#it took like 2 hrs to write the outline/structure for the ending ending

[uniquethingtastemaker]

The Rook x Observant Reader got even longer. I’m not even talking the current word count which is 39k. I’m talking I have more idea to fit in the end so the entire theme of the fanfic is more wholistic. Yes, there are core themes in this like real novels or short stories. There’s even foreshadowing. I intentionally use story structure to enhance the reader’s experience. I make sure that there’s no scenes that are not there for a reason. If I could take it out of the story and it would still make sense, I’ve banished it to the scrap pile.

I have no idea how this happened. I’m as surprised as everyone else. I’ve been in shock for the past 3 hrs.

Some of these things I didn’t even plan until I looked a little closer and analyzed it and went “oh my god! The parallels!” You’ll get it once you read it.

I’m still in shock but I have to share because wtf. I didn’t plan any of this. It just happened and it’s smart

[citrineghost]

Avoiding Scams on Freelancing Sites

Hi there! I almost just got scammed today, and I’m going to take the LITTANY of red flags from this interaction and use it to teach you all about how to avoid scams.

I am not making very much money right now. I just lost one of the accounts I was writing for, so I am not not even making enough to pay my rent. So I am desperately looking for work. And, like many people desperately looking for work, my panicking subconscious is willing to see a red flag and brush it under the rug because

“I’m probably being paranoid.”

So, to all of my lovely artists, writers, editors, and other types of freelancers who are desperately looking for work, I would like to create a comprehensive list of things that you should NOT FUCKING IGNORE while looking for a job. Actually, the list will be formatted as things you should expect from your employer/interviewer and if these things are missing, get the fuck out of there.

1. Reputable Platforms

The first thing you should be expecting is to use reputable platforms. If you’re being asked for a virtual interview, you should expect your interviewer to invite you via Skype, Discord, (Maybe slack if they’re middle-aged), perhaps Whatsapp, or whatever website you’re using to find your job.

DO NOT go for interviews on Telegram. This app has been reported as very commonly being associated with scams. This is where my recent experience took place.

2. Willingness to Verify Legitimacy

The first thing you should do when being in contact with an interviewer or HR is ask them to verify their identity. 

This may not be necessary if doing a video call with someone pictured on an official company website, receiving emails or texts from addresses/numbers that are listed on an official company website, or if the job you’re being interviewed for was applied to directly on the company website. In these cases, you are not likely to be scammed, as you’re working with verifiably information.

If you meet someone on Indeed, Fiverr, Upwork, or any other freelancing/job site, keep your contact within the website’s chat system, email system, or whatever. This is how you remain protected under the hiring site’s TOS/Legal whatever. If you get scammed because you took your hiring process elsewhere, they will not help you.

That being said, if you DO take your interview off the site, it should be somewhere reputable and you should ask for your interviewer to verify their identity before doing literally anything else. The best way to get them to verify their identity is to ask them to email or text you from an address or phone number listed clearly on the official company website, by asking them to show you their state ID and checking it for photoshop influence, or by asking to do a video call for the interview and seeing for yourself that you’re being interviewed by someone who is pictured on the official company website as an employee.

3. Clear and Professional Procedures

Any professional working as an interviewer or human resources personnel will have a skillset related to communication and organization. When being interviewed you should expect a number of questions about your skills and how you’re valuable to the company, etc. However, this is easy to fake, as a scammer. What you need to look out for is that they show a clear amount of structure.

If you’re asked for an interview, no real company will demand you be quick about responding. If they’re interested in an interview, a legitimate company is not likely to ask you to do the interview immediately. They will ask you to schedule an interview time with them. They may ask if you have availabilities that day, but they will not just start interviewing you immediately.

After the interview, any professional company will tell you that they will get back to you when they’ve made a decision about your interview. No professional company will tell you to wait for an indefinite amount of time while they talk to HR peers. If a company Does want you to wait, because they intend to make a quick decision, they will give you an expected wait time, as that is the courteous and professional thing to do. They will not expect you to be on-call for this period of time. A time projection is simply to give you an idea of what to expect. For example, “I’ll be in touch within the next 1-3 hours about the results of your interview. Thank you for your time.”

Furthermore, if you are accepted for a job, any professional company will make a clear outline of exactly how they plan to introduce you into company life. They will respect your time and ask you to schedule things with them. For example, “Is there a period of 2-3 hours within the next few days where you would be available for an orientation?” 

No professional company will demand you do anything at any particular time. That is not how legitimate professionals treat new employees. You will be asked to schedule things with them. Even when you’re assigned work hours, if the exact hours you’re applying for are not listed in the job description you applied for, they will ask you to fill out some kind of time sheet to outline your availabilities, then schedule you for times within that outline.

4. Doesn’t Show Signs of Money Scamming

There are two major red flags when it comes to money scams. Your interviewer should never ask you what bank you use and your interviewer should never ever tell you they’re going to send you a check, unless they send your paycheck as a check.

One of the more common scams at the moment is run by people pretending to be members of legitimate companies, hiring freelancers for things like proofreading and editing. These remote positions may require home office hardware, right? The interviewer will tell you you’re missing some hardware and software that are required for the job. Then they’ll tell you that they will send a check that you can cash and use to buy the required materials.

This is even sketchier if they email you front and back images of the check and tell you to print it and then deposit it through mobile banking. The way this works is that, if you cash the check successfully, you will then buy the list of software, which is usually completely unrelated to the job you’re being hired for, then they will cancel the check, which hasn’t cleared completely. That leaves you with ~$2k dollars less in your bank and their money right back where it started in theirs. Presumably, the scammers are the ones selling the software. So, that $2k dollars you just spent is also going into their bank account.

Professional companies will never offer to send you checks to buy products. If they have official hardware or software that they want you to use, they will buy it themselves and then send it to you. There is never a reason why a new hire should buy hardware or software out of their own bank, whether they have been given money for it or not.

Furthermore, a legitimate company will never ever pay you before you have signed and sent your contract to them. One of the obvious giveaways of the scam I was almost caught in was that I was sent the contract last night and I asked if I could send it in today, since it was getting late. The interviewer agreed. I signed it in the morning and then asked him if I should send it in a reply to the email I got the original contract from or if there’s another email I need to send it to. He completely ignored my question, asked me how I was doing, and then went into the check-related information so I could buy software.

The issue was bothering me ALL DAY. I knew there was something extremely weird about that, so I asked again a few hours later. His response? “You have nothing to worry about.” ?????? I was aghast. I wasn’t worried at all! I just wanted an answer! If he had simply told me to respond to the email I’d gotten the contract from, I might have fallen for his scam! What a terrible scammer smdh

A Non-Exhaustive List of Other Red Flags

Your interviewer shows a poor grasp on the language

If your interviewer is making frequent grammatical errors that are glaringly obvious to any native speaker, that is a huge red flag. HR reps and interviewers are hired because of their communication skills. It is highly unlikely that someone who makes non-native-like errors is legitimate unless they are actually openly non-native, in which case, it’s not so alarming.

Your interviewer is showing impatience or demanding you at certain times

If your interviewer is telling you to “report back by 8am tomorrow” without any kind of prior agreement that this is an acceptable time for you to meet, that is extremely unprofessional and shows a lack of patience. Scammers want to get to the meat of their scam quickly and will use an air of professional superiority and authority to scare you into moving faster than necessary.

Your interviewer shows a lack of opening and closing statements

Along the lines of the clear processes that I mentioned above anybody who is initiating you in the job you’re taking should show clear opening and closing statements. What I mean by this is: professionals in human resources or management positions will not keep you as a social hostage. If you’ve been discussing how you’ll begin training or somesuch, they will not just leave you hanging. You should have a dedicated time slot where you will have your discussion and, at the end of it, your supervisor should make a closing statement. For example, “It looks like our time is running out for today. What would be a good time to pick this up tomorrow?”

If you feel like you are “on-call” and unable to leave the room because the interviewer or supervisor keeps messaging, has not outlined a time slot for you to talk in, won’t seem to let you go, or shows no indication of stopping, that is a really bad sign. Either the company is legitimate and TERRIBLE at professionalism (a great sign you should run anyway), or this is a scammer intent on getting you to follow their instructions as soon as they can.

Your interviewer ignores time zones or gets them wrong

When I was contacted about doing an interview yesterday, it was 4:30pm. I did the interview and was told I got the job. Immediately after, without asking if I was free, he began listing off instructions and things I was to expect. It wasn’t until 7:30pm that he sent me the contract and asked me to review it, sign it, and send it back that I finally asked if I could do that tomorrow. The interviewer was supposedly on the west coast and knew that I was on the east coast. He agreed by saying “Alright” and then told me to report to him “by 8am your time.”

There are 3 things about this that are weird. The first is that he demanded I show up at 8am to continue where we left off. Any professional would have asked when I’m available the next day to continue. the second is that he said “your time” instead of saying EST, as most professionals in the US would be apt to do. And, lastly, I showed up at 7:50am, ready to continue, because I’m that desperate that I’m willing to be pushed around, and he showed up at 9am on the dot. He had gotten the time wrong. Nobody who works professionally on the west coast is incapable of adding 3 hours to their time. It was a rookie mistake, or a mistake made by someone in a completely different time zone than they say they are.

When asked to verify their identity, your interviewer attempts to reassure you or refuses

When I finally was fed up and knew this must be a scam, I politely asked my interviewer to verify his identity by either showing me his US ID or by contacting me from his email or phone number listed on the official company website. He sent me a photoshopped nametag with a completely different person’s name and photo on it and said it was the company ID of the HR director. 

I have never seen a facade fall so pathetically. Why would literally any even remotely legitimate person do such a thing? It was sad, really. He deleted the message in less than a minute - no doubt to keep me from looking at it long enough to see how badly it was photoshopped - and then aggressively reassured me that the company meant me no harm and would pay for everything, etc. Any real professional would have simply sent me an email from the legitimate address, stating that they’re legitimate, and then continued on with the initiation process.

Learn from My Mistakes

I hope some of this was helpful for all of you lovely freelancers trying to find work. I thought I would know a scam when I saw one, and I did have a Bad Feeling about this whole thing, because it did feel too good to be true, but I was desperate enough that my judgement was heavily clouded, and that could happen to anyone.

Don’t ignore red flags - especially these ones. Stick up for yourself. Avoid confirmation bias. I looked things up repeatedly to confirm that the company was legitimate and that it’s normal to do things like mobile deposit a printed check and so on. Every time, I found an explanation that suited me. I even tried to cash the check. The only reason it didn’t work was because there was an error with the name on the check because I recently legally changed my name and PayPal was having some kind of issue updating in some areas of its website. It was after that that I realized this was all crashing down and I needed to reassess it all. Don’t let yourself get that deep into it.

[leemarkies]

i’m so sorry for the ranting that is to ensue but i can’t talk to anyone around me because they don’t wanna hear it so i’m writing it down but! feel free to delete i just want to tell someone and let o my frustration in talking about it… okay so as you know, it’s exam week and i’m already stressed out enough as it is because they were so out of the blue but i prepare my best memorizing everything and writing down key points/words. today was my arts paper btw the one subject which is lengthy as heck since there’s SO much in the theory part as they like to break down the simplest strokes of brushes into 1k word paragraphs ;( we have to write literally everything under a single topic in the essay section or else we won’t get above a B* so i mentally outlined how i would do my paper according to the time given. but it just had to go badly askskjf like; the TA overseeing us arrived 10 mins late, then she handed out the question papers another 5 mins later & took her sweet time allowing us to start writing (since they have to set an alarm or something idk she’s the first person i’ve seen who does it) so now i had to take a u-turn and reschedule the amount of time i’d spent on mcqs, short answers and the essay section. it took me 10 out of the 30 mins given to finish the mcqs (thanks to my friend who marked important stuff for me) and then i was content with my speed at that point and decided i’d spend around 1:30 hrs doing the short questions & would spend the rest of the 2:30 mins writing the essays… i needed to constantly ask for more papers to write on since the TA also gave us like one tiny leaflet looking thing to write on (really; who has time to write two whole essays so let her just help us by handing out fewer pages, amirite?) and it was like a good 15 mins of my time since we had to draw margins on each paper (as our presentation has to be top notch all the time 🙄) and i decided to draw the diagrams at the end as according to my calculations, i’d be done writing everything and making final touches half an hour before time finished. but the TA started taking our stuff back around 35 mins earlier saying that most of the kids were done so we should be too (? WHY) and just as i was about to start drawing the detailed structures in my diagrams, she snatched the papers from me. my friend and i both needed to finish those up so she told her that as she had arrived 10-15 mins late, she should take everything back 10-15 mins later than usual and the TA straight up just said ‘you gave me the mcqs back 10-15 mins earlier than you were supposed to so you got your time back according to schedule’ and that was when i started getting super frustrated but i also remembered that i needed to arrange my answers according to the numbering or else my prof would get confused/find it harder to grade my exam. when i asked her to just let me do that, she said that i could go with her to the main hall where she’s supposed to submit the solved papers and there i could get permission to arrange my things… we reached that hall and before i could even say anything, she to the lady at the desk that i had been super slow at solving my paper, and that i knew nothing of the stuff i was supposed to write in it & that i had been pestering her to give me more time to solve it even though i just? wanted? to? arrange? it??? because of that, the desk lady told me to go and that my prof would deal with this on her own and i just have been in a bad mood ever since… like i don’t even know how what i did could be wrong? she was tardy + kept pestering US to finish early so that she could leave early and now she just lied to her face? i also lowkey feel humiliated :’) and a little bummed my diagrams couldn’t be finished but there’s nothing i can do about her lack of responsibility since my parents don’t even want to deal with it :c sorry sldkfjf again, feel free to delete this & thank you for letting me rant in your ask box LOL hope your day got better though! - 🍉

sorry for answering this like a week late ily it’s just been .. a week for me akwjfjksd

that SUCKS omg???? i really don’t know what else to say except that your ta is awful and should not be humiliating students. idk if your uni does this but mine has a way for students to file complaints against tas and profs and i think not giving you the allotted time should be enough of a complaint to take action and allow you to correct or rearrange your test. or maybe talk to your prof about it? idk that’s awful :(

[bexical]

July

Rather late, I know - I started this post on the first of the month actually, but it took some time and I got sidetracked by a variety of things. At least I’m here now :P

To briefly summarize the previous month’s progress: as expected, draft 0 is not complete, but I’m not too concerned. I do want to note my writing experiences this past month, particularly one rather intense session: I immersed myself in my character in order to capture her feelings, and as a result I was actually on the verge of tears for a significant amount of time while writing that scene.

Looking forward though, my goal is still hopefully to finish draft 1 of “Ghost of a Fireflower” by the end of August. It’s unlikely that I’ll finish draft 0 by the end of July, but I’ll do my best. Unfortunately, I think that means being a little less social for some time perhaps, but if that’s what has to happen, so be it.

Either way though, I want to take a little break between “Ghost of a Fireflower” and before “Birth of a Dragon”. While this is partly to give myself some time to develop the third part, I also need to spend some time on other writing-related things to refresh my excitement about writing in general. I'll spend some time on portraits and landscapes (an idea I had where I take a particular picture and write a scene from it) and more flash fic (I still want to make a final edit of “Blue”). I'll also likely spend some time practicing editing on r/DestructiveReaders.

In addition to the usual update, I wanted to do something unique this time. I'm normally quite harsh with myself, but it's not healthy for my motivation. I actually have a lot of things to be proud of, and even if it's a little self-aggrandizing, I want to go through these things:

Worldbuilding

I am incredibly proud of the world I’ve built. Even though I kind of feel like I’ve lucked into creating this amazing world, that doesn’t change how I feel about it. Its otherworldly elements range from mundane to beautiful to exotically horrific, and together they create a very rich world that is distinct from our own. I think it feels rather refreshing as a result, and again, I’m really happy with this world that I’ve built.

One thing in particular that I want to note about the world is how well it ties together with the plot and the characters and even with itself. Because it all ties together so well, each new element feels appropriate when it is introduced. It provides a strong sense of cohesion to the whole book, and I really like how it’s coming along as a result.

Worldview

I think I have a take on relationships and gender that is both insightful and unique enough to be worth sharing. Kiri and Rose are born from my experiences, and their respective journeys reflect my views on love and relationships. Kiri further reflects my take on gender, in particular what femininity means to me and my acceptance of that as a part of who I am. I hope readers will be able to resonate with Kiri and Rose and be inspired by them in some manner, and I'm excited to write their journey.

Wordcrafting

I generally like my writing, especially the more descriptive passages, and I’m occasionally rather proud of certain phrases that use creative imagery or an interesting cadence for example. I think I would attribute this generally to the care and attention I dedicate to the words I use and the way I phrase them. When it comes to the cadence of my writing in particular, I might actually attribute that to my love for music and my experience with it.

Narrative structure

Due to the extensive time I’ve spent analyzing film, I’ve become pretty good with narrative structure. Admittedly, I started this project with much less sense of structure, and I had no outline for the book - parts 2 and 3 didn’t even exist, and while I knew how part 1 ended, I made up a lot of it as I went along. All of this is pretty evident in draft 1 of “A Dying Spark”. Since then though, I’ve improved significantly and developed the outline much more. I’ve developed a three-part structure, likely inspired subconsciously by A:TLA and its three books (since it is my favorite series, after all =P). Admittedly, I did explicitly analyze the pacing of the antagonists of A:TLA when creating my own. These antagonists helped shape the plot shifts that mark the separate parts, resulting in three distinct parts with different themes and character motivations. Still, these parts manage to come together in a single, cohesive arc. When it comes to individual parts, I want to call out "Ghost of a Fireflower". The outline features the parallel stories of Kiri and Rose, and their stories resonate with each other and interleave together in order to advance a shared plot thread and emotional arc. The two stories come to a head together in a twin conclusion, and I’m really excited to write this conclusion. As for “Birth of a Dragon”, I don’t have much of an outline for it yet. However, I am confident that I'll be able to structure it so that it is engaging on its own and it ties together all of the threads that came to be in the first two parts.

Editing

At some point, I decided I wanted to analyze what exactly I thought about the media I consumed. It was no longer sufficient that I just like something, and it was especially insufferable that I just dislike something: I had to be able to describe its flaws as meticulously as possible.

More and more analysis has helped me develop a detailed and accurate sense of what constitutes good and bad writing. This includes big picture aspects like narrative structure and character arcs as well as minutiae on the order of sentence structure and word choice. In a fortunate coincidence, this is what I (perhaps biasedly) consider to be the most important quality in editing: after all, it’s important to be able to describe the problem before attempting to fix it.

I think my dabbling in game design has also helped me develop this skill. Games can be very multifaceted art forms, perhaps even more so than novels and films. As with editing a novel, it is important to be able to describe the problems and isolate what aspects of the game are causing them; otherwise, a designer can end up making a number of changes that fail to address the actual problem. I developed these skills while working on various game design projects, and these skills have transferred over to my writing and made me rather good at editing.

Finally, I want to finish this post off quickly with a description of a few small areas I need improvement in:

Writing speed

I write too slowly. I know it’s because I want every word to be perfect, but I really need to find a way to push myself to move along and write at a quicker pace. I think I need to recognize that not everything needs to be perfect the first time around - after all, any given scene might be replaced in its entirety. As another example, I’ve spent so much time on this post, which has little purpose beyond its effect on my pride.

Brainstorming

I’m really bad at brainstorming (something I’ve also noticed with work and in my game design pursuit). When faced with a problem, I need to be better at coming up with varied ideas that explore different paths. My current problem-solving ‘strategy’ is just to kind of struggle with a problem until a solution comes along, and this just isn’t viable. I’m going to come across problems in the narrative, and I’ll need to be able to handle them quickly and sufficiently when they come up.

Pride

This might be ironic, given that I wrote this whole post because I felt I needed to be more proud of my work, but pride is actually my biggest flaw. In other aspects of life, I might even say the vast majority of my problems stem from my pride. As for writing, it’s likely why I write slowly, since I can’t bear writing something I’m not proud in. Perhaps more importantly is the issue of feedback - throughout my time working on this book, I will get feedback at various times. I’ll need to react in an objective manner and let go of my pride if I want to write the best book I can, and hopefully I’ll be able to do that.

Well, that’s finally all for now! Even if it is going slower than I’d like, I’m really proud of what I’ve created so far. I love Kiri and Rose, and I’m really excited to take them to the conclusion of “Ghost of a Fireflower” and start brainstorming what they do in “Birth of a Dragon”. Whew, it’s been quite a long post =P pce out til next time!