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centrally-unplanned · 2 months

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I was listening to this cast by The Weeb Crew, with SteveM as a guest, going through some other Evangelion video and dissecting the mythical memetic tropes it buys into. Which was a lot of fun, I recommend the cast, and the video they are critiquing is a bit of a grad-bag of zombie memes about Evangelion from the 2000's, which yeah have aged poorly.

One of the ones they get into is the idea that Evangelion's TV ending was "intensely unpopular", and Anno & crew were getting like bombarded with death threats and stuff. Which happened at some level sure, but certainly wasn't the median response. The video actually sites the "emails" shown on screen in End of Evangelion as evidence:

And like, bro those emails are fake! The staff wrote them for the movie, they didn't use real death threats or fan mail, that would be a huge legal liability. Not saying they are analytically useless or anything but, you know, you need to know that.

Anyway, SteveM mentions that of course there was pushback against Eva's ending, but actually the big wave wasn't interior to the fandom - instead it was sparked by Eva "going mainstream" discourse-wise. In particular a review essay by social critic Eiji Otuska (who is also a former lolicon creator ding ding ding) that was published after the finale aired sparked a widespread discussion in the media by other critics. He links to the essay in their discussion....except he doesn't. He thinks he did, and then when they look, its just someone else mentioning it in an article in 2003:

Bitter disputes broke out on online bulletin boards, with some critical of the producers for failing to provide a clear-cut end to the story, and others who praised the finish for being "typically Evangelion-like." But when commentator Eiji Otsuka sent a letter to the Yomiuri Shimbun, complaining about the end of the Evangelion series, the debate went nationwide. "The debate that erupted over the ending went way beyond our calculations," Gainax's Sato chuckles. "Anno probably knew what was going on. He realized that media other than anime had taken notice of Evangelion."

Which triggered in me the thought - why doesn't he have it? He references it in his own work after all. As you can guess, after some searching I am pretty sure I know why; no one has it. Its never been scanned or reprinted in an accessible format! It definitely is important in the history of Evangelion - I have seen this claim in other contexts, the essay that sparked a discourse, and you can find many works about Evangelion citing Otsuki (generally later works, like an article published in September of 1996 which you can buy) But what the article article said is only discernable via the clues dropped from second-hand accounts.

So can we find it?

First of all I need to figure out what is even being referenced. Searching through contemporary Japanese sources, I dug up an extremely handy find:

A somehow-still-existing 1997 fan page by a Japanese otaku (I'm giving you this stuff auto-translated btw, what would you do with a wall of kanji?) who extensively catalogued every media mention of Evangelion. I am sure they missed some, but they didn't miss a big one like the Otsuki letter - which we know from the above interview appeared in gigantic newspaper Yoimiuri Shimbun:

This gives us three candidates; given that we know it was written after the finale aired, and that was March 27th, 1996, our most likely candidate is the April 1st essay; I was able to find a secondary source mentioning the review was "immediately" after the finale, so I think that nails it.

Which alas does not bring up anything! Try as I might I cannot find any extant blog post, or scanned image, or long quoted form. But after trying the usual methods I did realize something - unlike my average document hunt, this is Yoimiuri Shimbum, a newspaper, a big newspaper. Which means they probably have their own archive, which I might be able to access. and low and behold, they do! And my university research services actually have an account!!

Incredibly blessed by this stroke of luck, I went digging for everything containing "Evangelion" and "Eiji Otsuka" in 1996, and found it:

And it's fucking blank. If the article is scanned or anything it will have that "Japanese Text" you see on the first result, or "Scanned Image" tag or something. I swear its like the only ones not scanned, all the random ads and list of best sellers are all there, but the entire cultural essays section is just an archival void. Shot in the skull right at the finish line.

Alas I am out of ideas of this one - its a newspaper, no one is selling this on Yahoo Auctions. Though hey, at least now we know the title:

"オウム」を超えるはずが... / It should surpass Aum...", 876 characters long.

"Aum" by the way is Aum Shinrikyo, the cult terrorist group that conducted the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. Which you can imagine really took the chattering classes by storm; it was the culmination of a series of "extremist" actions that began in the 1980's that built up a narrative of societal decay and alarm. It really isn't surprising that Otsuka linked Evangelion to Aum Shinrikyo; the apocalyptic connections were obvious, there was even an episode of the show that had to be changed due to the attacks as the production team thought the events were too similar. And additionally, if this essay was gonna spark a "societal backlash", it has to say something controversial right? I have definitely seen other critics like Hiroki Azuma discussing Eva in relation to Aum as a "social phenomenon" - I am betting Otsuka is the source of that comparison being so ubiquitous.

From other sources like people on twitter and other articles, I can pick up a few other details on what it contained; apparently he referred to Evangelion's finale as a "self-help seminar" for otaku and lambasted the idea of airing one of those on TV. And from his other writings I think you can certainly piece it together - essentially seeing Evangelion's self-involvement and hyper-introspection as a product of the same societal malaise that birthed Aum Shinrikyo, while failing to deliver a solution that could "go beyond" that. Which, the shit you said about media in the 90's, I want a hit of what he's having! But while today its quite obvious that groups like Aum were, sure, saying something about society but turned out overwhelmingly to be fringe weirdos as opposed to canaries in the mental institute coal mine, at the time this was very much the zeitgeist.

Still, I don't really care all that much what it says - its an important artifact! It started the "Eva discourse boom" that broke out of otaku circles and launched Evangelion into a cross-societal phenomenon! We should have a record of it, it should be preserved. I will ruminate on it, and see if any other ideas pop up. And meanwhile if anyone out there happens to see what I missed definitely let me know.

#evangelion history #Ash anime deep dive bullshit #mini-essay

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redgoldsparks · 7 months

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September Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese by Deya Muniz

Lady Camembert is the only child of Count Camembert, but as a daughter she cannot inherit unless she marries. She refuses, and after her father's death takes up a different life in the capital city, far from her hometown: she pretends to be the male heir to her father's title. This feels like the perfect solution, except then she meets Princess Brie, and as feelings begin to develop between them, Cam despairs that her secret identity means she can never be anything more than friends with the Princess. This is a beautifully drawn book, sweet and silly, full of cheese puns and historical anachronisms.

The Yakuza’s Bias vol 1 by Teki Yatsuda

Yakuza member Ken Kanashiro's life is changed when the daughter of the clan leader he works for takes him along to a kpop concert. Ken is moved by the kpop idol group's commitment, hard work, passion, and loyalty to each other and their fans. His introduction to fandom, and new social media friends, bring a breath of fresh air into his violent and dangerous life... and like most fervent fans, he starts trying to convince the people around him to stan the group to greater or lesser success. This manga series is very much in the same tone as Way of the House Husband but I appreciated the slightly longer chapters and the growing ensemble cast. It's a silly concept but with moments of genuine feeling as it shows how loving something can connect you to a whole new community.

Of Thunder and Lightning by Kimberly Wang

This is a beautiful, meta deconstruction of battle-robot manga; it plays with POV, with format, and theme. Two corporate nations struggle for dominance in a ruined world. Each spreads propaganda about the other; each has developed a pop-star like AI robot avatar, which battle each other in televised combat with custom costumes and snappy catch phrases. These robots, Magni and Dimo, exist only to destroy each other, but also find in each other their only equal. They both savor their violent encounters, but both are pushed by their creators and handlers to destroy the other. The story is half devastating elegance, half tongue-in-cheek satire. This title is most easily available through the publisher's website and I highly recommend it.

Blackward by Lawrence Lindell

Four friends, Lika, Amor, Lala, and Tony, bonded in a bookclub over being Black, queer, weird and punk. They clearly see the need for a community space for folks like themselves, but struggle with how and where to build that space. After their first attempt is ruined by trolls, they ask for guidance from a local bookstore owner and zine fest organizer. So the idea for the Blackward Zine Fest is born, an event to showcase creativity, make new connections, and maybe even find dates. This book doesn't shy away from the negative sides of existing and creating as a minority in public, but it is also a celebration of friendship and community and the power of comics!

Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb read by Paul Boehmer

What an exciting, explosive end to this trilogy! Fitz starts this book as low as a man can be, having returned from near death, with nearly every person who has ever known him believing him dead. He has to learn how to be human again, and learn how to care, and figure out his plans now that he has hypothetical total freedom. But the Red Ships are still pounding the Six Duchies shores, and Regal has withdrawn the strength and wealth of the Duchies inland. Verity is still missing on his endless quest. The beginning drags a little, but after the mid point of this book it is CONSTANT action and adventure, with so many twists and turns, and such a payoff at the end. If you like high fantasy, I highly recommend this series, and I'm so glad I chose to revisit it this summer.

I Thought You Loved Me by Mari Naomi

This is a long, thoughtful look at a friendship breakup, told through prose, letters, diary excerpts, collage, and comics. Mari met Jodie in high school where they bonded as rebellious teens seeking freedom from parental and academic rules. They loved the same music, both dropped out of school, and moved in the same circle of Bay Area folks for years. They were best friends- until Jodie cut Mari out of her life suddenly and unexpectedly. Years later, Mari was still trying to piece together what had happened, from lies, misunderstandings, secrets, affairs, communications lost in transit or responded to by the wrong recipient. Friendship breakups can be equally as devastating as romantic breakups- sometimes even more, as there's no societal norms on how to mourn them, and because we often expect friends to remain in our lives forever. This memoir was honest about how memory fades, how easy it can be to remember only the good or only the bad of a person colored through a specific lens, but also hopeful about the possibility of reconnection. No memoir is over while it's characters still live, and this one took more twists and turns than I was expecting! Beautiful and thought provoking.

Enemies by Svetlana Chmakova

This fourth installment in the Berrybrook series is just as charming and warmhearted as the previous volumes. This one focuses on Felicity, an artist who struggles with time management and deadlines, and with comparisons to her hyper-organized, science-fair winning younger sister. Wanting to prove herself, Felicity joins a competition for kid entrepreneurs. But coming up with a winning idea proves more difficult than she expected, especially when her partner keeps suggesting completely impossible ideas. Also, one of her best friends from elementary school stopped talking to her and now glares daggers at Felicity and she has no idea why. It's hard to keep your head up in middle school with all of the swirling emotions, homework, personal projects, and still maintain high scores in the most popular new online multi-player combat game. But Felicity has the love and support of her family- all she has to do is be willing to ask for help.

Skip by Molly Mendoza

The art in this book is absolutely gorgeous, and the page layouts are stunning. The story opens with a child, Bloom, and a nonbinary adult, Bee, surviving in a post apocalyptic world. But Bee goes off to help a stranger and then Bloom falls through an Alice-in-Wonderland like rabbit hole into multiple different trippy, strange settings were they are generally much tinier than all the other inhabitants. There's a nice through line about friendship and trusting yourself, but ultimately I found the story too ungrounded and loose to have a deep emotional impact.

Alexander, The Servant and The Water of Life book 1 by Reimena Yee

I am so impressed by the scope, artistic skill, and inventiveness of this work! The author weaves together multiple, at times conflicting, tales of Alexander the Great. It's drawn in rich colors and a wide variety of styles, many of which reference specific historical manuscript traditions from medieval European to Islamic to East Asian. I love the way the flashbacks are worked into the frame narrative, I love the shifting art styles, I am awed by the size of this project. And you can read most of this first volume online for free here on the author's website.

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell read by Raphael Corkhill

This is a creative and gripping follow up to Winter's Orbit. Set in the same larger universe but focusing on a new set of main characters in a new sector of space, this extremely slow burn romance is satisfyingly dense with military and political intrigue. Tennal is the nephew of the Legislator of Orshun; he's also a Reader, or someone who can telepathically read the emotions and surface thoughts of the people around him; he's also the black sheep of his family, a party boy and general fuck up. His aunt forces him into an army position with the intention of having him permanently mind-linked to an Architect, a soldier with the flip side of Tennal's skill- the ability to control people's minds. Tennal is horrified and begins to think of every possible way he can avoid this fate. But much larger forces are at play around him, from the mystery of a semi-destroyed scientific lab relocated in the middle of chaotic space, lies about the creation of Readers and Architects, and a coup in the making. This book is heavier on the sci-fi elements than the relationship progression, but that suited me just fine and I look forward to hopefully reading more installments in this series!

Sunshine by Jarrett J Krosoczka

When author Jarrett Krosoczka was in high school he had the opportunity to volunteer for a week at a camp for kids with cancer, their siblings, and parents. Jarrett had no idea what to expect, but he packed his sketchbook and an open mind. The experience changed his outlook forever. He had his own problems back home: a family affected by addiction and absent parents which lead to him being raised by his grandparents. But in the company of children facing life-threatening illnesses his own concerns fell away. He built relationships with some families that lasted for decades after his time at the camp. Painted in soft gray with hints of yellow and orange, this book offers an honest look at families facing the very worst circumstances and still heading out into woods to find community, friendship, and a breath of peace at a nature camp.

The Out Side: Trans and Nonbinary Comics edited by The Kao

A really charming collection of nonbinary and trans stories! Most focus on coming out, but a few talk about a later in the process piece of trans life, such as getting top surgery. I enjoyed seeing which pieces of the stories echoed each other, appearing universal, and which stood out as unique to an individual's experience.

Hard Reboot by Django Wexler read by Morgan Hallett

Set far in the future, this sci-fi novella follows a researcher from an extra-terrestrial human settlement on a scientific tourist trip back to "Old Earth". A misunderstanding leads to her accepting a very large bet on the outcome of a mecha battled, and when she losses and can't pay, she has to team up with a mecha fighter to try and win the next round to get her money back. I was able to predict the majority of the twists of this story within the first quarter of the book, but it was still fairly entertaining as a short audiobook listen.

Best. Ceremony. Ever: How to Make the Serious Wedding Stuff Unique by Christopher Shelley

I just officiated a wedding for the first time in my life, and this book (while cheesy) did actually help me get started writing the ceremony speech. It gave me the general outline of the beats I needed to hit, and some smart ideas of little touches or moments to include. The book is very inclusive of same-sex couples, which I really appreciated. Its also padded out with a completely unnecessary 50 page glossary of terms, so I only really read/skimmed the first three quarters of it, but I'd still recommend it if you are either planning or officiating a wedding.

#reading #book reviews #comics #reading reviews #maia kobabe

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thenightling · 9 months

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DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION OF FRANKENSTEIN! This is a sexist and ignorant dog whistle and as a fan of the actual Frankenstein novel, I am furious.

1. First there is the false implication that Percy Shelley co-wrote Frankenstein. He did not. In fact Mary Shelley revised the 1818 text in 1831. That's AFTER Percy's Death.

This sexism was brought to you by such "reliable" books as "The Man who wrote Frankenstein" which was written by a very sexist conspiracy theorist who once claimed that AIDS was spread through pills. That conspiracy theorist used dummy accounts to positively review his self-published books on Amazon (seriously, go check if you want) and his main reason for believing Mary Shelley didn't really write Frankenstein is his claim that she was "uneducated."

Percy wasn't a novelist. He was a poet. Mary Shelley actually wrote many novels after Frankenstein, it's just that none were as successful as Frankenstein. Just because she wrote her greatest novel while her husband was alive doesn't mean her husband secretly wrote it.

He also claimed a woman cannot have written a man's perspective so well and she wrote from the perspective of three men. Victor Frankenstein, The Creature, and Captain Walton.

By that same reasoning Stan Rice must have written Interview with The Vampire, not Anne. It's a sexist and classist equivalent of the classist conspiracy theories that Shakespeare couldn't have written Shakespeare because he was "Too poor and ill-educated" to have been that creative.

2. One big problem with novels like Frankenstein and Dracula being in the public domain is anyone can re-publish them any way they want, even with this sleezy and misleading presentation.

3. Frankenstein wasn't really a science fiction novel even though Google and this blurb claim it is. Frankenstein, the novel, never warned about the advancement of technology.

There's no hard science in the book. Victor wasn't studying biology. He was studying metaphysics and he never graduated.

(Metaphysics degrees aren't even currently recognized in the US. You can only get an honorary one from institutions like ULC).

Victor found the secret of life while reading the works of Agrippa and Paracelsus. A self-proclaimed sorcerer and alchemist.

The Creature is more like a Dungeons and Dragons Flesh Golem with a soul than what you see in most of the movies.

Its main morals and themes had nothing to do with "Playing God" or "the advancement of science." No. That overly exonerates Victor Frankenstein and those The Creature interacted with. Victor's main crime was rejecting his creation as soon as he came to life, which may have been a metaphor for what we today call Postpartum depression.

The themes were about parental responsibility, the futility of revenge, and the need to forgive.

If you have a shred of integrity or respect for women do NOT buy this edition of Frankenstein that falsely credits Percy Shelley and feels like it was being described by someone who only watched the 1931 movie. (The more accurate to the book film adaptation is the 2004 Hallmark mini-series version starring Luke Goss as The Creature.) If you want a good edition of Frankenstein, I strongly recommend the 1831 version republished with Bernie Wrightson's gorgeous illustrations accompanying it. That one is exceptional and respectful to Mary Shelley without falsely crediting Percy Shelley.

Here's the blurb that was attached to the awful edition:

"That’s right, the very first science fiction novel is also a work of transhumanism, though I’m not sure Mary Shelley would have used the term. After all, the monster wouldn’t even exist without technology. So even the earliest sci-fi novel was trying to warn us about the dangers technology poses to our humanity."

#Frankenstein #Mary Shelley #Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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tolnas-vault · 14 days

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WIP to Watch Out For: The Red Harp

Reviewed: May 1 2024

Fic Data

Rating: E

Status: Incomplete

Publish Date: 2024-04-23

Last Update: 2024-04-24

Chapters: 2

Word Count: 10,639

Main Ship(s): Shadowheart/He Who Was

Side Ship(s): Geraldus/Rolan

Other Side Character(s): Jaheira, Aradin, Rugan, Minsc, Rion

Summary:

This city is filled with demons; and as the constables track down those mortal evils, those murderers and thieves, behind the unassuming door of The Red Harp they hunt those evils existing in the space beyond. The High Harper's daughter has been taken. The medium and the thief stand at the docks, growing cold as they await the arrival of their newest recruit, the exorcist, ready to begin the work. (Victorian/Penny Dreadful style AU)

Ao3 Stats (As of May 1 2024)

Shadowheart/He Who Was works on Ao3: 2

He Who Was works on Ao3: 35

Shadowheart works on Ao3: 6219

Review (Mild Spoilers Only)

Warnings: Gore, body horror, parasites, ghosts.

Favorite Quote:

"Shadowheart’s eyes traced down, now, to the floor - where the girls purple gown was gathered about her, the crumpled material of her skirts forming pools all around her, which, now that she was looking at it from somewhere so close, she could see, were shifting slightly. The material almost looking as if it were … boiling?"

Main POV: Shadowheart and Geraldus

Thoughts:

Oh this is a lovely gothic horror. Shadowheart and He Who Was slot perfectly into the rolls of medium and priest in this AU. And it's one of those AUs that weave the canon lore and AU lore together perfectly. Tieflings are still a thing, the Harpers and the Zhent are still a thing, but the technology and magic system have been adjusted for the setting.

The first two chapters offer a thrilling introduction to the world and this version of the characters. He Who Was, in all his creepy glory, gets a proper introduction from Shadowheart's pov, and we're then immediately flung into the action. And without spoiling what happens the action is absolutely amazing in this story. See the quote above for how evocative and uncanny the entities of this setting are, and how they're revealed to the audience through the dawning horror of the characters. I had chills during the first action scene.

And the action scenes also do an excellent job of character building. Each character's reaction to the monster of the scene reveals something about their character, and shows the author understands the NPCs they're working with.

And the author is also good at mixing up the horror as well. There's a solid combination of high intensity action, and unnerving suspense in just the first two chapters. I cannot wait to see where this story goes.

Who I'd recommend this fic to: This is the perfect fic for people people enjoy the goth aspects of both He Who Was and Shadowheart, and want to see the characters in a more classic horror setting, while not straying too far from the world of BG3.

How Unsatisfied Would I Be If This Never Updated Again?: Not too terribly. The first two chapters of this fic served as an excellent "pilot" episode for the premise. Which meant they of course set up the character relationships, mysteries, and plot threads that one would expect to be addressed over the course of the "season". But they were also their own self-contained story with a proper beginning, middle and end. A very classic "this is how the team gets together" pilot episode. Satisfying on its own, but leaving you wanting more.

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pinktom · 7 months

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hi! you've mentioned a few times that the current version of Lover's Spit is a re-write of a previous version. Sadly I wasn't around for said previous version so I can't tell how much has changed (though, rest assured, I absolutely adore the fic as it is)

So what I was wondering is how did you go about writing it again? I have a couple unpublished fics that I'm not happy with in their current forms (my writing style has changed, I've learnt about writing tricks to make it flow better, learnt proper dialogue punctuation...) but I find re-writing to be a very difficult and tedious exercise which puts me off doing it. I'm guessing that I just haven't found a good way to do it, which is a shame because the fics are good, they just need to be made better before I can be comfortable publishing them.

So I wanted to know, how did you completely re-write what you had already written? Please be as detailed as you want in your answer, I love this type of stuff lol

I can't wait for the next installment of Lover's Spit, and I hope your writing is going well xx

First of all, I’m honored you’d ask for my humble opinion here, and I wish you all the best of luck with your rewrites. ❤️

I also cannot tell you how uncanny your question is. A few months ago, I toyed with the idea of re-posting the original Lover’s Spit for exactly this purpose—so that other fic writers could read it, instructively, as I used so very many fics over the years. (I'm still on the fence about whether it's a stupid idea, lol.)

Reflecting back on the experience, I think I have some potentially useful tips.

Writing is a masochistic hobby. The first four chapters of Lover’s Spit threatened all three of my brain cells, and it wasn’t really very fun for me to write them. Having a ‘big picture’ is, paradoxically, what kept me grounded during that time, and this is my first piece of advice.

I’d recommend looking at a single unfinished piece you wrote, and deciding, from a bird’s eye view, what the point of the story is. What is your objective, really? Then look at how you can reframe all of the existing scenes into a cohesive picture.

This way your attention is probably less focused on flexing all of the new techniques (still, slay & flaunt it 💅🏻) and more on telling an entertaining story with heart.

When we drafted the original story, there was no intentional objective. It was just for fun. This go around, I did go in with a very specific objective: to explore how real life intersects with the internet.

So every time I rewrote certain scenes, I wasn’t just retelling the scene with better words. I was attempting to focus the scene (via imagery, dialogue, diction) on that clear, concise objective. For example, the current version of Lover’s Spit begins slower, and lingers more, really to emphasize how boring normal life can be. The internet scenes, by contrast, are shorter, whippier, and don’t take up much real estate. I also include more descriptive lines about the town, throughout the story, and spend far more time in Harry’s head, chewing kind of tediously through his character development. I wanted to intentionally set an ultra high contrast on IRL and internet life, and many scenes look completely different because of it.

Along those lines: You may feel more enthusiastic if you add one or two more details that are new and refreshing, that really excite you. It doesn’t need to be ultra tangible either. For the Lover’s Spit rewrite, I challenged myself to add more mystery and anticipation, particularly where it concerns what’s going on in Tom’s head. This made rewriting certain scenes tricky, but more fun, because I had to be more inventive but I also got to indulge in the character-building aspect of it, which I enjoy.

And also, I learned how to embrace bitter work, to grin and bear it, because the payoff is worth it. I can look at forty word passages that took me an entire Saturday afternoon. I'm a grown woman, I work full-time, I like to party. That shit hurts! But because I have an objective—a point to get across, to share with people—I really feel it's worth it to sacrifice the time and endure the tedium.

But all that said, I will also say there's no shame in leaving projects on the back burner. If it's not fun for you to write, it may not be the best investment of your time, or perhaps not the right time to tell the story. I was actually about your age when I wrote the first Lover's Spit (I was 22), and I'm glad I took my time to return, because I wasn't mature enough to tell the story I knew deep down I wanted to tell.

#writing #lover’s spit #asks

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not-poignant · 7 months

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hey pia! i love your work, hi!!! im a young writer interested in posting some of my big projects online (not that i really expect them to get any traction lol). i was wondering how you protect your work from plagiarism, or how you deal with people plagiarizing your work. it seems like the internet is kind of the wild west, and that’s only sometimes a good thing :/ im probably a bit too poor to afford any sort of copyright or whatever online authors do, but maybe i can save up? 🙏🙏

PS - i didn’t actually care whether or not this ask was anonymous, but from my experience on tumblr it seems like an unspoken rule🤨 so i guess i’ll turn it on🫡

Hi anon!

Tbh the only real difference between anon and attaching your name is that I have the choice to reply to you privately if you send an ask under your name (which is sometimes preferrable if the question is personal or really niche!) and that gives me more options. Anon forces me to only answer publicly (which is probably why you're seeing that so much!!), but the downside is that sometimes I have to delete anon messages when I don't want the responses or even the ask/s on my public blog.

Anyway! This is something I'd respond to publicly anyway, because I think this is a fear a lot of new and young writers have. The tl;dr is that copyright is often assumed on the internet, provenance makes it easy to send DMCA takedowns, and letting a fear of piracy stop you from putting your work up is one of the biggest ways I see new authors handicap themselves on the web currently (idk if it's confirmation bias or what but it seems like I see this several times each month atm from specifically new authors), and it's like...not a thing...to be hampering yourself with.

Okay, now for the longer explanation:

The first thing with copyright is that it by and large depends on your country and what you want to do with the story. In Australia, every created work by default has legal copyright protection simply by being created by someone. We don't need to pay to apply for copyright on creative works, we automatically have it and if we can prove provenance (i.e. if we can demonstrate we created it first, with like a document date etc.) we are legally protected.

So I can't answer for the country you're in, anon, but honestly, this is how it works on most of the internet where you're likely to put a project online. AO3 will respect that a work is yours if it gets stolen, if you can prove you came up with it or published it before another person did (literally all you need is a screenshot or a link). In the Properties or Details of most of your documents, the 'date created' is your best friend.

I've had my work stolen quite a few times over the years. It's been stolen the most from AO3 over to Wattpad (it's almost like Wattpad authors don't realise that sometimes we look lol).

In one case, blanket commenting on one of the fics that the original fic was on AO3 *and complete and not stolen* was enough for the author themselves to take it down. x.x Otherwise what you generally do is send a DMCA takedown notice, which almost all creative sites give you access to when reporting theft (your readers cannot do this for you, you must do it.)

Similarly, on AO3, if this happens, you can just report it. The big downside here is that it can take the volunteers there some time - sometimes up to two weeks or more - to get on top of that, so it might feel like nothing at all is happening. Patience is recommended.

Look, theft happens, you can't avoid it. It is a normal part of putting your work out there in the world. And I can't tell you how many new authors I know who kind of shoot themselves in the foot trying to prevent the acts of thieves, while not realising they're hampering themselves in the process.

Pirating is the worst, but so is never putting your work out there, or waiting for a magical protection from piracy. It doesn't exist - and there's a general rule where the more steps you introduce to stop or reduce piracy, the more you actually alienate your general readers - think about how having right-click disabled on a website can feel, for example. It's considered hostile internet architecture that is often very inaccessible.

(There's also a phenomenon where the authors most scared of theft are the ones least likely to encounter it, because their works are new, and they'll need a lot of time to build up readers and engagement in the first place. Most of the time, those who plagiarise don't want to take the works of new/young authors over the works of experienced authors who just won't think to check the sites they're using. By the time you're popular enough for that to be an issue, you'll probably have more confidence in yourself and your ability to handle this. I will say theft of ebooks on sites like Amazon etc. is way more common than theft of original stories and fanfics on AO3, but both happen more often than they used to, that's just...sadly a part of life.)

Also, applying for copyright doesn't mean your work won't get stolen. You'll still have to send DMCA takedowns, and you'll still have to get in contact with websites. A lot of the time websites have a form you can fill out. You still have to do all that labour and pay to register copyright. The filing of copyright is sadly not a magical shield against theft of a creative work. It does make it easier to take someone to court, but that's expensive, often not worth it, and the labour someone can spend chasing down thieves is often better spent amongst the readers who actually give a shit (they're the ones who often notice the theft in the first place when it comes to serials).

If you plan on publishing ebooks, there's software and organisations you can pay a monthly fee to, who just exist to issue takedown notices to piracy sites so you don't have to. I've never used these personally, but from what I've read on Facebook writing groups, they're often not worth it compared to the past, because new sites spring up all the time. But different authors have different experiences with online theft (and different levels of income to combat it) so you'll hear different things on that front.

I'm...pretty zen about it. To me, it's only a worry when I have to send someone a notice about it, which I don't actually have to do all that often. Like, it sucks, but almost always it never happens as much as a new author like yourself fears it will. That doesn't mean you won't hate it when it happens, but you'll live, and your works will keep finding readers, and it won't be what you're likely imagining it will be. It's for most authors, just an occasional giant pain in the ass that we forget about a day or two later sdakfjdsa

#asks and answers #pia on writing #pia on publishing #it depends on what path you're taking #ebooks are more prone to it than serials or subscription-locked works #but as a result there's also more protections available for ebook authors #there's less protections for someone like me #except i can prove provenance #and i can be like 'hey i put this up 10 years ago and this person published it today so can you do something about it please'#and sites do because legally they have to #though some drag their feet sdlfkjas #but anyway yeah i'm very 'eh whatever it happens'#some authors will take it very seriously #but i am...more interested in my writing and my relationship to my actual readers #then the actions of people who aren't giving me a hard time #until they *actually* give me a hard time #and then i have things i can do y'know #maybe i'm too flippant but being too anxious about theft #seems like a one-way ticket to not putting yourself out there

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amewinterswriting · 2 months

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Something that troubles a lot of new writers is the concept of ‘idea theft’. They are reluctant to share their concepts or plans, even amongst peers, because they are concerned that people will steal their ideas. Because of this, they don’t seek feedback on their ideas and hinder their creative growth.

The thing is, ideas are cheap, they aren’t original and they cannot be copyrighted. As tough as that can be to hear, the sooner you internalise it as a creative person, the more opportunities for growth you will have. But let me explain a little bit.

Ideas are cheap. A very good practice for anyone writing is to carry around a small notebook (or utilise the notes function on your phone) and brainstorm ideas in your daily life. Catching the bus to work? Observe people. Take note of what buildings you pass. Notice road names. What is the story behind them? How did they get here? Where are they going? How about writing down as many names for WIPs as you can in five minutes? Bonus points if you can work in a pun or innuendo into them. Make notes of local slang and dialects in your area/language. The point is, you can fill a notebook with ideas relatively quickly. The hard part is deciding which ideas you want to dedicate more time to, fleshing them out, writing the many thousands of words, editing, editing, more editing. Not to say anything of actually getting the idea out there, whether via an agent and traditional publishing or going it alone. Why would someone steal an idea for monetary gain if they still have to do 99% of the work? They could be spending that time on their own ideas, and probably be happier to do it.

Ideas aren’t original. You’ve probably heard that there are seven basic plots (if not, I highly recommend searching it up) - while you might disagree with the number or type of plots there are, the vague premise is true - stories and story shapes, characters and archetypes, tropes and themes have all been around for thousands of years, and I promise you that you haven’t suddenly discovered a new one that has never been done before. The more you read and consume and analyse story-based media, the more apparent it will be: works reference the works that have gone before it, sometimes blatantly, sometimes with a wink and a smile, and most often, entirely subconsciously on the part of the author. All of this is part of our cultural makeup, whether you like it or not. We are a species of storytellers, drawing on the tales we remember to craft anew. The creative part of creative writing comes in when we choose how to combine these story elements to convey the story we want to tell. The specific addition of details, the reinterpretation of themes, the unique point of view of the writer - that’s where the originality is. Two people can be given the prompt: ‘a werewolf gets into trouble on the full moon’ and both people could write wildly different stories. The trouble could be danger from a monster hunter, or the actions they took while transformed and can only barely remember. Or they could be as clumsy as the average greyhound and get themselves tangled in a fence. Or their mother could be telling them off for marking their territory inside the house! Depending on your interpretation, it could be straight-up horror, comedy, or a metaphor for being drunk.

Ideas cannot be copyrighted. Given the above paragraph on all ideas being part of our cultural consciousness, this is a good thing. Star Wars could not exist without drawing on the ideas of samurai films, westerns and fairy tales. Modern fantasy as a genre draws from Tolkien, who referenced folklore and Shakespeare and filtered it through his own lived experiences and cultural identity. Modern Dystopian YA would look very different without the previous ideas of Orwell, Heller, Huxley and Bradbury. If anyone could have locked those ideas away, never for anyone else to use again, we would be culturally poorer off, and creating anything would be such a legal nightmare that no one would ever be able to do it.

All this to say that idea theft is rare, and even if it does happen, their interpretation of the idea will be different to yours. (That isn’t to say that full works don’t get stolen, and it is prudent to have some kind of way to prove that a manuscript is originally your work. That is a topic for another time.) But sharing your ideas, especially with other writers, is a great way to refine, polish, and clarify what your concept is. Feedback from others is one of the best ways we can grow as creative people and make our work the best it can be. It doesn’t need to be public, it might just be a private chat with a writer friend. But expose your idea to new points of view and see where it takes you. You might be surprised!

This essay is also available on my Ko-fi. You know, just in case something happens to Tumblr in the near future.

#on writing #writblr #creative writing #writers on tumblr #ideas #ame talks #writing #tough love

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whitebelt-witch · 4 months

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hej! I just finished reading Your Body is Not Your Body, a queer/trans horror anthology edited by Alex Woodroe and Matt Blairstone, and published by Tenebrous Press in 2022.

I LOVED this collection so much! As is the case with any anthology comprised of multiple creators, some contributions really hit while others really didn’t, and some were just simply not my speed. regardless of my feelings of the individual tales, however, my identity as a weird girl who loves the horrific implications of a Body In Transition left me feeling so happy that there exists enough work in this niche that is unique enough for me to have such a varied experience with this book.

Much of the writing was also quite resonant, shoutout to in particular to Ori Jay and Bitter Karella’s style. However if I had to highlight two stories for being the standout works in the collection I have to highlight Viktor Athelstan’s “Brother Maternitas” and Avi Burton’s “Fencing Chestplate.” The former concerns a devout medieval monk who undergoes a surprising change (and features an ending that had my jaw ON THE FLOOR), while the latter tale is about a young student who will take…hellish measures to make his dream sports team.

Overall though if you’re looking for weird horror fiction about bodies, I cannot recommend this collection enough!

#book review #your body is not your body #horror

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korewritingandstuff · 1 year

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To want

I feel it has been so long since the last time I wrote something, do I still remember how to do it? Am I still able to evoke feelings? (Was I even able once?), that could be solved with a beta reader, I know; but it deeply embarrasses me to think someone could waste their time reading my mess.

In other news, for recent events, I should have more time for getting bored or writing, there's two shots saved in my Drive since months! So I hope I can publish those soon! Luckily, I will be able for drawing too, it has been years since last time I tried it!

***

In the morning, when the world wakes up and the sky opens its eyes, letting the sunlights of its gaze to cross the curtains, he would like to have it all.

Looking through the window, the extense green lands receive him, the lands full of trees, birds, war and graves. He would like to have it all, to have the whole world in his hand, to take all the happiness, love, pain and duty existent in it and devour it.

If he could, he would open his chest so his heart could fly, taking all the things for which he has been starving.

He would let his soul go higher than the mountains, sky and sun, higher than heaven and all known gods. Go as high as hard until the body that's painfully efimere and mortal felt as a god's body, rich of eternity.

The pain in his body is a awful reminder of his own mortality, his life being something insignificant compared to the size of his ambitions.

How painful is to live when any possible life will be a unsatisfactory travel.

A whisper on his ear, it isn't necessary to turn around to see that his lover is awaken.

"What are you thinking about?"

"About everything"

He's being understood, he knows it, his lover is as starved for the world's as he's, while other people would accuse him of avaricious; his lover smiles, takes his hand and with a low voice, admits he wants it all too.

They would recommend him calming down his cravings of glory and war, there isn't a better life than the one that's lived without expectations. But most of them doesn't understand- cannot understand that his yearnings are deeper than a choice, his yearnings for a life full of glory and adventures are his birthmark.

The eternal yearning for the life he cannot control is the tool that has shaped his best qualities and the sword that made room for his weaknesses.

And his lover is the same, the only one to understand those twisted parts of his mind, because both of them lay under the same dreams.

"You're awaken"

A kiss on his lips, he thought love was about calm and silence, he didn't expect a kiss from his lover would touch all the right notes of his soul to make it sing.

Another kiss and he feels alive, able to take it all.

"You're awaken and affectionate"

"You bring me back to live"

"Mmh? Really?" He laughs, incredulous "how does that work?"

There isn't right nor fair words to explain a love like that.

"Visit me in my deathbed and see how your presence does me better than any doctor"

"Visit you?" His lover snorts with amusement, "visit you? When it was me who has done the work of a nurse every time you get too close to death?"

"And you brough me back to life, didn't you?"

In the morning, when the sky opens its eyes and the room is filled with the sunlights of its gaze, he would like to have it all.

There's a pair of eyes, which look at him with affection, that makes him feel he can.

#historical john laurens #historical alexander hamilton #historical lams #who is who? idk I'm experimenting #sometimes lams isnt about love sometimes its about ambition #lams

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arwainian · 5 months

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F@tT Fic Marathon: 1881-1900

if you cannot tell by the big GAP of time between the last update and this one, i am in finals seasons of grad school and every day of my existence is dedicated to writing.

i am doing my very best to crawl over the finish line of this marathon as well bc there is so much cool fic left for me to read. everything from this point onward was published after I started the project, so I've met my initial target and I'm just playing catch up now

two tall mountains by misspickman - have I not yet recommended what may be my favorite modern AU Fero/Samol yet? Well here it is, because I read it last year when it was published and it lived up to my memory on the second read. Fero is angry at his friends and pushing them away, and moves in across the street from Samol, and they become grouchy companions

fragments from a broken vessel by zerodignity - I really like the way this fic is structured. read for some House Pelagios sibling angst and Cassander character study

What Remains by sacredwhim - dreamy and strange post-canon Es/Dyre which was a delight to read

Services Offered by JunkBones - I remember being very exited to read this when i was published but I had already started this project and so had set it aside. Read for Figure spending downtime in the Phyrgian room and finding it relaxing for both of them. also read for the concept of Branched Poetry, In Translation

words read: 106,578 (5,553,062 total)

works remaining: 79

next twenty:

#fatt fic marathon #friends at the table #fatt

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liminalwings · 2 years

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DMBR - Draconia: Draconic Teachings of True Draconic Magick

Author: Marc-André Ricard

Book Link

“If you've read D.J. Conway, you know 98% of what's in here. Put plainly, this is a repackaged version of Conway's "Dancing With Dragons", now with High Magick/Ceremonial flavoring. Same draconic rulers, same dragon types and descriptions, and same draconic script. Considering the original publishing date for this is nine years after Dancing With Dragons was initially released, easy to see who inspired who. After a bit of back-handed 'complimenting' of Wicca, also claims it to be centuries old which... it isn't. Basic historical fact, Wicca is less than 100 years old, so way to continue perpetuating bad and easily debunked information. But just so you know, Draconia *isn't* Wicca. Barely. This entire book skirts dangerously close to plagiarism, I think. So many of the qualms I have with Conway's work also apply here, potential legalities aside. And as much as I dislike Conway, you'd be better off reading her source material than this. She's slightly less pretentious and explains slightly more. Conway also had a better editor. Ironically, Conway isn't even listed in the Recommended Reading in the back of the book. Suppose that would've made it too obvious where most of the material was drawn from, but credit where credit should be due. Overall, there was nothing new in here that one couldn't put together themselves from reading Conway and Bardon.“

I honestly even hate that I had to type out the phrase “you’d be better reading Conway.” Other than there possibly being no French/Quebecois translation of “Dancing With Dragons” when this book was written and released (doubtful), the only other viable reason for this even existing was because some chump thought “not enough Hebrew vibrations”.

Same chump also put out a second book solely focusing on the “11 Golden Rules All Dragons Follow and Expect of You”, half of which are common sense, while the other half are bits of unwarranted self-importance like “invoke often!” and “tell everyone you know about dragon magick to preserve its heritage!”. Nevermind that this ‘heritage’ is technically only less than a decade before these books. I cannot imagine how one could squeeze out 164 pages of information on 11 questionable rules, but it’s apparently possible.

IN ADDITION, he has his own print-on-demand publisher that puts out revisions/reprints of older occult texts he’s translated, which, okay. And this “Draconia” book is propped up as his ultimate work, which makes everything about... everything... seem a bit flimsy. Overall, there seems to be a habit of aggrandizing everything to seem more magickal/powerful/older/pretentious than it really is, and a serious hard-on for trying to mix Ceremonial Magick with Wicca to make it ‘better/more true’ .

0/10 for unoriginality and typical Ceremonial Edginess.

#dmbr #Dragon Magick Book Reviews #*facepalm*#dragon magick

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gidiburst · 5 days

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Milton Diamond, sexologist and advocate for intersex babies, dies at 90

Academic conferences are usually solid, but the 1973 International Symposium on Gender Identity in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, was an exception. All was peaceful until a psychologist named John Money stood up and yelled, "Mickey Diamond, I hate your guts!"Sexologist Milton Diamond, who had been with Mickey since he was a child, sat across the room. Dr. Money and Dr. Diamond were fierce rivals. Dr. Money, a nationally known researcher at Johns Hopkins University, has lengthy maintained that sexual and gender identities are neutral at birth and are shaped primarily by the infant's environment.Dr. Diamond, who was just beginning his career at the University of Hawaii, strongly disagreed and said so repeatedly, including in a widely read 1965 critique of Dr. Money's work. He took particular issue with Dr. Money's recommendation that intersex infants should undergo surgery to "correct" their genitals.Dr. Money runs up to Dr. Diamond and gets in his face, angrily claiming that he is accurate.Dr. Diamond simply replied, "The data doesn't exist."At one point, a witness reported that Dr. Money punched Dr. Diamond, but Dr. Diamond later said he did not remember it.The case was reported by journalist John Colapinto in Rolling Stone and his subsequent book As Nature Made: The Boy Raised as a Girl (2000), and was particularly heated by recent announcements by Dr. Money. . .He worked with a child whose penis was irreparably damaged during circumcision in 1965, and underwent further surgery to remove the male genitalia. The child was then raised as a girl, with all the physical and emotional characteristics of a traditional female adolescent -- fortunately, Dr. Money said.Although the child was not born intersex, Dr. Money argues that this case proves that gender and sexual identity are malleable, and that intersex children should indeed undergo surgery. did.Dr. Money and his colleague Anke A. Ehrhardt, a current researcher in the field, published their findings in their 1972 book, Men and Women, Boys and Girls. Writing in the fresh York Times, journalist James Lincoln Collier called the book "the most important book in the social sciences published since the Kinsey Report."However, Dr. Diamond remained unconvinced and said so, which infuriated Dr. Money in Dubrovnik. He said the case study was not conclusive, adding that the child, who was about 7 years antique at the time the book was published, had not yet reached puberty.It was in the early 1990s that Dr. Diamond tracked down the children and the psychiatrist who treated them, H. Keith Sigmundson.What he discovered contradicted all of Dr. Money's claims.The child, born Bruce Reimer and then raised as Brenda, rebelled against his forced upbringing, tore her dress and threatened suicide. At the age of 14, the child's parents agreed to stop hormone treatment and live as a boy, now living under the name David.Worse, Dr. Diamond said there was evidence that Dr. Money, who met with David and his twin brother every year, was abusive to the children, including forcing them to imitate sex acts and yelling at them when they refused. Dr. Money, who died in 2006, denied the accusations.The findings of Dr. Diamond and Dr. Sigmundsson, published in 1997, reshaped not only Dr. Money's case study but also how the medical community approaches intersex infants in general.Under the influence of Dr. Money, it has lengthy been standard practice for doctors to choose the sex of babies with ambiguous genitalia. Dr. Diamond argued the opposite. Identity cannot be forced, intersex people have the accurate to lie within the spectrum of human sexuality, and the decision to make changes to their bodies should be left to the individual.Dr. Diamond continued to communicate with David, and David eventually married and adopted his wife's children. He died by suicide in 2004.Beau Laurent, founder and former executive director of the Intersex Association of North America, said that while many doctors today follow Dr. Diamond's recommendations, other doctors and many parents still choose infant surgery. It is said that there is.Dr Diamond told the BBC in 1980: "Maybe we should really think about it." We come into this world with a degree of masculinity and femininity that transcends what society desires. ”Dr. Diamond died on March 20th at his home in Honolulu. He passed away at the age of 90. His wife, Constance Brinton-Diamond, confirmed his death.Milton Diamond was born in the Bronx on March 6, 1934, to Aaron and Jenny (Arbor) Diamond, Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine. They owned a grocery store in the borough, and the family moved frequently. He spent part of his childhood in a neighborhood in Ireland, where some children who had never met Milton before gave him the more familiar name Mickey. . He froze.In 1955, Milton became the first student to earn a degree in biophysics from the City University of fresh York. After serving three years in the U.S. Army, he attended the University of Kansas and earned a doctorate in anatomy and psychology in 1962, writing a dissertation on the effects of testosterone in the womb.In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children from his first marriage, Hinda, Eileen, Sarah and Leah Diamond. three stepchildren, Maia James Tidwell, Christina Brinton and Andrew Brinton; and 14 grandchildren.Dr. Diamond taught at the University of Louisville for several years, then moved to the University of Hawaii in 1967 to join the founding faculty of the fresh medical school. He was made an honorary member in 2009.After publishing a 1997 paper on Dr. Money's research, Dr. Diamond spent several years developing guidelines for the care of intersex people. He also opposed the idea that being intersex was a disability and advocated for it to be accepted as a normal part of human sexuality.Nature loves diversity, he was fond of saying. Source link Read the full article

#advocate #babies #Cancerawareness #Diamond #dies #Healthcaresystem #Healthyhabitsforlongevity #Hearthealth #Herbalremedies #intersex #Milton #sexologist

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summonerluna · 23 days

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Sorry not sorry. Gonna ask more!

🦑 a romantic quote from a published work

🦞 a sexy/spicy quote from a published work

🦭 recommend a partially published wip!

Sorry this took a few days!

🦭 recommend a partially published wip!

I don't have one that is partially published that I am actively working on! All the ones I have up are on an indefinite hiatus right now and all the ones I am working on I haven't started to post since I don't want to risk abandoning them if I lose motivation to write. So I'm going to recommend instead two that are stand-alones but are connected to WIPS I am writing!

For FFVIII: What Is Sung Under the Mountain. Quistis fic with heavy emphasis on blue magic and GFs, but the lore is what inspired my Irvine vampire fic and they exist in the same universe!

For LoZ: Less Than started as notes for myself for the longer post-BotW fic I'm working on and then turned into Link having a breakdown in the middle of a thunderstorm because catharsis is important.

🦑 a romantic quote from a published work

From Fifteen Minutes Old

"I want to marry you."

She turns and looks at him, her eyes wide, and it catches up to him what he has just said. He forces himself to hold her gaze. The blood rushing in his head is deafening and his stomach turns, but he won't look away. When she continues to say nothing it occurs to him she is waiting for an explanation, for how he got from finding out she knew about his confession to a marriage proposal. His thoughts are so loud to him and she feels so right, so natural, he forgets he still needs to tell her sometimes what he's thinking.

"It's okay that you heard me then Rinoa. I told you after all, didn't I?"

"Sleeping-me."

"Maybe. But still you. I-" I love you. I can't be away from you. Remembering how I almost lost you still keeps me up at night, and I would do anything to keep you safe. I need you. "I told you everything I did because you feel like a part of me that's always been missing. I never had a purpose before you. I just did what I was told. But since you... Nothing about us makes sense, I just know it's right. And so, I want to marry you."

His words feel awkward, and he finds it harder and harder not to look away, to pull back. But he forces it out as a question, "So, will... Do you want to marry me too?"

She smiles, a smile so huge and bright, and her eyes are glittering. She throws her arms around him as much as she can seated side-by-side, and kisses him, and tells him, "Yes."

🦞 a sexy/spicy quote from a published work

From Siren Song

This is not a dream. This is him, dizzy and moon-drunk, overwhelmed by just how strong her presence can be. In the thinning barriers caused by separation, by the shadow over the moon, they have managed to connect, and the reminder of the power they used to feel has brought her to him, and he doesn't care if she is real or not. He cannot see her, and he doesn't need to. He can smell her-the heady mix of flowers, earth, and deep magic-and he can hear her breathing. She is warm in his arms, and she is closer than she has been in months. He wants to tell her that he misses her, that he is going just as crazy as she is, that he never wanted to let her drift so far away. He wants to say something that will bring her back to him, but when he opens his mouth the words are not there.

I'm sorry.

She brings a hand to his face, and he leans into and kisses her fingers, tilts his head towards hers, and feels her lips press against his, and he is lost to her.

No apologies.

Her hands slide up the back of his shirt and her fingernails dig into his skin, and Squall gasps at how real the sensation is. His skin is burning, and the phantom-Rinoa pulls his shirt over his head, runs her hands over his sides and towards the button on his pants, and she starts to sink to the floor, trailing kisses over his neck, his chest, the scar that sits below his navel, and he reaches for the frame of the door just to keep his balance, and touches his other hand to her and lets out a low moan.

#ask meme #aleheartilly #ffviii fanfic #loz fanfic #writing

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antonia-gergely · 4 months

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advice from writers to become a writer

translated to visual art

On his podcast, Benjamin McEvoy discusses how to start writing literature (Hardcore Literature a Episode 68) and on top of deciding to begin a daily writing practice, it has taught me a lot about my visual art practice.

Many writers recommend writing every day

Alice Munro wrote at any time she could find between housekeeping and child rearing. She collected short stories and didn't publish a collection until the age of 37. She worked steadily and quietly. Her success did not come overnight by any means.

nor does that of a great artist.

consider the importance of the work you're doing

consider it to be work

set aside space and time when you are not distracted to engage in deep work.

cal newport's book Deep Work - importance of blocks of uninterrupted time. task switching leaves attention residue. if your flow state is ruined or compromised it is much harder to get back into it.

many writers resorted to being either very early risers or very late sleepers. the world is still sleeping, you do not need to focus on anything else.

shallow work is emails, media, phone calls - unfortunately as an artist this is slightly more influential than it is for a writer. it has to be done but it can be minimised and set aside until deep work is done. neal stephenson left a notice on his website apologising for his poor correspondence - he was too busy writing to focus on shallow work.

ernest hemingway wrote while it was still cool, would finish up when the sun rose.

haruki murakami rises at 4 a.m. writing for 5-6 hours straight. then goes about his day and sleeps early.

output-focused workflow

it's good to allot a certain amount of time each day for working, but some writers prefer(red) to adhere to a certain daily quota of work. this is where i drew the most parallels with visual art.

stephen king and anthony trollop are successful examples.

trollop would put a wristwatch on the table in front of him and aim to write 250 words per 15 minutes. he worked for two hours, writing 2000 words each day. some of it wasn't great, but if you do that often enough, there has to be something good within

the same can be said for visual art. artists mention daily practice and daily sketching, but never regimentally like this. i think i'll find it much easier to stick to a schedule that's just challenging enough.

one blind drawing, one black and white detailed sketch, one coloured sketch a day (or something similar) our minds do a curious thing when faced with a simple task. we think it's too easy or small to make a difference, but the consistency of work changes your brain over time, until it becomes automatic

this free sketching coupled with more laboured painting is a sure formula to make SOMETHING decent. to be a great writer you need to be a prolific writer, and the same can be said - i believe - for artists.

writer's block

it does exist. different areas of life, anxiety, stress, doubt can all affect creative output.

ernest hemingway told people to write 'one true sentence'. once you've written that, focusing only on truth and not on the language, the structure of the sentence or anything like that, write another true sentence, and another, and so on.

this gets the mind moving and the physical flow going.

similarly for artists, yes we can get stuck. some days we want to do nothing

but we CANNOT indulge a creative block, because we are then defining ourselves by what we are not doing. aristotle said 'you are what you repeatedly do'. if you paint once a month you are not a painter.

paint an egg. paint your hand. paint the sky outside. but focus on it. really paint it. paint what is truly there.

i've made the mistake of trying to force myself out of a block, but allowing the internal narrative of frustration and futility to control the work. this leads to a piece of work that you are not satisfied with, and which enforces your belief that your work is bad, or declining, or uncreative.

its not enough to write thoughtless words, nor is it enough to paint thoughtless images. creative endeavours such as writing and painting have a massive production overlaps in this way.

serial writers often wrote on the fly. they wouldn't know where the next instalment would go. they would look at what readers expected and subvert it. creating and creating and creating.

you can write fast and write well. same with painting or drawing. large quantity doesn't have to mean low quality.

it's crucial to keep creating, but it hasn't been enough to tell myself that - achievable daily goals make the difference.

#art research #art practice #writing #productivity

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devious-little-milkmaiden · 4 months

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All The Books I Read in 2023 (and My Personal Ratings)

The Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Fiction)

6/10

Based off of the character of Bertha (Rochester's wife) from Jane Eyre, this is a short read. The writing style isn't my personal favorite, as I feel it's a little bit underdeveloped. I appreciate Rhys' choice to portray Antoinette as a morally gray character (especially regarding her racism, which can't really be passed off as a "product of the time") while still maintaining that she doesn't deserve the treatment she's given. The language does have some good moments. I do recommend this to anyone who's read "Jane Eyre", as it could serve as an interesting re-assessment of Rochester's character, though you should note that I myself have never read Jane Eyre.

Brutal Imagination - Cornelius Eady (Poetry)

10/10

This is an incredible collection of poetry which tackles racism in a really fascinating way. Brutal Imagination is a collection of poems written from the persona of the anonymous black man Susan Smith claimed stole her car and killed her children. If you aren't familiar with the case, Susan Smith, a woman from Union, SC, let her car roll into a lake, killing her two sons. She then made up the story about the armed, anonymous black man. It's interesting to speculate about this detail specifically: why did Smith choose to claim it was a black man? Was it a conscious decision she made, knowing that the race of the supposed suspect would make it more believable? Was the race descriptor a subconscious decision based on her own prejudice?

In this collection, Eady portrays the "armed black man" as materializing into existence when Smith gives her report to police, rather than a concrete person. The collection is rife with nuance and vulnerability, and Eady is an incredible poet. I cannot recommend this collection enough. However, I don't like the final section, which is an excerpt from a completely unrelated collection of poetry by Eady, "Running Man". It feels shoehorned in, maybe per request from the publishing company or something. I recommend just skipping it or reading it separate from the rest of the collection.

The City in Which I Love You - Li-Young Lee (Poetry)

7/10

Another incredibly strong poet language- and structure-wise. Rife with symbolism and references you could analyze and over-analyze for ages. However, it does suffer from some of the stereotypical pitfalls of poetry: intimate scenes for intimacy's sake, and self-referential moments that aren't possible for the reader to understand. However, as a whole, it's pretty good.

The Afterlife and Other Stories - John Updike (Short Stories)

10/10

This is definitely biased, because John Updike is my favorite writer of all time. This short-story collection is quintessential Updike: the mundane being given its beautiful due. Read through completely, the story components can definitely get repetitive: mostly from the perspectives of middle-aged men, married to women with varying levels of satisfaction. While I can recommend Updike as a writer, I can't recommend him as a diverse writer. Therefore, I combine this recommendation with Oyinkan Braithwaite and Mohsin Hamid (I have read very, very little of Hamid's work but from what I have read he is a great writer. I intend to read more of his in the future).

The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (Fiction)

9/10

I have a bit of trouble with sitting down for long periods of time with a book, so this one definitely took a bit of time to finish (but I did it!!). It was a thoroughly pleasant read, mostly due to Tolkien's writing. Brevity is not his strong suit, so if you're more of a fan of action-centered books that keep lengthy passages to a minimum, than this may not be an enjoyable read for you. However, if you don't mind or even enjoy pages-long infodumping (that's the only way I can describe it), this book is right for you. I watched the movie series first and was surprised at how much was left out of them! It was a pleasant surprise, however, as there was so much more to delve into with Fellowship. I do intend on reading the rest of the series, including The Hobbit, at some point.

I usually don't enjoy high fantasy novels as I find that they can get cliche and repetitive without expanding or subverting the cliches they're filling. However, considering that LOTR was one of the first high fantasy series, it doesn't fall into this rut. It definitely possesses the archetypes of a classic hero's journey, yet often expands upon them.

My Immortal - XXXbloodyrists666XXX (Novel)

6/10

A playful "satire" (it's so mindless that I hesitate to label it as a satire) that has several laugh-out-loud moments. Though many readers may become annoyed with its flat-out disobeying of Harry Potter canon without any signaling of it being an AU, it's incredibly entertaining, especially since it's clear that the author has never picked up a single Harry Potter book. Gets more and more unintelligible as the chapters continue. Fantastic.

Maus, Vol. I and II - Art Spiegelman (Graphic Novel)

10/10

Not only should you read banned books, you should read this banned book. The art style is incredibly expressive considering that everybody is represented by animals. I'm not going to say it has "dark moments" because it is quite literally a book about the Holocaust. I learned several things I did not know before about concentration camps and the Holocaust as a whole: there's so much in here that textbooks didn't teach me. It's a very fascinating intersection between personal and universal history. Here's a quote from my thesis statement from an essay about Maus, because I am lazy, but also because I think it's an effective summary on my feelings about these graphic novels: "Heroic tales conventionally have morals at the end of them, something about how someone’s good character led to them being able to make it out of an experience others did not. But Maus does not congratulate Vladek [Art Spiegelman's father] for his savviness: it comes off less as a gift and more as a survival instinct. Vladek and Anja [Art's mother] lost their home, their family, and their sense of safety. The importance of Vladek’s story is not to congratulate him for his intelligence, but rather put into perspective the brutality of the Holocaust: even Vladek’s intelligence could not save him from the horrific experiences the Jews were subjected to. It was a lose-lose situation: live the torturous experience or die from it."

I cannot stress enough how incredibly important it is to read this book.

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice (Novel)

7/10

I am a HUGE fan of the movie, which I watched first, then decided to read the book. (Side note: I know people have their qualms about watching the movie before reading the book, but I think in some cases it helps to visualize scenes from the book. Also, most of the time, books have more in the story than movies, so it's sort of like bonus content--and you aren't getting all annoyed while watching the movie and going, "They left this out!! How could you leave that out?!" Of course, this doesn't apply to every book and its movie adaptation.)

The book version of IWTV was quite the enjoyable ride! Anne Rice... she gets it. I don't know what "it" is, but she just does. Her writing is strong, her characters tactile and brimming with energy, and her storytelling ability absolutely magnificent.

However:

There is something really weird going on with the relationship between Claudia and Louis, and I don't think Rice intended it to be pedo-y?

It is a bit bloated, which can make it hard to recognize thematic parallels.

Above Us the Milky Way - Fowzia Karimi (Novel, Autofiction)

6/10

Based on Karimi's personal experiences growing up in Afghanistan and being forced to seek refuge, AUTMW takes a highly abstract and speculative approach to this personal history with an abecedarian chapter structure. It has several strong moments, but overall it feels very disjointed. I do recommend reading this book, though I wouldn't say it's the most important book you could read regarding this subject.

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