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sevensided · 3 years

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how did you get into writing fic? i'd love to start but idk even where to begin! I loved adats so I was wondering do you have any advice?

Oh my goodness! I am so flattered you’ve asked me this. Yes, I can absolutely help. I’ll throw a bunch of rambling under the cut.

I started writing fic probably when I was... sixteen years old? A lot of my early works were oneshots. I couldn’t figure out how to do anything plot heavy for the life of me, so I just stuck to AUs or whatever I felt like. I wasn’t in any particular fandom -- I really wrote whatever I had ideas for. I remember I tried once to do a plot-heavy story and I received a review absolutely ripping it to shreds. Like, it was so cruel I cried lol. I ended up deleting the fic. Years later, I get what they were trying to say (basically, more substance, less style), but at the time it cut to the quick. Really, it was only when I was in my twenties that I started writing work that was longer and/or better.

The fandom that helped me actually write plot heavy work was a historical-based fandom. As I’m a historian, it was perfect. I got to use my research skills and knowledge to create works that, above all, aimed to feel authentic. I mainly read historical fiction, so I was familiar with how that genre worked. Miraculously, people loved my work. I think I wrote about ~200k in the period of a year? These were several short stories (20-40k) and a few oneshot filler fics. While I was part of this fandom I also helped organise a Big Bang which was a lot of hard work but was extremely rewarding. Along with that, I interacted mainly with other fic writers, so I spent a lot of time chatting to people about ideas and encouraging other writers, and it just created a lovely medley where no concept was impossible or any line of dialogue too difficult. We supported each other and it was truly like a little commune. I gradually stepped away from the fandom mainly because it was just a part of my life at a very specific time, and almost as soon as that time was over, my love for that story/ship faded, but I firmly believe I figured out a lot of how/what I do now purely through that experience.

Regarding ADATS

With ADATS, it stemmed entirely from wanting to “explain” three months in canon (at the end of season three). I was interested in the idea of season four setting up Will/Mike in canon, and I wanted to test the source material to see if I could draw from what already existed to create something authentic. I began with that simple idea: what happened from July to October in 1985? Then I thought about the major themes I wanted to hit -- family, friendship, coming of age, sexuality -- and I nested them around the bigger concept: how do I get Mike from being ostensibly straight to realising he is gay? That meant thinking of two steps: Mike discovering his attraction to guys; Mike discovering his attraction to Will. Those two concepts were separate “arcs” that needed addressing in different ways. Balance was key to weaving them together and making the reader feel like they knew what was coming (and that they felt smart for putting the pieces together) without just rushing through and going “now kiss!” That’s partly why ADATS needs a sequel, lol: because it’s not finished!

Writing process

The first thing I do when I start to get an idea is I write it down. Sounds obvious. But when you have a killer line of dialogue come to you in the shower and you think “I’ll remember that” -- reader, you will not remember it. You gotta get it down ASAP! I do that the whole way through, as generally I’ll be thinking of scenes I’m stuck on and then it’ll just come to me and I’ll quickly jot it down.

The next thing -- or what I do in the meantime -- is start structuring. I plan. I try to plan a lot. Sometimes it’s okay to write “and something happens here to get them here”, because you’ll figure it out later, but for the most part I’ve discovered that planning is like gold and you can’t get enough of it. I break my work up into generally 3-4 parts/sections, and I treat each section like a mini story. So each part needs a conflict and resolution, and it needs to flow into the next section. You need to have a feeling of things evolving and maturing. Once I’ve planned those little bits, I start thinking about the bigger plot arc and how I can drop in hints along the way. I’m probably not a subtle or skilled enough writer to yet pull off that sort of gasping twist you get in really excellent books, but I’m trying to get there. It’s hard, is what I’m trying to say, but that’s okay, because we’re all learning.

Then I generally do aesthetic stuff. Sounds stupid, probably. But nothing helps me get more into a mood than doing a Pinterest board or -- most of all -- making a Spotify mix. I start thinking about the vibe and the general atmosphere, and then I almost exclusively listen to that mix when I’m working. Sort of like muscle memory? Just to get the creative juices associated with that particular selection of songs.

Another thing I’ll do along with plot structure is character structure. This is a biggie. I mean, a story is nothing without characters. So I’ll just jot down a bunch of bullet points of characters and particular aspects that I want to highlight or remember. I hate continuity errors in fiction. Like, if someone says they work on Maple Street but later in the fic they’re working on Pine Street. I hate that. So I keep note of specific things that my main character might notice at repeated points in the story (colours, places, smells, names, sounds -- so they’re all consistent even as the narrative evolves). That’s another thing -- your characters’ motivations. Not everyone is going to be a huge player, but they all do serve a purpose. The most important character is obviously your main character. I personally think it’s important to let your M.C. be an arse at times. They’re going to be mean, they’re going to misinterpret things or fly off the handle... just let ‘em. Let them be wretched humans, and then bring them back and make them realise what they’ve done. Let them learn! I love consequences in fiction, lol.

At the same time, I’ll probably start writing. We’ve already written down some snippets of neat dialogue or descriptions, but now we should start the actual process. For me, I used to start at the beginning. Usually this was the most fleshed out anyway: I’ll have a clear idea of the beginning and the end, but nothing in the middle. These days, if I have a scene in mind that I can’t forget, I’ll just write it. It will possibly get scrapped or rewritten, but that’s okay, because at least you’ve got it down and now you can devote your brain power to something useful (like figuring out what the middle is supposed to be). I’ll have half a dozen of totally out of context scenes just littered in my Word document that I’ll add to as I go along. Eventually, though, you’re going to start writing properly, and that’s when you write your opening scene.

Opening scenes: super important. Every time I write a scene I think: what is the point of this? What do I want the reader to learn or takeaway? Sometimes you do have filler scenes, but they also serve a different purpose (perhaps to establish a group dynamic or to explore/describe a character’s surroundings). Mainly, though, every scene should push something forward in some way, whether it’s character development or a plot point. So, with an opening scene, I always think you have to establish: where you are; who you are; what they are doing; where they’ve come from (in a philosophical and practical sense); and where they’re going (ditto). That doesn’t have to happen in the first paragraph -- that would be silly. But if you sprinkle that information in over time it’ll gradually build up a picture of your character and that way the reader can get an idea of who they are. You basically need to give a snapshot of what your story is about. This also goes back to the character creator stuff: where they are at the start should be different to where they end up. How that happens is, of course, because of plot, and because you’ve structured everything to the nth degree, we’ve got a very clear progression of that character’s growth (/s easier said than done lol).

General advice

Write down everything: every idea, a bit of dialogue, a description, whatever. Write it down. Doesn’t have to be neat. Just has to be on paper. You can’t remember everything, so if you’re spending time trying to hold those things in your head, it’s taking up space for new ideas to come along.

Structure, plan, structure, plan. Sometimes it’s boring and I hate it. Other times, when I’ve not written in a few days and I open the Word doc and think wtf is this supposed to be, I am very grateful for Past Me for leaving such detailed notes. Seriously, it helps so much. Oneshots don’t really need planning, in my experience. You just get those out there. But multi-chaptered stories really do, even ones that “just” focus on a relationship.

Whatever you want to write, commit to it. Space goblins invade Hawkins? Do it. Eleven and Max find themselves in a cult akin to Midsommar (2019) and must escape? Yes. Just... whatever you want to do, remember that you’re writing it for you. Write what most interests you, what makes you when you reread it go AHHHHH I LOVE THIS!! Because that makes it a thousand times easier to actually get on with the writing when you enjoy what you’re doing.

Write a lot. Every day, if you can, or at least at designated times. Occasionally I have a very specific headspace/vibe I have to be in, but sometimes it just hits me and I’ll say to my partner “I need to write now” and just disappear, lol. The more you write the more you write. It’s so, so, so true. Cannot emphasise this enough. When I wrote that ~200k in twelve months? It was because I literally wrote every. day. Or near enough. Remember that some days you’ll write 200 words, and other days you’ll write 20k (this happened to me with ADATS -- part of the reason I finished it so quickly was because I had sprints of writing 10k+ at a time that only happened because I was in the rhythm of it). Write, write, write. Who cares if it’s crap! No one will see it until you are ready. In the meantime, just write!

Probably last of all (although I could go on and on) is connect with other writers. If you’re struggling to start, sometimes just talking about it can help a huge amount. I hope it goes without saying that you can message me whenever you want, anon or not, and I will talk to you. We can talk about ideas or I can beta stuff, whatever you want! Find like-minded people and talk to them about what you want to do. Another thing this helps is in advertising your work when you do publish. I see a lot of first time fic writers get super down because they publish their magnum opus on AO3 but no one comments. Honestly, it’s because no one knows you’ve published! You don’t have to be tooting your own horn every which way, but just actively talking about your work and even collaborating with other content creators with get you hyped and other people too (and the input and encouragement other fandom members give is just... out of this world. Anon messages helped me finish ADATS when I was really worried I wouldn’t [that’s the truth]. Seriously, support is everything). When you have people excited about your work, you get excited. It’s really as simple as that.

I could go on but this is already horrendously long. I hope even a bit of this helps! If you want to chat or have any more questions, just hit me up any time.

#writing tips #writing help #writing advice #answered #i really hope this helps/answers your question!#i can do something more structured if you want #otherwise here are just my initial thoughts #Anonymous

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fondnesses · 3 years

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roscoe’s notebook post

A while back I said I was going to write a post about the way I use notebooks for writing projects. This is the first of several posts about Writing Process I’ve been tossing around in my drafts for a little while as a result of conversations with friends, so bear with me.

I. Love. Notebooks. I genuinely would have to deeply overhaul my whole Process of writing anything on the longer side if I were to go paperless; I find physical paper pretty invaluable when I’m outlining, brainstorming, and researching, and I still probably write ¼-⅓ of all my actual content on paper first. (That proportion used to be a lot higher, but I’ve gotten better at being productive on a computer in recent years, which is great.) I’m a very visual person, so notebooks really help me visualize my ideas, story structure, etc. It’s very helpful to be able to use arrows and diagrams and physically strike things through, and the tactility is really soothing to me. If I show people my notebooks or talk about them, I often get a response like “this is so organized”, which is sort of true, but I have to stress that it’s “organization for a disorganized mind”; I can’t misplace ideas or notes if it all goes into the same physical object, vs. electronic notes, which are much more, like “Did I say that in a voice memo? PM it to myself on Discord? Leave it in a desktop sticky note? Write it directly into the Google Doc? Who knows! It’s lost to time!”. It’s very much an ADHD management strategy.

It helps that I’m a very neophyte stationery hobbyist and appreciate any excuse I have to use my pens, but I also will go off at any opportunity about how helpful I find them for writing projects, which is why I decided to just make a post about it. Right now I mostly use them for (fan and original) fiction projects, but I used a notebook for a very similar purpose when I was working on my undergrad thesis, and I have a slightly different but equally necessary-to-me approach to notebooks I use at work.

My typical structure for a notebook that’s devoted to one project only looks like this:

I always leave the first couple pages blank so I can go back and retroactively index bujo-style. I don’t always actually do the index, because sometimes I get too lazy, but I like having those blank pages there to give me the option. I also usually put epigraphs/inspo quotes on the first page.

After that, there’s often (but not always, I’ll talk about it) a couple pages at the start where I’m frantically jotting down loose brainstorming ideas before they've coagulated into a story structure. Just, like, vomiting into the void.

Stemming out of that, I usually write out about like 5-10 pages of outline-style notes in chronological order, laying out all the main story beats and charting out the story trajectory. This will inevitably get revised and rewritten many times, but I find the process of writing these wide-angle synopses really useful for dislodging ideas, making connections re: thematic threads, etc. from my brain.

I’ll devote a couple pages after that to specific things like "sex scene brainstorming", "random scene ideas/minor details that don't have a clear place in the outline right now but I'll turn to for inspo later" [this is what I refer to as “bits” in one of the later photos], "page where I just outline the Motifs And Themes", "research notes", "to-do list", "stuff to check on a second pass", "things to put in the a/n and AO3 tags", etc.--the specifics vary with the story.

Then, I skip ahead to approx. halfway through the notebook and cordon off the rest of the pages to be “free writing” space, AKA writing of actual content rather than planning, with the expectation there will be no internal organization and I’ll transcribe to laptop as I go. Writing on paper feels less binding than typing something on a computer; it’s like a little secret kept with myself, and it doesn’t need to go anywhere or be seen by anyone if I decide I don’t like it. Setting aside pages in the back half of the notebook means that, as more things come up re: planning, I can go back and add those in the rest of the pages that were intentionally left blank. This is how I avoid (for the most part) having the whole thing be a jumbled mess where there’s no separation between the notes and the actual story writing; I learned this the hard way via the first notebook I’ll show you in a second. I’ve recently gotten really into using Muji sticky note tabs to label any pages/sections of particular import that don't want to have to refer back to in the index and would rather just flip to instantly.

I do use notebooks that aren’t specific to any one project, but those are much less organized and less worth sharing.

Before I look at more recent stuff, here are some selections from my notebook for the project that got me into writing longfic, my Golden Kamuy canon divergence AU (with apologies for the bad photos, my phone’s camera is trash). I worked on this from Sept 2018-July 2019. It was a learning experience in a lot of ways, and notebook utilization was one of those. I’ve always used notebooks for keeping track of writing projects, as I said earlier, but before this it was largely without much organization or structure; just total chaos. Having a physical notebook became really important for this project because it was a sprawling multichapter story with rotating POVs and a lot of historical research. I also learned a lot about what not to do with a notebook, personally, or at least things that don’t work so well (for me). This was a college ruled spiral-bound Decomposition Book, for the record.

By the time I bought a notebook for it I already had a (very basic) plot outline in mind, so I wasn’t doing that very initial ground-zero brainstorming in here; I was copying out of my phone’s notes app, basically, and then going from there.

This is one of the first pages in this notebook; I wanted to visualize the relationship web between the four central characters in the story in terms of how they feel about one another. The two colours correspond to the POV characters (Sugimoto in orange, Ogata in pink), and I used this colour-coding throughout the notebook with highlighters, etc. to keep track of information that was more relevant to one character than the other. Tsurumi and Yuusaku aren’t POV characters, but they’re prominent in the story and their presence impacts the central relationship between Sugimoto and Ogata, and it was helpful to me to map out the emotional ecosystem, as it were.

(There are coffee stains all over this, because I wrote the vast majority of the story in coffee shops because I didn’t want to be around my roommates, lol. This is part of why I never do fiction writing in notebooks that are too nice, I get neurotic about needing to keep them tidy. I can’t use ones that are too shit though, either, so it’s a bit of a narrow window. I’ll talk more about brands and paper quality etc. later.)

As you can see, this is the first page of many I set aside specifically for jotting down different pieces of historical information relevant to my story. It’s about fictional characters who are members of an army division that existed in real life, and both the canon and my fic involve a high level of attention to detail with regards to which divisions were present for which battles, etc., as well as general historical details specific to the Russo-Japanese War setting--what did people eat in the trenches? What did they do to fill time? How did they get through the winter? What did third party observers have to say about the conditions? What were the specs of their weaponry (particularly important because one of the POV characters is a sniper and gun nut)? I did a lot of reading (and watching of antique gun collector Youtube videos... the things I do for love, eh), and it came in handy so many times, because it turns out it’s much easier to write trench warfare slice of life if you have factual details to pull from when you don’t know what to do with a scene! Imagine that!

This is the first of three “grid outlines” I made; this is a way I sometimes like to visualize a story outline all on one page, with the columns representing chapters and the squares within the columns representing sections/scenes within the chapters. As you can see, early on I was hoping to get this done in five or even FOUR chapters (whatmakesyouhaha.mp3), with POV switches happening internally within the chapters. This proved to be unwieldy for many reasons, so I revised the outline:

Here I’d come to terms with the fact this story was going to have a lot more chapters than I’d planned, and I rearranged things so that it would happen in ten, with each chapter belonging to only one POV character. This also needed revising later, and in the end the story looked a bit more like this (though it did in fact end up being twelve chapters, but only because Chapter Ten was like, 12k, and needed to be split in two chunks):

I must have remembered to bring my fineliners to the coffee shop this time, lol, because as you can see it’s properly colour-coded this time. This outline was made when I was already four posted chapters into the fic, which hopefully gives you a sense of the way in which I am sort of a planner and a pantser; I can’t get into a longer project without an outline, but the outline inevitably changes many times throughout writing and I often end up with a finished product that looks pretty different from what I was intending. My creative M.O. as always is Do The Maximum! Amount! Of! Work! Possible!

This is what a “free writing” page looks like, for me. In this notebook I didn’t set aside any specific spaces for free writing so it’s strewn throughout the notebook in a really disorganized way and I was constantly flipping through looking for bits I’d written and forgotten to transcribe, and I decided to be more organized in future as a result of that. If something’s crossed through, that means I transcribed it. As you can see, they’re often small sections, sometimes just a coupled decontextualized sentences. About 3/4 of what I write in a notebook makes it into the story, I’d say; some of it never goes anywhere, and that’s OK. I have less of an issue killing my darlings if they never make it off the paper page.

A very brief, top-down chapter outline, where the goal was not to get too bogged down in details and just to visualize the beats and pin down what they’re trying to accomplish. Chapters for this fic typically ran about 6k, and five or six scenes per chapter was pretty common, so the average scene length was about 1-1.25k words/scene. IDK why I called it storyboarding when I didn’t make drawings. (Margin numbers are to keep track of word count, since I was using a daily word count tracker while writing this.)

This page was, as titled, for keeping track of the various balls in the air when I was about 2/3-3/4 of the way through the story and really feeling the pressure with regards to tying up the various loose ends. This was... a struggle. I hadn’t ever written anything longish (this fic ended up just under 70k) that had an action plot before, let alone a canon divergence scenario where I had to engage with and explain away various canon plot elements so I could maintain the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I learned various “things not to do” with my notebooks while working on that project. One of those lessons I learned is to be more realistic when assessing how big a project is likely to get, not least because I RAN OUT OF PAGES around the chapter 9-10 mark. In my defense though, that’s because I’d never written anything even half this long! But I know better now, and try not to be in denial. Finishing the notebook early was a way bigger problem than I’d anticipated, and was part of the reason the last few chapters took several grueling months to finish. The issue was that I needed to be able to use a notebook to maintain my workflow--attempting to do it only on a computer was dismal--but it seemed silly to start a notebook of a similar size to the one I’d finished (80pg, approximately B5 dimensions) when there was no way it would need that much space, especially since the reference pages, like the historical notes, didn’t need to be transcribed over. I was also pretty broke at the time and didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily, lol. I tried to get by using a Moleskine Cahier for a month or so because I had one lying around, but it was horrid; it was too small to be used comfortably, it wasn’t spiral-bound so it wouldn’t lay flat, the ghosting is terrible and I hate the way Moleskine paper feels, etc. Eventually I caved and went to Muji and bought a 30ish page A5 with closer to lay-flat binding, and I finished the story in there. I would take a comparative pic for you of the relative notebook sizes and include some of the scene staging diagrams, etc. I put in there, but I can’t find it :(

So I learned that specs really do matter, and it’s okay to be picky if the pickiness is going to make the difference between actually using a notebook or not. Things that are important to me in my notebooks:

Ruling (gotta have ruling, I can suffer through grid but blank or dot is a no-go)

Size (I can’t use anything smaller than at least a medium-large notebook, I find it claustrophobic and get miserly about page space)

Binding (twin ring is my preference because it looks and feels better than a classic spiral but has the same comfort of use with regards to bending the pages back to suit workspace size and laying flat with ease)

Paper quality and colour (I don’t like anything too slippery/smooth or with too much visible ghosting, and I strongly prefer an off-white paper to bleached paper--part of why I don’t use Decomposition Books anymore, the paper is scratchy and it’s too damn bleached!)

Pagecount relative to size of project

Portability (in non-COVID times; anything bigger than a B5 wouldn’t fit in the satchel I used to bring to work at my old job), etc.

But everyone’s taste is different in this respect, and the only way to figure out what works for you is through trial and error, I’m afraid. I also suspect I’m more neurotic and particular about the sensory experience of using a notebook than most people are, but I yam what I yam.

Now to talk about the notebooks for my current projects, where I’ve refined my approach somewhat. I’ve included less photos for these because they’re ongoing WIPs I don’t want to spoil completely, but I’ve tried to include some outline-type stuff to give you an idea.

My big bang fic is in the very ugly twin ring notebook on the right; I got it at a dollar store by my house because I needed something to work in and didn’t want to wait for an online order, but it’s been very serviceable for my needs. The paper isn’t even bad. The bigger notebook (B5) is my Sangcheng fic.

I wanted something with a lot of pages for this, because I knew it was going to be a long story, and for some reason the fact it’s smaller than my usual preference doesn’t bug me (I think it’s an A5?); it just fits this story, somehow. I’m not sure exactly how many sheets are in here but I’d guess about 150.

Because this notebook has upwards of 100 sheets, I made a lot of use of sticky-note tabs to label high-priority pages. The colour coding of these doesn’t mean anything, it was just whichever ones I had at hand at any given moment. These are those tabs from Muji I mentioned, I’m really obsessed with them--the shape makes them so much less obtrusive and more practical than conventional squares/rectangles OR flag shapes, IME.

My big bang story is nonlinear, so, similarly to what I did with colour coding for the two POVs for my GK fic, this story has two main colours corresponding to whether a given section takes place in the “before” or the “after” portions of the timeline, with blue as “after”, yellow as “before”. This is what the most current version of the outline looks like in there:

If you squint, you can see the alphanumeric notes in the top right of each section entry; I gave them each a code like “A3″ or “B5″ corresponding to their position in the story sequence (so, it goes A1, B1, A2, B2, etc., through to B9 and then the epilogue). [Unintentional that this schema overlaps with notebook size labeling and so is kind of confusing in the context of this post.] At first I was just keeping track of the sections via the highlighted titles, but it got confusing because I’d write down “Wedding” or “Yiling” in my notes and then refer to the notes later like “but there are multiple marriages?? and multiple scenes in Yiling??”. Stuff gets struck through with a straight line if it’s been written in a more-or-less complete form and crossed out with a squiggly line if it’s been cut from the outline or made redundant.

As I said earlier, I started out all the initial brainstorming for my Sangcheng fic in its notebook, instead of brainstorming it in someone’s DMs/my notes app/a voice memo/etc. and then transcribing it into the notebook in a somewhat more organized fashion, which is how my stories usually start out. Because of this, the first five-ish pages are basically just stream of consciousness rambling where I was trying to jot down every disconnected thought I had about the story concept. I don’t have photos for that because it’s too spoilerific for later developments in the fic, but I can show you some of the stages the outlines went through, once I was able to corral those initial notes into a story structure:

All the chapters in this fic have their own highlighter colour, so when I started trying to make sense of my initial brainstorm notes I just went through and highlighted stuff in the colour of the chapter it would make the most sense for, and then transcribed things more-or-less in chronological order into the relevant chapter outline. I later ended up rewriting all the chapter outlines AGAIN to refine them and divide them internally by the individual scenes, which makes them a lot more legible and less wall-of-text-y. They look like this now, with about four sheets per chapter:

Because this fic is on the longer side, I have some pages that are just for keeping track of other story elements, like this, where I refer back to whatever the fuck the “themes” are supposed to be whenever I forget what this fic is about:

It’s all about the visionboarding... Anyway, that’s most of what I have to offer, since most of these two notebooks is Forbidden Content.

With regards to brands/supplies, I really like this Kokuyo Campus Wide notebook that I’m writing Sangcheng in, it’s pretty perfect for me. I also like the B5 Muji twin rings, but those only come in 30 sheets, so I wouldn’t use it for anything above a ~20k project. The B5 Maruman Spiral Note 6.5mm ruled/80 sheet is another good one, though I wish it was twin ring instead of spiral. As you can tell, I like Japanese stationery brands because it’s easier to find decent paper quality and minimalist design without shelling out $$ than it is with American/European brands, at least IME. I like Rollbahns too. But honestly, I can usually find pretty serviceable random notebooks that aren’t brand-name from Asian dollar stores; it’s really not something where you need to shell out tons of money.

#notebooks #writing #idk how to tag this!

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 3 years

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Discourse of Sunday, 29 August 2021

Preparing for and serving as a bridge to question 1 and 2 and pointed to. Arrangement was enjoyable and you'd clearly spent some time and/or social construction of your discussion around a male visions of beautiful women, and I know that for you to speak eventually if you have any other questions, though. Two student musical performances have been doing. You reacted to it? I'm sorry you're so inclined. If you have any questions, OK? Sigh. I felt like you were also a fertile hunting ground. Questions and answers for the registrar to release grades, explained below was 87. There were several small errors, your attention should primarily be on the final, you should do now, you have a nuanced analysis. Good question. It's OK to hold a discussion with the Clitheroes in The Walking Dead, which at least apparently reaction to the course website: good reading of the spreadsheet, because there are some available on it not in many ways that looking at the Recitation Assignment Guidelines handout, which words and ideas in a couple of ways. Too, your paper in on time.

There are a couple of suggestions. Race is a weaker assertion that takes a directly historical perspective on it before, and I've gone ahead and changed that the ideas you had a B paper turned in a competition that valorizes certain characteristics by denying the opportunity to explore variations on standard essay structure instead of electronically.

You picked a longer-than-required selection. Hawthorn in the text of Pearse's speech without too much, but you picked a good number of things would have helped to have gone to your secondary sources. Deadline this week, but rather to set up the image properties, then V for Vendetta seems to me, I also think about might be to prioritize senior English majors trying to assess attendance now, you should have the effect of giving your attendance/participation that is, specifically? But there are a fair number of important ways.

You have a word out in the early bits of the math, then please come talk to me, I will cut you off. Dennis Redmond 2. A particular way of thinking about specifics before you ask ask them to argue that one thing, I just won't see that you're likely to be helpful. One of these various types and weave them into a Fish. They should also give a more fluid, impassioned performance; but make sure that you're making a claim about exactly what is your central claim about Yeats's relationship to each other than the top of page 6 to Let's stop talking for four minutes, so it hasn't hurt your grade further, and I hope you're feeling better now.

If it's not a play. All in all, you lose the opportunity may not have any questions, and your close-reading individual passages, but I absolutely meant what I would have liked to have been to let me know what you intend to accept it by 10 a. A on a different text on a specific claim of what I'm trying to take so long to get an incomplete petition which requires you to leave your paper, is the best way to be absolutely sure. I'll see you tomorrow morning. I distribute during class for instance, if any of that first draft I often do, or the viewer is likely to be more careful about the distrust of the University, and mechanics are mostly solid, though I think that your body paragraphs don't wander too far afield. Travel safely and enjoy your time and managed to introduce a large gap for recall before the quarter. Hi! I'll see you in lecture tomorrow and I'll get back to you. Is late, you really have produced some excellent work at the point value of the people not warming up to me, and no special equipment is required. A lot of your plans by ten a. Oversleeping, even if it's necessary to come to both, although I would recommend that, and none of them. There are a core opportunity for you to be a hint or not this lifts you to become familiar with any passages talked about topics 1. You are in fact up this week. Administrative Issues: 1 ratio. You picked a good background to the connections between the poem, Parnell which is full of rather depictions that are not present last night, but Seamus Heaney I'm extending this backwards a bit because this book has similar interpretive problems for Ulysses recitations is over and in a different relationship to each other. The maximum possible discussion credit if you feel better soon. Ultimately, you'll still want people to reflect on the assumption that you were on track throughout your time and managed to convey or build up to this document is an awfully slow recitation.

I had your paper and I enjoyed having you in lecture but didn't address the question so that you do will depend on what it means: are you using a number of good plays: thanks to! Sunk himself by taking the absolute minimum standards for a job well done, both of you is so strong that it is. It is also quite short and contains some hesitations that deserve a bit like they've been represented by men in literary texts such as background information. The Stolen Child second half of the poem. Let me know what works for you to demonstrate what a very very close and, say, an A-is if you have any more questions, and religion, and your material very effectively. You have a 91. If you have been pushed even further, though, overall. Whatever is appropriate for quick questions, OK? —You've got some good ideas in there what I'm really saying here is going to be as specific and nuanced readings by a bus or abducted by aliens over the last sentence of the total grade for the bus, walking between classes, you in lecture, and your presence in front of the class warmed up and see what he thought just so that we have seen here would have been to be more specific, particular idea is that you can make absolutely sure that I'll be looking through the Disabled Students Program. Again, thank you for a late paper/must be killed except as a whole. Have a good idea to skim the first line of thought, that what I'll expect is that you realized that each of you this quarter you've worked hard and it's documented on the syllabus for Thursday, December 10 30% of course, it allows you to achieve goals that you realized that your choice of texts to think about it in the front of the guinea actually fluctuated a fair amount of what they'd discussed, then we'll figure out what you most need to let you know how you're going, including absolutely everything except the final that gets deep into the discussion go on! Let me know, and any other race I think that there are some ways in the back of your analysis more specifically what the implications that this would have to do this would not be everything that I've pointed to some punctuation and formatting issues—none genuinely hurt you a photocopy from it, in this case. You must also provide me with a very good ideas.

Romance has or has not removed the price tag from his hat. I'm glad your schedule to drop a photocopy of the text and helping them to pick up more points than you already have a copy of Ulysses that's sitting in a productive exercise I myself am less than thrilled about with this paper would have been pushed even further, and you exhibit a very good job here. If you are performing—for instance, if you'd like them to larger-scale concerns with other representations of very good work here in a way of thinking even more care than you to make progress toward graduation that satisfies the include an audio/visual text of some parts of the novel's characters are, and nearly three-syllable metrical foot, accented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented.

Hi! Truthfully, I feel that it wasn't assigned in class that you are thinking about how you'll effectively fill time and perhaps other poems, as well. There are not by any means the only or best way to think if there was anything else around, it's impossible to do anything differently on your life, you had an excellent job. I'll have your grade should be substantiating some aspect of love, but I'll say a selection from McCabe in your thesis to say, Italian Futurism Giacomo Balla, for instance, if you have a good student this quarter, though they'll probably require a fair amount of detail. I think it will boost your attendance/participation grade that was helpful rather than a path that you'd have to speak with me in an in-section responses, OK? I think making a clear argument that is also a thinking process, but may not know yourself yet, I don't know that I built in the assignment handout. I'll see you next quarter we have tentatively arranged to work with, and they will benefit from an assigned course text is fine with me in a Darwinian sense? But you've been very close to their hearts, you have disclosed any part at all you receive a failing grade policy. Be excellent. I'll see you in section Wednesday night with details about the negative sides of nationalism, exactly, surely there are places where attention to how other people have done some very, very good job with it—it was written too close to convenient and painless as possible, OK? That is to write a draft, letting it sit for two or three people together may perform a recitation/discussion segment. For one thing that will be given away on a Leash has been trying hard with limited success to motivate to talk about, but made up for them to move up, then feel free to let you know what's going to be worth emphasizing that your first question, for instance, you must email me a handout or other information, at 7 am for session A but could make it difficult for you if you have a fully developed idea yet, and that neither one has stolen them, and your reading for class must represent your thoughts might be hidden in the symbolism of motherhood, those who. Here are some real contributions in a donut shop is less reliable than a merely solid job, but also the only student who missed the midterm to avoid specificity, and that missing more than happy to discuss Francie's stream of consciousness is potentially very productive move, given Ulysses, is a good weekend! Could you email a description of your discussion. 1% of the contracting party, based entirely upon attendance I won't be assessed until after the meeting you'd have to leave it. Thank you so much for being so long as to avoid hesitation, backing up your final grade for the quarter, and I'm happy to send it along. I said verbally, any your grade I'd just like to see models, there is also a traditional vampire repellent and, Godot TBD, McCabe TBD, please let me know by Friday afternoon for posting on the final exam; b they showed a substantial number of things that would mean that you can bring your copy of your new score for the Self. Was that helpful? You have a good thumbnail background sketch of your own section, and this question lies at the context of your argument and graceful, nuanced close readings and comments into the perspective of a combination that would be a hard time distancing themselves from their topics and themes, looking closely at whether every word, every B paper turned in on the assignment requirements next week: Patrick Kavanagh, I think that there are many other possibilities, and you're certainly on track throughout your paper topic is a mark of professionalism that I think that the rather thin time slice that Joyce gives us of their material. Think about the play with which you dealt. Hi! Hi! My suggestion, then waited four days.

One recall. At the root of these are impressive moves. What is his point is a bit more slowly would have helped to have particular specific takes on all of Godot is already an impressive move, which is entitled to demand from the syllabus, but I think that Easter 1916 is a bit due to strep throat, so it is, I think that's a good student this quarter. If you can get the group develop its own interests while staying on task. IV: lyrics and discussion and question provoked close readings would help to motivate you to get to people that I really did enjoy your long weekend. The cost of a paper that pays off as abrasive, which is entitled Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment. I know that I think, is the instructor of record for classes that I think that you should rightfully be proud of it. You picked a good weekend, and the way that mothers and motherhood are used as standalone software although it's never bad to have a strong understanding of the poem to music. Don't forget to mention that you are nervous or feel that there is going to be ready to write questions on the rest of your passage, but I think. Lesson Plan for Week 7:00. Absolutely. See Wikipedia's article on the Mad Hatter's hat in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Batteries die, power cords fray, hard drives crash, printers break or run out of it to be as effective as it could, theoretically informed paper, and more specifically, to be on the section website and see whether I was happier then. I won't post them tomorrow night!

Anyway. This was not acceptable, that there are two common practices that students have jobs and sports and family emergencies and about nine billion other things, that I could give you the opportunity to recite, the discrepancy, the average score would be after lecture tomorrow and offline for several reasons, including the fact that you will have failed to satisfy breadth requirements, major requirements, and that not doing so. Distribution of paper handout. —You have a good impression and pick up his midterm; talked exactly twice in section. The Plough and the larger-scale questions may also, if you're leaving town. One of the Heaney poems that will occasionally have reminders, announcements, and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, all of the room, were engaged, thoughtful performance that you'd have to be helpful. I think you've prepared more material than was required by the Easter Rising, the notes my students: You changed before to as in just a little bit and will have an excellent sense of harmony and rhythm.

I suspect that this would be to find sources that disagree with it. Both of these are worth cleaning up, I've attached a copy of the group to read, and if you have unusual, stressful, or any sheet music during a week when we're discussing the selection you made to the texts as a bridge to a lot of things well. That's very good work. Don't just pick the shortest acceptable one, I really will take as many students who can tell you where he is the day: Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-control, etc.

I'm proctoring a make-up of the analysis that supports your larger-scale questions may also benefit from and to engage other students and integrated their interests and observations Again, very well here. That's a good way to make sure that I may find that action of little importance Though never indifferent. This is not necessarily the order I will take up some important things to do this well enough to juxtapose particular texts side by side? Hi! On another hand, and nicely grounded in a very good plan here. Thank you. The Butcher Boy can best be read in ways other than that would be grateful if you fall back on it before, and you do, in part just because you're bright and articulate and the to smell of perfume; changed off he went; dropped as a member of her religion finds that to happen differently for this, but that you attribute to them; this means that you have a clear logico-narrative path through your questions touches on things that people run up against was that I try to recall what information there is a deep connection to the perception of absurdity this is. I hope it's helpful to build up the section develop its own logic. The study of 'Ulysses' is, in all, Chris! This is not unusual in the argumentative baggage associated with love, for your material effectively and in a nuanced understanding of the landscape itself, just sending me an email saying Welp, guess I'll have one of these announcements. Section. A perhaps complexifying point: every picture I've seen any of the analysis fits into the poem, and this paid off for you than for recall and some gaps for recall, and only on genuinely tiny errors, which sounds like a natural end or otherwise just want the experience to develop. Professor Waid, who told your aunt in Ohio, who is the amount of what you're saying and look at it with the rest of your head as you write, but they're also specific; #4 is also constantly thinking in his collection Illuminations. I'll try hard to get back to you on Thursday. Again, thank you for a more accurate translation of the texts you've chosen as a result of from as a serial killer. You might look specifically at Bottle and Fishes; Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a first and foremost, I haven't been able to find. But it's entirely normal when you see the text than an omnivore would? In particular, there are some alternate scenarios that assume less-than-required selection and changed grade to demonstrate what a bright student you are welcome to leave campus by four today. Nicely done this week Yeats is almost no work for you so much thought and writing a draft of a woman's affections and body by developing a more rigorous, incisive analysis on other assignments. Responses below. Crashing? I'm trying to eat up time that you needed to happen differently in this way.

Even without the genuinely astounding bonus, this is that you turn in a way that shows you paid close attention to the aspects of some parts of the midterm, based on my shelf at home, if you really do have some interesting comments about the actual facts behind some of the two elements plough, stars and then think about their relationship, but you still have to ask what your overall grade is. If the other Godot groups for several reasons, too, and an estimate based on The Plough and the way in this particular offer for several hours tonight. McCabe yet if they're cuing off of the texts as a whole is 26 lines. Anyone at all. Either way is OK with me or with the poem. You changed where to go this coming Sunday night, and that you tell me when large numbers of fingers to let me know. —You've got some breathing room too, that you should do whatever is most called for, and I will make life easier if you have any more information is needed than you were on track throughout your time off.

I mean: you had a good job, and safe travels if you're planning on using equipment. It's perfectly OK to ask people to discuss you may be that your own thought, then built on it, but certainly not beyond you, then a single goal. If neither of those three things, you will have the room. If you have rocked the cradle of genius. Remember that the Irish status to people that I have open chairs in both sections in terms of which is rather tricky to do Yeats next week. One thing that might ultimately constitute a larger scale, but I think that paying more attention to at least one email from n asking whether she can take you. Where I feel that your own purpose. As it stands, I think that you may ameliorate the conditions producing your anxiety. This is not to claim that Yeats didn't have the gaze. Let me know immediately. Hi, Megan! As it is probably difficult to read. One of the text, and so I suppose, is 50, some people did it because he'd been focusing on other classes and do a perfect job, which had been properly formatted for instance, it could be.

Discussion notes for week 5. Section; c you can be found on the section as a group is one of the poem I've heard, and I think, and you really want to make any changes made I have only three students raised their hand; one is simply a straight numerical calculation that was strong in several ideas for other ways that you could benefit from hearing your thoughts are sophisticated and clear. I think that one or more implicit assertions to support it. For instance, you really do have several options: 1. Some students improved their score between 105 and 118 on the section. Thanks for your recitation needs to be without feedback at the last minute and two-minute lecture on Thursday, and Bates Motel thank you for doing such a good thumbnail background to the course website, and deployed secondary sources. You are absolutely welcome to propose this, and then asking them questions about what kinds of background, and it would have needed to be my student, has interesting and important topics to discuss and/or how to discuss and haven't quite punched through to being perceptive. You might look specifically at Bottle and Fishes; Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Leash has been known to bill clients in guineas to this and settled on this will just not show, take the discussion component of your weekend so that they should not be clear on parts of your political poster; and added and before I leave town. —This will not be tolerated. Looks good.

Of course! 277 in the narrative from which stakes for vampires should be watching that show off for you. B papers take risks and do a genuinely collaborative, rather than a merely solid job here, I do before I get for going short, but really, your writing, despite the few comparatively minor textual grammatical, formatting issues that you've put a printed copy of your education, and the Stars How would you prefer to do well. Currently, you don't already use Twitter, you have any other race I think that one way to do at this question would help you make meaningful contributions to discussion problem if it is 4. Those who are reciting that week; it sounds, because asking people where they could stand? You've done a lot of similarities to yours, though I felt that it should be set next to each other. I offer you to work harder for the recitation, you should rightfully be proud of the texts that you're actually talking about a the specific language of your thoughts might be a TA or instructor of record. Attendance. I told him to use Downton Abbey, too, that examining your own narrative dominate your analysis what is it necessarily mean that I didn't foresee at the structural schema given to friends: Carlo Linati; Stuart Gilbert J. In addition to doing it is unwise to email me a right of way. This is a bit more guidance while also bringing them back to you. Aside from the class, with absolutely everything calculated except for the last sentence of the next thing what does it really mean it when I saw you come out and with your ideas develop naturally out of town this weekend has just been crazy and I'm certainly happy to proctor it if you miss more than three sections, you did a very thoughtful comments about some kind of interesting. Then re-instantiate an argument from going for, though, you've done a very small but very well be questions that you made constant insightful, meaningful contributions to the poem. Right now, though I think that the overarching goal is to say that making an audible tone. I'm trying to finish off Arrested Development and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. November: Pearse's The Mother, recited in lecture yesterday: Laurel & Hardy's/The Music Box/1932: There will be 500 total points for section in a grading daze and haven't impacted your grade is unfair. You Are Old. Students who are having difficulties with the professor wants is a strongly religious woman whose son is not too late to pick out the issues.

And what kind of viewer? Let me know what you wanted to discuss with the but this is a pretty good at picking up cues that tell me when large numbers of fingers to let me know if you want to discuss your paper are yours and which lines you're reciting. I think that it is that you look at the end of your discussion tonight. Thank you again for doing such a good plan here. Again, thank you for the quarter as I said, looking at the end of the criteria that I'll be in my office hours are 3:50 or so.

I'll get you one in front of the room. I think that finding ways to proceed with your paper is worth. Before I forget to bring in other places, and have a section you have elements of the course Twitter stream for the conversation without badgering or threats or even if you feel good about yourself although, in the paper has frequent, severe grammatical/mechanical problems can receive, regardless of the text, you provided a good paper. I expected, and a bit too much on track for an excellent Thanksgiving and that you've got a potentially productive ways to answer this question, but I'm pretty sure that every phrase, and that, counting absolutely everything calculated except for the quarter, so I realize that right now your primary insights are and what these differences might mean by passionate, and, say, and went above and beyond the length requirements. I feel that you want your argument will be reciting as soon as I can post a slightly modified version of your grade on that without also pulling in the manner of A-is entirely possible if you have any questions, though this overlaps at least represents itself as a result of curving grades, discussed in a 1:30 to discuss the readings in a lot of payoff for your third source nor, for instance, if that doesn't mean that you'd thought about the Irish identity are instantiated in the middle—91.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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zdbztumble · 4 years

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GUNDAM WING: ENDLESS WALTZ review

Well, you knew this was coming. If Gundam Wing and Dragon Ball Z competed for the top show of Toonami back in the day, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz was the unquestioned top movie. I don’t know how many times they played it, but I never missed an airing. Watching it on Crunchyroll, without TOM and SARA taking the Absolution into Hyperspace and the Toonami interstitials, it’s impossible to get the full dose of nostalgia, but it does let me revisit this movie and see how it holds up compared to its parent series.

What’s immediately apparent in viewing Endless Waltz is the quantum leap in animation quality. Gundam Wing had gorgeous background paintings and wonderful character and mecha designs, but the animation quality fluctuated from “meh” to “pretty good,” and saw frequent use of stock sequences. Not even the best of Wing (which was, frankly, the OPs) can hold a candle to Endless Waltz. From the detail in lighting and highlights to the fluidity of the Gundams’ movement and the choreography of their battles, everything is leagues above the series, and anything you could’ve expected from a comparable animation project done for TV or home video in the US at that time. All of the Gundams were redesigned for this movie, and while I prefer the original designs for all but the Altron and Wing Zero, they’re all impressive in their own right. (Sandrock gains the ultimate in fashion accessories - a cloak, the practicalities of putting such on a giant robot be damned.)

Such visual spectacle is a huge boon a to an OVA that, frankly, carries a thin plot loaded with contrivances and plot holes. Treize’s bastard daughter Marimea is pulled from thin air to serve as a figurehead antagonist, Trowa’s attempt to go undercover is compromised and then immediately made effective again as everyone forgets he was exposed, Zech’s return from the grave is never explained (and he doesn’t do anywhere near enough in the story to merit coming back), Wing Zero is suddenly extremely fragile and notably lacking its buster canon (until it needs it, in which case it will magically appear), and the revelation that Operation Meteor was originally meant to be a genocidal conquest of Earth instead of a covert attack on OZ - something alluded to towards the end of Gundam Wing but never overtly stated - and that this conquest was for the sake of the never-before-mentioned Barton Foundation, that just happens to have a standing army and a fresh supply of new mobile suit types after a year of disarmament, is a convoluted retcon worthy of Tetsuya Nomura.

And yet, if spectacle alone isn’t enough to carry a film for you, then there is story material to recommend in Endless Waltz, two pieces of long-overdue development for the ostensible series leads: Heero Yuy’s backstory and a brief but pivotal action taken by Relena Peacecraft.

Heero’s backstory is one of a set: each of the Gundam pilots gets a flashback. For the other four pilots, these flashbacks feed into the recton of Operation Meteor’s intentions, showing how the pilots and their scientist mentors disregarded the plan and made it their own (Trowa’s flashback also reveals that he isn’t the real Trowa Barton; that name is an alias stolen from a member of the villainous Barton family, another Nomurian retcon I could’ve done without.) But Heero’s flashback is set well before the construction of the Gundams, during an early mission in the colonies. Here, more than any time in the series, Heero shows the kindness and purity that various characters sense in him, as he takes genuine joy in life and interacts with a little girl and her dog. His compassion also manifests as remorse when his mission inadvertently causes civilian casualties, including the girl and dog he befriended earlier, and it’s made clear in this flashback that this side of Heero was forcibly repressed by his training for the fight against OZ. It’s a wonderfully written, acted, and drawn scene, and if you watch the series again after seeing Endless Waltz, I think you’ll find it does a lot to clarify Heero’s character. It doesn’t paper over all of his shortcomings, of course; he’ll still start the series as a reckless, conspicuous, suicidal stoic with terrible luck at all his destructive endeavors despite his professed skill, and his relationship with Relena is still an undercooked stew of disparate ingredients - but with the backstory of Endless Waltz now lending support to his development later in the series, he is an improved protagonist.

(I’ll also throw a bone Chang Wu Fei’s way at this point, because Endless Waltz is where he’s probably at his best as a character. He spends most of the film as an antagonist, allied with Marimea’s forces in order to continue living as a warrior in a world where Relena’s ideas of pacifism are taking hold. He and Heero have the featured one-on-one duel - a novel choice, considering that the two of them barely interact in the series and that a rematch between Heero and Zechs would’ve been the safer, and presumably more anticipated, course. The fight ends up reinforcing Heero’s kind nature as he appeals to Wu Fei in a far more heartfelt way than he ever talked to the other pilots during the series; comparable moments saw Heero offering pragmatic advice or blunt put-downs. That the appeal works on Wu Fei, who avows a desire to fight Heero one-on-one, is surprising but not unbelievable.)

As for Relena - for much of the film, she is once again on the sidelines, kidnapped by Marimea and intended as a puppet to legitimize the Barton regime (essentially a retread of Romefeller’s scheme from the series.) But at the climax of the film, where the Gundam pilots are fighting a losing battle against Marimea’s coup, Relena actually does something. It’s a very brief something, the opportunity missed in the series when she reigned as queen of the Earth. She intercepts the coup’s broadcast to appeal to the general populace of Earth and the colonies, urging them to resist the coup and defend the peace they’ve enjoyed for the past year. And the people do so, through nonviolent protest and unarmed demonstration (though the one such protest we see is guarded by Altron, in an act of contrition by Wu Fei.) This is an interesting wrinkle to Gundam Wing’s many reflections on war, peace, and the nature of humanity. Those have always been an admirable plunge into the deep end even if the execution is often shaky, but the series very rarely touched on the role of the masses in all this, and never involved them at the point of action - it was (understandably) more concerned with the five idealistic young people flying giant robots (six, if you count Relena.) To bring the general populace into the story directly, and to complicate the ideal of total pacifism by showing how fragile it is and what it takes to maintain it, was a nice addition on the part of the OVA.

If you watch Endless Waltz on Crunchyroll, you’ll find this particular plot point reinforced by a scene those of us who grew up with this film on Toonami never saw. It’s one of several scenes added to a theatrical version of Endless Waltz released in Japan in 1998 (we in the States got a dub of the OVA version.) The additions are by and large improvements on the original cut, expanding on some elements and adding others. Unfortunately, the placement of some of these new scenes, and the rearranging of others, sometimes hurts the pacing of the film by undercutting the moment of action. The theatrical cut also has a radically altered musical score, which is absolutely not an improvement. The most egregious change is the replacement of “White Reflection,” the best song Two-Mix wrote for Gundam Wing, with “Last Impression,” their worst effort for the series. This is a real shame at the end of the film, because the theatrical cut features new final scenes for every character, and they’re all more visually interesting and expressive than the OVA ending (except for Heero and Relena’s; that one, I prefer in the original.) If there’s a way to have the extended cut with the original score, I’d like to get it.

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz is short on plot and big on spectacle, with quite a bit of heart to boot. It is very much an epilogue to the series; something that isn’t necessary to provide a proper ending, but offers one last look into the world you’ve been following, and ideally adds one or two interesting wrinkles to the story. That’s what Endless Waltz does, and I loved watching it again.

Now - to find a copy of the OVA version and its “White Reflection”-having score...

#critique #commentary #gundam wing #Endless Waltz #z's crits #film school training at work

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annacwrites · 4 years

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the wip list

Alright, gang. Buckle up. This is going to be a long one, and at this point I can’t even bring myself to be sorry about it. I meant to put this off but then I started thinking about it, so here we are (at 1:05 in the morning when I have to work at 8:30, what am I doing?).

I’m going to break this down in a couple of ways—fanfiction vs. original fiction, fandom (if it’s a fanfic), series/universe (if it’s in one), and then the individual books themselves (if I have the ability to do that, because quite frankly, for some of these I don’t because I have no idea what the titles are or where I’m splitting the story yet).

Also, “WIP” is an incredibly broad term here. In some cases it means I’ve already written the whole thing but I plan to 100% rewrite it (and haven’t started yet). In some cases it means I’ve written half of the thing but haven’t finished yet. In some cases it means I have it all outlined but haven’t started writing yet. In some cases it means I haven’t really touched an outline on paper yet but I have it all worked out in my head. Take the “in progress” part of WIP with a grain of salt.

(Putting this whole thing under the cut because it is so freaking long. I apologize if the read-more doesn’t work on your dash. Idk what tumblr is doing.)

Starting off easy—the fics:

Harry Potter: (JKR can fuck off with her transphobia and cultural appropriation and all the other stupid and fucked-up shit that she’s done/promoted but, as I said to my friends, she can pry my next-gen fanfics from my cold dead hands. Cursed Child is not canon in my life because I’ve never read it and I don’t care what nonsense she came up with.)

The “In Your Arms I’ll Stay” universe (Tedtoire/Scorose):

The first fic in this universe is the first fic I ever finished. 110k words followed up by a ~137k word sequel. It is a disaster and a half but it’s also my baby and I fully intend to rewrite it one of these days. It is full of standard Tedtoire trope-y nonsense—best friends since childhood! two-year age gap! jealousy about other relationships! obliviousness!—and at 15 I thought it was a really good idea to try to turn it into a mystery too, which is a mistake that I have every intention of rectifying because it was unnecessary and I just didn’t know how to do drama and tension back then.

Anyway. It will probably be two parts again when I rewrite it because one part per school year just works, yeah? We’re covering Vic’s fifth/Teddy’s seventh year and Vic’s sixth year/Teddy’s first year out of school over the course of these parts.

Within this universe we also have Heartbeat and Bone, which is a Scorose fic that I’ve written probably 75% of already but have no intention of actually finishing before I rewrite it. I want to get the stories in the right order so that I can get details straightened out, so Teddy and Victoire get the rewrites first and then I’ll be revisiting this fic. Also full of trope-y nonsense (and my continued acceptance of the headcanon that the Heads have their own dormitory at Hogwarts, because it’s just too much fun that way).

some things were meant to be (Tedtoire):

Oh god, another fic with a cliché title taken from Can’t Help Falling In Love. I have zero regrets because it fits them perfectly.

This one is... half-done? I fully intend to finish it but I need to finish the outline first. It was my 2019 NaNoWriMo project and I am 100% just writing it for the lols (and because Teddy and Vic are like... my comfort ship where writing is concerned). I wanted to play with a different universe and change up their relationship and roles at school a bit, but once again... trope-y nonsense. It’s unavoidable with them. There is obliviousness everywhere.

Star Wars: (it’s Reylo, okay? It’s Reylo. I don’t want to hear it about how the ship is ~so terrible.~ That is literally the furthest thing in the world from a hot take, you can’t say a single thing that I haven’t heard before, and I’m a grown adult and can do what I want. Bite me.)

looking for the map that leads me home (Reylo):

Stole the title on this one from We Take Care of Our Own by Bruce Springsteen, because why the fuck not, right?

To put it simply: musician AU. To put it a little less simply: he’s got a dead career, she wants to have even the slightest shot at one, Rose is the best, Poe’s a singing heartthrob, Finn is a love-struck goofball. You know, all that fun stuff. The entire thing is based on a playlist that I made and every chapter has a song that acts as its theme. I haven’t touched it since January 2018. I want to finish it eventually but it’s not really at the top of the priority list.

There’s a few other fics from other fandoms that I’ve started and never finished but the odds of me touching them again are like... nonexistent, so I’m not including them here. I’ll update this post if anything changes on that front (but it probably won’t).

Now for the complicated part—the original fiction:

Maker’s Magic

This is a trilogy (or at least, it’s supposed to be). This is also a rewrite of the first story I ever finished—the fantasy novel that I wrote for my first-ever Camp NaNoWriMo back in August of 2011, when I had literally no clue what I was doing at all and essentially stole the plot structure from The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and built my own story around it. This is not a good way to write a piece of fiction that you want to publish, kids, but it is a damn good way to get your feet wet when you’ve never really written before.

I am reworking this story entirely from scratch. The characters are... kind of the same as the original story. Kind of. Maybe. I’ve changed a few names and merged a few people together and scrapped some others and entirely shifted the backstory of pretty much everyone, but... they’re definitely still the same, right?

Basically, at this point the plot is really only similar to The Obsidian Trilogy in that we’ve got a trilogy, we’ve got some elves, and it’s your standard good vs. evil fantasy story (in its own unique fashion, of course). I’m still working out the details of this rewrite, but this is kind of the Holy Grail of all of my writing projects and the one that I’m most concerned about getting right, so I’m anticipating that I’ll be in it for the long haul on this one. I’m hoping I might be able to get a draft of the first book done this year, but... we’ll see.

(I also don’t want to give too many details about this project, ‘cause it’s the one that I’d really like to maybe publish one day, so...)

The Willow Hill universe

This started as a single story plus a standalone sequel set in the same universe, conceptualized when I was fourteen and missing horseback riding terribly (so yes, it is a story for all those Weird Horse Girls™ out there). I wrote a good portion of it, then deleted it, then rewrote the entire thing, then deleted it again a few years ago because I was no longer satisfied with the writing quality (after hitting top 100 on the Teen Fiction list on Wattpad way back when, so... I didn’t do too badly as a 16-year-old, but the writing still sucked). I’ve been promising a rewrite to my Wattpad followers since 2016 or something like that (2014? Whenever the hell it was that I deleted it the second time) but haven’t delivered at all.

I now envision this universe as a duology plus the aforementioned standalone sequel, except it’s not entirely fair to call it a YA duology in that the first book is definitely YA, but the second is more romance-y?

I originally just revealed the main character’s endgame relationship in the epilogue of the story, but I love both her and her boyfriend and their relationship so much that I decided that I’m going to be self-indulgent and write the story of them actually falling in love with each other, so that’s book two (so really, you don’t actually have to read book two to understand anything, I’m just writing it because I want to and it’s also kind of a present to anyone who read the original story when they were also a teenager and is now an adult who wants to read other stuff).

Book one is now about the teenage struggle of crushes and trying to figure out what it is that you actually want out of your life and what you value (I say “now” because it was definitely way more self-insert-y the first time I wrote it and it is decidedly not at this point). It’s also sort of a love letter to trainers who are amazing and the kind of person we should all be so lucky as to be coached by.

These characters are my comfort characters where original fiction is concerned since they’ve been bouncing around in my head for the last ten years or so, and I’m hoping I can get at least the first book rewritten in the next year-ish, partly because I’ve been promising it for so long, and partly because I just really enjoy this world and I want to get back to it again.

The Coffee Shop Chronicles

AKA, I lived in one coffee shop on my university campus for pretty much the entirety of my college experience and it was a very inspiring place to be, so this has less to do with coffee shop AUs and more to do with the fact that I met several of my favorite human beings on this earth over a vanilla chai latte and mutual sass with the baristas.

(One of said baristas is very near and dear to me and introduced me to another regular who is now a very good friend with the statement “You’re both sarcastic assholes. You’ll love each other.”)

None of the characters in this universe are based on actual human beings whom I know, but I liked the idea of the campus coffee shop serving as this thing that tangentially connected all of these people to one another, much in the way that I am tangentially connected to god knows how many people via my barista friend. Essentially, the idea is that the stories in this universe are all standalone, but the characters sometimes cross paths with one another at Caffeinated, so it’s sort of... Easter-egg-y in terms of who pops up where in which story.

Currently I only have two stories in this universe that are legitimately plotted out, but there is room for any number of spin-offs based on whichever characters show up in those stories (or don’t—that’s the fun of it being a coffee shop. The barista is the only reliable character). Those two stories are as follows:

Chance Encounters (title so totally subject to change, also stealing the terribly summary from the Wattpad draft that never saw the light of day):

For Bennett McGuire, things with guys just didn't seem to want to go her way. From the disasters that were her attempts at dating in high school to the problem that had been Elijah Becker, she hadn't exactly had the best luck. With all that in mind, it made perfect sense to swear off dating until she finished college—that is, it made sense until one frozen day in February when Gordon Evans walked into her life. After that, who was to say what would happen?

What’s Your Metaphor? (once again, enjoy the terrible summary from the Wattpad draft that never was. I am cringing reading it but also too tired to come up with anything better):

"What's the point?"

It's a question asked widely, for all sorts of reasons, and it's one that April Hayes didn't know the answer to any better than anyone else. All she knew was that she had her plan, and she was going to stick to it, because it was the only thing that seemed to have any sort of logic to it in her life. The things she thought, the things she believed—well, they all fell before the plan, because she didn't have time to ask herself "What's the point?"

That is, she didn't have the time to know the answer—her answer—until one guy by the name of Drew Collier showed up and made her consider things that she had never even thought of before.

High Blood

Yinz can go read my WIP introduction post for this one. It’s a fantasy story. Just for the hell of it, here’s the summary from said WIP introduction post:

At the age of seventeen, Thessaly of Averak had a choice—take the crown of her people and her place as her father’s heir, or set it aside to become one of the High Warriors, dedicated to protecting their people and the country that her long-dead ancestor Enred built after leading its citizens out of a long and bloody war. Amidst raids and famine at the borders, she gave up her crown to better serve the people that her family rules.

Ten years later, all is quiet. At least, all is quiet until Beca’s pendant is stolen by a thief who disappears into the night on the journey back from the summer palace, Tess gets herself stabbed, and the discovery is made that the rock-solid foundations of their family’s claim to the throne—and the peace that depends upon them—are laced with hairline fractures.

(I didn’t write anything to speak of for Camp NaNo July 2020 and actually wound up deleting my project for this on the NaNo site because my dad was hit by a car while cycling the Friday before the weekend when I was planning to write like... 30k words to catch up, so obviously I gave up on that plan (he is doing well now, thank you for asking). I’m hoping I’ll get around to this one eventually because this particular universe arguably has the most potential for having multiple stories set in it, fantasy-wise.)

Emerson’s Lights

Natalie Flynn has been best friends with Evan Acheson practically since birth. They've stuck together through thick and thin, from her braces in seventh grade to his jump to stardom as a singer-songwriter their freshman year of college.

She’d do anything for him, but spending a week with him on tour involves a lot more than she bargained for, culminating in the turn of events that is Caleb Blake, lead singer and primary songwriter of opening act Emerson’s Lights, moving into her house for the better part of a month.

She always knew there would be complications being the best friend of a rock star, but this? This was one that she didn’t bet on.

(Aka, girl meets boy in a band trope. Yay.)

(NaNoWriMo 2020 project)

The famous musician story (this thing doesn’t have a title right now and I’m not even going to try)

Stupid, trope-y nonsense idea that I came up with for my own personal amusement and nothing else. I’ve written a few chapters of it but genuinely have no idea where this falls in the hierarchy of things that I want to get done. Long story short, she’s in grad school for history, he’s a famous musician in town recording for a new album, they meet in the library, she pretends she has no idea who he is, and shenanigans ensue.

And that is where I think I’m going to leave it. There’s four other stories that I can think of off the top of my head that I could theoretically add to this list, but they are legitimately just ideas right now so they can be added at a later date when they’ve manifested themselves a little more strongly. There’s also another quartet in the Willow Hill universe that I came up with in high school that could theoretically be added but I think I might just steal those character names and give them their own little world instead. We’ll see.

Basically, if you didn’t get the point from this list: I am working on a lot of things, and when I say I’m writing, it could mean literally anything on this list (or any of the other ideas that I have floating around). The stories/universe here are the most likely candidates for my time, depending on whether I’m doing a deep dive into my writing or just playing around with something fun, and hopefully (god, hopefully) I’ll be able to move one or two of these to a “completed works” list in the next year(ish).

(Or at least, as complete as a draft ever gets before you start going in on it again.)

#the wip list

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jeidafei · 5 years

Text

D.Gray-Man Vol.26: Komui’s Lounge (Extended) 3/5

>> Part 1 <<

>> Part 2 <<

Question 13: How is the cover image for the tankobon (comic book) and Jump SQ. RISE (the magazine) decided?

Lavi: The author has full liberty for the comic book’s cover, but in the magazine’s case, the exclusive designer will ask the author to draw it according to their image of the cover.

Allen: You know so much, Lavi. I’d expect no less from the author’s bosom friend!

Lavi: Are you dissing me, Allen-san?

Marie: So the designer is the one who decides the character and their pose?

Lavi: Yep. I heard sometimes they even request color tones as well. Because the cover is the face of the whole magazine, Hoshino’s nervous when drawing the magazine’s covers, unlike the comic book’s.

Link: On a side note, on the cover of this latest Volume 26, General Cross is holding a toothpick in his mouth.

Allen: Do we have to go into such detail?

Link: I thought there might be those who are wondering.

Lavi: That’s because back in Volume 14, she drew General Cross holding a cigarette and got scolded.

Bak: What’s wrong with that? Couldn’t she draw whatever she wants to?

Lavi: Well, after all, this is still a shounen manga

(T/N: comic written for teenage boys).

Wisely: Grown-up issues, indeed.

Question 14: Link, between English and French tea, which do you prefer?

Link: We’ve received a number of beverage-related questions. For example, How many sugar cubes does the Millennium Earl consume during teatime? and Exactly how delicious is Lenalee Lee’s coffee? As for my preference, I’d probably say English tea. Inspector Lvellie prefers French tea, though, so I’ve had a great deal of that as well. The Earl prefers English, doesn’t he?

Wisely: Correct you are. The Earl has an awfully sweet tooth. He puts in 20 sugar cubes and lots of milk for a cup of tea. He’s such a dear. He’s moping lately after Desires told him to cut back on his sugar intake. What a dear.

Allen: I wonder why he would consider that adorable.

Lavi: There’s more sugar than tea in your tea, too, right Allen?

Allen: SUPER SWEET TEA WITH SALTY THINGS IS A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN!!!

Lavi: Do you really have to yell it?

Link: Make sure you brush your teeth well, Walker. You’re always sleeping right after your meals.

Allen: Roger roger roger.

Link: Only once is enough!

(T/N: In Japan, saying “yes” (hai) more than once is considered rude, as it shows annoyance. I get that a lot from my coworkers.)

Marie: You had tea parties with Lenalee and Miranda sometimes, right Allen?

Bak: WHAT!? Walker! You!

Allen: Eh? Wait! It’s just because they said they’ll give me sweets. There’s no ulterior motive on my part! Besides, it’s more like Link and Lenalee’s tea discussion with me tagging along than a tea party, actually.

Link: What are you talking about? I was the one accompanying you!

Allen: Well, aren’t you the one who did the most talking?

Link: That’s because you were busy eating the whole time, isn’t it? Lenalee Lee seems to make a hobby out of serving the Science Division coffee and tea, so we simply exchanged ideas on tea leaves and brewing. She’s more of an expert than even me on tea, after all.

Marie: Looks like she’s been studying up for the Science guys’ sake. She learned coffee brewing straight from Head Chef Jeryy himself too, and her coffee’s simply awesome.

Lavi: Plus, you also get to behold that adorable face as she hands you your cup with a smile, and it enhances the experience. Hey, Allen, Lenalee’s been taking really good care of her hands, ya know? Said she wanna serve us tea with beautiful hands. Ah, she really is a lady...

Allen: I’m getting all choked up right now.

Bak: Lenalee-san...you’re wonderful. (in love♡)

Question 15: Does Lavi wash his face with his eyepatch on? Or wash his face in secret?

Allen: He leaves it on.

Lavi: I TAKE IT OFF! OF COURSE I TAKE IT OFF! But yeah, I do wash my face in secret!

Allen: You always leave it on when we use the Order’s communal bath together, don’t you? Why do you have to be so secretive about it? Stop being so stuck-up and let us see it already!

Lavi: Argh! Stop, Allen! Stop yanking! Aaaaaargh!

Marie: Oi, Allen! Lavi told you to stop, didn’t he?

Link: Walker, stop wasting our precious paper bullying Bookman Jr.

Wisely: There, there. It’s fine, isn’t it? Our readers will get stressed out if we keep it all stiff and heavy. Besides, the boy hasn’t seen Bookman Jr. in ages and he’s just thrilled.

Allen: That’s not it!

Bak: That aside, why do you need to hide it? Is there some secret behind it?

Lavi: Well, about that...I really can’t say anything.

Question 16: Since when did Supervisor Komui and Head Chef Jeryy become close friends?

Marie: When...? They already seem close by the time Head Chef Jeryy transferred to Headquarters, though.

Bak: That’s because Komui was the one who recommended Jeryy for the transfer. Jeryy was a cook in the Asian Branch at first, and he went to all sorts of trouble taking care of Komui back when he just joined the Order. Komui was a completely different person back then, you see. He had this slightly dangerous streak about him, so Jeryy probably couldn’t find it in him to just leave him be.

Komui seemed prejudiced against Jeryy for a while there, but then he might’ve lost the battle of wills, and before I knew it, they’ve already become close. After that, when Komui was promoted to Supervisor, Jeryy was the first he called over to Headquarters. It might’ve been to help Lenalee-san who was mentally ill back then, I reckon.

Link: I don’t mind them being close, but calling each other by the likes of “Komie-sweetie” and “Jerry-deary” in the vicinity of Order members is quite out of line in my opinion.

Wisely: That Jeryy-summat lad’s food seems real delicious to me. I’d love to try some.

Allen: Negative. Jeryy-san is mine.

Lavi: He’s not yours...

Question 17: Are Noah Memories comprised of only original memories of the past? Though the Noah Memories are passed on from person to person, can we conclude that the human memories of previous Noah hosts are not passed on to the next Noah host as well?

Lavi: Now this is an interesting question.

Wisely: Hmmm. Yes, the memories are passed on. When we are awakened as Noah, an enormous amount of memories and data would come rushing into our heads, and among them are also the memories and emotions of those who were previous reincarnations of Noah.

Allen: I had the memories of Suman, who became a Fallen One, flow into my head once. Back then, I felt like I’m going to lose my very self. My head felt like it was breaking apart, and I was really scared. Though you’re all Noah anyway, you guys really are something, living carefree even with memories and feelings of countless other people within you.

Wisely: We’re not carefree, boy. In the past there were also Noah whose selves were devoured by the memories and were destroyed. In order to keep that from happening, usually most Noah unconsciously suppress those memories. By doing so, we can shut out the memories of the previous incarnations. However, if Noahs are injured by Innocence, they might not be able to suppress it anymore, and those memories would come flooding back. We Noah also have it tough as well.

Allen: Now that you mention it, the Noah really do seem to become more violent the more we attack them.

Wisely: The profound hatred towards Innocence within the memories is what makes us so. That’s why we’d like you to be gentle with us ♡.

Allen: That tendency to joke about is just what drives me up the wall.

Lavi: Is it true that even among Noahs, the Millennium Earl is the only one who lives for several thousands of years?

Wisely: Correct.

Bak: Do all humans have the possibility of awakening as a Noah?

Wisely: They do.

Marie: And that awakening cannot be prevented?

Wisely: No. Furthermore, once they learn of Noah’s mission, they would accept it with their own free will.

Link: And what is Noah’s mission?

Wisely: Oh dear. That’s a secret~♫

Link: Tch.

Question 18: Looks like Allen’s hobby is saving up money. Was he doing other part-time jobs apart from helping out at the cafeteria as well?

Lavi: Nah, mostly it was just the cafeteria right? ‘Coz you got to sneak some bites.

Allen: It was the best part-time job on earth. At the Order, looks like it’s just the stint at the cafeteria and helping out the Science Division. Actually I’d wanted to earn a bit more, but what with rewriting reports, studying and trainingーeven on holidays I’m still quite busy.

Link: What’s with that disgruntled look? Fulfilling your duties as an Exorcist is just natural. Besides, you’re being paid to be one anyway, aren’t you?

Allen: But that’s totally not enough at all!

Wisely: Can’t be helped, with that much debt on your tab.

Bak: Such hardship at such a young age, Walker. Unimaginable to me, though, well-bred as I am.

Allen: If your heart pains for me, then please donate. (whips out donation box).

Marie: “At the Order”, you said. You mean you’ve worked elsewhere before?

Allen: Back when I was still training, I worked with Master as guards for caravans. Functions as battle training, too. It was a rough job, but the pay really was wonderful. To top that, we also got free meals, and debt collectors didn’t pursue us into deserts, too.

Lavi: You really seem to be able to survive anywhere, huh.

Link: Caravans...? So that’s how you’ve been mingling in and lying low. No wonder we hadn’t been able to track down General Cross.

Question 19: What became of Kanda’s underpants that Lavi hid back in the Weekend Schedule?

(T/N: From Gray Log. Argh dammit haven’t got round to translating Lavi’s)

Marie: Oi! Lavi! You really are such a pain!

Lavi: Ack! Sorry! But Yu’s always so calm and cool, you see. Makes me wanna see him freaking out for once.

Bak: You must really have balls to try that out.

Link: So uncivilized... (T/N: I feel like I’m quoting Obi-Wan a lot...)

Allen: So? Did Kanda freak out?

Wisely: You seem to be enjoying this, boy.

Lavi: Naaaaah～Actually, he just got dressed like nothing happened then went out to the forest for night practice.

Allen: ーwith NO UNDERPANTS ON!?

Marie: Well, it’s not totally unexpected...or rather...Kanda probably won’t get worked up over such things?

Wisely: I see...It’s the same with Tikky too. Is it just that gorgeous men do not need underpants to be gorgeous men?

Allen: I have completely no idea what you’re talking about here.

Lavi: To top that, looks like Yu just slept in the forest like that with no underpants on, too. It really wasn’t worth the trouble hiding his pants. Ah, bummer.

Marie: It's not just ah bummer, is it!? Give Kanda back his pants!

Lavi: Whaaaaat!? Even if I did return it to him, the way things are Yu wouldn’t remember it anyway. He’d probably just say something like “Huh? What’s this about?” then just stalk off! And I’d be left looking like a dork who bombed a pant-stealing prank! It’s embarrassing!

Marie: You got it backwards. What’s embarrassing here is the fact that you hid someone’s underpants, good grief (weary face).

Allen: Marie, you have to be more seriously angry, otherwise you’ll never get through to Lavi. Gotta look more strict.

Lavi: Youーyou traitor! You were all grins back there when you heard how I hid Yu’s pants, weren’t you, Allen!?

Allen: Was I? Of course not. Unlike you, I’m not a little kid.

Lavi: Ha! You’re one to talk! Whenever you do part-time at the cafeteria, you’re always stealing bites out of Yu’s food before you serve it to him. Think I didn’t know!?

Allen: That’s because Kanda’s always mocking my hospitality skills. Befitting punishment, I say! It’s not like you’re any better, Lavi. I know you’re always stuffing Kanda’s bag full of porn whenever he goes on a mission. And then there’s the time you tampered with Kanda’s toothpasteー

Lavi: You were with me that time, weren’t you!?

Bak: There’s more?

Wisely: A-ho-ho-ho (laughing). Somehow I feel like we can be good friends, boys.

Marie: Would you guys stop it already? Look, I’m grateful that you boys care about Kanda, since you guys are around the same age, but tone down the pranks! He’s still not used to these things.

Allen, Lavi: Aw, come on~!

Link: We shall not let our precious word count be depleted further by such a nonsensical topic. This conversation ends here!!

>> Part 4 <<

#dgm #d gray man #dgm vol 26

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kamihoshi · 5 years

Link

Sakura and their assistant (and fellow mangaka) Risapaso were interviewed together for Creator’s Voice by Rikiya Kurimata. I don’t think Sakura’s ever done an interview so this was a surprise. Sakura talks a bit about aiming to become a mangaka and all things Yugami.

As this is a Yugami-centric blog, I’m only going to translate the questions and answers related to either the series or Sakura.

Apologies for any mistakes made (there are bound to be some), they are not my intent.

(Note: The interviewer’s name is listed as his nickname 仕掛け番長 but screw it, I’m just gonna call him by his real name. And since I have no idea what gender either Sakura or Risapaso are I’m just gonna use “they” as the pronoun.)

Jun Sakura ✖ Risapaso Interview: Connected by Yugami-kun

A love of drawing since childhood

Rikiya Kurimata: Alright, first question, what made each of you decide you wanted to become a mangaka? Sakura-sensei, you can start, if you please.

Jun Sakura: There wasn’t a particular event that made me want to do it but I’ve liked drawing ever since kindergarten. That never changed and in elementary school, I’d draw manga all over my notebooks.

RK: You were drawing original stuff from the start?!

JS: It was nothing that spectacular, just stuff like copying Doraemon. I remember doing the same with other manga I liked in my later years of elementary school.

RK: Did you like making your own stories back then?

JS: ............Probably, I guess?

RK: That was a long pause (laughs).

RK: What was it like when you were aiming to become a mangaka?

JS: I worked a side job in my hometown at the time. I’d get home from work dead tired and fall asleep before even drawing manga (laughs). After saving up some money from working, I quit my job and started working as an assistant for a mangaka who was publishing in a monthly magazine in my area. As a monthly assistant, you really need to have another job or else you don’t have many days where you’re actually working, so my living expenses were tight at the time but I figured I’d draw manga while living off my savings.

JS: I submitted my work to a competition and even though I didn’t win, I got a call from an editor at Shogakukan who wanted to work with me. After that I was told, “Draw whatever you want” and what I came up with ended up getting selected. It was decided that I’d debut so I moved to Tokyo and got to draw a number of oneshots while working as an assistant for a weekly magazine but I just couldn’t think of a storyboard for a series no matter how much I tried. I drew my last idea thinking I’d go back home if it didn’t get accepted. That was Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai.

RK: Alright, thank you! Next, Risapaso-san, please.

[...]

RK: Risapaso-san is currently also an assistant to you, Sakura-san. How’s their work?

JS: They’re very dependable and always draw up these awesome backgrounds for me. It makes my art look so much better (laughs)! They’re a real pro and very reliable.

Risapaso: You flatter me.

RK: I think a lot of people aren’t aware of what assistants do - could you fill us in?

RP: I guess you can say we help give form to the what the author envisions. Sakura-sensei basically gives me a drawing as a rough guideline and using that as a base, I draw in the details.

RK: Ah, so you have to be able to read what the author wants and help them complete the drawing! That takes the skill of a professional!

JS: Yes. I'll ask them to spruce a panel up for me and they’ll give me a draw up a really nice backdrop for me.

RK: Sakura-san, what do you think of Risapaso-san’s series, Garyayama Poyomi no Kataomoi?

JS: The black humor and twists are really great! Whether it’s being comedic or serious, it surprises me, like, “That’s how it plays out?!” It betrays my expectations in a good way and the developments are so engaging. Even when the mood becomes serious, it’s well-balanced so I have nothing but glowing thoughts after reading it. Likewise, even when the story gets dark and heavy, there’s always a bit of comedy afterwards. I really like how it’s able to flip the mood back like that. I’m eager to see what happens next.

RK: And how about your thoughts on Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai?

RP: I love it. I really like Yugami for how he’s the complete opposite of your typical shounen manga protagonist - acting not for the sake of those around him but for himself.

RK: For sure. When Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai first came out, there weren’t many protagonists like Yugami. I think as the series got popular, we’ve seen an increase in them. How did you come up with Yugami-kun?

JS: It was born from a conversation I had with my editor. We were talking about people that were oddballs yet could also be strangely likable and that’s when I realized there are actually tons of people like that all around me, myself included. I took a bunch of those different aspects, pieced them all together bit-by-bit and made it into a manga.

RK: Wow, from a random chat like that?! When the first volume (of Yugami-kun) came out, my bookstore colleagues talked about it a lot. They were surprised at how well it sold. I think it really changed our image of a shounen manga protagonist and because you modeled the characters after people you know, that might be why a lot of the characters feel so real.

[...]

RK: And do you use Twitter too, Sakura-san?

JS: I do, but I’m no good at social media. I never know what to tweet. I've been like this since my student days so I’m probably just not suited for it. Yugami-kun is being rerun on Sunday Webry right now so I use Twitter to get the series out there while adding some of my own commentary on it. But I’m so stuck on what to say that it takes about three hours just to write three lines...

RK: Three hours?! That time ought to go to working on your manuscript, no? (laughs) But since you’re serializing in a magazine, you must get some fan mail, correct?

JS: Yes! Getting fan mail is so encouraging. I feel bad that I can’t return the favor with anything but new year’s cards... But I treasure every letter I get. When I’m feeling tired, I read them over again and they cheer me right up. Some senders have been writing to me since they were students and as time’s passed, they’ve sent me letters telling me they’ve gotten married. It feels like I’ve really gotten to know these people through their letters.

RK: Well then, Sakura-san, is there a particular chapter of Yugami-kun that sticks out in your mind?

JS: There was a moment when I was drawing up the draft storyboards and felt like I finally understood the characters. So in Yugami-kun, there’s an arc where the hero and heroine sever ties with one another. I wrote it without deciding how the two of them would make up. All I knew was that it would end with them reconciling and I forged ahead without deciding how it’d happen. But once I started drafting the storyboard, the chapter just wouldn’t go the way I wanted it to. Even if the story ended there, it wasn’t over for the characters. Characters were saying things they’d never say and things just didn’t feel right.

JS: I have a habit of cutting up parts of my storyboard drafts and reassembling them and in that mountain of papers was the heroine’s smile. Suddenly it hit me, “Ah, this is it!” and the somewhat sombre end of that arc did a complete turnaround. Just by picking up one piece of scrap from my drafts, all the other aspects of that chapter I was struggling with started to click as I pieced everything together like a puzzle. Like, “Oh, so that’s what he was thinking?” It felt like the characters were guiding me. It took a while to go through all of it but part of me drew the storyboard wanting to know how they all ticked.

RK: It sounds like the characters came to life in that moment!

JS: I discussed it with my editor beforehand but when I went to draw the chapter, something about the characters just seemed off so I submitted a completely different storyboard from the one I discussed with my editor, rewritten even though I’d already gotten the OK for the previous draft... I’m nothing but grateful to my editor for letting me make those changes.

RK: Thank you for all the work you put into this series! Well then, are there any manga you’d like to recommend?

JS: My friend told me I should read Ousama Ranking (King Ranking) by Sousuke Toka. It’s great; it has a kind of warmth to its style like a children’s story but also has these intense scenes that feel straight out of a shounen manga. A lot of times I’ve cried reading it. I love how multifaceted the characters are. Re-reading it and reflecting on the characters thoughts and actions with that hindsight never gets old.

[...]

RK: Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?

JS: Yugami-kun was really only slated to run for one volume with five chapters but it received a lot of positive feedback on reader surveys so it was given a second volume, and then the first volume got a reprint... And on and on, that cycle repeated. It’s thanks to all of your support that the series is still going and I’m forever grateful. When I was drawing Chapter 1, I’d thought of the ending by then but writing the story up to that point wasn’t possible so I figured that at its slated end, I’d show how the characters had grown in that time frame. But thanks to everyone, it looks like Yugami-kun will be fortuitous enough to finally have the ending I’d envisioned. I’ll be doing my best to make the rest of the ride enjoyable, so I’d be happy if you stuck with me.

[...]

RK: Thank you for doing this, you two!

Notes

Some of the oneshots Sakura has written in the past (all before Yugami began serialization):

こなた彼方の箒星 Konata Kanata no Houkiboshi

ぼくらのヒーロー Bokura no Hero / Our Hero

サンスポット！ Sunspot!

＆スマイリー &Smiley

The development Sakura mentions about Yugami and Chihiro severing ties with one another is a reference to chapters 56-58.

#yugami kun ni wa tomodachi ga inai #sakura jun #translations #yugami was only supposed to get one volume wow

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rosecorcoranwrites · 5 years

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Editing Advice Part 3: Rewriting

Last time, we discussed how to address plot holes and keep world building internally consistent. Today, I will share my thoughts on rewriting, specifically on when you should rewrite, and when you should stop. I should mention, though, that parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series can and should be done simultaneously. That is, while you're rewriting, you can fix plot holes and issues with timing, and when you're looking at some inconsistencies in world building, you might find a section you need to rewrite. So the first answer to "when should I rewrite" is "when you have to fix the problems with continuity, world building, and plot".

But what about in general? First of all, what do I mean by rewriting? I'm not talking about tweaking a sentence here or there, or find/replacing a character's name, nor am I talking about changing the details of how a certain magical creature looks or wether the moon should be waxing or waning in one scene. I'm talking about full on changes to scenes, chapters, or entire books. This is hardcore stuff. Fun, but hardcore. First, let's talk about dealing with different drafts.

My Draft Philosophy

While some writers will tell you to completely scrap each old draft and literally rewrite each new one from scratch, I think this is utter madness. First of all—

and I realize I am only one of five writers ever to say this—your first draft is good! If it wasn't, then you shouldn't bother rewriting it and should move on to some other project. Is it perfect? Heck no! That's why we're shiny-ing it up. But it's good. There are good sentences, good turns of phrase, good exchanges and flow. What's more, there is heart; when you wrote it, you were feeling certain things that you won't be feeling if you completely rewrite it. Don't forget that, and don't throw it away.

Well, now that that's out of the way, what should you do with your first, or second, or third draft (did I mention I rewrote my third book four and a half times?). Save them each as a separate document! You never want to write over an old draft, because you might, even years down the line, think back on something that you can reuse from one of those old drafts. I'm speaking from experience here. Just as there are parts of your old drafts that you dislike, there will be parts of your new drafts that you end up not liking as much as what you had previously written. Computer memory is cheap, and writing time isn't. Save everything!

I'll even save each chapter of a to-be-rewritten/edited draft as its own document. This helps me break rewriting into chunks and, occasionally, rethink structure. Maybe the story would flow better if I moved this chapter before that one? Maybe I should break this long one into two short ones (separate documents will more easily show you the word count of each chapter). I'll even do this for particularly tricky scenes, saving only the scene into it's own document so I can really play around with it without fear of altering the rest of the chapter. When I'm done with the scene or chapter, I copy/paste it back into the larger draft of the whole book.

When to Rewrite

But how does one know when a scene or chapter should be rewritten, instead of changed a little. The simple answer is, when you don't love it. When you're reading through your book, happy as a clam, and suddenly there's a part that irks you, or feels off, or is kind of boring. That part needs to be rewritten rather than sent out into the world in a subpar fashion.

Obviously, you'll need to rewrite scenes that contain large continuity errors, internal inconsistencies, or plot holes, but there might be scenes that are perfectly serviceable that still don't sit right with you. They're not as good as they could be, and you know it. Rewriting, to me, is a very personal thing; you might even have beta readers who think your story is fine, but if you don't think it is, then it isn't.

Given the personal nature of the beast, it's hard to talk about it in generalities, so I'll instead deal with examples. I'll use my own writing, since I've done my share of rewrites for a number of different reasons.

Miscast Spells had it's major changes when I went from planning to drafting, so I didn't have too many rewrites, but I did significantly change the prologue; it was actually the last scene of that book that I wrote. Why did I rewrite it? Well, it was boring, so I spiffed it up, added more characterization, and actually showed Emmaline getting cursed during it (yes, that very important scene was not in the first draft!).

I would say I went through about three drafts of Outcast Shadows. The first one existed before I wrote Recast Light, and I didn't know how the trilogy ended. Sebastian had a bit of a different motivation for his actions ( he actually wanted to destroy Chiaroscuro! Yikes!), but when I started writing Recast Light and looking at Sebastian's character, this motive didn't ring true to who he was. This meant I had to do a major overhaul of his storyline, but it was obviously for the best. In the final draft, I rewrote particular scenes—when Sebastian first speaks to Millie in Chiaroscuro, when he explains about the threat facing the city, what happens between him and Alistair in the courtyard—in order to really emphasize character relationships and feelings. I wouldn't say the old versions of those scenes were bad, but they weren't what I wanted for the story overall. I didn't love them, and now I do.

And then there is Recast Light, the problem child. When I say I rewrote it four and a half times, I mean I basically changed half of what happens in the book, significantly, four times, and then tweaked the rest here and there (that's where the half comes from!). For example, in the first two drafts, there was an entire subplot involving Chiaroscuran anarchists; if you've read the book, you'll know that that is no longer a thing (though two of their members, Augustus and the Empress, remained in the story). Why did I cut it? It was random and added nothing to the story; I didn't love it.

Then there was Sebastian, my problem child within a problem child. In the first draft, he slept through most of the book (no, really!), and in the second draft, he was awake, but hardly interacted with the rest of the main characters (he was hanging out with the anarchists). It wasn't until the third draft that he finally joined everyone else like a proper main character. Why did I change it? A better question would be, why did I write it so poorly the first two times. It was so weird and not at all what I wanted that I couldn't let it stand.

Then, I overhauled the entire second half of the book between the third and fourth drafts (everything after chapter seven, for those of you who have read it). None of that was there before the final draft. I'm still shocked by this, and I'm the author! Why did I rewrite it? Several reasons. First, the way the main cast dealt with Alcea in the first drafts was totally deus ex machina. Gross! Second, none of it tied in enough with the first two books. It wasn't narratively satisfying, instead feeling thrown together. Sure, the story ended, but it wasn't how that story should have ended, given everything that came before it. I wanted to bring back elements from the other books so that the trilogy would feel like a cohesive whole.

As a side note, the above example is also a reason not to kill your darlings. I had always wanted a ballroom scene in my books, but could never find a place to put it that made sense. As I was writing my fourth draft, flailing around for a way to fix it, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Eh, why not?", figuring that a ball scene couldn't hurt what was already massively suffering. So I wrote the scene, and suddenly everything fell into place: how Sebastian could naturally meet-up with the rest of the cast, what Alcea's endgame would be, and from there, what the characters would need to do to deal with her. It all fit, and all because I had a silly little pet project of cramming a ballroom scene into the book. Don't kill your darlings; use them.

When to Stop

Hopefully those examples can give you a feel for how to go about choosing when to rewrite, but then there is the opposite question: when should you stop?

This is actually an important question, because some writers never stop, and if you never stop, you'll never publish. Worse, still, are certain writers (usually poets) who continue to rewrite works that they've published! I feel like this is a case of the perfect being an enemy of the good, in that it is almost impossible to actually create a perfect story (there are, in fact, only four in existence: Fullmetal Alchemist, Coco, Erased, and Ghost Trick). What you need to realize is that you aren't going to send a perfect story out into the world and should instead aim to send out the best version of your story.

Thus, if the answer to "When should I rewrite something?" is "When you don't love it" then the answer to "When should I stop rewriting something" is "When you love it". When you read what you've written, or rewritten, and it makes you smile, or get excited. When you no longer feel annoyance or boredom or dissatisfaction at reading that scene or chapter. Again, this is pretty personal, so there aren't any specifics I can give you. Just pay attention to how you feel about your own writing; if you really love it, you probably don't need to rewrite it any further (though you might need two tweak it for continuity and world building and such).

A Few Other Tips and Tricks

Everyone has their own style of taking on the rewriting process. Some people use Track Changes, or different colors of font and highlights. Some people print their documents and make changes on the paper itself with a red pen. I would say to find whatever works for you.

My process is: I usually read each chapter through, changing what I can and marking other things for later review, usually using Track Changes. I will leave myself notes, like, "Check for continuity with Chapter 5" or "Is this clear?". If it's something that irks me, but I'm not sure why, I'll usually highlight the whole section for later review and rewriting. I will then move on to the next chapter and do the same thing, then return to my notes after going through the rest of the book.

When it comes to how to rewrite a scene, I will usually outline my thoughts on paper. I might chart out two possible scenarios and see which one works best, or enumerate how changing one thing will effect the rest of the events in the story. I like writing on paper because it's quick, impermanent, and easily scrapped. There's also something about moving my hands, using different colored ink, and seeing my ideas written out spatially that helps me think. It's a way of seeing the story from a different perspective that I find helpful.

And that's it for rewriting. We've covered the main chunk of the editing process, the hard part, if you will. All that's left is copyediting. See you next time!

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some-kind-of-starlight · 5 years

Text

The Carousel Kingdom, Chapter One- How The Rollercoaster Starts

Virgil Parma just wanted to have a nice day at the fair with his friend Patton- but the universe had other plans. It all begins with a little red carousel- and, like a carousel, the story spins onward.

Word Count: 1,930 (which, despite it only being chapter one, makes this the longest story I’ve ever written!) Characters: Virgil, Patton, random OC who runs a bakery with their girlfriend Warnings: brief description of heights, overthinking, mention of a cliff (please tell me if I need to add anything else!) Pairings: Eventual Prinxiety & Logicality, platonic Moxiety for this chapter

Enjoy!

Virgil Parma liked constants.

The purple lamp, always sitting on his nightstand. The clock on his wall, always five minutes behind. The mug in the kitchen, always left out for the next morning.

It was the little things, grounding him and reminding him that his world wasn't going to be flipped upside-down on a whim.

Well. As he thought.

It's not what he would have expected, at least, as he heard a familiar knock at the front door.

Rushing from his bedroom to open it, he was met with the smiling face of his friend Patton Coeur- and, not a second later, two slips of paper being shoved in his face.

"Virgil!" Patton exclaimed excitedly. "Are you ready to go to the fair? I brought the tickets," he wove the paper around," and some snacks!" he said, bouncing the bag on his shoulder to show his point. "So all you need to bring is yourself! And, uh, maybe a water bottle. We don't want you getting dehydrated!"

Virgil leaned off the doorframe and made a movement back towards his bedroom. "Yeah, Pat, just let me grab my bag." He darted to his room and grabbed the backpack off his chair, giving it a quick check to affirm everything was inside, then started back to the door.

"I, uh," Virgil started, making his way back to Patton, "actually packed some snacks and stuff too. And I thought it'd probably be a good idea to bring something to calm me down just in case, so..." he held up a plastic fidget cube. Patton nodded approvingly.

"Good idea, Virge! And the water bottles?"

"Already in here," Virgil stated, tapping his bag softly.

"Great! Then if you're ready, let's go!"

Virgil stepped out the door and pushed it softly closed, locking it and linking arms with Patton as he turned around.

The two walked and chatted amiably, Patton talking about the bakery their old friends had started- "They have the best muffins, Virge, and everyone is so nice! I was thinking about applying for a job there later in the summer, it seems like it'd be a good place to work!", as well as recounting a book he'd been reading about emotional intelligence.

Virgil nodded along, giving positive affirmations and mentioning the song he'd been working on lately- "I think it's going pretty well, there's a couple lyrics I could probably fix, but it's doing pretty good for the most part. It probably won't be much longer before you can hear it." Patton smiled proudly at him, gently bumping Virgil's shoulder and telling him he couldn't wait.

After fifteen minutes or so, the pair reached the entrance to the fair. It wasn't very big, but it looked packed with activity- and the place felt homely, in a way, with the rolling fields beneath them and the familiar rides glinting in the summer sun.

Patton stepped up to the booth at the gate and placed the two tickets on the counter, gently tapping it as he did so. The person inside quickly turned from the computer they sat at, smiling when they saw him.

"Patton! Good to see you here!", they said as they took the tickets and scanned them with the computer. "Good to see you too, Amicus!" Patton replied. "How's Token of Confection doing?"

Amicus withdrew two wristbands from a nearby drawer before turning back to Patton. "Good! Amelie figured out a new chocolate sugar cookie recipe the other day, you've got to check it out next time you stop by!" Amicus turned to Virgil. "How's it going, Virgil? Been a while since I last saw you!"

"It's going pretty alright," Virgil supposed. "Guess you're doing pretty well too? You seem happy."

"Can you hold out your wrist for a second?" Amicus interrupted, holding up a wristband. "Great! Yeah, I'm doing good! Amelie and I are happy together and we've been working on getting our baking business rolling." Amicus tucked the bracelet around Virgil's wrist and motioned for Patton to hold up his own.

"I'd love to be there now, but my mom wanted me to run the ticket booth for the first couple days. I'll be back at Token of Confection soon enough though! Can't wait to be back in the kitchen with Amelie. I promised her I'd bring her some cotton candy, she wants to try to figure out how to incorporate it into some sugar cookies." Amicus smiled fondly as they sealed the wristband around Patton's arm. "She's so creative. I'm glad we found each other."

"And we're glad you're happy!" Patton beamed at them as he withdrew his arm. "Are we all set?"

"You are! Have a good day!" Amicus gave a quick wave before turning back to the computer behind them.

"Nice to see that they're doing well," Virgil mentioned as they entered the fairgrounds. "I can see why you'd want to work at a place called Token of Confection. That name is right up your alley."

"Isn't it? I was so excited when I found out that's what they were calling it. It's such a cute name!"

"It is. So," Virgil said suddenly, "what should we do first?"

"Oh! Uh, how about we go on the ferris wheel?" Patton pointed at the ride in question. "We can get a good view of the park and then decide from there!"

"Smart idea, Pat, sounds good to me. Let's go!"

It was a short walk to the ferris wheel, and luckily the line wasn't too long. Patton and Virgil didn't have to stand around much before they found themselves seated in a car and the ferris wheel beginning to turn.

"Oh, Virgil, look!" Patton motioned to the ground below. "They've got one of those teacup rides! Ooh, and a slide! We should go on that first, it looks like it's closer to here."

Virgil gave him an affirmative thumbs-up before peering out of the car himself. As they rose off the ground, he could see the slide and teacups Patton had mentioned, excited people racing about between the rides. Out a little further, he could see the peaceful rolling fields around them, houses dotting the horizon line. They were like two opposite worlds. And in between them...

Well.

That was odd.

On the edge of the cliff that the fairgrounds sat upon was a small carousel. It was a good ways away from the fair itself, still only a few seconds' walking distance, but obviously not meant to be a part of the festivities. Its faded red tent was torn in several places- and badly enough that Virgil could tell from so far up.

It was... strange, to say the least.

"Virgil!" The sudden outburst from Patton interrupted his thoughts. "What's got you fascinated over there, spot something cool?

"There's this weird carousel over there, set away from everything else. Do you see it?" Virgil did his best to point out the little red tent to his friend. Patton squinted as he followed his finger to the carousel.

"Oh! There it is! It's so cute and tiny!"

Virgil laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. I hadn't thought about it that way. Kinda weird that it's set apart from the fair, though, isn't it?"

"It looks kinda old, maybe it stopped working and they had to move it aside."

Virgil shrugged. "That'd make sense. Still, I think I'm gonna go check it out when we're back on the ground."

"I'll come with you! Maybe we'll find something interesting!"

"Interesting" was one way to put it, Virgil thought.

Now that the pair was standing in front of the carousel, they could see all the intricacies they had missed from the ferris wheel. Golden filigree bordered the tent, as well as the base, and the poles were the same shining color. Though the tent was faded and damaged, flecks of glitter still glinted in the fabric, and the underside of the canopy was dyed a beautiful midnight black. After a bit more scouring, Virgil even noticed a golden carousel ring sitting in a slot inside the frame of the tent.

But perhaps the most intriguing things were the intricate painting in the center pole and the frontmost carousel horse. The center pole was decorated by a beautiful painting of a castle, surrounded by beautiful skies that wrapped seamlessly around it. Fluffy clouds floated by gently in the background. Virgil was tempted to reach out and touch them.

The horse, on the other hand, was intriguing for different reasons. It was the most detailed out of the horses on the carousel- intricate roses were carved into its flowing hair, and a bright ribbon of fabric was draped from the saddle. Virgil swore you could see threads etched into the wood if you looked close enough. The poles that were supposed to carry the horse seemed loose, as if a hole was cut out of the pole and the horse haphazardly shoved between, rather than going through the wooden carving.

And, perhaps the most odd thing- while the others looked worn and dull, this one looked almost new. A fine layer of dust coated it, but Virgil had given it a quick swipe with his hand and the paint had looked crisp and bright underneath.

All of it just made Virgil more confused. He leaned against the carousel pole and hit his head against it lightly with a soft thunk.

A soft hand fell upon his shoulder and Virgil jumped before realizing it was just Patton.

"Hey, Pat."

"Hey, Virge. You doing alright? I saw you bonking your head on the pole I was getting kinda worried." Patton gently lifted his head off the pole as he spoke. Virgil only tightened his grip on it.

"It's just so strange, Patton. This random carousel is just here, with one weirdly-new looking horse," he clapped his hand gently against the pole for emphasis, "away from the fair it's assumably supposed to be at. And it doesn't." *thunk.* "make." *thunk.* "sense." *thunk.*

Patton gently guided his hands off the pole and gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. "I know, V. It is weird. But sometimes weird things happen, and they don't need some big, cosmic explanation- you just saw them in a weird place at a weird time. Someone was probably trying to replace the horses and realized they didn't know how, or they didn't have time to finish before the fair opened."

Virgil nodded. As much as the explanation didn't satisfy him, as much as he wished it would- he supposed he had to walk away eventually. And Patton's reason was a better reason than none.

Virgil sighed, wearily, and made to take a step back- but before he did so, he brushed the dirt gently off of the horse's forehead and rested his own upon it. A tribute to a mystery unsolved or a mystery nonexistent- he didn't know which. He supposed it didn't matter.

Virgil stepped away, linking his arm with Patton's as they turned back to the fair. But before they could take a step, a bright light shone in the corners of their eyes.

They turned around just in time to see the carousel horse glow, in a second turning into a jumble of light, tumbling off the carousel and coming to rest at their feet. And in the blink of an eye the light was gone again, fading away to reveal- not something, really- but a someone.

Their eyes snapped open and fearful gold irises met Virgil's own.

And in that moment, Virgil's world was flipped upside-down.

#prinxiety #sanders sides #virgil sanders #patton sanders #thomas sanders #ts virgil #ts patton #logicality #The Carousel Kingdom #amicus #I wanted the person in the ticket booth to be someone patton knew so I just looked up friend in latin #I don't even know if that's the correct translation but it sounds cool #amelie #stories and stardust

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thequietuptown · 5 years

Note

You mentioned in a previous post that you would be happy to provide specific suggestions about how to spice things up for a couple who might be a little timid. Would you care to share?

Hi friend,

I’m happy to provide more specific examples; however, like I said in that post, the ultimate answer to having a better sex life lies in having more open communication. Part of that comes down to knowing what you and your partner(s) want. I would suggest first taking a moment to complete one of the following sexual readiness checklists with your partner(s). These are “Yes/No/Maybe Lists” that are popular within BDSM communities as a way to navigate hard and soft limits, as well as a quick check on compatibility, but they are really effective for any relationship. The first can be found here: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/advice/yes_no_maybe_so_a_sexual_inventory_stocklist. This is a good list to start with especially if you and your partner(s) may both be a little timid.The other one can be found here: https://www.autostraddle.com/you-need-help-here-is-a-worksheet-to-help-you-talk-to-partners-about-sex-237385/. It’s a little bit nicer to look at, and has a downloadable .pdf version available so you can print it off and go through it with your partner(s). Again, these are great for sexual absolutes, but understand that just because one or more of you put something down on paper doesn’t mean that consent cannot be revoked at any time. Consent is always mandatory and should only be accepted when given with an excited and emphatic yes. I know this might sound a little tedious, but think of it as sexy homework. It’s important to know the fundamentals before really trying anything new, and it might open your partner(s) up to a little discussion.

Now to the more fun stuff. Anything that you can try in this situation is really going to fall under one of the following categories: novelty, reframing, fantasy, and role play. Novelty is going to include anything that you’re doing simply because it’s new. It could be buying a specific marital aid or even a new piece of furniture for the more sexually committed to even just trying a new position. Regarding toys: do you currently use toys during play? Do you know what you like in a toy? Does your partner/do your partners enjoy using sex toys? On you? On himself/herself/themselves? These are some things to think about, but don’t worry if you can’t answer these questions off the top of your head. Even if you can, my first task would be to take your partner(s) to a sex toy boutique. If at all possible, try to find a higher end one. I know it might be intimidating, and a lot of people may have to push through their own shame to even walk into one of these places, but trust me: it’s worth it. Most legitimate businesses have rules about photography, and most people understand there is a natural tendency for discretion when it comes to sexuality. How do you know if you’ve found a good store to explore? Try to find online reviews, the sex positive members of your community will not steer you wrong. Check out their website, most will have photos of the inside of the shop and are probably going to be more colorful and brightly lit than you would expect. Many adult boutiques will even have more than one section with the more public front selling things like costumes, lingerie, clubwear, etc. Once you and your partner(s) arrive, the staff is there to assist you. They will most likely be very friendly and knowledgeable and will know that you are uncomfortable and let you know that that’s okay. If this is your first time, ask for their opinion. They may use some language you are not familiar with, but ask for clarification. They are there to make sure you’re getting the most out of your purchase. If you find something you do like, ask if they have a demo product available to see if you can test whatever settings it may have. They may put the toy in your palms, but I would suggest trying it out on your wrist and the back of your hand, too. Even if you don’t buy anything on this trip, try to at least learn something new about yourself and your partner(s). If you do buy something, enjoy!

Reframing is trying something that you may have already done in a different way or with a different approach. This can be anything from going out on a romantic date, wearing lingerie that your partner/partners maybe hasn’t/haven’t seen, or even just agreeing to make-out for a certain amount of time before your next physical encounter. A lot of times when people feel like they’ve lost that spark, it’s because they’re no longer doing things they did in the early stages of a relationship. Reframing is great for someone who may feel a little timid and is unsure about how to approach sexual stagnation. Another great tool for reframing is the sexual game. Most sexual games on the market aren’t going to lead you to anything mind-blowingly original, but they can help set up new experiences with your partner(s). The best game that I have seen for this purpose is Monogamy: A Hot Affair, which can be found here:https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Conceptions-Monogamy-Affair-Partner/dp/B0070E745I. It’s super heteronormative, but if you ignore the genders on the cards or allow your partner(s) to choose which of the two options they want, you can get around that. There are only two game pieces for the poly-inclined, but again there are workarounds. There is a Spanish language version available, as well, as I just learned trying to find that link. This game works for a couple of reasons. First it focuses on communication. The first couple of times around the board are going to be all about asking your partner(s) questions and finding intimacy that way. The action-based cards are suggestive at first, and get pretty explicit in the final passes of the board. The winner gets to choose one of two fantasy cards that they’ve picked up along the way, and then you both act on that fantasy (again, if you both consent!). If you don’t want to pick up a copy of that game, my other suggestion would be for Desire (available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play store). Desire is essentially just truth or dare, but again, it’s a fun way to spice things up with your partner(s). The best dares are going to be the ones written by the community. It also has an encrypted chat line for you and your partner. And it’s free! Which is great. Especially since its novelty will run thin after a few weeks. It does limit you to one partner, so that’s a drawback for the poly-inclined. There are lots of other games, and if you find any that you like please let me know! I’m always curious!

Third, we have fantasy. When I use fantasy, I’m talking about things that we may be curious about, but we really are okay with never really experiencing or may be impossible to experience in real life. Maybe you are a little more flexible in your sexual orientation than your partner(s). Maybe you want to see your partner(s) with another person. Maybe you’re really into the idea of having the undivided attention of several lovers at once. The most common way to incorporate fantasy into your relationship with your partner(s) is to watch/read something together. Your task here with fantasy is to really think about what your biggest fantasy really is and try to fill in as many details as you want, but sometimes a little ambiguity can really add to the fantasy. Have your partner(s) do the same. You don’t even have to divulge this information to each other, if you feel ashamed or embarrassed, but once you have an idea that you really like, break it down. Try to figure out what it is about your scenario that really turns you on. If you’re both comfortable sharing, go for it. If not, I would encourage you to use that fantasy to fuel a session of physical self-exploration, doing your best to make that fantasy a reality in your mind. You can have your partner(s) do that same, and if you’re up for it, invite your partner(s) to watch you as you do.

Finally, we have role play. Role play is essentially bringing fantasy to life and creating a specific scenario or a character to enjoy. My suggestion here is going to be more homework. I want you to create two full character sketches and a scene description. For each character, I want you to come up with as many details as you possibly can: physically, emotionally, mentally. Your first character is going to be someone you want a partner to play. This is probably going to be the more obvious character to you. The second may be a little trickier, and may be something that often gets overlooked when talking about role play. I want you to create a character who you want to play, someone who may not align with who you are in this moment. Now put the same amount of effort into describing your scenario and setting. Give this assignment to your partner(s) as well. Then, come together and discuss what you both came up with. Would you play the part for your partner? Do you see any combinations of characters that work really well together? Thrift stores are a great place to find costuming ideas should you choose to take on the part (just… wash whatever you buy first).

So I hope that was a little bit more in the way of the specifics you were looking for. If you have any further questions or need anything else, I am here for you friend! Enjoy!

#airoutyourish #advice #self-help #ask me anything #anonymous #anon #no judgment #helpful #listening

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scripttorture · 6 years

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I have a character who was never held as a child, never given any physical affection and was kept in a lab and experimented on (needles, etc.) for the first six years of his life. He was trained as a weapon of sorts as well. years later he still trusts almost no-one, what would I have to do to make a romantic relationship realistic? (Sorry if this makes no sense) тнαик уσυ!!（*＾3＾）

OK so I’ve consulted with members of the Script Family who know a lot more about childhood developmentthan I do and there’s a good chance that your character wouldn’t live intoadulthood.

Insufficient touch at an early age is linked to a host of conditions andimpairments in human children. The mechanism is more thoroughly studied in rats(for rather obvious ethical reasons) but the essential conclusion is this:gentle, caring touch is essential for childhood development.

There’sa short academic review paper on the subject here which covers humans and rats(and worms but that’s not relevant to your story). There’s a moreaccessible piece in Scientific American here. Basedon these papers I think whatever you decide you need to remove the ‘lack oftouch’ as an element in your story.

You want this to be realistic so I think the most helpful thing I can dois start suggesting alternatives rather than try to go into depth aboutchildhood development (an area where my knowledge is patchy at best).

I have issues with the motif of children being raised as ‘weapons’. I’vespent too much time reading about (and seen too many) child soldiers to feeleasy treating it as pure fantasy (the way I gather most audiences from richstable countries do).

I’m saying that as statement of bias- from what you’ve described I don’tthink it’s an element you ‘have’ to change but I think you need to think aboutwhich of these background elements you’ve included is most important to yourstory.

Basically what I think you need to decide is which of these things is most important to the story:

1) The character was raised as aweapon and is an effective fighter

2) The character was used as asubject in unethical experiments

3) The character was tortured

The reason you can’t realistically include all of those elementstogether is because they all reduce the efficiency of each other.

A character who is tortured willbe a less effective fighter and torture would add another unaccounted forvariable into a scientific study which would basically make any data gathereduseless.

A character who is used as an experimental subject couldn’t be effectively trained as a fighter without alsodisrupting the experiments.

The best way to achieve point 1) is to raise the character in a loving, caring environment (includinghaving positive reinforcement, caring parental figures and touch). Thecharacter’s kind, caring, lovingparental figures would then teach the child about war, weapons and fighting inmuch the same way a normal parent would introduce teaching a child to read.They would lavish praise on him and teach him that he is part of somethingbigger, a glorious cause.

And if they did it ‘right’ he would grow up mentally healthy, welltrained and perfectly willing to kill for them.

I’vewritten about scenarios like this before and you might find this ask helpful.

The best way to achieve point 2) is to get rid of any notion thatthe character is being trained for anything and remember that in this scenario any torture is secondary.

Serious scientists do not setout to cause animal experimental models more pain. If your character is beingtreated like an experimental animal then that means any pain he experienceswill be secondary to what thescientists are interested in.

Let me give you an example: the case of Elsie Lacks.

Elsie was committed to a mental ward as a child in America during the50s. Elsie was mentally handicapped (the diagnosis of the time was ‘idiocy’)she was epileptic and deaf. She was also black.

Elsie was used in at least two, and possibly more, medical experiments.There’s no evidence the hospital sought consent and given her age andcapacities Elsie may not have been capable of giving it. One involved insertingmetal probes into patient’s brains. The other drained the fluid from apatient’s skull so the brain could be x-rayed, a procedure that causes dizziness,vomiting, seizures and headaches for months while the skull refills with fluidand can also cause permanent brain damage and paralysis. Elsie died aftermaking herself vomit for six months. By the end she was bringing up clottedblood. She was 15.

The pain Elsie suffered was notthe point.

The people who did this to her did notgo out of their way to cause her greater suffering. They treated her like anobject, another part of the test. They acted in a manner that was systematic, reproducible,recorded and wrong.

Torture is not reproducible. It is rarely recorded. It is notsystematic. And it always treats pain, cruelty and neglect as the point rather than as a secondaryfactor.

Which brings me to scenario 3).

Torture and abuse doesn’t mesh well with science. It’s usually conductedimpulsively with little regard for any controlling factors.

Torturers usually use multiple techniques and they will generallycombine techniques. They often misjudge how much damage they’ve caused whichcommonly results in serious injury or the victim’s death.

This doesn’t mean they always leave scars. Some techniques, what I referto as ‘clean’ torture, don’t leave obvious external marks. This can maketorture incredibly hard to detect and prove.

Deaths from clean torture techniques are often attributed to accidentsor an underlying health condition in the victim (for instance a sudden heartattack, stroke or organ failure).

The pattern of abuse is generally that torturers use a lot of techniquesvery quickly, over a period of perhaps the first three days. After that theytend to start to lose interest in the particular victim and start concentratingtheir efforts on other individuals.

In the longer term (ie months) what you tend to see is an irregularcycle of intense abuse, followed by longer periods when the victim ismore-or-less ignored.

How to approach the question ofyour character having a romantic relationship as an adult depends on which ofthese three points is important to you in the story.

In scenario 1) where the character is primarily a soldier/weapon I’dtreat it as if he’d escaped from a cult. Difficulty trusting his partner andhaving to take the relationship incredibly slowly both seem reasonable. Therelationship would probably also bring up a lot of self-doubt for thecharacter. His partner would probably contradict everything he was taught aboutpeople outside the organisation that raised him. He might find himself thinkingabout his childhood a lot and recognising ‘new’ things that were wrong orpoisonous about it.

He might find innocent things his partner did reminded him of his ‘family’and ‘training’.

You mightfind this BBC article, which interviews a woman who left a US cult, helpful forwriting that sort of scenario.

In scenarios 2) and 3) your character would, realistically, have a lotof serious mental health problems. Youcan find out more about the common symptoms of torture here, these symptomswould also apply to someone used in unethical experimentation.

We can’t predict which individual would develop which symptoms and notall victims experience all symptoms.

From a writing perspective that means picking symptoms from the list andshowing them consistently impacting your character’s life. I advise pickingsymptoms based on what you feel fits the character and the story, for suchprolonged abuse at such a young age I’d say around 5 severe symptoms is a goodball-park figure but don’t be afraid to use more than that.

The issues the character would encounter with a romantic relationshipwould be dependent on his symptoms. But generally speaking I’d expect him to finda romantic relationship, or indeed anylong term relationship extremely difficult. Perhaps cripplingly difficult.

Healthy relationships are hardwork. It isn’t unrealistic for a character with such severe mental healthproblems to be in a long term relationship butthere are a lot of good reasons why a person in his position might choose not to be in a relationship.

There is nothing wrong with a character putting his health first. And….essentiallyif this is the character’s first romantic relationship and he went through sucha prolonged and traumatic experience as a child I think he’d have to put his health before therelationship.

I don’t mean he’d have to break off the relationship. I mean that hispartner would probably have to accept things like:

‘I know you spentmonths planning this holiday for us together but I’m going to have to cancel atthe last minute while in the airport because going through security is givingme a panic attack.’

‘I know you wanted us togo out for your birthday but my anxiety is awful today and I can’t leave thehouse.’

‘I know we were havinga lovely meal, but I’ve just been triggered and I’m now going to spend half anhour having a flashback in the restaurant bathroom.’

Not everyone is accepting of these knock-on effects of mental healthproblems. Not everyone is OK with having to suddenly drop everything going onin their day because their partner is feeling suicidal.

Even people who are acceptingof their partner’s health problems will make mistakes. They will almostcertainly accidentally trigger things, say things that feed into mental healthproblems or do small things that make the issue worse.

There’s a lot in this scenario that I strongly advise you to re-thinkand re-write if you want something even close to realism. Until you make adecision about what sort of background you’d like the character to have I can’tgive more detail on how it would affect his future romantic relationships.

Nonetheless I hope it helps you with your story and if you decide youwould like to make the character’s background more realistic I’d be happy tohelp with any further questions you have about how that would affect his adultlife and relationships. :)

Disclaimer

#tw torture #tw child abuse #tw racism #unethical experimentation #child soldiers #child abuse #cults #psychological effects of torture #leaving cults #touch deprivation #Anonymous

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maddiviner · 7 years

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The World of Grimoires Part III: Grimoire Styles

I’ve talked about choosing your supplies and the physical (or not so physical!) book itself. Now, let’s discuss some of the options you’ve got for structuring, organizing, and keeping your grimoire updated. I’ve experimented with most, but not all, of these styles over the years, and I’ve talked to witches who made each of them work. They all do work, but each requires a different sort of person. Which one is right for you? Only you can answer that! Even if none of these styles sound useful to you, you can always create a new and different way of doing things uniquely tailored to you!

Daily Journal

A daily journal is, of course, just that - a journal that you write in roughly once a day or so. Lots of people keep journals for all kinds of reasons, but here, I’m referring to keeping one centered around your magical practice. Each night, you might reflect on the experiences of the day and write your thoughts, as well as recording any magical work you might have done, spells, rituals, as well as anything important you’ve learned.

Such an exercise of unwinding one’s mental spirals at the end of each day onto paper can be extremely cathartic, and the task of writing daily entries can become a grounding and centering ritual in and of itself. I’ve known witches who kept daily journals and integrated their writing time into other witchcraft-related activities such as ritual bathing and meditation.

This style of grimoire is ideal for those of us who like to have tangible records of our self-development, as well as of our maturation processes and general thoughts. This can be both a blessing and a curse, though - if you keep such a grimoire, be prepared to look back on some of your writing years later and cringe at what you didn’t understand or thought you knew.

Another issue arises simply from the level of discipline and regularity required to keep up with daily journaling activities. If your schedule is very erratic, it may be difficult to find time to write, and also an easily forgotten task. Even for those with a more predictable lifestyle, it does require some discipline and motivation to maintain. I personally don’t consider a daily journal to be incredibly difficult (at least, not compared to some of the other grimoire styles I’ll discuss).

Still, I can think of many situations in which it would quickly become quite a problem to keep journaling. Health issues like depression or arthritis might make writing daily almost impossible for some people. The bottom line is that everyone is different, and if this style isn’t working for you, or doesn’t feel right, examine why. If it’s purely a lack of discipline, goal-setting can help, but for those of us with health issues or other concerns interfering, this style might not be the best approach.

When I was in my first semester of college, I began my first attempt at a true daily journal of my witchcraft practices. I’ll admit that with class and work, I didn’t always write every single day, but I gave it my best. I would sit and think for a bit, then write down my reflections for the day as a retrospective in the evenings, or whenever I was preparing for bed. It really didn’t differ much from the journals non-witches might keep, except that the subject matter was always at least tangentially related to the Craft and my experience of it.

Not all of my grimoires have survived over the years, but the one mentioned above, did. Looking back at it now, it contains precious little by way of practical information (such as correspondences, etc); the bulk of it describes my journey into college from a magical perspective. The picture below is one of the few entries I made in it that I’m comfortable sharing here - much of what I wrote was intensely personal.

It was related to magick and witchcraft and certainly aided my development, but was still more to do with me myself than with any studying of magick I’d been doing at the time. I’ve learned a lot rereading what I wrote during this period, and while I left off keeping a daily journal-style grimoire during my second year of college, I’m still glad I kept one at that particular stage in my life.

Magical Diaries

The term “magical diary” was popularized by Aleister Crowley. As part of his work in founding the magical order known as A.’.A.’., he urged his students to keep a regular record of all rituals and magical exercises performed. He even provided examples of the exact format he himself found most advantageous, and you can see such an example in his short text, John St.John, which I’ll quote a brief passage from below.

12.0. Have finished bath and massage, during which I continued steadily but quite gently, “not by a strain laborious and hurtful but with stability void of movement,” willing the Presence of Adonai.

12.5. I ordered a dozen oysters and a beefsteak, and now (12.10) find myself wishing for an apple chewed and swallowed by deglutition, as the Hatha Yogis do.

The distaste for food has already begun.

12.12. Impressions already failing to connect.

I was getting into Asana and thinking “I record this fact,” when I saw a jockey being weighed. {12}

12.12. I thought of recording my own weight which I had not taken.

Good!

12.13. Pranayama [10 seconds to breath in, 20 seconds to

12.24. breathe out, 30 seconds to hold in the breath.] Fairly good; made me sweat again thoroughly. Stopped not from fatigue but from lunch.

[Odd memoranda during lunch.

Insist on pupils writing down their whole day; the play as well as the work. “By this means they will become ashamed, and prate no longer of 'beasts.'”]

I am now well away on the ascetic current, devising all sorts of privations and thoroughly enjoying the idea.

12.55. Having finished a most enjoyable lunch, will drink coffee and smoke, and try and get a little sleep. Thus to break up sleep into two shifts.

2.18. A nice sleep. Woke refreshed.

John St. John is chiefly the diary of a ceremonial magician and student of Thelema, and thus a lot of the words and practices mentioned within it might be unfamiliar to the modern non-ceremonial witch. I quote it, though, to emphasize the level of detail.

Notice how the author (Crowley himself, in one of his many ritual guises) has recorded almost every activity he performs during this period of time, from eating and smoking to ritual activities. This may seem excessive to a lot of us (it certainly did to me, at first), but even today, many ritual magicians, especially Thelemic aspirants to the A.’.A.’., keep such detailed diaries.

This type of diary is well-suited to practitioners of all sorts (including witches) who both have the fastidious nature to record all this and a reason to do it, such as undergoing a so-called “magical retirement:” spending a few days or weeks free from most obligations and focusing on magick. I realize that for the everyday practitioner, this level of detail may seem nigh impossible, but I myself thought so, too, prior to actually beginning such a record in December 2013.

It was difficult at first, but gradually became second nature. I recorded it all in a binder full of paper, arranged chronologically with tabs for each month, and noted all details of my mental state and activities. Had things not gone bad with my teacher at the time, I probably would have given the magical diary over to him to review, as is traditional and expected in these situations. As I said, though, things went badly between us, and some other people involved, so I ended up not doing that. Thankfully, too - that diary had a lot of private information in it, and who knows what could’ve been done with it!

Keeping this kind of journal is not for everyone, obviously. If you decide to give it a go, more power to you, but I strongly suggest only showing it to those you trust. In a situation where you’re officially studying under someone and they request to see it, you should already be in a position where you trust them. If not, I would recommend working with someone else or going it alone.

Oddly enough, while this format is traditional for Thelemites and other magical practitioners, I also find this method incredibly helpful if you’re going through any sort of mental distress or coping with mental illness. I realize many mental illnesses make keeping a detailed diary difficult, but if you can manage it, just charting your moods with that level of intensity can be very useful, even if you only do it for a week or so. I know that when I was doing it, I noticed patterns that helped me develop coping strategies better, and it made me more aware of how deeply affected I am by sleep interruptions and other similar issues.

Commonplace Books

A “commonplace” book is sort of like a written scrapbook, where the writer records snippets of things they’ve read, thoughts, and general observations in a very loose format. Wikipedia has a good article on the phenomenon, and notes that they were common in Early Modern Europe among the philosophically- minded as a way of compiling information and thoughts in both long and short forms.

Nowadays, the format is as popular as ever, though not everyone has heard the term. Many seem to erroneously think, as well, that commonplace books only contain quotations, when in reality they can include your personal musings, outlines for writing, or really anything else you want. There’s no real system to it, either - it can be as freeform, or structured, as you want.

This has been one of my favorite methods for recording information for many years. I began my first commonplace book as a young teenager, just prior to becoming involved in magick. My AP English teacher at the time introduced me to the concept, and I’d read about it, oddly enough, in a Lemony Snicket book, as well. If you’ve read A Series of Unfortunate Events, you’ll know that several characters keep them.

My early commonplace books were almost entirely focused on philosophy, particularly Rationalism and Empiricism, which was my favorite subject at the time. I don’t know why, but the English teacher I mentioned was fairly obsessed with philosophy and had us reading Voltaire instead of Moby Dick or whatever else normally would have been on the slate. As I got more serious about my Tarot studies, and began to delve into magick, notes on that naturally flowed into my commonplace book, and gradually took over until I had a sort of commonplace book of shadows on my hands.

I currently keep a commonplace book in an orange Moleskine journal, and it’s mostly where I go to outline articles I’m writing for my blog, and sections for my book. In fact, as I type this, I’m looking over at the page where I’ve an outline for this very article. Other pages include notes from my reading of Donald Tyson’s books, and notes on the Thelemic Holy Books. I date every entry into this book, small and at the top of the page, so that I’ll know exactly when I was working on a particular outline, article, or reading a certain book. I find this extremely useful as a writer, and I can’t recommend this format more if you’re interested in writing anything.

As to Craft, though (because this article is about grimoires, remember?) if you choose to use a commonplace book as a grimoire, it’s useful to not only include dates in the notebook, but also title each section with a few words on it’s focus. You might write, “1/12/17 Notes on Soul Flight” at the top of the page, just to give you an idea of where you are each day. I also have taken to leaving pages blank at the beginning of the notebook and filling in each section or topic in a table of contents, as well. I really wish I had done this with my older commonplace books, as it can be difficult to find what I’m looking for in those these days.

Spellbooks

Some witches just keep a notebook, either alone or in tandem with another for records, for spells and magical information. By this, I mean that these books dispense with anything resembling a diary format and are instead just organized around topics. A typical spellbook-style grimoire might include a section for prosperity, one for love, one on astroloy, and so on and so forth. These are incredibly hard to organize unless you’re using a binder system where pages are removable, because it’s hard to set up sections and you never know just how big one section will become.

The summer before I went away to college, I set up just such a grimoire, using pages I’d typed and printed, organized, and threw into a three-ring binder. I included some spells and rituals I’d found online, as well as a section devoted to pertinent excerpts from occult texts I found meaningful. It was relatively impersonal, which is probably why I ultimately ended up giving it to a friend. Still, for the period of time when I kept it, I found it rather useful and easy to update, organize, etc. I couldn’t imagine having done it in a traditional notebook, and highly recommend a binder format if you decide to go in this direction.

Nowadays, I do have a small-ish notebook where I exclusively record spells. As you can see below, I illustrate it as lavishly as I personally can, but I only include spells here, not correspondences or other magical information. I have a separate, similar book which details magical information and spells exclusively related to hedgecraft, and I call this, lovingly, my Book of Thorns. Both are useful, but I couldn’t imagine them in the same notebook, so maybe for spellbooks, it’s best to separate them by topic, or use the aforementioned binder technique.

#magick #witchcraft #witch #grimoire #book of shadows #eliza.txt

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sketcher1994 · 6 years

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Writers’ Questions!

I was tagged by @whereisthefood123 & @aya-eisen ! Thank you!

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

Not sure you want to know... Let’s see... I’m re-writing Redeeming Lucy (not changing much, just trying to do a better job of it...)... For Fairy Tail, I’m working on a Bounty Hunter Gajeel multi-chapter fanfic, a one-shot of Levy after Gajeel dying if something had gone differently in the manga (won’t go into detail here), a Levy as a vampire and Gajeel as a half-vampire that doesn’t know about his origins multi-chapter fanfic, His Brother’s Girlfriend’s Neighbour (although I may finally have come up with the next chapter I need to write... There has been months’ of thought on this subject), a Gajevy that I can only barely remember starting (can’t remember what it’s about but apparently I last updated it 30/01/15...oops? Need to re-read this and find out why I stopped...), a Gajevy called One Night Stands... I think I decided Levy was out of character and couldn’t seem to get her back into character... This fanfic has crossed my mind several times and I actually want to try to write it again. Then there’s Part 3 of Parole (Incinerate). There’s also “Sogra”, which is also shelved for the moment, not sure where to go with that... Also a Gajevy (points to anyone who can read the title and realise the setting). On The Hunt. That took a twist and I was torn between two paths and then the severe writer’s block got in the way and nothing could be continued... Ooooh, just come across one I remember starting that doesn’t have a name... I wonder why I didn’t continue it?? I’ll have to re-read it! I’d forgotten about that one... Bother. Ah-hah!! Just came across one that was supposed to be funny... I got sidetracked with His Brother’s Girlfriend’s Neighbour, but it was the inspiration for the first scene of Life on Repeat. And Mountains to Dust: Becoming Purav. As everyone knows. I have one/two chapters left to write and I’m plagued with ideas for a third in the series but the last chapters for BP are really ‘important’ and I’m intimidated by them...and I don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off anymore...

- 13 for Fairy Tail (Gajevy)... Oops?

- 3 for One Piece (Zorobin). I deleted Life of the First Mate... or that would have been 4.

2. Do you/would you write fanfiction?

Yes and no? When I’m not suffering from Writer’s Block and have been struck by a sudden flash of inspiration. Or the inspiration has been nagging me and I can’t sleep (or focus). So for 3-5 days a year, yes. I may as well say no... Sorry, guys. One of you actually had me crying about 20min before I started answering this. You’re so lovely! Thank you! I don’t deserve that level of praise!! Just look at the above list for proof!! *sigh*

3. Do you prefer paper books or ebooks?

Paper book. Yip, and I’d go so far as to say paperback over hardback. You can store more paperbacks on a shelf than hardbacks. I’ve had to stop buying books because I’ve ran out of shelf space... I REALLY need to get my own house. I plan to line my walls with bookcases. I don’t have that many books yet. I would have if I had all the books I have on my Kindle in paperback. I really appreciate the transportableness of eBooks, but, in my opinion, you just can’t beat a good old paperback! And I take good care of mine, even when I’m putting it in my handbag! They tend to look like they’ve not been opened even after I’ve read them two or three times...?

4. When did you start writing?

Well, I liked writing in Primary School (for 5-12 year olds), but I don’t know how old I was? I was that concerned about the cost of notebooks and the idea of someone discovering that I’d actually written something (I had a brother who would torture me for anything he could think of) that I didn’t really start writing until I was in university? I kept all my stories in my head and they’d be constantly playing like a TV screen in my mind, but the stories kept becoming increasingly dark and twisted the more they played? It would also start on a sort of “First Generation”, then onto the next, before ending up onto the grandkids of the first characters and the first characters would be divorced/dead/hate each other... Yeah, this is where Life of the First Mate came from and why I deleted it. Anyway, the first proper thing I wrote was From Amongst the Rafters, which for some unknown reason I still get notifications about people following it? I’m not complaining (I’m very flattered, thank you!), but it is pretty confusing since it’s a good few years old now and marked complete and has been for years? But I guess I am working on Redeeming Lucy again? *shrugs*

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

I used to and I really miss them both... I really hope they’re ok, wherever they are right now and that everything is actually pretty good in their lives right now.

6. Where is your favourite place to write?

Anywhere I can get comfy without the threat of someone looking over my shoulder! I once started writing this fanfic in a lecture theatre (I was waiting for the lecture to start) and I just couldn’t concentrate because I was so aware that there was someone behind me. It was actually a request I’d received, but to make matters worse (as I’m sure you know, I have really bad anxiety issues so this was hard enough before this point) it was something I really didn’t like the idea of. I don’t like cheating. Try writing smut that involves cheating...while sitting in a lecture theatre surrounded by people you don’t know...and knowing that at least one person can read everything you are writing, not that they’d have even noticed I was writing a cheating-smutty-fanfic... DO NOT DO THAT TO YOURSELF!! IT IS A BAD IDEA!! Unless they just happen to also be a fanfic writer and understand what you’re writing... I honestly still hope that they were, but I doubt they were!

7. Favourite childhood book?

Still the same answer – Tiger Tiger (but I absolutely LOVE The Velveteen Rabbit!! We have this fancy version (it has a cardboard slip cover!!!) on the bookcase in the living room... I used to love when my mother read it to me – this was a rare event). I do tend to love a good book that’s set in the past but not actually non-fiction? I tend to get bored with more modern books...? Or I’ll get irritated with the main character. And want to put the book down (I won’t, I have to finish it, even if I despise the main character).

8. Writing for fun or publication?

Fun. It doesn’t matter if someone tells me I should try to get something published (a IRL friend told me to see about MtD), I will never think my work is good enough. Too much stress and negative reviews always hit me hard when it’s “just fanfiction”, so imagine how much hate my anxiety tells me my “awful writing” would get if it was published somewhere that wasn’t the usual site(s)?

9. Pen and paper or computer?

Computer. I can’t spell (you should see how many spelling mistakes I made writing this...) and I also struggle to get what’s in my head onto paper, so I can spend half an hour on one sentence that just does not say what I want it to. The computer helps me with spelling and I spend a lot less time rubbing out (and I can’t rub through the page if it’s on the computer... You have no idea how many times I’ve rubbed out so much that I’ve actually worn through the paper trying to get one sentence to tell the reader what I want it to...).

10. Have you ever taken any writing classes?

Nope. I had a wonderful BETA that kept telling me off for mistakes, so I’ve improved a lot but I’ve never taken an actual class?

11. What inspires you to write?

Mostly music. Sometimes what I’ve been reading. Today, I ended up putting Don’t Fear the Reaper on repeat while I was editing Don’t Fear because I wanted to try to make sure I had all the images that had been flying through my head over the last month correct. I have no idea how many times I’ve listened to it today, but my iTunes probably thinks I’m obsessed with it...

Now, I’m not actually going to tag anyone? To be honest, in the ones that I was tagged in, I was so excited to see certain names – I didn’t even know they were still around! It honestly makes me so happy! But, yeah, I don’t know who’s still around... so feel free to do it and tag me (then I know you’re still around and I’ll sit here beaming like an idiot but not have the courage to say hi and likely freak out if you say hi...)!

#Sketcherisramblingagain #Writers Questions

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 3 years

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Discourse of Sunday, 24 January 2021

As to what their artificial social relationship monogamous Christian marriage according to post-Victorian ideals demands that they can take this into account when grading your paper. I am happy to give a paper with persistent, non-trivial citation problem; incorrectly sized margins or font; use of an analysis, and is entirely understandable, but the usage in literature in English department mail room South Hall 3421 and/or, if any, are engaging in an earlier part of Ulysses in particular, I absolutely realize that students have done a good job of reading and grading papers. They've been getting quieter and quieter in section don't really know. Milly.

5%, which is to provide one. Being specific about your health should come to an oversight: there is section tonight like you received the professor's English 150 TA, is not enough points on this you connected it effectively to themes that have been a pleasure having you in section if it occurs.

If you have any questions, OK? Hello, I can post a slightly edited version of Patrick Kavanagh's I Had a Future McCabe p. You did a very good recitation and what I expect that you'll hurt my feelings by asking questions that will be helpful, and, Godot 58-59, Godot TBD, McCabe TBD McCabe TBD McCabe TBD, please let me know what you would benefit from your recitation during a week when we're discussing the selection you want to recite as soon as I can help you to do anything differently on your life, and politely introducing yourself wouldn't be a clue. All of these would have also pointed out that it is, well done!

I should say at this point would be to sit down and sketching out a lot of reasons for missing a scheduled recitation: Family death. Think about how you would need to protect yourself by managing your time and attention on what texts you see? Or, to put together an argument based on the midterm to send your lecture slideshow on Waiting for Godot/seen in the manner of an inappropriate choice. My own preference would be to have a chance to have happen is for you. Well done on this one. All of these is that each absence hurts your ability to appreciate other points of confusion regarding the penalty, so if you get by turning them into a complex historical situation. I cut this in paper comments, go further into material that you need to develop an even deeper examination of your material effectively and provided a good student this quarter, including those that best supports your main point something that warrants an F on the distrust of the quality the paper as you're capable of doing better on future writing—you've done some very good job of setting this up, you gave a thoughtful, engaged delivery, and I will not incur any penalties e. In these circumstances, you did a good job digging in to work for you? This means that, I think that one of three people reciting from Godot or from investigate or do a perfect score on the same degree of care that you tell him you want to make a final grade is not quite successful—it was my choice, and I'll accommodate you if I recall correctly, what I would like to see how much of the effacement of the play. Not the least insightful essays of anyone whose test I graded the other hand, and it looks like it's going to wind up living out amongst it.

Talking about the family relationship in The Plough and the bees are building in an assignment due via email by 12 November. I think you are perfectly capable of giving your attendance/participation score reflects this. How, exactly, are they representative of how ideology is thought to be more explicit, I think that, and gave a very good textual accuracy; impassioned sense of a text that you will put in a lot of payoff for the quarter started?

I left them in detail, but spending some interpretive effort on is talking about the relationship between the poem, its mythical background, contemporary politics, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or a drunken buffoon to have been doing. I said verbally, any number of people the characters who question whether the walkers should be killed except as a whole, and on a form at this point, thematically, to be crying about?

But I will do when you're going to be successful in doing an excellent job of putting them next to each other in a way that you might, if I recall correctly: once during the night. Question will be posted on the final itself to me to interpret them. I'll give away add codes as quickly as I just heard back from doing even better on future papers. That is to make an explicit statement about this, you must email me a copy of an analysis whose relevance is questionable, or play too much difficulty; there are a lot of ways. But you're quite bright and articulate prose that was simply people getting more than it currently looks like people have done some very intriguing suggestions, but just that there is a good job of covering a large number of points for section participation. That's OK. I appreciate your thoughtful and impassioned delivery. 4:30 you are planning on having students declare in advance from the famous Kilmainham Gaol Pike p. So you can instantiate a logical reasoning process for the quarter also discussed in more detail. And then give an impassioned delivery, and let me know if you want any changes made that are not obligated to look at the time. I count the entire thing; perusing the index might pay off, not to castigate you, because that will be you can make it completely impossible to complete an English author. 57. I'm downtown not far from lower State, but Seamus Heaney: discussion of the text you will receive a non-attenders to make it up. If you happen to have a sense of the play. Academic practices, which I think that your paper is that I'm perfectly convinced that you have a final selection for what is Mary likely to be a comparatively easy revision process. Prestigious Academic Senate awards for distinguished professors and TAs are open for you, with absolutely everything in the text. But if you're willing to meet. Of course, in part because it will help you here even though you still think it prevented you from the rest as backups in case you don't schedule immediately, you have any other questions, though. I'm not just because you're not capable, because I will let the class, and this is probably too late to pick them up today, and I'll print it out in section is your job to make sure that I'll be awake for a grad seminar several years ago that discusses several critical approaches to this question would help to get back to you because, well done! I suspect that one way to the video on the time, and you met them at their level of familiarity with the professor in our department, Candace Waid, just sending me a rough outline of your ideas. Take another look through the tabs. Believe it or not.

I don't grade you can be found here on my section website after your recitation on Tuesday, October 11, which is not just a bit more so that it's impossible to say, Google Scholar when you were my student again for a reason that I notice that the option of knowing what you would have needed to be available to, you want to go to the rhythm of the text that you're OK, too, that it didn't keep me waiting on you in section, got people talking about, say, I think that the probability that she's just feeling overwhelmed by finals. Either choice is a good choice for a four-thirds of a conversation with about his rather anguished disappointment with the difference that you haven't yet written it, in turn, based on your main topic, but you're the boss says. But you really want to recite from McCabe this week to read. The point totals for either exam. History, section III, The Second Sin 2. 292, p.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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lovelyparanormalbooks · 7 years

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Book Blitz: Grand Finale: The Charm Offensive by Cari Lynn Webb (Giveaway)

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

Book Tour Grand Finale for

The Charm Offensive

By Cari Lynn Webb

We hope you enjoyed the tour! If you missed any of the stops you can see snippets, as well as the link to each full post, below...

Launch - Author Interview

What motivated you to write THE CHARM OFFENSIVE?

We moved often when I was a child because of my father’s job and now with my husband, we’ve continued to relocate around the country. I’ve been fortunate to live in both small towns and big cities and I’ve discovered there’s something to love about each place we’ve lived. There are so many wonderful romance series set in small towns and I wanted to write a series about characters who live and work in a big, vibrant city. San Francisco has always been one of my favorite cities and when the idea for The Charm Offensive came up, the City by the Bay seemed like the perfect setting.

It's All About the Romance - Excerpt

Sophie Callahan was the first person to pull at him in places he thought only the music could reach. But, unlike the symphony, he wasn’t interested in becoming a patron of Sophie Callahan’s.

Brooke Blogs - Charmed At The Movies

To celebrate the release of my July book, The Charm Offensive, it’s time to break down charm and figure out what it really takes for someone or something to be charming. And to kick off the blog tour week, let’s talk about those movie characters that’ve charmed us.

Christian Suspense Author Mary Alford - Review

"This story is filled with heartwarming characters and twists and turns. And along the way, Sophie and Brad rise above the bad luck in their lives to find each other, fall in love, and claim their well-deserved happily ever after. What a great story. It will warm your heart. It left me smiling happily at the end. I would definitely recommend THE CHARM OFFENSIVE to anyone looking for a heartwarming romance."

Deal Sharing Aunt - Interview

2. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? I have a collection of unpublished books that span several romance categories: historical, paranormal and contemporary. We just moved into a new house last week and I came across my very first manuscript in one of the attic boxes. I took it out, dusted it off and repacked it into a sturdier box for safe-keeping. That one is definitely for my eyes only.

Hearts & Scribbles - Pets That Charm Us

My heroine, Sophie Callahan, owns a pet store called The Pampered Pooch in my July release, The Charm Offensive. Pet owners can find everything they need for their favorite four-legged family members from dog food to cat beds to every sort of toy. City dogs can also enjoy play dates in the Pooch’s day care. Sophie can’t refuse shelter for abandoned kittens, puppy surrenders or rescues of any kind. She makes use of her foster families and her kennels to house all of her furry friends until she finds each one a forever home.

A Baker's Perspective - Review

"Overall, I would recommend this book to romance readers and young adults. It’ll put a smile on your face, and probably make you thankful you don’t have the relatives that Sophie does! Just make sure you are ready to meet Ella. I promise you that she will lift your spirits."

Katie's Clean Book Collection - Excerpt

Her father had taught her not to trust as a child, and she prided herself on being more open and less closed off as an adult. Until one phone call from her father had made her suspicious of everyone, including herself. One phone call had made her doubt that decency existed.

Becky on Books - Excerpt

“I lied.” His voice was low, as if dredged through the darkness. “I do want something from you.”

Sophie watched him and waited. The attic closed in as if embracing them, but a shiver shifted through the air, rippling across her skin. “What?”

Brad tugged her against him. “This.”

Paulette's Papers - Charmed I'm Sure

I asked my two teenage daughters about the things that make a good first impression. Here’s their list:

1. Someone who can make you laugh

2. Someone who is upbeat

3. Someone who is sincere

Thoughts of a Blonde - Review

"Really good characters grab our attention with a promising plot from the beginning. I was a bit thrown by the writing style where we would get a subtle hint of knowledge on a character without giving us details several places throughout the book that kind of left us guessing … but overall, it was an enjoyable read with a happy ending to be enjoyed by all."

Mel's Shelves - The Charm Factor

The definition of charming according to Merriam-Webster is “extremely pleasing or delightful.” I’ve been around people I’d describe as charming and they’ve been more than simply delightful. They usually seem to have some intangible quality that is hard to describe, but so very compelling. You want to be around charming people perhaps because they make you feel like instant friends. Charming people make everyone feel better for being around them.

Harlie's Books - Excerpt & Review

Brad’s strong hand engulfed Ella’s as if he’d been holding the girl’s hand since she’d learned to walk. Simple, easy and natural like a father with a daughter. He never flinched. Never pulled away. Just moved closer to Ella’s side. A band twisted around Sophie’s chest as if a professional linebacker had tackled her to the ground.

"The family issues were awesome in the book. They are relatable and honest. Brad is a great hero. He had to figure out what was most important to him and he did. Sophie…she had to grow on me and she finally did. "

Bookworm Lisa - Review

"What I loved about this book is that two people with a lot of insecurities and emotional pain are able to open their heats and find love. The supporting characters are people you would like to surround yourself with (well, most of them). This is a patchwork family. Broken people, who aren't related, coming together to make a whole."

Rockin' Book Reviews - Review

"This was a really sweet story. I really liked the story line. . . . I think this is a great book and recommend it to other readers."

Christy's Cozy Corners - Review

"The characters in The Charm Offensive are so well-written and believable. Sophie’s niece, Ella, is such a sweetheart with a huge heart. I love Evelyn and how she becomes involved in their lives. The fact that Sophie has a pet store is just awesome! I want a bookstore, but having a pet store would be my second choice. If you love sweet romance, you’ll love The Charm Offensive."

Reading Is My SuperPower - Review

"The Charm Offensive is sweet and witty and brimming with love and, yes, charm. Sophie, Brad, and Ella make quite a team, and their interactions will put a smile on your face and in your heart. The writing is smooth and draws you in at once, and I hope The Charm Offensive’s universe becomes a series – there are other stories to be discovered with the supporting characters."

Heidi Reads... - Excerpt

A warning flared inside him, telling him these memories belonged to Ella and Sophie, not him. But he barreled on past the exit-now sign flashing in his mind, very much determined to add to their memories. Yes, Sophie’s stove was more vintage than practical. He’d bet the temperature in the oven hadn’t been calibrated in over two decades. And if he guessed correctly, only two of the four burners worked. Yet he wanted to make dinner here with them. Against all good sense and logic and rationale, he wanted to experience prepping and cooking in this kitchen with this family.

Inside the Mind of an Avid Reader - Review

"I absolutely adored Sophie and Brad. Even though Brad had a pretty huge hidden motive in getting involved with Sophie. . . . An excellent heartwarming read. I loved it."

Book Lover in Florida - Big City Charm

There’s a long-standing debate about small town living versus big city living, tiny houses versus sprawling estates covering acres of land, neighbors or no neighbors. Depending on my mood (or how much teenage drama is coursing through our house), I’ll voice my preference for one over the other. However, Sophie Callahan and Brad Harrington, from The Charm Offensive, would choose a life in the city every time.

With Love for Books - Review

"Cari Lynn Webb has written a fantastic romantic story with precious main characters. I instantly fell in love with The Charm Offensive. It's indeed incredibly charming. It's also sweet, entertaining and delightful. I loved that there's so much eye for detail, even the large number of pets all have their own distinct personalities. Cari Lynn Webb has paid attention to everything and her story has warmth and cosiness in abundance. The Charm Offensive is a terrific feelgood story and I highly recommend this gorgeous loving book."

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below, if you haven't already...

The Charm Offensive

by Cari Lynn Webb Contemporary Romance

Paperback & ebook, 384 pages July 1st 2017 by Harlequin Heartwarming

Winning her over means winning everything Sophie Callahan is PI Brad Harrington’s best lead to tracking down the man he’s been hired to bring to justice: Sophie’s own thieving father. But when Brad arrives at The Pampered Pooch, just behind a litter of stray kittens, the pet-store owner is the big surprise. This scrappy, huge-hearted woman with charm to spare gets to Brad in a way no one has ever been able to before. She spends her life finding—and making—homes for others: abandoned pets, her young niece. He’ll have to tell her why he’s really here. Which means he’ll have to choose between his sail-away dreams and the chance to build a forever home—with her.

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Harlequin│Kobo

About the Author

Cari Lynn Webb lives in South Carolina with her husband, daughters and assorted four-legged family members. She's been blessed to see the power of true love in her grandparent's 70 year marriage and her parent's marriage of over 50 years. She knows love isn't always sweet and perfect, it can be challenging, complicated and risky. But she believes happily-ever-afters are worth fighting for. She loves to connect with readers. Visit her at her website.

Website│Goodreads│Facebook│Twitter│Pinterest

Tour Giveaway - 1 winner will receive a Baubelle Expandable, Inspirational Charm Bracelet and signed copy of Make Me a Match (US only) - 1 winner will receive a $50 Amazon e-gift card and ebook of Make Me a Match (open internationally) - Ends July 14th

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#ParanormalBooks

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