#<- ignoring the fact that the queue system exists | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

themollyjay · 4 years ago

Text

On the Necessity of Making Our Own Myths

So, I’m writing this on what is technically the day after I finished Transistor. That is, it’s after midnight, even if I haven’t gone to bed yet. The reason I mention that is because it won’t get posted for a couple of weeks since it’s going in the queue for the Monday blog posts, but the timing in relevant. You see, the same day I finished Transistor, I saw a Tumblr post talking about Harry Potter and JK Rowling and in one of the responses to the original post, a trans person talked about how Rowling betrayed a whole swath of her fan base.

The comment stuck with me for a number of reasons. First, because it really does feel that way. My childhood wasn’t great. In fact, it kind of fucking sucked in a lot of ways, and I missed out on a lot of the experiences other kids got to have. When I discovered Harry Potter, I latched onto in a big way, because it filled a huge void I hadn’t even realized existed. I loved those books so much, I can’t even put it into words. When Order of the Phoenix came out, my girlfriend at the time and I ended up with four copies, because Amazon didn’t deliver the two copies we had on preorder on release day, so we went down to borders and bought two copies. We went to the midnight release for Half-Blood Prince. Harry Potter was a huge part of my life for years, and now I flinch every time someone makes a Harry Potter reference, or Rowling’s name comes up because it’s an instant reminder that someone who created something I loved deeply doesn’t believe I have the right to exist.

But I think the second reason it stuck with me is a lot more important. It stuck with me because it made me realize that far to often, as queer people, and especially as trans people, we look to people outside our community to create our myths for us. It’s not something that’s really our fault, because for a long time, we didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. For a long time, queer people, and especially trans people, were silenced by systematic censorship and oppression. Queer narratives just weren’t allowed, or if they were allowed, they had to end in pain, misery and tragedy. Those were the rules imposed by the gatekeepers.

Those rules have slowly but surely faded away. First through queer people bypassing the system by setting up our own publishing houses, and making our own movies, but then, when the mainstream media realizes that queer people had money, they rushed in, trying to get those queer dollars. First my queerbaiting, then by safely neutered queers who never dated or had relationships, then with the gay secondary characters, and only very recently, with the very occasional, heavily sanitized queer lead.

But the problem is, we as a queer community, and more specifically, we trans people, are looking outside of our selves for the mythology we need to nourish our souls. That’s not healthy for us for any number of reasons. First, because if we rely on straight people to create our myths, or to approve our myths, we never really get to see ourselves. Not really. We get to see what cishet people consider acceptable queers.

This leaves us with myths that are cut off from our culture. When was the last time Alex Danvers made a horrible gay joke about herself? When was the last time Batwoman attended Pride? When was the last time you saw a group of queer characters sitting around bitching about straight bullshit? When we let outsides create or approve our myths, we only ever see versions or ourselves that are acceptable to those outsiders.

Which brings me back around to Transistor. Transistor is the fourth novel I’ve finished this year, and I don’t want to give the impression that I’m not incredibly proud of the other three, because I am. It’s just that Transistor holds a special place in my heart, because of what it is. The first piece I’ve ever written with a Transgender protagonist. It’s a myth intended to speak to people like me, to people who have had the same sort of experiences as me. It speaks to the shame and insecurities trans women feel about our own bodies. It speaks to the imposter syndrome that’s an inevitable result of transphobia and TERF rhetoric. It’s speaks to the religious alienation we feel because of the way the church rejects and demonizes queer people, to the way our families reject us or ignore us when we need their help. It speaks to our often traumatizing relationship with our own bodies. It speaks to the way law enforcement neglects, abandons and abuses us. It speaks to found family, and the lengths we’ll go to in order to protect the people we love.

Transistor is, on the surface, a story about a woman who accidently gets Superpowers, and ends up having to fight an angel to protect her girlfriend, but scratch the surface, and you’ll find a diary of my experiences as a trans woman.

I think the queer community, and especially the trans community needs more of that. We need more storytelling, more mythology, that comes from within. We need to raise our own voices and tell our own stories, because at the end of the day, no one else can tell those stories the way we can. No one else can tell our stories honestly and authentically. And as long as we rely on people outside of our community for the stories and myths that inspire us and give us hope, we will always be waiting for the next betrayal, the next person to come along and give us something we love, only to snatch it away and tell us how vile and disgusting we are.

I wish I had something cleaver to say, or some words of wisdom to wrap this up, but honestly, after what I wrote today, I’m spent. All I can really say is that a culture without its own mythology is not a culture which lasts. We need to give voice to our stories, to give birth to our own mythology so that it’s there for those who come after us to find and absorb so that they don’t just know what came before, but they can feel it and understand it. Otherwise, who and what we are will be lost.

#writing #self promotion #original fiction #queer fiction #transistor #the hearts of heroes

14 notes · View notes

ultimaterealmofchaos · 4 years ago

Text

hello, friends.

lately, i have been having many feelings about the community. not just this one, but about the rpc in general. i have been keeping quiet about them, but when you keep quiet about something, eventually it becomes all too large to bear. some of you may disagree with me, and that is fine. some of you may even want to unfollow or block me, and that is fine too. i will not chase you down for merely disagreeing with me. but.

i am vastly disappointed in the state of the rpc as of late.

“but karla, why?” you may ask. “the rpc is fun, and i get to make all sorts of friends and write with so many different people!!”

and yes, you’re right! overall, the rpc is a very fun community to be in. it’s very fun to write your own portrayals of different muses, come up with your own ideas, meet other people who may or may not think and portray similarly to your own style.

however.

i think, as a whole, the rpc has become incredibly narcissistic.

why do i say this?

i have been roleplaying and writing here on tumblr since 2012. yes, i am old. but let’s push the fact that i am old compared to most of you aside for a moment.

i have seen quite a few people, in their rules, state something similar to the effect of “if you post too much ooc, i will unfollow and block you.”

if you have read my own rules, you will see that i do not have this rule.

now, everyone is valid in what they put in their rules, and everyone is valid for wanting to cater their own online experience to what they desire it to be. however. a problem that i have seen being developed in the past 3-4 years is that... nobody seems to care about other people. now, of course there are people who care about their writing partners/friends, i’m not saying that everyone is like that, but... the vast majority do not seem to want to hear anything about the mun behind the muses past a little bio page on the blog, and even for some, that might be too much.

when i started roleplaying, this rule overall didn’t really exist as a majority, and if it did, it was on very few blogs. but as i have gone through the years, i’ve seen it pop up on more and more blogs. and my question is... why? why does everyone seem to hate ooc posts now? are we not allowed to demonstrate that we have feelings, hobbies, interests, etc. past roleplay anymore? if someone is having a bad day or a bad mental state time, are they not allowed to confess to it on their blog, if for nothing else than to just get it out? now, some of you may say “yes, that’s bad, and tumblr rpc is no place for it. talk to someone instead of broadcasting it to the whole world.”

i disagree with that.

some of us do not have good support systems outside of tumblr, or really any support system at all. for some of us, coming onto our blogs for a little rant is the only way we can feasibly see to cope with our own bad times without doing something terrible to ourselves. and, honestly? it’s natural to want others to know when we are struggling. some call it “attention-seeking,” sure, but... yes. when you are feeling bad, naturally you want some sort of attention, if not to validate, then to distract for a little bit. the mind is an incredibly fickle creation, and sometimes, it is too big for us to deal with it on our own. and if someone doesn’t have many outlets to deal with it, they will naturally flock to the one that they know is safe, where they can let out their frustrations and depression without much backlash. but with rules like that in place, it becomes a bit more scary, a bit more threatening, even, to even entertain the idea that you are feeling anything but happy.

it is incredibly isolating, and even depressing, and it can even increase depression in those who do not currently have the proper mindset to see past their own demons that the mind has created. and the last thing i personally want is to consciously isolate someone because they’ve committed the “crime” of having a bad day/feeling terrible for some reason that may not even be related to the rpc.

it is natural to need/want to rant about things.

“but this is the rpc, karla. we are all here to write. not to read someone’s bitching on the dash about how they’re feeling so terrible.”

and, yes, we are all here to write. but i think that what the rpc in general has forgotten is that there are real people behind the portrayals and muses that we love so much. real people that have feelings, and sometimes those feelings aren’t the best ones. and i can personally speak from experience when i say that having a little rant and it seemingly being ignored only makes the feelings worse. and, like, i’m not even asking for anyone to send long essays to someone who is feeling bad. even a little like can make someone feel better, because it means that they’ve been seen, that they’ve been heard, that their being here isn’t a waste of time or a burden to other people.

adding onto my statement of “the rpc has become really narcissistic,” something i’ve also observed is that ongoing threads seem to be becoming a thing of the past. ask memes are reblogged 24/7, just about, and often times, i’ll see the same meme five times in a row. it seems that what the majority wants now are just asks that one can craft a brief answer to, post it, and then forget about it until the next one comes in. they can be great for headcanons and such, yes, but... i’ve found that, in my experience, the greatest character development comes from threads. and this just may be my frustration speaking, but threads seem to be long gone, unless they’re crack threads that last for a few hours before everyone gets bored with them. it seems to be all about who reblogs the most memes, who has the most asks in their inbox, that determines how popular somebody is. and i don’t understand that, but maybe i’m just too old and too stuck in the past to do so.

another thing i’d like to talk about is activity. some of us cannot be on tumblr 24/7. i’m not hating on the people that can, more power to you, but some of us have things like school, jobs, other real life commitments that should come before tumblr roleplay. and sometimes we just can’t be on our blogs because time has run away from us and has us devoted to other things. however, what i’ve noticed lately that if you happen to be away from your blog for a week or so, you’re just about instantly forgotten, and when you return, it’s like you never existed at all. this has been a problem i’ve seen for a long time, but i still don’t like it. why should our amount of time being active determine how good of a roleplayer we are? if others “love our portrayals so much,” then why are we forgotten as soon as we’re not constantly posting? in my eyes, if you genuinely enjoy someone’s writing, and they have to go away for some time, you’ll be excited when they’re finally able to come back, if even for only a little bit. and not just “oh, you’re gone, time to unfollow and never speak to you again.” this can also be incredibly isolating, and it creates undue pressure on those of us who just cannot be here 24/7. we feel like we have to fill our queues to stay relevant, and we panic when we don’t have anything to fill the queue with without re-reblogging something.

roleplay isn’t supposed to be stressful, guys. it’s supposed to be fun. it is a hobby. i feel like some of the rpc has forgotten this fact. no one is paying us to be here (unless you have post+ on your rp blog, in which case... why????). we’re here because we want to be, not because someone is forcing us, and we shouldn’t have to feel like we’re being held up to some invisible high standard just because some of us can’t be here all the time.

there is more that i want to talk about, but this post is long enough as it is, so i will leave it how it is right now.

if you have read this far, thank you for reading, and again, i understand if you want to change things with me because of this.

#ooc: it's! karla!

9 notes · View notes

theotherjourney7 · 5 years ago

Text

“The Week In Tory returns for the second time in 4 days.

The weeks grow shorter, but the days last forever...

1. The consultant who advised the government to look for "alternative arrangements" on the Irish Border is in line for a £200m contract if alternative arrangements go ahead.

But to facilitate this, the government has to break international law with the Internal Market Bill (IMB)

Nobody can tell us what the "alternative arrangements" are, but the IMB passed through parliament anyway.

2. The UK’s highest-ranking law officer in Scotland resigned over the IMB

& The UK’s special envoy on media freedom, Amal Clooney (yes, that one) quit over IMB

3. The former (Tory appointed) ambassador to USA said the IMB was "hugely damaging to our international reputation"

4. Those snowflake liberal Remoaners Toby Young, Peter Hitchens and Tim Montgomerie turned on the govt over IMB. As did every living former-Prime Minister.

5. Joe Biden said there would be no UK/US Trade Deal if the IMB went ahead

But, Iain Duncan Smith said "we don’t need lectures" from Joe Biden

Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland also said there would be no Trade Deal

Apparently, Iain Duncan Smith does need lectures. Who knew?

6. Oh, and IMB also includes a provision allowing the government to break absolutely any law, absolutely any time!!!!!

7. Unrelated, I’m sure, but the number of "problem drinkers" in England doubled this year

So the government cut funding to alcohol addiction services

8. Dominic Raab, whose job it is to understand the Good Friday Agreement, admitted he hasn’t read the Good Friday Agreement

His excuse is: "it’s not a novel". True. Novels tend to be longer than 35 pages, aren't vital to solving conflicts that killed 3600 people

9. The Prime Minister, who literally voted to break a deal he signed with the EU, said the EU was "not negotiating in good faith"

The next morning, Northern Ireland minister and arch memo-misser Brandon Lewis went on TV and said "I believe the EU is negotiating in good faith"

10. It was revealed the Smart Freight System to handle post-Brexit trade won’t be ready until at least April 2021.

That’s at least 4 months without a freight handling system, during the time of year we rely on food imports the most

11. The Road Haulage Association said a meeting with Michael Gove to discuss border checks provided "no clarity" and was "a washout"

12. An official report says 2-day queues at Dover in January are "a certainty"

So the government closed a Covid test site in Kent, to convert it into a lorry park, in what experts (well, me) are calling "the world’s shittest game of whack-a-mole"

13. The government said people would be fined £1000 if they don’t self-isolate after getting a positive test

And then all tests ran out in the 10 worst-hit Covid hotspots

And then all home testing kits ran out, nationally

And then the website for booking tests broke, and just showed a series of error messages.

And then the government said the system was under strain because people were asking for tests when they didn’t know they were infected

So [deep breath] you must self-isolate after getting a test that doesn’t exist, and you can only get a test if you already know the result

14. Naturally, honesty no-fly-zone Home Office Secretary Priti Patel went on Radio 4 and announced tests were available everywhere and there were "no problems getting tests"

Same day - same hour, in fact - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the testing system "has huge problems"

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who simply cannot shut up about fish, said we should stop the "endless carping" about not being tested for a fatal infection

15.Prime Minister Boris Johnson went on national TV and announced a "£100bn moonshot" approach to Covid, which would test "10m people per day"

Three days later, in front of a Parliamentary Committee, said he "didn’t recognise" the figure of 10m a day

And it was reported his half-brother is on the board of the business that would get most of the £100bn budget, which I’m sure is just a massive coincidence

Officials branded the moonshot as "Moonfuck"

16. And then Health Secretary Matt Hancock had to ask other cabinet ministers to stop referring to him as "Matt WankCock"

Despite appearances, these are not 7 year old boys

17. Food news, and Tory MP Douglas Ross said "I have seen the difference free school meals can make, and I want to make sure nobody falls through the cracks"

Douglas Ross voted against free school meals

18. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said we cannot put punitive restrictions on food imports from the EU (to force them to give up on Ireland), or we will starve

And then, minutes later, he agreed with a Brexiter MP who said we SHOULD put punitive restrictions on food imports from the EU

19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "I venerate our civil service" after sacking the innocent heads of multiple departments to protect friends including Gavin Williamson and Dominic Cummings. And as a result, people leaving the civil service rose 14% in a year

20. Planning-ahead news: an international conglomerate pulled out of a £16bn power project because the government hasn’t performed its part of the deal for the last 20 months

21. Funding cuts since 2010 meant the government had to inject £700m to prevent further education going bankrupt

22. This week it was found the government– which last week voted not to implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry – has also failed to deliver its promise to remove the same dangerous cladding from at least 2000 tower blocks. Sleep well.

And then the government said files on Grenfell were "lost forever", after a laptop was wiped. Because everything is always stored on a single laptop. We all know this.

The government runs G-Cloud, its own dedicated cloud backup service, which has been active since 2012. So... yeah.

23. At a committee in parliament, an MP read out the Covid test figures. Dido Harding, in charge of testing, said “I’m sorry, that’s just not true, I don’t know where that number is from”

It was from her own report. Page 8. In bold type.

Dido Harding said "nobody could predict" a rise in demand for testing

Government scientists predicted it, and in a July report sent to Dido Harding – maybe it was a different one? - said "July and Aug must be a period of intense preparation for a September resurgence in Covid"

Oh, and standard advice says the NHS must always prepare for cold and respiratory infections to spike immediately after the return to school in September

Dido Harding wasted £13m on a "world-beating" testing app that cost £12.3m more than the German app, and didn’t work

She is now in charge of the test-and-trace service which has collapsed completely

So naturally, it was reported the government wants to sack the head of NHS England and install Dido Harding instead. Let's make the most of that successful record, eh?

24. In June the government tweeted "grab a drink and raise a glass, pubs are reopening"

The Prime Minister said "it is your patriotic duty to go out and enjoy yourselves"

This week they said the public is responsible, and "people going to the pub fuelled the rise in Covid"

So the government closed pubs at 10pm, because it’s well-known viruses only pop out for last orders.

25. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government "threw a protective ring around care homes"

A leaked document said care homes are now being asked to accept patients who are known to have Covid

26. Hospitals were banned from launching their own testing regime for staff and patience because… nope, nobody knows why. Just because.

27. There hasn’t been a meeting of COBRA (the government’s committee for national emergencies, headed by the Prime Minister) since 10th May

28. As Covid infections surged, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said restrictions are increasing, and pointed to a chart showing the government has "moved to alert level 3". Level 3 is "a gradual relaxing of restrictions". Not only can't he remember his own alert system, he can't even read it.

29. Despite travel restrictions, it was reported the Prime Minister flew off for a long weekend in Perugia, where his friend the Russian billionaire Evgeny Lebedev lives. He denies it, but the airport has his landing documents. So either he’s lying or... no, that’s the end of that sentence

30. In June the government spent £500m on a GPS satellite system to replace the one we lose due to Brexit

In July it was reported "we bought the wrong satellites"

This week the government cancelled the programme and began asking the EU if we can keep on using their GPS system

31. A cross-party committee of MPs found nurse-Ratched cosplayer Home Office Secretary Priti Patel "bases immigration policies on anecdotes and prejudice"

It found her dept has "no idea" what its annual spending achieves, and referred to "the wreckage that [Patel’s department’s] ignorance caused"

She is one of the favourites to replace Prime Minister Johnson

32. This is because it was reported the Prime Minister is thinking of quitting because he’s worried about his personal finances: the poor man has to "pay tax", "buy his own food" and "support 4 of his 6 children". Oh, the humanity!

33. And Jonathan Aitken – look him up – continues to get privileged access to parliament despite a ban on MPs who have served more than a year in prison. Which he did. And it was hilarious.

34. And finally, because he always needs a guest appearance, Chris Grayling, the man who awarded a ferry contract to a company with no ships, has got a £100k appointment to advise ports”-Russ

56 notes · View notes

canyouhearthelight · 5 years ago

Text

The Miys, Ch. 88

Sophia, the day after her conversation with Tyche.

Thank you to @satan-parisienne and @baelpenrose for keeping me going and on an even keel! Sorry the Author’s Note is so short... I didn’t realize until I had about 10 mins before I had to be back at work that I forgot to queue this for today *facepalm*

The next day was an entire education on new places I could be sore. A hot shower and analgesics only took the barest edge off, and I ended up needing a transport to get to my office instead of my routine walk. I did my best to ignore the grin on Conor’s face every time I moved too fast and winced. After the third time I scowled at him, I brought up my datapad and did some research, careful not to tap my legs as I gestured, which had become something of a habit.

“That snot,” I gasped. Conor glanced at me, so I clarified. “Tyche had me doing fencing footwork yesterday…. Intermediate footwork, it turns out. No wonder I’m so sore.”

“Least it wasn’t sparring,” he pointed out cheerfully, gently lifting my chin to get a look at my lip. “You should have let Noah heal that, love.”

I brushed my cheek against his hand. “I want the reminder. May even let her do it again once it heals.”

This time, it was his turn to scowl. “Not funny. That face has been bruised enough for one lifetime.” He gently rubbed my cheek as the transport stopped. “Okay, time to go be the boss. No fighting with the other kids.” Despite the joking tone, his eyes were serious as he leaned in to kiss me before he headed to his shift.

I realized that Alistair not only beat me to work, but could apparently hear me groaning as I tried to walk, because the door opened before I was even within three feet of it. True to form, he gave me an appraising look before his expression settled on my face. “Door get a bit mouthy today? Or did your feet decide you needed to stay home?”

“Tyche punched me, actually.” My tone was light as I inched my way to my desk. “For defending myself. And then she decided I need more ways to defend myself, so now I can hardly move.”

“Solid logic,” he deadpanned as he handed me a cup of coffee. “I feel obliged to point out that the coffee is hot, seeing as you display a disturbing propensity to get hurt.”

“Very funny.”

“You have been warned, et cetera, so on, so forth.” He waved a hand nonchalantly as he turned, bringing up my agenda for the day. “Your first meeting is the one to discuss medical testing ethics, criteria for volunteers, and determination of the necessity of the procedures. Then you have time set aside to review the status of the Galactic Core Curriculum, along with proposals for expanded learning topics and their existing analogues in the education systems of other planets - “ He paused and tilted his head. “I will never cease to be caught off guard when sentences like that exist.”

I restrained the urge to nod - or more accurately, my back twinged with a warning not to even consider it. “Believe me, I understand. Noah and I were talking about other species a few weeks ago. Did you know there is a species of avians out there who essentially live on a planet with no surface atmosphere?”

“The Preeyar, yes,” he sighed wistfully. “Knowing that Fermi was simply impatient has been quite eye-opening, so to speak.”

“Well, he wasn’t wrong,” I conceded. “We were too young for extraterrestrial civilizations, we weren’t listening properly, they apparently weren’t trying to contact us until recently… But they do exist.” A smile crept on my face at the idea that we really hadn’t been alone in the universe.

My office door opened without warning, and a familiar voice chimed in as Alistair turned with clenched fists. “I do argue that we are entirely too dangerous to have been contacted.” Arthur Farro stood leaning against the frame, and Alistair relaxed marginally. “At least we were until relatively recently…. Throwing nuclear ordinance at each other the moment killing each other in the thousands - rather than the millions - stopped scratching that vicious itch. Who does that? We’re like demented eight-year-olds who got bored of burning ants and started setting each other’s hair on fire instead.”

“You really should keep that door secured,” my assistant sniffed as he closed out my agenda, right around the time he caught Arthur squinting at it.

“He has the code,” I admitted.

“Or maybe that was accidental,” our resident history teacher continued, ignoring us. “I’m a big fan of assuming stupidity instead of malice where possible. And, dear lord, does our track record make it plausible.” Finally entering the room, he flicked a finger at my face. “That was not, however.”

Before I could stop him, Alistair took one glance between me and my friend, and strode to the door. “No.”

“Alistair…”

“I’ll clear your calendar. No. Have a good day.”

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Arthur asked as the door closed behind my soon-to-be-ex assistant.

“That he’s a coward,” I muttered.

“You know damned well that’s not what I mean.”

“Tyche already decked me.” I gestured at my split lip and the bruise that bloomed on my chin overnight. “So, yeah, I know - “

“No, you really don’t seem to.”

“Arthur, stop.”

“I will not.” He stepped forward and placed both his hands, palms down, on my desk. He knew I hated that gesture. “Bjornson’s entire narrative hinges on you being more dangerous than anyone realizes, and you putting up a display of false helplessness to make everyone trust you. By decking one of his followers, not only did you show that you do, in fact, have violence in you - meaning that it’s now entirely plausible you’re as Machiavellian as they claim - but you’ve also gone and indicated for whatever reason that Jokull is enough of a threat to drop that premise.” Straightening, he crossed his arms in clear disappointment. “If you wanted to give him more credibility, good job. You succeeded.”

I swallowed every bit of hurt I felt at his words, reminding myself they were nowhere near as barbed as the ones Tyche had given me the day before. Instead, I tilted my head and arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you done? Did you say everything you needed to say?” I paused, giving him a chance to respond. When he didn’t, I poked harder. “Feel better?”

“Not particularly, but big picture? I’m not a terribly gleeful person, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. But yes, it is your turn now.”

“Gracious of you,” I cooed sarcastically. “Tyche made the same points yesterday, after punching me in the face, with the added gravitas of a guilt trip served with that special seasoning of having watched me almost die and thinking I abandoned her as a child. Also three hours with a rapier, whipping my ass. So. Far more impressive, I assure you.”

“Foiled again by the smaller Reid,” he sighed dramatically before catching himself. “Rapier, you say? I was going to say no pun intended, but I’ve decided I did that on purpose. Yep. Totally intentional.”

I rolled my eyes before pulling up my tunic to show the bruises on my midriff. “I’m not very good at it, for the record.”

He waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry, saber’s a better style anyway. And I’m not just saying that because it’s my favorite.”

“Uh huh,” I nodded, not entirely convinced. “As far as Bjornson… seriously. She gave me the scoop. I seriously fubared the entire situation yesterday. Apparently, our suspected cult leader only believes in physical attacks on those who would defend themselves. No honor in beating a beaten foe, et cetera.”

“Mmm hmmm,” he nodded, like I was a student he was letting reach her own conclusion.

“Which means I just made it open season on Sophias,” I groaned.

“Really, saber is much better for brawling tactics,” he hedged.

I laughed bitterly. “Doesn’t matter. My walking privileges are revoked until further notice. Must be accompanied by one of six people, or two out of another ten, and on a transport.” The last word came out like a profanity. It was a known fact I hated using them.

Hence why I was now being forced to, unfortunately.

“If you think there is any possibility that I’m going to argue against Tyche on that decision, I need to talk to her about that head scan,” he told me pointedly. “Then again, you and I have different definitions of the word ‘think’, but I’ll be clear - it’s not happening. Moving target, faster than a walking pace, with a protective attachment? Which roster am I on, again?”

“Very funny. You already know.”

His expression softened slightly when he realized I was actually upset. “There is some good news in all of this.”

I threw up my hands and spun in my chair. “Oh, do tell, great military historian and warlord. What is the shining silver lining to the fact that I just gave a man who thinks I am the only thing standing between him and his New Start a golden ticket to sic his followers on me?”

“Okay, first off, sassy shit, my main career is a school teacher. I only moonlighted as a warlord to pay those apocalypse bills. Not my fault I was good at it.” Suddenly, he got serious. “The good new is, if he was too stupid to realize that your talent for inspiring loyalty meant you were a massive problem for any takeover plan, and a problem he’d have to deal with sooner or later….. Well, he’s probably too stupid to keep his little cult together much longer. Leaders who don’t recognize more than one kind of strength never manage to build a lasting legacy.”

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair…” I said, half to myself.

“Yeah, our guy is no Ramses II,” Arthur replied. “Besides, those who seek power are rarely good at keeping it.”

“I would have given him my seat on the Council if he’d just asked,” I admitted.

“Besides the fact that you literally just proved my point, if he was suited to the Council, he’d be on it. It’s not like you were the only candidate.”

I shrugged. “No idea. I didn’t even know I was on the Council for the first week. I think it was a week.”

When I turned to look at him, I was met with a flat stare. “I know it was explained to you at some point. How does that search function work?” He reached forward like he was going to tap my head before I swatted his hand away. “You were appointed to the Council to replace Simon, you represent a specific population on board the Ark, when we arrive at Von, you will serve an additional two planetary standard years before elections are held, of which you cannot be a candidate….”

Ugh. “I was put forward as a recommendation by Simon. The other Councillors put forward their candidates. The population I represent voted based on my personnel file, since no one even knew any of the candidates at that point. We’d only been on the Ark about six months. Some of us, anyway.” Glaring, I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t know how you figured that out, but I have a feeling I’m going to kill someone.”

He waved a hand at me in a very familiar gesture. “I see other people do it all the time. Jog your memory, and some phrase or word triggers it. Cool to watch, though.” With a shrug, he continued. “Point is, Bjornson wasn’t even a candidate, same as me.”

“How do you know that?” I asked incredulously.

“Fuck, Sophia. You really need to keep track of your constituents.”

“Hey, I didn’t even want to be a - Wait. You are one of my so-called ‘constituents’!?”

“Even voted for you,” he grinned. “Didn’t know it was you-you, but… Communications background, peaceful but intelligent attributes to balance out our resident warhawk, fair enough to offset Huynh, and you seemed like the type to actually listen to Grey, Pranav, and Eino.” He shrugged. “To be fair, I was right.”

<< Prev Masterlist Next >>

#the miys #humans are weird #aliens #apocalypse #science fiction #original fiction #my writing #earth is space australia #humans are space orcs

64 notes · View notes

letterboxd · 6 years ago

Photo

Bong Hit!

Today Parasite overtook The Godfather as the highest-rated narrative feature film on Letterboxd. We examine what this means, and bring you the story of the birth of the #BongHive.

It’s Bong Joon-ho’s world and we’re just basement-dwelling in it. While there is still (at time of publication) just one one-thousandth of a point separating them, Bong’s Palme d’Or-winning Parasite has overtaken Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning The Godfather to become our highest-rated narrative feature.

In May, we pegged Parasite at number one in our round-up of the top ten Cannes premieres. By September, when we met up with Director Bong on the TIFF red carpet, Parasite was not only the highest-rated film of 2019, but of the decade. (“I’m very happy with that!” he told us.)

Look, art isn’t a competition—and this may be short-lived—but it’s as good a time as any to take stock of why Bong’s wild tale of the Kim and Park families is hitting so hard with film lovers worldwide. To do so, we’ve waded through your Parasite reviews (warning: mild spoilers below; further spoilers if you click the review links). And further below, member Ella Kemp recalls the very beginnings of the #BongHive.

Bong Joon-ho on set with actors Choi Woo-shik and Cho Yeo-jeong.

The Letterboxd community on Parasite

On the filmmaking technique: “Parasite is structured like a hill: the first act is an incredible trek upward toward the light, toward riches, toward reclaiming a sense of humanity as defined by financial stability and self-reliance. There is joy, there is quirk, there is enough air to breathe to allow for laughter and mischief.

“But every hill must go down, and Parasite is an incredibly balanced, plotted, and paced descent downward into darkness. The horror doesn’t rely on shock value, but rather is built upon a slow-burning dread that is rooted in the tainted soil of class, society, and duty… Bong Joon-ho dresses this disease up in beautiful sets and empathetic framing (the camera doesn’t gawk, but perceives invisible connections and overt inequalities)—only to unravel it with deft hands.” —Tay

“Bong’s use of landscape, architecture, and space is simply arresting.” —Taylor Baker

“There is a clear and forceful guiding purpose behind the camera, and it shows. The dialogue is incredibly smart and the entire ensemble is brilliant, but the most beautiful work is perhaps done through visual language. Every single frame tells you exactly what you need to know while pulling you in to look for more—the stunning production design behind the sleek, clinical nature of one home and the cramped, gritty nature of the other sets up a playpen of contrasts for the actors and the script.” —Kevin Yang

On how to classify Parasite: “Masterfully constructed and thoroughly compelling genre piece (effortlessly transitioning between familial drama, heist movie, satirical farce, subterranean horror) about the perverse and mutating symbiotic relationship of increasingly unequal, transactional class relationships, and who can and can’t afford to be oblivious about the severe, violent material/psychic toll of capitalist accumulation.” —Josh Lewis

“This is an excellent argument for the inherent weakness of genre categories. Seriously, what genre is this movie? It’s all of them and none of them. It’s just Parasite.” —Nick Wibert

“The director refers to his furious and fiendishly well-crafted new film as a ‘family tragicomedy’, but the best thing about Parasite is that it gives us permission to stop trying to sort his movies into any sort of pre-existing taxonomy—with Parasite, Bong finally becomes a genre unto himself.” —David Ehrlich

On the duality of the plot: “There are houses on hills, and houses underground. There is plenty of sun, but it isn't for everybody. There are people grateful to be slaves, and people unhappy to be served. There are systems that we are born into, and they create these lines that cannot be crossed. And we all dream of something better, but we’ve been living with these lines for so long that we've convinced ourselves that there really isn’t anything to be done.” —Philbert Dy

“The Parks are bafflingly naive and blissfully ignorant of the fact that their success and wealth is built off the backs of the invisible working class. This obliviousness and bewilderment to social and class inequities somehow make the Parks even more despicable than if they were to be pompous and arrogant about their privilege.

“This is not to say the Kims are made to be saints by virtue of the Parks’ ignorance. The Kims are relentless and conniving as they assimilate into the Park family, leeching off their wealth and privilege. But even as the Kims become increasingly convincing in their respective roles, the film questions whether they can truly fit within this higher class.” —Ethan

On how the film leaps geographical barriers: “As a satire on social climbing and the aloofness of the upper class, it’s dead-on and has parallels to the American Dream that American viewers are unlikely to miss; as a dark comedy, it’s often laugh-aloud hilarious in its audacity; as a thriller, it has brilliantly executed moments of tension and surprises that genuinely caught me off guard; and as a drama about family dynamics, it has tender moments that stand out all the more because of how they’re juxtaposed with so much cynicism elsewhere in the film. Handling so many different tones is an immensely difficult balancing act, yet Bong handles all of it so skilfully that he makes it feel effortless.” —C. Roll

“One of the best things about it, I think, is the fact that I could honestly recommend it to anyone, even though I can't even try to describe it to someone. One may think, due to the picture’s academic praise and the general public’s misconceptions about foreign cinema, that this is some slow, artsy film for snobby cinephiles, but it’s quite the contrary: it’s entertaining, engaging and accessible from start to finish.” —Pedro Machado

On the performative nature of image: “A família pobre que se infiltra no espaço da família rica trata a encenação—a dissimulação, os novos papéis que cada um desempenha—como uma espécie de luta de classes travada no palco das aparências. Uma luta de classes que usa a potência da imagem e do drama (os personagens escrevem os seus textos e mudam a sua aparência para passar por outras pessoas) como uma forma de reapropriação da propriedade e dos valores alheios.

“A grande proposta de Parasite é reconhecer que a ideia do conhecimento, consequentemente a natureza financeira e moral desse conhecimento, não passa de uma questão de performance. No capitalismo imediatista de hoje fingir saber é mais importante do que de fato saber.” —Arthur Tuoto

(Translation: “The poor family that infiltrates the rich family space treats the performance—the concealment, the new roles each plays—as a kind of class struggle waged on the stage of appearances. A class struggle that uses the power of image and drama (characters write their stories and change their appearance to pass for other people) as a form of reappropriation of the property and values of others.

“Parasite’s great proposal is to recognize that the idea of knowledge, therefore the financial and moral nature of that knowledge, is a matter of performance. In today’s immediate capitalism, pretending to know is more important than actually knowing.”)

Things you’re noticing on re-watches: “Min and Mr. Park are both seen as powerful figures deserving of respect, and the way they dismissively respond to an earnest question about whether they truly care for the people they’re supposed to tells us a lot about how powerful people think about not just the people below them, but everyone in their lives.” —Demi Adejuyigbe

“When I first saw the trailer and saw Song Kang-ho in a Native American headdress I was a little taken aback. But the execution of the ideas, that these rich people will siphon off of everything, whether it’s poor people or disenfranchised cultures all the way across the world just to make their son happy, without properly taking the time to understand that culture, is pretty brilliant. I noticed a lot more subtlety with that specific example this time around.” —London

“I only noticed it on the second viewing, but the film opens and closes on the same shot. Socks are drying on a rack hanging in the semi-basement by the window. The camera pans down to a hopeful Ki-Woo sitting on his bed… if the film shows anything, it might be that the ways we usually approach ‘solving’ poverty and ‘fixing’ the class struggle often just reinforce how things have been since the beginning.” —Houston

The birth of the #BongHive

London-based writer and Letterboxd member Ella Kemp attended Cannes for Culture Whisper, and was waiting in the Parasite queue with fellow writers Karen Han and Iana Murray when the hashtag #BongHive was born. Letterboxd editor Gemma Gracewood asked her to recall that day.

Take us back to the day that #BongHive sprang into life. Ella Kemp: I’m so glad you asked. Picture the scene: we were in the queue to watch the world premiere of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite at Cannes. It was toward the end of the festival; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood had already screened…

Can you describe for our members what those film festival queues are like? The queues in Cannes are very precise, and very strict and categorized. When you’re attending the festival as press, there are a number of different tiers that you can be assigned—white tier, pink tier, blue tier or yellow tier—and that’s the queue you have to stay in. And depending on which tier you’re in, a certain number of tiers will get into the film before you, no matter how late they arrive. Now, yellow is the lowest tier and it is the tier I was in this year. But, you know, I didn’t get shut out of any films I tried to go into, so I don’t want to speak ill of being yellow!

So, spirits are still high in the yellow queue before going to see Parasite. I was with friends and colleagues Iana Murray [writer for GQ, i-D, Much Ado About Cinema, Little White Lies], Karen Han [New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The Atlantic] and Jake Cunningham [of the Curzon and Ghibliotheque podcasts] who were also very excited for the film. We queued quite early, because obviously if you’re at the start of a queue and only two yellow tier people get in, you want that to be you.

So we had some time to spare, and we’re all very ‘online’ people and the 45 minutes in that queue was no different. So we just started tweeting, as you do. We thought, ‘Oh we’re just gonna tweet some stuff and see if it catches on.’ It might not, but at least we could kill some time.

So we just started tweeting #BongHive. And not explaining it too much.

#BongHive

— karen han (@karenyhan)

May 21, 2019

Within the realms of stan culture, I would argue that hashtags are more applicable to actors and musicians. Ariana Grande has her army of fans and they have their own hashtag. Justin Bieber has his, One Direction, all of them. But we thought, ‘You know who needs one and doesn’t have one right now? Bong Joon-ho.’

And so, you know, we tweeted it a couple of times, but I think what mattered the most was that there was no context, there was no logic, but there was consistency and insistence. So we tweeted it two or three times, and then the film started and we thought right, let’s see if this pays off. Because it could have been disappointing and we could have not wanted to be part of, you know, any kind of hype.

SMILE PRESIDENT @karenyhan #BongHive pic.twitter.com/Dk7T8bFYtv

— Ella Kemp (@ella_kemp)

May 21, 2019

But, Parasite was Parasite. So we walked out of it and thought, ‘Oh yes, the #BongHive is alive and kicking.’

I think what was interesting was that it came at that point in the festival when enthusiasm dipped. Everyone was very tired, and we were really tired, which is why we were tweeting illogical things. It was late at night by the time we came out of that film. It was close to midnight and we should have gone to bed, probably.

Because, first world problems, it is exhausting watching five, six, seven films a day at a film festival, trying to find sustenance that’s not popcorn, and form logical thoughts around these works of art. Yes! It was nice to have fun with something. But what happened next was [Parasite distributor] Neon clocked it and went, ‘Oh wait, there’s something we can do there’. And then they took it, and it flew into the world, and now the #BongHive is worldwide.

I love the formality of Korean language and the way that South Koreans speak of their elders with such respect. I enjoyed being on the red carpet at TIFF hearing the Korean media refer to Bong Joon-ho as ‘Director Bong’. It’s what he deserves!

I like to imagine a world where it’s ‘Director Gerwig’, ‘Director Campion’, ‘Director Sciamma’… Exactly.

Related content:

Ella Kemp’s review of Parasite for Culture Whisper.

Letterboxd list: The directors Bong Joon-ho would like you to watch next.

Our interview with Director Bong, in which he reveals just how many times he’s watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

“I’m very awkward.” Bong Joon-ho’s first words following the standing ovation at Cannes for Parasite’s world premiere.

Karen Han interviews Director Bong for Polygon, with a particular interest in how he translated the film for non-Korean audiences. (Here’s Han’s original Parasite review out of Cannes; and here’s what happened when a translator asked her “Are you bong hive?” in front of the director.)

Haven’t seen Parasite yet? Here are the films recommended by Bong Joon-ho for you to watch in preparation.

With thanks to Matt Singer for the headline.

147 notes · View notes

crispturquoisewater · 4 years ago

Text

This blog begins where the end of my journey should have been, but instead, it looks evermore likely, and evermore hauntingly, like it is in fact, just the beginning.

I had imagined that after four months of brutal illness, a multitude of infections, and endless other issues, that the turning of the new year would entail a welcome wave of freedom from hospital, god-awful doctors, and the hell that I had been staggering through in order to try and get better. Instead, the New Year has brought new challenges, the continuation of unreseolved illnesses, and even worse, a hightened sense of arrogance and narcissism from certain doctors that make this journey utterly unbearable.

Whilst writing this first post, I am passing an astonishing amount of blood, my back hurts, my bones feel like they’re broken they’re so painful, my feet are swollen and hard to walk on, and despite all of this, my doctor will not refer me to a nephrologist because it is “not his job”. I shall come to explain.

You wonder; when doctors took an oath to act within their patient’s best interest at all times, did they ever intend to adhere to that? Did they start off well and distend into a world of atrocity and cruel narcissism, acquiring a raw sense of vulgarity along the way? Either way, his leaving me to get sicker, in order to prove a point, is abhorrent and negligent.

Here’s what happened this week...

About 6 months ago, I started peeing large amounts of blood. Sometimes the urine sample would show infection, sometimes it wouldn’t. I got treated over 8 times with antibiotics, but after three months of repeated bloody urine, agonising pain in my back, swollen feet and a distended belly (in my opinion everything pointed to issues with my kidneys), and no infection showing, I told the surgery that I thought it was time that I was referred to a specialist - because constantly pissing blood is surely not normal. It’s beggars belief that after months of bleeding my doctors’ didn’t take the initiative to refer me themselves or even try to look into the issue further - instead of keep sending the sample off for cytology and getting the same results.

I got referred to Urology - even though the symptoms suggested it was my kidneys and the doctor actually asked if I had ever seen a nephrologist, they only referred me to urology - and after being throughly checked, the urology consultant sent a letter to my surgery and asked the GP to please refer me to nephrology, because the bleeding is clearly not right but is not coming from my bladder.

What happened next is, to say the least, astounding.

After spending a morning in hospital earlier this week (as many days are spent, now), the blood results showed that my white bloods, neutrophils and inflammation markers had raised from bloods taken 10 days before (I was in hospital for a ten-day follow-up because the week before I had developed a bad rash from new drugs I am taking for adrenal insufficiency). I said to the ER doctor that I had started passing loads of blood again that day (it comes and goes), and asked him to do a dip-test. He refused. He said that he didn’t want to give me more antibiotics and therefore, he didn’t want to test the urine to see if there was an infection. 🥴I don’t want anymore drugs. In fact, at this point, I think it’s probably dangerous to give me more antibiotics when they’re clearly not working. But surely, it’s not right for me to be passing so much blood and for the doctor to not even acknowledge it or try to find out what is going on. In fact, he didn’t even mention it in his discharge letter. I was happy not to spend any longer in hospital, but I left feeling slightly confused and, yet again, defeated. I find it bizarre that my bloods are showing an infection, along with bleeding profusely and yet I am told it is normal. I hate to dispute it, but I raised my questions, was told that the rise in bloods were due to my drugs (even though through multiple infections my inflammation markers have never risen and I know it isn’t my drugs because my dose has gone down, now up), and left.

If there is one way that this horrendous period of illness has made me feel, it’s defeated. As well as a feeling of being gagged and silenced and as though I could be screaming into the abyss, telling the doctors what is wrong, whilst being patted on the head, with a derisive smirk plastered across their faces, as they snigger and repeat, ‘there, there’. It’s been emotionally, physically and psychology horrendous.

After my midweek morning in hospital, I spoke to my GP that afternoon. I needed to ask him to make the referral to the nephrologist, as requested by the urologist in the letter. Nothing is ever done off the surgery’s own backs - even blood results that require attention takes for the patient to call up and prompt them to be looked at. I had called earlier in the week to ask for the referral to be made to the same hospital that I had been seen at for Urology, but I was told by the secretary that I would have to speak to a doctor for the referral to be made. Queue the 8am rush, and over 100 phone calls to try and get an appointment.

So, after three days, on the afternoon of the morning I had spent in hospital, my GP called me. Immediately, his tight, clipped tone was ready to bite. I explained that the Urologist had asked the surgery to refer me to nephrology in the letter and asked for the referral to be made. However, before I could finish my sentence, he told me that there was no letter on the system. He clearly had not looked. I explained that there was definitely a letter on the system because I get a copy and the secretary had printed their copy two days before, on the Monday. He looked again and miraculously, he found it, but not without making comment that it was in the “wrong” format. Of course, that was the reason.

I sat quietly whilst he read. And then, with an outraged scoff, he angrily spat that the referral should have been made internally and that it was solely down to “abject laziness�� from the hospital that it had not been done. He told me that it was not his job to do it and, despite me bleeding heavily from what looks to be my kidneys, being in excruciating pain and feeling very sick, he told me that he would send the letter back to Urology and tell them to do it themselves. I was dumbfounded. But as ever, as with many who have had to undertake the constant battle of dealing with doctors through complex illness might be familiar with, I had to be the one to keep the cool head and stay calm.

I told him that when I had the conversation with my urology consultant, that she said it was for the surgery to make the referral, so I understood it was for them to do. He replied “absolutely not” before accusing the hospital of “workload shifting” and telling me that patients “choose to believe” that it is for the surgery to make the referral to another specialist. As it stands, I’m pretty sure that when one specialist has finished with you, the discharge letter has to come back to the surgery and the surgery has to be the coordinator, to refer you to the next specialist. But my GP was adamant that the hospital was lazy and useless and that they were the cause of any delay I might suffer.

Given how ill I have been, the amount I have been through, being immunosuppressed and any infection potentially being critical, I was flabbergasted that he was refusing to make the referral because he wanted to prove a point. I explained that whilst the two (the hospital and the surgery) disagreed, I was the one stuck in the middle whilst getting more sick. He said “I know” but told me that they had to learn to do it right.

I emailed the hospital the next morning, telling them his opinion and begging them to please make the referral. I followed up this email with a phone call on Friday morning, but as yet, have heard nothing. It’s always such a battle, and that, along with the already horrendous and draining existence of illness and constant hospital, makes everything so much worse. Multiple times I have told the surgery I am struggling with the stress of all of this, but despite offering help, or even acknowledging my concerns, they continue to play me like the ball against their two bats.

It’s Saturday evening and I am bleeding so heavily that I’m having to wear a sanitary as if I’m on a period. I feel sick. I’m in pain. And I have absolutely no idea where to turn anymore. Family have told me to go to ER but they will simply tell me that I’m waiting to see a specialist, which, currently I’m not because the referral hasn’t even been made.

The day after speaking to that GP, I spoke to another one. I told him that I needed my urine dipped. I handed in my blood-drenched urine and got told there was no infection but that it would be sent away to cytology anyway, just in case. I wonder what the protocol for these doctors is, when a young female patient is bleeding continuously, at times of no infection, with raised white blood counts and inflammation markers? Because all I am being faced with, is silence. I don’t even have the confidence to go to hospital anymore, because I feel as though I will be ignored.

And so, I am sitting here, desperate for the bleeding and pain to stop, but with no idea how.

1 note · View note

pens-swords-stuff · 6 years ago

Text

How to gain attention in the Writeblr Community

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this lately, so instead of replying to each one, I decided to make one large post. Please note that these are based off of my personal experiences, and how I run my writeblr. This is what worked for me, but you might run your blog differently, you might post different things, and that’s perfectly fine.

Post Frequently

If you don’t post, people won’t be able to find your blog! Try to post as often as you can so you’ll pop up on people’s dashboards, and remind them what a cool Writeblr you are.

Obviously real life comes first, and you should never feel pressure to continue posting if you don’t want to. Breaks are absolutely okay and understandable, but if you feel up to it, try to keep your blog going! Use the queue, schedule some posts if that will help you.

They don’t all have to be original content either — reblogs work too, and in fact, probably work better because I know how difficult it can be to come up with original content everyday.

Make your original content when you feel like it, and use reblogs to keep your blog alive and active!

Be smart about your tags

A quick rundown on how tags work

Only the first five tags will show up in tracked tags. (i.e., if you tag your post #writeblr, and I’m following the tag #writeblr, it might pop up on my dashboard even if I’m not following you.)

Only the first twenty tags will show up in tumblr search.

Reblogs will not show up in tracked tags or search.

That’s a lot to remember, are you still with me? The most important thing to remember about tagging your work is that the first five tags are the most important. You want to use your biggest, most relevant tags in the first five. All of your organizational tags for your personal blog tags (i.e., I use #undine writes stuff to organize all of my original writing) and all of your fun tag comments should come after the first five at the very least.

So you know that the first five are most important, but what tags should you use? What tags are the best?

Here’s what I usually use and though I don’t know if they’re particularly popular or not, but they’ve worked for me just fine.

A basic guide on what tags to use

#Writeblr and #writing for any writing-related post that you make. I also sometimes include #writblr because some people use that tag instead.

#creative writing, #amwriting, #original writing work really well for your original writing content.

#WIP and #OC are also popular for your WIP and OC posts.

I’ve written a more in-depth guide on tagging, and what to use here in my “How to use tags effectively in the writeblr community” post! Please check it out if you want more information. It includes a more comprehensive list of what tags to use for what posts.

Engage with the community

When people ask me how to gain attention on writeblr, I often feel like they’re expecting me to have some magical solution that will make them popular.

Well, that one magical solution doesn’t really exist, but engaging with the community is the closest thing I’ve got for you. I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough.

At its core, this is a community; a way for writers to find and support each other. If you ignore the community aspect, you are not utilizing a vital part of Writeblr, and you will probably not gain a whole lot of attention and support.

The absolute best advice I can give you is this: If you want attention in the community, you have to start by appearing in people’s notifications.

It is the one guaranteed way to make sure that you’re on people’s radar. That’s really valuable because the writeblr community is massive and it’s really easy to get lost in the shuffle. The more people that notice you, the more likely they are to gain an interest in you.

For example: I don’t know who all of my followers are, and I don’t know who all reblogs and likes my posts. However, if someone is consistently popping up in my notifications, I take notice. I recognize who they are, I’m grateful for them (and probably consider us friends, honestly), and I’ll check out their blog since they’ve been such a massive supporter of mine. Then I decide to follow them and we become mutuals because I’ve noticed them, and I’m now interested in what they do. Then, because I follow them, I’m more likely to reblog their posts because now they pop up on my dashboard.

This is how it works for the majority of writeblrs; we follow people that have supported us, so we can support them in return. It’s a win-win situation, really, so you should really take advantage.

So reblog and comment on people’s stuff consistently! Send them asks, slide into their DMs, tag them in stuff! Become friends with people! Participate in their ask games! Send them things that you think they’d like!

Doesn’t it feel great when someone reblogs your posts and writes a nice comment? Isn’t it wonderful when someone is genuinely interested in your stuff and sends you an ask? Be that person for other people! It’ll benefit you in the long run, I promise.

Don’t be shy; Kick down the door and barge in!

I get it — It can be really frightening to talk to people, especially on the internet. But like I said, Writeblr is massive, and it’s not that people don’t want to notice you, it’s just that there’s so many other things going on that they might not see you. So assert yourself! It’s okay to message your favorite writeblrs, it’s okay to reblog and comment. Make sure that people know you exist, and that you’re awesome!

As a bonus: It’s easier to talk to people who talk to others publicly and visibly. By having conversations with other writeblrs on your blog, and interacting with others, it shows your followers that you are open to conversation, and that you are accessible, and they will be more likely to engage with you.

A lot more important advice under the cut! Be sure to keep reading!

Make writeblr friends

If you make a friend, you guys can both support and promote each other! It’s also really fun to have a writing friend to talk to, and talk about writeblr things. Some of the closest friends I have were made on the internet, and they can be a huge support system, and your biggest fan.

Participate in tag games

If tag games aren’t your thing, you don’t have to participate in them; that’s fine and it’s your choice.

However, writeblr tag games are a fantastic way to engage with the community, post about your WIPs and OCs, and make sure people see your content, all in one.

A lot of tag games involve talking about your WIPs and OCs, and you can directly tag other writeblrs without being annoying and invasive! I’ve gotten a decent number of followers, and people on my tag lists because I tagged them in a tag game, and they liked what they saw!

Even if you aren’t tagged any, if you see one you like, go ahead and participate! Tag your favorite writeblrs and ask them to join! By actively participating in tag games and tagging people, you’ll get tagged more often in them as well. It’s a great way to jump in if you’re a little nervous about tagging people!

Reblog your own posts

There are a lot of reasons why you might not be getting notes, and one of them might be that people just haven’t seen it. Time zones, and when people are active, the other posts on their dashboards, maybe they weren’t even following you when you posted it — they all contribute.

So reblog your own posts every so often! It’s okay, it’s not as annoying as you think, and a lot of new people will see it every single time.

Especially reblog your WIP posts!

Promote yourself; Be your own biggest supporter

No one wants to read things if they’re bad. So saying stuff like “It’s not very good, my writing is bad,” isn’t going to make people want to read it. Learn how to sell yourself! Try to be as confident as you can — fake it if you aren’t!

Talk about how much you love your WIP, sell people on it. There’s a lot of other WIPs people can be reading on tumblr, why should they check out yours? What are your strengths? Really push those forward; talk about yourself as if you were talking about your favorite writer.

Be confident! Confidence will bring people in.

Keep talking about your writing, keep posting about where you can read it, keep reblogging your favorite posts. People will take notice eventually, and you’ll find your audience!

Build up your followers with non-WIP content

It’s an unfortunate reality that it’s really difficult to gain interest and followers by just posting about your WIPs and OCs alone. Is it impossible? Absolutely not! A handful of Writeblrs have found success doing this, but realistically, it doesn’t happen very often.

So my very realistic and cynical advice to you is: reblog a lot of other posts. Reblog writing advice, memes, something that’s popular in Writeblr right now, etc., to draw people in initially. They can all be stuff that’s popular, but also make sure that you want to reblog it! Make your blog your own, and unique, don’t force yourself to reblog things that you don’t want to. But if you like it even a tiny bit, consider reblogging it.

People are more likely to reblog things that they can relate to like writing memes, and writing problems. People are more likely to reblog positivity, than they are WIP posts. If that’s something up your alley, try making some posts like that!

By building up a bigger follower base with non-WIP related stuff, you can make sure that more people will see it when you do post about your original content.

Other things that work really well, it following other writeblrs and posting stuff like “Reblog if you’re a writeblr, and I’ll follow you!”, “Looking for more mutuals, I’ll follow anyone back”. (Make sure you actually follow people if you say this though!). I cannot think of a single writeblr that won’t reblog these posts, because we all want followers. And a lot of people will follow back, and be a new mutual, which means a bigger audience who might be interested in your WIPs.

Also you’ll find a lot of awesome writeblrs to follow, and that’s a win in it of itself.

Gaining attention takes time and won’t happen immediately

I know how hard it is to feel like you’re shouting into the void, and no one cares. It really sucks to post something you’re proud of and have it get maybe two likes at most. I’ve been there — I’m still there. It’s a struggle that I think every single one of us here can relate to.

Realistically, overnight successes are something that probably won’t happen to you. Even the biggest, most successful writeblrs have started out with less than a hundred followers, and they slowly, painstakingly increased their audience one-by-one over a really long period of time.

You can get there too, if you keep at it. I know it’s hard when you feel alone. I know it’s discouraging, and I know how disappointing it is. Take a break if you need to, but there is no magical way, no quick solution to being a popular writeblr. You have to work at it, and revel in the small victories as you slowly grow.

You’ll reap success if you keep at it, I promise.

Here’s a post I wrote about how to deal with not gaining follower and notes if it ever gets really hard.

Be a writeblr for yourself, not to gain attention

At the end of the day, there is absolutely no guarantee whether you’ll gain followers or not. You can try things, but ultimately it’s out of your hands.

The best way to deal with that hard truth, is to be a writeblr for yourself. Do what you want, run a writeblr because you want to, and it’s fun. Don’t expect notes, instead let every note you get be a pleasant surprise. Run your writeblr to engage with an amazing, kind community, not to be popular. Have a writeblr so you have a place to talk about how much you love writing, not so other people will love your writing.

Don’t tie your self-worth and measure of success into your writeblr, because you are so much more than note counts and follower counts. Your writing ability is not measured by your popularity, and it’s important to remind yourself of that every now and then.

It’s just like writing, write for yourself, and the audience will follow. Run your writeblr for yourself, and your supporters will follow.

It’ll be a lot more fun that way, and a lot more genuine.

You can do it. Don’t get discouraged, and keep at it! Remember that it’s okay to take breaks if you need to, writeblr should not be your entire life. You’re a great writer no matter what, and I really hope that this will help you gain some new friends!

If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

#writeblr #writing #writblr #writing advice #writeblr advice #how to gain attention #writers of tumblr #undine speaks #undine gives advice #pens swords stuff #long post

1K notes · View notes

anchored-in-high-tide · 6 years ago

Text

MILK

Fandom/Pairing: Sherlock/Johnlock Rating: GA Words: 2k Tags: Post Mary’s Death, Pining Idiots, First Kiss, Parentlock, Angst with a Happy Ending, Grocery Shopping

Summary: It's been two months since Mary's death but John doesn't blame Sherlock. They live together again but still struggle with their past, caring for baby Rosie, and their feelings for each other. A trip to the supermarket might change everything.

John sighed. “Damn, I forgot the milk.” His shoulders slumped in defeat as he spoke. He loaded the bananas on the belt a little more forcefully than necessary and pinched the bridge of his nose, pressing his eyes shut against the cold neon light. It was already dark out. They should be home by now, lounging in their chairs or on the sofa, watching something trivial on the telly. But between a particularly gruesome triple murder and flu season at the clinic, neither of them had had time to go out for groceries. With Mrs. Hudson gone to her sister’s, their emergency food supplier had forsaken them as well, leaving their fridge and pantries shamefully empty. They had had no choice. In her baby carrier, Rosie gave another sharp wailing sound that drowned out the soft 80s music droning from the speakers. The little girl had begun to fuss and cry as soon as they had entered the supermarket, raising either annoyed or pitying looks from other customers. John had hardily ignored them while he put toast, produce, and diapers into their cart and bounced his agitated daughter. Sherlock shot John a quick glance, eyes taking in the deep bags under John’s and the way his skin seemed to gradually lose its usual golden colour. He could all but taste the exhaustion oozing out of every pore, seeping through John’s shirt and coat, tainting the air with sleep-deprived resignation, so tangible it might actually be contagious. “I’ll go get it,” Sherlock said before John could ask. He weaved past the other people in the queue behind them. “I’ll be fast.” “Thank you,” John called after him as Sherlock disappeared into the next aisle, his long legs bridging the distance to the dairy section much quicker than John could’ve managed with Rosie strapped to his chest.

As he reached down and grabbed one of the cartons, a sad smile fought its way up to his lips. Buying milk. This used to be such an innocent annoyance when they had first moved in together, a cause for infinite bickering and countless jokes. But that was before everything had changed. Before Sherlock had gone and come back. Before John had gotten married and Sherlock had been shot. Before Mary had jumped in front of him, had spared Sherlock a second bullet and given her life in return. Before her loss had rippled through the already stained fabric of John’s existence and torn it to shreds. And yet, hanging on barely more than threads, John carried on, ever the brave soldier. Every day, every night, he marched onward with bleeding feet and steely stubbornness, Sherlock always by his side to catch him as soon as his legs would ultimately give in. It had been two months and not a single accusation had left John’s lips. In fact, he had barely spoken at all. Uttering not one word too much, he had organized the funeral, taken time off at the clinic to arrange everything for Rosie, packed up all their belongings and moved back to Baker Street. Somehow, he had brought this impenetrable silence with him. Maybe it was the boxes containing what was left of Mary. They still stood in John’s old bedroom, a brooding monument of their marriage, filling 221B with her presence. Sherlock knew—or at least strongly suspected—how unhappy John had been in the few months he had been married, not only because his wife had turned out to be an ex-assassin and shot his best friend. In John’s eyes, carefully covered with layers upon layers of self-preservation, swam something else, something like regret and longing and shame. Sherlock could catch a glimpse of it some nights, when John had numbed his sorrows with one too many glasses of whiskey. This look, this strange look he gave him, had grown so familiar over the years, its intensity waxing and waning. Lately, it had become so powerful that Sherlock was sure it would break through the surface at any moment. Or maybe he was just wishing for it, actively looking for the mirrored image of his own distraught face in those dark-blue eyes. They hadn’t talked about it, of course. And now that Mary was dead the conversation seemed, paradoxically, even more out of the question. Her death had sealed their fate and their lips alike, presumably forever. Some things simply had to stay unspoken, unseen, unfulfilled. Sherlock didn’t care though. John was back at his side again—a worn-out, almost pellucid version of him, but John nonetheless. This time, Sherlock decided, he would do everything right. He would be as supportive and kind and accommodating as he could muster, for John, and for his goddaughter. If this resemblance of togetherness was all that could ever be between them, he would take it. Even if it meant accompanying John on such tedious tasks as grocery shopping. The milk slowly bedewing with little drops of perspiration, Sherlock hurried back to the check-out, finding that the cashier had already begun to scan their items. He shimmied past the other waiting customers and slammed down the milk just as the clerk picked up the last item, the box of formula for Rosie. Her eyes coolly eyed the packaging before wandering over to John who still tried to calm down the baby while packing up the groceries. She pursed her lips into a tight smile. Her voice thinly masking her condescension, she said: “Someone’s a little fussy, I see, being out this late. You know that breastfeeding is actually much better for your child, don’t you? For their immune system and—” “What did you just say?” Sherlock interrupted her, stepping closer and fixating her with an adamantine stare. John startled and halted in his movements, only his eyes flicking back and forth between Sherlock and the victim of his anger. “Excuse me?” the cashier asked, her disapproval still written all over her face. Sherlock examined her closely; the way her cheaply coloured hair framed her turgid, starkly rouged cheeks; the company-issued t-shirt that clung to her sinewy body; the nicotine-stained fingernails. His voice dropped to menacing depths as he cocked his head and said: „Did you seriously just try to shame him for buying formula for his child?” The woman didn’t avert her gaze but swallowed heavily. “I just—” “Do you have any idea what this man has been through? His wife died only weeks after giving birth to their daughter and here you are, you sorry excuse for a human, and try to lighten the weight of your own meaningless existence by belittling a grieving father!?” His voice was barely more than a deadly whisper but the cashier stared at him as if he had shouted. The look on her face—shock, confusion, defiance—made Sherlock’s synapses sizzle like high-voltage lines, sending white-hot sparks to his eyes and overriding his self-control mechanisms. How did this horrible woman dare to even look at his John with anything other than utter admiration? The anger that bubbled up in him like boiling sulphur kept spilling out. “Oh, it’s so much easier, sitting in your chair and judging other people, without having to give their problems a second thought, you insensible woman. Just so you know: This man is a war hero, a doctor, and now a widower and single father. He’s the most hard-working, loyal, and intelligent man you’ll ever meet, but you wouldn’t recognize intelligence when it hit you in the face, now, would you? What have you ever accomplished in your life, apart from becoming a bitter, arrogant underachiever who can’t even work her way up the ranks by shagging the manager? What on earth gives you the right to spill your unqualified, self-absorbed opinions on decent men like him? You’re not even worth the dirt under his shoes so, for fuck’s sake, just shut up.” The woman’s mouth stood agape, giving her the look of a carp in an existential crisis. Sherlock felt a grim sense of satisfaction rush through him and took a deep breath, readying himself to fire another round of words sharp enough to sever limbs. A warm hand on his forearm stopped him. “That’s enough, Sherlock,” John said, his voice calm but stale. He lifted their shopping bags off the counter and made for the door without so much as looking at the cashier or any of the other customers. For a second, Sherlock stood there completely motionless, his eyes following John out of the store. The sight of his back, upright and sturdy as always, extinguished Sherlock’s anger as if John had emptied a bucket of ice water over his head, leaving nothing but wet, charred doubt. Hastily, Sherlock grabbed the milk, threw a few pound notes on the counter, and hurried after John without waiting for his change. Outside, the chilly wind blew away the last wads of smoke still erupting from his curls. It already smelled of spring. John was waiting for him, only a few steps away. The store’s harsh lighting illuminated his figure but his face remained hidden in the shadows as he bowed his head down to Rosie’s and cooed sweet words that finally seemed to calm her down. Cautiously, Sherlock stepped closer. The milk carton in his hand weighed five stone at least. “Why did you say that?” John asked in a tone Sherlock couldn’t quite place—confused but soft and… hopeful. Taken by surprise, Sherlock took a moment to answer. “It just… made me so angry that she assumed you weren’t doing what’s best for Rosie. She shouldn’t—no one should be allowed to talk to you like this. Not on my watch.” Maybe it was just the neon light playing tricks on his eyesight, but Sherlock was certain that John had smiled for just a second, even though his expression was more serious than he had ever seen when he finally looked up. “No, I mean, the things about me.” “About you?” Sherlock knitted his brows. How he hated stating the obvious. “Because it’s true. You are the best person I know, by far.” John moved closer, this unidentifiable thing floating in his eyes again, right beneath the surface. “So, you meant it?” “Of course, I meant it. Every word,” Sherlock rasped out. Why was his heart pounding so fast? When John gave him a doubtful smile, he added: “John, you are amazing, how do you not know that? You’re an amazing doctor and a great father. You’re irreplaceable as an assistant and a friend. You’re talented and smart and funny and understanding and basically every good thing I could never manage to be. I never dreamed that someone like you would even consider putting up with someone like me. And yet, after all we’ve been through, you are still here and you are still as amazing as ever.” With these words, Sherlock saw it finally break free, rupturing the invisible barriers between them and pouring from John’s eyes, iridescent and beautiful. Before he could as much as take a breath, John had let go of the bags, grabbed Sherlock’s face instead and pressed his lips to his in a desperate kiss. The world cracked at its hinges, tumbled over and spun around with twice its usual pace. Dizzying bliss flooded Sherlock’s system at this touch he had least expected and most longed for. His mind shut off, saturated by unadulterated happiness. He barely gained enough consciousness back to reciprocate the movement of John’s warm mouth against his and fling his arms around the man he had loved for longer than he dared to admit. When they finally broke the kiss, both gasping for air, Sherlock felt something wet creeping through his shoes and into his socks. He looked down to find a white puddle slowly spreading on the pavement. “I—I dropped the milk.” John gave him a smile so bright that it seemed to wash off all the hardship of the past months. “Forget about the milk.”

@itsalwaysyou-jw @benzedrine-calmstheitch @sarahthecoat @micahmatters @lsop712 @drunk-rambles @barbsiebabe @alexangelscuddles

#johnlock #johnlock ficlet #sherlock BBC #post mary #first kiss #fanfic #johnlock fanfic #johnlock fic #Sherlock Holmes loves John Watson #john watson loves sherlock holmes

115 notes · View notes

bma-2020 · 6 years ago

Text

Okiedok here’s the delio. I have a list of all the blogs from the last six months who’s actively either responded to a meme i sent, responded to a message ive sent, replied to something regarding mally herself, has actually written with me, written a starter for me from my liking a starter call, has at least liked a starter i wrote for them to awknowedge it exists, all that jazz, i have a lot of open field so it’s not just a possible tumblr didnt let them no option anymore, because i send memes to everyone who posts them that i see. I reply to most peoples ooc posts. I like most starter calls I pass by. I try my darndest to actually interact bc i know how it feels to be ignored and its… i’ve been called one before so i’m using the word, thats fluffing cunty behavior, and honestly if you complain about not being interacted with but never even try when i try with you, ya being cunty, end of. I gotta list. That list only entails Mally because she’s who I care about the most. I’m probably gonna start instilling a new rule in all my blogs that if you ignore Mally and/or Darcy( @tasedandconfused ), since I would say they’re my two main blogs tho darcy gets ignored even more than mally does, probably bc i denied canon and left it entirely we know fandom hates that, if either of them is ignored then… Ya out of luck, I’m gonna unfollow you. I’m debating soft blocking everyone who ignored me on both of them but I don’t want to like be mean and deny the chance to eventually try again but at the same time i shouldnt feel bad for taking a stand and saying this is bullsheet, idk my anxiety says im awful for giving a fluff about myself but also i should give a fluff about myself probably, ive nearly died in the last three months, my brain almost exploded, i just had three root canals on one corner of my face, i have to potentially get surgery on my inner ear which i cant even afford, i dont got time to deal with only being used for like smut memes or like as a resource blog or utter bs like that, i dont got time for it. So new rules here. 1: If Mally or Darcy are not acknowledged, written with, responded to, viewed as more than just their fluffing bodies? ya dropped, im unfollowing, potentially soft blocking, which means blocking and unblocking for those not in the know, on all accounts I follow you on. Every single one. I know most of my muses are on sideblogs but despite not being able to send memes from sideblogs you can block people from sideblogs fun fact, i will do that if i have to. 2: I’m gonna be posting SCs, PCs, memes, etc. I like and respond to plotting calls, starter calls, i send memes, all of that. If I don’t get any response within.. I’m giving one week for people who don’t run on a queue and a month and a half to people on a queue based system, if i dont get anything within that time like at least an im being like ‘its posted’ or ‘its queued i wanted to let you know in case tumblrs a fluffbutt’ (i do this sometimes if i dont get even just a like on the starters i post so i at least know people saw it since i know tumblrs bs, i wait until the day they’re active to do so in case theyre busy yknow) basically i need acknowledgment at all. No you can’t claim this is abt follower count bc when you unfollow someone they inevitably unfollow you too, thats gonna drop my following, not as quickly as soft blocking would but i wanna be fair i guess, which leads to: 3: I’m basing this on your activity too, like if i like a think and you’re gone for a month after that its fine, im not gonna unfollow you unless you never come back or youre online and posting others just not mine because that tells me youre specifically ignoring me and im gonna drop you for that end of. I’m done with the bullsheet im done w the dillish behavior, i love friendship but if im giving and never receiving thats extremely one way and not gonna work. I check through my follow list weekly and i go back about five-10 pages on someones feed before i unfollow them to see their actual activity and see if theyre here or if its a q so. I’m thorough basically. 4: You dont have to be active with me on all your blogs, i mean i’d prefer it but thats hard as fluff so essentially if you have like five blogs and are just like trying w me on two or three thats fine. Ten blogs, four or five with at least a plot formed is cool. Multis just one muse is all I’d need. I’m not gonna unfollow the blogs youre not writing w me on if you at least write w me on some. Again, specifically Mally and/or Darcy. If you ignore both of them, we’re done. I havent been active on darcy because of being ignored and its a huge butt mess and im just tired i wanna use my babies, you don’t get to have my ‘better’ muses like i know a lot of ppl only follow me for my boys or my villains, you don’t get them if you ignore my baby. But, there is a limit there too. 5: If you never respond to a meme or thread even once with Mally or Darcy, or post a starter, i reply, its never replied to again after a month, I’m unfollowing and/or soft blocking for that too. Bc that means youre just raising my hopes to fluff with me or get someone else and honestly, youre even more cunty than than the people just flat out ignoring me if you do that. And this isnt a specific person, this is five of the people actually on my list. Yes, my list is also annotated with specifics again I was very thorough on this yesterday, I hyperfixated I’ll admit it, I’m in a fluffing depressionary bubble and being told to get over it because people want something they dont deserve to have to. I am a believer that people deserve good things but if youre purposefully being cunty… no you dont. 6: No I’m not releasing my list, maybe I will and I’ll omit the urls because I don’t want people being buttholes to each other too but otherwise, yall not seeing it im not giving a callout because… really thats just unnecessary here. I don’t think yall are toxic people or something i just think yall are unintentionally being cunty. And no I don’t mean everyone that follows me i mean the ppl that add up to what i’ve documented so far and fit the bill of butthat that i’ve shown, its behaviors yall gotta check before ya wreck. Yes there will be some people who have priority, everyone has those people, I write w kathryn on other platforms since she doesnt go on here as often but when Kathryn returns from war here (if she does cause she also agrees most ppl on this platform are cunty, i feel really bad saying that word so often but im gonna keep doing it i recently deleted an ask saying I was a huge cunt for not sending someone smut memes when I didn’t even follow them or know they existed so, again the travesty of this place is nutballers) same with owly, alex is here too, my most active partners are always going to be priority because theyre the ones who show the most interest and the most care. I understand that with others as well which is why I have the timeframe set up, because I want to be as open and shizz as possible while atill being firm i guess. I don’t want to have extreme double standards like its impossible for double standards not to exist at least a little bit but I want to avoid a golden chest full of them I guess. 7: I don’t have a seven rn, this was an even number and it bothered me. Seven is nust my warning that I’m bittery writing this on mobile so formatting is not real but i tried my dandest to make this look like something people might actually mind. I dont want to be butty, i dont want to be awful, i dont want to start drama or have drama but that shizz comes around anyways so i might as well make my space as okay for me as i can cause im supposed to avoid stress so my brain doesnt almost explode again, like again i almost fluffing died i dont need ppl fake being my friend or anything, i want stuff to be real and clear. I want to be happy to be on here again and have fun like i used to since my health is plummetting and I’m not allowed to go outside near plants by myself anymore because i welt up. I have plants outside my work place and im surrounded by chemicals all day long I’m welted from here to new york constantly and never comfortable in my own skin because of it and constantly see people online acting like these actual real problems are pretentious because ‘its an excuse’ when, im a fluffing sagittarius, do you know how much i want to magically be a millionaire so i can pay for friends and my own medical stuff and go on traveling and adventures, be outside probably not camping bc as a pagan i know thats a death sentence but like be outside, lay on grass, go back to swimming because i used to swim competitively and due to health reasons i can barely even go in a pool anymore because theres too much sunlight which, bit plot twist i know, im fluffing allergic to vitamin D and the rays of the sun, so go figure, attempts to be healthy kill me more, i also cant eat most plants and am constantly dying from just eating food, they dont know whats wrong with me. i cant fix it by going ve/gan for a month inf act i tried and it almost made my heart stop thanks society. These arent excuses these are the lives of disabled and diseased and to a lesser but still very real point, ethnic lives every fluffing day. This is real shit and its murder and online and gaming? It may be all I have soon since I can’t just go out and make new friends cause, again, I’d fluffing die. I get sick going to the mall or the movie theater, I miss theme parks so much but have to minimize it to weeks i dont have work so i dont get fired for having a welt while working in the beauty industry. I may have to get a degree online and change my field entirely because of my illness that nobody understands. People even make fun of it constantly online and I wish I could just drop online entirely because of how unbelievably ableist the entirety of the world is, i wish i could drop humans in general for their ableism, but i cant. I don’t have choices in most cases, but throwing away people who maybe purposefully maybe unintentionally thats why i’m giving you this warning and will be repeating this warning for awhile, this is where i have choice. I have to use what little choice I have in life while I can since everytime i go to movies or a concert or a theme park i almost die because of not having an immune system that functions or being in certain air qualities pr being near plants or unclean people, I may not have much time and I gotta do whats best for what little mental health I have, and if that means dropping people i care about and really want to write with and do things with but who ignore me then, i guess so be it.

#out.#illness cw #health cw #food mention #ive been writing this since noon and its now two pm so this is great #i’s usually put this under a read more but... maybe most people dont deserve a read more rn lol #their behavior will keep being awful if its not pointed out to them so #im done im gonna go welt up from hugging my cat and cry for a bit because i feel mean

24 notes · View notes

kidmachinate · 5 years ago

Text

Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo Impressions

Anyone that may have been concerned about the real time combat that would be seen in Final Fantasy VII Remake…toss those thoughts away. It is smoother than has been seen in Crisis Core and FFXV before it and it quite exciting to get used to. Let’s get into this. If by chance you don’t know, the demo dropped on the PlayStation Store today, so queue up that download. I’ll wait. Downloaded? You played it. Ignored this. I forgive you. I would have too.

In this game, you can swap between the characters you will have in your party on the fly. Everyone has basic attacks you can use and a variant of said attack that allows for attacking all enemies, or at least Cloud does. I actually didn’t try that with Barrett to see what happens when you hold the attack button with him. In fact, I would have just been blonde-haired SOLIDER boy almost the whole demo, but it does pay to go ahead and switch it up to Barrett from time to time for the range of his gun arm. The fact that they had to specify this in a scene is insulting but that’s me nitpicking. Especially when if relatively close, Cloud can still hit them anyway and Barrett can sit there talking crap. I’m not biased, I swear. Speaking of that, no Tifa play in the demo as it only has the opening chapter. This made me sad. Soon enough Tifa…soon enough…

The opening is the entirety of the opening bombing mission, to go ahead and take down that first Mako Reactor in glorious HD/4K/4K HDR glory. You get the basic attacks and attack-all variants as mentioned above. Cloud has an alternate “Punishing Mode” where he can block incoming attacks without having to manually block. He moves really slow in the mode and if you attack while in this state, his attacks hurt that much more. Attacking builds a “Command Bar” which is where you would find your combat options you would be used to with standard turn-based inputs. You go here to use items, cast spells, or even use a Limit Break if you have it. Cloud has Braver from the start as a command bar action, with Cross Slash being a Limit function. Cloud had one other command bar action but the name slips me as it was not something on his standard limit list. Barrett had an ability that looked like Big Shot but don’t recall the name there either. Maybe they just changed the name of some of these Limit Breaks from the original or added new things. Some might just be command bar actions like Braver and not considered a limit anymore. Blocking is a thing, but who wants to do that? You can dodge and lock on to enemies accordingly as well. The command bar actions get further depth as you can issue commands to other characters that aren’t your active one. The way this all plays out and doesn’t stutter is phenomenal.

Visually, as to be expected, Square Enix wants to push that bar yet again. Evidently, they have a team just for the lighting and it sure shows. Added dialogue that didn’t exist in the original game makes for some funny moments between Cloud and Barrett, Cloud and Jessie, and so on. I’m still not quite sold on Barrett’s voice actor. He plays the role of Barrett well, but I guess I just feel like Cloud does in game about him currently. Maybe I’ll grow into it. Honestly, they are all pretty good for now. You do get a look at President Shinra and Heidegger and some short dialogue. Is it just me, or did Heidegger lose some weight? One of the highlights of the dialogue is a short exchange as Jesse clearly has the hots for Cloud, asking him if he is close to Tifa. This scene is revealing given everyone knows the deal with Cloud and his memories. As a result, this was both funny and an insight into Cloud not actually knowing her…at least not like what he may think or is led to believe before finding out the truth.

Given this is the opening part of the game, we all know about the infamous Scorpion Sentinel. Bosses will all have new depth and layers to them that were not seen in the original game. The boss had a mix of sweep attacks, targeted missiles, going off-screen, and even a new means of how to deal with the tail laser instead of just taking the hit and hoping for the best. This is just further praise for how the combat is evolved. There are also vulnerable/stagger states for some enemies, in which you want to lay down as much damage as possible before the window of time runs out to do so. I’m not ashamed to say this guy almost caused me an issue. Kinda went to brute force everything as I was doing this before going into work and forgot to heal a lot. Oops. Barrett can also cast Cure apparently. Because reasons.

Setting off the bomb to end the mission can be set at either a twenty-or thirty-minute countdown. I suppose the only reason to do the thirty minute one is if you perhaps want to grind out levels and just go extremely slow. Maybe take in the scenery. Fair enough if you want to do so, but even ten minutes is enough to do a bit of all of that, get lost a bit even though you just visited the whole damn place, and still leave with enough time to escape.

Ultimately, the Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo was a ton of fun, a hands-on experience with a stellar combat system, and leaves us all in the same position we can been in since the PS3 tech demo showing off the opening scene. Can we just play this already? I’ve accepted my breadcrumbs happily and I suppose it isn’t too much longer now until the real deal. Or just give me a second demo to play as Tifa. Speaking of which, I have some Butterfingers to buy…

#final fantasy vii remake #demo #PlayStaton 4 #PS4 #Cloud #Barrett #Shinra #Avalanche #ff7 #square enix

6 notes · View notes

fallnangelcreations · 6 years ago

Photo

Asked by Anonymous

Just because I’m not responding in a timely fashion does not mean I am ignoring someone. My disorders do not always grant me the ability to formulate a response or socialize, even if by text, until I have been given time to take in and consider the situation.

The horror genre is a huge passion in my life, and will be expressed openly on my blog. I can agree to tag posts as ‘horror’, HOWEVER, I am -not- guaranteeing to meticulously tag things. Either due to the simple fact that I’ll forget, or won’t always have the time. If it’s something I personally post, it will always be tagged. If it’s a reblog, will honestly be hit or miss. Any reblog already existing in my queue will not be tagged.

I used to run a blog where I tagged every post, for my own search system as well as warnings for others. And it got to the point that so much of my time was consumed with tagging everything for everyone else’s various issues, that I couldn’t deal with it any longer. It was too stressful. - Because of this, if I feel the issue is arising again, reblogs will no longer be tagged.

If you feel you need to unfollow me due to your personal upset over the content I post, it is probably for the best. I wish you no ill will over it. Do what you need to do in order to take care of yourself, and thanks for following me to begin with, I appreciate it :)

-Click Here for Falln’s Ask Replies-

-Ask Falln a question-

#Ask Falln #Anonymous

3 notes · View notes

anniekoh · 6 years ago

Text

adapting cities for climate change

These excerpts from Susan Roaf’s (2009) book Adapting buildings and cities for climate change had been languishing in my queue.

The book confirmed my (admittedly more of a gut feeling than especially well researched) belief that increasing density by building high-rises is not the smart move in the long-term, either for sustainability or affordability. Emphases added and endnote numbers removed for readability.

243: The higher the building, the more it costs to build and operate, and the more costly and difficult it is to maintain.

The primary increase in build costs, per metre square, results from the increased structure and construction required to support the building, to earthquake-, fire- and weather-proof it, and the increased systems needed to operate it, including lifts, escalators, water pumping and electrical systems. These high costs can only pay back if higher than average prices are paid for the floor area, housing or offices than would be the case in a lower rise building. So, for instance, putting social housing up in the air is to ask the ordinary council tax payer to pay in perpetuity for the lift, concierge, policing, social worker, maintenance, refurbishment and demolition costs of the homes of a few people, who could just as well have been housed in low-rise, low-cost housing built for the same price.

Lifts are very energy expensive and costly to run, maintain and replace. Lifts alone can account for at least 5–15% of the building running costs and the higher the building, the more it costs.

[Image source: CNN “Why glass architecture is bad for our cities”]

251: In a high-rise building, where so many people are dependent on machinery for their very survival, there are severe repercussions from system failure. If a chiller breaks down and a part has to be obtained from Japan the systems of the whole building may be put at risk. In February 1998 in Auckland, New Zealand, all four main cables into the central city failed, cutting electricity to offices and more than 5000 apartments. Back-up cables also failed, due in part to the extreme summer temperatures and for up to eight weeks there was chaos in the city buildings, where temperatures soared to over 50°C and allegedly in the top floors of tall buildings to over 80°C, making their habitation impossible. So taller means hotter at the top and more energy to heat and cool the building – a factor when floors are metered and lessees have to pay for the energy they use on their own floors. Businesses with all their eggs in one building basket will be very vulnerable to the impacts of energy outages, particularly in thin, tight-skinned buildings with no opening windows that have to be immediately evacuated because the air indoors becomes unfit to breathe once a blackout begins.

Many towers are advertised as ‘energy efficient’ or ‘green’, and such claims could be taken with a pinch of salt. However, mitigating against reductions in air conditioning use with efficient technologies is the fact that standards of environmental design of building envelopes are decreasing continually, as evidenced by the fairly universal trend in office buildings in the 1990s, and increasingly in residential properties in the USA, towards thin, tight-skinned buildings, often with non-opening windows. The lack of insulation in the external envelopes of such buildings, often coupled with poor thermal fabric storage internally, increases the heating and cooling loads of the buildings. With increasingly poor standards of environmental design, including widespread excessive use of glass in envelopes, and rapidly increasing levels of equipment use, and in particular of computers, air conditioning becomes more and more essential.

....

319: In the current planning process, there is generally no detailed statement on the thermal or environmental performance of a proposed building given to councillors for consideration before it is granted planning permission. So the planning officer who decides whether to promote the building, or a planning council member who will vote on it, may have no idea of the potential environmental impacts of the building on greenhouse gas emissions or water usage in the building. Planning officers and the elected councillors will judge a building by what it looks like, and what image of their own area or city they would like to promote.

Committees can give approval for fashionable, unshaded, all glass and steel buildings with huge air conditioning systems, and remain blissfully ignorant of the task they have passed on, in the process, to the Building Control Officer to try to conform to UK Building Regulations. Councils will promote the use of thin, tight, shiny, poorly performing cladding systems over robust traditional construction as a matter of course because they want their city to look ‘modern’, regardless of the performance implications.

[Image source: Stirling Prize awarded to Laban Center]

324: Many have questioned the role of the ‘design competition’ in these overspends... Typically, the greater the ‘icon’, the greater its environmental impact. Issues of environmental performance rarely figure in the requirements of such competitions and too often the resulting buildings, subsequently evaluated for their performance after construction, prove to be ‘nightmare’ buildings.

In October 2003 the Laban Dance Centre in Deptford, southeast London, won the £20000 Stirling Prize for Architecture. The judges were Julian Barnes, novelist, Justine Frischmass, singer from the band Elastica, and others. Technical competence to evaluate the performance of the buildings was obviously not a core requirement of the judging panel. Designed by the Swiss team of Hertzog and de Meuron, it was a popular win. The sealed-envelope, fully air-conditioned building on a waterside site could easily, and very pleasantly, have been naturally ventilated, in parts at least. No consideration of its environmental performance was made in the judging and the current and long-term running costs of the building were never discussed by the press or the judges of the competition.

[Image source: The Shard by Renzo Piano]

351-2: Even ‘green’ individuals, groups and organizations with reputations for being extremely visionary and effective, for some inexplicable reason, have not ventured into the heart of the problems in buildings. We have very high-profile political lobbying against airports and coal-fired power stations but not against energy- or water-profligate buildings. If a new 10MW glass tower block is to be put up in the city no one gets out in the streets to object. We even have the spectacle of the globally lauded eco-warrior Bono proposing to build a huge new glass tower in the centre of Belfast and so-called eco-warrior Ken Livingstone who on the one hand implemented leading- edge policies on transport in London but on the other wanted to fill London up with glass towers. When a financially non-viable, and hugely energy-profligate glass ‘Shard’ tower is scrapped, and then refinanced by a Gulf sheikh, despite the absence of any market for new office space in London, no one protests? Why? The people of London will have to face energy shortages and pay to build new transport, water and electricity generation capacity to serve the environmental nightmare of a building just to satisfy the hubris and ambitions of an Arab investor who wants his erection to stand ‘greater than all that have gone before’. Such a tower is a much more effective way of putting a spanner in the works of our economy than any bomb on a Soho street could be but no one protests against the Shard!

The message has, for some reason, simply not got through to decision makers, or the general public, that if such dinosaur buildings were never again built, and if every building in Britain consumed minimal energy and water, and harvested and stored a proportion of its own energy, we would not only not need new coal and nuclear power stations or new water reservoirs but we could afford to begin to deal with the demolition and replacement of the least efficient or most dangerous of those that already exist. The real environmental offenders in the built environment are not the terraced homes of the north, which the government suggested demolishing, but the glass towers of the city.

#urbanism #sustainability #high rise #urban planning #climate change #architecture #urban design

4 notes · View notes

aendreal · 4 years ago

Text

I used to be uncomfortable with reviewing, when I first learned that it was proper etiquette, my auti-brain said, ah yes, it *must* be done, and I started reviewing only on the last chapter.

There have only two people over the years that I've personally spoken to that would sort fics by review count. And I felt more pity towards the first one, I couldn't understand why you'd read things that were only popular or more of why you'd think that many reviews meant quality, unless you read said reviews, they could all be flames or spam.

It wasn't until I found out my brother sorts by reviews, despite being a lurker and encountering several posts on how important reviewing really is that I realized why my prior thoughts were kind of right but pretty shitty.

It was the same justification of people who say food stamps shouldn't exist because people can cheat the system. I was ignorant of the importance and true purpose of reviews.

I was told early on that reviewing let the author know you'd want more, but I didn't actually understand how it let's the author know that. So when I was younger I'd say things like "update soon" and "update please" thinking that was what they meant.

Reviews are meant to convey that you enjoyed their work, it let's them know you'd want more, by showing that you actively engaged with and enjoyed the work.

I had to train myself to actually engage with fic, I started out cutting long fics into segments, something with 50 chapters is review ever 5 chapters that's only 10 reviews, barely and effort, and I slowly started making the intervals shorter, every 4 chapters, every 3 chapters.

And eventually I became so accustomed to reviewing that it actually became *more* burdensome to keep track of which chapters I needed to review on. When I could just write a small review praising even just one thing I liked about the chapter, or just "oh wow [blank] was cool" or "I laughed a whole lot."

And even then I was still terrified to be noticed, that I'd be seen as weird. *Queue tragic childhood flashbacks* The moment that drained all fear from the process was when I read a 40+ chapter story that was just so good I binged it in I think under 3 days.

The author was away less than a week and came back to an imbox stuffed with my inane mindless commentary and praises, I'm very much the kind of person who takes focuses all their joy and appreciation of something into smothering it to death.

When the next chapter dropped I was ecstatic, and immediately leaped to consume it and found the author losing their mind in the notes. [ff.net] The sheer joy and shock that was palpable in their response sent a crazy rush of pride through my head.

I love heaping affection onto the people around me and it had finally clicked that I could do the same with the authors I enjoyed. And that having them notice that admiration could in fact be a good experience.

I'm so entrenched in this habit that I now occasionally double review chapters when I forget if I've reviewed yet or not. And I'll drop in to reread stories only to see that the last person to review on the first chapter was me and I get to watch the progress of what chapters others review on as the difficulty of finding my first review on each chapter increases.

I still have a lot of difficulty doing this on places like tumblr mobile, it's impossible to find anything again once the damn app reloads. But it's even progressed to Twitter and Instagram.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that being a good person and engaging in the community are skills that you can and should hone.

Sorry if you feel this jacks your post in any way.

The Tumblr writing community is dying.

It’s something I’ve noticed over the past two years of using this site. It was gradual, imperceptible at first, something that most would brush off as a silly concern, or fault Tumblr algorithm for. While it’s true that Tumblr’s engine leaves a lot to be desired, I’ve noticed that even popular blogs have started to dwindle in terms of interaction or motivation. There could be a lot of reasons for this, but the biggest two I’ve noticed, experienced myself, and asked fellow writers about is this: (1) content being stolen, and (2) lack of feedback or interaction. I’ve never seen any logical person defend content being stolen, so I want to address point 2 instead.

Lack of feedback and interaction. I’m not saying this on my behalf so much as I’m saying this for friends and smaller blogs who have lost motivation to write. I was looking at my yandere writing blogs list the other day and noticed that a good majority of them no longer write. I usually update the list every few months, and by that point, more and more writers have stopped writing entirely. This isn’t a problem confined solely to the yandere fandom; in fact, there’s less writing blogs in general these days, especially ones that are active. I used to run a very popular BNHA blog with some friends, but that dissolved after our content was stolen and our followers stopped interacting as much. Out of our 8,500 followers, we hardly got 0.015% notes (~128 notes) on an average post. Tumblr is to blame for the lack of eyes seeing our posts, for sure, but that also means that at least 128 people saw one post and didn’t leave a comment or ask. We were considered a big blog; imagine what it’s like on a small blog.

My friend recently made a post that summed this up perfectly:

“I’ve seen people say “Be grateful that people even lurk on your page.” and, while I get the message they’re trying to say, it’s more dismissive and hurtful in my opinion. Like you’re saying, “Oh your writing is mediocre, you should be grateful people even LOOK at it.”

Me personally? I’ve heard the argument that AO3 is a better place to post fanfics, and while that might be true, I’ve had friends experience firsthand the lack of interaction there too. I’ve heard the argument that interacting with some writers is intimidating (me included). I’ve heard that argument that followers might be too shy to interact. I’ve heard the argument that writers should write for themselves and not for views / likes / reblogs / etc, and while that’s ideal, it’s not sustainable for everyone. What works for one writer won’t work for another, but you know what will? Interaction.

That comment or ask that took you 2 seconds to write? We remember it. That reblog with the compliments in the tags? We remember it. Every single ‘named’ anon we get (heart anon, sunflower anon, etc)? We remember them. And the best part is? It’s actually easier to do these things on Tumblr since you have the option to send anonymous asks or make a sideblog specifically for reblogs! Trust me, whether the lack of interaction is the cause of a lack of motivation or what have you, every writer appreciates feedback (don’t be shy to offer some critique or compliments) or even a simple keyboard smash with some emojis. Even sitting down for 5 min a day per week to comment on your favorite writers’ new pieces makes a huge difference. Personally, since Tumblr’s activity feed is beyond terrible and I have over 1,500 posts, I don’t always see new reblogs or comments on my content; asks though? Always see those, can never go wrong with those. If you don’t want to reblog or leave a comment, then you can never go wrong with an anonymous ask.

As my wise friend says: writing is an art, and in order to improve that art, we need other people’s eyes to see what we don’t.

For the sake of every writer (past, present, and future) on this platform, please share this post.

#Reviewing etiquette #Community etiquette #fanfiction community #Content engagement

20K notes · View notes

brynwrites · 7 years ago

Text

Ask Compile!

Topics covered:

Tips for indexing notes.

Thoughts on second person pov.

Tips for writing smut.

Writing non-binary protagonists perceived as villains.

Knowing when to use or ignore feedback.

I also received two questions (writing elementals and character growth) which are already going to be covered by longer articles in my queue.

Indexing Notes

@kantuck: Good day: Do you have any advice on how to index previously taken notes? I have gigs of notes on paper, and electronic over the years and now I'd like to be able to index them someway so that I can write within this storyworld?

Set aside a huge chunk of time, plan to do it for 15 or 20 minutes every even, whatever works best for your schedule, just make it a plan and then follow through.

Use an organization tool with a folder system made for note taking (like scrivener or evernote), not a system like google docs where you have to load each document on it’s own.

Decide how you’re organizing them ahead of time. I usually have my outline itself split into the major points I already know I need to hit, along with individual character files and a few dozen worldbuilding related files.

Put things in every folder or file they relate to. If you have something important to a certain character and a certain setting and the character’s species, put that information in all the relevant files.

(I hope this was what you were looking for?)

Second Person

Okay, so I absolutely despise 2nd person point of view. But it seems like it's popular, especially with fanfics. I'm just wondering why? And do you like 2nd person point of view?

I’m not a fan of second person either, so I feel you. I think the general draw of it (especially in fanfiction, even more so in erotic fanfiction) is the fact that you’re supposed to be the person doing the things, existing in this world with the characters you love. It gives every reader their own self-insert.

In my opinion, it’s kind of ridiculous outside of choose your own adventure type stories, but some readers really enjoy it, so all the power to them, I guess?

Writing smut

Sorry if this is an odd question. But, how do you write smut? For a friends birthday I want to write a smut fic of her favorite pair, but I just cant write smut. You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable. Thanks!

Fun fact: I wrote a lot of smut during my university years. (That was pretty much the only thing I wrote, actually.) It had a negative effect on my mental health though, so I’ve backed out of that whole scene pretty thoroughly.

Honestly, smut for the sake of smut is pretty much just imagining a steamy scene you get off on, and then writing it out. The most prominent things to watch for are what you’re calling everyone’s junk (there’s a nice line between too technical and too outrageous, and you can probably find long lists of people’s opinions if you search around enough), and whether you’re describing the positions the characters are in well enough for the reader to picture them. Throw in some simple and common metaphors for sensual sensations, and remember to focus on the emotional, romantic aspects too (especially during repetitive motions or anything that makes you slightly uncomfortable to write/read.)

If you’re writing a sex scene as a scene in a non-erotic novel, things get a lot more complicated really quickly, because you have to take into account things like prior emotion states, character growth, relationship development, and plot.

Non-binary protagonists perceived as villains

Hi, I read a post of yours regarding binary people writing non-binary characters and I figured asking a non-binary person was the best way to go about this. The protagonist in one of my wip's is non-binary, however, this character is generally seen as a 'villain' by others despite not necessarily being one due to context and lore implications. Can I ask for advice on how to write such a character without enforcing any negative stereotypes surrounding non-binary people? Thanks for your time.

The nonbinary collab team has finally started work on a post which will cover these kinds of topics in more detail, so keep a look out for that, but I’ll mention a few things here anyways:

1. One of the most prominent negative stereotypes surrounding non-binary people being villains involves using the non-binary identity to show how “corrupt” or “insane” or “inhuman” the villain is. (This happens both in fiction and through specifically pointing out the non-gender-conformity of historical immoral people while denying that the heroes of those cultures held the same level of non-gender-conformity.) There’s nothing inherently wrong with writing a villain who just happens to be nonbinary, but a villain should never be a villain because they’re nonbinary.

2. In any situation where you have an oppressed people group represented as a villain, it’s always a good rule of thumb to also have at least one character of that group represented in the heroes “team” (or, in cases where there’s no heroes, by a team with differing beliefs or goals, preferably by decently moral characters.)

That being said, it seems like your protagonist isn’t actually evil themselves, so unless the reason other people in the world see them as a villain is because they see nonbinary people as villainous, I can’t imagine you’ll have any major issues :)

Bending the Elements

Hey! Do you have tips on how to write bending of the elements? I got an idea for a book, but I can't seem to describe what people do when bending without making it sound like an Avatar The Last Airbender fanfiction. The only thing I have similar to the show is the bending of elements, the story in itself is hopefully original enough to hold its own, but still I make the bending sound like fanfiction... my story has nothing to do with Avatar. Any tips?

Hey there nonny! I’m planning to write a full post on describing the use of magic, so I can add in a section on elemental magic when I start that :)

When feedback doesn’t fit the picture.

@aerodragneel: In my current WIP, the MC has to find the powerful superhero Vulcan from 15 years ago, who quit after losing to the main antagonist who’s resurfaced. I was told not to make him a vital part of the story, but Vulcan’s entire character arc is vital to his and the MC’s story. When I envision Vulcan, I see someone who wants to help, but after all he’s gone through, he just can’t anymore and when he meet’s the MC, that spark of being a hero is reignited. Thanks for the help and get better soon! 😉

No one knows your story and characters better than you. Write the story however it makes the most sense and feels strongest! If you think Vulcan needs to be present throughout the story to influence the MC’s arc, then by all means, include him. There will always be an opportunity to take him out later, and you’ll get much more accurate feedback from people once they’ve read the entire story, edited until you approve of it.

(And remember that not everyone will give you advice that’s beneficial to the story you want to write. Here’s some other good reasons not to change your story in order to accommodate a piece of feedback.)

Character growth

How do I go about writing about somebody who over time has a change of heart? My story is going to be about a woman who was originally set out to kill a man but ends up falling in love with him.

I have plans to write a post on redemption arcs, and a more thorough post on character development, so stay tuned for both of those!

#writeblr #ask compilation

38 notes · View notes