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knightotoc · 1 year

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So I finally watched Madoka and reread The End of Eternity, and because I have a one-track-Anakin-only-mind I thought of a version of The Phantom Menace in which Qui-Gon turns Anakin into the Chosen One by using time loops:

Before they get to Mos Espa, Qui-Gon finds some mysterious (Rakatan?) technology. He realizes he can use the tech to go back in time to the moment he found it. He gets a terrible feeling about it, since it was made for an evil empire.

The first time Anakin enters the podrace, he dies. Qui-Gon considers using the technology for a long time, maybe even years; finally his guilt compels him to do it. The second time, Qui-Gon tries to rig things in Anakin's favor, but he still dies in a different way. The third time, Qui-Gon doesn't change anything; Anakin still dies -- but it's in yet another way. Qui-Gon realizes that each timeline is full of immeasurable changes.

He asks C-3PO to calculate Anakin's chances of surviving the podrace. 3PO gives him an absurd number, several thousand to one odds. He then asks for Anakin's chances of winning the podrace, and gets an answer of several million to one. That one becomes Qui-Gon's obsession.

In every timeloop, Qui-Gon is fully confident that Anakin will win the race. He doesn't count the timeloops or attempt to interfere with reality, but engages with time travel instead as a repetitive, personal spiritual experience.

The only change he makes is that, after a few dozen repetitions, he starts to measure Anakin's midichlorians. Each time, the count is vastly different, with no pattern, and not even a significant effect on his performance in the race. He wonders if these machines were damaged in the escape, if they are even measuring anything at all, or if this whole midichlorian theory is bogus.

Finally he arrives at a timeline in which Anakin's midichlorian count is a hundred times higher than any he has measured before, so high it can't even be measured with their tools. He maintains the same calm confidence of any timeline, but he can't help but feel in his heart that this one is different. And it is: this is the time he wins.

Is this confirmation of midichlorian theory? Is it a mind-boggling coincidence? Or did Qui-Gon stumble into an anomalous universe with a superman in it?

Qui-Gon assumes the Council -- and, more tragically, Obi-Wan -- would not understand his motivations for using this technology rank with the Dark Side, but he does make an arrangement to discuss the matter with Coruscant's leading expert on probability. My main reason for adding this scene is if I were to write this, I'd want to do a lot of research on statistical science and this would be the best place to show my work. It would also be my chance to add knock-off Hari Seldon into Star Wars, which is the dream.

And I'm sure Qui-Gon would also want to discuss the matter with some other prophecy-nerds, which would also be fun to write.

When Qui-Gon dies, Obi-Wan still doesn't know about the technology. But here's another idea, and I can't decide if I like it or hate it. Maybe the tech is attached to Qui-Gon's lightsaber, so when Obi-Wan picks it up, this becomes the moment that Obi-Wan can return to.

So one creepy thing that could happen is Obi-Wan keeps accidentally setting it off, and returning to this, the worst moment of his life. But he believes this is some kind of dark vision created by his trauma, and never realizes the truth. Once he puts Qui-Gon's lightsaber away, it never happens again.

Another insane thing that could happen is, once everything has gone down and he's a hermit on Tatooine, either he finds the Rakatan clues (?) or Qui-Gon's ghost finally fesses up, and Obi-Wan realizes he has the chance to do it all over again (???!?!?!) Tho I guess he would have to get ahold of Qui-Gon's lightsaber, which would either be buried with him on Naboo or in storage on Coruscant. So he'd have to abandon Luke and risk capture for this chance. That does make it a more interesting decision, and I feel like he's not the kind of guy who would do it.

#star wars #anakin skywalker #qui-gon jinn #obi-wan kenobi #the phantom menace #long post

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twostepstyless · 2 years

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What do you think of Harry’s recent hslot outfits??? Thoughts??

Oh I could write a book on this, so I will !

I think, quite honestly, from what we seen with the outfits at Love on Tour 1.0 (the braces/suspender fits) and with this iteration of Love On Tour that started back in the U.K., what they’ve done for this tour in comparison to Live On Tour has been incredibly smart. Whether I’m completely happy or excited by the current hslot outfits is something completely different and I’ll get into that in a second. Why is it smart? Well, a lot of fashion brands use the idea of time and place - that’s either completely synonymous with the brand identity or perhaps for certain collections. For example, Prada has always maintained that Milanese Café aesthetic, Tommy Hilfiger, the cool kids of 90’s Southern California, Dior keeps the elite Parisian woman in its target (I actually wrote about this in my graduate dissertation so that’s been fun to look back on while answering this).

What’s that got to do with Harry? I think the team want to assign ‘time and place’ to these tours and actually to the promo of the albums also. We will always connect the braces/suspenders to his Fine Line era, the album cover, while not always, he did wear the look in promoting that album, then consistently throughout Love On Tour 1.0. We are currently seeing that with the graphic pattern fits and tracksuit/dungaree looks. At the beginning I did think they were going to reuse pieces and we were going to see more mixing and matching of the pieces almost like Harry was one of those paper dolls that we could play dress up with different t shirts and trousers (side note: how fun would that be, @ Harry’s merch team, make a paper doll book, I’d buy it) and while we’ve seen it a couple of times they haven’t reused as many pieces as I thought they would. However we will always remember these fits being connected to Love on Tour 2.0 and Harry’s House promo because we’ve seen the graphic t shirt and graphic pattern in a lot of his promotion looks also. I think the Gucci x Adidas collab came at the perfect moment as well, the Gucci gazelles came in so many different colour-ways making them an incredible styling tool for any of the looks, I also think they’re probably a lot more comfortable for Harry and considering how he was sprinting round the catwalks on the U.K. and EU leg he probably needs that. Now whether I actually like the outfits, I do and I don’t. I’m generally drawn to colour and pattern and I like the clash of patterns they’ve been popping in, like MSG night 12 we had the chevron t shirt with the polka dot dungarees. I think the looks in general are campy and fun but at this point I feel them becoming slightly repetitive, two nights in a row we had the pink and yellow chevron and maybe that’s personal choice for Harry, maybe he just fancied wearing that but it could’ve been saved for another date and gave us a bit more variation. I think that’s why they’ve sprinkled in the other looks, the denim vest, the fully sequinned pink and red stripe, and the sequin polka dot come to mind. They add a little extra spice and I appreciate that they’re placed so sporadically because it’s suddenly like oh… OH he’s wearing something different, this is new and it adds a little excitement to oh when are we getting the slightly different fit when’s the little something extra coming. Which I’m a fan of. We saw the same with Love on Tour 1.0 and I’d argue that those ‘different’ looks got SO much more engagement than the standard Love on Tour uniform. Other than that, do I think some of the uniform looks are a miss? Yeah. Do I think some of them are outstanding? Completely. I think some of them could FIT better but that’s a minuscule gripe in the grand scheme. I wonder if we’ll continue this hslot uniform throughout this tour or whether we’ll get something new when he goes to South America and in the new year with the Australian dates and U.K. and EU dates again, it will be interesting to see. Let me know what you think of the fits, what’s been your favourite? <3 You probably only wanted me to be like yeah I like them or nah not for me but I just get excited talking about fashion

#anon #thank u for asking #sorry if this is more long winded than u wanted lol #G’s Fashion Club #i wrote this on the way to work this morning and had a great time doing so #hslot outfits

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mscolour · 2 months

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FINAL THOUGHTS COLOR 111

I learned a lot from the Comparative materials chart and felt it was well thought-out exercise, but being the first assignment, I would have preferred it to be done in class and made an in-class assignment rather than at home so we can get the color mixing correctly.

I really enjoyed doing the writing assignment for Red and wish we had more time to learn more about other color stories, this is on my Todo to finish reading the color book.

I really enjoyed the Barnet Newman exercises; this was really fun.

Color Wheels and Color Charts seemed a little too repetitive although I understood the intent, if this could be made into one assignment it would be great. like have one color wheel and one-color chart and combined with the Munsell have two. The color Charts explanation needed some clarification and using white to make the acrylic color wheel was not specified clearly.

Munsell was a necessary assignment and using the knife technique with Acrylic was fun and a different experience to do it on paper compared to canvas.

Joseph Albers assignment was a bit tricky and although I felt like I understood the concept, to display the color difference and play with the temperature was a bit difficult and little more guidance around this would have been helpful.

Pattern Color Swap although tedious was a fun way to reinforce the color application techniques learned so far and improve presentation skills.

Color Experiments was really fun, but 4 seemed a little tedious to show the skills and design and play with color values and temperatures.

The Inspired Pattern project although daunting is a much needed and fun, and extremely tedious and time consuming and love the presentation board with color palette.

I learned a lot about color and how to make my presentation cleaner but using the tape is still very difficult and a live demonstration would have helped.

And as the name suggests this is a Design color class and would have expected to see more design techniques with color and how to use templates or other materials and tools to help design with color better and more assignments around color design.

Overall, it was a fun class and learned a lot about color and hope it was a semester and not a quarter.

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blog-feesback · 4 months

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Unlocking Early Literacy: A Simple Guide to Phonics for Preschoolers

Introduction:

Welcome to the exciting world of early literacy! As your little one embarks on their journey of language development, understanding the basics of phonics is a crucial step. Phonics lays the foundation for reading and writing skills, making it an essential component of preschool education. In this guide, we'll explore the fundamentals of phonics and provide simple activities to help your child build a strong phonetic foundation.

What is Phonics?

Phonics is the method of teaching children to read and write by emphasizing the sounds of letters and letter combinations. It helps children connect the sounds they hear in spoken words with the letters and letter patterns used in written language.

Start with the Alphabet:

Begin by introducing the alphabet to your preschooler. Sing the alphabet song together and encourage them to recognize and name each letter. Use colorful visuals and interactive tools to make it an engaging experience.

Letter Sounds:

Once your child is familiar with the alphabet, focus on the sounds associated with each letter. Practice saying the sounds together and emphasize the importance of listening carefully. For example, "B says /b/ as in 'ball.'"

Phonemic Awareness Activities:

Engage in activities that enhance phonemic awareness – the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in words. Play rhyming games, clap out syllables in words, and create simple word families (e.g., cat, bat, mat) to reinforce sound patterns.

Introduce Blending:

Teach your child to blend sounds together to form words. Start with simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words like "cat" and "dog." Use magnetic letters or letter cards to physically manipulate the sounds.

Sight Words:

Introduce high-frequency sight words that don't always follow phonetic rules. These words are often seen frequently in early reading materials. Begin with simple words like "the," "and," and "it."

Reading Aloud:

Regularly read aloud to your child, pointing out words and emphasizing sounds. Choose books with rhymes and repetitive patterns, as they help reinforce phonics concepts.

Interactive Phonics Games:

Incorporate fun and interactive games into your routine. There are numerous online and offline games that focus on phonics, such as matching games, puzzle activities, and phonics apps.

Word Building Activities:

Provide opportunities for hands-on word building. Use letter tiles or magnetic letters to create words, allowing your child to physically manipulate the letters and sounds.

Conclusion:

By incorporating these simple phonics activities into your preschooler's daily routine, you're setting the stage for a strong foundation in literacy. Remember to keep it fun, be patient, and celebrate small victories. As your child becomes more comfortable with phonics, they'll gain the confidence needed to navigate the exciting world of reading and writing. Happy phonics learning!

#child development

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iwebnext · 4 months

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Choose the Best Laravel Framework for Your Website with Our Top-Tier Services in 2024

In the fast-paced digital landscape, choosing the right framework for website development is pivotal. Laravel has come up as a standout choice, and in this blog, we'll explore why it's considered the best in the industry. Join us on a journey through the world of Laravel website development, as we navigate the features and benefits that make it exceptional. And, to guide us through this exploration, we have the expertise of a top website development company.

What is Laravel Used for?

Laravel is a fantastic tool for building websites and web applications, designed to make the lives of developers easier. Think of it like a superhero for web development! Here's why people love using Laravel in simple terms:

Building Cool Websites: Laravel is like a magic wand for developers. It helps them create all sorts of websites – from basic ones like blogs to fancy ones with lots of features.

Keeping Things Organized: Imagine you're cleaning your room, and everything has its place. That's what Laravel does with code. It is simple for developers to find and manage their code without any hassle.

Talking to Databases: Laravel has smart and expressive ways to talk to databases without making developers write complicated messages. Websites often need to talk to databases, which are like digital storage rooms for information.

User Logins and Permissions: If you ever used a website where you had to create an account, that's where Laravel's superpowers come in. It makes sure only the right people have access to certain parts of the website.

Decorating Web Pages: Making web pages look nice is important, right? Laravel has something called Blade, which is like a design toolkit. It helps developers make web pages look awesome without spending hours and hours.

Making Web Traffic Flow Smoothly: Laravel makes building websites fun, organized, and way less stressful. By making sure they don't get lost it helps set clear paths for people to follow. So, when you are browsing a cool website, there's a good chance Laravel played a role.

Is Laravel frontend or backend?

Laravel website development is like the wizard behind the curtain that makes a website work smoothly. When we talk about Laravel, we are referring to the process of using it, a powerful tool or framework, to create and organize the essential parts of a website. Laravel takes care of various tasks, like talking to the database, managing user logins and permissions, and handling the overall structure of the website. It follows MVC (Model-View-Controller) to keep things organized – it's like having different departments in a company, each doing its specific job.

But wait, there's more! Laravel also has a sidekick called Artisan, a superhero assistant for developers. Artisan helps with repetitive tasks, making the whole process smoother and faster. While Laravel focuses on the back-end, it often partners with front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) to create the complete website experience. It's like having a dynamic duo – Laravel ensures everything runs flawlessly behind the scenes, while the front-end takes care of what users see and interact with. It makes your online experience enjoyable and hassle-free.

Let’s Know a Few Benefits of Using Laravel for Web Development

It offers numerous advantages for web developers, making it a preferred choice for web application development. Here are some key advantages of Laravel:

Elegant Syntax: Laravel features a clean and expressive syntax that makes coding enjoyable and efficient. The readability of the code simplifies development and maintenance tasks.

Artisan Console: Developers can use Artisan to perform various tasks such as database migrations, code generation, and more, saving time and effort.

MVC Architecture: Laravel follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, providing a clear separation of concerns. This structure makes the codebase organized and easier to maintain.

Security Features: Laravel prioritizes security, providing features such as encryption, hashing, and protection against SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks. Its built-in authentication system also makes it easier to implement secure user access.

Community Support: It ensures that developers have access to a wealth of resources, tutorials, and packages, by making it easier to troubleshoot issues and stay updated on best practices.

Laravel's advantages lie in its simplicity, robust features, and the ability to streamline the development process. It empowers developers to create scalable, maintainable, and secure web applications with efficiency and ease.

6 Effective Role of a Top Website Development Company

Let's embark on a journey to understand the profound impact and significance these companies bring to the world of web development by exploring some points:

Crafting Custom Solutions: A top website development company acts as a skilled craftsman, and carefully shapes bespoke solutions for each client. By investing time to understand the client's unique requirements and goals, they ensure that the resulting website aligns seamlessly with the client's vision.

Cutting-Edge Technologies: Picture a technological frontier where innovation knows no bounds. These companies stand at the forefront, embracing cutting-edge technologies to ensure the websites they create are not just functional but equipped with the latest features and capabilities.

Our Expertise: Our expertise of a top website development company navigate the complexities of web development with a wealth of experience in their arsenal, by providing invaluable insights and solutions honed by years of practice.

Seamless Integration: Much like a skilled conductor harmonizing various musical instruments, top development companies seamlessly integrate different technologies to create a symphony of functionality.

Ensuring Scalability: Scalability and adaptability are woven into the fabric of their development process, future-proofing the websites they craft. They build websites not just for today but with an eye on the future.

Our Responsive Approach: The flexibility of a top development company is similar to a flexible dancer adapting to the rhythm of change. They possess a responsive approach, swiftly adapting to evolving technologies, client needs, and industry trends.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we navigate the dynamic landscape of web development in 2024, Laravel emerges as the superhero for crafting robust websites, backed by the expertise of top-tier development companies. Laravel's elegant syntax, security features, and community support make it a standout choice for developers, simplifying the complications of web application development. As businesses strive to establish a robust online presence, the combination of Laravel's capabilities and the finesse of top development companies promises to redefine the standards of web development in 2024 and beyond.

#Laravel website development #core PHP development company #Website Development Company

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mohommedsalman · 5 months

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Storytelling and Rhyming Classes in Glen-Innes | Kiya Learning

Unleashing Creativity and Language Skills with Kiya Learning's Storytelling and Rhyming Courses in Australia

Storytelling and rhyming are not just fun and engaging activities for children; they also play a crucial role in their cognitive development and language skills. At Kiya Learning, we are passionate about nurturing these essential skills through our comprehensive storytelling and rhyming courses designed for children of all ages in Australia.

The Power of Storytelling

Storytelling is an ancient art form that has captivated audiences for centuries. It has the power to transport us to different worlds, introduce us to new characters, and teach us valuable life lessons. For children, storytelling is particularly beneficial as it:

· Enhances imagination and creativity: Storytelling encourages children to use their imaginations to create new worlds, characters, and storylines. This helps them develop their creativity and problem-solving skills.

· Improves language skills: Storytelling exposes children to a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures. This helps them expand their language skills and develop their ability to communicate effectively.

· Fosters empathy and understanding: Through storytelling, children can learn about different cultures, perspectives, and experiences. This helps them develop empathy and understanding for others.

The Rhythm of Rhyming

Rhyming is another powerful tool for language development. It helps children develop their phonological awareness, which is the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in words. This is an essential skill for reading and writing. Additionally, rhyming:

· Enhances memory and recall: The repetitive nature of rhyming helps children remember information more easily.

· Promotes creativity and word play: Rhyming encourages children to play with words and explore different sounds and patterns. This can lead to a love of language and a lifelong interest in literature.

Kiya Learning's Storytelling and Rhyming Courses

At Kiya Learning, we offer a variety of storytelling and rhyming Classes in Australia courses tailored to the needs of children of all ages and skill levels. Our experienced and passionate teachers use a variety of engaging teaching methods, including interactive games, creative activities, and hands-on projects, to make learning fun and effective.

Our storytelling courses focus on developing children's storytelling skills, including character creation, plot development, and oral presentation. Our rhyming courses focus on introducing children to different rhyming patterns and encouraging them to create their own rhymes.

Benefits of Kiya Learning's Storytelling and Rhyming Courses

Our storytelling and rhyming courses offer a range of benefits for children, including:

· Improved language skills

· Enhanced imagination and creativity

· Increased vocabulary

· Improved phonological awareness

· Stronger memory and recall

· Developed communication skills

· A love of language and literature

Enroll Your Child Today

Give your child the gift of creativity, language development, and a lifelong love of learning with Kiya Learning's storytelling and rhyming courses. Contact us today to enroll your child in a course near you.

Company Name:- Kiya learning

Website Name:- Kya Learning.com

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ranney16 · 1 year

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Virtual Sketchbook 2

1 - JOURNALING

1 - Unity and Variety - There definitions are the exact opposite of one another. Unity means to have all of the same thing like a homogenous mixture. Its uniform throughout the piece. I see examples of this is my day to day life when I go to pour my orange juice. The mixture in it is the same color throughout. Variety is the opposite of Unity. It means to have a randomly distributed items and colors throughout a piece. There is no order to the work making it very random. I see this Variety when I go to through trash out at my work. The dumpsters contain lots of various items and nothing of it correlates.

2 - Balance - Is a way of balancing opposing forces. The goal of balance is to obtain equilibrium without failing. I see examples of Balance at the gym. To do certain exercises at the gym I need to keep my balance. Like a painting if I put to much weight on one side then I wont be able to do my set or it wont be the greatest set. Symmetry is key at the gym and if your trying to express Balance in a painting.

3 - Emphasis and Subordination. Emphasis is the act of trying to draw in a persons eyes to a specific spot or a focal point. Artists do this by adding colors, different size, and even shapes. I see emphasis every day when I'm on my way to work. Certain signs on the road are in different bright colors to draw my attention to that spot. Subordination is the opposite making a viewer want to keep their eyes off of a spot. Its job is to sway our eyes elsewhere. I noticed this when I was at an amusement park. I saw that they were working on a new area but it was all blocked up by big blue walls so you would not focus on it. Next to it they had a huge arcade themed place that they just set up to keep your eyes off of the construction and more onto the fun.

4 - Directional forces - They a way of following along with a image. They help us to see what the artist wanted us to see whether that be by actually or implied lines. In life I have noticed these while driving. The city has laid out lines for my eyes to follow that will help me to avoid colliding with traffic and to get to my destination.

5 - Repetition and Rhythm - Repetition is the recurrence of tools in a piece. This can range from shapes to even color patterns. I see repetition every day when I look at my flowers outside every day. We have some nice beautiful African Violets and they all look the exact same. It seems as if they were copy and pasted next to one another. Rhythm is like Repetition but has altered patterns. Its a pattern that closely resembles the picture of the first image. I see Rhythm in my day to day lives when I drive past my local car dealerships on my way to work. Each car is equally spaced out and are the same model but they all have different colors.

6 - Scale and Proportion - Scale is a size comparison from one object to another. An artist uses it when they first decide how big something will be to another thing in their art. I see scale when I make pancakes for breakfast. Some pancakes I want to be larger than the rest of them so I pour more batter into the pan. More batter equals a larger scale. Proportion is similar to scale but a tad bit different. Proportion means parts to a whole. The size of something compared to the larger whole. I see proportion when I make cookies out of dough. I have to cut a proportion compared to the whole piece of dough. When I get it out I have a smaller proportion cookie dough compared to the rest of the cookie dough sheet.

2 - WRITING AND LOOKING

Title: Self Portrait in a Straw Hat

Artist: Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Found: Chapter 5 Lesson 1 :Evaluation

This piece contains: Emphasis using focal Points described by her face and neck, Directional lines with the shadow separating the sun light from shadow, Proportion with the clouds behind her, Subordination with the brown object she is leaning on, A Unity background, A unbalanced piece when it comes to the shadow to sunlight, A very neutral background, and Bright highlights.

3 - CONNECTING ART TO YOUR WORLD

I know its kind of cheesy but as soon as I moved into my new room about a year back I felt a little lost. I couldn't figure it out but I didn't feel like I was home just yet. It took a little while to figure out but it had to do with me not having my LED lights set up and my walls not painted my color. At my old house I had set up my LED lights to have a really high intensity. With a pink hue wall color the lights would turn on to produce a really high saturation image that just felt cozy. The value of the wall would be very high with how bright the colors were. When all of this was done I felt like I never left home at all. The thing I was missing in my room the whole time was color.

4 - ART PROJECT – ARTIST’S CHOICE

So a little bit of background. This is a of a game character that me and my girlfriend love to play as. Its of him reaching out to his god but never touching. We decided to paint this because we are huge fans of the game and we are also like the painting of the The Creation of Adam which is the actual painting that inspired us to paint this. This games is what we used to play every day and has a very special meaning with me and my girlfriend.

5 - PHOTO/DESIGN

Bad layout design example^

Good layout design example^

What makes a good design is the ease of understanding of the message. If given a airplane flight board for example, I would want something that I can read about very quickly that would help me as a passenger understand how my flight its doing. I would like something that is easy to understand and not complex. The intent of the layout is to provide airplane passengers and staff a way of knowing how their scheduled flight is doing on time. Its used to help people figure out if their plane is going to be late or worse cancelled. Both layouts fulfill their purpose but the good layout one does a far better job of communicating to the passenger about ongoing flights.

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essays-for-breakfast · 3 years

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When the Daisies Bloom

Kiane Week Day Two: Flowers/Daisy

Diane has never cared much for flowers. Most of them, while pretty to look at, don’t fill her stomach. And whenever she spent too much time marveling at the blossoms, yellow and white, vibrant pink and soft blue, with small petals and elaborate calyxes, the daylight would fade too soon, and she would have to fetch water in the gloom of the night or endure the thirst. In Megadoza, no one had an eye for these short-lived bursts of color when they turn a dull stretch of grass into a painting. Even if she had cared to ask before she left her people and their mindset for an autumn adventure, no one would have told her the names of these blossoms. For the longest time, she doesn’t know they have names.

Until she finds a Fairy by the riverside.

He has trouble remembering his own name, just like she has trouble pronouncing the complex syllables the first few times. Harlequin. Unlike anything a Giant would call their child, almost like a piece of foreign music. But he gives each flower they stumble across a name and a story.

The yellow, starshaped ones that like to show their faces to a crowd of same-looking blooms – daffodils.

The tiny buds in blue and purple that are the first to crawl out of the earth after the cold – crocuses.

The pack of upside-down tankards that will turn the ground between the forest trunks a short walk south of Diane’s cave into an indigo carpet – bluebells.

Whenever Diane goes to the river to fetch water, Harlequin flies beside her and points at a shrub here or a bush there. Some won’t produce buds before a few more months. But Harlequin describes them in such detail, from the way the blossoms will rustle with the wind to the scent they will share with the world, that Diane can imagine it all. This way she learns to identify broom, bluebeard, and summer lilacs before they change their green attire for a colorful dress.

The days grow longer. An orchestra of crickets gives daily concerts, and as long as Diane doesn’t have to see the bugs, she can enjoy their play without a disgusted shudder. Even at night, the air outside her cave tickles her bare arms with warmth.

She lies on her back and plays with a flower crown Harlequin made for her. A few turns of his forefinger, and the blossoms of the meadow across the river have danced in the air, held the hands of their neighbors, and formed a circle of merry ball guests in pink and white and violet.

“Harlequin?” Diane asks, and he sits up to look at her. “How do you know so much about flowers?”

He tilts his head, a move he always performs when he ponders. “I grew up surrounded by flowers, I think. Everyone there knew them by name, and some people took the names of flowers they liked for themselves. It must seem like a weird thing for a Giant…”

Diane shakes her head. “I don’t find it weird. I would have rather learned about flowers than about weapons and the different ways to gain honor in battle. That’s why I went away. Everyone at Megadoza only cares about fighting for the sake of fighting. Why did you go away?”

“I don’t remember. I think I wanted to help someone… but my head’s all fuzzy.”

Diane rolls over until Harlequin’s face hovers mere inches away from her nose. Her breath distorts his hair, and a pink shimmer covers his skin.

“Maybe you wanted to help me!” Diane says. “Since I found you, you have helped me to tell the good fruits from the ones that make my stomach all twisty. And you have taught me everything about flowers. I would have never found the little waterfall or the stone circle on the other side of the beech forest without you. It’s been a lot more fun than anything I did back with the other Giants. Can I tell you a secret I never told anyone?”

Harlequin has forgotten to blink, and he almost forgets to nod too. Diane fights down her giggles. What she is about to tell him is important.

“In the third night after I found this cave, a snowstorm roared outside. My fingers wouldn’t move because of the cold, and I forgot to collect wood for a fire. The rooms of Megadoza aren’t warm, the stone always spreads this cold that seeps through your toes and then your entire body. But at least there were other people around, many orphans who huddle close to each other. In this cave in the middle of the storm, I didn’t have anyone else. That’s when I made a wish. I held my lips close to the earth – because that is the only way your wish will be heard – and asked for the earth to send me someone to help me. A friend to share this cave with. And since that night, I always whispered the same wish to the earth. I only stopped after I found you. You fulfilled my wish, Harlequin.”

Again, he has forgotten to blink. His eyes shimmer as she looks at her.

“I’m sorry,” he says with a hoarse voice.

“Why?”

“For the horrible things you had to go through.”

“You apologize too much.” With these words, Diane plucks a white freesia from her crown and shoves it into his hair, knocking him over in the process.

The next morning, a ray of sunshine caresses Diane’s cheek. For a handful of heartbeats, she snuggles deeper into her bed made out of dry leaves and squeezes her eyes shut. But then she sits up. Harlequin’s slow breaths have maintained their rhythm. He can sleep for hours, probably days on end without growing tired of it. A shame considering all the amazing new things the day may have in store for them.

But when Diane crawls out of the cave, and her eyes adjust to the brightness, she shrieks.

Snow. In the middle of summer. The meadow in front of her cave, a vast plain of grass blades yesterday, has disappeared under a white blanket. Weird yellow blobs are sprinkled across the snow. Diane reaches out with a finger and shrieks again when the contact lacks the expected cold.

Harlequin races outside, still a little confused after the sudden theft of his sleep. “What is it, what happened, are you alright?”

And he would have continued his barrage of questions if Diane hadn’t grabbed him out of the air. With both hands she shakes him, up and down like an oversized rattle.

“WHAAAA!” she screams. “I shouldn’t have told the story about the snow, I never wanted to make it snow, I take everything back, forget I said anything in the first place. And then do your magic and lift this course from meee!”

Harlequin’s head bobs back and forth, but the pats he gives her fingers to calm her don’t spare him from more violent shakes. “Diane, Diane, stop, please. Diane! Okay, I promise I do my magic. Everything will be alright. Just hold still for a moment.”

Diane obeys but presses her eyes shut right away when the weird snow attacks her vision. If she doesn’t look for long enough, maybe the white will go away.

A strange sound comes from Harlequin. By the eternal earth, maybe he is dying. The snow is killing him. And it’s all Diane’s fault because her story summoned the white devil to their threshold.

She needs several moments to realize he is laughing.

“Diane, it’s not snow,” he says, and the joy clings to each of his words. “Look again.”

Maybe he has gone mad. But in the end, Diane trusts Harlequin and cranes her eyes open. The ‘snow’ still covers the meadow, despite her best attempts at wishing it away. Only that it isn’t snow after all. Uncountable white flowers have sprouted overnight, an entire ocean of them, and the yellow dots make up their heads.

Harlequin wiggles free of her loosened grip and plucks one of the flowers to offer Diane a closer look. “They are called daisies. We had a cool early summer, so they are a little late. You can find them all across Britannia on plains and hills just like this. That’s… what someone told me at least. I’m not sure.”

“Next time, they should be more considerate than to scare me so much. I want a heads-up before they invade our lawn,” Diane says and makes a face. But it’s hard to stay mad with the funny-looking flowers for long.

Harlequin kneels down and brushes the flowerheads. “I like them. I didn’t get to see them often in the forest, but when the daisies show their petals, you know summer has arrived. They also taste great in company with wild salad and beetroots. Did you know that they follow the sun with their bloom?”

“I didn’t even know they existed until this morning.”

A flash of pink colors Harlequin’s cheeks. “Oh, you’re right. Sorry.”

“You apologize too much,” Diane says with a snort. “But I like them too. As long as I don’t have to think of them as snow. And I like summer even more. Let’s make a promise, okay? At the beginning of every summer, we will watch the daisies in full bloom. Then we can celebrate a year of our friendship.”

Harlequin smiles as he looks at Diane. A hint of distant sadness swims in the amber of his eyes, another promise broken, another life forgotten. But in this moment, he is happy. That’s what Diane wants to believe.

He uses his entire hand to grab her outstretched finger and shakes it. “It’s a promise.”

Summer comes and goes. All while the daisies bloom on the fields surrounding their home, Diane and Harlequin find an excuse to waste time outside, chasing each other across the hills, spinning in senseless dances, or lying amidst the ocean of white flowers. Harlequin weaves another flower crown for her, a gift she tears apart in her endless enthusiasm and cries over the broken remains until he tinkers a new wreath, even lovelier than the last. She tries the salat he mentioned, but politely declines a second serving in favor of another piece of pork.

Diane has never cared much for flowers, but daisies in particular spread their roots inside her heart. All because of Harlequin.

Summer comes. They craft a garland of daisies and decorate the cave with it. Okay, Harlequin does most of the work, Diane’s fingers struggle against the fragile shafts in vain, but she supplies him with bucket after bucket of new flowers to the point where he can’t keep up anymore and has to admit his defeat with a laugh.

Summer comes. Diane lies on her back amidst the daisies and watches the stars. Their soft scent lingers in the air, even though they have closed their blooms. Harlequin sits on her stomach and points at the bright freckles in the sky’s dark face, a few of which he recognizes from before she knew him. The small lights dot the sky like daisies in an endless blue field.

Summer comes. The air has warmed over the past days, and Diane no longer needs the blanket Harlequin made for her after she lay sick with a fever. And when she returns from the river with an armful of hunted boars, the first daisies stretch their heads towards her. She giggles and picks the prettiest one out of the gathering to surprise Harlequin with the good news.

But the cave is empty.

“Harlequin?” Diane asks. Her voice echoes from the barren stone walls. She drops the meat, and turns over the loose rocks, hurls them outside, even though she knows he would have answered her.

Gone. Has he remembered his past? Did the people he knew in his old home feel the same numbness in their stomach when he disappeared? Has he forgotten her the same way he had them? Harlequin promised to watch the daisies with her.

He promised.

Diane fails to realize she has crushed the daisy between her fingers until the petals rain to the ground. Like snowflakes they cover the place where Harlequin went to sleep last night, right next to the big mold in the pile of leaves where she sleeps.

A hiccup cramps Diane’s throat, and her eyes sting. Rubbing them doesn’t help. Her fingers are cold against her face. He promised.

And that’s when his voice sounds from the cave entrance, and Diane’s heartbeat jumps so high it pounds in her head. “Look what I found, Diane, it’s the first—”

She suffocates the rest of his words as she plucks him from the air and squeezes him, so tightly that he could never possibly leave her side ever again.

“Are-are you crying?” he asks in between desperate coughs for air.

“Don’t leave me, you promised to stay with me.” The tears streaming down her face muffle her voice, but it doesn’t matter. Harlequin hasn’t left her. And when this realization grabs hold of her brain, Diane eases her grip just enough to let him breathe.

“I won’t leave you. We promised to watch the daisies together, don’t you remember? I found one at the back of the cave. It’s a bit dented, but it still means summer has arrived, right? I’m sorry I made you cry, I thought I would be back before you noticed.” Harlequin offers her the flower, and when she ends her stranglehold around his torso, he places the battered daisy in her hair. “Can you forgive me?”

Diane sniffs. “Of course. As long as you make sure to hold your promise from now one.”

“I will.”

Summer comes. Summer comes and goes many times, way past the point where Diane can count them with her fingers. One field of daisies blends into the next and the next, and the one after that. But no matter what happens, Diane and Harlequin always celebrate the beginning of the warm season surrounded by daises. If she could make a wish to the earth so that life went on like this forever, Diane would do so in a heartbeat.

But no flower can blossom forever.

The sun slowly climbs over the mountain peaks and bathes the meadow in soft pinks and oranges. Diane sits in front of the cave and taps the ground in an endless drum play with her feet. The early rays of day warm her skin, but instead of the pleasant feeling, her mind only focuses on the implications the morning carries with it.

Harlequin has been gone for a long time.

When he left, the moon has painted his skin in a ghostly white. Like the porcelain plates Diane once saw a merchant sell.

Now, the moon has gone to bed, and she searches the sky above the northern hills for a sign of Harlequin in vain.

She sighs. Harlequin promised to return, and he has never broken a promise he made to her. Still, she kicks the ground to give her feet something to do other than fantasize about running after him.

A blob of white beside her catches her eyes. The smile tugging at her lips comes on its own. Lured forward by the warmth of the morning sun, a single daisy has spread its petals and welcomes the summer. Around midday, the meadow might already wear its yearly dress of white flowers. Diane strokes the early daisy with her pinky, careful not to crush the small plant. All will be good. Harlequin has promised to watch the daisies with her. Even if he is a little disappointed that he didn’t find the first flower, they will soon laugh and forget about it.

The birds shift into a new tune as the sun rises higher.

And then Harlequin emerges from the hills, and Diane’s heart beats faster the closer he comes. He smiles that smile ridden with half-remembered pain and stretches his hand towards her.

He came back, he came back like he promised, and they will watch the daisies together, celebrate the beginning of summer, and they will chase each other across the field of snow-dotted grass, and everything will —

Summer comes. The stone walls of Megadoza emit a little less cold than throughout the rest of the year. Diane has nevertheless seized the opportunity to escape her training when another Giant distracted Matrona with a report on the last successful battle.

Outside of the Giant capital, a mild breeze brushes the dry grass, and the scent of wild roses and thyme greets Diane’s nostrils. How wonderful to finally trade the endless combat sessions for a simple walk. There is nothing to worry about, except for the nasty butterflies bobbing across the plain in search for nectar. Diane narrows her eyes. Just because they top the ranks of the least disgusting insects doesn’t mean she welcomes them to ruin this perfect afternoon.

One of the confused yellow butterflies discovers the sweet plant juice it is looking for, but Diane’s Giant shadow succeeds in chasing the bug away. In its place, a white flower amidst the clover remains.

A daisy.

Where did she learn that name? The person who first taught her about this flower must have been someone important. But Diane’s head is all fuzzy.

She kneels down and brushes the delicate petals. “You apologize too much,” she says, but she can’t figure out what this sentence means or why the words sprung to her mind just now.

Diane has never cared much for flowers. But something about daisies and the first days of summer sparks a warmth that makes the days at Megadoza more bearable.

If only she could remember…

#kianeweek #kianeweek2020 #nnt #nanatsu no taizai #nnt fanfiction #my writing #king x diane #kiane #king #diane #i hope you like FEELS #patterns and repetition are such fun writing tools

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nanowrimo · 3 years

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How to Use Brain Science to Win NaNoWriMo?

Maayan Sulami is a Tel Aviv-based writer and podcaster, and has been actively invested in NaNoWriMo since 2016. She comes armed with insight into the inner workings of the mind and how a deeper understanding of brain mechanics can give us the tools we need to fine-tune our process and get things running smoothly.

Brain science has explained so much of our behavior patterns over the past decades, and the findings are amazing. Our mind is a complicated machine, but when you know the mechanism, you can use it for your advantage.

NaNoWriMo, being such a huge challenge, makes us rethink our work process and push our boundaries — no better time to combine brain science with writing. Here are the main challenges you might face during NaNo and how you can battle them using mind hacks.

Procrastination

Procrastination is a clash between the prefrontal cortex — the planner and rational decision maker (Basically the Friends character Monica Geller), and the limbic system that wants to feel good right here, right now (aka the instant-gratification seeker, aka the character of Rachel Green). And it’s one of the most dominant parts of the brain! That’s why it wins more often.

We procrastinate when the limbic system wins. Psychologists call this “present bias”; it means we tend to give more weight to payoffs that are closer to the present time. Which means that watching Netflix will most likely win over a writing sprint.

One way to battle this is to have small instant rewards when small tasks are done, and not wait to feel the fulfillment when you finish NaNo or even ‘til the end of the day. Have small rewards throughout the day (get a coffee, take a bath, have a snack) — that way the writing sprint has a chance to beat Netflix.

Another way to bridge Monica and Rachel is to re-create self-trust, meaning starting to close the gap between what I say I'm going to do and what I actually do. Procrastination basically means thinking A and doing B, this creates discomfort in the brain (which means discomfort in your body) and this is called cognitive dissonance. When you do what you actually say you’ll do, that also gives you instant gratification (bc there’s no more dissonance). So when battling with procrastination, try and do the smallest, easiest task on your list; that will make the limbic system happy, and will help with getting the rest of the stuff done.

The Emotional Brain

When we’re sad, anxious, or even dehydrated or sleep-deprived, the brain is lacking resources. In order to get those resources back it’ll take them from other parts — usually the Monica Geller part; the one that makes good decisions. So make sure you self-care: eat well, drink a lot of water, get enough sleep and try to relax (you can use breathing techniques to increase levels of relaxation during the day — apps that are great for that are Headspace and Oak breathing app).

Motivation

Navy Seals sing when they run (“I want to be a Navy Seal'' — google it) and this isn’t just for morale. When they sing, their brain thinks that they’re enjoying it, and it connects that happiness to running. If you help the brain connect writing with pleasure, it’ll be easier for you to actually sit down and write. Like we said, the Rachel Green part is gonna want that immediate pleasure.

A crucial principle to be aware of is that the brain doesn’t do such a great job at differentiating reality from imagination. That’s why we get scared when we watch a horror movie, even though we know there’s no actual danger, or why we salivate imagining eating something delicious (it’s also why “fake it until you make it” is a real thing). This means the brain will believe what you tell it to believe. Repetition is one of the best way to do this, so if you like mantras/affirmations, make a special one for NaNo and your writing challenge and repeat it every morning.

Writer’s Block

Creative thinking is a very mysterious process in the brain. it has nothing to do with the left or right parts of the brain; that’s just a myth. When we create, parts all over the brain are activated. But since it's a very vague concept, it’s harder to explore. However, studies show that imagination and creative thinking are linked with memory. Participants' brains were scanned while they were remembering a past experience, then imagining a possible future experience and then thinking of creative uses for an object. All three actions (remembering, imagining, creating) activated the hippocampus — the part in our brain that creates and stores memories.

They also found that after asking participants to recall a detail in a recently watched video, they were able to come up with more ideas, and the ideas were more versatile. So next time you’re stuck with a creative problem, try to imagine a past experience with as much detail as possible. This might give you a short-term creativity boost to generate more ideas.

Fun Fact About Creativity and Inspiration:

Issac Asimov wrote about 500 novels. In his biography he wrote that he chooses not to wait for inspiration, and if he struggles with a novel, he just does something else instead — writes an article, a manual, a short story, or works on a different novel. This fills him with more motivation to do things. Action begets motivation begets action, not the other way around.

One last word on change. In the past, scientists believed the brain stops changing and evolving when we’re children; now we know that we form new neurons and neuron connections all the time (neuron connection is basically how we think better and faster, how we make decisions, etc). Meaning, our brain can change for the better throughout our lives. It takes effort, but it’s the most important work we’ll do. 😊

References The Willpower Instinct — Kelly Mcgonical Core Network Contributions to Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future, and Thinking Creatively — Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience The Creative Brain — The Dana Foundation

Maayan Sulami is a writer and podcaster presently working on two debut novels; a light romcom and a dark thriller (we’ll see which one is done first). Maayan feels the balance between those two genres basically defines who she is as a person. She loves storytelling and analyzing great stories — which is the subject of her podcast — and she believes she could’ve been this generation’s Lorelai Gilmore if she were just a little taller.

You can find more of Maayan at her blog, Maayanwrites.com, or on insta @maayan_writes. You can also watch her short film on Youtube and read her short story at Sffplanet.com.

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash.

#nanowrimo #writing #amwriting #procrastination #brain hacks #writers block #camp nanowrimo #by nano guest #Maayan Sulami

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kiefbowl · 3 years

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Do you have any book recommendations?

sure :)

House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende - a favorite of mine, I re-read probably once every 3 years since HS at this point. Isabel Allende is the niece of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist leader of Chile that was removed from office by a US backed coup. A piece of Chilean/American history not oft taught to American students. Isabel wrote this novel about an aristocratic family leading up to the coup. It does detail sexual assault and rape, but the story is focused on multiple generations of women.

The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild - A book I had to read in college for a sociology class that was called "Psychology and Marriage" or something to that nature. That class and this book specifically were instrumental in leading me towards radical feminism (despite neither being about it). Sociology books on gender are a great way to put your feminist framework to work, and should not be overlooked as important texts to feminism. This book is an engaging read about the labor of housework, written in chapters detailing the lives of specific families.

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth - I just finished this so it's on my mind, very quick read and engaging read. The tv show is based on this memoir, and on her following two memoirs as well which I have yet to read. There is a spiritual/religious bent to it that might be off putting, and Jenny does write at times in some strikingly sexist and tone-deft language that is shocking to find considering the subject matter, but it's no more so than what you would find from an average woman I suppose. What's more important is that it's her account of her times as a midwife in Poplar in the 50s, aiding extremely poor women through their numerous pregnancies in her own words. Very eye opening to the reality of post-war poverty in the UK, as well as the reality of obstetrics pre so many of our now common modern-day medical advances.

Why does he do that? by Lundy Bancroft - Some books are worth the over-recommendation. This book has been instrumental for me in navigating my life with the relationships of men I have, not just purely sexual and romantic, but in friendship, work, and community. Recognizing patterns of male dominance and entitlement is an essential tool to survive. It also has helped me navigate my relationship with my mother, who can at times be selfish and manipulative. There are posts floating about detailing accusations made against Bancroft that I would not be able to find without some serious digging, but yes Bancroft is a man (some women don't know this). He has an extensive career working with abusive men and their victims, so he has incredible insight and yet also has been accused himself entitled to women. This has, in my opinion, brought a deeper understanding of his words in that he might think he is detailing the minds of the abusive man, I see him as detailing the minds of men who will abuse their power over women. In any case, I have recently been re-reading it at leisure.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - This book has been high in my mind the past few months as the author passed away in March. What a lovely children's book, delightful exploration of the English language in fun and magical ways. I had a teacher read this book out loud to us at the end of each day in either 2nd or 3rd grade and it's been a favorite ever since. It's a little long for a children's book, and the adventures are repetitive to some degree, so it might be hard for an adult to want to read through the whole thing as their go to book, but flipping through it now and again is delightful. If you have an 7-10 year old kid in your life, it's a fun thing to share with them.

Wise Child by Monica Furlong - Maybe there's something to analyze about me that I'm recommending two children's books...but I'll let that be my problem. I read this a few years ago as my train-commute book. For some reason, I've been thinking about it a lot lately and want to pick it up again. It's about a witch and her child apprentice in a Scottish village. That's it. But the imagery was very cool and I love magic and witches so it was my jam. I picked it up for free in a neighborhood "little free library" so maybe my heart just goes to it for being given away despite it being a cute book about a female relationship.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - This book comes recommended to me by my boyfriend's mom, who I adore and who is an amazing, hilarious, thoughtful woman, and is the book I'm about to start since I literally just finished reading Call the Midwife last night. It's a long, meaty historical novel about building a cathedral. So if you're interested in reading a book along with me in spirit, especially ones recommended by an amazing older woman, especially if you like giant novels that are hard to carry around dense with details about architecture and the lives of peasant and noble people living in Kingsbridge England in 1123-1174, then girlfriend hop on with me and let's make this monumental smash hit suddenly start trending with 20-30 something feminist women on tumblr this summer for no discernible reason.

Around the Corner by Jeremy J. Majewski - I haven't read this, I'm only recommending it because someone I know wrote it and I want to support the people in my life :) It's a fantasy novel and it might not even be good but it's self published and I bought a copy because I think writing a book and self publishing is a feat worth celebrating. AND! It might be very very good, I just haven't gotten to it yet. :) So if you want to support independent authors that I know, please buy this book for under $10.

#that's it for now :)#ask again in 6 months the first two books will always be included in my recs #like I need people to read those first two books it's my mission in life to get them in front of people.

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thesublemon · 4 years

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planning ≠ coherence

I talk a big game about liking coherence in art, and it’s probably clear that I have an apophenic tendency to enjoy textual interpretation. And this might lead people to think that I have a preference for carefully planned and plotted art, or that I look down on the messy and improvisational. But this is actually almost the opposite of the case. Not because I don’t really like coherence, but because artistic coherence is something more complicated than planning, and isn’t even necessarily possible to achieve with planning.

The thing about improvisation, is that at its best it’s about finding the choice that feels right. I listen to jazz more than any other kind of music, and one of the reasons I like it so much is the exhilaration of someone landing on a musical idea that simultaneously makes a song feel bigger and more complete. A solo isn’t fun if it’s just a bunch of disconnected ideas (similar to how whimsy isn’t fun if it doesn’t also “work”). It’s fun if it picks up on the things that the other players are doing, or ideas that showed up earlier in the song, and then makes them feel like they go together. Even if they “go together” in the sense of being coherently discordant, eg repeating ideas that don’t work multiple times. If beauty is fit, then the joy of improv is finding fit in unexpected places.

This goes for narrative too. In long-running stories like comics, book series, and TV shows, much is often made about whether certain choices were planned from the beginning. If things were planned, that’s a reason for praise, and if things weren’t planned, that’s a reason for derision, either towards the showrunners or towards people attempting to interpret the work. Say, “This plot point only happened because an actor wanted to leave the show. Therefore it has no meaning to read into.” But making things up as one goes is not what makes a story lose its plot, so to speak. Making things up is only a problem if the things the artist makes up don’t go with what came before.

In Impro, a very excellent book about the craft of improvisation, Keith Johnstone calls this process of making-things-go-with-what-came-before “re-incorporation”:

The improviser has to be like a man walking backwards. He sees where he has been, but he pays no attention to the future. His story can take him anywhere, but he must still ‘balance’ it, and give it shape, by remembering incidents that have been shelved and reincorporating them.

Johnstone is big on the idea that satisfying narrative depends on a sense of structure, and that reincorporation is one of the most important tactics for creating structure. To paraphrase him, a story where a character runs away from a bear, swims across lake, and finds a woman in a cabin on the other side, and “makes passionate love” to her has no structure. It’s just a series of events. Whereas if the bear then knocks the cabin’s door down and the woman cries out that it’s her lover, then suddenly it feels like a story. Because not only has the bear been reincorporated, it has been linked to the woman. From this perspective, if a story has no sense of reincorporation, or new developments don’t make sense with what came before, then it will feel incoherent, no matter how planned out it was.

I also keep thinking about Paul Bouissac’s discussion of gags and narrative in The Semiotics of Clowns and Clowning. He explains that what makes a scene funny is not whether it strings a bunch of gags together, but how those gags are organized. To use an example from the book, it’s one thing for a clown to pretend to hurt its thumb, and ask for an audience member to kiss it. It’s another thing for it to keep hurting different parts and then finally hurt its groin and act scandalized at the idea that someone might kiss it. Bouissac calls this sort of repetition “anaphor”:

Anaphor is one of the main tools of textual consistency. In linguistics, it designates the use of pronouns or any other indexical units to refer back to another word or phrase in the text. It links together parts of sentences and bridges the grammatical gaps between clauses, which is a consequence of the linearity of language. In rhetoric, anaphors are repetitions of words or structures that build up the cohesion of discourse and create momentum toward a climax. In multimodal communication, words, gestures, objects, or musical tunes can play the same role by reminding the receiver—that is, the spectator in the case of a performance—of signs and events produced earlier in the act.

One of the things that fascinated me about Farscape as a teenager, was that in contrast to other scifi of the time, it made no pretenses of having been planned—unlike say, Babylon 5. Or even shows like The X-Files, Lost, or Battlestar Galactica that gave you the “feeling” of a plan whether or not they had one, or were capable of following through. Farscape felt incredibly coherent, both in terms of theme and plot, but this coherence came about purely on the strength of the writing’s ability to ideate and then reincorporate. It would take someone’s weird costume idea, like the villain having glowing rods that screw inside his head, and snowball that into a whole storyline where the villain is a half breed of one hot-blooded race and one cold-blooded race, and can only stay alive by thermo-regulating the inside of his brain. And then decide that his vendetta against the hot-blooded race has motivated his obsession with the protagonist since the first season. Yet these twists never feel like “ret-conning” in a pejorative sense, because it all feels narratively and thematically sensible. (Unsurprisingly, making the show was described as “more like improv jazz than plotting out a symphony”).

None of which is to say that I dislike planning or polish, either. Stephen King, as a so-called “discovery” writer, famously writes off the cuff, without outlines. As he puts it in On Writing:

You may wonder where plot is in all this. The answer—my answer, anyway—is nowhere. I won’t try to convince you that I’ve never plotted any more than I’d try to convince you that I’ve never told a lie, but I do both as infrequently as possible. I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible. It’s best that I be as clear about this as I can—I want you to understand that my basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves. The job of the writer is to give them a place to grow (and to transcribe them, of course).

But his best stories feel like whatever bloat might have been generated from this narrative improvisation has then been pared down to what that improvisation was really getting at. And I can’t lie, I get a particular joy from reading or watching something and feeling without a doubt that the artist is in complete control of my experience. It was one of the most gratifying aspects of rewatching The Wire recently: the feeling that the little meanings and foreshadowings I was seeing in each choice were almost certainly intended. Nothing is more satisfying to an apopheniac than feeling like the patterns you see are actually real. And nothing is more annoying than a story that tries to pull some sort of reveal on you (“Dan is gossip girl!” “Angel is Twilight!” “Rey is a Palpatine!”) that doesn’t make any sense because it wasn’t intended from the beginning. Just because those characters existed in the story before, doesn’t make it good reincorporation. So if a story is a story because of structure, then if the choice is between a planned structure and no structure, the former is almost certainly going to be better.

Point is, it’s not really the process that matters. All creativity is improvisational in a sense, because all creativity involves making things up. What matters is how dedicated an artist is to the integrity of their work. If a writer has carefully planned their whole story out, with every twist and every theme clearly in mind, but can’t adapt if they start writing and find out that something they planned doesn’t actually work, that’s one kind of failure mode. The narrative equivalent of designing a perfect castle and then building it on a swamp. On the other hand, if a writer tries to go with the flow, but can’t reincorporate that flow, then that will be another failure mode. To the extent that I respond to improvisational art, it’s because improvisational art is often more attuned to these questions of whether something is moment-to-moment right. But what matters, above all, is the rightness. That’s what defines coherence. Whether there is a sense in the work that it is oriented around something, and whether the choices contribute to that something.

#posts: art #i could've also connected a pattern language to this #and the post about how it's the solution to high modernism #but hopefully the castle-on-a-swamp analogy will encompass that #the philosophy of 'here are things that generally work but also any solutions must be adapted their environment'

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andmaybegayer · 3 years

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Last Monday Of The Week 2021-01-24

I actually had to write software at work this week, the audacity. A lot of TV this week because my brother recommended stuff to the whole family so they badgered me into watching with them which took up a lot of my free hours. I usually watch like three hours of TV/Movies a week max but this took it well past six.

Listening: I got really into LCD Soundsystem at the end of last year and I decided to look up some stuff about them: All My Friends was apparently rated the number one song of 2007 by Pitchfork, which checks out. What a great song, I’m a big fan of the repetitive piano which is just two very simple triplet patterns offset from each other but that produces a very soothing rhythm. Also, I continue to be in love with whatever feeling is meant to be evoked by “Losing My Edge”

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Reading: The Illiad, which I have just barely cleared the academic introduction to. It is very much spoiling the whole plot but I guess when your book is almost three thousand years old you can’t blame them for thinking you’ve read it already. Like star wars.

I am looking very forward to seeing every single person be an absolute bastard in this story. A side effect of having played Hades a lot a few weeks back is that I imagine all the gods with the voice and appearance of the Hades interpretation.

(Also! Scott Alexander is back on the internet at large and not just scratchpadding!)

Watching: Finished the new Netflix Lupin series, which ends on a decent cliffhanger. Love a good Crime story. Anticipating the next season.

Watched the first episode of the Snowpiercer series on Netflix and The Good Place each, at my brother's behest.

Turns out like half the reaction images from The Good Place are taken from the first episode. Wild! I will eventually watch the show everyone else was extremely into, as usual, but it will take years. Maybe less because it now counts for this section of Last Monday.

Snowpiercer! More of Snowpiercer, a really promising and poorly executed movie based on what I hear is a good book. I never read it. My brother pitches it as being a very both-sides story but he also thinks that's a good thing so I hope he's wrong about at least one of those. He watches a lot of TV but he is also a person who is really into The Office so make of that what you will.

Playing: Heat Signature Daily Missions Are My Passion. For a while in University I had a three month streak of attempting the Daily. I'm pretty good at it, I almost always make Top 10, I really wish there was a good way to send steam friend requests to my fellow Daily Players. There's several regulars who have even longer streaks than me, it's fun to finish up and see how you did relative to the other regulars. I miss a day every week or so nowadays, but it's a nice anchor to have on my video game life. I should record my dailies sometimes.

Making: Work continues on the Mega Embroidery Project, albeit slowly because I have been busier this week than usual.

Secondary making: I got one of those steel workbenches for my room so that I'd have somewhere to do $dayjob but it's also a very nice embroidery equipment storage space. My dad and I shuffled some of the fancy wall-mounted drawers I inherited from my brother to make room and ensure that they can still open in my increasingly cramped bedroom. We live in a real country where buildings are made of bricks so this involves drilling 10mm diameter masonry holes and hammering in expander bolts.

Computers Slot: I hoped this would be about successfully installing Gentoo but power cuts on Sunday have blocked my progress, so instead I'll just shout out KXStich and Stitchy, two open source cross-stitch tools. KXStitch is made by my favourite large open source development collective, the KDE project, <3 KDE. I have never done cross-stitch before but being able to make my own patterns easily might accelerate my timeline.

#last monday of the week

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faranae · 4 years

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I just wanted to drop by and say I really like your writing! You repeat yourself but not in a bad way, I don't know how to explain it but it works? Anyway have a nice day!

Aww, thank you! Stylized or deliberate repetition is one of my favorite literary devices to utilize, admittedly. It shows up a lot in my work, even when I’m not aiming to do it intentionally.

Something I learned very early on is that while diversity in sentence length and format is an essential tool to keep writing interesting, it’s also what we’re used to reading. Repeating elements or themes tend to stick out more; our minds emphasize those fragments even if we don’t realize it at the time.

Every person reads text differently:

Reading with their own mental voice, often at the speed they would normally speak aloud (subvocalization);

As above, but with inflection and tone regardless of pacing (narrative);

Imprinting key elements of the text without actually taking in all the words at all (skimming);

Converting text to images and concepts on the fly as they don’t think in words (visualization);

Straight-up reading aloud to themselves;

And Gods only know how many others!

I find that placed correctly, repetition sets the tempo of a piece. It can force the reader to follow certain “beats” as they read, similar to how artists might stretch or skew comic panels to imply the passage of time or the importance of a moment.

On that same note, changing an established repeating element is jarring; Pulling the reader out of a false sense of security, demolishing the brain’s illogical assumption that it’s been following a set pattern.

Even if the reader hasn’t noticed the repetition, 90% of the time their brain has slipped into the pattern and it will sound the alarm when something is suddenly “off”. It yanks the reader’s notice to certain lines or events, triggering feelings of unease or even relief depending on the context.

It’s such a fun tool to utilize in different ways!

#Writing Stuff #Writing Tips #Fara Speaks #AskFara #Anonymous #learnthings #thinkonthings #faralit

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all-chickens-are-trans · 4 years

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3, 6, 19, 20 for the writer ask?

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)

Hmm. So many things? A lot of the time, I just send all my friends extremely specific headcanons that turn into almost some sort of drabble, only that it’s not written well, it’s just me yelling and being excited. Mostly what I don’t end up writing is anything that’s too AU, because that needs more research than just reading/watching the source material over and over again.

Like, I’ve dreamed about writing this Dance Academy AU for George Squared from Call Me Katie for years??? Where almost all the cmk characters go to the academy, Bates as well, and Gleeson sometimes helps out as a pianist there or something? idk I just want all my kids to dance ballet and go to this boarding school and get into shenanigans in the general vibe of DA. Like, Katie is of course the Kat like character (they even have the same name!) and her and Bink’s mum is this famous dancer who is super strict and wants her girls to just focus on school and not date at all, and Bates is this Sammy type, weak ankles and by far not the perfect body for dancing, but he just works so hard and he’s got so much potential! And of course Annie and Will also go to the academy, and Peter as well, and everyone knows that Katie and Peter hate each other, but they end up having to do pas de deux together ALL THE TIME. And I don’t think Luke and Harry go to this school, but there’s definitely a scene where Luke sneaks in and Bink gives him ballet lessons and it’s really friggin’ cute?? And they get caught and it’s a whole lot of trouble, and somehow, Katie and Peter end up covering for them and coming up with a kinda convincing lie, but then they have to pretend like they’re dating to make the lie convincing?

Idk there’s a lot of unanswered questions and stuff that doesn’t really make sense, which is why I’m never gonna write this thing and instead just daydream about it from time to time.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Currently definitely Melanie! I love her so much, and I feel like I know her so well - at least my version of her -, so I rarely have to think hard when writing her, it just flows right out of my brain into my word document. I mean, she goes through a lot of angsty shit in most of my writing, so that part definitely isn’t fun - but it’s just really satisfying to get her to work through it and get her the happy end she deserves. <3

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

All my characters smile fondly at each other ALL THE TIME. Like, they say something and smile. The other one says something, they smile. They’re just sitting around doing nothing, they smile. My first step in editing is often just going through my text and kicking out all the repetitive smiles because jeez, relax your faces for once, would you? Cheesy bastards.

I also write a lot of introspection, so there are recurring patterns there as well. Often, my characters think of saying something but then end up not saying anything. Often, they watch themselves like outsiders and wonder what they must look like to other people. Often, they refuse to think too closely about things that go through their head (which is a convenient tool for me as a writer to drop hints towards something without having to explain it fully at that point in the story, but it’s also a signature move of me, a repressed hoe who doesn’t like to examine their own brain too closely sometimes).

Luckily, I write so many different things for so many wildly different audiences that rarely anyone catches me repeating myself. :D

20. I already did over here.

#thanks for these!!#I love talking about writing so much #I think I love it more than actual writing ':D #my posts #mondfahrt

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