fun and maintain the necessary enthusiasm to persist at it.

warm-up before a figure drawing session of myself figure drawing at my desk:

be bad at it on a regular basis

kind of just the principle of drawing....but with figure especially you draw so many of them that it’s important to let your drawings be bad to free yourself of pressure, and good ones will come out just from the brute force repetition of the skill.

Whenever I feel myself hitting a wall I intentionally revert to letting go of the desire to make a good drawing and try drawing in different ways even if it looks or feels bad in the moment. Some of my favorite drawings are the result of this, it’s awesome how that works out lol

For example, if I’m frustrated by my line work, I’ll start drawing thicker lines than usual and more cartoony (by my standards at least...) to loosen up:

set small goals for figure drawing

The main thing with figure drawing is that to get good, you have to draw hundreds and thousands of figures over time...so to keep that from being repetitive I change up my goal regularly so I can exercise different ways of thinking and keep it fresh, and my drawings look different based on what I am aiming for

Goal of practicing for cleaner lines and using line variety (5 min each):

Goal of drawing the lines neatly to color after (10 min each):

A typical progression I’ve seen is to build from drawing nude models to clothed models which is what I did, but honestly just start with what you want to learn the most and you’ll figure out what you want to work on.

copy other people

When I used to go to live figure drawing, I’d peek at what people sitting all over the studio were doing and copy their method or look. I look at artists online and pull up their work while I draw. I like sessions where there’s an artist demo because I can see what they’re doing (zeet does this). Figure drawing is great because everyone draws the same thing in their own way so it’s cool to see the variety, and it goes so fast that no matter what your references are, it still retains your habits so it’s actually your drawing even when you copy lol

Figure drawing done with heavy reference to Greco-Roman pottery art (4 min for lines):

traditional vs digital media

I switch between drawing on paper and drawing digitally for variety. The material constrains how you draw so it makes each session different from the last and you’ll gain different techniques and discover effects you like over time.

Colored pencil figure drawings with the prompt to draw the model as an animal (5 min each):

Brush pen, ballpoint pen, and felt tip pen figure drawings (1-2 min each):

Also draw at different scales. Try drawing on big paper, try drawing a single pose big, or compose a big page with many small figures.

drawing time

again, variety! Switch up how long the figures each take and how long the overall sessions are. See how your approach and outcomes change based on how long you have to draw. I do long sessions of 3 or more hours less frequently with short 20-30 minute sessions more frequently (I like these short ones lately).

I think persistence and stamina are important for figure drawing, so building up your tolerance for long sessions is a good goal if you are looking to improve. Also, long poses and short poses present different problems to solve, so try them all.

I tend to treat super long poses as paintings so sometimes I’ll color them live (this is a 25 min pose):

short poses I color after the pose ends if I even color them (3 min poses)

line quality

try drawing with a soft line like pencil vs a hard line like pen, different brushes, etc. 

Also try drawing with the constraint that you cannot retrace a line

try drawing with and without an under sketch

how much anatomy do I need to know?

I hate studying anatomy lol I would say you only need as much as you feel like you need so don’t stress over it, but pick up little bits of knowledge and apply them whenever you can.

That said, I thing the biggest help to anatomy for me (other than directly studying it) is to attend nude model sessions in person. Seeing the figure in real life and having to translate the 3D form to paper clarifies what the important forms and connections are to make a clear drawing. These are studies of live models from 2020 after I’d been doing nude models for ~6 years

My figure anatomy big 3 concepts have been

1) construction/proportion – how and where different body parts connect and overlap to form the whole

2) balance/weight – where is the figure applying force, stretching vs. compressing? if the model is stationary, how is the poses stability maintained? If the model is meant to be in motion, what are the directions of force?

3) anatomy from top down – start with very basic anatomy forms like cylinders for the upper and lower arm, egg shape for head, ball and socket for shoulder joint, etc. and build your understanding of anatomy up from there. I get tied down by too much detail so it’s worked out better for me to start with a very dumb anatomical understanding and learn to add nuance over time.

Here’s an example of points 1 and 3 using Teen Titans Slade Wilson (homework for a class I took lol). Break down the proportion, how parts connect, and the basic shapes of body parts and assemble them like a doll. You can do this for any style you want to learn from, and for realistic human figures. This is the basics of “figure construction”.

Internalizing a model that you’ve deconstructed and can reconstruct from memory is the basis for building a “general model,” which is just a generic human body that you can use to figure draw so you don’t have to think about how the body is constructed and can focus on expressing the pose, character, gesture, while maintaining accuracy to a human figure. Here are poses I constructed from imagination once I broke down and understood how to draw Slade.

A lot of this stuff is specifically applicable to animation character drawing but it’s been helpful towards figure drawing for me.

how things look vs. how things feel

I like to switch my focus between drawing for accuracy/correctness (studying the pose, anatomy, etc.), and drawing to capture how the figure physically feels even if it breaks the anatomy. I like to do the pose myself to feel how the model feels, where the stretch and compression of the pose is, and how it feels to exaggerate the pose, and then drawing from that experience.

Some of these legs don’t work anatomically but they feel right and look cool. These drawings came out very twisty and fluid after I copied the model’s pose and exaggerated how the shoulders, waist, spine, etc. were tilted based on how they feel in my body.

drawing the model vs. drawing a character

Sometimes I get bored of drawing just what the model looks like, so I will use the figure drawing as a live reference and draw something based on the model but as a different character instead and make up new clothes, appearance, etc. It exercises your decision making about what’s important to grab from a pose reference and also trains you to design instead of copy.

These are Gallery Girl LA sessions where I drew the model with a new design:

invent another character to draw a character dynamic (left chara is invented):

Random tips

I tend to prioritize the pose and full body and leave the head for last or after the session is over so I can spend time making it look nice. 

Avoid drawing a perfect vertical or horizontal unless it is important as a design element (if the model is stand straight up and down for example, try to re-balance the pose in your drawing so it has some variety of line direction)

Be choosy about drawing straight lines on the body, save those for silhouette lines, and for internal lines figure out which way the body is bending, moving, or twisting and express that.

Like in this sketch, I tried to add subtle tilts and leans to the model who was posing upright with a mannequin (which I drew as a character):

If you wanted to know about my color process for figure drawing, here! I color after I finish the drawing session and picked out a few drawings to color.

That’s all I got for now! Have fun and draw lots!

a traditional colored pencil sketch where I changed the model’s clothes and expression/body language while drawing it, then photographed and digitally colored it after:

#my art #process #sort of? #TL;DR is u just have to draw a lot of figure drawings and keep doing that forever lol but make it fun for yourself so you can keep at it #this is probably way overkill for what ppl wanted to know but i don't know how to be short i love talking about drawing lol

[lychgate]

Oh heck, my apologies (for not proofreading and/or being specific)

I was thinking more about like how do you figure out lighting, colour picking and the methods you use to finish up a piece. I was also really curious about your favourite anatomy tips and how you do so many dynamic poses.

Uhh tl;dr

I am fuckin stupid and I'm sorry

Lighting, colour picking, methods for putting the colours down, anatomy tips, and how do you do dynamic posing so well??

I only draw busts and it's making me mad :D

HMM lets see: I don't color pick unfortunately, it's not a method I use so I can't help u there sadly. As for lighting and shading, I don't really use any tutorials but I just apply the same types of questions to it that I would to any other part of my work while drawing, which are broad question types like : - where is my light source - is this piece calling for any unique light source? (universal/generic lighting is just fine to keep using!) - how MANY light sources do i have, and what are their distances to my figure - what's the MOOD of the piece, is dramatic lighting necessary - if im just here to have a bop and do an art what light source do I want to play with for practice If it was something like a more polished and finished piece I'd definitely be thinking on these questions harder, or multiple revisions and potential references would be pulled up. But normally for references I just refer to my memory of shows that I've seen, since it's a LOT of visual library, and animated or live action, light source is heavily calculated. So you'll get a good display of these ranges you can apply. Lately I've been watching The Bad Batch and I'll always recommend that and clone wars as good examples of environmental lighting, especially given the style of animation they do with how shapely their figures are. It's a good simplified breakdown of the planes of a figure, so paired with their hard lighting choices u get an even exaggerated easier format to look at for guessing light source. (very reminiscent of comics like the more stylized/cartoon you get in art the more u can push and pull these dynamics. or like easier to spot then live action)

SO UHH, im disclaimer: not in any industry and im sure gonna be missing some terminology, but I just nabbed some random images off the google of bad batch to show case a few broad categories of lighting:

Multiple light sources are ur most common type, and to me the most fun especially when it's like Two light sources. U can often play with the fun lighting types like rim lighting, u often have a warm side and a cold side for contrast/directions sake. The distance of the light determines how sharp or broadly lit something will be, and the size of the light can determine how much of that light hits the figures. So Omega here is surrounded by the lights on their ship, there's likely a very broad top light that's gently lighting the entire area, but the reds and blues of the buttons and screens around her are what's shaping the figure more dramatically. You can see the blue is coming from the top/behind her, where the red is more in front/bottom side to her, since it's the way she's facing and looking at you/the viewer. The second one, still on their ship, features the more broad top down lighting, but the screens in front of them are more important as they're all facing it. both lights in this image are broad wide lighting, so there isn't much of a sharp focus.

COMPLEX LIGHTING to me usually just means 'there are many light sources of greatly varying distances and brightness' or that there's a lot of figures in the image so it's got a lot more to organize so that the whole image may look readable at the end. You get a lot of environmental lighting for these types, meaning like hey the SUN is one of ur major light sources. it is super fucking bright but it is also FAR away, it's lighting EVERYTHING. and closer to sunset/sunrise u get more direct, highly saturated light from it because of the angle it's often shining- there's a lot to play with for just an outdoor lighting! The three images I picked here are a more morning shot, a mid day shot, and an evening shot. Talking about the angle of the sun especially at the last image with the grookey on Omega's shoulder, which casts a shadow over her and her friend. But her friend is positioned in a way so that she's not entirely over shadowed, because we're here to look at all three figures, and their faces matter in this shot. VS the middle images which is more about the scene/setting as a whole, and the figures are all more or less equally lit/shaded according to just standing in bright daylight.

there's also this fun lighting type, singular light sources can usually add a WIDE RANGE of emotion to the piece, depending where you flash the light. You've probably seen tons of light study gifs or shots where a face is shown with one light passing around their entire face and it highlighting the different planes that illuminate based on where the light is. So the first image, the classic Morticia Addams eye drama light, is focused hard on the figures, and what they're looking at. The second image of crosshair is another type of foreboding emotion, but instead with the eyes in the dark. Singular light sources aren't always for drama or asking you to focus on one specific thing but I feel like end of the day, the sharper and closer the one light source is, the more the artist is usually asking you to focus on the scene for. There's also some examples here of multiple light sources being used for the same storytelling dramatic effect. There's crosshair's entire front lit up to focus on not just him but by extension the rifle he's holding, with a backlight to catch the edge of his helmet and the barrel, because those are where we want you to look. They're the most important parts of the image, and they wanted to make lighting appropriate for reading that. With the last image there's what's his face (bro i forget my b) looming over him in a common type of dominant lighting. With how the lighting is assigned to this scene his face is shadowed, vs crosshair's who is partially under that shadow. IDK IM RAMBLING NOW i doubt this is the concise easy to read tips anyone's asking for sorrY I am not a teacher. IN SHORT FOR LIGHTING I JUST think about shows I've watched. I won't go into anymore but I think a GREAT example of super well done lighting in all categories of art are the John Wick films. They're both lively, highly direct, and superficially colored to fit the mood of each character and scene. I'll suck these movies dicks i'm obsessed:

Anatomy I always generically recommend people continue loose study/education from skeletal and muscular anatomy cause if you can build a figure from the inside out, the surface is going to be loads easier. And then when I'm too lazy to look up any muscular break down cause I sure don't remember every part at every angle I kind of just fudge it which is super common, like how many of us draw an ear correctly to it's bends and shapes. I sure as hell don't I just like to draw them the way I'm familiar with lining it (unless it's some really polished piece) cause end of the day my ear is still getting interpreted as an ear. So If I can't recall which muscle overlaps the other given a certain angle I just take a guess and usually it's not something blaring if I threw it down confidently enough. Studying not just muscle though, but how all body types sit and tense and move is crucial. Like fat is obviously going to have a much different type of hang and sit on the body, and then there's deciding how much fat to muscle you want on a figure. There's also skin to consider- older skin is looser, scarred skin has a tighter more custom pull to the areas, skin otherwise is just a big elastic band around ur body. So when that becomes overstretched or cut in any irregular way it's going to have a much different look to the muscles and bones it wraps around. Muscle reference I don't have anything specfic to refer other then using actual anatomy charts. Some 3d modelers have made great reference to body parts with full turn arounds i'd suggest. Since big fantasy muscles can be exaggerated so much (and they should!) it's the only reason why id only Lightly suggest for observing other artists individual drawings of buff characters. cause lotta us are fudging parts and u will end up picking up an incorrect anatomical trait (we literally all do it, just a silly unlearning process once ur hand is so familiar and used to drawing something a certain way) I think something specifically that's really helped me slowly gain a very diverse understanding of the fat to muscle ratio is getting into sumo wrestling. (NOT TO PUSH MY FAVORITE SPORT BUT I HAVE SOURCES IF U WANNA HEAR ABOUT IT/FIND A SPOT TO WATCH) In sumo there's no weight division like other forms of wrestling, and because of that you can have a very diverse set of ways to go about your own style of fighting. Entirely setting aside the fighting STYLES, there's broadly the categories of how much fat do you want to put on and the advantages that has against your opponents, vs how much muscle, or where that muscle needs to build on your figure, height and the like also play into it but basically 'what is my body shape, how can i build/ play it to the advantages of how i fight my opponents'

so like terunofuji is a fucking MOUNTAIN of a man, he's the current yokozuna (top banana rank) and his sheer height and weight plays greatly into his fight style. All of them are fucking jacked and watching Sumo has been a great general visual library builder because: - its a huge sport so it has a lot of coverage and footage on high def cameras - they're mostly nude and you're getting incredible displays of muscles in slow mo as they collide, fight, and throw each other. s2g you'll have an entirely new appreciation for the human body and just how many ways it can shape itself from watching this sport.

Always a ton of fucking leg muscle but Takayasu is one of my faves i gotta show him.

with no weight limitations not only are you seeing all the different levels of weight to fat, but you're getting an excellent display of how fat builds and forms on different people. there is no one way to gain fat, its pretty cool how diverse it can form, where it prefers to store fat, how quickly someone might gain weight vs overtime, genetics, what types of fats you're storing, lots of shit to look up on! this last image is ichinojo vs enho who are like usually one of the biggest and the smallest wrestlers, and both play to their size and shape and have become very high ranked. ANYWAY THIS POST REALLY WENT PLACES HUH idek if i answered the questions right i think i gave more questions back but i tried to touch a little on my thought process and where ive specifically gone in the art study journey. For poses I really don't look up anything I just try to think of the figure and do a lot of preliminary sketches. No i don't have the 'picture a perfect apple in my head' noggin i too suffer from looking at a blurry void when i try to think of shit so yes im hitting a brick wall by not utilizing all the model posing references that are probably out there hsuogjdhk

#long post

[forecast0ctopus]

hi there, I love your art! if you have time to answer, I was wondering if you have any tips or recommendations for drawing in a more expressive or cartoony style? I've been drawing for years but I always get caught up in the weeds and end up adding way too many details that don't necessarily look bad, but are too stiff and over-detailed. I really admire the way you capture so much in such clean lines, if you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear them - thanks for sharing your art, have a great day!

ah thanks so much, i really appreciate it!! i totally get where youre coming from tho, i really tend to get caught up in the small things too (the amount of sketch layers i have on finished things is stupid lmao). anyways yes theres a few things i do to help myself out of that pattern!! im not all that great at putting things into words but hopefully the pictures help haha putting it under the cut because it'll probably end up long sorry

i cant speak for everybody but this is what i do! heres how i tend to approach my initial sketches:

i like to keep it minimal here so i can focus on the pose over everything else, i try to do it in one pass and not worry about the anatomy. usually i do a few of these kind of sketches before i figure out something i like. also something ive found recently is that, for me, zooming in and doing these sketches really tiny helps because i dont have the space to add in detail. i do this a lot when i thumbnail a sequence to storyboard (usually on paper tho) and it helps me focus on the idea over the drawing

after that i like to focus on shapes!

if theyre a character with loose fitting clothes i usually won't sketch out much anatomy and just get into the shapes of the clothes bc then i dont get too particular with proportions and all. im gonna state here that this is not an excuse to not study anatomy tho and the reason that this works out for me is because i have studied it haha

getting into details of things, i kind of try to walk the line between too little and too much? like with clothes the details i like to get are wrinkles at bent joints and obvious seams. with wrinkles i try to only do one, maybe two, because it can get excessive fast.

seams are really good for establishing the direction things are facing, like to read volume in 3D space. the ones ill pretty much always include (unless theyre not present in the clothing worn) are shoulder seams and pants seams. in my experience shoulder seams are great at telling the fit of a shirt without a ton of detail!

lmao heres a collage of expressions for an example. as far as faces go i like to exaggerate mouths and eyebrows a lot lmao its kind of hard for me to put into words my process here. i really like dot eyes bc i feel like i can do a lot with em in combination with lines. tho i dont usually use em on finished artwork. eyebrows and mouth are primarily what i use to establish a facial expression, though sometimes ill throw in a scrunched nose if the expression calls for it.

the whole "clean lines" bit really does help with making sure things dont look too cluttered, and the way to approach that for me is doing your line in just one stroke (maybe two if u want it darker but thats besides the point lmao) but yeah drawing from your shoulder, not having a hairy line, etc really helps not clutter your drawing anyways i think thats about it for expressiveness and clean lines idk if youve got anything more to ask ill answer to the best of my ability

TL;DR i try to focus on shapes and pose, and putting in just enough details to make action/expression read well

#ask #anon #i hope this is what you were looking for? im not that great at putting things into words haha #sorry i took a min to get to this ask haha i had to figure out what i wanted to say

[bluiex]

howdy i had a dream about vampires and mumscarian so behold the ramblings of my drowsy brain. i've also gotten distracted like seven times trying to write this lmao boatem as vampire hunters but scar gets turned (because of course he does) and the group is torn between team 'well-he's-a-vampire-now-we-gotta-kill-him' (impulse and pearl) and team 'how-about-we-don't-do-that?' (mumbo and grian) mumbo's got a spine like a wet noodle though so he flip flops between both groups. grian puts up a front of wanting to kill scar but every time the two come face to face he seems to always miss when it counts the most.

it doesn't help that scar's fully embraced the aesthetic and is like 20% hotter with the fangs along.

the two do a lot of flirt-fighting, grian insistent that he can take on scar by himself only to come back battered and even more determined to "handle" scar on his own.

everything boils over when grian's has scar pinned to the floor, sliver chains on his wrists to keep the vampire down, stake poised over his heart, and he just can't kill him. scar does his best to convince grian that he doesn't need to do this, that he can just let scar get away yet again, and grian quietly confesses that he doesn't want to let scar go.

he misses when they were on the same side, and his heart's split in two.

dropping the smug facade, scar bares his heart in return, that he hasn't been attacking humans, he hasn't hurt a living soul, that just because he was turned he wasn't suddenly a completely new person.

"i might be a vampire, but that doesn't make me a monster."

grian caves and lets scar go, but not before making a small side comment about enjoying their chasing game, but that it has to end sooner rather than later.

the two find each other yet again, but it's different, grian's not geared up for one, his only defense a silver cross at his neck, he's slower, he's not putting up a real fight. and he's grinning the whole time.

scar gets grian pinned up to a wall, eyeing up the chain with an annoyed grumble. a contingency plan, grian explains, flushed and breathing heavy.

grian makes scar promise that if he's turned, he'll still be good. it's that blurry line between monsters and humanity, and he promises.

grian yanks off the chain in one clean snap, when they're interrupted by mumbo, silver knife out and ready. he's already lost scar, he wasn't going to lose grian too. mumbo tells scar to stop controlling grian, because surely that was the only reason grian hadn't killed scar yet.

but grian holds up the chain in clear view, and lets it fall. with an open hand he asks mumbo to come with them, that they can all be together again, no more fighting, to run away and live the rest of eternity happily.

grian can feel scar getting impatient, the vampire's breath hot against his neck, fangs lightly pressed to his skin, and he pleads with mumbo to come with him.

mumbo hesitates, and in the distance, pearl could be heard shouting, her voice drawing near. he turns back, and looks down at his knife.

scar didn't want to fight him, and neither did grian. but pearl did.

he steps close, picking up the chain, and for a moment he really considered the offer. but a pair of footsteps grew close, and mumbo pocketed the chain, rushing back down the alley. "i'll cover for you." grian opens his mouth to beg again, but scar's bloodlust had reached its peak, and he sinks his fangs into grian's neck. he lets out a shrill scream, and the last thing grian sees is mumbo warding off two shadowy figures, being carried away in scar's arms. grian wakes up with a vial of blood pressed against his lips, and drinks greedily, curled up into scar's side. "we'll get him," scar reassures him. "we'll bring him home." tl;dr two vampires and their human boyfriend try not to die hope u enjoy like halfway thru this ask basically turned into a fic in it of itself - ☾ anon (im new here :D )

WHY CANT I HAVE DREAMS LIKE THIS BRUH

this is such a great idea too. Scar getting turned then force to run from them </3 Grian can't bring it in him to kill Scar cuz LOVE and Mumbo so on the fence.. waaah theres so much angst potential before Grian decides to be with Scar forever amazing amazing, i love this crescent moon anon- sososo much <3 the little ficlet itself is amazingly written too aaaaa

#mumscarian #bluie gets an ask poggers #vampire hunter au #long post

[thisisprettybroken]

The Future of This Is Pretty Broken

Wait is this textwall asking for money?

Noooo, and as you will soon see I'm doing great tbqh. I just wanted to rip the bandaid off, lose some followers, and explain why this blog is changing formats from a personal gallery to something actually personal. TL;DR: My hyperfixation changed.

Whered u go?

After GAID 2016's gallery show I was halfway through a year of drawing every single day. This practice prestiged my glitch art into furry art wherein I had trouble keeping commissions open as they'd sell out within seconds. A single, somewhat popular pokémon comic did not help with this, so I raised my prices several times in an attempt to get less people to commission me so I could keep comm slots open for longer than literally 10 minutes. At $200 a drawing it just kept selling out. This was good as my partner in art and life ended things, found new roomates, and told me to get out in a week all within 12 hours of my coming out as bi and trans because this made them uncomfortable.

A lot of my furry art... I hope it offended someone. Not in an edgy way, as I aimed to make something explicit but not titillating nor societally reprehensible. My personal furry art was supposed to make a statement about the absurdity, insidious effects, and hyperfocusing tropes of adult-oriented amateur art on the internet. As with glitch art, and all art, furry art is art and I aimed to take it seriously. Oddly, despite the stuff I was outputting on my own, I got ENTIRELY SFW comms and learned that the outward-facing, perverse furry scene we know is hiding a lot of earnest and thoughtful souls behind it.

It was ultimately a phase, and it didn't make "affluent in a big house" money but it did just scrape five figures across the whole of my efforts. That's not lifechanging money spread put over several years but it allowed me to pursue a lifelong love of music for serious. 3 years ago this was, I started transitioning and sought a better way to express myself.

I made 3 albums of what was in my heart with a 4th coming soonish. I wrote a ton of LGBT articles on defining one's identity and self expression.

So anyway I bought Pukicho's Subharmonicon which puts me right about here.

Love wins or... something. Furries were good to me and I love all your little hats.

So What's Changing? Basically this is a personal blog now. I want to interact with the tumblr community instead of speaking in codes from behind distorted preexisting images because it's the best social media community running. 2015, heck, 2012 is so long ago. I watched this whole community grow up with me from a naive twentysomething wasting time at work to someone making the noise they've always yearned to make albeit still working in between because even furries can't save you from the bourgeoisie.

Yet.

Send asks, send hate, I'm just gonna post whatever from now on and it'll probably have lots of synthesizers in it. I'll still make glitch art now and again I promise as I've backed up all of my old Processing 2+ scripts in a portable install environment and the fact that my posts are STILL circulating tells me that they've brought a lot of joy and I want to bring some of that back with me.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to actually using this account for interacting instead of lurking. And thank you for 6 years of saying my work is real cool. It makes me feel cool too. ♡

#personal #im back baby

[bogkeep]

theo’s tarot collection

hi hello i suffer from a terrible ailment called I Keep Acquiring New Tarot Decks Even Though I Am A Tarot Newbie.... so i figured i could do a little writeup about my decks if anyone is interested in that :’) basically i started doing tarot in 2019 because i couldn’t get a hold of a therapist (i was put on a year long waitlist WAHOO) so i basically. self-medicated with tarot readings hahaha. i had a friend who gave me a lot of really good advice and had done some readings for me before who felt immensely comforting. the way i read them is like... it allows you to confront your situation and your emotions through a new angle, but you gotta be brave enough to do it - or ask someone to do it for you. it can be a really intense but also cathartic experience. it’s not for everyone! but i like it. i still consider myself a novice and still learning so i am not in ANY way trying to paint myself as a Knowledgabl Tarot Witch - in a perfect timeline that’s who i wish i was, but i’m ultimately just some guy with a solid appreciation for art and personal growth.

ANYWAY... onto my DECKS (the tumblr post will probably squish the quality outta my photos so i’m gonna link the URLs for Full View)

Children of Litha by Alexandria Huntington

i consider this my main and first deck (i am NOT counting the official homestuck deck i bought as a teen just because i wanted to look at the art. no offense to the homestuck deck i’m just not gonna use fandom decks)! i picked it out but my Tarot Friend gifted it to me... i think it’s a very good starter deck for me personally, and it’s the deck i’ve bonded with and used the most. i even put a fancy sticker on the box as part of the bonding process. i always feel so bad for all of my other decks because i haven’t been able to dedicate as much time for them as i have this one... so it’s definitely the deck i go to for the most accurate readings for myself. Vibes and Thematic Coherence: the art in this is so beautiful and elegant. the symbolism more or less draws on the classic smith-waite deck, but redrawn for its theme. i like that it has a very consistent imagery! out of the major arcana, the fool is the only fully human character - every other character is part animal in some way or other. then the suit of swords depicts birds, winged insects and the air element, coins depict ungulates and equines and earth, wands has felines and canines and fiery imagery, and cups has fish and creatures of and in the sea. the court cards have humans. the suit symbols are always depicted consistently, as white silhouettes. there are also two extra cards: the all and the void. Pamphlet: the reason i think this was a good starter deck is because both because the art feels very intuitive about what it depicts (to me, at least), the descriptions in the pamphlet describe what is happening and why the artist chose this motif for this card. it has honestly helped me remember the meanings a lot, because i’ll be reading the other decks and be like “oh that’s the octopus card i know what the octopus card is about”. there are also little poems next to the main descriptions that work as a pretty solid tl;dr for the core meanings. i also like that the court cards are referred to in the sense of like... a knight is “a young person with masculine energy” rather than “a young man”. it feels more fluid and vibe-y about gender than traditional decks ya feel. on a range from Abstract to Directness this one feels like it sits pretty comfortable in the middle, maybe leaning on Abstractness. it has always given me gentle instructions and advice.

Cardfeel: the cards are very smooth and nice with gold edges. the cards are not NOT solid, but i wish they had been a little thicker because i’m always afraid i’m going to accidentally damage them - but that’s probably a feeling i have about most of my possessions tbh!! i think they’re a good size, too, at least for my small hands. they’re more on the long/slender side so they are good for me to shuffle. i also like the box, it’s a hard flip box with a magnet. i think u can’t go wrong with that. this is the deck i’ve travelled with the most (did u know hotel beds are the best tarot reading spaces. for some reason they just Work). The Spacious Tarot by Annie Ruygt and Carrie Mallon

this is one i really like a lot and want to use more! i absolutely adore the concept of it, but it’s a little harder for me to read than the Litha one. Vibes and Thematic Coherence: this one is like!!! it’s about the open space and the quietness. the vibes are IMMACULATE. the cards aren’t filled to the brim with happenstance and symbolism, but they each feel like a little refuge. very meditative. i also like that the court cards are not gendered at all - there is no page, knight, queen and king, but rather child, explorer, guardian and elder. i am really into that, especially as steps of mastery of their suit. i do think that this deck is probably easier to read if you’re more experienced with tarot meanings and symbolisms, because the illustrations aren’t necessarily that intuitive. Pamphlet: i haven’t read through this one very much, but i think it’s more on the abstract side of the Abstract to Direct scale. it might just feel like that because it describes what the card symbolizes without drawing much on what the card depicts - it is generally a pretty abstract and meditative deck. i like it for what it is! but it’s harder for me to read than my main Litha deck. Cardfeel: there’s something about the cardfeel i wish was different. they’re perfectly ok cards, they’re smooth and not too thin, but i still wish they had had more heft or something. while the cards fit very well into my hands i think maybe they could’ve been Larger to emphasize their motifs of openness and space. or texture. or gilded edges. i really don’t know what i want. the box however is very good and easy to open and use!! never underestimate a good box.

Tarot of the Divine by Yoshi Toshitani

this is a deck i Had To Get because i knew the artist was working on it and i was always Planning To... it is not a deck i use very often but i absolutey adore it. you can also get it with an accompanying fairytale book, i thought i had ordered that but i was Wronge. Vibes and Thematic Coherency: it depicts motifs and characters from stories, myths, and fairytales from a vast variety of cultures. it’s AMAZING. the art is so clean and crisp and i was VERY EXCITED to find a card drawing on a sami story (page of coins)! i don’t have a lot to say except that yoshi yoshitani has done some incredible work on this. Pamphlet: while i do not have the Fairytale Book edition, the pamphlet is really super nice because it shows pictures of the cards, lists what story it depicts and where the story is from, gives a short description for how this scene or character embodies the card. it then lists some of the Card Characteristics beneath. very simple but very nice. i really like pamphlets that explain Why the artist picked the motifs they did - for me personally it really helps me connect to the deck and their symbols. it’s probably more on the Direct side of the scale thanks to this. Cardfeel: these are textured!! they feel like the playing card deck my grandmother has, which feels apt to me. textures make the cards feel solid to me. they’re also a very nice size to hold. the edges are not guilded, but with the white frames it looks good and nice. the box is nice but also Large, possibly to fit with the book? might not be ideal for travel, but there’s nothing stopping you from getting a different box or pouch.

The Star Spinner Tarot by Trung Le Nguyen

my most recent deck... i KNEW about the artist and the deck from before, but wasn’t PLANNING to get it, but then i saw it in the comic book store and i wasn’t able to pass it by. no regrets, it’s a wonderful deck. Vibes and Thematic Coherence: absolutely lovely art and style. it’s another deck drawing on fairytale themed motifs. i’m loving the use of colors and circles. it also has four different cards for the Lovers so you can choose which one(s) speak to you the most, something i think is just wonderful. i think the only thing i found a little... odd? was that the suit of Wands looks kinda same-y, which isn’t a bad thing, but it was the only suit that looked that way to me. they’re still very very nice. ALSO THE BACK OF THE CARDS ARE SHINY. I JUST THINK THAT’S VERY LOVELY. as a Physical Product these are chef’s kiss. Pamphlet: on the Abstract to Directness scale, these are VERY DIRECT. the pamphlet doesn’t say a lot about why the cards depict what they do, but go straight into card meaning, and in a very unambiguous way. i think it can both work very well, leaving you little room to avoid your feelings, but it also has a higher margin to miss completely. for being such a cutesy deck full of fairies the pamphlet is definitely giving you a smack at the side of your head. i haven’t used this deck a lot yet due to its newness, but i definitely want to try it out more to see what it does to me.

Cardfeel: out of all of my decks i think this has the best cardfeel... the cards feel really solid, and have a very good size that feel just right for them. like i sort of fell in love with the deck when i actually started shuffling it and browsing the cards. buying cards - especially on the internet - can be a gamble because you Can’t Know The Cardfeel. with decks like the Spacious Tarot i got a little dissappointed, but this one was a very pleasant surprise. also the box is very good and look like a work of art. The Fyodor Pavlov Tarot

honestly one of my new favourite decks that i ABSOLUTELY am going to use more and become more familiar with. also a deck that i knew the artist was working on, and supported the kickstarter the moment it was announced. my deck also came with two Magician cards and i don’t know why. extra wizard for me??? Vibes and Thematic Coherence: the look and feel of this deck is Immaculate. it looks very classical and traditional (and absolutely gorgeous), it is grounded in the classical smith-waite imagery but Expands Upon It, draws on the diversity of human culture and experiences... also loving the energy of “THIS CARD IS TRANS NOW AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT” many cards have (most famously the Lovers, but i don’t want to post pics of any of the cards depicting nudity or risqué themes on tumblr). i absolutely adore the knight of coins card (THE HORSE IS HIS FRIEND AND SERVICE ANIMAL!!). it’s just Really Very Good. also the backside has pretty Shiny stars and i like it. Pamphlet: i really like this one. it is a deeply personal pamphlet, where fyodor pavlov directly discusses his relationship to the cards and why he chose the motifs he did. it feels really grounded in the world we live in, and also such a vulnerable thing to share with us all. it’s on the Direct side of the scale without necessarily telling you “the card is definitely this one thing”. my only wish is that it was easier to navigate at a glance. Cardfeel: THEY ARE TEXTURED!!! these cards are definitely long and slender and benefit someone with larger hands than mine, but i still like them a lot. i do wish they had been a smidge heavier just so i wouldn’t worry so much about damaging them... but i don’t want to be ungrateful. the deck and the box are wonderfully crafted. The Botanica Tarot by Kevin Jay Stanton

oh boy did i support the kickstarter for this one... i had actually bought the major arcana when it was the only version available, and then the artist decided to make a full deck. it’s an absolute work of art. Vibes and Thematic Coherence: oh boy oh boy does it serve vibes and thematic coherence. it’s Plants all the way down, OBVIOUSLY, but also like... every card in the minor arcana depicts their suit in its own way. like the range of coins/currency from various times and cultures?? AMAZING. looking at the art of this deck is a DELIGHT. every card manages to be beautiful and interesting despite there not being a single living creature depicted on any of them. i WILL say they, same as the spacious tarot, are not the most intuitive to read if you’re not super familiar with either the Plants or the meanings of the cards. Pamphlet: you can fit so much plant knowledge in this one. i got a version of the deck with a beautiful little book, but there’s also a small pamphlet that follows the deck itself (which i admittedly have not looked too closely at yet). there’s descriptions for why this specific plant has been chosen for each card, and then some Card Meaning Keywords. so definitely on the Abstract side of my imaginary tarot pamphlet scale, because you mostly have plant symbolism to go on. i haven’t done a lot of readings with this deck, i’ll be honest - but it’s a beautiful treasure that i adore. Cardfeel: they’re Smoothe and Guilded edges. they can feel a little wide for my hands, but not so much that i cannot shuffle. i think maybe a smidge of texture wouldve been good with this deck since it would fit the look of the painted art. i also did get like... a big kickstarter reward version of this deck. it came in a tin box with extra treasures and a cloth and pins... the actual card box itself is beautiful to look at, but i have to say that the one i got is VERY HARD TO OPEN. i might transfer the cards into a pouch if i want to be reading them more often. IKEA deck

yes this is a meme deck and i don’t really use it but I WANTED TO SHARE... i think the major arcana is very cool and funny, but i was dissappointed to find that the suit cards are just “ikea part but Multiple Times”. it also does not come with a pamphlet. also yes yes it’s funny that the names of the cards are spelled in a “silly ikea word language” BUT IKEA NAMES ARE JUST SWEDISH....... IT’S NOT A SECRET LANGUAGE IT’S JUST SWEDISH............ it’s a funny deck to have and it doesn’t take up much space so eh! shrugs!!! The Lubanko Tarot by Emily Lubanko

another kickstarter deck... it’s gorgeous but there is a chance i might gift it to someone else. not because i regret getting it or don’t like it, but because i already have so many decks that speak to me, while this one gives me vibes of serving someone else better. does that make any sense? i admittedly haven’t looked at the pamplet so much so i think i’m going to skip that description for this one. Vibes and Thematic Coherency: the MOVEMENT and the COLORS... it’s Capturing Feelings in a really good way. i mean. i got it for the vibes and it’s serving vibes. Cardfeel: Smoothe Cards. shiny silver edges, like a slippery fish in a rapid river. it feels good and right for this deck. also good box. i know most of these decks have Good Box, it’s just the botanica one that let me down by being difficult. The Oriens Tarot by AmbiSun

i don’t have this deck anymore, i gifted it to my boyfriend... i found these pics on my twitter. it’s one of the first decks i supported on kickstarter and it’s VERY pretty, and it has HOLOGRAPHIC RAINBOW EDGES HOT DAMN. it’s another one of those instances where i Yearned for it and then found that it didn’t fit me as well as i had hoped. tarot is just one of those things where you have to find what Works for you. at this time the children of litha was working so well for me and i really liked the depiction of animals in it, i wasn’t able to connect to another animal deck in the same way... and it was before my tarot collection snowballed into what i have now. C’EST LA VIE ... i don’t have a smith-waite deck. i’m a fake tarot fan. i am however familiarizing myself by following Jessica Dore on twitter and subscribing to her monthly newsletters. i really love how she talks about these cards and how she interprets them.

#tarot #i have also backed the alleymans tarot on kickstarter because of course i have. #i'll get back to you when i have it.

[muffinlance]

Hi Muffin! I rlly want to write, & love writing character interactions, but whenever I go "ok brain, it's time to come up with a Plot" my brain is like "I can offer u a vibe, mayhaps a character arc you'd like to see, but No Specifics! Only vibe" :// I rlly admire your Powers of Plot; do you have any advice or tips on How To Make The Plot Exist? If you've already answered something like this/don't want to, I'm so sorry, just take my well-wishes & dw abt it 😅 Sending good vibes your way!!

Okay, so! A good character arc can be a plot. I'll focus on that type of story, since it seems like your style already leans that way.

I'll be using Salvage as an example, 'cause that's my most character-arc-focused story. The plot is unashamedly "Hakoda adopts one (1) prickly Fire Prince". People know exactly what's gonna happen going in, but I'm still getting compliments on the "complex plot". No. No, the plot is not complex, the plot is dead simple. Let us examine how I window dressed it so it feels complex.

Multiple Simultaneous (But Out of Sync) Character Arcs: Everyone on that crew is going to adopt Zuko, and Zuko is going to kick and scream and be adopted. These are givens, no particular tension there. Generally when you're running a character arc focused story, the reader already knows the outcome; the trick to keeping them engaged is the timing. By having the crew accept Zuko at different times and after different triggers (Kustaa is pretty much on board as soon as this half-dead teen starts grumping at his "Uncle", Toklo falls in love at first warm bath, Bato through burn bonding, etc), it feels like I'm doing a plot. Hakoda and Zuko themselves are saved for last, because that's what people most want to see.

Have you ever read a fic where the writer gets to the "good part" too early? AKA, the thing you really wanted to happen finishes in like, chapter two, and you're sitting there with a vaguely unfulfilled feeling because it was too easy? That's what you want to avoid.

On the other extreme, there's the "we're 40 chapters in and it doesn't make sense that they still hate each other" fics.

Whatever your key character arc is, make sure you're only drawing it out as long as it makes sense. And don't be afraid to sprinkle sweet sweet breadcrumbs of progress. In my story, that would be Hakoda realizing more and more that he is dealing with an Actual Child and adjusting accordingly.

EX: At the start of the story he almost guts Zuko for accidentally bending; by the time Bato comes aboard, he's ready to talk the kid down from a just-burned-someone panic attack. I maintain tension not with Hakoda unrealistically clinging to his assumptions about this kid, but by having him and Zuko out of sync--Hakoda trusts Zuko not to intentionally hurt his crew. Zuko does not trust Hakoda not to hurt him. Note that Zuko himself is also progressing, though--his actions show he's much more relaxed around the crew, and is starting to trust that when Hakoda says things he won't just change them.

Which is exactly the problem in the Bato chapter: Zuko trusts Hakoda to follow through on his word. Meanwhile, Hakoda made that "firebend and I kill you" rule back before he knew Zuko. Natural tension! Natural tension based in character growth!

External Driving Events (positive AND negative): Character arcs are internal affairs; external events help prod them along. Think to yourself what events--positive and negative--will help push things in the right direction. You want to roughly alternate these, as a general rule, though they can be weighted differently in the narrative.

EX: in the early chapters, Zuko aggravated the crew A Lot over multiple consecutive instances. Then I did the laundry scene where there was relatively pleasant bonding and This Explains So Much. Narratively, there was about equal word count given to all the small aggravations as the laundry scene, so even though it was one positive event v many negative, it felt "in balance" to reader!brains.

Mind you that events don't need to be action-packed: "doing laundry" is not exactly a chase scene. But it was emotionally satisfying, which is what a character arc story needs.

Background Noise: The size of your story (short, novella, novel, series) will determine how much you want to play with this, but background noise is key for making a world and character interactions feel real/lived in. These are the little things like having a ship dog--Scuttles/Sokka/Seal Jerky is not plot necessary. But having him there fleshes out the personality of scenes in small but "this feels authentic" ways--like the crew teasing Hakoda by calling him "Sokka", and later the crew siding with Zuko on calling him "Seal Jerky" to tease Bato, the OG Dog Namer. Background noise, as a general rule, should not revolve around your main characters--its a natural consequence of the background characters also being people who are living their lives with their own realistic character dynamics.

TL;DR: have multiple character arcs that progress naturally. Keep them out of sync to maintain tension. Use external events to prod development forward; make sure to alternate positive and negative events. Show that the minor characters are also Real People by incorporating background noise.

Now go write something, 'cause that's the only way you'll ever actually figure this out.

#writing stuff #I really really like background noise #it's also the little things like Navy benders keeping track of time and direction with the sun #and the inland Water Tribes having different cultures than the costal ones

[studianne]

04.18.20. // yeah yeah yeah we get it marianne u bullet journal

lol so it took me a loooooong time to figure out a monthly/weekly/daily spread system that worked for me and my life bc when i started getting into bullet journaling i kept trying to force cute spreads i saw online into my life which was a terrible tactic bc the whole point of bujos is to help u streamline ur own processes in a non-restricted way !! so ~this is your friendly reminder that your bujo is for you first and foremost~

as u can see i’m kinda no fuss abt it it’s p straightforward bc i don’t have the kind of habit keeping skills (see 04.11.20 lol) nor time to put in the effort for consistent ultra gorgeous spreads like if i want to do one i’ll do it but this is my usual

tl;dr: monthly is straightforward, weekly on right so i can see a giant to-do list bc i like that, daily on left bc i don’t rely on it as much as i do my weekly but i like being able to break things up spatially

if u want a more detailed explanation of how my system works:

monthly: - i’ve been messing around w how to draw the month but i liked this one a lot - i’ll draw a calendar of the month on the left side, then put big events like tests or birthdays/appointments line by line on the right; alternating colors just helps in general - # day on the left, word day on the right

weekly: - this one’s a lil more specific but not by much - the way my life works out i don’t always have a ton of daily line items but i do have a lot to keep track of during the week - so in old bujo spreads i could never fill daily spreads, and weekly spreads felt like they cramped me too much - realized i can’t have just one; i need both kinds of spreads bc sometimes weekly view overwhelms me so being able to do the daily helps me focus - i’m right-handed so my weekly spread is on the right page since i use that more often and then daily is on the left - weekly spread taken from a buzzfeed post i saw once abt someone doing p much this (aah i’m so sorry would credit if i knew) and was like hey that’s p intuitive - i list my assignments out on the left and put their due date (and do date) on the right - exclamation marks are when it’s due; boxes are when i aim to do them

daily: - so if you’ll notice i’ve got three different headers going on here - the first is a full highlighted line with the date written out at the top. these sections are for listing daily tasks - the second is an eight-character date written in highlighter then gone over in pen. these sections are essentially for diary entries - the third is a full highlighted line with the eight-character date on the right, and the class name on the left. these are for class notes i feel like writing in my bujo for whatever reason (either i forgot my notebook, or we’re talking abt things i want to keep in my bujo)

n yeah !! that’s how i use my bujo for assignment tracking; it’s honestly pretty simple but it works incredibly well for me. if u read this all the way through lmao ur dedicated <3 here:

#studyblr #studyspo #bujo #original #life update #ideas

[guu]

i’ve known for awhile now that along with all the other obvious problems, that charles is my biggest stressor AND the reason we can’t keep stable financially.

because he’s had access to all our cards, he makes the most stupid purchases

we got into a big fight just now over how he’s done jack shit around the house and stays up till 5am and sleeps in till 2pm, and he still says he cant do anything about that. partly bc he “never really gets a chance to play games with the kids awake” (lie, huge ass lie)

and that he lays down and cant fall asleep, but wont accept my sleep meds ever bc they made him groggy the first time.

which. happens. when u start a new sleep med.

but. GOD just. the fucking gall he has to have treated me as a lazy burden when he was the only one working and since i’ve been carrying the household he’s been the lazy jackass playing games all day long.

“oh the kids are such a distraction i cant truly enjoy it”

yeah?? i dont get to draw nearly as much as i want to, but you didnt hear me bitching. from 4-9 on average i need to drive around making money and battling my chronic pain but oh poor poor you, you cant get sleep bc you cant game in peace until 10pm!

when i get home i’m too exhausted to draw usually, and i dont have the luxury of staying up late bc i cant be dizzy on the job.

yeah maybe you do sometimes have to get right up and do things because you sleep so damn late while i’ve been up since 7am!

ugh sry for the long vent but tl;dr

it’s time i finally get what i need done.

and ditch charles for good.

sure, i’d need someone to watch the kids everyday while i work but i’m sure i could figure something out. in the end, with his “i’ll do it later, but i’ll be mad if you do it cause i said i would” is burning me out and burning a hole in our pockets. he was supposed to have applied for EBT already, and get xander back on insurance so he can see his guidance counselor.

but these are things i can do on my own no matter how nerve wracking they can be sometimes, but without him around to have to depend on to follow thru, i can ACTUALLY get shit done when we say we will.

idk. i have a LOT. to figure out and research. but this has GOT to finally END!

#vent

[thegeminisage]

hey liz i've been thinking a lot about story structure lately and i wanted your take on how you decide what structure your stories will have? i know there's that "you have to do what your story needs and tells you to do" thing but these bitches dont ever tell me anything they just multiply so. thoughts? - bma

(as an aside, i don't know whether involving medium would change many things but it may be worth considering. mainly i think medium is just a matter of arrangement and that the story would be for most intents and purposes the same no matter how you choose to tell it. i guess you could argue that structure is arrangement in itself and intrinsically tied to medium but i sort of feel like it is secondary arrangement, if at all? like if you consider time as an element to outline -- the time IN the story (how things happen to your characters) is not necessarily the time you’re telling the story IN (how you are telling your reader that things are happening) aka internal chronology doesnt equal your work’s pacing? or should it??? does this make sense? i dont think so. i am sorry.) - bma :|

NOOO dont be sorry ur making total sense

i think there’s 3 thots to unpack here (medium, structure, & chronology) & i’m gonna start with medium bc it’s easier. im also putting it behind a cut bc it’s gonna get just stupidly long and rambly. i’m sorry in advance if it’s not helpful to you, i have a lot to say for someone who has never taken even one single class on writing and as a result doesn’t know jack shit (there’s a tl;dr at the end dont worry)

about MEDIUM: 

so like ok i’m just some goof-off with a HS degree who writes fanfiction but In My Very Super Qualified Personal Opinion, i don’t think that most of the time medium is intrinsically tied to STRUCTURE of the main storytelling arc...i think the art of storytelling itself is distinct from the medium you choose to tell the story IN. this post puts it better than i ever could but basically for me, i feel like the story itself is sort of the raw, malleable concept, and the medium you choose to tell it in is how you convey the information??

like in a book, you can say “she forgot her keys” and in a film you have to show her smacking her forehead, heading back into the house, and swiping her keeps off the counter. you can’t TELL in film, you have to show. similarly i regret every day i cannot perfectly describe a facial expression with words when i see it so clearly in my head. for audio-only podcasts that are dialogue heavy out of necessity you have different limitations than you would for, say, animated music videos with no dialogue at all. games allow for more interactivity and exploration while sacrificing accessibility, tv shows allow for more length while sacrificing, uh, a big hollywood budget...medium affects the kind of story you can reasonably tell which is why some stories are better suited to one medium than another. i think trying things in other mediums is a good way to stretch your storytelling muscles but with enough skill nearly any story could be told in any medium. i think when trying to decide on a medium you just gotta weigh the pros & cons and what you feel comfortable with/what you think would be most effective/what would evoke the strongest reaction

re: structure:

firstly “do what the story tells u to do” is a little silly like...the story isn’t sentient. come on. that’s like “i can only write when the writing gods inspire me” there are no writing gods! inspire yourself! it’s all in our weird messed up brains! ok anyway.

this is, again, just how i do things, and i am 700% self-taught so take it with a grain of salt, but when i sit down and start blocking out a story from scratch i don’t...actually consider the big structure at all! sorry if that’s not helpful to you. i like to make a list of everything i want to happen, and then put it together in a few different orders to see what looks best. and when i’m finished, whatever i have just like...IS the structure i go with, with perhaps minor tinkering to make it flow more smoothly. (i think this might be in the same spirit as “do what the story tells you” with less bullshit and more Agency Of The Writer.)

for long and more complex projects, i actually usually have several lists - one list of stuff that is, for example, the Action Plot (the kingdom has been cursed, i’m tracking down my serial killer sister to bring her to justice, i’m running from djinn who wanna kill my dad, i’m trying to bring my dead not-boyfriend back to life). then i have another list for Character A & Character B’s romance or whatever. and maybe a even another one for solo character development (magicphobic prince learns to love magic, former werewolf hunter figures out his family is a cult, half-demon learns to embrace his own nature). and as many lists as we need for however many Main Characters and or Plots/Sideplots

how i order the lists: individually first. don’t mix them together to start with. when deciding the order of an individual list i like to, for example in a romance arc, use escalating intimacy. “A and B have dinner together” is naturally gonna go way sooner than “A and B kiss” or “A and B talk about A’s angsty backstory” because that’s more satisfying. draw it out, good/important stuff last, dangle that carrot so we have a reason to keep reading! for singular character development, it’s basically a straightforward point A to point B...if i want my guy to start hating magic with everything he is and end up being very comfortable with it, i have to put “reluctantly uses magic to save his own life” WAYYY before “casually using magic to light torches and reheat his cold stew.” 

the tricky part for me is when i’m done with these lists and then i need to mix them together To Pace My Whole Story. (this is usually why i wind up with a rainbow colored spreadsheet.) i don’t like to put too many things too close together because then the pace feels uneven. even if my Action Plot is only a thinly veiled excuse for romance and character development, i still don’t want to focus on a romance for 30,000 words and then go “and oh yeah in case you forgot Serial Killing Sister is still coming for your asses.” the more sideplots and major character arcs you’re juggling the harder it is to get an even distribution, which is my main concern always

and like, generally, whatever i have when i’m finished...is my structure. (sorry.) 

i don’t know much about the classic 3-act or anything like that, but i usually can divide them up into 3-5 big arcs based on story turning points. sometimes i take a scene out of one arc and put it in another because it fits better and i like for my shit to be organized, but usually by the time i’m finished with all that, that’s what the final story is mostly gonna look like. (there have been a few exceptions when i realized i needed extra scenes/changes while i was MID-DRAFT and let me tell you that murders me EVERY time. it happened on the merlin fic i’m currently posting and that was like my own personal hell.)

this is also where thots about chronology come in:

i think time CAN be an element of this if you WANT it to be, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. if you want it to be, i would consider it just another “list” like character development or the romance arc. 

i usually plot without considering Time very much...to me, it’s all down to the events you want to show, and however much time it takes is the byproduct. if you want to show something from a character’s chilhood but then tell the bulk of it when they’re adults, that’s one thing. if you want to show a scene from their childhood, teenhood, young adulthood, etc, that’s a different kind of pacing?? i usually do it this way so i can regard time like wordcount: it takes as long as it takes. 3 days or 3 years, a 1.5k drabble or a 100k epic...overall, my LARGEST CONCERN is that even distribution. in the same way that i don’t want one chapter to be 30,000 words when the rest are 10,000 words, i personally am not a fan of huge timeskips offscreen

(because this where i think someone’s own internal chronology DOES matter...this is just a personal preference, as a reader i have a hard time really comprehending, say, a year timeskip or a 10yr timeskip when all i did was turn one page. like, a year is such a long time. i can’t even begin to describe how different i am now to how i was a year ago. it’s the same for character development. time IS development and as a writer i’m not really comfortable having that take place offscreen - for main characters, at least. it’s just too jarring. a little prologue with something happening 10 or 20 years ago is usually fine, but for the most part, i’m not a fan. ...i can do one chapter per year a lot easier than i can do two chapters in childhood and the other 8 in adulthood. of course you can play with this a LOT with nonlinear storytelling, which is a whole other very cool thing, and someone skilled in their work can keep me sucked in no matter what, but imo if you don’t want to risk throwing your reader out of your work it’s better to keep things steady)

HOWEVER sometimes time IS an element u wanna consider outside of just making sure your shit is evenly distributed...if your heart is moved to tell a story in a specific timeframe, over a year, or from solstice to solstice (this was almost the timeline for my merlin fic and then i changed it), for the first six months of a friendship, or even a huge journey in the span of a single day (toby fox had a lot of success with this one lol).

i think it can help to choose a start and end point for your chronology the same way you do for character development (prince goes from hating magic to being ok with it, story takes place from ages 8 to 25, or from new year’s eve 2038 to 2039, whatever) - that way you can keep your distribution even, if that’s a thing you want to do...even if you have a lot of skips you can still note what happens offscreen to make it work better in your head? like, if you just make it another List, another column on your spreadsheet, when you’re in the early stages of organizing you can be conscious of it and make sure it’s playing into the story the way you want it to

anyway these r my thots im SOOOO SORRY this is so long lmao. brain machine broke today which is why i had to ramble more to explain myself. the tl;dr in case ur brain is melting out of ur ears & u didn’t sign up for an essay:

imo medium is totally distinct from storytelling tho ofc some stories are better suited to some mediums

structure? i don’t know her. i plot w/o regard to structure and then if it looks funny i mush it into a more structurally sound shape

my main concern when structuring anything, including time, is an even distribution of Events and a steady rate of escalation

structure to me is just what i have when i’m finished plotting. i’m sorry one day i’m gonna take a writing class

internal chronology matters to me personally because i have a little bit of time blindness but maybe not to everyone, i know many very successful stories where they disregarded that entirely to no ill effect

writer’s block isn’t real! everyone just needs more rainbow spreadsheets

thank u for asking I HOPE i didn’t make you regret it too badly lmao and that at least a little of it was helpful!! 

#personal #liz loves writing #liz answers asks #brit marling anon #i couldn't figure out how to answer u without walking u thru my entire process #so that's what i did and that's why it's so long. very sorry. #im gonna set this up to reblog itself at the time u sent ur ask so that ur sure to see it!! #edit: there was SUPPOSED to be a cut on this but tumblr put it in the ASK?? i can't seem to fix it. rip

[wiinmorrison]

{ maia mitchell ☁. twenty five ☁ she/her } among the whispers around peach hollow, have you heard of winona ‘winnie’ morrison? no? well, let’s catch you up to speed. rumor has it, she’s been seen strolling around tangerine towers & has lived in peach hollow her entire life. it’s good to have her around because i hear she owns get baked for a living. the grapevine hasn’t turned out much about them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not hiding something. a word of advice to them, always look over your shoulder. you never know who is watching.

HI IM KIM IM AN ADMIN IM 26 SHE/HER THIS IS WINNIE BYE

TRIGGER WARNINGS: PARENTAL DEATH, DRUG USE/DEALING, MENTIONS OF ANXIETY

meet this tough shell to crack !! don’t call her winona, she’ll gut you. it’s winnie, win, or nothing at all.

she’s 25 and grew up in the hollow with her mom, dad, and little brother. her childhood was decent, aside from her parents struggling to keep them afloat financially. money had always been a problem. the lights got cut off, sometimes the water was off – really it just depended on how many auto insurance packages her dad sold that week.

he also dealt drugs on the side, something that she and her brother were kept in the dark about. people were in and out of their house a lot, and they saw many different walks of life trudging through their two bedroom apartment. nobody ever harmed them and they actually looked forward to the visitations from certain clients – without ever knowing about the deadly chemicals her father was supplying them with.

throughout her childhood, she constantly found herself drawing – normally on herself. she carried around a bunch of gel pens and honed her craft on her arms, her legs, her hands, any body part that she could get to in the middle of class. no matter what her parents did, winnie always got her hand on some sort of pen and drew away. this lead to her interest in tattoos – and not necessarily doing them for other people, but just coming up with ideas upon ideas to cover her body in.

she also sketched in a notebook, but that wasn’t as fun and didn’t really make her happy. winnie was kind of a loner throughout school, coming out with a couple close friends at graduation, but she never cared. she had her family and her art.

while her dad was dealing (drugs and insurance), winnie’s mom opened up a little bakery. it was all made out of her apartment and sold out of a little truck they rented, and the neighborhood loved her treats. winnie helped her all the time, and it was one of the things that made them forget about their living situation.

one day when they were at the truck, her dad was involved in an altercation with a competing group of dealers that resulted in his death. having been a daddy’s girl, winnie took this particularly hard, as did her mother. everything came to a screeching halt.

after the funeral and a few weeks had passed, winnie, her brother and mother sat down to try to figure out a plan on what they were going to do. after a long chat, they decided that her mother needed to open an actual bakery and that’s where they could get their income.

her mother was depressed, though, and after a few years of going through the motions, she told her family that she wanted to quit. winnie told her she would take it over, and in doing so, she’s made a ton of money, but not without a cost…

she sells most drugs that she can get her hand on – never anything crazy like meth or heroin, but weed, cocaine, hallucinogens, just about anything else a person could need or want. the bakery itself isn’t doing great, but the drug dealing coming out of it is keeping them more than afloat. in fact, winnie is living on her own in an apartment at oasis and has helped her mother buy and move in to a house on blueberry boulevard. she loves that she’s able to do this for her mother, but holds a lot of shame in the fact that she’s lying about how the actual baked goods are selling, and not the cupcakes with a dime bag in them.

after her father’s death, winnie became even more reserved than she was in school. she didn’t trust a soul. she took up boxing and self defense, never wanting to be in a position like her dad had been, which was more likely now that she was doing his old job.

she is tense. there’s no doubt about it. she hides pretty much any feeling that will lead to a deeper conversation about herself, but not so much other people. she loves to listen to their stories and help others through things. she’s very nurturing in that way, and intuitive in the way that she can often read people well.

she drinks. a lot. she’s borderline alcoholic. parties are where she really lets loose, and doesn’t necessarily get messy but definitely is able to communicate and laugh more. she’s the life of the party, literally, but sober winnie sits in the corner. she relies on alcohol for comfort a bit.

this whole peacher situation has definitely given her a lot of anxiety. her livelihood is on the line every day due to this monster.

tl;dr: winnie broadcasts bad bitch energy while actually having smol bean energy on the inside. tough to crack, gooey on the inside. has a bakery that she sells drugs out of, boxes a lot, and has a ton of tattoos, always drawing more. likes hooking up with like anybody???

as for connections, i have a few ideas!!

employees: so i figure there will be a couple people who work at the bakery, maybe even just part time, and they can either actually work thinking its a bakery or work in the back with all the material. this can kind of build friendships too!! since she’s super loyal

ride or die: i’m thinking she will have like two of these?? maybe one is female bc i love a f/f ride or die.

party friends: these are friends that maybe she doesn’t talk to much outside of a party… like they link up, get drunk, maybe fuck, maybe just get real messy… and then only text each other to send memes or go out

positive influence: so i would really like her to have someone who just kind of makes her feel whimsical instead of tense. maybe they’re aware of her past or her current occupation and just strive to make everything light and fun, maybe even flirty if you wanna go that way!!

hook ups: she’s not shy, she’ll fuck anyone. sign up i guess

the big one: an ex that she spent a lot of time dating and then kind of shut out when she felt like things were going south. lots of angst.

anything u can think of come to me

#peachesintro #im late ! but im here !

[blacknovelist]

Hi 👋 I love the ageswap AU it’s cute! So what’s the relationship between Mentor Shigaraki & Student All For One is like compare to canon? Sorry if this has been ask before but I’m curious to see your opinion? (Thank You For Reading.)🙏

Hi!! I’m so glad you’re enjoying Ageswap – content for the AU’s pretty inconsistent in coming around (the au itself is pretty inconsistent sometimes but shhhhh we’re just here to have a good time) but it always makes us happy, haha. This isn’t a question that’s come up, actually, tho I’m really glad u asked?? Because I only got caught back up to the manga recent-ish, so me n @guardianlioness got to hammer out a whole bunch of details on that end out while we were conferrin’ about this

hang on to ur seats folks bc im here to finish my school work and talk a lot

and i’ve just finished my school work

(also, as an aside: me and lioness always want to talk about ageswap. I don’t think i’ve deleted a single ageswap ask, they’re still here, waiting for me. they’ll happen eventually, probably, I guess, one way or another, and thank u to everyone for bein’ patient

Also also, spoilers abound bc of some names I’m dropping! If you haven’t made it through that one League of Villains arc with the Liberation Army and don’t want spoilers, this isn’t the post for you.

So in the much broader sense, we’ve at least discussed the history of One for All and All for One to some degree over here, but we’re gonna expand, add, and shift stuff around a smidge probably, in actual AU context. The important tl;dr is basically that the League is just a group that opposes the users of One for All after a vendetta when One for All first manifested, and All for One (who henceforth will be referred to as AfO, probably, because although Shigaraki’s his name it’d be confusing, I think, to just leap wholesale into that) was the child of Izuku’s as-of-yet unspoken of OfA mentor, who was assumed dead along with the rest of the mentor’s family but was instead taken in by Tomura (as we’ll be calling Mr. Shimura Tenko from here on out, to try and reduce confusion still and also bc in the beginning he didn’t have the name Shigaraki ) when Tomura lead the league to wreck OfA mentor’s shit bc he’s petty like that.

Now I don’t necessarily need to get into the big details – for the sake of brevity, I’ll make a separate post on AfO, his goals, the brother whomst he loves a lot that we’re giving him for canon parallels in spite of how much we’ve already bungled stuff up, and AfO’s relationship with Toshinori now that that’s all been hashed out – but I do want to point out that, for a time AfO was unaware that Tomura was the one who destroyed his home, only that Tomura was there and saved him and his little brother. OfA mentor hid/went underground/stopped using their family name of Shigaraki after the rest of the family died in grief, so Tomura used that to persuade AfO to not run back to his parent until AfO was swayed to his side, so to speak.

For the most part, Tomura and AfO’s relationship in Ageswap is something of a twist again on canon. See, and this is fun because we love drawing those lines between characters, Tomura (in both Ageswap and canon) is a fascinating emotional sort, both in relation to his mentor/student AfO, but ALSO to Izuku, who does studies on quirks and mumbles a lot and has incredible observational skills, whereas Toshinori is a beast of instinct and feeling, which again foils him to the far more calculating AfO and his logical student! That is to say, the parallels are criss-crossing: Toshinori could be attributed towards Tomura, where AfO could be towards Izuku. Now, obviously, it’s not a 1:1 ratio because nothing is, but it means that when we flip the dynamic we get something just as dysfunctional and unhealthy as in canon, but in a totally different way!

Tomura’s something of the Worst Mentor Slash Elder Sib Figure Ever in this world. He’s a hot mess to AfO’s young meticulousness, and through him AfO kind of. learns to live a little, so to speak. Or at least, relax and also take what he deserves w his quirk bc hey, he has the power, why not?

The general attitude we’re giving Tomura in this AU is kind of…. unnervingly touchy-feely or close physically, esp given what his quirk is. AfO isn’t quite so scared of it, because it’s Tomura, who’s a beloved teacher and friend, but it’s something of a (possibly unintentional, haven’t decided) way for Tomura to keep the League metaphorically close. Because he acts so relaxed and familial, it draws the League together and makes them less inclined to leave, later. And even if they wanted to, well… Tomura’s right there, and we all know what his quirk is. The relationships he’s fostering are just as unhealthy as in canon, just differently.

I think the dynamic might be that Tomura’s encouraging AfO to go apeshit, basically. Kind of like “you have this quirk you barely use/barely know about, and you can do all these things, so why don’t you?” ish, pushing him to overhaul a world/society that condemns his quirkless brother and keep his own power so tightly wrapped he suffers, you know? There’s a weird extra-close obviously openly familial aspect to the League, which is meant to parallel how awkward Izuku is with Toshinori and how they maintain a distance even though they also care and love each other a lot, and it has everything to do with the way Tomura acts and holds himself. Also, the League all refers to him as Tomura in private, to kind of…. sit on those close pseudofam vibes.

As for what AfO thinks of his mentor… well, AfO is the one who offered his family name “Shigaraki” for Tomura to use, a name that even Izuku hadn’t known because his own mentor never told him in their attempt to separate from their grief. So, you tell me what his thoughts might be.

#Boku no hero academia #BNHA #My Hero Academia #MHA #Ageswap AU #whiteroes1977 #BNHA Spoilers #Novelist Answers #BNHA AU #SUP FUCKERS WE'RE BACK #kind of #i only live here on weekends but my brain tends to interpret the time im at home in specific spaces as ''weekend'' so. there's the problem #anyway thank u for askin and also enjoying ageswap <3 it's such a weird indulgent au and by god it's the hill i'll die on #All for One #AfO #Shigaraki #hurgle #DON'T AT ME I KNOW I TALK ABOUT THE WEIRD EMOTION/LOGIC PARALLEL A LOT IN AGESWAP OK

[mrbones20]

Jackbox Party Pack Reviews

disclaimer: i’ve only played the first 4 so this is not comprehensive

quick tl;dr: if you want to minimize your spending but have the most bang for your buck: this is what you do: you’re gonna buy Jackbox Party Pack 3 and Drawful 2 (standalone game, costs either 10 dollars or 5 if its on sale). Then a prime game night goes like this: play some trivia murder party to warm up. have a good time. THEN switch to drawful 2. this will generate some weird phrases/inside jokes. THEN switch to Tee K.O. Which is a lot easier and funnier to play if you have all the fodder from drawful. If you have funny friends, finish the night off with Quiplash 2. Bam perfect game night.

Now on to the actual Reviews (ranked from worst to best)

oops i haven’t ever played Bomb Corp whoops tell me if it’s good somebody

BAD GAMES

19. Lie Swatter (1): I guess the appeal is that you can play it with huge groups but it’s so boring. 18. Word Spud (1): In the name of objectivity I’m ranking this low bc it is... a bad game. You come up with word associations and people tell u if they’re good or bad. however, i happen to really, really like it. it makes me feel relaxed. i will say i’m probably the only person in the world who likes this game. 17. Earwax (2): I’ve only played this one a couple of times and it was a long time ago. I don’t remember it being great.

OK GAMES

16. Bidiots (2): This one is really conceptually weird. It tries to have the charm of drawful but fails pretty hard. (tbh i haven’t played anything from 2 a ton but i just remember being very confused 15. Fakin’ It (3): lmao i’m biased against this one bc i play jackbox games for our quarantine zoom game night and you can NOT play this over zoom. so it kinda sucks but I guess i could see how it would be fun in person. 14. Guesspionage (3): Has a good aesthetic but it’s pretty boring. I’m in general not a fan of the more “do u know this thing?” games and more into the creativity based ones. 13. Bracketeering (4): It really just feels like discount quiplash. on the plus side, it takes up to 16 players! 12. You Don't Know Jack 2015 (1): It’s very standard trivia. Enjoyment will depend on whether you like trivia. I’ve only played this a couple times

GOOD GAMES

11. Fibbage XL (1): I’m not a huge Fibbage fan but it’s a very solid concept. I like that it takes a fair amount of actual skill to play but it’s not as goofy as some games. 10. Fibbage 2 (2): I don’t think I’ve actually played fibbage 2 whoops, or at least not recently enough to know the difference from the original. I assume it’s just as good. 9. Survive the Internet (4): you have to be MEAN to play this game. it’s only funny if you play to KILL. That being said, if you and your friends are fkn savage, it’s hilarious. 8. Fibbage 3 (4): I’ve only played the enough about you part, which is really fun if u play with good friends (Which i do). Although i’m a very open person so i have a lot of trouble coming up with lies about myself lol

PEAK GAMES

7. Monster Seeking Monster (4): I really like this game? It’s a little different and it’s a little more strategy based than ur average jackbox game. I read this in a reddit post but the BEST way to play is not tell anyone who you are and use a unrecognizable username. that way it’s purely about deduction and strategizing to figure out who u wanna date each night. 6. Trivia Murder Party (3): It’s a really creative way to do trivia and the aesthetic is AMAZING. I love it. there are so many opportunities to overtake other players and i really like the mini games. really elevates the standard trivia format. 5. Civic Doodle (4): Most of my friends are artsy, so this may not be this high for other people, but i love this game. our designs get DUMB. same energy as tee k.o. but more collaborative. 4. Quiplash 2 (3): I’m not a fan of the final quip round i guess, so I prefer the original 3. Quiplash XL (2): Probably the most iconic jackbox game. It’s very funny, but the one downside is that you have to be pretty creative for it to be any good. If your friends aren’t funny it can get kinda awkward and boring. 2. Tee K.O. (3): This is so confusing the first time you play but it’s SO fun. If you haven’t played it’s basically a mix and match tshirt design game where u make designs, captions, and then match other people’s to make t shirts. Like I said, this is best played immediately after drawful. my friends and i will play drawful and then use the drawings and prompts as inspo for funny tshirts 1. Drawful (1): PEAK jackbox game. The prompts really sell this one - some of them are so bizarre that it keeps you on your toes. and once you get good at it you’ll end up guessing really bizarre things which makes the whole thing so trippy and fun. my friends and i have a lot of inside jokes from drawful.

#jackbox party pack #reviews

[moontaeilll]

ALL ABOUT SM GLOBAL PACKAGE & NEO CITY: SEOUL EXPERIENCE

by twitter user @sugnsook​ // @yudotaeil 

Hello~ so i am not that good at explaining/vlogging or writing stuffs but in this thread? or blogpost or wherever u guys reading this, i will try to describe my experience as much as I can. Also for now, I am dividing this post, FAQ-style  according to several topics, and I will put a separate detailed post on my own Neo City: SEOUL experience. I hope this will help for u guys deciding to splurge a bit on concert/global package!

Disclaimer: In the past, I got a few ccs complaining about my fangirl related-expensive expenses, I just want to note earlier here that as the whole prior to the actual concert, I was a part time student & working 30+ hours a week, working every chances I get. It was also my last semester of undergrad studies & I have been wanting to attend NCT’s first ever concert since 2017 and been really saved up since then, so I consider the large expenses is pretty much a treat for myself.

Tl;dr: if you worked hard enough and really wanted to attend your faves event, just go for it, as it was really worth it.

— General

What is included in Global Package?

Concert ticket (depending on days u wanna go), a good quality hotel for your stay, return transportation to & from the concert venue - hotel, preorder access to official merchandises, NCT 127 theme global package-special merchandises, NCT 127 theme snack boxes (after the concert), One themed lunch, a half day tour with tour guide before the concert, special event (varies according to what concert) - for NCT127’s we got a photoshoot session with NCT127’s life-size standee in SM’s infamous practice room itself.

How much does Global Package cost?

All i can say first thing first is….it IS costly. The ones I am paying is $949USD for Superior Single (Course C) as shown below:

The difference between the prices & packages are it depends on which hotel they will locate you & your seating in the concert. They also have Course A, Course B & Course C which depends on the concert days you are attending. Because I am flying out to Seoul just for the purpose of concert so why not just buy the two days ticket? And yeah that is why I chose Course C.

When does the ticketing open?

Usually the global package ticketing will only open at least one month prior to the actual concert, just like the concert announcement itself.  Basically right after SM announce the concert, just be prepared as the ticketing will be shortly after it, right before the general ticketing starts. My advice is just, save up save up and save up as it is really well-known super costly.

How competitive the tickets are?

It is less competitive than general ticketing for sure, but pretty competitive in between ifans itself. When I bought mine, I initially planned for just economy ones but the ticket sold out WHEN i clicked “payment”. So, be quick or you might need to wait a bit more. I’m the type to be anxious if I dont have my ticket yet so I really want my ticketing matters to be settled up as soon as possible so-- when I figured out the economy package got sold out I quickly clicked on superior option - impulsively hehs.

During that ticketing, SM allows you to hold your payment up to 2 hours, as for twin package buyers can split payment. So if the tickets sold out, you might be able to get it after 2 hours. NOTE THAT: SM changed the policy from 2 hours to 30 mins now.

Eventually SM will release more packages and you CANNOT change your options once you have buy it. The packages will be available up until a week/or two before the concert, but the type of packages is really depends. I would say, Course C - Economy package sold out pretty quickly because that is what most people aiming for.  

*also, keep refreshing the page if you are buying at the exact ticketing open time! The ticketing for mine opened 3 mins before the actual time so yeah….

How is the payment made?

Paypal only. Just be sure you have signed up to smtown travel account, and link you cards or have paypal balance to get your payment completed smoothly. Your package will only be confirmed once you get the payment confirmation so, having a working payment method is important. SM’s cancellation policy is ridiculous so I recommend everyone who is interested to join GP to do a thorough research beforehand.

Can international fans join general ticketing?

Yes, but not really feasible, as Yes24 sites require verification, unless you have connections with korean verifications or buy from 3rd party. The downside of 3rd party is you might get even more expensive ticket collectively compared to what Global Package has offered.

How good the seats are?

It depends on your luck as you will only draw your ticket basically the day before the concert. The more you paid for the package, the better the seats. For standing you might get a better queue number and in korea concerts you strictly go in by queue number. I chose seating, so for luckily one of my seat was right next to extended stage, and another seat was on the other side but center view. Also i luckily got both sides of seating so I can enjoy the concert with both views.

It is possible to trade your ticket between other global package holders tho - bcs i saw people did this at my hotel lol but you cannot ask sm to change your ticket. The concert ticket will be written as “해외팬투어” (intl fans tour), instead of your name.

My seat on the first day

My seat on the second day, center view

My seat on the second day, side view

Is there a customer service page i can rely to?

Yes. If there is one thing i would applaud SMtown travel for, it is for their customer service. I used a lot of their “Q&A” page and they typically will reply you within one business day. If you ask on weekend, they will respond to you as quick as on Monday. So if you have any like literally, ANY question about your package, just send a question to them and they will reply personally as soon as they can. And it is in english.

— Logistics

After you have bought your package, SM will update the logistics & schedule 2 WEEKS before the concert. So don’t worry if they ghosted you out before that 2 weeks lol.

Technically, they will divide the hotels according to the package type (dlx/superior/econ), then they will divide you into bus numbers, according whether you are seating/standing. Also your schedule will depends on the bus number you get. And this is non-exchangeable, as they prepared everything according to the list that they grouped you out.

How is the hotel?

For me, i got located at Ibis Styles Ambassador Hotel in Gangnam. Because I got single package, i got the whole hotel room for myself, lol what a new experience, as for my solo travels i only go for budget hostels 🤣. The hotel location is only 15~20mins subway away from the venue, and it is walking distance from COEX. There are a bunch cafes & convenience store nearby so it is pretty easy to get something. The only thing is SM’s booth opens at 8pm, so because I arrived early, I just roamed around until the booth opens. At SM’s booth, it is where you pick up your preordered merchs, sm’s merchs and most importantly draw your tickets. Also I took the chance when gathering with fellow global package goers to trade anything i needed to exchange while everyone is there.

I dont know where to put this under, but for GP, We were given a greeting card from the boys, bunch of stickers, a letter set (with colour pencil), L-holders, bunch of posters and nct127’s moodlight. For the letter set, you can decorate and write fanletter to the members and hand it to your tour guide at the time they ask you. I bought some masking tape and stickers beforehand to decorate my letter, u can prepare it ahead too and transfer it to the letter they give as the time frame is really short.

Can I go to the concert by my own?

Yes you can~ Be sure to tell your tour guide so that they dont waste time waiting. You also have to tell them whether u want to go back to hotel with them or not, as that is when they will hand you the snack boxes. If you are not certain of travelling alone in Seoul, i recommend to travel by the bus they provide, because the tour guide will bring you right until the concert entrance. For me, I wanted to join fan-events and roam around the venue more, so I decided to go on my own. (Best thing about it was when you’re in a train with fellow NCTzens they just airdrop you a lot of nct related stuffs — including the selfies they airdropped at the venue!).

— Itinerary

How tight the schedules are?

It kinda not as tight as I thought? Except for pretty early schedule on the first day, also Maybe because I got a seating ticket so I dont go to venue after the tours right away (standing fans had to queue right away after the tour)

And for me, this was my schedule —

25th 8pm: pick up merchs, ticket etc from SM booth 26th 10am - gather at hotel lobby 10:30am - depart for lunch (at Bulgogi Brothers), it was NCT127-theme and they play nct’s songs! 11:50am - depart to COEX artium - u get 1 hr to roam around there, I chose to roam around smtown museum 1pm - depart to SM C&C building in cheongdam, for special event Around 2~ish - depart back to hotel

U get free time in between and gather back at 4:30pm to depart to concert venue as concert starts at 6. As concert ends around 8:30pm, they give you about 45mins~ to get back to the bus if you wanna go back with them. 27th Bus departs at around 2 pm if i recall, as concert starts at 4pm. I went out at 10am lols (also tell your tour guide!) and bus departs around 7:30pm after the concert. 28th - check out around 12pm.

Detailed itinerary will be updated in my experience post.

The best thing about the concert period was they give you discount on some SM-related stuffs. For example, they give 30% off (?) for beverages at sm cafe for ticket/GP holders, and also discounted smtown museum admission. There were also new merchs got released that time, and some other promotions going on.

Snack box after the concert!

Merchs I collected from kfans giveaways at the venue

The best part was NCTZens spreading out the fanproject - sing Paradise during Encore; using Airdrop. NEO indeed 😎

The amount of memes & stuffs being airdropped - lol 

— Budgeting

General budgeting for my trip:

Flight - around 1.6K MYR return trip with 20kg luggage & meal (AirAsia)

Hotel - i only went during my GP stay period so it was all inclusive (hotel + concert ticket) with that $949 USD

Other expenses (tmoney, food, additional merchs) - about $250 usd is enough for me for 4 days, considering I spent on buying cosmetics & merchs a lot. My own preordered merchs was separate amt too, it depends on what u do/willing to spend around that period.

— For Muslim Fans

Do they provide halal meals?

They dont provide halal meat, but you can request for vegetarian option or seafood. During lunch, I got vegetarian bibimbap set. And for the snack boxes, too bad SM provided ham/bacon in the sandwiches, which I am not confident in removing it so I decided to not eat, just eat the cookies. Also they offer late-night meals after the concert (separate pay), but I didnt opt for that one and only went to eat at nearby places.

Can I pray before the concert?

Yes~ as I mentioned earlier, there are a few hours gap before you depart to concert so you can pray at your hotel beforehand. Or if you dont mind, like I did as I went to venue early on the 2nd day, I went to pray at Olympic Park area itself, there are a lot of benches or u can walk a bit further to isolated places to pray. I just sat down at some bench and pray while sitting down.

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These are what I can think of, and as I said earlier I do have another separate post regarding my own NEO CITY: Seoul experience, and I will update under a thread. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via twitter (@sugnsook/@yudotaeil) or  curiouscat.me/6sungjae.  Also for neo city fancams/random pics about my trip, it will be updated eventually under the main thread where this entry is posted :) Hope it helps!

#neo city seoul #sm global package #h:blog #concert

[mxlxdroit]

i finished oathbringer!

yay! *confetti*

i can now unblock the oathbringer tag! woohoo!

it took me a month and a half to finish this book, all 1200-odd pages of it, and unfortunately, i’ve gotten a bit of book exhaustion. i enjoyed reading it, but it’s like reading a long trilogy of books in a very short amount of time, so i’m probably going to wait a while before tackling another cosmere book so i can get a breather and read some other stuff.

first off, i liked this book a lot! so much happened i’m not gonna go back and recap too many specific points right now, but there are a few things that i think were particularly important.

TL;DR oathbringer was good and had a lot of cute and funny stuff but it dragged a bit and got a bit too heavy for me a few times. i’m now shakadolin trash, Dalinar’s like fifty and he finally storming learned how to read, Lopen and his spren flipped off the Stormfather, and there are lots of good messages about agency and responsibility. oh, and lots of people stabbing each other

thematically, a lot of oathbringer is about choosing to take responsibility for your actions (or not. looking at you, Moash). this is most clear in Dalinar’s case, as his main character development is confronting the evil he did in his past, including killing his wife and burning thousands of people to death along with her. he has to admit what he did and take responsibility for it within himself in order to be able to resist Odium (speaking of which, What Is Up with Cultivation? i feel like i know so little about her. since Honor and Odium have spren and surges and all that jazz does Cultivation have them, too? D: i don’t know). Adolin has to admit to killing Sadeas, Venli has to realize that bringing back the Fused was a bad call, and the entire human race have to figure out what to do when they learn that they are the Voidbringers and invaded Roshar (i’m sure this is going to be a prominent theme in Stormlight 4, because it’s a huge deal and they barely talked about it). Not only do the characters have to confront their pasts and the truths there, however unpleasant, they have to decide what to do next. the story doesn’t end with a big reveal. life goes on, and they have to decide what steps to take and what future they want. the most important step a person can take is the next, if you will. in many ways, that is what the Ideals of the Radiants are for- life sucks, so what are you going to do to make it a little less terrible? and therein lies the connection between responsibility and agency. Moash’s internal dialogue about how nothing he regrets is his fault also means that none of the good things he’ve done belong to him. he gives up ownership over his life and himself and gives away his agency. he won’t be able to make meaningful decisions about his own life because he doesn’t want to anymore. Dalinar, on the other hand, accepts all of his past as his, including the good he has done, accepting his own agency over his actions and allowing himself to use his experiences to inform his decisions in the future.

on a kind of related point, honesty also leads to forgiveness. Shallan has to forgive herself for things that weren’t her fault and find a way to acknowledge the horrors of her past without letting them consume her. she isn’t all the way there- i don’t know if she’ll ever be able to be fully comfortable in herself, but i don’t doubt that she is going to continue getting better throughout the rest of the series. Kaladin has to forgive himself for not being able to save everyone, though he’s been figuring that out since book one, so it wasn’t a big part of his story in oathbringer. Teft comes to a kind of reconciliation with himself and is able to let himself start moving forward.

overall, it’s a “forgive, but don’t forget” kind of thing. don’t deny the bad stuff you’ve done or that has been done to you, don’t blind yourself to the truth, and act accordingly, but also don’t let your past hold you back or decide that you aren’t worthy of becoming a better person. it’s some important stuff

smaller-stuff-wise, uhhhhhhhh

-the scene in hearthstone was adorable i love Kaladin’s family and Kaladin being happy and getting to see his baby brother it was such a sweet part of the book

-Dalinar and Navani had the most dramatic wedding imaginable. they’re Kholins

-Shallan and Adolin! i’m so happy with how sanderson handled their whole pseudo-love-triangle thing (although this book turned me into shameless shakadolin trash (everyone has a crush on kaladin stormblessed 2kOathbringer) so that’s a thing and also since Veil isn’t gone i don’t think Shallan’s whole ‘wow Kaladin’s hot’ thing is gonna be totally gone) and their wedding was sweet

-Elhokar. wow. i didn’t see that one coming AT ALL and it’s really sad! i’m glad Gavinor’s okay though. a+++++ job to Skar and Drehy and Shallan’s guardsmen for remembering to keep him safe

-i love Wit. he’s fantastic. he’s obviously kind of an asshole but some of his scenes (the ones with Shallan and the epilogue) show that he can be very kind “Sadeas counts twice” yep pretty much. also we got two new names for him? and he bonded a Cryptic. this man

-Lopen flipping the Stormfather off... perfect

-Shallan recreating an entire play that she saw as a child... and doing it again later... i could imagine it so vividly and it was beautiful

-Kaladin’s suffering is just... never going to end. branderson just enjoys making him sad all the time and i resent that because he’s my favorite character in SA

-Venli is going to save the listeners and i’m so ready for it. it’s going to be a long, tough journey but i believe in her she’s so strong

-hmmmmmm interesting that branderson was like “HERE’S A GAY CHARACTER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” when a bunch of his characters are written (even if it’s an accident) to be Bisexual(tm)/Polysexual(tm)

-Lift and Szeth are a good team. i’m gonna draw him ice-skating at some point

-Adolin, Kaladin, AND Jasnah insulting Amaram... good... also Jasnah marrying Amaram is a terrible thought. both of them would be miserable even if Amaram wasn’t openly working for Odium. also is Jasnah supposed to be under the ace/aro umbrella or is she allo but not interested?

-people have been calling Jasnah a queen for ages and now look at what happened! long live queen Jasnah she is one of the most qualified leaders alethkar has ever had or will ever have

-i like Nightblood a lot. wanna destroy some evil today?

-Kaladin picking up a rock at the end of the battle :’)

-Rock firing a shardbow was surprising. i found the parts he narrated interesting because he knows a lot more than he lets on. i’m excited to see more from him in SA 4

-some of the heralds still think ishar is sane but he is NOT

-Moash straight-up stabbed a Herald! he takes the cake from Kelsier. punching gods is no longer enough

-sanderson is making Kaladin’s depression more explicit and i think he’s doing a good job. knowing that his parents are alive and safe helps, and being around people he loves helps, and having a purpose and path in life is really important for him, but his depression is still there, just like Teft’s addiction is still there, and Dalinar’s tendency towards alcoholism is still there, and Shallan’s tendency to repress trauma is still there. he still gets depressed during the Weepings and when he is forced to question the ideals that he has chosen to follow, and that’s very realistic, which is good

-DALINAR IS LEARNING TO READ! FINALLY

-and generally gender roles getting smashed is good. Lyn and Malata and Shallan and Jasnah and the other female Windrunner scouts all fighting and Dalinar learning to read and even little things like sanderson letting Kaladin cry over his baby brother were wonderful to read

-also everyone’s gotta stop making fun of Renarin for being a scholar and start paying attention to stuff instead

-Evi. Evi. Evi.

-Adolin and Shallan being the PDA couple of this series and disturbing the Good Alethis around them

my main criticism of oathbringer overall is that it was really heavy compared to the rest of the stormlight archive. the battle scenes were REALLY LONG and full of lots of main characters getting stabbed, and the philosophical weight of the decisions they all have to make is just getting heavier and heavier. there are definitely funny moments, especially in bridge four sections and a lot of the character interactions in non-conflict scenes. and every bird being a chicken. and the boots thing. how many pairs has kaladin lost now? anyways, almost every scene felt like it existed to serve a specific purpose and move the plot along, which is part of why i got book fatigue. there weren’t enough breathers, which usually isn’t an issue in sanderson’s pacing, so i’d assume that it won’t be a big issue going forwards? maybe it’s just me trying to leach as much meaning from every sentence as i can and if i just relaxed and enjoyed the book then it wouldn’t be so exhausting

also, this post (btw thanks op that’s a great summary) says that the stormlight archive (and i think by extension the cosmere as a whole) is anti-grimdark. while i mostly agree, i think some of the moral relativism and “you’ve been accidentally evil the entire time!”s in oathbringer have leaned it a little more towards (sometimes gratuitous (looking at u, mr. stormblessed, u, ms. lightweaver, and in this book, especially u, mr. dad kholin)) angst, which is another reason for the book fatigue. it’s not unnecessary, and it leads to character and plot development, but it got to be too much for me sometimes. then again, i’m a teenager and these books are written for adults, so maybe that’s a factor- moral relativism might be hitting a bit too close to home for me

ANYWAYS! i’ll probably write some more, smaller posts about OB but this is what i have for now! cfsbf, y’all

#oathbringer #stormlight archive #mine #book review #thoughts #cosmere #wowee #gotta rant to audrey about this when i see her #audrey