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broodparasitism · 7 months

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Everything I've Learned About Querying from Talking to Agents (And Traditionally Published Authors)

Disclaimer: I'm UK based, as was everyone I spoke to. I didn't include any country specific advice, just what I think is applicable regardless of where you live, put it might be useful to know this is from a UK lens.

As part of my course I was able to go to a lot of talks with literary agents (a mixture of literary, genre and nonfiction) and I picked up a lot of useful information - a lot of it not quite so bleak as I feared! - and thought it might be helpful to compile it for anyone looking to query agents in the future, so, here goes, under the readmore:

Querying

Remember that agents want to find and publish new authors. They're not at odds with/out to get aspiring authors. They want to work with us. This is someone you're working with, so don't pick an agent you won't get along with.

Manuscripts should be queried when they are as close to finished you are able to manage. There are a few agents that are open to incomplete manuscripts, yes, but many more that flat-out refuse unfinished work. Manuscripts generally go through about ~15 rounds of edits before landing an agent.

Send query letters in batches - around five or six at a time. There is no limit to how many agents you can contact, but you can't contact more than one agent from the same agency, so make sure you've selected the most suitable one from each.

In most cases you can't submit the same manuscript to the same agent twice - so having it be as finished as possible is all the more vital.

Some of them will take a long time to respond. Some never respond at all. If it's been three months of nothing, it's safe to assume that's a rejection.

One agent said she took on about two new authors a year, which likely isn't true for them all but is probably a reasonable average. For all of them, the amount of queries they get can be in the three digits a week. I can't emphasis enough just how many they get. I take a lot of authors to mean that means it's a 0.001% chance and despair, but that assumes each manuscript has an equal chance, and they don't. Correct spelling and grammar, writing in a genre that appeals to the agent, quality sample chapters and respecting the submission guidelines (more on this later) improve the odds by a significiant amount.

One agent said he rejected about half of his submissions from the first page due to spelling and grammar mistakes and cliches, for perspective.

You'll need to pitch your book. If your book cannot be pitched in three sentences, that's a sign it has too much going on and you'll need to do some pruning.

Please don't panic if you cannot come up with an accurate pitch for your book on the fly - you're not supposed to be able to do that. A pitch takes many edits and drafts just like a manuscript.

Send your first three chapters and a synopsis (this should be a page, or two pages double spaced. It should not include every single plot point though, again, if major things end up not there at all, question if they're necessary for the manuscript).

Three chapters is the standard - as in, if the agent web page doesn't specify how many, that's what to opt for. If they say anything else, for the love of God listen. If there was a single piece of advice that the agents emphasised above all else, it was to just follow each submission requirement to a T.

There needs to be a strong hook in these chapters. If your manuscript is a bit of a slow burn, that's fine, but you can cheat a bit with a 'prologue' that's actually a very hook-y scene from later on.

Read the agent's bio page throughly and make a note of what they like, who they represent, and what they're looking for, and highlight this in the query letter.

Your query letter has to say a little about you. It doesn't have to be really personal information (but say if you're under 40, because that's rare for authors and they like that), and keep it professional but not stiff, they say. If you have any writing credentials, such as awards won or creative writing degrees, include them, as with any real life experiences that pertains to the content of your book. But no one will be rejected on the basis of not having had an interesting enough life.

Apparently one of the biggest mistakes for debut authors tend to be too many filler scenes.

In terms of looking for comparative titles, think about where you want your book to 'sit'. Often literally - go into bookstores and visualise where on the displays you could see it. It's really helpful if you can identify a specific marketing niche. Though you want to choose comparisons that sell well, but going for really obvious choices looks lazy. A TV or film comparison is fine - as long as it genuinely can be compared.

Do not call yourself the next Donna Tartt. Or JK Rowling. They are sick of this.

Don't trust agents who request exclusive submission.

Or any with a fee. Agents take a percentage of your advance/royalties - you never pay them directly.

In terms of trends (crowd booing), there's been a boom in uplifting, optimistic fiction, but more recently dark fiction has been rising in popularity and looks to have its moment. Fantasy and Gothic are both huge right now. Publishers also love what's called upmarket/book club fiction - books that toe the line between genre and literary.

But publishers aren't clairvoyant and writing to trends is a futile effort, so don't let them shape what you want to write. Some writing advice I got that I loved was to not even THINK about marketability until draft three or four.

If any agent requests your full manuscript - this is crucial - email every other agent you're waiting to hear back from and let them know. This will take your manuscript from the slush pile to the top, and you are more likely to get more offers of representation.

The agent that flatters you the most isn't necessarily the best. Be sure to ask them what their plan for the book is, and what publishers they're planning to send it to - you want them to have a precise vision. It might be that their vision misses the mark on what kind of book you wanted to write, and if so, they aren't the right agent for you.

Research like hell! A good place to start is finding out who represents authors you love (the acknowledgements pages are really helpful here). if you can, getting access to The Writer's and Artist's Yearbook is very helpful, as is The Bookseller, the lattr for checking up on specific agents. (I was warned the website search engine is awful, so google "[name] the Bookseller" to see what they've sold. That said, only the huge deals get reported, so it's not indicative of everyone they take on.

I also want to add Juliet Mushen's article on what makes a good query. I owe a lot to it, and I feel like it's a useful template!

Once Agented

Agents send a manuscript to about 18-25 publishers, typically. Most books will end up having more than one publisher interested.

It can be hard to move genres after publishing a debut novel, especially for book two, not only because it means it takes longer for you to establish yourself, but the agent that may be perfect for dealing with manuscripts for book one might not have the skills for book two.

Ask the agency/publisher about their translation rights, their rights to the US market, and film and TV rights. Ask also what time of year the book is going to come out, if being published.

It's less the book agents are interested in than it is you as an author. You will be asked what you're going to write next, so have an answer. Just an answer - you don't need another manuscript ready to go. One author said she flat-out made up a book idea on the spot, and she got away with it - just have an answer. (This is also useful to put on the query letter.)

Caveat that this is, of course, not a foolproof guide to getting a book deal, nor is it in any way unconditional endorsement of how the industry works - I just thought it would be useful to know.

#writeblr #wtwcommunity #traditional publishing #literary agents #wrting advice #kinda #eta a readmore link

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nyctarian · 9 months

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Chris Brookes says: kiss your bros 2k4ever

Non-deleted version of the tweet:

#chris brookes #mao #wrestling #twitter #not tagging every wrestler in the linked tweets but its a bunch #orig post #eta: he redid the deleted tweet but qt'ing the source of the gif #but im not changing the photo bc the op called them the new golo lol #but i added the link to that tweet on the says #eta2: ok i added a screenshot of the new tweet under readmore #my desire to always accurately cite and source and share compelled me

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skits-things · 10 months

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Scarlet Savior

In light of the fact that ao3 is under a ddos attack and thus there is no expected eta for a fix, I've decided to put this fic in text form on tumblr, as well as the other prompt I wrote for @darkkitty1208. They also betaed this work. Also @ironstrangehaven in case you wanna reblog this, even though you already reblogged my ao3 link. Fic is under the readmore.

Summary:

It was supposed to be yet another invasion of the Earth. Stephen won’t ever understand what makes his world so attractive to invaders, but it should have been standard procedure. For once though, the inhabitants of the dimension seeking to conquer Earth didn’t merely attack rampantly.

The aftermath is abhorrent.

He despises the looks of pity that follow him around. The horror and morbid fascination of strangers. Even those exposed to the dangers of their way of life have a mere fraction of the marks on him. Trivial compared to his experiences.

The only other person with as much red on them is Deadpool, and no one expected different from the merc with a mouth. Even then, there’s the odd hole in his aura. A speck of his body that has somehow remained unscathed.

All anyone can see when they look at Stephen, is a blindingly bloody red.

Wong is the only one he can stand to be around nowadays. Two weeks after the nonsense and yet it seems like the staring won’t ever stop. Whether it’s the members of the Mystic Arts, the general populace, or the so-called champions from The Incident, Stephen feels their eyes like a drill to the Earth’s core.

His friend is generous enough to allow Stephen his sulking. None of them understood exactly what they were signing up for in The Incident. Every one of the participants were stripped and made vulnerable to their cores. Wong himself had more than his fair share of scarlet on his body.

It was merely unfortunate that Stephen turned out to be extraordinary in this way too.

The Sanctum alerts him to a visitor and he grimaces. The doors stay shut by sheer force of will, and his ill-timed guest only stays for a few minutes longer. Almost petulantly kicking the door on his way out.

The isolation of the library no longer feels like a safe haven from the world. Tony Stark has a way of making his presence felt, merely by reminding people of his existence. Stephen grabs his books and prepares to leave for his rooms, but stops short at the unimpressed look Wong levels at him.

“What?” Stephen snaps, irritated and perhaps a touch defensive.

Wong doesn’t say a word for a long minute. Stephen turns to leave, holding his books carefully in his arms. Usually his hands were able to give some support, but it was a bad day. Levi subtly curls underneath his arms to relieve some of the pressure.

“He’s not going to stop.” Wong says just as Stephen reaches the door. The words freeze him in place. “He’s been visiting every day since. Avoiding him is not going to solve anything.”

Stephen grits his teeth and whirls around, eyes alight with fury. “Then he should learn to mind his own business!”

Wong lowers his eyebrows a fraction, somehow appearing more disapproving than before. “He was there too, if you recall. The tournament-”

Stephen hisses, shoulders bunched up to his ears. “That was not a tournament. That farce could barely be considered combat.” And only because of how the other side defined the event.

A sigh rings through the room, long, deep and tired. It makes the part of Stephen that’s finally learned to care sit up and pay attention. A closer inspection of Wong has Stephen frown. He really hasn’t been aware of his surroundings lately. There was something almost disheveled about Wong’s appearance. Ties too loose, layers just slightly off. Lines of stress stretched his features tighter.

He purses his lips. He’s never been very good at showing concern. Stephen clicks his tongue. “How are you holding up?” Stephen throws back, almost carelessly.

“About as well as I can be.” Wong shakes his head. “If I’m ever able to get my hands on the person who botched that translation…”

Stephen snorts. The books shift in his arms and Levi pools more of itself underneath them. He adjusts to let the cloak take more of the weight. “You and everyone else there. Personally, I think some time in the Dark Dimension would do them some good.”

He stiffens immediately. His mouth ran faster than his thoughts, because once the words were out he couldn’t take them back. Wong pointedly tilts his head in Stephen’s direction. “That. That’s something you need to clarify with Stark. The man’s persistent. If you don’t take the initiative, he’s liable to do something drastic.”

Stephen glares at the floor, shoulders already inching back upwards. He doesn’t know when they even dropped. “I don’t see why he needs to know. I don’t see why anyone needs to know. It’s in the past.”

“Don’t be purposefully obtuse. You know why.”

Wong’s not wrong, but Stephen will deny it for as long as he can. It’s a mistake to flee from this conversation – Wong will get him back for this – but he could swear he was getting hives from it. It’s only in the safety of his own room that those hateful reminders hit home.

The worst part of this whole ordeal - more than the vulnerability, more than the lack of choice, more than even the kerfuffle of a choice of words causing this disaster - is that of everyone possible, the person closest to him at the time of The Incident was Tony.

His thoughts inevitably take a turn and, involuntarily, he remembers the day of The Incident.

The Impralians had superior numbers, firepower and technology. As much as Stephen hates to admit it, it was for the best that the Impralians also had the highest respect for champions of society. Or at least that’s how it was interpreted.

In the end, the governments of the world had agreed to send fighters to represent them for the right to remain unconquered. While the Earth might be able to find a way to survive regardless, millions of lives would have been lost from the confrontation. Everyone with even the slightest desire to increase the chances of victory showed up.

Only the best of the best were selected. As a warrior race with regenerative durability, there had to be enough heavy hitters to make an impact, but also a small enough number to remain manageable, as every fighter sent out would be matched with another enemy. The major media outlets practically went rabid and had their own tournament for the chance to broadcast the event to the world.

One hundred people were chosen to represent the Earth. Of those, ten were from Kamar Taj. The minimal number necessary to pull off some of the techniques that required multiple masters working together to accomplish.

Tony was among the number chosen. His intelligence and resourcefulness was determined to be an asset in the case of their enemy using unknown technology. Peter, thankfully, was not. Spiderman might be strong, smart and scrappy, but he also didn’t have many directly damaging methods of attack. When Spiderman was removed from the list of possible combatants, Stephen could see the disappointment on Peter’s face as clear as the relief on Tony’s face just behind him.

Though at least some of the ability to read the man came from time spent in proximity. After Thanos was defeated, Stark badgered Stephen until he threw his hands up and resigned himself to the man’s company. Somewhere along the line, Stark became Tony. It grew more difficult by the day not to slip up and reveal something from the fourteen million futures, but Stephen’s self control is impeccable. While the genius no doubt suspected something, Stephen was sure he had no clue just how intimately Stephen knew him.

And intimate is certainly the correct word to use. Stephen doesn’t blush easily, yet some of those futures slip past his iron grip and manage to throw him into a flustered mess.

They might have been treading the line towards something more between them in this future as well. After Tony and Pepper publicly broke off their engagement, Tony poured on the charm even more than he normally did just by being himself. Stephen was just starting to believe that their engagement was really over. That by some twist of fate, they might actually have a chance in this timeline.

Stephen fell in love with Tony Stark over and over and over again. In fourteen million different ways, but all leading towards the same end. Heartbreak.

There’s something about Tony that makes you want to put your trust in him. To take a chance. Stephen had bet the winning future on Tony’s ability to pull off a miracle with the right information and they succeeded. It made him want to take a chance on them too.

Fat chance of that happening now.

The biggest problem Stephen Strange ever has, is that he’s never quite sure what to do about his own emotions. Other people’s emotions, which he’s also terrible at handling, are easier to deal with than his own. At least their emotions are an outside factor he has to adjust for. His own responses to his emotions are limited to ignoring them or becoming an angry defensive mess. Christine could attest to that.

So when Stephen returns from a standard trip outside of their realm to handle a task only capable by the Sorcerer Supreme, it is, perhaps, not entirely unexpected that his reaction to Tony in his room is to spit out vitriol.

“Get out.” The words are packed with as much venom as Stephen can fit. He doesn’t look at the man, just moves swiftly past him towards his attached bathroom. The barest amount of care he can spare towards Tony is keeping his words short. Stephen’s well aware Tony doesn’t deserve being treated like this. That doesn’t stop him from doing so.

He never learns his lesson.

“Stephen.” The soft cradling whisper of his name pulls him up short. Back stiff, Stephen closes his eyes and internally curses the way he can feel them tear up. He knows if he opens them, the shine would be damning evidence.

“Stephen.” Tony repeats, and Stephen can hear him stepping closer until he can feel the warmth of his presence at his back. “Stephen, look at me. Please.”

He doesn’t want to. Stephen still vividly remembers the look on Tony’s face. A curse of his perfect memory. The horror and despair was on a level he hasn’t witnessed in any of the possible futures. He never wants to put that look on Tony’s face again.

In the end, he doesn’t move or say a word. But he also doesn’t move further away. Tony takes that as an invitation to wrap his arms round Stephen and press his face into the back of his neck.

“Alright, you don’t have to look at me if you don’t want to.” The pained lilt to Tony’s voice is nearly enough to make Stephen turn around. If he wasn’t so sure of the expression he would find on Tony’s face. If he saw the pity, Stephen would shatter like fine china.

“But let me apologize. I’m so, so incredibly sorry, Stephen. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”

The bitter laugh is involuntary. “Like what then? You didn’t do anything that anyone else hadn’t.”

“And if I could I would have each and every one of them apologize too.” Tony swears with fierce protectiveness.

“Don’t.” Stephen shudders with something akin to pained resignation. “Everyone there was subjected to the same treatment. Your own horrors were put on display.”

Tony tightens his hold around him. “But no one else died countless times! No one else had an endless montage of suffering lasting over three weeks!”

“And what, that makes me entitled to special treatment?” Stephen hopes he manages to convey the sheer distaste he has at the thought. “Trauma isn’t comparable.”

“Yours was so bad it won us the victory by a landslide.” Tony counters and Stephen immediately tries to pull away. Tony’s grip manages to keep him in place. “Fuck. No. I shouldn’t have- Look, we’re clearly both terrible at this; just give me a moment.”

Stephen’s tempted to not, but then again, if at least some small part of him didn’t want to stay right here in Tony’s arms, he would have vanished long ago. The master of the Sanctum doesn’t have to be anywhere within it that he doesn’t want to be.

After a few minutes Tony says, “I pulled apart the platform the second I was given the green light. I might have bribed more than a few people to get permission for it too, but we don’t need to talk about that. I can’t pull the videos off the ‘net – infringing on too many human rights apparently – but there isn’t a monument to your pain on display anymore.”

The words fill Stephen with more relief than he thought himself capable of feeling. In exchange for a numbers disadvantage, the Impralians negotiated building a stage on Earth where the competition would be held. After seeing the layout, it was determined that there would be no environmental advantage in combat for them.

It turned out, it wasn’t an environmental advantage they had to worry about. The Impralians used it as a double edged sword. Their technology managed to harness emotional energy – most specifically pain – and use it as a weapon against their opponents. For whatever reason, they couldn’t make it one directional and use it unilaterally against them, but the Impralians relied on their superior regeneration to endure anything their enemies would throw back at them.

They’ve almost made it into an art form. Culturally, the display of their most vulnerable moments was seen as an honor. Something to be respected for. By syncing psychic energy waves in conjunction with the emotional energy, the respective combatants' most marked fighters would have those moments projected for all to view. All persons on the stage would have this signified with red auras located just above the location where the injury occurred. The more frequently the area was injured, the deeper the color and size of the aura.

Stephen’s aura was a dark crimson and stretched meters. It was no wonder he was selected as tribute by their system.

It wasn’t even a fight, really. For once in their history, the Impralian’s defeat was instant. They were prepared for much, but multiple successive ways of dying isn’t something anyone is ever prepared to experience.

Apparently, the Impralians were so impressed by what he managed to survive that they insisted on his presence during the final negotiations. The overwhelming victory won them more than a few concessions of reparations from the Impralians and so Stephen was wrangled into being put on display like a circus act.

It was for the sake of the world, so Stephen grit his teeth and bore it, but he vanished the second he could. He refused to be sucked into something else “no one but him” could assist with. If he wasn’t faced with solemn respect by the Impralians the entire time, he’s sure he would have snapped. What a world when his enemies were more tactful than his own species.

Stephen sags back into Tony’s hold a bit. “Pain is an old friend.” The words are barely above a whisper, but in the quiet between them it might as well have been shouted. “And it wasn’t countless.”

“What?” The confusion was audible.

Stephen sighs. A moment of silence. “17 million, five hundred forty-four thousand, three hundred twenty-six.”

It takes a heartbeat of time, but Tony’s sharp inhale tells Stephen he got the point. “You remember all of that?”

“Every last one.”

This time, when Tony tries to turn him around, Stephen lets him. He’s tired of fighting. At this point Stephen just wants to get this over with. “Stephen, look at me please.”

The desperation in Tony’s voice has Stephen open his eyes and look into Tony’s. The horror isn’t quite gone, but the pity he was so sure to exist was nowhere to be found. Instead, a deep and enduring sort of concern and care (and dare he say love) was all that was reflected back. It crumples his defenses more thoroughly and rapidly than any empathetic response ever could.

He breaks down, right there in Tony’s arms. The stress and suppressed emotions boil over, silent tears streaming down his face as he finally lets himself feel everything he’s ignored since this living nightmare began. Shoving his face into Tony’s neck to hide, he lets Tony hold him together until he can find it within himself to face reality again.

When he returns to awareness, they’ve migrated to his bed. Tony rubs his back gently and has Stephen tucked under his chin. Levi is wrapped around both of them and when Stephen looks up, he spies the dried tears running down Tony’s face too. There’s some comfort in knowing he wasn’t the only one to become overly emotional, even if he’d prefer this hadn’t happened at all.

“I had hoped to at least take you on a date before ending up in bed together.” Tony weakly jokes.

Despite the terrible timing, Stephen finds himself cracking a grin. He really is gone on this man, Stephen thinks helplessly. Mildly put out with himself, he says, “I’m usually not this easy.”

Tony snorts. “Stephen, babe, you’re anything but easy. It’s a good thing I like a challenge. So?”

“So?”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Will you go on a date with me? Or at least stop avoiding me?”

If the literal horrors of Stephen’s life aren’t enough to drive Tony away from him, he doubts anything will. It’s the easiest thing in the world to say yes. Even if the path to getting here was the hardest.

#ironstrange #ironstrangeweek2023 #ironstrange fanfic #stephen strange #tony stark #tony stark/stephen strange #my writing #fanfic #mcu #marvel cinematic universe fanfic #marvel cinematic universe #mcu fanfic #angst #angst with a happy ending #hurt/comfort #hurt stephen strange #protective tony stark #ao3 #my wriitng

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thenightetc · 7 years

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What with all the Verizon stuff, I decided to back up my tumblr.

I found this. Link goes to the tutorial for the utility, but there are links in it to everything you need. Windows-specific. Following the instructions exactly, without using any extra options, it was very simple to do, and with my 2240 posts/~2 GB the utility took around 10-15 minutes to run (once you start it, it runs without your input).

It worked pretty well, overall.

Some notes.

It only grabs public posts. And only the post contents themselves, not notes (it shows note count; it just doesn’t go into the notes and save who liked, who reblogged, comments, etc.). You do not need to tell it your password, only url.

It doesn’t preserve photoset formatting, or your theme. It looks like you get up to fifty posts per page (next/previous navigation at the bottom if you had more than fifty posts in a given month). But while the resulting page is huge, it’s much easier on your browser than it would be on actual tumblr.

By default(?), it does not preserve videos that were uploaded directly to tumblr (as opposed to embedded from youtube). It just does a preview image in place of the video. Embedded videos work fine, though (as long as the video’s source doesn’t disappear).

By default(?), for audio posts, it doesn’t save the audio; it just hotlinks to it.

It looks like there are options you can use to back up video and audio, but I didn’t try them.

It looks like it does save images at full size, not display size.

Links (such as links to the original post, or links to tags) are preserved properly and . Tags are preserved.

It gives you a link to the actual post on your blog, for each post--it’s a circle/dot after the time and date.

While it was running it threw up some http errors, like so:

However, I checked a few of them, and they were in the proper places in the backup, so I guess it retries them.

ETA: It does incremental backups, too! Just do “tumblr_backup.py -i yourtumblrname” instead of “tumblr_backup.py yourtumblrname”. However, it doesn’t notice if you’ve edited a post that it previously backed up.

ETA 2: It does look under readmores. (Your own readmores, not other people’s in reblogged posts.)

#tumblr #backups #software #long post

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shamelesslymkp · 7 years

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@arrows-for-pens replied to your post “someone just sent my reactions blog an ask requesting i include...”

sometimes people have competing needs, it's okay! if they sent it off anon can you respond and explain some of that? an about page sounds good

@likearumchocolatesouffle replied to your post “someone just sent my reactions blog an ask requesting i include...”

I think this is a matter of different disability needs interacting in unfortunate ways and does not mean you're lazy or selfish. I think it would be ok to explain that wordlessness is necessary for you sometimes, including when interacting with that blog, and maybe put an explanation to that effect on the about page/bio. Maybe you could say that if someone wants to volunteer to write captions that would be great, but I think it's okay if you're not able to write captions

thanks, guys - like, I kinda knew this?? but it just FELT... well, feelings aren’t facts, as they say in therapy. I’m going to draft out a response/explanation underneath a readmore, both for answering this specific ask and just in general to add to the blog description. ETA: ok, it’s a draft of much of an ‘about me’ page - not sure how to condense it and like, lower the conversational tone for responding to the ask.

Regarding This Page:

This about me is a concession to the limitations of purely visual and echolaliac communication and kept separate from the nigh-wordless refuge of the rest of the blog.

Asks may prompt me to revise this about page as spoons and time allow.

Regarding Asks:

I read all the asks I’m sent and appreciate all of them! In general, however, I will not respond verbally, only with gifs. Asks requiring a verbal response will only be answered privately, for reasons similar to the ones outlined below.

Regarding Captioning:

I know that many people fully or partially rely on image descriptions to process visual media such as reaction gifs. I want this blog to be accessible, but I cannot commit to providing image descriptions, although if anyone is willing and able to add such captions, either regularly or on an ad hoc basis, I would be happy to add to my blog description links to unique tags of such captioned reblogs.

Reaction gifs are near and dear to me. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized more and more that although I in some ways might even be considered hyperlexic, I also at times lose verbality.

I realize this may be difficult to fathom or believe, considering the verbal complexity of what I’m writing here, but it happens. It happens a lot.

It is most noticeable in situations that require an immediate or near-immediate response (e.g., talking in person or on the phone, chatting/texting back and forth), or when the topic at hand has emotional intensity of some kind. In person, my facial expressions and body language pick up a lot of the slack here, and especially those I talk with often are generally able to interpret what I’m saying, filling in gaps and smoothing the disjointed fragments into a sensible whole.

In text, however....

When I discovered reaction gifs, it was a revelation? a blessing? a rightness in the bones? (see, and here again I’ve lost the ability to properly convey the FEELING I’m having; I just don’t have the words)

I use them as shorthand. I use them to echo. I use them as scripts.

I use them when I can’t words.

Reaction gifs, to me, are sort of safe? reliable? neurons visibly firing and cognitive connections happening in real time?

I use them because they’re easy, comfortable. Because it feels natural and right and like the most fluid and honest form of conversation possible.

I post them here because I want to share them, these answers and emotions I find so freeing. I enjoy posting them. I enjoy searching for them! I enjoy coming up with witty tags that roll off my tongue, becoming echos of their own.

This blog is for the community, but it’s also for me: it’s a soft space. a safe space. a space where I don’t have to piece together words or try to explain the inexplicable, describe the indescribable.

This blog is for when I can’t words. for when there aren’t words.

Words don’t belong here.

#arrows-for-pens #mkp replies!#likearumchocolatesouffle #mkp isn't neurotypical #posted: august 2017

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