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rel124c41 · 1 month

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2, 4, 5, 11, and 33 please! Hope that isn’t too much, very curious about your answers though!! Happy early birthday btw :D

ah thank you very much for the birthday wishes (≧∀≦) getting a drum set tomorrow and i’m so hyped bout it

& the amount of questions was perfecto!! i left my answers below the cut!!

(ask game)

2: How do you come up with your plot ideas?

8/10 times, my plot ideas come from my fabulous, otherworldly, superior music taste ᕦ(ò_óˇ)!!

nah but to be serious, music and creating AMVs in my head works brilliantly for creating plots. i listen to music A LOT. i do not always construct a story based on a song but my ideas flow easier when there is a melody in the air. snippet of scenes come and go, and i scribble them down; music powers the whole process of my writing.

additionally, i think coming up with plot ideas/to strength that part of your brain to be creative and original, one should always read MORE. to lazily siphon off a Stephen King quote i can’t find: “a great writer knows to read” and then there is the 1/10, where an idea hits me, completely uninspired from anything.

but really, when coming up with plots remember this saying: no one can reinvent the wheel!

4: How do you channel characters’ voices and personalities?

studying the source material is always my go-to for channeling a character.

have not played twst in 2 yrs 💀 (bc i was on an expedition for different video games and discovered i hated rhythm games) but i always use @/yuurei20 like a study guide for the characters. and i read the translations for each event (birthdays or otherwise) to see how the characters act at different situations

and if a character has done something out-character in canon, i analyze the shit out of that. it’s really important to me when writing already canon characters to think of this one question: what’s their drive/goal (in everyday & in specific situations & in long-term)?

5: What techniques do you use to create believable dialogue?

one of my biggest insecurities in specifically the “fanfiction” writing realm is my dialogue so this question is crazzzy to me. believable dialogue?? hasn’t happened!

i still don’t think i’ve done it successfully even once, so techniques? god i really don’t have any. here’s me talking out my ass tho:

certain characters have certain mannerisms in how they talk: those i can pick up upon bc some characters it’s black and white how they go about talking — floyd ain’t gonna sound all sophisticated u know. however, knowing how to structure what they are conveying, ah that is much harder for me.

sorry for this dead-end answer 💀

11: Are there any tropes you particularly enjoy writing?

rubbing my hands together and grinning like the fucking grinch at this,, let’s fucking goooooo!

1: unreliable narrator my pookie bear <3!!!! a mixture of being a fan of memento (2001) and a haunting of hill house (the BOOK, not the awful movie or show), unreliable narrators are my favorite trope!! whether this narrator is high off a substance, is as clueless as the audience about their situation, OR even so egotistical that their worldview is skewed, I EAT THAT SHIT UP EVERY TIME WITHOUT FAIL!

2: karmic retribution,, listen i love seeing someone get their just deserts (￣个￣) there is something so gutturally satisfying about karma

ALSO, i love the indomitable human spirit trope!!!

maybe one day i’ll chat about my more shojo/booktok tropes i enjoy like “just one bed” and “colleagues to lovers” bc hey i know what sells.

33: How do you incorporate world-building elements into your fics?

Disney is such a huge realm to play around it. from the original Grimm fairytales (my beloveds mwah (*≧∀≦*) !!!!) to the movies Disney has made, world-building elements for twst is like a gold mine. it’s perhaps the biggest playing field i’ve ever seen from a fandom.

how i go about incorporating it? well i always go look for faucets of the world everyone else is overlooking: when writing Schism, the ghost camera was untapped potential i had to jump on. i’m working on another oneshot that incorporates Disney’s 1963 The Sword in Stone; there is SO much real estate, you just got to dig around for it a bit.

ACTUALLY,, i have more to say

also about world-building in writing in general, let me siphon off Stephen King again: ok imagine a table covered by a table cloth.

really, imagine a table. secondly, imagine a table cloth.

ok, everyone who reads that imagines something completely different. someone might have imagined a circular table or a rectangular, the table cloth could have reached the ground or could have hovered a inch off the surface, the table cloth, there could’ve been lace on it or it could’ve been this striking red or dull blue.

when world-building, as the writer, you decide what elements you want to bring into the story; the rest? you give that creative liberty and trust to your audience.

#re l rambling #re l reveals she's a fucking stephen king fan

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justmybookthots · 10 months

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Crooked Kingdom

5/5 stars

I finished this in one whole day. This is a BIG book, and it took me hours and hours of non-stop reading from morning to night to get it done.

This book is a masterpiece. Usually, I can be kind of sceptical about books this size, because they might drag, but Crooked Kingdom’s length really helped wrap up a lot of loose threads for each of the Crows. And oh my gosh, but this book really blew Six of Crows out of water for me. See, I liked Six of Crows, but I wasn’t in love with it.

But this. This.

There was no major heist (save for the safe, I think), and I actually was fine with it! If anything, I liked it more! One of my biggest (and personal) issues with the original heist was that it was so setting-heavy that my brain was dying. But in this book, there really isn’t as much setting involved, and I LOVE mind-games and scheming so this was everythingggggggg.

Kaz is officially one of my book loves, my book boyfriends, as Booktok would say. Usually, he’s not my type because he’s too abrasive, too callous, and I like guys who are more emotionally intelligent—but here’s the thing, he isn’t emotionally unintelligent. Not entirely. He just chooses to be a dick half the time—and he can put up a hell of a show playing a different persona if he wanted to—but it doesn’t matter because he’s a fucking genius, and everyone knows that. Every single time they did something I didn’t understand, I was like, ‘never mind, I’ll wait,’ and LO AND BEHOLD, the shoe drops in a later chapter and everything earlier makes sense. There is always a shoe dropping. The plan is never straightforward. This is a devious Kaz’s world, and we are just living in it.

Also, I was just fucking wheezing with delight when Jan Van Eck's kid caught him breaking in and he handled the situation so... so......... I can't even articulate myself. It was so good. And how he handled Jan right after he left the house was fucking PERFECTION.

I LOVE clever characters, and Kaz is single-handedly the smartest literary character I’ve read (or rather, not the smartest, but the one whose brains are actually shown rather than told the most). I adore him. I breathe him. I want to lick his shoes. I want to listen to his mordant wit and soak in its barbs. Also, when he kissed Inej’s neck, I was SCREAMING. SCREAMING!!!!!!!

I know a lot of people weren’t happy with the ending, so I went into Crooked Kingdom slightly apprehensively, worried about how it’ll conclude.

I needn’t have worried. The ending was good!!! Excellent, even. I really am confused about what people were so hung up about. It was everything, from Wylan getting his house and money back from his father, Jan arrested, Jesper getting closure with his dad and himself, Wylan and Jesper being in love and living together, KAZ FINDING INEJ AND THEIR FINGERS TOUCHING AND HIM BRINGING HER FUCKING PARENTS BACK, Pekka gone for good?? What more do they want????????

This is the wonderful, quintessential Crows ending. Okay, fine, I noticed that I didn’t mention Nina and Matthias, but, uh….

I don’t really care about them.

Look. I’m sorry to their fans, if they exist. I am sure they do. But I couldn't care less. Also Matthias’s death was so random, like everything was going fine, and some guy from his country pops up and shoots him and I was like, huh? Okay?

Ah, well. You see, a major annoyance I had with Crooked Kingdom was that everything was so good… until it was time for Matthias or Nina’s chapters. Nina, maybe not so much (it was only irritating because it meant I’d have to read about her budding romance with him), but Matthias’ chapters made my eyes glaze over. He is definitely less annoying than in the prequel, but I still found myself scrambling for fucks to give and coming up empty.

Now, back to the Crows I cared for:

Wylan!!!!!!!!!MY WYLAN. MY BOY. MY HEART AND JOY. When Jesper was kissing Kuwei (thinking it was Wylan), I was like: why is Wylan grinning? This isn’t Kuwei, is it? And OH BOY WAS I RIGHT. I loved that this happened, that it pushed a jealous Wylan to try to get his face back because I missed his original face so much. I love his reddish curls, his wide blue eyes, everything!! And when he shared his first kiss with Jesper—he initiated it!! He did!!! He told a jumpy Jesper to stay still and then KISSED him—I jumped up and squealed like a little bitch. Ah!!!!!!!!! I don’t care what anyone says. Wylan has more balls than anyone expects and he is literally taking care of Jesper financially at the end because he is a baby boy boss.

I did like Jesper’s story a lot, and I found it cool that he was a good marksman because he was a Fabrikator. I can’t say I love Jesper as a character that much, but he was still much more entertaining than Matthias because he’s so fucking funny. In fact, this entire book made me laugh out loud at certain parts—which is rare, because I’m beginning to realise that a lot of the fantasies I’ve read aren’t so funny.

Like, look at this:

By the way, even this innocuous little piece of banter had a purpose later. That’s how ingenious this story is.

Gah, I can’t take it. I have not spoken about Inej yet, but make no mistake; I love her to bits—she’s such a self-respecting queen. Like, she is not here to fix anyone, to be fucking Bob the Builder like fucking Evangeline from OUABH. This is exactly what she thinks:

Inej, you are a fucking queen. You are everything. You have a giant heart, yet you know your worth, and you are a badass, yet you are not invulnerable, and you are just *chef’s kiss*.

Fuck, this is definitely going to be one of my favourite books of all time. I love the Crows so much (well, most of them). I’m nursing a hell of a hangover and I don’t know how I can go back to other fantasy books without missing the hell out of them—and comparing male leads to Kaz without them coming up short. (Of course, there are exceptions like my boy in Cruel Prince but that's because I am biased. By the way... Jude and Kaz, if they ruled a kingdom together? Sheer chaos.)

Is this a perfect book? No. I skimmed certain parts like some of Nina and Matthias’ chapters, and I’m still not sure how to feel about the sugar scheme being abandoned completely. Also, colour me a sadist, but I was slightly disappointed Inej came out totally unharmed from the kidnapping. I think the tongue-ripping in The Stolen Heir really set my expectations too high, lol. Another thing - Mathias suddenly being brainy with Jesper and Kuwei when he was a stupid oaf in the first book had me confused, too. Him being "military" isn't really strong enough of an explanation for me.

Regardless, the story hit so many spots for me, and I’m happy that I finally got to this so wildly acclaimed series and enjoyed what it had to offer.

Better late than never, as they say.

- 27 July 2023

#books #six of crows #crooked kingdom #kaz brekker #kaz x inej #leigh bardugo #grishaverse

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cheolhub · 8 months

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SAR HI! so i finally managed to finish mexican gothic and dang that was one hella weird book 😭 like ???

im gonna rate this 2.5/3 out of 5 because it just wasn't my cup of tea. it was really slow and like took ages to get the the point and actual plot. i felt they were repeating alot and it just got dragged alot which i hate, i dislike slow paced stuff ugh. and it doesn't pick up until the middle which is kinda annoying bc i was just reading and reading having no idea what's going on or what's supposed to be happening lol. i didnt like most of the characters either and i just skim read the half the book i could not take it anymore 😭 but like when everything was finally revealed like wth it was weird and idk what i expected honestly 😭😭 but yeah i didn't enjoy mexcian gothic so much.

JAJD IM SORRY I WENT ON A WHOLE REVIEW AND RANT ABT IT 😭 anyway i need a cute read after this now

how's the twisted series read going?

DONT APOLOGIZE, I ENCOURAGE UR RANTS. BUT that’s so disappointing 🙁 i hate that sm, im sorry u didn’t like it!! i hate the slow books :/ (unless it’s slowburn romance 🤭) thats kinda how i felt with this book i read called milk fed?? it was just droning on and on and i just wanted it to end,,, and i was so excited to read it bc the topics in the book seemed like important ones to explore but the main character was annoying, the plot build up was annoying, the entire thing was just… so bad.

IF U NEED A CUTE READ, read forget me not by julie soto 🥰(sunshine wedding planner x grumpy florist + enemies to lovers + second chance) i recommend this book to everybody bc it’s my fav romance ive read this year,,, or maybe try love and other words by christina lauren since fall time is coming up (childhood friends to lovers + second chance….fair warning, this one made me cry) BUT OBVIOUSLY U DONT HAVE TO READ THESE, im just throwing out suggestions 🫣

AND ok, i’m about to go on a rant so im so sorry for how long this is about to be.

so like,,, tell me why i finished both the first and second book… i think i already told u abt the first book?? about how i gave it 2.7 stars bc i fucking hated the plot and the third act and the ending … but skye…. THE SECOND ONE… OH MY FUCKING GOD. I KNOW IT’S CRINGE AND PREDICTABLE AND NOT REALLY THAT GOOD, but this book had me kicking my feet and giggling over EVERYTHING… the slow burn… was so good… OMFG i literally hate that i loved it sm like cant keep succumbing to booktok. but yeah, ngl i was blushing the entire time T-T it was sooo long tho. the slowburn was slow as fuck, like i dont think it started picking up till halfway through the book ?? but i think i just discovered that i REALLY like the forbidden romance trope 🫡

so i was telling my coworker and all my friends on goodreads that i needed to take a break from the series bc i felt like i was losing brain cells, but…

so here i am, 40% done with twisted hate. i am not the biggest e2l fan but ,,,, i kinda like this. i dont think it’ll be as good as the second one… but i will keep you updated 🫡 i’ll probably be done with the entire series by this weekend 😭 so sick…

OKAY SORRY FOR THIS CFFHDGHJ

#[ ⭐️: mutuals ! ]#[ ☁️: skye ! ]

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astrababyy · 1 year

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You know that video has points and all, but SJM herself isn’t sympathetic toward the characters she doesn’t like, and it shows through her writing, making it impossible for readers to “pass the test”. If it really was like that, Tamlin would not be as hated as he is because his character wouldn’t have been destroyed. Nesta wouldn’t be as hated. Again, the video has good points, but I feel like it’s also giving SJM prep that she doesn’t deserve since she doesn’t plan anything or think of anything without a Rhys lens on

i 100% agree, anon. i reblogged the video because of its emphasis on empathy in comparison to the other characters. i don’t personally believe sjm intended for it to be written in the way that booktokker (booktoker?) intended, but i do think the lessons and themes of empathy that the op was focusing on is a really good point overall.

people only want to see suffering when it fits in a neat little box. they never want the ugly sides of it, and they don’t know how to practice empathy towards that version of it that’s not glorified in media. it’s honestly really harmful towards real people. i think that, in itself, is a flaw that spans throughout the entire fandom, regardless of who they like and dislike.

i think i’m guilty of it too — that a lot of people identify with these characters and the lack of empathy acotar fans (and fans in other fandoms) display can be really hurtful. the main flaw in this series is that there’s no real, genuine consequences for having those flaws for a lot of characters. whereas other characters have their flaws blown so out of proportion that we’ve got people in this fandom who like them out of pure spite to the canon narrative.

sjm is capable of writing sympathy for other characters, i think. but she has a very skewed moral code in these books. i can’t say whether that reflects her as a person, but it’s a pretty loud indicator in her stories.

fans of these books definitely give her more credit than i believe she’s due. we see all these theories and ideas and headcanon, and so many people have this huge faith in sjm to make this series phenomenal. it’s kind of sad. i’ve come across stans who genuinely still like her stories but have become disenchanted with her skills as a writer, no longer trusting her to come through with good stories with these characters they’ve fallen in love with.

this post really went off the rails. sorry, anon. anyway, you’re right in that the tiktok i reblogged gave her way more credit than i think she’s due. but that’s not to say she doesn’t make good points on how little empathy this fandom seems capable of displaying, especially towards characters like nesta who isn’t perfect nor is her trauma pretty.

#anti sjm #sjm critical #nesta archeron #pro nesta #acotar fandom #anti acotar fandom #astrababyy #astrababyy asks

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