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had an excellent caturday and sleepy cat sunday. happy monday everyone hang in there

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........anyway.

the gang tends bar

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guy who wouldn’t even notice they’ve been sex pollened with all the repressed lust they’ve got going on

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The Hundred Line and Fire Emblem Engage. Um. Nothing changes.

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don't mind her she's just sprawling out here because it's so hot but the dashboard is nice and cool

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!!!!!!!!! Bear !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(#)#)#=#=1%1%1=12

151 Walker is a sleepy baby. a big baby, to be certain, but a very sleepy baby nonetheless

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I don't plan what to eat because I know Aldi will pick for me

I literally am convinced that the 64 cent aldi lemon sparkling waters were a psyop by san pellegrino to get me to buy their nearly twice as expensive brand name version. because when I went to buy some and aldi no longer carried the generic brand what did I do ? yuuup. 😐

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charlie rules this pussy the world

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Okay, that's fair! I don't have major complaints (except that Charlie soaked in the rain was delicious but)

my definitive charlie star ranking per season based on the episode I could find the best reference pic from 😸 doing this reminded me that he's been in pretty top form for a long time. charliegirls never stop winning.

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Haven't read Spider-Man comics in a while... Whenever it starts becoming a chore, I stop... I'm just not that into the 80s, and I know the 90s will be worse... the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart...

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I didn't hate The Westing Game, but I sure found it disappointing.

Enough about favorite books. What’s a book you read and absolutely hated? The book you’ve got a bone to pick with.

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Surprise TJLC in a WordReference thread!

(It's about "I will burn the heart out of you!" in Sherlock 1x03)

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Any tips for writing the scenes you don't want to write to get to the scenes you do want to write?

Writing When It Sucks: A Quickstart Guide to the Scenes That Hate You Personally

by seth-whumps / sethlost

So, you've got a thousand-word gap between the good scenes, and you've gotta fill it with something. We've all been there—that one sentence in the outline, filling you with irreversible dread—but don’t lose hope. We do have some solutions! I've got three pieces of advice for this situation:

-> Skip The Hard Parts

-> Check Your Variables

-> Change It Up

Long post ahead, folks—you’ve been warned!

Let's start easy, with—

AVOIDANCE

Don't force yourself to write the parts you hate! If it's a scene that's not your thing, just... skip it! If you think it's boring, chances are your readers will feel it, too. If you'd skip it, they'd skip it. Famous authors do this alllllll the time. Don't deny yourself the privilege.

Remember, you don’t have to write chronologically. Write the good parts when you want to write them.

You gotta get to December? Skip to it.

You have a long ass captivity scene you don't want to bore yourself with? Skip it.

Does this scene just inspire you to stop writing forever? SKIP IT.

Now, I hear you. "But if I do that with every scene that troubles me, I'll have hardly any scenes at all!"

If it sucks, hit da bricks, as we Tumblrinas say.

Welcome to writing. It sucks. However, I'll let you in on the best tip I have ever learned from Reddit Dot Com—

CHECK YOUR VARIABLES

Your story, whether big or small, is built from several puzzle pieces! We'll call these your Story Variables. They can include:

Physical:

-> Heroes - your main people!

-> Villains - you’ve gotta have an antagonist somewhere, yknow?

-> Setting/Genre - solarpunk? ancient Arthurian myth? literally just New York City?

-> Locations - home base, headquarters, the villain’s lair, high school, etc

Narrative:

-> Main plot - getting the hero from point A to Z

-> Sideplots - character development, romance, betrayal and redemption arcs

-> Motivations - what do your characters want? what does your setting want?

-> Ending - where is it all going towards?

Audience:

-> Morals/messages - what’s the point of the story? what are you discussing or exploring throughout?

-> Metaphors - what’s the language you’re using to paint a picture?

-> Emotions - and the language you’re using to invoke a feeling?

-> Satisfaction - do you want your audience to feel satisfied? do you not? where and why?

If you're stuck on a scene, you may have an underdeveloped variable, or a missing one altogether. You can fix this by interrogating the absolute hell out of your story. Here's a few questions to get you started:

Do you know your ending? Is this scene guiding you towards it?

What emotions are you trying to portray? Where can you show that in this scene?

Where's your current location? Are you using it as a character in your story?

What drives your heroes? Your villains? How can you make them more obvious?

Are you considering your side plots and character development arcs?

You might be saying, "But wait! I'm only writing a little thing! I don't have the time/energy to think about all that!"

Is this scene contributing to the satisfaction of your story?

That's okay! I hear you. But it's not hopeless. I've still got something to help—

CHANGING IT UP

Hobbyists work in styles. It's hard to develop one, and often it comes from years of practice and study, but there's a way you can streamline it to your advantage. Think of it this way:

-> If you don't like drawing noses, change the way you draw them.

-> If your crocheting tools don't feel right, find ones that suit you.

-> If a chord on the guitar is too difficult, use an alternate fingering.

NEWS FLASH: it's the same for writing.

Physical movements? Blocking? You might be having trouble visualizing what the scene needs to contain.

If something isn't working, you have every ability to do it differently. There's very little right and wrong, here. Don't confine yourself to one generalized "type" of writing--branch out until you find what works for you. Let's start by thinking about what you're struggling on.

Draw the layout of your location. Use random pieces to represent your characters. Play dolls.

Keep it simple. Write exactly what happens, no more and no less.

Another post on Tumblr blew up, advising you to try writing the scene with only dialogue, and adding the actions later.

Emotional weight? Prose? This one's tricky, but I've got some advice regardless.

Change your sentence structure. Focus on the rhythm of the words. Worry less about grammar, and pay attention to the picture, the painting, the music.

Or, in opposition, write it exactly like it is. Come back to prose it up once you've got the scene skeletonized.

Organization? The actual, nitty-gritty content of the scene? Think about what the purpose of the scene is, then consider the following.

What's your moral/metaphor? Thread it throughout. Come back to it often. This'll tie up the story into something cohesive and cinematic.

Start with a bullet point list of everything you want to include. Think of details, interactions, and movements. Spam as many as you can think of, until you've got a substantial list of meat and seasoning you can sprinkle in as necessary.

Check in on your variables. Where does the scene need to end? What's the most convoluted path it could take to get there?

Introduce a new variable. Treat everything like a character in the story. Is the location an old building? Have it collapse. Is the ending too close for comfort? Drive the story in the opposite direction.

Most of all, mess around. Do what comes naturally, and if something isn't working, do it differently until it does. Writing is fun, despite everything about writing--so workshop it until it's fun again.

Whoops! That got very long. I hope this helps at least a bit, and if you've got any questions at all, Anon, feel free to ask! I'm sorry for the wait on this ask, by the way. I wanted to give it justice.

I'd be happy to go more in depth on anything mentioned here. I love talking through my thought processes while writing.

And as a disclaimer, none of what is said here is law. It's just what I've gathered through practice, and through following incredible people. There's no rules! Do what feels right!

Anyway! Thanks for reading, folks. See you in the next one [salutes]

Seth, signing off!

dividers by @/saradika-graphics, link in pinned post

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My go to is sharing James, but I can enjoy all of them

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are they... you know...? *makes a stabbing motion*

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there is still time. there is still time. until your bones are in the fucking ground there is still time.