depressedpoetess - Tumblr blog

[depressedpoetess]

reblog with one or more of your top 10 most salient paragraphs

[depressedpoetess]

👋 let's connect!

name: Jihyun it means knowledge and wisdom and I have neither aha

pronouns: I'm used to she/her I guess

genres you like to write in: contemporary romance, literary fiction, fantasy

genres you like to read in + fav books/media: I will read anything! Recently been reading a lot of sci-fi

My fav book that comes to my mind is 우리가 빛의 속도로 갈 수 없다면 by 김초엽 and 소년이 온다 by 한강 I can't think of a favorite English book at this moment hmmm

My guilty pleasure in tv is Brooklyn 99 and Criminal Minds

favorite line from your current wip: "Grief is like a weight that you carry. It doesn't get any lighter, but you get stronger every day."

me, desperate for some writer friends/mutuals

hi everyone!

this is just a post where writers get to know writers, and hopefully through reblogs/comments we can find more people who not only read/write our genre, but just people who have similarities with us.

it's kind of a simple "get to know me" post, and anyone can join <3 if you want to know more about me and my works, check out my writblr intro!

feel free to tag your mutuals and reblog !!

name: pronouns: genres you like to write in: genres you like to read in + fav books/media: favorite line from your current wip:

name: ave

pronouns: she/her

genres you like to write in: currently writing contemporary (ya/romcom/romance, give me them ALL), but I also like to dabble in fantasy!

genres you like to read in + fav books/media: i'll consume literally anything haha. Fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, romance, young adult, you name it. I'm awful with horror, though ;-;

percy jackson (MY CHILDHOOD), harry potter (OBVIOUSLY), Better Than the Movies, From Lukov with Love, The Love Hypothesis, These Violent Delights, the list goes on...

favorite or latest line from your current wip: [from Destination Seoul]

“How can I?” I mutter, leaning back in my chair. “Even I know when a relationship is over. Especially because I ended it. Besides…”

[depressedpoetess]

By deleting osha-official Tumblr has become the first social media platform to ban SFW content.

[depressedpoetess]

Sooo...

Tumblr decided to terminate my account, my idea why. I contacted them twice during the last few days and still haven't heard back.

Used to be @dgwriteblr.

I'll try to remember everyone I followed and follow again, but my memory of usernames is meh, to say the least, so please spread the word so I can find my mutuals again. I missed y'all.

I'm going to tag some people I remember, sorry for the notification spam. @oh-no-another-idea @genby-enby @prettyquickpoetry @chayscribbles @jnicolewrites

[depressedpoetess]

There’s also a large grey area between an Offensive Stereotype and “thing that can be misconstrued as a stereotype if one uses a particularly reductive lens of interpretation that the text itself is not endorsing”, and while I believe that creators should hold some level of responsibility to look out for potential unfortunate optics on their work, intentional or not, I also do think that placing the entire onus of trying to anticipate every single bad angle someone somewhere might take when reading the text upon the shoulders of the writers – instead of giving in that there should be also a level of responsibility on the part of the audience not to project whatever biases they might carry onto the text – is the kind of thing that will only end up reducing the range of stories that can be told about marginalized people. 

A japanese-american Beth Harmon would be pidgeonholed as another nerdy asian stock character. Baby Driver with a black lead would be accused of perpetuating stereotypes about black youth and crime. Phantom Of The Opera with a female Phantom would be accused of playing into the predatory lesbian stereotype. Romeo & Juliet with a gay couple would be accused of pulling the bury your gays trope – and no, you can’t just rewrite it into having a happy ending, the final tragedy of the tale is the rock onto which the entire central thesis statement of the play stands on. Remove that one element and you change the whole point of the story from a “look at what senseless hatred does to our youth” cautionary tale to a “love conquers all” inspiration piece, and it may not be the story the author wants to tell.

Sometimes, in order for a given story to function (and keep in mind, by function I don’t mean just logistically, but also thematically) it is necessary that your protagonist has specific personality traits that will play out in significant ways in the story. Or that they come from a specific background that will be an important element to the narrative. Or that they go through a particular experience that will consist on crucial plot point. All those narrative tools and building blocks are considered to be completely harmless and neutral when telling stories about straight/white people but, when applied to marginalized characters, it can be difficult to navigate them as, depending on the type of story you might want to tell, you may be steering dangerously close to falling into Unfortunate Implications™. And trying to find alternatives as to avoid falling into potentially iffy subtext is not always easy, as, depending on how central the “problematic” element to your plot, it could alter the very foundation of the story you’re trying to tell beyond recognition. See the point above about Romeo & Juliet.    

Like, I once saw a woman a gringa obviously accuse the movie Knives Out of racism because the one latina character in the otherwise consistently white and wealthy cast is the nurse, when everyone who watched the movie with their eyes and not their ass can see that the entire tension of the plot hinges upon not only the power imbalance between Martha and the Thrombeys, but also on her isolation as the one latina immigrant navigating a world of white rich people. I’ve seen people paint Rosa Diaz as an example of the Hothead Latina stereotype, when Rosa was originally written as a white woman (named Megan) and only turned latina later when Stephanie Beatriz was cast  – and it’s not like they could write out Rosa’s anger issues to avoid bad optics when it is such a defining trait of her character. I’ve seen people say Mulholland Drive is a lesbophobic movie when its story couldn’t even exist in first place if the fatally toxic lesbian relationship that moves the plot was healthy, or if it was straight.                          

That’s not to say we can’t ever question the larger patterns in stories about certain demographics, or not draw lines between artistic liberty and social responsibility, and much less that I know where such lines should be drawn. I made this post precisely to raise a discussion, not to silence people. But one thing I think it’s important to keep in mind in such discussions is that stereotypes, after all, are all about oversimplification. It is more productive, I believe, to evaluate the quality of the representation in any given piece of fiction by looking first into how much its minority characters are a) deep, complex, well-rounded, b) treated with care by the narrative, with plenty of focus and insight into their inner life, and c) a character in their own right that can carry their own storyline and doesn’t just exist to prop up other character’s stories. And only then, yes, look into their particular characterization, but without ever overlooking aspects such as the context and how nuanced such characterization is handled. Much like we’ve moved on from the simplistic mindset that a good female character is necessarily one that punches good otherwise she’s useless, I really do believe that it is time for us to move on from the the idea that there’s a one-size-fits-all model of good representation and start looking into the core of representation issues (meaning: how painfully flat it is, not to mention scarce) rather than the window dressing.

I know I am starting to sound like a broken record here, but it feels that being a latina author writing about latine characters is a losing game, when there’s extra pressure on minority authors to avoid ~problematic~ optics in their work on the basis of the “you should know better” argument. And this “lower common denominator” approach to representation, that bars people from exploring otherwise interesting and meaningful concepts in stories because the most narrow minded people in the audience will get their biases confirmed, in many ways, sounds like a new form of respectability politics. Why, if it was gringos that created and imposed those stereotypes onto my ethnicity, why it should be my responsibility as a latina creator to dispel such stereotypes by curbing my artistic expression? Instead of asking of them to take responsibility for the lenses and biases they bring onto the text? Why is it too much to ask from people to wrap their minds about the ridiculously basic concept that no story they consume about a marginalized person should be taken as a blanket representation of their entire community?

It’s ridiculous. Gringos at some point came up with the idea that latinos are all naturally inclined to crime, so now I, a latina who loves heist movies, can’t write a latino character who’s a cool car thief. Gentiles created antisemitic propaganda claiming that the jews are all blood drinking monsters, so now jewish authors who love vampires can’t write jewish vampires. Straights made up the idea that lesbian relationships tend to be unhealthy, so now sapphics who are into Brontë-ish gothic romance don’t get to read this type of story with lesbian protagonists. I want to scream.      

And at the end of the day it all boils down to how people see marginalized characters as Representation™ first and narrative tools created to tell good stories later, if at all. White/straight characters get to be evaluated on how entertaining and tridimensional they are, whereas minority characters get to be evaluated on how well they’d fit into an after school special. Fuck this shit.                            

[depressedpoetess]

writeblr introduction

hi there <3 call me pixie (they/them) im a wasian 20 yr old uni student. i made this blog bc i wanted a community to share my writing with on every step of its way. i also love to read, watch films & illustrate.

my favourite genres to read are fantasy, thriller & literary fiction but im not picky as long as its good

my favourite tropes are found family, childhood friends to lovers & mutual pining

i love to write fantasy & romance and incorporate elements from fairy tales, folklore & mythology

looking to meet like-minded people to talk about wips etc.

interact with this post so i can follow u!

xoxo

[depressedpoetess]

polyglot struggle is saying “잠시만 待って por favor” when what I really wanted to say was “wait a moment, please”

tumblr posts about writing bilingual characters: bilinguals DO NOT change their language in the middle of the conversation! It's unrealistic!

me, who said the phrase "i have beaucoup de friends" this morning:

[depressedpoetess]

This is not a writing post but I really need advice.

I have days in which my anxiety is so, so bad that I just cannot do the simplest of tasks. And when I'm finally able to Do Things, my anxiety and guilt still prevents me from explaining to people why I didn't do what I was supposed to do. Like "I know I said I would do this very easy thing by Wednesday but I did not do it without even contacting you to let you know I couldn't because I spent the past week struggling to breathe" just sounds ridiculous and unprofessional. I cannot even count the number of bridges this has burned. What do I do to stop this?

[depressedpoetess]

So

I’m resurrecting my Writing Club discord from the dead!

DM me for the link!!!!

[depressedpoetess]

I’m back after a 1-year depression funk what’s new

[depressedpoetess]

[depressedpoetess]

Wage labor truly is killing any creativity in me mayhaps Brandon Sanderson was right about computer programmer being a bad job for a writer.

[depressedpoetess]

My depression has been so terribly bad. I want to get back into writing but need to sort things out first.

I really need support at this time :(

[depressedpoetess]

writing amateur tip?

Years ago my art tutor told me how to deal with feeling too intimidated to create. Blank canvas is daunting. Put something on it, a random brush stroke, spill coffee on it if you need to. Now that the canvas is “ruined” you no longer have the pressure to create something perfect or beautiful and you can just do your art.

I think this can be applied to writing as well. Put something down, a sentence, a word, no matter how crappy you think it may be. Maybe even a keysmash slkfdjlksdjlksdfjkl. Anything to rid yourself of the pressure.

[depressedpoetess]

Writer Positivity Tag Game

tagged by @mortallynuttyqueen TY!

I have a lot of random knowledge that I incorporate into writing, making it interesting. My dialogues are witty and my writing in general has a unique sense of humor. My prose is straightforward and poetic at the same time. My writing is evocative. I make good use of specificity in my writing. My writing is a vibe. My stories have a message and I do a good job at conveying it.

Open tag for all writers! All of you get positivity.

[depressedpoetess]

oookay I just came back from the rabbit hole of the discourse (yes I said I didn’t because it’s brainrot like 5 minutes ago... pretend you did not see it) and holy fuck I have opinions about it... I thinks I’m gonna write a whole piece about it

Apparently there was recently a Twitter discourse about Cat Person, a short story published on The New Yorker circa 2017. I refrained from getting into the whole thing because Twitter discourses are kinda brainrotty (she says on tumblr dot com… the irony is not lost on me I promise) but what are y’all’s thoughts on basing fiction characters on people you know IRL

[depressedpoetess]

Apparently there was recently a Twitter discourse about Cat Person, a short story published on The New Yorker circa 2017. I refrained from getting into the whole thing because Twitter discourses are kinda brainrotty (she says on tumblr dot com... the irony is not lost on me I promise) but what are y’all’s thoughts on basing fiction characters on people you know IRL