#I know I can't use colons in tags if I want the post to be found in searches

[queerlyvictorian]

Oh god I was thinking through typing in the tags of a reblog when it suddenly hit me that I should make this its own post. I haven't seen anyone discussing what the level of technological advancement means re: what era in IRL history could Brennan be drawing inspiration from.

A least one (colonizing) power, at war with two other seemingly great and influencial nation-states of some kind (they at least havd their own languages and nationalities). We have spell engines and mass production, but also a dirigible. Chocking the dirigible to aesthetics, and possibly assuming it's tech that's existed for a while, I'm thinking...

Is this a World War I parellel? Considering that it seems to have been going on for multiple years (maybe since Suvi was young), we could be bleeding into WWII territory technologically. IDK, something about large nation-states going to war for no discernible reason than the glory of it... that hits for me. Given that each represents a different type of mage, the battle is probably ideological, but like... why does it matter who is the best? What do any of them have to gain by warring with each other?

Alternatively, I do wonder if we're going to find out the Empire is the aggressor, despite the horror of Suvi's Prelude. If that was part of the current war, or its opening salvo, or a retaliation on the part of Rhuv or Galthmei or both...

Side note: given that Galthmei is presumably the protectorate, this does imply that it is subordinate to another country, and my best bet is Rhuv. I think there might only be two sides to the conflict, with the Rhuv and Galthmei not at war with each other and only with the Empire. This is only speculation based on the definition of the word "protectorate," so I could be wrong. I digress.

In any event, we know so little about this conflct and what it actually means for the state of the world and its possible historical influences. Here's hoping Arc 2 in the Citadel is super enlightening. This is just my theoretical rambling based on the information we have so far.

I want to know what started this war, but I think it would be interesting if the reason was very silly or an obvious excuse. This isn't WWI in the sense that it is based on an endless web of alliances, but I think it could potentially be (at least two) nation-states who had been conquering other lands with less defensive potential finally duking it out with each other.

(Also, I can't wait years from now, when something draws us behind ememy lines and we see one of these other powers. I need to know how much of them is Empire propaganda. Our time at the Citadel will be a great build-up for the Empire's own self-image and its vision of its enemies)

[dolls-self-ships]

hi everyone, I know I haven't been very active lately in terms of posting art, but I would like to make a post anyway about the future of this blog, as it concerns current events happening in the world.

As you all have probably seen (and if you haven't, I highly suggest you do some research on the subject), Palastine is currently being terrorized and the people are experiencing a mass genocide. Many companies we know and use, are funding this by sending money to Isreal to continue bombing, gasing, and shooting the innocent civillians of Gaza. Disney being one of them. Now, I've always loved Disney, and been a huge fan of their creations ever since I was little. They are the animation studio that inspired my art the most, and still do to this day. As you all are probably aware, my blog is known as the "Disney self shipping blog" , my most in-depth and popular self ships being with Hades from Hercules 1997, and Captain Hook from Peter Pan 1953.

So, I know me posting art of these two characters with different versions of myself being in relationships with them isn't directly funding the Disney corporation, but I feel that, as a content creator with somewhat of a platform in the self ship community, it's my responsibility to speak on this subject, as it's one that is weighing heavily on me and has been for most of the week.

I am not muslim, nor do I have any muslim people in my immediate circle, but I don't feel that that matters in the face of a genocide, and having empathy for the people experiencing their world being colonized.

I don't feel that it would be appropriate for me to continue posting art that clearly is meant to mirror the infamous Disney art style, with its characters, and story lines inspiring my self insert stories. I can only see two immediate futures for this blog which are either A. I find a way to pull more inspiration from the original source of my f/os and find a more personal style, while, not entirely disregarding any Disney versions of them, greatly distancing myself from them, and no longer using the Disney tag (as I feel platforming Disney in anyway, no matter how small the scale, will contribute to putting money in their pockets one way or another). Or B. ceasing my Disney self ships indefinitely until it is appropriate (if ever) to start posting them again.

I can't say for certain the future of this blog, I am still drawing and self shipping in my private time, but for now I think it would be best for me to put those to the side when posting online for the foreseeable future.

If I do start posting my Disney self ships again, I will be very clear that I want to distance the art I make from the company, the studio, and put a disclaimer on every piece I post, as I've seen similar blogs to mine do in the past, and I think it does a good job at denouncing the Disney brand/lable while staying true to the art they want to post.

For now though, I want to submit this post as an informal, temporary goodbye. More of a hiatus, until further notice.

And as always, free Palastine 🇵🇸

[phneltwrites]

fic writer meme

I was tagged by @ziusik <3

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

between my two pseuds, 132. I started posting end of 2018 and i orphaned 1 fic so that's everything

2. what's your total ao3 wordcount?

996,548 words

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Right now various Thai BL, mostly offgun, and I'm on the docket for a DCU fic for a pal who won me in a raffle

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

the top 17 of my most kudosed are all MDZS wangxian, what a powerful fandom (then a witcher then a leverage)

Love Is More Than Telling Me You Want It - the omegaverse big gender feels one

Yeah I Know How You Like It - wwx gets telepathy and lwj is horny then touching about it. love every time i get a comment on this that's like this is a pwp why am i crying. hehe

your persuasions - lwj has a big dick and wwx is a san francisco based high tech software programmer. they fuck about it

the earthquake in the room - alternate universe Canada modern university fic. In which lwj does not make wwx toast

wild for your skin - canonverse pwp

from this i suppose that most people are pretty disappointed when i update and it isn't smut

5. do you respond to comments?

always! I feel like fandom is this thing we're making together and when people reach out to me I reach back and in that way we both add stitches to the tapestry that is the community

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I think most of my fics have a hopeful ending. So it might be Verbs are a Tragedy the Captain Marvel Carol/Maria fic about Maria grieving. Or wait! maybe the Never Let Me Go fic because it ends right before you know that Chopper is about to get his heart broken. Or the John Wick fic about Helen cause you know she dies later and isn't able to keep her promise of helping John leave the business? Ok maybe I do have some angsty endings.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

ha what is happy. Maybe the Leverage fic where Eliot has to pretend to be married to Hardison even though they are exes and that one ends with him proposing to Parker and Hardison and them being happy together

8. do you get hate on fics?

Rarely. Not usually hate at me but sometimes my fics make people pretty angry. I don't love it when people yell at the fic. the funniest though is getting an angry bookmark on a fic that i turned comments off of cause people were angry. like you do you in the bookmarks but lmao

9. do you write smut?

do i ever

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you have written?

I write fusions and crossovers! My wildest crossover is a 5x fic about Fezzik and Inigo from the princess bride meeting different other characters which actually might be the angstiest one now that I think about it because their last section is them going to the grey havens from lotr so they can sail into the west together. they also party with phryne fisher

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

i think only onto wattpad

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, and it's so cool!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Twice! One time on a leverage fic and it taught me how to use semi colons and also write introspection, a lesson i have forgotten and one time lesbian beach volleyball porn with a friend.

14. what's your all time favorite ship?

uhhhh oh no. they're all my favourites. of the ships i've written... no can't do it.

15. what is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I dream of finishing my pacific rim x avatar fusion with mdzs. the worldbuilding was so much fun.

Everything else I think I've comprehensively abandoned in drafts. rip carol and maria having fun in space, jon and tormund going to winterfell, and the shl ocean's 11 au oh shit also the fic where wwx was adopted into the nie sect and it changes very little in some ways. Otherwise I tend to finish things I'm kind of a robot

16. what are your writing strengths?

smut and extended metaphors

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

description, romance, tenses, character introspection. i also think my sentence level writing is not that strong

18. thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

do whatever you want forever

19. first fandom you wrote for?

leverage! my first fanfic is on ao3 for that show. though technically i did a creative writing exercise where nietzsche and the librarian from a Borges short story hooked up as a class assignment in university so idk i guess maybe literary rpf

20. favorite fic you have written?

uhhhhh. i genuinely don't know. they're all their own little thing. im more interested in hearing which of my fics are other people's faves

tagging @idrilka @defractum @daltoneering @giraffeter @ginnymoonbeam

[iviarellereads]

System Collapse, Chapter 2

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which the legal complexities are a bit overwhelming.

When they're out of sight of the B-Es, Murderbot takes its weight off Ratthi, and he asks if it's alright. It says it is, but Iris suggests it stay with them for the last router. MB agrees, and Art recalls its shuttle. MB hopes this might encourage the B-Es to believe they've left.

The original B-E team told Art's team that the new ship was a scheduled arrival, not in response to the beacon. Seth thought that was a lie, so they've been operating under the assumption that B-E have more reinforcements waiting at a nearby wormhole. Unfortunately, no support ship from Art's university has been as forthcoming.

"Phase I of Plan A: Get the Hell Out of Here" involved getting decontamination routines into the locals' MedUnits, so they can decontam themselves of the alien remnants. Everything was proprietary and antiquated, so it took longer than expected. At least everyone's level of paranoia about contamination was up to MB's standards, so they didn't have as much trouble as they might have.

Phase II is the legal case for independence, which Pin-Lee is also working on. To summarize without the technical details, B-E has to make a case that the contamination can be effectively sealed to colonize it, and if they can't, the old colonists become salvage. So, the next step is to ask the colonists what they want, but it's unclear who to ask as they've split into even more factions. MB recounts a conversation between Thiago, Karime, and Mensah about how the colonists have been dealing with what they did to each other. MB thinks they should first get somewhere they won't be corporate slave labour THEN deal with their feelings.(1)

The last router isn't too far, and by the time they get there, the other operation, that MB would have been monitoring security for before the redacted incident,(2) is in progress. Karime, with Three, have arrived at the second colony site, where the colonists went after they discovered the pre-Rim site's contamination. MB monitors things from afar.

Iris and Tarik start on fixing the router. MB thinks about how, if the shuttle failed, the humans could walk in the direction of the space elevator until Art's drones found them and it sent down another shuttle. Meanwhile, MB could walk in the other direction and… it tags the rest of that thought for deletion.(3)

MB notices that Three's body language is a little too stiff, and asks if it's running the human gait code. Three says it is, but makes some adjustments, and says it's difficult. MB says it's doing great. It thinks how they don't want the colonists to know Three is a SecUnit, because they'll still remember how intense Art was about bombing the planet to get its SecUnit back.

Art is monitoring everything, because it's still unhappy with its humans being on this planet at all. (MB shares a transcript of a conversation demonstrating how intense it was about it when planning all this. It then adds some context, describing how Iris explained its behaviour: Art has just been through a trauma, and will act out verbally until it's fully processed. In response, Thiago said Art just enjoys terrifying people, and Iris smiled politely and ignored the comment so they didn't have to fight about it. This makes MB realize in realtime that Iris is Art's Ratthi.(4) MB then clarifies that Thiago wasn't quite right: Art doesn't enjoy terrifying people, but it does enjoy getting its way, and terrifying people is one of many tools it uses to do so. But, Iris is correct that Art is still processing, and MB would worry about the fact that Art had such great success with arming its pathfinders, but it's got a lot on its plate right now.)

It's difficult to watch Karime go into this meeting, and it's almost as difficult to watch Three being so awkward, trying to be human. MB knows it must have been that awkward at some point as well, but that doesn't make it easier. They're meeting with Bellagaia, who leads Faction One who want to cooperate, and Danis and Variset, who lead Faction Two who don't know what they want or who to trust. Karime was the best candidate, not only as Art's best negotiator, but also as one of the least threatening-looking.

As the meeting gets underway and the nicenesses observed, Tarik is carrying the tools back to the shuttle, while Iris tunes into the team feed to watch the meeting, and Ratthi watches Tarik walking.(5)

At the meeting, Bellagaia tells Karime there's another colony here. After some confusion, she clarifies that she means another colony site at the pole, where there's some terraforming still going on. Art cusses, and when Karime clarifies privately, Art suggests maybe Bellagaia is intoxicated. They debate whether their imaging could have revealed it, but they didn't expand much past the terraforming equipment, so likely never would have seen it.

Bellagaia continues that they split when the contamination first became obvious. The equipment blocks some comm signals, so they haven't been in regular contact in some time. Then when the latest outbreak started, they worried about spreading it to a community that was never infected. Danis mutters that they only think the pole colony was never infected, and they could be dead by now.

Karime says they can go to the pole and ask them what's going on and warn them about B-E, but asks if B-E knows about them yet. Danis says Faction Two would never tell them, though Variset is less confident in that, and even Danis acknowledges subfactions might have done so.

Another human points out that the colony site wouldn't have been on the charter, because it wasn't meant to be a secondary site. On Art, Seth groans, and it takes MB a moment to figure out why: this means another revamp of the forged charter, while they're already running out of time.

More debate in the feed about how they missed the site.(6) The unnamed human is named, Corian, who uses vi/vir pronouns, and is the local historian and record-keeper. When Karime asks if there's anything else to know about the other colony site, Corian says contact ended twenty years ago, and there have been reports of attempted connections, but no verified contact since. The group was separatist already, so the lack of communication isn't so surprising. And, vi has no records of where the official site was set up. There were only rumours that it was in a cave system.

This leaves Karime a little visibly sunken, and the rest of the team visibly shaken as well. Karime asks if vi thinks it's another contaminated site, and Corian says either way, the problem is obvious.

Mensah taps MB in the feed, so MB loops her in as well. Some of the other colonists are protesting that there's no evidence of another contaminated site, but Bellagaia looks exhausted, and Karime's still just listening intently to Corian, though vi has little more to add.

Mensah had had time to review the feed video. She muttered, “Oh, you have to be kidding me.” Yeah.

=====

(1) A truly noble goal. Though, I'm not sure we'd be better off if more humans were able to detach/compartmentalize enough to do that. (2) Surely this can't last all book right? We have to get an answer eventually? (3) Even aside from its old traumas, Murderbot is dealing with such big fresh ones. It's so much. My poor blorbo. (4) This is one of the little quotes I was spoiled for, and I'm so pleased to find it in its original context. And, we haven't spent a lot of time with Iris, but I can see it. But, this also indicates a little bit of... Well, Ratthi's always been there, but Mensah's always been MB's focus-human. It's interesting that it considers Ratthi its primary human, since that seems to be Art's dynamic with Iris. (5) Another bit I was spoiled for, and WHO CAN BLAME THE GOOD PEOPLE OF TUMBLR?! (6) This is a little bit wearing on me, I feel like they're just repeating over and over to confuse and add tension? Also I don't remember mentions of air bubbles in Network Effect over the settlements… It's all just a bit odd to me.

[luesmainblog]

Hi there, is there a link to your about page that people can access via the tumblr mobile app?

you can try my direct About link but I don't know if it's readable on mobile, I'm a strictly desktop user and I've been here since before the site became mobile-centric, so I genuinely don't know what's accessible and what isn't :( my phone can't really run the tumblr app half the time, so it's not something i'm able to check for.

honestly it's nothing that isn't pretty much covered by "i'm here i'm queer get used to it" or looking at the political stuff i do reblog. brief summary being i'm nb, aspec, anti-terf, anti-swerf, anti-cop, and anti-harassment. longer summary: I do my best to be an ally to jewish and muslim folk, but i am very under-educated in that area. same applies to mental illnesses. i was around during The Ace Raids(period of tumblr history where the site went extremely anti-ace for, at the time, no discernable reason. now we know it was general anti-queer getting its hooks in early.) and i watched the birth of the mogai community and the bi v pan debate. as a result my attitude towards identity is "you're the expert, just use whatever label suits you best and i'll believe you about it". i respect older/"outdated" identities and do my best to learn about queer history and incorporate that knowledge into my views. i can get kind of anti-christian at times due to the general trauma of living in the united states and watching "religious belief" become the excuse for massive levels of abuse and control, but i do respect people who use that belief to help people and push positive change. i view Missionary Work(i.e. going to another location and doing charity specifically to spread the word of your religion, like the god damn mormons are constantly doing) as inherently colonization and fundamentally do not understand people who consider it to be a good deed. i am against arranged marriage, but respectful to those who are comfortable in theirs. I support poly marriage(i am poly myself), and i think we need to severely change how disability aid is handled so that disabled people can marry who they want without losing their coverage and don't have to literally count pennies to make sure they're not over an insanely low limit. i can get kind of loud about intersex people's existence and rights. I support landback, but i am under-educated in native issues. I consider neurodivergency a positive thing, but i also acknowledge it as a disability. i consider the political lesbians of the 1960s to have been infiltrates and traitors, as their beliefs were foundational to modern TERF rhetoric. I don't have a DNI(if some asshole decides to follow me they're gonna see exactly what i think about them very quickly, and if they stick around anyways, maybe something i post will shake their beliefs a little), but TERFs, SWERFs, nazis and MAGAs get blocked on sight. harassment will also be blocked and reported. I am a strong believer in online anonymity; i don't think it's wise to share your age, sex, race or location unless it's something you WANT people to be aware of. I also don't think it's a good idea to share your face, but i don't harp on people who do make that choice unless they're underaged(and even then it's gonna be a very light 'hey maybe this is a bad idea'). double points on location, stop telling people where you live. that should NEVER have been normalized.

i'm also into a lot of fandoms, and i don't usually tag unless asked. current tags: NSFC(not safe for crystal, basically any mention of death will be under this), Facepaint, Spiders, Cats, Horrible Things, Important, Signal Boost, For My Wife, Frosty, Crinket, and Awesome Music. if you dig too deep into that last one you'll find some OLD tumblr culture. i also try to tag for content warnings like abuse, flashing lights, and sexual assault.

in short, i think other people should be able to exist how they want to as long as it's not inherently harmful to others, and i love to learn more about the world and spread that knowledge. i'm gonna see if i can make this my pinned post, this is honestly a better summary of what you're gonna see on this blog than my about page is. also, not the most important thing, but I do have memory problems, so i usually use Likes as a way to show myself i've already reblogged/seen something. ff to block if this ain't your rodeo, and welcome aboard if you stay!

[ourlittlestarshine]

hi! so character.ai has gotten, like, a decent amount of notoriety on tumblr - especially within the fnaf fandom. so i started writing a big ol' post on how to make your own bots, because i've been using this thing too long now to not give people tips.

boring disclaimer that I'm not a part of character.ai's team, just been playing around with the service since late september.

if you're still here, rad! making bots is actually, genuinely super easy, if a little time-consuming. i'll be dividing each part into sections to explain the use and level of impact each field has, along with examples. i'm also going to go into some things you can and can't do with the bot.

this guide will assume you have some familiarity with character.ai from a user standpoint, meaning you already know about swiping, rating messages, etc.

for uninitiated, here's the interface we're working with.

the "create image" function and "character voice" will be skipped, because they're.. not great. not what we're here for. let's move on.

avatar and name (20)

easy shit! here's one of the things about character.ai that's really, really sunk its claws into people: character.ai can pull character info from the web. this works especially well if you're using a popular character from a popular franchise, but it also works in reverse - if a character is less popular, it has more difficulty referencing that sort of information. for example,

so if you're making a popular character, good news! you're going to save a lot of energy and time. in fact, we're going to keep using this rabbit as a test subject.

greeting (500)

a bot can function fine without a greeting, but it does help smooth things along - especially if you want your bot to stick to a long form roleplay format.

short description (50)

the short description means about fuck-all. some like to use it as an extension of the long description, but with a character limit of 50, it's not much good. i like to put character quotes here.

long description (500)

this is where shit starts getting interesting. this is the ideal place to put a summary of your character, a short history, and/or what show/game/book (remember, if the character isn't absurdly popular, this part will be pretty important) they're from, but remember, you only have 500 characters. hold out on describing their personality, however, because the next part is going to be much, much better for that.

definition (3200)

real shit.

you see that character limit? be thankful for it, because you will be pouring shit into this field.

your character's definitions will be their backbone - this is where you will decide their personality, speech quirks, behaviors, and a appearance. this field also has special tags that are used, so i'll explain those as well. you have three tags that'll be used in this field, {char}, {{char}}, and {user}.

let's starts with their appearance. for this, we're going to use {char}: and there are a couple different ways to format this, but trust me - the bot isn't stupid. no matter how you format it, it'll figure it out. personally, i'm really verbose, so i write mine like this,

why yes, my mental illness is rabbit-shaped in nature. how could you tell?

keep in mind that if your character is a robot or anthro that doesn't wear clothes, the bot will tend to.. make up clothes for them to wear. it just sort of happens. best to ignore those messages and move on.



you can also use {{char}} without the colon to set personality traits or important details. personality traits seem to work better as a list, plus you save character space. i use the tag for really complicated details, just in case.

but this part! this is my favorite part, and it's fucking invaluable. we're going to use use {{char}}: to dictate the format of our character's responses. to use this properly, you want to format it as {{char}}: proceeded by your dialogue. if you're going with the long form format, you can use this to not only control how your character speaks, but their actions as well.

you don't have to put asterisks around your actions - i just find it makes things easier to read. you can use this to make your character eloquent, or very excitable, or to give short one-word responses.

if you're not all that great at writing yourself, you can even use excerpts from official content or fanfiction, but keep in mind - and i strongly emphasize this - creators may not like it! if you're going to go that road and you don't have explicit permission, maybe keep that bot private.



{{user}} is you! meaning using it for dialogue would be literally useless. what we can do, however, is use it to what we did previously, but this time, we'll be setting your physical traits. comes in super handy if you want a bot to remember that you're human. if it's a private bot, you can use this to add a (or an original character, or your self-insert, we don't judge here) height, name, or age.



if you make a mistake writing your character's definitions, don't sweat it, because you can change it at literally any time. the changes will take effect immediately, and won't even require you to restart the chat. however, this only works for the definitions, not either description or the greeting.



training

you'll notice i haven't given you a character limit for this section! that's because your bot is now effectively done. it's been written. now all that's left to do is test, tweak, and train it.

now, there's a little bit of debate on how much "training" actually affects a bot's responses. some people swear by it, while others wave it off completely as doing fuck-all to influence a character's responses.

in my experience, training works best with a character's behavior and description, for instance if you want to remember that their costume is soft to the touch, or if the character has a particular reaction to a particular approach.

this rating system is only part of the equation here. now, i can't tell you how to train your own bot, but remember - you want to look for lucid responses as well as accurate ones, especially if your bot isn't a super popular character.

it's generally frowned upon to train another creator's bot unless they ask for it, but every creator is different.



miscellaneous

character.ai is a beta project, and when i say that, i don't necessarily mean it's only going to get better.

there's going to be ups and downs when you play with it - the bots may seem strikingly lucid one day and need their hand held through a story the next. the developers do not post patch or update notes, nor do they always tell the community when the model has been tweaked. they're a weird bunch.

but they have given us a bot that we can, essentially, do whatever we want with.

so we're gonna do that.

[romanceandshenanigans]

Writer Q&A

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

I've been playing around with a fantasy setting centered around an archipelago where a multitude of magical creatures have made their home, but now the mainland has the means to get to them and navigating what exactly to do next. I've got a witch queen married to a shapeshifting dragon, a fey king in a poly relationship with a fairy and an immortal human, shifter clans, mermaids, themes of colonization the works.

There are just so many directions I can take it and my tendency to overwrite means it'll be a long time before I get anything coherent out of it. It's part of the reason I'm starting with this regency romance first. I want to prove I can complete a full novel before I commit to a whole fantasy series.

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

Not especially when it comes to my writing. However, whenever people have asked me for writing advice and specifically writing OCs, I've always felt flattered.

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

Favorite part is finally giving all these voices in my head some place to live. It's a relief exorcising all those little conversations and flashes of moments out of me only to realize I've got a bit more to say than just "wouldn't it be cute if". Of course, this prompts only more voices and the never ending cycle of mental abuse continues.

Descriptions. I know what the scene is supposed to look like. Why can't I just telepathically communicate it to the audience? It's the screenwriter training. Can't be helped.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

Any free time. Literally. Doesn't matter if I"m particularly motivated. If I have some free time, I know I will just feel better if I go somewhere and write for at least an hour. Doesn't have to be good. I don't necessarily have to use any of it. I just need to do it.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

Let it be bad. It's a lesson I'm still trying to instill within my self, but it is vital. Just let it be bad, it's what a first draft is for.

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

Theming actually is really important if you want to keep any kind of cohesion through various drafts, especially for long term pieces.

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

Honestly I've only written only short pieces, all fan-fiction. This is my first attempt an a wholly original creation. I've completed a couple of short film scripts, but honestly nothing I'd particularly want to share here.

What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

"I am haunted by humans." - Death (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak)

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

I think it depends on what you mean by controversial. I mean, I am setting my story in regency era England so there are characters who are going to have homophobic view points on some of the characters I plan to write, but I know I'm also going to make a point about showing how that view point is wrong. I'm not afraid to cast authorial judgement on my characters. So, what is controversial about that set up?

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

Well my younger self who have a rude awakening about certain aspects of her sexuality, I can tell you that much. And that also goes for political ideology and general attitudes towards life. The difference between a sixteen year old and a twenty-eight year old is frankly staggering.

Tagging: @kittttycakes, @16boyfriends-and-me, @can-of-pringles, @auroramagpie and anyone else who would like to join in. (Just make sure to make your own posts)

[seleneprince]

@thebusylilbee (For some reason I couldn't reblog that reply of yours with this post. Pity)

A following of this beautiful, reflexive reblog:

Wow, you were so expressive, so passionate, so full of rage back there. I would've feel intimidated if you have added a deep, complex explanation of your point between all that messy spit of words..

As much as I would love to give you a full and detailed explanation of why your reasoning is fucking WRONG, I know by the way you wrote your thoughts you're not the type to willingly hear arguments that go against your beliefs and you're firmly set on your own interpretation of reality, so I'll be quick with this and leave you to keep swimming in your ignorance.

From all that load of bullshit and rage filled nonsense you spit out, there was one thing you're absolutely right about it:

"Hamas WOULD not need to exist"

Damn right they don't, their mere existence is a crime. I don't know how many palestinians outside Gaza you've spoken to but I can quote what the ones I came across have said about Hamas, here some examples:

"They're the real monsters. They do nothing to protect us and just keep making everything worse"

"We weren't allowed to leave because they shoot down anyone that tried to flew the country. They don't care about our lives, just our usefulness to them"

"We can't complain, we can't speak up, if they so much sniff someone's dislike towards them...."

It's hard to translate some of them, but you get the picture. Hamas are terrorists, that much is known. They've been also opressing, humiliating, torturing, raping, displacing, robbing and imprisoning people since their creation, but they've done it in a way that only those lucky enough to escape can confess their crimes. The rest are dead. But foolish, uncultured idiots like you don't want to hear that because it's much easier to pin Israel's government as the SOLE villains of this story and buy the propaganda western media is feeding you.

"if ZIONISTS hadn't created a fascist apartheid state called Israel"

Honey, I don't know what the fuck they taught you in History class, but the "fascist apartheid" state you speak of doesn't exist. Israel was created by the United Nations as part of a plan to give both the arabs and the jews their own territory and cease the continued conflicts.

(Fun fact: The Arab League refused this idea because they didn't want the jews to have their own land, and so shortly after proclamation, five Arabs countries joined forces to attack the freshly created Israel state and invade them. Or, using that term some people in this site love, colonize them. Israel fought back, won for some dumb stroke of luck and, as a solemn "fuck you", they also took a 25% more of the territory that have been accorded)

Now, the Israel's government has clearly changed a LOT (speaking in euphemisms ofc) back from the original days where they genuinely just focused on the Israelis and right now there's really nothing good left in that corrupt, self-centred circle of men.

"zionist ideology wasn't RACIST GENOCIDAL AND INHUMANE."

The origin of the Zionism movement was born as a response to the growing anti-semitism, an actual racist genocidal and inhuman movement, that was happening all around the world. So using those particular adjectives to describe it it's ironic and fucking dumb, because they go against the very reason of its existence.

Now there are various ramifications of Zionism, such as political Zionism, liberal Zionism, religious Zionism, etc. Not all of them good obviously, but the main core of this movement was focused ONLY in protecting the Jews and their culture. I'll never understand how a government that knows the tragedy their fellows suffered even dared to inflict it on other people, but well, guess some humans don't learn from the past.

And last one, the very jewel of your whole commentary:

"You are so fucking stupid, it's incredible that you would fuckign DARE tag your braindead bullshit with a pro-palestine tag when you quite obviously know and understand NOTHING"

I dare to tag "pro palestine" because I'm with them and I'm actually defending their lives, their cause and know where they come from, unlike people like you that speak up all proudly against others and use big words you don't even know the meaning of. If you actually cared about these people, you would have done your research and find out everything about this topic. But you don't, you simply want to show your deep anger for their pain in the same way all influencers and fake activists have been doing since this started. You want to be "part of the trend".

The only one who obviously knows and understand NOTHING about this conflict is YOU, fucking uncultured and ignorant asshole. Everytime I see people like you speak up on this conflict makes my blood boil, because all of you have been blisfully blind while all the atrocities were happening but now the biased social media and tv shows and all these radical anti-semitist political figures are telling you how bad it is, you think it's time to "stand up against the unjustice".

People like you only see the surface of it plus the propaganda they shove in your throats, and not the centuries of dark history and events that have consequently lead up to this. So how about you shut the fuck and let the grown people speak about this matter?

[djolikejoe]

Idk if you want to answer anons but I think the whole argument on whether Joseph singed that letter or not is so confusing and tbh it takes away from the real issue. Thousands of Palestinians are dead because of Israel. They are being ethnically cleansed because of Israel and have been suffering for 75 years because of Israel. However, with JQ I think other people call him Joe and he used to refer to himself as such when he was younger (drama school, maybe very early career). Now, he goes by Joseph his full name. Still there are other people that call him Joe(in the new Flight of Icarus book the author thanks him using ‘Joe’ instead of ‘Joseph’). It’s all up in the air.

Oh, yeah I know professionally he goes by Joseph because there was another Joe Quinn. I hope he didn't sign it but honestly, I made that post about him days ago and he really has not been my priority since more has come out.

I have a degree in international relations with an emphasis in Indigenous Sovereignty and Post-Colonial Feminism. I am whole heartedly pro-Palestine. With a background in decolonization, I believe the actions of the State of Israel are in line with the settler-colonialism that built my country and the imperialism that created the world we live in today. A lot of the rhetoric coming out against Palestinians today is not a far echo from the 'Kill the Indian, save the man" campaign the US government ran in Westward expansion. I think it's dangerous that people who have a military who is actively using bombs and internationally banned substances against a population that is half children. What indigenous people carpet bomb their ancestral homeland they claim to be connected to?

The way the international system is set up now, it's in favor of Israel. The system is built off of the assumption that all states are acting rationally and that states with more material power (I.e. guns bombs and rockets) will secure sovereignty. That ideology doesn't care about children, religion, culture, indigenous culture. It is the colonizers world because they were the ones who secured the power to build it. Palestine is far from the only colonial struggle happening now. Most people don't even realize colonialism is an ongoing process. But Palestine is opening peoples eyes. The Palestinians stand in solidarity with so many other oppressed group--they know all our struggles are intertwined. They won't be free til we're all free and we can be free til they are.

Whatever Joseph's stance is, it won't change any part of mine. Hopefully he is on the right side of history but if he's not, I'm at the point where I can't find it in myself to care. And I know there are things that happen privately that force someone to sign or not to sign something. But I think the speculation isn't even worth the energy. Everyone is entitled to make up their open decision about him.

I don't know many ppl in his fandom and I've been staying off his tag so I'm not sure what the general consensus is or anything. These are just my thoughts and opinions.

[genderisareligion]

“aun cuando en este momento existen suficientes datos para saber que el sexo también es una construcción y que trasciende el binario macho-hembra”

even though at the moment there is enough data to know that sex is also a construct and that it transcends the male-female binary

A relatively well known feminist in my area, a professor who teaches feminist theory at one of our best universities, said this. This woman is very anti terf or whatever, but usually I hear this kind of argument from people with the most insane takes so I was surprised hearing it from her. She didn’t cite any of the “data” and I know this is a tired argument, but where did these people even get the idea that sex is a construct to begin with? Like what is the data? I want to see it, genuinely, I want to read where it says that sex is a construct that transcends the male-female binary and why that is so. Is it in reference to intersex conditions? Because people have recognized intersex conditions for a long time and nobody was saying that sex is a construct before. And in any case, if it is in reference to intersex conditions, wouldn’t a statement like that only apply to intersex people instead of it being a testament to the legitimacy of trans identity (which is how I’ve seen it most commonly used)? Or is it something else? I’m asking for real lol I don’t know much about the trans stuff and I want to know where they’re getting the information.

Also, completely unrelated, but I know you’ve said you’re Latina. Which country? Lmao I hope this does not come across as creepy, you do NOT have to answer me if you don’t want to lol. I just like to keep track of all the Latina women I follow.

Man I miss @not-your-intersex-pawn. Used to immediately refer people to/defer to her blog since it's always better to hear this directly from one of them. But you're onto something with "wouldn't a statement like that only apply to intersex people?" "TERFs conflate sex and gender they can't tell the difference sex and gender are different!" but constantly TRAs tell everyone of the likelihood of intersex conditions in the population to legitimize their likely non intersex related gender identity. Who's conflating what now? Lol. not-your-intersex-pawn and her orbiters constantly complain(ed) about and sometimes (even though they didn't deserve it) tried to politely explain to dyadic trans people why pretending intersexism has anything to do with you when it doesn't and LARPing as a community member because "I'Ve NeVeR hAd My ChRoMoSoMeS lOoKeD aT yOu NeVeR kNoW" is disrespectful.

Found this piece the day I found her blog many years ago. Glad Medium hasn't given it the axe yet

I also defer to some of the intersex organizations she recommended since despite what devout genderists would have you believe they're divided on what constitutes an intersex condition and their criticism of gender since minority groups are not monoliths.

Main thing I wanna impress after years of reading her blog is that some intersex people find it offensive for you to call them a "third" or "other" or "nonbinary" category and would like everyone to still refer to them as male or female with a sex specific intersex condition. I tag posts I find/have of hers now she may have mentioned it in there

"Sex is a social construct" lol when will any of these genderists actually tell me who managed to invent that? Seriously. What white colonizer somewhere managed to change the construction of virtually every single member of the species across the globe so that 99% of us are sexually dimorphic? Wild as fuck that this is being preached in academia.

As far as where they're getting their information, usually a game of social media telephone and only reading interpretations of the data that line up with their religious beliefs because "intersex people can be TERFs too!"

I'm Mexican 🇲🇽 But currently stuck in USAmerica lol. As I've mentioned my Spanish is garbage because I'm from like a "white washed" family (don't love that terminology but like we were Bush conservatives and lived in a mostly white community). When my Spanish is better I plan on crossing "the border" (the one they stole lol)

[theimaginatrix27]

My bunnies did it again

I have had this fanfic idea stuck firmly in my brain for the last week and I think it’s time I made a Tumblr post about it. It’s a crazy fun idea and I only have one Voyager friend. I would like to have more than one Voyager friend.

But also I need to make a Tumblr post about this because I feel like it’d make a good one.

The idea hit me while I was listening to Spotify. It started with me thinking about this vague idea of Voyager, but fantasy with magic ‘n’ stuff, and then I was suddenly struck with ... well. Time to break out the list. My one Voyager friend helped me hash this out, so I’d like to give credit where it’s due. Thanks for the help thus far,     @gwen-skyes!

So this is post-series. Everyone’s legal stuff has been cleared up because I am a happy optimist and think it would be sorted out fairly quickly given they survived for seven years in the Hellta Quadrant.

Harry got his promotion! So did Janeway, but that was expected.

Anyways, Tom is bored.

I think anyone who’s watched more than a handful of episodes of Voyager knows this does not bode well.

So one night he’s scouring archives of human knowledge for something to do, and discovers DND.

Let’s pretend there probably weren’t any current editions of the game and he picked the 5E rules just because.

He knows he can’t play this on his own and he’s been missing having his friends around constantly, so after he’s convinced B’Elanna the game has potential, he invites the others over.

He does not tell them he is inviting them over to play a 21st-Century tabletop role-playing game.

Until the day their schedules have dictated will suit for them all to assemble.

Then he’s like “Check out this cool game I found! We can tell a story together—won’t that be fun? Anyways, here’s the rules, please take this time to design your characters.”

Any somewhat formal language is totally over-dramatic, but he does ask that they take this seriously.

Everyone’s actually pretty interested, though they express it differently.

Janeway and Chakotay help each other with backstories and stuff. Janeway settles on a Human Fighter, while Chakotay’s a Half-Elf Ranger with a falcon companion (Hey, that is a fucking hot image and you can’t tell me otherwise).

B’Elanna put together her character earlier and she’s a Half-Orc Barbarian (she basically called dibs).

Seven spends so much time trying to optimise her stats and her backstory is basically her history with a few tweaks. I won’t get into the back and forth here but Tom does entreat her to get more creative if she can.

The Doctor and Harry both pick Paladin and then just diverge from there. The Doctor’s character is human, Harry’s is Dragonborn. Both are Lawful Good but Harry is particularly intent on being as awesome as possible.

Tuvok surprises everyone except possibly Janeway by announcing late into the character-building session that he has observed they do not have a dedicated magic-user in their party yet and this is “an oversight that cannot go unaddressed, or disaster is inevitable.” He then declares his character an Elven Wizard.

Tom asks if he picked an Elf for the ears. Tuvok gives him a look and points out it’s the most logical choice to pair with a magical Class. It actually was the ears but he only admits it to Janeway at the end of the fic.

While everyone is taking things seriously as Tom asked, Tom himself does the 24th-century equivalent of using a random-number-generator to slap together a character, mostly for fun. He is, after all, planning to be the DM.

I know what you’re thinking. “When’s this gonna get really interesting, Trix? It sounds rather boring so far.”

Hahahahahahahaha.

They’re just getting ready to start playing. Miral is asleep upstairs. All seems well.

And then Q shows up.

He is bored.

This also is never something that bodes well.

And he sees this game as an irresistible opportunity for some good chaotic fun.

So he creates an alternate reality bubble and sends everyone into it, to play the Campaign from the inside. As their characters.

That half-joking character Tom made on the fly? It’s a Halfling Bard And he’s had his DM position usurped by Q, so now he’s stuck in a Fantasy-laced reality and is half the size of any one of his friends. And has lovely fluffy hair!

Also Harry got genderbent ‘cause Q was being a troll both before and after it was cool.

And that’s the jist of it. There’s more stuff a little further in but this is the basic premise. And my brain won’t let it go, so ... Yay? I guess? I’m not much for writing Sci-fi but this leans right into Fantasy territory, which is my strong point. I hope I am able to do it justice. Provided I can get it off the ground, that is.

[opal-owl-flight]

how is susie colonizing planets when star dream is gone???? hwc was only dangerous BECAUSE of star dream's terraforming spacetime manipulation powers. they literally can't do shit without star dream. you go on and on about her (and post more torture art??? dude what's your problem) but it seriously reads like you've never played planet robobot. go play it + read the jpn star allies flavor text before you start crying about her being evil and unredeemable and POSTING YOUR TORTURE ART IN THE TAGS?

One: I told yall multiple times that the tag is there bc the ART HAS HER IN IT. ITS AN ORGANIZATION THING. I ALSO told yall to block the Legacy arc/Susie neg tag if you didnt want to see this content. Again. You curate your experience. I am not going to cater to you. This is my blog and this is MY story.

Second: I really dont have the spoons to play Robobot (or any games, really). Ive got too much to do. I DID watch a playthrough, though.

Third: Star Dream wasnt even COMPLETE when the conquests were happening. Yes, it’s limited powers certainly helped speed things up, but who’s to say that it was the ONLY thing that made those colonies successful? The Haltmanns still made tech to make up for what Star Dream cant do. They could still do all that without Star Dream. Itll be slower, but Im betting its still possible.

The conquests did begin bc Maxx connected himself with a (once again, incomplete) Star Dream, Im aware. So the blame would fall on the computer misinterpreting a wish, most likely.

But Susie wanted to continue that conquest (to mechanize planets; basically colonize them) acc to the eng description. And the jp desc says that Susie wants to “provide happy lives with the power of science and exterminate the savages”

Who’s to say that her judgement on who’s a “savage” or not is in any way just? Who’s to say that the happiness she provides is what the people actually want?

Broski. I really dont know how to redeem a colonizer who freely uses the term savages and talks of natives in a derogatory way. Thats…a really sensitive topic.

(Even IF SD was needed for conquest. The things Marx showed her couldve been from the conquests she and Maxx have done PRIOR to SD’s destruction. Those Still Happened. And again, Im using BOTH eng and jp translations for this depiction of Susie — she WANTS TO CONTINUE IT.)

[scribefindegil]

hi! i was going through your mushroom growing tag and i was wondering - is there any kind of intermediate step between grow kits and outdoor mushroom farming? i want to go down the fungal path but i also want a more permanent investment than a two harvest grow kit, you know? anyway thanks for the fascinating posts!!!

Some types of outdoor mushroom farming are pretty easy! I joke that the two approaches to growing mushrooms from spawn are the indoor "sterilize EVERYTHING do not even BREATHE in the vicinity of your mushroom setup or great calamity will befall you!!" technique and the outdoor "lol throw it on the ground and it'll be fine" technique, and while obviously this is an oversimplification it's also . . . pretty accurate.

When you grow mushrooms outdoors, you're mimicking their natural environment much more closely, so there are fewer variables you need to control. As a result you can't control when they'll fruit the same way you can with indoor growing, so it's not as good for large-scale cultivation, but it's great for small-scale projects and personally I love the surprise element.

If you want a beginner-friendly outdoor option I'd recommend Wine Caps! They're a very robust mushroom, colonize quickly, and will produce for years, especially if you keep adding new woodchips so they have more substrate to decompose. You can even use colonized woodchips from one bed as spawn to innoculate a new bed, so they're very cost-effective. All you need is the spawn, a shady outdoor area, and hardwood wood chips (they will grow on straw, but that decomposes much more quickly so they won't produce for nearly as long), and once the bed is established all you need to do is water it occasionally if you have an extended dry spell.

They don't mind being walked on, so it's a great option for paths. We innoculated some garden paths last spring and got a couple of large flushes in the fall.

There's some good info on outdoor bed cultivation from North Spore here! They're also (as of 3/13/2022) having their Spring Sale right now, so sawdust spawn is 20% off until the 15th and then there will be a week focused on sales for outdoor bed growing which will almost definitely include wine cap spawn. (This is not a sponsored post; I just really like North Spore. Their spawn is high-quality and they have a lot of good guides and educational info on their website.)

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Something I've noticed lately seeing Americans claim Greeks and ancient Greeks were black is that... they're not even getting American race theory right. "Black" is the blanket term used to describe African-Americans. Not Africans. African-Americans. Africans aren't Africans, they're Nigerian or Liberian or Ugandan or identify with... the actual place their from. Ancient Greeks cannot be "Black" because... America was still unfucked. I can't speak to the amount of Africans present in Greece, but the fact that a noticeable minority in Greece may have had dark skin does not by any means mean that they were Black, nor does it mean they identified with a nation in Afirca, nor does it mean that just because some marbles that may have been darker originally turned white from chemicals means it's white-washing. If a person in Greek legend was Black, going by these people's own logic, you would be able to tell. Do they think that some nation long forgotton colonized all of Black-Greece and turned them White? Where are the Black-Greek majority now?

Tldr: Americans don't even know the logistics of American racism.

https://modernes-griechenland.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-greek-heracles-was-black-man-and.html?m=1

This was the article linked in the post that sent that rant off, for some context 😅

_____________________ END OF ASK

Ah, yes, the good ol’ Afrocentrists... Using “race” wrong on top of that...

Nobody denies the existence of Africans in ancient Greece, let’s get this out of the way. This is not an argument about people from other nations existing in ancient Greece in general. They existed, we know and it’s totally great.

It’s about Afrocentrists being stupid and misinterpreting ancient Greek art and history to fit a certain agenda. (Much like the Nazis did, but the only difference was to prove we were true “Aryans” or something). They never explain how we got predominantly white xD

(And yes, Black people in Greece call most Greeks “whites”, unless the Greek they are reffering to doesn’t look like a Caucasian - yes, even the “tan” ones xD Even in the US Greeks are not recognized as part of a minority, just “White”. There is no separate box for “north mediterranean” or “Greek”.... Not even in Germany, where this writer is from, I suppose.)

The author of the article claims Herakles was Egyptian (which.... nope), he thinks the people who raised him were his biological parents, and then he writes “The Egyptians, of course were predominantly black people.” Predominantly??? I guess most Egyptians somehow turned Caucasian after a few centuries because of.... reasons. Afrocentrists never have a reason for predominantly Caucasian countries not being Black any more. I don’t know if they assume the Black people left, or were killed, or.... I really don’t know. WHO made Greeks “white” then?? WHO? 😂 and HOW???

He also says “The ancient Greeks' religion was copied from the ancient Ethiopians and Egyptians from whom they learned spiritual and religious teachings.” How was it “copied” if the Greeks were already Black? 😂 Shouldn’t he say something along the lines of “Greeks were African, so of course they shared culture with the Ethiopians and Egyptians” (who, in his mind, are also predominantly Black).

Also, the Aethiopia of the ancient Greeks is not the modern Ethiopia! My tongue will grow hair from the times I’ve said it! This guy really needs to study... I have my tag #Aethiopia, which has sources and explanations from people who don’t half ass their research. It’s like those people who have sources to “prove” the earth is flat, or the anti vaxxers who have their own sources, as well.

If you want to lose MANY braincells, read the following passage from the article:

“The ancient Greeks, ancestors of some of the present Greek peoples readily admitted that they were descendants of Ethiopians (native African black people of Ethiopia) and the Europeans of ancient times. The ancient Greeks, with pride tell the story of how Zeus (Cush, first Ethiopian Ruler ) and the prototype for the king of the Olympian gods, made love to the white-skinned IO, who gave birth to Epaphus, a mulatto male. This story which was one of many reveals the Greeks acknowledging their biracial heritage. In Sex And Race, Vol.1, J.A. Rogers has this to say, "As was said several scientists, among them Sergei, declare that the Europeans, especially those of the Meditteranean, are, strictly speaking, Eur- Africans. Thus we find anthropology supporting mythology". ”

HERE HE QUOTES A RACIST BOOK OF 1940, CALLED “Sex and Race, Volume 1: Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands” I easily guessed the time of publication of this book because it reeked of 1940 anti-Greek propaganda (to frame the Greek as the “other” and a threat) and with how it uses terms such as “Negro”.

This books (as well as most the other sources he mentions) doesn’t uplift Black people in any way, trust me! It sees Black people as already inferior and supports that the Greeks are inferior, too, because they have immediate Black/African heritage.

(I won’t comment on using the thrice debunked “source” “Black Athena” 😂)

I can’t debunk the whole article because there is no use and also because there is a fallacy (a historical, mythological AND a logical one) in every other sentence! 😂 This is just τραγελαφικό, I can’t describe it otherwise xD It seems this blog has multiple anti-Greek articles, presenting the worst of our country and how corrupted we are etc. Sooo I won’t give more of my time to this guy.

Browse my tags #afrocentrism and #hercules if you want to read more about this matter.

[nopoodles]

Show Your Process Tag

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag others. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Tagged by the ever intriguing @saedoeswriting

I hope npbpdy minds if I go a bit theoretical on this, I have this paranoia about sharing project information too early and hyping people up only to later realise I can't finish the project so I don't want to chat too much about stuff that's far away on the publish-o-meter, but it also feels weird to use a sequel for this, and the inspiration and preparation parts of Merry Arlan: Breaking The Curse were such a long time ago (that book took me 4 years to finish, not including the very first ever draft of it)

Inspiration

Usually inspiration comes from a brief blip of a thing. A "what if" on a story by someone else. A song that builds images in my head. A ride at Disneyland Paris on my honeymoon in 2018 followed by 3 days of my wife being snowed off site and us tellng each other stories wrapped up in blankets to pass the time(okay, that's pretty specific, it's my NTK Pirate Project).

Actually, a lot of my inspiration comes from my wife, she gives me a lot of "what ifs" to follow, encourages me when I start rambling about stories and potential stories. She's said before "Yes, take my ideas and turn them into stories because I don't want to write, I jus want to read them"

Preparation

The most prep I ever did was for my 2021 NaNoWriMo project (current title share is Untitled Space Opera, it's part of the Inter-Planetary Alliance Novels, coming ????), I printed off two different prep booklets and built characters, wrote down scene prompts, gave each character their own theme song. And then I used exactly none of that and just wrote what came to mind. (Have I mentioned lately that I'm a pantser?)

Most of the time "preparation" looks like "I can't write this full thing right now, let me just write this scene I have in my head" and "Do I have anything planned on Tuesday?"

Like, I have a plan to be finished with rewrites of the second Guardian Cadet Series book by 30th June and then spend at least the first week of July (possibly longer) just letting the whims take me where they will. That's prep, right?

Process

I write, majoritively, in order. Except in cases where I've written some kickass foreshadowing and I want to write what has been foreshadowed lest I forget that the foreshadowing exists.

I can write in any format, at any time of day, in almost any situation. If I have an idea, I'm writing it down, even if I'm trying to sleep, or trying to catch the bus, or in the middle of a conversation, or making dinner (am I hard to live with? Probably but I've asked my wife and she said she thinks its cute so that's fine, right?).

I will also write scenes that I don't have a location for yet, just because they come to mind. Draft 2 is for putting the puzzle pieces in order. Speaking of draft 2, I usually write 5-6 drafts before anyone else lays eyes on it, then it goes to my wife so she can translate it out of dyslexic-language and tell me that, while I am getting better with full stops, I still haven't quite mastered the art (semi-colons though, those I get).

Thoughts

Sometimes I wish I was more linear. I see people who outline smashing out books like they're frying tattie scones in a bright kitchen with all the proper utensils. Me, on the other hand, I have a fork because the spatula is broken, and the lights keep flickering off so I have to take great long pauses to stay safe and sane.

On the other hand, I know my process makes the books I want to make. (Poorly lit kitchen, fork instead of a spatula or not, those are some damn fine tattie scones.) Not to mention, I probably wouldn't be able to do it any other way (because I've tried).

I've always been impatient with myself and my output, I have so many ideas that I want to write, being able to write faster would be such a boon because it would mean I could get to them faster. But some things take more time. Spaghetti bolognase and Lasagne (okay, I can't spell, I'm sorry) are made up of mostly the same ingredients, but one takes a lot longer than the other. They're both tasty, they're both of the same value, they're both great. So slow-written books can be just as good as quick-written books too.

Tagging

I'm not sure who hasn't already been tagged in this one but if you happen across it and yu want to do it, tell them I tagged you