#idk man this was originally supposed to be 3 paragraphs

[asexualasshat]

Y’all remember the tiktok trend where grown ups realized that they’d forgotten how to skip. Headcannon that one, a few years after Derry part 2, Richie is being a silly sappy little fellow. Starts skipping while he and Eddie are a park or whatever. He grabs Eddie’s hand to bring him along for the ride. And Eddie??? Understands the hypothetical concept of skipping. And yet his feet? Doing a sort of botched gallop.

And Richie LOSES IT! Starts roasting him. And Eddie is freaking tf out. He’s yelling but also still trying to figure skipping out. You can’t really tell if he’s yelling more at Richie or at himself. And he’s still galloping away. Richie is on the ground, holding his face in his hands to muffle his laughter.

Eventually, Richie gets up and he starts coaching Eddie. Twenty minutes later, they’re hand in hand, skipping down the path.

Richie didn’t have a choice but to tell the losers everything. And the groupchat?? LOSES IT! At first? Just roasts tf out of Eddie at first. Ben comes to his defence pretty quickly. And then asks “when was the last time you guys skipped? Are you sure you remember?”

And the accusations fly right back at Ben. Asking him if he can skip. And Ben??? In his office wearing his fancy designer work clothes???? Takes a video of himself skipping. And he sure can skip! When he’s done showing off he comes close to the camera and says “we just had a daughter. I’ve prepared.”

And again, they’re going wild. Within minutes, videos start pouring in. Bev is first, obviously immediately ready to support her husband. She’s a dazzling skipper. She’d win first prize in a skipping competition. The technique is impeccable.

Stan is next. He gets Patty into it as well, to know one’s surprise. Neither is perfect. Patty’s footwork isn’t perfect but she has pizazz. Stan is pure technique, to the point that it’s awkwardly stiff. But the pair are smiling and skipping so it doesn’t even matter. Their own daughter just toddles around in the background. Kind of embarrassing for her, but she doesn’t know what embarrassment is yet.

Mike is out in a field, phone probably propped up on his water bottle or a log. He’s mostly just frolicking around, but there’s a few solid skips in there. It’s gloriously cinematic.

Audra is on camera next, and bill can be heard saying “show me! I want to see.” She hangs in the air longer than any mortal should be able to. Her flowy dress flounces out. She giggles in response to bill saying “wow!” and “you’re really good!”

But then hepassed the phone to Audra. Of course they don’t think to stop filming in between, so you hear all the shuffling. Audra says “okay, show me!” And Bill?? The bitch can’t get his feet off the ground. There’s no elevation at all. Audra is losing her mind. She’s scream laughing. Bill looks devastated.

A moment after his own roasting begins, bill texts back “so does this mean I’m a bad dad?” And immediately it turns to dad comfort. Ben’s “kids don’t usually start to try skipping until they’re four. You have two years to practice!” And Stan’s “your son is going to see you learn and grow as a man. You’re setting a great example.” Its really quite wholesome.

Obviously someone filmed it in the park. The world sees the graceful pursuit of Eddie learning to skip. Twitter obviously loves it because it so so silly and sweet. Richie tweets something stupid like (and funnier than) “bet your husband can’t skip, either.”

And Bev, because she has notifications on for Richie, immediately replies with Ben’s video and saying “my husband could beat your husband”

More videos start pouring in. Stan keeps their video as a groupchat exclusive, but tweets from his rarely active account “Richie I literally taught you how to skip when you were 6.” Richie responds calling him a bitch.

Bill posts their video saying “watch me realize I can’t skip.”

And later. Hours later. Many. Hours. Later. Audra posts a video to her insta story. She has taught Bill how to skip. Is it graceful? No. Does it have technique? No. Could you call it good? No. But goddamn he skipped.

Eddie holds it over him for weeks that he’s the better beginner skipper

#idk man this was originally supposed to be 3 paragraphs #I giggled so hard I blacked out and did this #it movie #reddie #richie tozier #fanfiction #it 2017 #it chapter 2 #it chapter two #it chapter two fanfiction #reddie fanfiction #eddie kaspbrak #mike hanlon #beverly marsh #Bev marsh #ben hanscom #stanley uris

[growling]

could you perchance elaborate on npd squirrelstar because i think i see the vision

ohhhhh absolutely anon, and as I don't get many asks about warriors: hi :3

Honestly it kinda started out as a pure vibes thing, like I just thought "hmmmm which cats to hit with The NPD Beam.. squirrelstar hhholy shiit i think i just had a vision. i didn't see anything in the vision but I had a visionnn" and it stuck. Mostly headcanon stuff, maybe some slight au territory (but wc canon is already flimsy as it is anyway, so really, it didn't change much from the originals) but the longer I though about it the more it just kinda fits in lol, especially with her torment gauntlet storyline but not entirely because of it, either -

(I do not know how coherent this'll be, or if I even say everything I wanted to, as I am. so sleepy rn) Honestly the first thing I thought after initially coming up with it is. her relationships with Brambleclaw and Ashfur gsfdsghsd. It's very common to just believe that the abuser must be The Narcissist (or that just, all people with npd are automatically predestined to be abusers no matter what) while it's actually way more often that people with npd are more likely to stay in those relationships, or get abused because *shocker* mentally ill people actually way more likely to be treated as subhuman by society and the like. And I've already saw one or two people just proclaim that Brambleclaw is a narcissist because um, *checks notes* he's controlling of his wife and extra sensitive of (oftentimes valid) criticisms of his leadership or something idk man which. uhhhhh. no can we not please + shut up forever + now I'm gonna do the opposite nobody can stop me (also happened with rainflower. and clear sky. and sol. but mostly rainflower. lord help me)

(on a sillier note though....... nothing much to say about Ashfur as of now but after his Squilf/Ashf breakup if he was a human he'd become a self-proclaimed tiktok Dark Empath)

And lastly the headcanon stuff, which I completely made up while stirring the muffin batter but they might or might not have canon basis too, I don't know, I'm not gonna look for it and I don't really care either;

Does the right thing not because it's "what you're supposed to do or whatever idk I have no idea how any of you define it anymore", but because it makes her feel good. And even if by the end of the day she doesn't get any praise or reward for it, even if she gets shunned for it, what matters to her is that she did the Good Thing and therefore she is Good and that's what matters, and everybody else is so stupid for not seeing it. Really, why does it always have to be her that actually bothers with helping people nowadays. She's got a so much better grade at Good Person than like 99% of her Clan, StarClan bless

Leafpool was always consistently her equal person, she deserves the world and maybe even more than she does because she's just that great, it's her an Leafy against the world <3 we're eating soft tacos later <3 hold on Squirrelflight's Hope just called and- oh god, oh fuck

neither low nor high empathy but a secret third thing: really fucking weird ever changing empathy that also varies on whoever it is for some unexplainable reason. Based off what I have and how do I even explain this in simple, not-10-paragraph-post length....... just trust me on this. What I'll say rn is that she tends to personally care about nearly exclusively towards people relevant to her, or those she considers "interesting" regardless if she actually likes them.

always sets her goals either incredibly high (because naturally she's gonna achieve this exactly as she imagined and wait what do you mean-), or very low (so that she can do the woohoo!!! whenever she succeeds)

she splashes water everywhere when drinking she spills it so much she puts all her paws in that damn stream then puts them all over the kids and now they're all wet they all shake it off directly at Brambleclaw

> gets criticized once > fucking dies

I'll add onto this if I have time maybe, and don't completely forget about this whole post

#mine #ask #seweryn's wc tag #wcSquirrelstar #once again sorry if this looks incomprehensible I am so bad at actually articulating myself I think. Usually. also I didn't proofread this< #too tired <3 woohoo!!!!!!!

[radioromantic-moved]

okay here's the big old pride post with my hcs for all of my active f/os and a couple of others i've got on the brain. under a cut because this is extremely long and it's essentially just me pointing at characters and going "lesbian" and then writing an entire paragraph about why.

dash: trans lesbian <3 you all know this one by now. one of the first characters i just couldn't read as anything Other than a lesbian to the point where i sometimes forget that it's not canon. (i mean there is the thing with‏‏‎ ‎applejack‏‏‎ ‎but i don't love to read that as canon for. like. jealousy based reasons. i get possessive sometimes it's sucky.) anyway. yeah. wuhluhwuh icon this rainbow horse

della: trans/nb lesbian :) in a reversal of what i'm pretty sure was the deal with most people, it doesn't take della long to figure out what's up with her gender but it takes her a lot longer to realize she likes girls and exclusively girls. after one particularly bad fling she asks me if there's a reason why she just doesn't feel anything for any of the guys she's been with, like is there something wrong with her, and i just go. you know you can...not date guys. and somehow that's when it clicks for her (the bad fling is the bio father of the kids. he's a dick and he sucks and everything i imagine about him is just a fuck you to the people who never shut up about hdl's biological dad. donald's doing great thank you very much)

mera: her aesthetic is the most nonbinary lesbian thing i've ever seen in my life HELLO. she makes one comment insinuating she's physically attracted to indus in ep 1 but that could just be admiration of his buff bod. mera's comphet attraction is overly buff muscleguys who are nice to her and my comphet attraction is tiny gremlin things who are the worst.

glados:‏‏‎ ‎say it with me now!! this robot is a lesbian!

pal: we know the drill babey (she's no gender because gendering ai makes you lame)

helen: pre-spiral helen is a cis lesbian. in the spiral she's a l̵̩̹̫̘͉̫̥͂̓̏̅̃͑̃̏̒̏͌̑̽̉̇͜o̷͓͍͓̤͓͚̠̙͠u̶̢͕̠̓̈́͌̓̉͐̋̂̅̃͘͝d̸̡̬̦͎̠͎̪̀̊̓͑̉͠ͅ ̸̨̧͚͋̊̃̂̓̀̕͠ş̷̨͓̲̪̭͙̮̙͉̤͗̈̉̃̿̎̽̅͋͜͝ͅͅt̵̳͉̞͇̺̖̬̪̏̌̽͆̋̑a̴̡̠̭̘̲̬͖͖̤̒͑̏̂̈́̀̏̽̚t̶͖͈͙̼̼̝̮̤̖̂̇͋͐i̴̳̘̙̙̳͔̓̽́̍͌͑̒̿͘̕͝c̸̛̻̫̲̹͔̝͚̹̱͉̦͍̩͍͆̌͋́́̊̏̂̆͜͠͠ ̸̧͇̮͚̲̳̙̹̲̦̱̣̤̬̾ṇ̴̡̫͐̀́̈̒ò̴̳̫̜͑͘i̶̡̛̹̹̖̥͍̦͎͈̬̲̊͒́̈́̊̾̅̚ͅs̷̛͙̞͙̥̗͇̄̇̄͛̏̚͜͠ë̶̢̬̱̬̰͈͖̬̩̱̀͂̒͜͝ lesbian. post-spiral helen can mess around with her gender a little bit because it's all fake anyway. and she still likes women <3

bernie: both bi and lesbian bernie hcs my beloved but here's my in-depth thoughts

trexel:‏‏‎ ‎i keep meaning to steal the url "bitrexual" to go with my podcast blog's url which is‏‏‎ ‎gayvid7‏‏‎. ‎anyway yeah canon mspec doofus my beloved.

egoist:‏‏‎ ‎canon trans babey!!! his sexuality is whatever he feels like at the moment. he'll usually get a big crush on one specific person and agonize about it until either he or they do something about it. or he loses interest. i'm also trying to decide which flags go best with his color scheme because more of these than you'd think have something to do with what color they look best in.

thetis: lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian lesbian. idk what thetis' thoughts about marriage in the original greek were but considering madeline‏‏‎ ‎miller‏‏‎ ‎makes a point of emphasizing her disinterest in it as a character in‏‏‎ ‎soa‏‏‎ ‎and her disinterest in men as a whole, even when someone as high-level as zeus shows interest in her, i mean. come on, man. in a modern au achilles and‏‏‎ ‎thetis‏‏‎ ‎go to pride together and he's in a shirt that says "i love my lesbian mom" and she's in a shirt that says "i love my gay son." homophobic thetis truthers have literally not read‏‏‎ ‎tsoa‏‏‎ ‎correctly and that's not me being petty. that's genuinely not the interpretation you are supposed to take away from the text. i won't start my rant but if you WOULD like to hear me discuss thetis as an antagonist and exactly why she does what she does hit me up anytime, i have literally analyzed this for a grade. this is an area in which am quite knowledgeable.

rudyard: semi-canonically ace and sex-repulsed. absolute king shit of an asexual autistic goth, i love him dearly. he's probably trans. i've read one or two absolute banger‏‏‎ ‎wooden‏‏‎ ‎overcoats‏‏‎ ‎fics where one or both twins are trans and they always come up with the best stuff. you love to see it. his attraction is -terrified hiss-. he doesn't know what a crush is for his first 30 years of life and when he experiences one for the first time he thinks he's dying.

beidou: pingponging between pan and lesbian hcs for her. might settle on her sexuality simply being "be gay, do crime." her gender is pirate.

#can you tell i overthink these? #the distorted bit in helen's blurb says 'loud static noise.' #it doesn't add anything to the post but in case you couldn't read it and wanted to know. #nyx making a post about their female f/os but every time they say lesbian it gets faster. #nyx on comms #hey watch this #dash tag #della tag #mera tag #glados‏‏‎ ‎tag #pal tag #helen tag #bernie tag #trex tag #egoist tag #thetis tag #rudy tag #beidou‏‏‎ ‎tag

[mandaloriandy]

Fic Writer Interview

I suppose I should... actually get around to doing this.

I was tagged by @maderilien, @stormwarnings, and @willowcrowned! (that’s what I get for putting off doing this, I get ganged up on.) (I’m just joking, I am very touched that you all thought of me)

How many works do you have on AO3?

49

What's your total AO3 word count?

339,898

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

oh fuck there's so many. uhhhh 32 apparently. big yikes. I'm just gonna copy-paste the list over, that'll be easiest. A lot of these are overlaps but alas such is life

1. Star Wars - All Media Types (24) 2. Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (18) 3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types (7) 4. TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms (4) 5. Homestuck (4) 6. Doctor Who & Related Fandoms (3) 7. Avatar: Legend of Korra (3) 8. Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (3) 9. Marvel Cinematic Universe (2) 10. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV) (2) 11. The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types (2) 12. Doctor Who (2) 13. Ender Series - Orson Scott Card (1) 14. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) (1) 15. Iron Man (Movies) (1) 16. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (1) 17. Original Work (1) 18. Sherlock (TV) (1) 19. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) (1) 20. Big Hero 6 (2014) (1) 21. Emelan - Tamora Pierce (1) 22. The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien (1) 23. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga (1) 24. The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien (1) 25. Captain America (Movies) (1) 26. Paranatural (Webcomic) (1) 27. Torchwood (1) 28. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica (1) 29. Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types (1) 30. Star Wars: Rebels (1) 31. Doctor Who (2005) (1) 32. The Hobbit - All Media Types (1)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

To nobody's surprise, my top 5 fics by kudos are (in order) the first 5 parts to the Jedi Shmi AU.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Oof. I used to. But I ended up spiralling pretty badly uhhhh a couple years ago and had to stop. I feel like I should reply to comments, especially those wonderful long ones, but even though I do this whole writing thing, I always have a really hard time, like, knowing what to say to them? Like "akjsdfk;jf thank you" always feels inadequate, but writing a well thought-out reply takes a stupidly large amount of brainpower, and I'll leave them marked as unread if I want to reply to them and then they just accumulate in my inbox and I end up spiralling again, since it just continues to exist as a mental load of something I have to do and the avoidance just gets bigger and bigger the longer I put it off and–

look, I just get into my own head too much about it. I respond to questions, usually. I love all the comments but I can't let myself overthink it, and the easiest way to do that is to not let myself reply.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I guess Obi-Wan’s Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Life doesn’t count because it... doesn’t have an ending yet? and I don’t know how angsty that ending is going to be. Even Composing Hallelujah doesn’t count because it ends happier than in canon, even though it’s... y’know, not exactly happy-ending.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

Hahaha I don't do crossovers often, but I have done them, and the craziest one I've actually written is probably my Sailor Moon/Puella Magi Madoka Magica fic. It’s especially crazy because I’ve only seen a few episodes of sailor moon lol

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

lmao YEP

There's this one, like Ender's Game/Doctor Who fic I wrote and posted on FFN back in middle school. And it got a ton of hate, as far as I can tell mostly from the same person, talking about like, how bad and non-canonical and whatever it was. And when I migrated over to AO3, I reposted it there too. This was in like 2012. The migration, at least, the fic was written in... idk, 2010?

And then. In 20-fucking-19.

I got a comment saying "Terrible. Makes zero sense. It’s like the author threw canon out the window and took a shit on it." like lmao what??????

(for reference: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361723?show_comments=true#comments and https://www.fanfiction.net/r/7621672/)

(like what the actual fuck was this person on)

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Not any that I've been brave enough to post. And… also… nothing that I've actually written more than a few paragraphs on… I keep chickening out. I did recently make a deal with a friend, though, so… we'll see. If I do, it’s probably going to be quite dark, because that’s the kind of smut I like to read.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I sincerely hope not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! See how the blackbird walks into russian and just recently In all your wanderings into french!!!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've tried. It's never gone… especially well? I don't think any of them ever actually ended up complete, they all just petered out after a while.

What's your all time favorite ship?

I don't really have an "all-time favorite" anything, let alone a ship. I'm a horrible multishipper and I'm going to cause problems on purpose

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Sigh. Probably my intricate, 30-something-k unpublished Silmarillion Helcaraxë fic. It has so many moving pieces. I know where most of them end up but it's going to take so much effort to get there

What are your writing strengths?

writing

What are your writing weaknesses?

writing

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Hm. Given that I mostly write fic for SF/F, I don't run into the "real life languages" problem a lot. I end up working with conlangs of various complexity, for the most part, and for those… I'll sprinkle in a word or two if it makes sense, especially swear words and stuff. But for most of those conlangs, grammar is… less well-determined than vocabulary, so I almost never do phrases, let alone full sentences. I'll just put it in italics (if the POV character understands it) or say "and they said something unintelligible in [x language]" or the like.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think………. let me check the dates on this. I think the actual first fanfiction I wrote was sometime in fifth or sixth grade, for this "Zenda" book series I read?? Either that or Harry Potter.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

A big shout-out goes to The Lichtenberg Figure, which I can’t believe is the only Tamora Pierce fanwork I’ve published, but for my favorite... it's gotta be Messenger. Like, looking back, there is a bunch about it that I am very not happy with, and a lot of things I think didn't come across the way I wanted, and things I would not write the same way now, years down the line, as I have very differently balanced understandings of… well, a lot of these same characters. But, fuck, I just can't let go of Mandalorian!Beru.

No pressure tags!! @apaladinagain @determamfidd @faeymouse @lumateranlibrarian (apologies if you’ve already done this one and I haven’t seen it!)

#tag game #tag thing #andy original

[itachi-uchiha-deserved-better]

Fun Meta asks: 3. 4. 5. 11. 17. 20. 23. 25. -Sorry for asking so many. Curiosities of one writer to another. Feel free to omit any of these.

3) What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

I have this scene in my head between Itachi and my OC. She’s chasing him down against orders after his massacre of the Uchiha clan because she refuses to believe that things are what they look like. And when she manages to catch him, she’s able to use her mind prison jutsu to stop him from leaving and tells him about how no matter what anyone says, She refuses to believe that he is the monster the village wants to paint him as. As she’s trying to convince him to come back to the village with her, her body is weakening more and more from the chakra poisoning caused by using her jutsu. Eventually he gives her something, a sort of vague acknowledgment that she might not be wrong. He tells her that he may need her help if Sasuke wavers from the path Itachi has set for him but he can’t risk her remembering anything, so he uses Tsukyomi on her, leaving her near death in the forest for her Anbu teammates to find.

4) Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

We know the details of the war. We are unfailingly familiar with the facts. Michael led the nine choirs against Lucifer and his followers. We know that Lucifer’s assault on heaven was swift and viscous, striking for every advantage, exploiting the weakness to be found in soldiers hesitant to lash out against those who once were called brother. We know that in the heat of the battle, Michael called the seven remaining arch angels together. Among the cacophony of blades and bloodshed the seven marched and behind them a solemn silence followed. Together they marched and they struck at the dragon. “Beloved,” they cried, “Why, beloved Lucifer? Why have you done this? You were the first in God’s eyes.” We know that the seven cried as they pierced the dragon’s hide and brought to bear on him the full force of the power of heaven.             We know that our father lost the war, but we know in the way a student knows the facts of history. They may sit and memorize the hows and the whys of history, but they are at their core, disconnected from it. So it is for us. We know what happened during our father’s rebellion. We understand the nature of our father’s sin, the sin which we share by our shared blood. We lack the intimacy of memory. We know, but these events are no more than words on the pages of our minds. 

I wrote this as an intro to a WIP called Children of the Damned, a story that was supposed to be about a group of angels who hadn’t fallen from grace but were cast out of heaven because they were the children of lucifer. They were supposed to be a neutral force, something between demons and angels who’s job was to protect all of humanity- the good and the bad. The project never really went anywhere but I still have the intro draft sitting in my WIP folder. 

5) What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

I have a character called Zero (she was originally from a DnD campaign that ended up falling apart.) and her whole shtick is that she is a researcher for the Arcanum- basically an orphan who managed to get into the big magic school of the setting and is now a glorified grad student researching for her thesis and has to bounty hunt to fund her research. She is socially awkward, painfully shy, very disenchanted with the world but fascinated with her chosen field of study and constantly stressed out by budgets and deadlines. And since I’m an eternally stressed out grad student I relate to her pretty hard. 

11) What do you envy in other writers?

The ability to see and work towards an overarching plot. I can do drabbles pretty well because my brain works in scenes, but I have a really hard time stringing those individual scenes together into something coherent with an ultimate end goal. 

17) Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?

Absolutely I think that people perceive my writing differently than I do. I mean, all of my writing is ultimately informed by my own life experiences and ultimately no one else has experienced my life, so I’m sure that readers are viewing my work through the lenses of their own experience. As for me? Probably? Idk I am pretty vague with my online presence so I really have no idea what people perceive about me. As for surprising people about my motivation....Honestly I really don’t know. My motivation to write is usually because I have a scene in my head that wont leave me be until I put it on paper and sometimes that leads to a larger idea and sometimes I just leave it at that. 

20) Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

So Idk that it’s something most people pick up on, but I am a percussionist at heart and so Cadence in writing is a big thing for me. One of the things they teach you when you learn, say, snare drum for instance, is to use words to identify certain rhythmic patterns. Well my brain took that and sort of applied it to all language. There are things, feelings that you can evoke just by substituting a short word for a longer word. For example- Pain, Hiss, Break: these are all short, sharp words. And using them in a sentence will provoke a different sort of sensation or feeling than words like agony, mournful, shattered, breath which are longer more lyrical words. Idk if it makes any sense to other people, but that kind of cadence drives the imagery in a lot of my writing. I have an essay about it (or did at one point). 

23) What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

The Ichor Blade. Three characters- Matthias, an older man, a healer who’s formed a deal with some kind of dark entity and uses the power of the dark magic he has gained to heal people at the expense of his own life. Zero- an arcane acolyte from the arcana consortum, she is a very adept mage, but clinical in her approach to magic and tasked with hunting down rogue magic users as part of the agreement that funds her research. And Illomenn (I-LL-OMENN), a creature of supernatural origin known as a Hex which are essentially manifestations off all things that trouble the world. Illomenn is a minor hex, the manifestation of bad luck. They are brought together by chance after Matthias and Zero encounter several Major Hex’s- plague, malice, and war. Zero is affected by plague and cannot use most of her magic without it destroying her body. Matthias is trying to help her undo the curse and in the process they find Illomenn and recruit his help in using a relic called the Ichor Blade to destroy the curse and to seal away the hexes from the world. 

25) What part of writing is the most fun?

Honestly? Watching people read what I wrote and listening to their thoughts afterwards. Its kind of like cooking for me. The actual process of making something is fun, but the most satisfying part is knowing that other people enjoyed it. 

[vanimeldes]

can you elaborate a bit what made you divorce from asoiaf/got as you say?

Ooof, so, after the G0T finale, I think my reasons should be obvious, but you also mentioned the books and yes, I lost my interest in books too and I will try to not make this answer too long, but in the same time, to convey all my thoughts on this matter.

*Putting it below cut because.... when I`ll explain the problem of Martin`s fans later, you`ll understand why*

It`s amazing that just a year ago, AS0IAF was my second favourite franchise ever, second only to Tolkien legendarium, but even then, I didn`t love it for the fantasy elements in it, but rather for its characters and some twists and how Martin does forshadowing and writes the dualistic nature of the human being, but...as I read other fantasy series that do these four things AND have fantasy elements, I paused a bit and thought that these series would be just as popular, if they had popular adaptations such as G0T. But I got that AS0IAF was the first that had the opportunity to be adapted and I accepted that. Yet the show highlighted (and in some cases, amplified) some of the very big issues of these books and yes, D&D have many things to be blamed of, but it`s not as if they didn`t have a basis for their fuckery in the books. Martin is just as guilty. So here we go.

1. I am not sure if Martin has ever seen a 13 year old girl, but he writes grown-ass men having fixations and being sexually attracted by Daenerys and Sansa, two prepubescent girl. Martin would call it the gritty realism of the medieval times, but last time I checked, he was writing fantasy, not historical fiction. Fantasy means you can do what you want in your world, so even if you are inspired by the medieval times, it`s still YOUR fictional world and no one will question your research or accuracy if you want to have a female character married when she is at least, say, 18, not FUCKING 13. Not to mention that even in our real world, child brides existed but, guess what, in most the cases, both spouses waited until the wife reached a certain age (16 or older) to consummate their marriage. @eyes-painted-with-kohl explained in the notes of one of my posts and even gave an example or two. I can think of Isabella of France and Edward II. They were married when she was 13 (according to some historical evidence)/16 (according to others). Yes, I know he was homosexual, but he still needed heirs, so they still had children...4 years later, when she was 17/20.  

2. In this same vein, the treatment of his female characters (with the exception of Arya and, maybe Catelyn) is egregious. Daenerys and Sansa are sexualized by the male characters (don`t get me started of the bullshit that is S/ansan, because The Hound is still a murderous man who is aroused by a 12 year-old girl, who invaded her personal space and even pointed a knife to her; do not get me started on book!Jorah, who is a creep). Cersei is paraded naked on the streets and needless to say that during the walk of atonement for an adulterous woman in medieval times, she was never stripped naked; she only had her hair shaved and walked BAREFOOT. That`s it. What Martin did to Cersei is just disgusting. We are shown how Arianne uses sex to have Ser Arys help with her plans and it is implied that Margaery uses sex also. I get that sex is Cersei`s mechanism, but you have two more feminine (this is important) women in power and both of them explicitly use, or are implied to use sex as a mean to gain that power. I get Brienne`s point, her treatment bothers me the least, but it`s annoying from time to time how most of the other characters see only her ”ugliness” and nothing else. Of course, this is the result of the heavy patriarchy in Westeros world that I will discuss in the next paragraph.

3. The heavy patriarchy in Westeros world is nowhere similar to the patriarchy in the medieval times, and that was Martin`s choice and his only. A clear example is what was dubbed the Dead Ladies Club, namely a group of dead female characters whose only purpose was to serve as object of desire for one or more men, to give birth AND to die (gruesomely in some cases). Joanna Lannister is meant only to further fuel the enmity between Tywin and Aerys and Tywin`s hatred towards Tyrion. Elia exists solely to die gruesomely and motivate Doran`s desire for vengeance. Lyanna (the most explored dead lady still exists mainly to give birth to Jon and to be one of the reasons behind a war started by men. Rhaella exists solely to be raped by Aerys and give birth and die. Ashara Dayne exists solely to commit suicide. Ned, a POV character, spends chapters thinking about his father and siblings and never to his mother. Martin had the audacity to say that Tolkien himself didn`t left notes about Aragorn`s mother, but Tolkien had an entire story when Aragorn`s mother and her impact of his life is explored (more than his father, for that matter). The heavy patriarchy serves as reason for the utterly disgusting right of the first night (read Fire & Blood for more). I am not so versed into history as @mydaylightruyi who discussed this, but I too know that in our real world, this practice was a MYTH. But GRRM made it very present in his world because of reasons I guess. 

4. The racism is just rampant and disgusting and even I didn`t notice all the racism until I read @polysorscha `s insights. There`s a to be discussed here, mainly about the portrayal of the Dothraki and how they are reduced to barbaric rapists - interestingly, they are supposedly inspired by Huns, but guess what: the Huns formed a very permisive society, where any religion and culture had its places, where women were very respected and, while cruel  in the European people`s POV, were never....like THIS. 

5. The rape cultures. The Ironborn. Similarly to the Dothraki, their culture is reduced to pillaging and rape. That scene when Euron conquers that castle in the Reach ( I forgot its name) and how he had the daughters of that lord stripped naked and serve his men the meal, and how his men started raping them was....honestly, I wish I could have skipped this chapter. I still read fantasy books written by men more than I read fantasy books written by women, but never in my life did it occur to me to read something like this in a novel that is so hailed for fantasy (?) and realism (???????). I`m not saying that things like that didn`t happen in our cruel history but, again, Martin writes a fictional story. He could choose not to include the rampant violence against women, cultures whose practices are reduced to this utterly gross things, racist and orientalist elements, but he chooses not to. Why? I don`t know. I am not sure I want to know. And Victarion`s POV...oh boy. Or Theon, in ACOK, when he literally rapes that Kyra girl after takes Winterfell. Not only that it`s very disturbing, especially coming from a character that is supposed to be redeemed in some way (yes, I know how he`s been through in ADWD and I also know this is meant to be his redemption arc, but I personally still can`t get over this). And in the same time, while we`re still at the redemption discussion, Theon will surely undergo a redemption of some sorts, Cersei (a female character) will most likely be killed by her lover/brother, who will strangle her to death, most likely while he will embrace her, without a second chance of a droplet of redemption. 

6. I love Tyrion and I love Tywin but in the same time, I acknowledge their misogyny, but Martin chose to write them as misogynists, but in the same time, writing them in such ways that they are inherently labelled as „badass”. He also says that Tyrion is his favourite, but his POV is utterly misogynistic. The reason he kills Shae is because she dared to sleep with his father, but let`s unpack the things a bit: she was a former sex worker with no power, who was forced by the most powerful man in Westeros. She had no choice. She couldn`t refuse him. Yet, for Tyrion, she is ”the lying whore” and that`s it. We are given no chance to try to see the things from her POV (I am not implying that she should have been a POV character, but Martin should have written Tyrion considering for a moment what other choices Shae had). 

7. I discovered that Martin straightly ripped-off many plot points and themes from another series who isn`t half as popular, sadly. 

8. Last, but not the least, the snake pit that is THE FANDOM. You know, as much as I tried to stay away from its toxicity because „it`s just an internet thing, it can`t affect me”, it did affect my online experience in ways that I hadn`t imagined. To sum up, if you don`t like a character or hate another, you are  a pariah. You are dumb because you don`t understand that character or you are a misogynist (because, sadly, this discourse is mostly about the female characters). If you dare to voice up your thoughts about a certain event and/or a certain character and tag your post as #asoiaf or #asoiaf meta (you know, because this is it to me: a meta; plus, I want to have an ordering system in my blog so that whenever I want to look for a certain post in a certain topic or fandom, I would only look into the tag) or #my meta (highlighted „MY” because this is also important, as in it`s MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION), and those thoughts happen to not fit into the general consensus of the „great AS0IAF bloggers” (namely those meta writers with many followers who sound like they already read TWOW and ADOS), you are trashed and called an idiot. Granted, I met enough great people, meta writers included, in this fandom, and it was a real pleasure to chat with them, but I also had bad experiences with others and idk, I thought we were all mature people, but the way they reacted can hardly be described as mature. And in the same point, it`s just funny to see the hardcore Martin stans reacting in front of the clear evidence that Martin isn`t half as original as they thought (see 7) and acting like they are personally attacked.

Ok, it took me an hour. There is a lot more to discussed, but I got bored and I honestly want to shut the door to this fandom forever. To answer another question, yes, I will be reading the last two books  if when they will come out. I invested many months in this series not to finish it. I`ll probably block all the ASOIAF-related tags to avoid any interaction with its fandom during those times.

#ask #anonymous #asoiaf criticism #grrm criticism #anti grrm #yes i tagged this as such #any hater will be blocked

[ahs-theories]

Episode reaction: 9x03 Slashdance

@echoesout | @its-a-goode-day

Last episode’s reaction post (link), we ended it like this:

Last thought for now: Rita is suspicious. Because I don’t trust anyone whose attack we haven’t seen.

Agreed. We still don’t know how and why she ended up at the camp.

I don’t think either of us expected her to be that suspcious. Not that I’m complaining, because the fact that part of this is a psychological experiment being orchestrated by Rita, well, Donna, only gets everything a bit closer to our conspiracy/big brother/man-behind-the-curtain theory.

I love it! The question now, in line with our Big Brother theory, is whether Donna is just one twisted psychologist, or if she’s working for someone who wants this information? A larger conspiracy would be very cool.

From the way she talks about pornography being responsible for creating serial killers, maybe we’re in for another rogue religious figure like the Monsignor? It also makes me question her relationship with Margaret, who is openly and strictly religious. I wonder what Donna thinks of her and how much Margaret knows about “Rita”’s views.

It was interesting that they made clear that she’s just the puppet master, not a killer herself. She kept the original Rita alive, and she could have easily killed Brooke. But she didn’t. She seems to just be pulling the strings in the way it’s convenient for her experiment with Mr. Jingles.

Yeah, we can probably attribute her not killing Brooke to Brooke being part of the experiment, so both preventing her from leaving camp and not killing her herself are ways to prevent outside interference with Jingles’ work. But keeping Rita alive was an unnecessary risk.

Speaking of Jingles. He doesn’t remember killing the campers in 1970, but one glance at Margaret picture in the paper and he only wants to slash her. There’s two options here: they worked together and she gave him away or she’s the only actual killer and blamed him of it.

I have a theory that he was innocent back then and only became a killer now because he’s spent years being told it’s true and actually gone a little crazy.

In any case, I wonder what Donna would think of Jingles now. He deliberately killed the real Rita, with a weapon of choice. And he didn’t have to. So I’m not sure the experiment is turning out quite like she expected. Or maybe it is and Jingles is not the one being studied, but the others are. There’s a lot to discover of human nature in that kind of circumstance.

Ooh yes. Seeing how people react under intense circumstances. It’s kind of like what we saw in Roanoke—some people fought, some tried to flee, some just gave up—except this time it’s planned. But if all the counselors are being studied, I’d wager that Donna’s not working on her own, because there’s no way she’d be able to monitor all of them or get a full account of everyone’s actions.

I’ll be interested to see Donna in the next episode, because now she’s gotta react to Ramirez being an unpredicted variable and screwing things up. Personally, I’d love to see her get pissed and go after him.

Theory - The final girl

It seems the season is hitting a lot of the essential tropes in slasher films, so it’s safe to assume they’re going to be using the figure of the final girl (go here for more info if you’re not familiar). Brooke is the obvious final girl. However, because I think we still need to have a good twist on her character, I don’t think she will be. I’m sure she’s not quite the innocent she seems to be. In the characters’ backstories, their true selves have been revealed: Chet did take the steroids, Ray killed the fraternity pledge, Montana... well, more on her in the next paragraph, but it’s safe to assume she’s not a very good girl. But both Brooke and Xavier have been revealed as victims, their “dark secrets” didn’t make them villains. The difference between the two of them is that, while Xavier’s story has been proven true, according to the Blake dude, for Brooke’s we only know what she chose to tell Montana. Xavier has also proven to be a good person, at least for now, with his actions in the camp. So my take now is that we’re not going to have a final girl, but a final boy: Xavier.

We’ve agreed that Chet will probably be the next one to die, seeing as he’s already injured. No matter how much of a good guy Xavier is, there’s gonna come a situation where they have to leave Chet behind or die with him, and I vote they leave him. But also idk if Xavier will make it out, because of the rest of the campers, he and uh, Morrison’s character, and Chef Bertie are the only ones not tied into the plot. Donna and Margaret have Mr Jingles; Montana and Brooke have Ramirez. The others are just victims of unfortunate coincidence—as far as we know.

It’s also looking like episodes four and five will both take place on the current night, with episode five probably ending with them getting rescued/escaping/killing the killers, and the rest of the season will take place after the night’s events with them figuring out what really happened. Considering that, I wanna say Xavier (possibly), Montana, and Brooke (out of the main three) will all make it out of the camp alive, but not all of them will make it to the end of the season. I think they’ll kill Jingles, but then find out Margaret was the original killer and go after her. And Ramirez will die, so Montana will decide to kill Brooke herself in his honor—or she’ll go after whoever killed Ramirez if it’s not Brooke.

I have three ideas for the “final girl”: 1) Xavier bc he’s actually a good, innocent person. 2) Xavier and either Montana or Brooke—if Montana, then not knowing she killed Brooke; if Brooke, then probably believing she killed Montana in self-defense but not knowing whatever secret we know about how she’s not actually a “good girl.” 3) Xavier dies, Montana goes after Brooke, Brooke kills her instead and is the only one left standing. I really just think the second half of the season is gonna be Montana secretly plotting against Brooke while they all try to plot against Margaret.

Theory - Montana

First of all, so many Sally vibes in Montana. I mean, this look:

That, and all the serial killer talk is just screaming AHS: Hotel to me.

Anyway. Montana wants her dead. And she’s pissed with Ramirez for not killing her yet. It’s the obvious choice, but I do think it’s Brooke she’s talking about. And now it’s necessary to go back to the first episode and revisit all the scenes between Brooke and Montana, because I believe that Montana targeted Brooke and had Ramirez go to her house that night. Why? There may be a few explanations, but the one that for me would fit the most is that they’re both part of a satanic cult thing and Montana was somehow supposed to provide a sacrifice (a virgin one, possible) for Ramirez.

Last random thoughts: The whole “fake masked killers” was a callback to Asylum’s fake Bloodyfaces, wasn’t it? Even if it wasn’t, I’ll take it as such, cause it’s Asylum and it’ll always be my favorite season XD

And, who built the wooden spike pit? Everything points towards Jingles, and they even mention it was something used in the Vietnam war, but he couldn’t have possible had the time. The obvious answer would be Margaret, but after this episode, I feel they could pull a few more twists we never saw coming.

If he did build them, it would have had to be for the original murders, but it’s a stretch to say no one found it in all that time. So, Margaret? Or possibly Donna, as a way to keep her subjects from escaping?

I also personally want to see what happens between Margaret and Donna. Right now, Donna believes Margaret is Jingles’ “one who got away” and that Jingles has kind of fixated on her, so from her perspective, Margaret must be kind of like his final test to see how he reacts when face-to-face with her. But if Margaret is the real killer, what would her reaction be to finding out Donna wanted to study Mr Jingles? And what would Donna think if she found out Margaret was the real killer?

#ahs #ahs 1984 #american horror story #ep. reaction #ahs theories #ahs spoilers #s9 reaction

[comprosedreviews-blog]

Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez (with Monica)

In the end, I gave it a two out of five stars on Goodreads, though I’m feeling like it should be closer to one and a half. 

I feel kind of bad for this story because I think part of the reason I ended up not enjoying it as much as I otherwise would have was that I didn’t know it was a fairy tail// legend// folklore retelling. Had I known that--and the story itself-- I think I would have enjoyed looking for the connections and differences between the original myth and the story the author chose to tell. 

But I hadn’t known, so I didn’t. 

I ended up finding out this was a retelling right at the entrance of the third act, and AS SOON AS I KNEW I googled the story, read a few different iterations, and tried to forgive the bits that I really disliked using this newfound knowledge and the (admittedly) skilled weaving of original story and imagination showcased in the debut. 

As you might have gleaned from my rating, however, this didn’t work out so well for me. WELL, MONICA--you might be saying--WHY DID YOU EVEN BOTHER TELLING US ALL OF THIS? 

Well readers, I tell you this because if you do know the story of Iseult and Tristan, then you very well might LOVE this telling of it and I really really do not mean to ‘yuck your yum’ as I am inclined to say. My initial ignorance and dislike of some of the tropes utilized in the book definitely affected my feelings for it and in the interest of being fair, I wanted to inform you of my bias. 

K? K. Now for my (mostly unspoilery) review. 

Firstly, here’s the summary included on Goodreads for your reference: 

“Two proud kingdoms stand on opposite shores, with only a bloody history between them. As best friend and lady-in-waiting to the princess, Branwen is guided by two principles: devotion to her homeland and hatred for the raiders who killed her parents. When she unknowingly saves the life of her enemy, he awakens her ancient healing magic and opens her heart. Branwen begins to dream of peace, but the princess she serves is not so easily convinced. Fighting for what's right, even as her powers grow beyond her control, will set Branwen against both her best friend and the only man she's ever loved.”

The weird thing about me as a reader is that I usually like to read the first or second paragraph of the blurb and then dive into a book because SO OFTEN now, events halfway through the book are spoiled in the blurb. In this case, it bit me in the butt. Why? Because in paragraph NUMBER 3 (which I never ever read) the fact that this is a retelling is made blatantly obvious. 

How. 

Stupid. 

Am.

I?

ANYWAY, from the bit I’ve included, I wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of this book. I was pretty sure it was going to read like a lot of other books I had picked up earlier in my reading life and I was definitely right. I almost DNF’d this book several times just because it wasn’t anything special. Don’t get me wrong, the writing was okay, the story was okay, but it just felt like it was a regurgitation of a lot of tropes I’d already seen and one that I really, really hated. 

Enter my rant about insta love. Because, yeah, that trope is in here. 

Enter mild spoilers. If you don’t want to see them (even though they happen in the very first few pages of the book) then go ahead and skip until you see a gif of a frustrated monkey)

The romance of the story starts almost immediately and it starts because of this sequence of events: main character sees pretty boy drowning. Falls in love with pretty boy’s abs. Realizes pretty boy is from a place she hates. Pretends that she hates him because of this but I as a reader didn’t buy it since every other sentence she was already convincing herself that maybe she didn’t hate this country because OH YEAH, this guy is pretty. 

I’m sorry, but if you really hate a place and a people that much, one handsome face isn’t going to change your mind in the course of A DAY. I mean, she basically blames this huge group of people for the demise of her parents... and we’re supposed to believe that she’s already changing her mind? She did like literally zero things to tell me she ever hated anyone. And sure, it takes her like, a week of going back and forth between the cave to FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM, but she kind of throws away a hatred we’re supposed to believe is super strong after thinking he was hot. 

No. I’m sorry. I hate hate as much as the next person, but I would have liked to see it devolve because of his kindness, or her realization that her misconceptions of his people were wrong, not because he was rocking a killer tan. 

In spite of the insta love, however, there was a day that I was reading this where I couldn’t put it down. Idk, call me a sucker for a romance or whatever, because that’s what kept me reading. I really like seeing love begin and all the stuff that comes in hand with it. Plus, earlier into the story I kind of liked our main character. She was responsible, a good healer, just nice to root for. And the friendship between her and Essy was done really well. 

But then things started to change for the worse for me. The main character kind of began to devolve and make decisions I thought didn’t allign with who she was and the story began to drag. I felt like whole sections of the book took me years to get through and could have been cut. I also think that-- maybe for the first time ever-- the story didn’t begin early enough. 

*gasp* I know. I just said that. 

If we had gotten the chance to at least see Branwen believe (or not believe) some of the things we were told she did/didn’t, then it might have been easier to feel close to her as a character. As it is now, it feels like I was info dumped too much and not shown enough.

(Again, minor spoilers.. so if you don’t want to read them, skip to the gif of Dumbledore. Everyone loves Dumbledore.) 

This is what the book did:

BOOK: Magic crap happens

Branwen (all of a sudden and out of nowhere): Oh yeah, by the way it’s kind of important that you know that I totally don’t believe in the Old Ones at all. What is religion? My parents are like dead and nothing saved them so yeah. No way.

Queen Alana (who has presumably always been very vocal about her Old Ones belief): Girl, they’re real.

Branwen: I HAVE BEEN ENLIGHTENED!!!

Me: ... ... ...

My other problem was that the climax didn’t feel too climactic. Stuff happens (WHAT A SPOILER OMG) that might appear climactic, but you honestly don’t even know some of it happened until all the action has stopped. And at that point, you just don’t really care. I’m thinking of one thing in particular and if you have read the book you likely know what it is. That was a shame to me because I feel like that moment could have really added to the feelings felt in the climax and brought this book up a peg. As it was I was left feeling like... this is it? That’s... all I get? 

All that being said I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. I predicted it like half a book before, but the way it was written really made me consider wanting to read the second. I’m a sucker for a good cliff. 

I feel like I just basically spat on the whole book, so before I say goodbye I just want to add this: there was nothing problematic in the book as far as I could tell. There wasn’t anything that made me think WOW this is garbage, it just wasn’t for me and that’s okay. If there’s an insta love moment in a book A LOT has to happen to win me back to that book’s side, and this book just didn’t make the cut.

Let me know what you guys thought if you did read it, and as always if you have any questions feel free to ask them on the blog or leave a comment below!

Thanks,

Monica

#book review #book reviewer #sweet black waves #YA #ya fiction #ya review #new book #new ya #iseult and tristan

[proserpine-in-phases]

@nachttour tagged me in a writing question thing!

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

uh yeah there’s like, several. some of them are better developed than other but a lot of the reason I’ve been holding off on writing them just comes down to feeling inadequate due to my own limited experience with relationships and feelings of complete inadequacy. it’s hard to write an epic romancu when I’m aromantic as fuck and have a hard time conceptualizing what those feelings might be like to experience, for example, or like, I want the story to be funny but I feel like I’m not actually a very funny person?

also I always feel like I need to do more research. I get stuck on the research phase about 85% of the time haha

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

man I am embarrassed by MYSELF existing, so  idk probably all of it when you get right down to it

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

it seems to vary a bit. sometimes I just power through start to finish, but sometimes I need to write the ending first to remind myself of what I’m shooting for. sometimes I just gotta write some random scenes in the middle before I forget what they are and have to figure out where they’ll go later.

considering the longest thing I’ve managed to finish comes in at about 12 k  I don’t know if I have enough data to really come up with a firm answer for this one though. from what I can tell, it really does seem like I start at the beginning and go for a bit, write the end, and try to connect the two with occasional random middle bits getting written out of order and a general feeling of “I’ll fix it in post” carrying me through

4) favorite character you’ve written

probably Samantha Traynor. she’s such a fucking nerd and I love her. it was surprisingly easy to write for her once I got started. at least I THINK I did a good job writing her, I have no actual idea haha

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

I’ve written TWO mass effect fics featuring Samara as a main character and I have no idea how this happened or why because she’s about in the middle when it comes to my most to least favorite mass effect characters list

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

there’s a couple of fics I wrote for fic exchanges that I kinda wish I could take back and turn into something else because I love the concept but feel guilty about idk, using as a springboard because the original is a gift, or something. it feels ehhhhhhhhh disingenuous to continue them when the gift is supposed to be a singular and self contained unit

for example, oh man I would love to take that vrisrezi space pirates au someplace, but I don’t know if I should because the fic itself is a gift, complete, and so forth. 

plus I hate the way I run out of steam about 4 chapters into everything. I would like to not run out of motivation please

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

considering my output is so low I barely consider myself a writer at all tbh.

but yes, embarrassed. I hope to god the three people I know irl who follow me just like. never see those posts haha

8) favorite genre to write

space adventure! and lately? mysteries even though I have no FUCKING idea why or even how to write them, which is why I have at least three projects stalled out on me haha

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I read a lot, mostly. sometimes I stare at a wall. or play minesweeper. 

also when I’m doing something fairly mindless sometimes my mind wanders and I hit something. 

oh and music. music is great

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

I usually need music, mood music preferable, instrumental so the lyrics don’t distract me. generally I prefer to not be around people when I write, though a public setting is also fun to write in. I’m too distractable to actually get any done though, so I usually end up just looking like a tool with their notebook out if I try to write in a coffee shop or whatever tho, haha

11) what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

I think writing fanfic has really helped me figure out what it means to write in character. also I think I’m starting to get better at balancing dialogue versus narration? at least a little bit

12) your weaknesses as an author

the inability to actually finish shit. 

unwillingness to approach emotions that make me feel uncomfortable. 

the fact that I often approach writing a character with the thought of what I would do in a situation rather than what the character would do (which is why writing fanfiction is helping me with that haha)

coming up with plots that lend themselves well to longer stuff

13) your strengths as an author

pretty good at dialogue

when it comes to my own shit, pretty good at coming up with interesting fantasy worlds (I think they’re interesting at least)

I’ve got a pretty firm grasp overall just the nuts and bolts of writing: I mean I tutored English in college for fuck’s sake I know how to write a grammatically correct run on sentence when I want to 

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

not really

15) why did you start writing?

I wanted to know what happened next

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

not really? I mean, there are specific character TYPES that’ll get me every time, though, like the happy go lucky person who has to learn what pain is but still come out the other side a LOT worse for wear but not completely broken (think Tasslehoff Burrfoot, or perhaps less obscure Vash the Stampede) but I wouldn’t say they haunt me, per say

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

don’t be afraid to be self indulgent. you’ll enjoy it more and who the fuck cares, anyway? people who’ll make fun of you for doing what you love are ass holes

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

If I’m honest I can’t really say what influences my writing style, if I even have one. Mostly all I can do is list off my favorite authors because I’m pretty sure they all have something to do with it. 

so let’s just do that I guess.  when I was a teenager I tended to find a single author and just read through all their works before moving on, and these are the big ones that stand out:

Connie Willis, Anne McCaffrey, Steven Brust and Ursula K. Le Guin. Connie Willis for the humor she includes in almost all her writing, Anne McCaffrey because I STILL spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about Pern. She had a real skill for coming up with both great characters and great settings, even if what she did with them, and also her inability to keep continuity were less good. Steven Brust introduced me to the idea of relating to morally reprehensible characters at an alarmingly young age. Ursula K. Le Guin, I just love her. No idea if it’s actually done anything GOOD to my writing but she gives me something to aspire to.

I read just. a ridiculous amount of fantasy and science fiction as a kid, the genres as a whole without a doubt influence the type of shit I end up writing. also in seventh grade I mainlined dragonlance, just the whole damn thing

later in college I got really into Margaret Atwood. her focus on female characters and narrative just is really great.  

then I went through a depressive phase in my late 20s and just exclusively read Julia Quinn, Joanna Lindsey, Sabrina Jeffreys and Eloisa James, and that was IT. so I’m pretty sure my foray into the romance genre is what makes me honestly prefer povs limited to two or three characters  hey, reading romance novels also lead me to the realization that I’m aromantic so \o/ I guess

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

I outline and then give up lol

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

little spurts until something grabs me and makes me marathon. usually that’s a deadline, but sometimes it’s also inspiration 

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

mostly just holy shit I can’t believe I wrote this! sometimes that’s bad, sometimes it’s good. I can’t really tell if I’m good at divorcing myself from my writing enough to give me perspective on it, to tell the truth, because for a good lot of it, I still think it’s pretty good so ???

22) are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

it’s hard for me to let a character be embarrassed by the dumb shit they do. I don’t want them to do dumb shit because of it, which makes it hard for the character to have shit to grow and learn from.

23) any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

I’m pretty sure my own issues with having and experiencing some emotions makes its way into the stuff I choose to write about, especially when it comes to the original stuff (I have. at LEAST three different plot outlines that involve characters literally losing the ability to experience emotions and having to find a way to heal or gain it back haha)  

also the fic I wrote about the box ghost is literally just about what it’s like to work in a factory haha

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

listen. 

yes.

I fucking. LOVE. research. 

honestly this is the stage where I most often get lost in the weeds, distracted by my own need to know more

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

“He was not the knight Casey taught him to be, but he was close enough for government work“ remains the single best pun I’ve ever written

tagging: @anthropwashere @inktail @manicpixiesdreamdragon if you guys are up for it!

#meme #writing meme #questions about writing

[rigelmejo]

literally reading hanshe feels like reading one of those graded readers now. past self u would be so happy. like actually. that’s not an exageration. nearly all ‘unknown’ words now are words I know but still look up because I forgot the tones (mo, wo, zuan 攥 means squeeze by the way the writer likes to write ‘squeezed his phone’ like i’d write ‘clutched’ and i always look it up to remember how its pronounced). or its the words ‘suspicious’ or ‘uncertain’ - whenever i see THOSE two words specifically i am not quite sure which word means which until i click the definition. the entire experience right now is a LOT like when i read Mandarin Companion Sherlock and a few chapters in new most of the words vaguely but needed confirmation/clarification.

Also present self me is a freaking coward lol ToT. now that its easier my brain is like ‘oh man Guardian oh man Silent Reading oh man Qi Ye idk if we’re ready for that’

when like. 8 months into learning i picked up those books and tried to read with no dictionary and followed the plot. yes it was exhausting and idk how the hell i managed it. but it was something that Could be done. So of COURSE now that I know more words and literally know a chapter takes 15-30 minutes to read (compared to 1-1.5 hours when I started reading Tian Ya Ke at first), i’m too lazy.

back then, i know what i was thinking. i was thinking ‘if i read a priest novel in a dictionary Reader app i’ll have to click a ton of words and i’m lazy’ so ‘its easier to just read a page with NO dictionary and guess some stuff from context and slide past the rest.’ Which... no it was not easier. Yes it took less physical movement on the part of my hands lol and opening/closing a definition pop up. But reading without a dictionary reference was extremely mentally draining. Hence i eventually made myself go read with the dictionary Reader anyway lol.

now my brain is like ‘well look how easy reading is on the Reader - i know nearly all words and just click at a glance for anything that might take effort to guess and bam its figured out.’ versus ‘oh god if i pick up a print book i will just have to feel mentally drained as i try to puzzle this out.’ even though... i read print Guardian like... 3 weeks ago without a dictionary just fine. i’m just lazy. it wasn’t even that draining if i read the english translation chapter first. that gave me enough context to just relax and read. the Only effort i had to put in was seeing new hanzi and trying to remember them based on radicals/guess their vague pronunciation (since with my digital Reader app i just click at a glance for that). and i know... if i tried to do ‘guardian on reader app versus print guardian’ i would pick print guardian in a heartbeat. 1 because its STILL easier in my brain then having to click many words lol (truly just pausing my reading annoys me lol even if only for a moment), and 2 my print copy has scenes ONLY in the print edition of the novel and i want to know what they are. I read 3 print chapters so far and EACH of them had a few paragraphs to a few PAGES of scenes not in the webnovel version. 

anyway i’m just. going to keep reading hanshe for now. 1. because its getting very easy, and extensive reading (when you actually KNOW most words - not the ‘extensive’ reading i do where i just brute force it even tho i only comprehend like 80%) is supposed to be one of the easiest ways to improve vocab and reading skill. 2. because this baby is 155 chapters and im on chapter 41 and i want to FINISH it. desperately. 3. 155 chapters is a LOT of reading practice. the fact its now something i can read easier just means it will be less draining/more enjoyable practice. and the more practice the easier future reading things will be. better hanshe then to switch to a new story i know less of the author’s vocab for, and whats worse not getting to finish hanshe cause i’ve distracted myself ;-;. because i just love to jump stories but then i finish none that i want to finish since i read chinese so slow T-T. let me finish this oneeee. 

4. hanshe is ridiculously compelling? this writer GETS me. they know just what to write to keep me hooked. its like the perfectly paced mystery/supernatural situation with romance and found family and i ;-;. this writer is great <3. also i love original plots when done well and the many case arcs with their own morals and intensely memorable characters make me feel like im reading a really good mystery writer. 5. you have no idea how much i wanna go back and finish tamen de gushi - that was only 40 chapters i’d have had it done lol. BUT its not written this fast paced/want to know whats next like hanshe the mysteries fic, and i probably would start slow again due to author change of style and word choice. and hanshe has a happy ending whereas tamen de gushi may anihilate me. also i would. literally just restart hanshe Again if i left it ToT i dont wanna do 40 chapters again.

when will i suck it up and just read guardian? when will i accept i can’t be a perfectionist cause i’ll never understand it perfectly, so i should just read? when will i have the courage i apparently fucking possessed in month 8 knowing barely anything but am now too lazy for lol.

on a serious note though. i’m really happy with my reading progress right now. hanshe is really enjoyable to read, and i can’t believe i read 40 chapters in a month.

甭 fun hanzi i learned recently from hanshe. this one is ‘beng’ and is bu-yong contracted. its literally ‘bu’ hanzi on top of ‘yong’. saves space. saves how many words u gotta say. like ‘don’t’.  ‘bu yong - beng’ 甭 i love that visually its also a contraction since its just the usual hanzi only as a single one instead of 2. 

#rant #march progress #yes i realize all my self-notes are just??? whatever ???? whatever is going on in this brain #its a mess i am Aware lol #i find it Beyond funny ToT #that i know i KNOW i could read guardian right now but i wont. because i dont want to be done with guardian completely ;-; and once i read #the book theres no more content. same with silent reading i love mo du thats probably most of why i wont finish it #even though i now have the audiobook FULLY and ive HAD the print books for a year now #cause its so good i just. dont want it to end #and THIS is why i always skip between different things and finish so few #hanshe is genuinely so good though and im so glad its an au because all the characterizations are Perfect #but the details are a surprise. the plot is a suprise and its full of suspense since its supernatural murders #the themes are always a new surprise each case. the relationships develop unique to the au. #the author writes almost like a speaker. if that makes sense. so like over time i read dialogues #that i couldnt even explain to u why i can follow but i can follow them just in a glancing blur #i ran a few spoken lines thru deepl just to double check ive been understanding them right #i have. i guess ive just been surprised i have. since they word things sometimes in a broken up way. or slang way. like actual speakers #or like my own stories dialogues. so when i read i just 'get' it #unrelated but u know what else is fun my googles been in french for years #so whenever i use google translate and put in chinese i get french results and go ????? #half the time. or it expects me to put in french to chinese then i put in english and the translatior goes ??? that. is not french my dude

[doorsclosingslowly]

writing meme

tagged by the super cool @expatgirl

1) How many works do you currently have in progress?

please don’t ask. the major ones are: Runaways ‘verse, Zombie Savage AU, The blue man, Taking flight (written by the amazing @sl-walker and @shadowmaat and i pitch in a bit), Nightbrother prince. then there is Epicenter (i will finish it at some point!!), a prequel and a sequel to Lithops, and Sign Up (in which Finn meets Maul), and then there are another 5+ fics i occasionally do stuff for if i get ideas

2) Do you write fanfiction?

yeah i’m more interested in writing fanfic than original stuff rn. much easier: i quite like stuff from the pov of monsters, and i don’t have the heart or patience to set up the dehumanization that makes “that beast has feelings” so satisfying

3) Do you prefer paper books or ebooks?

i have lots of paper books because i don’t like empty walls i find paper books a bit easier for reading but i’ve never read a proper ebook, only pdfs

4) When did you start writing?

september 2015, everything before was just daydreaming

5) Do you have someone you trust that you share your work with?

the internet. idk who else would care about it anyways

6) Where is your favorite place to write?

i write the best scenes when i’m walking, and then i forget them and write pale imitations at my desk

7) Favorite childhood book?

i’ve unsuccessfully been trying to find it again, but in the local library when i was a kid threre was an illustrated children’s book about random villains from history with a story about mata hari and a two-page spread about vlad tepeș and his wall of impaled corpses that i borrowed a lot (to be fair i burrowed every book from the children’s history section many times)(i’ve always been into obsessive rereading)

8) Writing for fun or writing for publication?

i wouldn’t be writing stuff down if i didn’t want to put it on the internet (because just daydreaming them is so much easier) but i have no intentions of ever doing it commercially

9) Pen and paper, or computer?

first ideas usually get scribbled on whatever paper i can scrounge out of my bag, real writing happens on the computer, and editing on paper again. i think it’s easier to get a feel for how the story fits together if it’s printed, but i skip back and forth between paragraphs or scenes while writing and that only works on the computer

10) Have you ever taken any writing classes?

nope. i’ve read 1 book on stylistic devices

11) What inspires you to write?

looking through character tags over and over thinking, “I’m sure there must be one i find appealing that i haven’t read yet!!” specific inspiration i get from what if scenarios, paralllels and contrasts between characters, and themes. i read a post once about why The Twilight Zone and Planet of the Apes were good storytelling that said a story should have a thesis statement, and every writing decision should support that statement, so that’s usually what i try to figure out first

12) Last thing you read?

i’m rereading Speaks to the Trees again. still not over how much i love Shagrat

“Reflecting?”  Shagrat snorted, thoroughly sick and tired by now of all this inane yet vaguely metaphysical clap-trap.  “Now how am I supposed to go about doing that d’you reckon?  Not much of a shiny surface am I?  We’re not in some bloody mystical dream mirror, you know.”

“Think so, do you?” the man said, tartly.

“’And in these ‘places,’” he continued after a pointed pause, throughout which he had clearly been waiting for Shagrat to make some kind of objection, “by considered means of long and careful introspection, a person in your position might attempt at least in part to reclaim what once was lost to him.  Wherein a damaged, tortured –“

Shagrat had no choice but to flat-out feign deafness then.  “What’s that you’re saying?” he asked, speaking very loudly to drown out the other fellow.

“- in these places a tormented soul,” the man shouted, “such as ours -”

“No!  No!  Sorry!  Didn’t quite catch that.”

13) Last thing you wrote?

last thing i’ve worked on is this ten-drabble-set about Savage from different perspectives (Dooku, Asajj, watching his hands murder Feral, a random clone trooper, etc). last thing i finished were the tree-sentence prompts about Finn drinking horrendous craft beer, baby Maul’s first few weeks in Sidious’ ‘care’, and Feral cuddling with Maul’s wing

tagging @pomodoriyum @smarsupial @astarsdarkheart @sl-walker @sith-shame-shack if you want!!

[peppermintwrasseler]

my thougths on thelostspecial.com please, feel free to add, correct, etc. to any of my ramblings...

List of relevant pages i’ve found thus far:

1. /solveme -Dancing man cipher (Henry V, act 3 scene 1) -V=5. There are 5 acts in the play. -600 x 136

2. /Murderousmary -5-ton Asian elephant -FIVE ton. FIVE. FIVE YALL. -625 x 420

3./teatime -1200 x 737

4./coffee -WRONG WAY! -1920 x 1080

5./Mary -492 x 318

6./elephant -WHICH ONE? -623 x 358

7. /tljc -404 ERROR -578 x 432

8. /johnlock -404 ERROR -578 x 432

9. /ireneadler -??????? -425 x 321

10. /marymorstan -Mary, 2 thumbs up -that bull skull that's in 221B? The one with the headphones? Mary is standing in front of it...the horns line up with her head...didn't notice that from the episode...great foreshadowing...but why THIS screenshot for THIS puzzle? -i left this and then i came back after writing the end of this ramble...so like...mary and moriarty were workin together...the horns are pretty symbolic here if thats the heckin case. which i would love for it to be. -572 x 379

11. /marymoran -WHO? -who is mary moran? ah, yes...well...who do we know that's named mary, and is a great shot? oh yeah...mary watson aka mary morstan... -1000 x 643

12. /sherlock -hat-man and Robin: the Web detectives newspaper article screenshot -paragraph gives Johns blog: johnwatsonblog.co.uk -1280 x 720

13. /johnwatson -*see /sherlock*

14./sherlockholmes -*see sherlock*

15. /Mycroftholmes -fat mycroft from the abominable bride...which was a special, yes? -838 x 613

16. /mycroft - *see /mycroftholmes*

17./mollyhooper -814 x 476

18./molly -*see /mollyhooper*

19./lestrade -842 x 561

20./greglestrade -*see /lestrade*

21./moriarty -809 x 606

22./thefinalproblem -how many problems were there/are there in total yall? -if it was 3..."people always stop after 3"...so is he comin back orrrrrr?? -*see /moriarty*

23./hislastvow -696 x 582

24./thegreatgame -600 x 300

25. /eurus -902 x 667

26./eurosholmes -*see /euros*

27. /thereichenbachfall -john's on the phone, looking up at sherlock on the ledge... -s2e3 -1280 x 720

28. /tiehell -500 x 278

29. /Januscars -896 x 504

30. /norbury -mrs. norbury killed mary... -792 x 525

31./new -*?*  bath tub? Hotel? Wat? -someone let me know if this is from an episode or nah? i dont remember, and i'm going to post this before rewatching all of the episodes... -589 x 438

32. /old -is this a shot of the mantle from before or after euros's bomb blew up the apartment? .-. does this have something/anything to do with the /new page and the /new page's picture??? -868 x 638

33./dymm -moriarty, pink cab... -i saw the pink cab in the episode, its pretty noticeable, wasn't sure if it was like, foreshadowing or a nod to the first epiosde or what...lemme kno if yall have some theories... -852 x 478

34. /cluedo -CLEVER BUT NO! -1000 x 676

35./ineedaclue -Stumped by 40? Go back to the source. The real source. -852 x 478

36./ineedahint -*see /ineedaclue*

37./ineedhelp -*see /ineedaclue*

38. /XXX -You'll be hearing from me -moriarty pool -700 x 396 -last image...is this a screenshot from one specific episode? i'll be posting this before going back to rewatch all of the episodes, so if yall know, plz let me know? -also, the mary's ring/coloring book thing that's later on this rambling...THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS HOLY WOW YALL. HOLY WOW. -so...moriarty's in the other pool picture...but he's not in this one, why? well...we never found out who the sniper was for that episode...so perhaps this is alluding to finding out who that was? also, the ring thing again y'all...connect them dots...

I'll leave this here a well: I believe this is a masterpost for all of the images/pages...i was lazy, and this post is long AF, so i didn't include pictures...but here's the link for a running post that has them all... http://infinitelyromantic.tumblr.com/post/156831246164/infinitelyromantic-infinitelyromantic?is_related_post=1

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *HERE COMES THE RAMBLING *puts on tinfoil hat**

The dancing men cipher from 1./solveme: According to wikipedia, "This is one of only two Sherlock Holmes short stories where Holmes' client dies after seeking his help. The other is "The Five Orange Pips", part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The themes of this story are love, trust and pride." Now, i seriously encourage you to go to this link and read the synopsis... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Dancing_Men

curious thing: /black is the page that has the comment box...but now when i visit that page, it says the page cannot be found, and instead shows me a search box? i wonder why?

40: i got nothin...haven't delved into it too much tho...i'll let yall know if i find something...

the picture sizes: -the picture sizes are listed, but i am not sure why...this IS a wordpress website, so perhaps its part of the formatting??? maybe it’s another code? maybe its literally nothing? but i'm not sure so...if anyone has anything on this, please let me know???

the view-source pages: -if you right-click and then hit "view-source" on any of the pages from thelostspecial.com then scroll down, you'll see this message: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You see but you do not observe. 13.9.16 /solveme/ XXX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-this is how you’re originally supposed to find the rest of the pages, because if you go to “thelostspecial.com” it’s just the header image that’s on all of the other pages...

-the /solveme/ page is the page with the dancing man cipher...

-the dancing man cipher is also the only page with a different date, as mentioned above...but why is september 13th 2016 meaningful???

the XXX thing: is tripping me up... -in the show, everyone signs their texts with their initials...but maybe i've missed something...again, i'll be rewatchinga all of the episodes. -if y'all know something about "XXX" that i don't...plz let me know <3 -also, why 3 x's? if the signature "xxx" is not significant (idk if its a signature yet), is the number 3 significant? i mean... the message from the cipher IS from the 3rd act tho...perhaps that is significant...

the dates: -all the dates on all the pictures (except one) are 05/02/2017 -the dancing man cipher is 04/02/2017...but it's the start, the beginning...series 4 just ended...maybe they're hinting at series 5 here? Or the lost specials air date??? -also, being in america, we write our dates mm/dd/yyyy but because people in other countries write dates dd/mm/yy and we don’t know if this is fan-made or sherlock-made, we know that 05/02 and 04/02 could mean either feb. 5/feb. 4 OR april 2/may 2... HOWEVER we can *deduce* that these dates are written mm/dd/yyyy because of that date in the view-source message, which is "13.9.16". this date is written dd/mm/yyyy (because we all know there are only 12 months) so the dates 05/02/2017 and 04/02/2017 are for feb. 4th and 5th. which is this weekend?!? -also there's a theory about the scheduling for a new series called Apple Tree Yard (see reddi theoryt: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sherlock/comments/5orufn/clues_about_a_fourth_hidden_sherlock_episode/ ) and the third episode airs on bbc tomorrow (feb. 5) at 9pm supposedly...

13.9.16: -at first i thought that perhaps this date IS significant, but i can’t think of anything off the top of my head, i’ll update if i find something about the air dates of any of the series/episodes or anything pertaining to this dates in the series/episodes later on.. -my second thought was that this website was created on sep 13 2016, and so the creator just used that date since that was the day the website was created, HOWEVER, according to this source: http://whois.domaintools.com/thelostspecial.com the website was created on 1/31/2017...so that theory is a nope, but also, in the episode “the sign of three” this quote:   Mycroft: What do we say about coincidence? Sherlock:The universe is rarely so lazy. sidenote: i just realized that its from the sign of THREE and that episode aired on january FIFTH 2014...it’s also the episode the watsons got married in, and it’s also where we found out there were THREE watsons...also, sherlock found FIVE women in his mindpalace while searching for the mayfly man...just another thought...maybe i’m digging too far into this number stuff??? well...i am wearing my tinfoil hat so...its whatevs i guess lol the website’s title: -the only title we can see on the tab in our web browser for thelostspecial.com is “xxx”...but according to http://whois.domaintools.com/thelostspecial.com the website title is “By the pricking of my thumbs...” -THIS SEEMS EXTRA SIGNIFICANT... -me: *does a google: “by the pricking of my thumbs”* google: *does a reply* “By the pricking of my thumbs,Something wicked this way comes.Open, locks,Whoever knocks.” -Macbeth Act 4, scene 1 -the picture of mary with her thumbs up on the /marymorstan page has the bull skull horns behind her head...and what do we say about coincidences? -also agatha christie has book entited “by the pricking of my thumbs” and if this is the significance rather than the macbeth reference directly (the book’s title is taken from macbeth), then perhaps this whole thing is that s4 was the last series? refering to the wiki page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_the_Pricking_of_My_Thumbs we read that there were FOUR books, and if you read the synopsis of each book on the wiki page (they’re rly short), then there are probably some parallels between that and the sherlock series/episodes. -also this: “the novel is dedicated "to the many readers in this and other countries who write to me asking: 'What has happened to Tommy and Tuppence? What are they doing now?'". in this case, tommy and tuppence perhaps parallel sherlock and john, and seeing as how s4 scene ended in the middle of sherlock and john rushing off and in the middle of the case, it could seem applicable...so perhaps this is hinting that we won’t be getting a s5 since s4 wrapped things up, but that we will probably get to see The Lost Special as an update on john and sherlock (and rosie) and as an encore of sorts... -also there’s this ‘marple’ thing and i’m not entirely sure what it has to do with sherlock? someone explain?

seasons/moriarty train of thought/ramblings: s1e3: moriarty introduced s2e1: more moriarty s2e3: moriarty dead... s4: DID YOU MISS ME? IN THE MAIN PICTURE IT SPELLS OUT RIGHT IN FRONT OF SHERLOCK'S MOUTH IN BLACK TEXT "DID YOU MISS ME?" also, that red smiley on the chair is from the original image (i think?) let me know if that's also added... there's also a page called /dymm...

s5 or the lost special: moriarty back? -they always stop after 3...he was playing with sherlock in 3 episodes...there were only 3 episodes in each season... -perhaps season 5 or the lost special will be about moriarty?? -but what about mrs. norbury and the whole shooting mary thing... -and then there's the murderous mary the elephant (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_(elephant) ) -then there's /marymoran and /marymorstan and /mary but NOT /marywatson. why is that when there’s a /johnwatson??? -plus, there's the dancing man cipher from the sir arthur conan doyle story... and if y'all read the wiki for the dancing man cipher then there's some parallels to mary watson, who has a husband. But if mary watson = mary morstan = mary moran, then that means ties with moriarty, and moriarty died, then there's a parallel there too?? there's probably more parallels, lemme know what yall find pls...i'd love to hear more theories...

the ring and the coloringbook: -see article here: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-11-06/does-this-clue-from-the-sherlock-colouring-book-reveal-the-true-identity-of-mary-morstan -refer to "/marymorstan" SAME PICTURE AS THE ONE IN THE ARTICLE. WTF. -HI. YES. HELLO. THE WEDDING RING. AND THE LAST PICTURE IS OF THE SWIMMING POOL AND THE EPISODE /[EPISODE TITLE HERE] PAGES (THE GREAT GAME, THE REICHENBACH FALL, HIS LAST VOW, THE FINAL PROBLEM) LIKE THEY HAVE TO DO WITH THE COLORING BOOK AND THE SWIMMING POOL AND THE SWIMMING POOL SCENES AND MORIARTY AND MARY WATSON (AKA MARY MORSTAN AKA MARY MORAN???) AND HOLY SHIT ARE THEY BOTH ALIVE??? I'M SCREAMING. I'M CONFUSED AND ITS 2AM AND IM SCREAMING.

-also "You see but you do not observe." is in the coloring book but also in the view-source page comment: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You see but you do not observe. 13.9.16 /solveme/ XXX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -also the main picture on all the pages...is from the reichenbach fall (s2e3)

OH MY GOODNESS WE NEVER SAW WHO THE GUNMAN WAS AT THE POOL. HOLY HELL. AND MARY IS ONE HELL OF A SHOT YALL...

HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK IF MARY WATSON IS NOT MARY MORSTAN IS NOT MARY MORSTAN I WILL DIE. HOLY SHIT. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. THE FUCKING RING. HOLY SHIT.

#the lost special #Sherlock #tjlc #solve me #interesting #the game's afoot #the game is afoot #sherlock season 5? #send help #tin foil hat #tin foil hatting #conspiracy #conspiracy theory #calling all cumberbitches #mine #pepperminotaur

[realtalk-princeton]

I have a paper due on dean's date and I'm really scared because I've never written a paper like this before (I have writing sem next semester and I never really did anything like this in high school)?? Is there any advice you can give on how to start the actual writing process (I think I've found some good sources but idk man this is all so scary!!!)?

Response from Sulpicia:

I’ve written somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 papers and formal written assignments of various lengths, and I will say that things get much easier as you get practice. Don’t expect things to be perfect the first time! This is my personal writing process, so feel free to adapt as necessary.

Step 1: Understand the question. How long should it be? Are you supposed to be close reading a passage, bringing together research from different readings/areas in class, or conducting original research? Often, it’s a combination of a few things. For this example, I’m going to assume you’re doing a research paper with a fairly open-ended prompt. Page count matters a lot too; a 5-7 page paper will be much smaller in scope than a 10-12 page paper, which will in turn be smaller than a 15-20 page paper. I’m going to assume you’re doing a 10-12 page paper but most of the same tips apply.

Step 2: Develop a topic. It seems like you’re already mostly there! I find this to be the hardest part of the writing process. I usually like to start by going through class readings that I can draw upon for the paper (for some classes that’s all of it, for others that’s a subset) and rereading them, looking to see if there are any questions that were left unanswered in class. If you have a more structured prompt, then it might be useful to reread the material and see how much you can develop an answer through that. At this stage, I like to make a lot of notes on paper, and if I’m using a lot of sources I might make a web or chart to figure out how the concepts relate. Personally, I find it helpful to center my research papers around one “lead” concept and one “supporting” concept. By that I mean that you can focus on reading one piece of text through multiple theoretical lenses/the broader themes of the class, or you can apply one theoretical lens to multiple pieces of text/the broader themes of the class. The key is to focus on one specific thing. 

For example, in my Fall JP my “lead” concept was a group of poems, where I narrowly focused on the treatment of slavery. In addition to my own close reading, I researched some theoretical sources and then used those sources to help understand this particular area of the text. Even though I was critiquing and quoting these scholarly sources, they were the “supporting” concept because they were helping me (and the reader) understand the main thing I was writing about.

I actually like to brainstorm term paper topics all semester and write them down when inspiration strikes. Good term papers are typically about something that, when you’re reading it, makes you think “That’s weird” or “You’re wrong, [insert scholar/author name]”, or “This contradicts with [other reading]”. Academic paper writing, just like good storytelling, requires conflict; it’s not useful to anyone to write papers that just go along and agree with everything in a source. Going back to primary sources or comparing secondary sources is how you find these conflicts and bring them to light.

The last thing you should do in this step is write a clear, specific question you want to answer. For example, I once wrote a paper where the question was “Based on manifestos from Italian Futurist writers, how was clothing incorporated into the Futurist movement, and how was this similar to and different than other Futurist art forms?”

Step 3: Brainstorm Solutions. Once you have a topic, you probably have some sources already. At this time, it’s helpful to go to the library and look for some research on your topic. Sometimes I go to the library to get ideas for topics, while other times I have specific questions I want answered and look for those answers in an existing text. In addition to our amazing library, you can look on Jstor, which is freely accessible to Princeton students, as well as Google Scholar, which has a lot of links to useful books and articles. This stage of research will help you start developing answers to your questions.

Once again, I like to make paper notes because I think it’s easier to think non-linearly on paper. Write anything down; all ideas are good ideas at this stage! I also like to make scans and print out passages from books so I can annotate them. After you’ve done this for a while, look at what you’ve written and see if there are any common themes. If you had to answer your question in one sentence, what would you say? Try to avoid the “three-pronged” thesis; this kind of roadmapping can be helpful for you and a grader if you’re writing a timed essay for a test, but isn’t really helpful for college-level writing, where you want to give more room for your ideas to breathe. The prompt that I learned in Writing Sem for writing a thesis statement goes like this: “By looking at [lead concept,] we can see that [answer to your question], which is important because [connection to broader concept/theme of class]”. If you can it’s good to not use these exact words, but it’s also okay to have some sort of structure, especially at this stage. Here’s the thesis statement from my Futurism paper, which was not my best thesis statement ever, tbh:

“I argue that Futurist fashion, as exemplified by Volt and Balla’s manifestoes, creates a realizable posthuman experience characterized by the destruction of traditional boundaries of the human condition.“

That was for a paper that was about 10 pages long. If your paper is shorter then you’ll probably need a more specific thesis statement, and if it’s longer you’ll need one that is broader or has more details.

Step 4: Develop a structure. Writer/editor Yung In Chae ‘15 wrote a really great piece about writing (which I’ll link below) in which she said that “ If the sections of your article are completely interchangeable, then you have not figured out the structure.” This is the same with your essay. Think about the first thing you need to prove for someone to buy your thesis statement, then the next thing that builds on that, then the next thing that builds on that. If I’m writing about a text, I often find it helpful to begin at the beginning and progress roughly chronologically, although you should feel free to jump around as sometimes you need to present a later piece of evidence for someone to understand the earlier one. I’ll make a rough outline either on a piece of paper or on a Word document, making bullet points with pieces of evidence and things I want to cover. Some people like to outline so heavily the process of writing is just stringing the outline together with transition words. I don’t do this, but think it’s helpful to include usable sentences in your outline so that way you make easy spots for yourself when writing. Then I print out my outline and keep it next to me.

Step 5: Write a rough draft. I lied. This is the hardest part of a paper. The blank page is like a speed bump; if you’ve done a lot of prewriting/acceleration it’s easier to sail over, but if you’ve done nothing, it feels daunting and impossible. I like to start at the beginning with my writing, but some people prefer to jump into the middle and write the introduction later. I find the introduction helps orient me, but you can see what works best for you. I’m a huge fan of what writer Ann Lamott calls “shitty rough drafts” in her book on writing, “Bird By Bird.” While the aim isn’t for the draft to be garbage, telling yourself that you will revise (and giving yourself time to revise) helps liberate you from the feeling that you have to make perfect prose every time. Just start writing and see what your paper looks like; I have never written a paper where I didn’t find more evidence while writing, or where my structure hasn’t changed in ways I could have predicted by doing anything but writing the paper.

Don’t get too stuck on a perfect first sentence. I find it helpful to open with something we discussed in lecture, or the weird, incongruous thing that led me to write the paper in the first place. Here are some first sentences I’ve written in the past:

1. “At its core, elementary education is a concise synthesis of a society’s core values, biases, and contradictions; the “basic” concepts which make up the first years of learning become the foundation upon which all later thought must necessarily rest, both in and outside of the classroom. “ (JP)

2. “A man wanders through city streets alone, buys his groceries, and returns home unharassed, noting that in his solitude he is more fortunate than even a famous senator” (JP)

3. “In his 1920 “Futurist Manifesto of Women’s Fashion,” Vincenzo Fani (using the pseudonym “Volt”) writes that Futurist thinkers will “transform the elegant lady into a real, three-dimensional complex,”[1] encouraging the use of “one hundred new revolutionary materials”[2] in the making of women’s clothing, including “paper, cardboard, glass, tinfoil. . .gas, growing plants, and living animals.”[3] Readers a century later will find striking comparisons to the daring and subversive ensembles worn by celebrities on contemporary red carpets, such as the singer Lady Gaga’s infamous “meat dress.”” (Term paper I’ve been using as an example)

As you can see, in (1) I started off with a broad generality meant to orient my reader which I, in my intro, narrowed into my specific topic. In (2), I used a narrative opening which I then expanded to get inside my topic. In (3), I introduced my source right away and then compared it to a contemporary source. I’m not saying any of these are the best writing ever, but there’s no “one way” to do an opening, even within one writer’s style.

Your intro can be as many paragraphs as you want and should end with your thesis statement. I like to think of this as the first part of a rollercoaster; you’re bringing your audience up a hill, slowly dragging them along as you introduce all of the major ideas of your paper (as well as any assumptions you may be making) before seamlessly placing your thesis statement at the top of the big hill and letting the argument run its course. The rest of the paper should be like a roller coaster as well; just like a rollercoaster pretty much zips along on its own force, you should aim for paragraphs and evidence to smoothly follow each other, with each sentence contributing to the last. Follow a pattern of evidence and analysis, and try to incorporate little chunks of evidence into your sentences rather than dumping them into sentences. Try to end your paragraphs on analytical points rather than evidence dumps.

Finally, you have to write a conclusion. My sixth-grade English teacher explained that the conclusion is where you “go beyond,” and this is what I think is key to a really successful essay. Yes, it’s awesome that you’ve proven your thesis, but why does it matter? How does it connect to broader course themes, the scholarly conversation, or even just life in general? Don’t be too trite, but try to think about how you, in 4-5 sentences, can summarize your argument and also make the meta-argument about why the world is smarter with your paper in it.

Step 6: Cite, Cite, Cite! Do this while you are writing your rough draft. Make a works cited page and add to it as you go, and also add in your in-text citations as you go to save yourself a world of stress. If your professor doesn’t specify you can use any style. I personally prefer Chicago style but I know APA is standard for sciences/social sciences. There are loads of resources online like EasyBib and Purdue Owl which are helpful for figuring out how to write citations, but the writing center is also helpful and you can always ask a research librarian as well (check your email for the “personal librarian” contact info). I brought both my JPs to my department’s subject librarian to double-check my citations.

Step 7: Revise! This is where your paper really takes shape. I revise like this. First, I print out my paper. Then, I sit down with it with a pen and write notes all over it, marking places where I need more information/evidence, where my argumentation is weak, where I’ve made typos, etc. Then, I open a new document and retype the whole thing from my revised copy. This helps me because I get overwhelmed by lots of text, and it also forces me to make all the revisions. Once I’ve got a clean non-rough draft, I also like to read my papers out loud, since that’s a good way to make sure you don’t have endless run on sentences or awkward prose. When I came to Princeton, I was usually doing 4-5 revisions of my papers, and I did about 5 complete drafts of my JP (with the biggest changes happening between my rough and first drafts). Now I typically only do 1-2 revisions, but that’s because I put the time in early as a self-editor and developed the skills to write better first drafts. I also find it helpful to have a patient friend read a draft, although it’s important to be conscious of their time.

I really can’t emphasize enough how much doing proper revising helps you stand out; most people here do not revise their work substantially, but that’s the space where you’re thinking critically about your work and enriching it. Unfortunately, our best ideas don’t come all at once but in stages, so editing is just as much about allowing your thinking to progress as anything else.

Step 7: Polish. Once your paper is edited, take this time to check for typos, add page numbers (with your name in the header), double-check citations, add a title (it doesn’t need to be art, but should be a real title and not “ENG 101 Term Paper”), and either cut down the paper to length or elaborate on a point to get it to the minimum length.

And you’re done! At this point, it takes me about 1hr/page to write a paper once I’ve done all my research, but I would allocate about 2hrs/page if you’re starting out. My #1 advice would be to not be afraid; the wonderful thing about writing is that your early drafts can be as bad as you want and nobody will ever know because you can revise, so liberate yourself. Also, you’re probably a really good writer already, so don’t be nervous :)

Here’s the link to the article which has much better writing advice than me, and write if you have more specific questions: https://eidolon.pub/ten-things-i-learned-about-writing-by-editing-68f3f93e45ef