#I was trying to read some phrases written in a book but I struggled a lot because I have to make an effort to understand a phrase

[hioyourluv]

Uh oh. English isn't my first language. I have difficulty to read some things and listen to others and sometimes I don't truly understand what's going on and unfortunately it takes away all my experience of liking something

[catcze]

HI CATTE! big fan of ur works!! glad to see another wrio filo fan !!, can I request wrio trying to learn filo for Filipino!reader !! I think it's super cute and I feel like he would probably become fluent in secret to surprise you !!!!!

Reblogs are greatly appreciated !!

「 FEAT : 」  Wriothesley x GN! Filipino! reader

「 ### : 」  Fluff, some swearing, but overall very good vibes ♡ Reader can speak Tagalog! I'll be real this is super cheesy esp the tagalog dialogue but SUE ME I love cheesy shit and this is self indulgent. Written pre-4.1 release.Translation for Tagalog dialogue found at the end!

AAAA HI BABY ♡ I cannot express how happy this made me ?!?!? Like, I'm bumping it up on the prio because it made me sooo kilig when i read it HAHAHAH I hope you like it lots !! (also if any filos have corrections/improvement on the tagalog dialogue pls lmk because I am notttt the best at writing in tagalog dialogue lmao) also ! I changed it and made him, like, not super \ fluent yet at Tagalog, hence why imo some of his dialogue sounds a bit;;; like, practiced? textbook? if that makes sense? HAHAH

Wriothesley doesn't have some big, grand reason for doing any of this. It's not your birthday or your anniversary or anything like that. He's not meeting your parents and he sure isn't planning on proposing just yet.

In all honesty, it all started from a quick kiss you pressed to his cheek and a string of words in a foreign language whispered into his ear.

"What did you say?" he asks when you pull away, a small smile on your face.

"I said mahal kita," you tell him, a hand resting on his arm. Your eyes soften almost imperceptibly when you say the phrase again. You sound so damn fond when you say it, it makes his heart want to skip a beat. "It's one of the most common ways to say 'I love you' in Tagalog."

"Can you say it again?" He asks, and you easily comply.

Mahal kita. Mahal kita. Mahal kita. I love you. He turns the words over and over in his head, then tries to replicate how you pronounce it with his own tongue, but the words come out a bit funny thanks to his fontainese accent. He's not used to the intonation of the language and it shows, if your amused little laugh was anything to go by.

"Like this," you tell him after watching him struggle for a bit and taking mercy on his poor tongue. "Repeat after me." Then you open your mouth wide, so he can see how you do it.

"Ma."

"Ma?"

"-hull."

"-hull."

"Kih."

"Kih?"

"Mhm. Tah."

"Tah."

"Put all that together, and you get mahal kita."

He tries it again, but it still comes out a bit funky. Not at all like how you say it, sounding buttery smooth and practically dripping with charisma. Despite this, you still smile at him like he's given you the world in your palms, or like you're about to cry from happiness. You press your lips against his, stealing the air right from his lungs and making his eyes flutter shut. He can never get tired of kissing you, he thinks, and if messing up a little bit gets him this much affection, he can only imagine what you'd be like if he improved.

"Mahal din kita," you mumble against his lips, breaking away but not straying far.

After that, unbeknownst to you, Wriothesley picked up what is essentially (but not actually the title) a Tagalog for dummies book and hunted down a guard in the fortress who can speak the language enough for him to consult whenever merely reading the words on a page was not enough.

You've also begun to speak Tagalog more and more around him since finding out his interest in the language. You've even managed to correct his pronunciation a little bit, despite how new much of it was new to him.

("You have to roll your r's a bit more, Wrio. Like... like you're purring, i guess?" That, in particular, he heard quite often. Who knew that his mother tongue said their r's differently from yours? Certainly not him.)

He eats up every bit of advice you give him in passing when he tries to replicate whatever word or phrase you just said, quietly taking note in his head and repeating the phrases back to himself even when you're not around. He goes to that one guard he had dubbed as his 'Tagalog tutor' and peppers them with questions so often that he figures it warrants him to hand over a particularly generous bonus later on for letting him as much of a bother as he is.

And finally, after a good long while of giving it his best effort, his tutor deems him able to hold a conversation in Tagalog well enough, and promptly pushes him out the door, telling him to 'go get 'em, boss.' before hastily locking the door behind him.

When Wriothesley wanders back to your living quarters, reassuring himself that he's been practicing for this, for you, and that even if he gets it a little bit wrong, you're probably going to be happy either way. Probably.

"Sweetheart?" He calls, coming inside. He follows your faint 'over here' to find you on your bed in your casuals, relaxing for the day.

When you catch sight of him, you smile, beckoning him close, just to press a kiss to his lips when he leans over. "Hey," you say, grinning up at him.

"Kumusta ka? Namiss kita, mahal. " He says, the words coming out a soft murmur against your lips. You pause for a good while, jaw dropping and brows furrowing in confusion, and Wriothesley fears that he could have messed up somehow. Then a wide smile breaks across your face as you glow with absolute delight.

"Hoy, talaga?! Nagtatagalog ka?" You sit up to be eye-to-eye with him, and you see nothing short of pride in his eyes. One of your hands flies up to cover your mouth as you gasp. "Woah, ang galing mo!"

And oh, it's one of the cutest things you've ever seen from him— Wriothesley smiles, just s little bit, and the slightest hints of a blush dust his face. It's adorable to see how he reacts to your praise.

Wriothesley's eyes dart away from yours, one of the few tells of embarrassment you've ever seen from him. "Pasensya na, di pa ako magaling magtagalog. Nag aaral pa lang ako."

"Kahit na!" You're clearly enthused, happy and grinning and buzzing with energy. "Namiss din kita! Okay naman ako. Ikaw? Kumain ka na ba?" You're wide awake and looking up at him like he hung the stars in the sky for you. Wriothesley is smiling now too. All those hours and late nights trying his best to get the words right, and this was the very reason why.

"Mhm, kanina pa, bago pumunta ko dito." One of his hands reaches up to your face. The callouses and scars of his hand drags a giggle from you as he tries to rub the sleep from your eyes. "Sana nakatulog ka ng maayos."

And compared to when you first told him you love him in your language, his Tagalog has improved by leaps and bounds. Still affected by his accent, yes, but his hard work showed through. It is that and the tenderness in his voice that makes you break this little song and dance between the two of you. Your hand reaches up to hold the one cupping your cheek, letting you lean further into his palm.

"Were you intending to surprise me? Because you certainly did. In a good way, I mean."

Wriothesley chuckles. "I'm glad. Been trying to learn it since that first time, and I think I'm making some progress. Though anything more than a simple conversation is still a bit much for me."

"Kahit na," you repeat yourself, "You're amazing! You got so good! Oh, we are going to have so much fun having secret conversations that no one else can understand."

He playfully quirks an eyebrow at that. "While that's definitely going to be some fun, I really wanted to learn how to, ah, tell you that I love you back."

"Oh." Again, you pause. "Well. Here's your chance, I guess." And you smile at him again, the one that has his heart skipping a beat. Wrapping your arms around his shoulders to pull him into your space, you press your forehead against his and close your eyes. He can feel your breath tickle against his lips, and he almost sighs in response.

"Mahal kita, Wriothesley."

"Mahal din kita, my love."

Translation:

"Kumusta ka? Namiss kita, mahal. " — "How are you? I missed you, love."

"Hoy, talaga?! Nagtatagalog ka? — "Hey, really?! You're actually speaking Tagalog?"

"Pasensya na, di pa ako magaling magtagalog. Nag aaral pa lang ako." — (spoken sorta formally) "Sorry, I'm not very good at speaking Tagalog yet. I'm still learning."

"Kahit na!" "Namiss din kita! Okay naman ako. Ikaw? Kumain ka na ba?" — "Even so!" "I missed you too! I'm fine. What about you? Have you eaten yet?"

"Mhm, kanina pa, bago pumunta ko dito." "Sana nakatulog ka ng maayos." — "Mhm, I did earlier, just before I came here." "Hopefully you had a good nap."

"Mahal kita, Wriothesley." — "I love you, Wriothesley."

"Mahal din kita, my love." — "I love you too, my love."

[judeswhore]

written in these pages; steve harrington

summary: after figuring out the reasoning behind your favourite book, steve takes the time to annotate his own copy

pairing: steve harrington x reader

requested: yes

warnings: none

notes: you can find my masterlist here

steve harrington wasn't much of a reader. he could never concentrate long enough to focus on the printed words, couldn't settle his mind enough to really take in what was happening and to be honest, he didn't really care for stories. in school he always got brief summaries of books from his classmates, blagged his way through tests without ever actually picking up a novel. he'd never really understood the love other people had for it, never really wanted to understand. until he met you.

in the weeks leading up to him asking you on your very first date, every time he'd seen you it had been with a book in hand, barely paying attention to what was going on around you, completely in your own world. maybe it was kinda weird and robin had called him out on it a few times but he liked watching you read. not in a creepy obsessive way, just, he liked seeing you get lost in the words, found a strange sort of comfort in the way you became so absorbed. sometimes, when you both happened to be at the coffee shop at the same time, he'd find a seat where he could see you, would often let his coffee go cold because he was too busy trying to understand what was happening in the book depending on your expression.

sometimes your brow would crease, a soft worried line appearing in your skin, one he so badly wanted to smooth out with his finger. or your lips would quirk into a barely there smile, one so small that others would probably miss it but steve already had you mapped out, could read you just as easily as you could read your book. he liked those smiles, the ones you tried to hide, but when you really smiled that's when he lost his head because sometimes you'd grin so brightly his breath would get lodged in his throat.

he'd lost count of how many books you'd read in the time it took him to find courage to ask you out, but he had realised over the course of those few weeks, you often went back to the same book; little women. at first he thought it was just taking you longer to read, that maybe you were getting bored and swapping between books but no. it was your favourite book and steve later found out that it was a large comfort to you just to have it with you.

you’d explained one night, the two of you curled up beneath his sheets, words quiet as though it was a secret, that sometimes your anxiety got the best of you, made you struggle and panic over the smallest of things. you carried your old and slightly tattered version of little women with you everywhere, kept it tucked away so that in those moments, when the world got too loud you could thumb through the pages, read and reread your favourite lines until your breathing evened out and things didn’t seem so crushing. steve had felt something twist inside of him, realised that having your head in a book all those times he’d seen you was more than just enjoyment, it was something to ground you, to ease your anxiety.

it was also in that moment that steve harrington decided he was going to read his first book.

but he didn’t just read it. he stole a pack of pens from erica one night, some sticky notes too, and spent the next week or so carefully annotating the copy of little women he’d drove two towns over to buy. it was a special edition copy, different to the one you had, fresh paged and marked only by steve. he added his own thoughts to the margins, wrote a few cheesy jokes that popped to mind, circled and underlined words and phrases that made him think of you. he even wrote an inscription on the first page, signed it with a well meant “i love you” and a somewhat terrible heart. he’d took his time with the book, wanting to understand why it meant so much to you and he wanted to show through his words and attention how much you meant to him.

to say he was nervous to give it to you would be an understatement, once he’d finished reading he’d left it hidden in his sock drawer for two weeks, carefully wrapped in brown paper, a piece of string tied delicately across the middle. he worried you wouldn’t like it, worried that maybe you didn’t want to hear his thoughts on the book, that his added commentary wouldn’t be helpful during your most anxious moments and you’d never even bother to look through it. but this was you, who sat attentive at his side during movie night, almost begging to hear what he thought, who asked for his opinion on everything, no matter how small because even if steve didn’t know it, everything he had to say was important to you. and so one night as he picked you up from work he finally gave it to you.

“there’s uh, there’s a present in the glove box for you.” his words were soft, whispered nervously into the quiet car, his fingers tightening a little on the steering wheel, gaze focused straight ahead. you raised your eye brows at him, shifted in the passenger seat before tugging the compartment open, confusion clouding your features as you pulled the brown package out, set it gently in your lap.

“what is it?”

“open it and see.” he swallowed, ran a hand through his hair and glanced at you, smile small but encouraging. he felt nauseous with nerves, worried again that you wouldn’t like it because he’d never done anything like this for anyone else, had never even thought of gifting someone something so personal and thought out, a gift that came from his heart and not his wallet. he was thankful to be driving, he was worried if the car was parked he’d have to get out, would try to walk away.

you opened it quietly, fingers tugging carefully at the string and then tearing the paper, revealing the corner of the book you knew so well. you frowned, tugged more of the paper off until the novel was on full display and you could trace your finger tips over the title on the front. you turned to look at him.

“little women?”

“yeah, i- uh- maybe you should open it?” steve coughed lightly and nodded his head towards the book, watched out of the corner of his eye as you turned to the first page, the one he’d wrote the message reminding you how amazing you were, how you could face anything you wanted to. you gazed at it, mouth open, thumb brushing over the ink and your silence worried him, the way your body had fallen still making nerves lick at the furthest corners of his mind. he stumbled over his words. “i read it because you told me how much it meant to you and how much it helped and i wanted to be able to talk to you about it but then i also thought that maybe i could annotate it y’know? you said it helps with your anxiety, reading it or just going through it and i don’t know maybe i was being ridiculous but i thought maybe i could help too. i thought some of the stuff i wrote might be able to help when you get in that headspace, might be able to calm you down or bring you some sort of comfort.”

steve was blushing, face a soft pink, ears hot to the touch and his stomach was in knots, fingers drumming against the wheel. he glanced at you again and some sort of relief washed over him, settled the unsteady beat of his heart because you were smiling. that full blown smile that he adored, that made his thoughts scatter and his chest tighten.

“you really sat and annotated this? for me?” he nodded as you thumbed through the pages, smile growing bigger with each passing second, eyes tracing over each note he’d left behind, each remark about how he’d thought about you during certain moments. “steve.” it was breathless and you sounded a little choked up, eyes glassy when you looked at him.

“i just wanna help, y’know? even if you keep using your old one and just have that one at home, i don’t mind, i just wanted to do something for you. to help if things got a little too much and you needed a distraction.” you startled him when you moved across the car, pressed your lips to his cheek, his temple, the corner of his mouth, your hand cupping his jaw.

“do you have any idea how in love with you i am?” he blushed even more, couldn’t hold back his smile as you kissed his jaw. “i can’t believe you took the time to do this. i know reading isn’t your thing and i know lots of people wouldn’t wanna sit through reading little women and you have no idea how happy i am knowing that you did. knowing that you took the time to write everything you did.” you nuzzled into the side of his head, both of you grinning like idiots and steve shrugged a little, felt his body relax now he knew what he’d done was something you appreciated.

“i love you.” that was his answer, his reasoning, his why. steve had read and annotated because he loved you, because he wanted to give you something that was well thought out and personal, a show of how much you meant to him, something that, if need be, could distract you from your anxiety and the incessant crush of the world.

steve harrington wasn’t much of a reader. until he met you.

[perplexingluciddreams]

A “brief” overview of my communication journey:

My verbal communication was always limited to echolalia and scripts (by scripts, I mean pieces of different echolalia that I stuck together to create a new phrase, or longer several-sentence delayed echolalia. But I didn’t learn to do this until I was at least 9 years old). I also had very limited control over what my mouth said - I would regularly hear my mouth say something I completely disagreed with, then had to watch in panic and confusion as the people around me reacted as if it was something I actually thought.

I used to request things that I didn't even want. "I want..." statements were banned in my house because they were "rude". “I want never gets!” I had stuck as a script for the longest time, even involuntarily saying it when other children said an “I want…” phrase.

I was given examples of how to request things by my parents. I used "I would like...", "Can I have... please", etc. But this didn't give me a reliable way to ask for what I wanted - I could only ask for things I had a script for. So I was limited to a handful of foods and objects that as I grew older, I had less and less interest in.

Saying "please" and "thank you" was drilled into me so much that I would often say it at the end of other unrelated scripts because it got "stuck" there by my mouth, without my permission. I got laughed at for this a lot.

I would say "yes" when I meant no, I couldn't reject things because I didn't have a script for saying "no". And I had been told to be polite so many times that it was a concrete rule in my mind - breaking a rule was worse than anything else. Saying "no" was rude, according to the adults around me - if another child said "no" to something, they were told off by a teacher or their parent. I didn't understand tone of voice so I thought it was the thing they were saying that was wrong.

As I got older, and became more aware that other people seemed to have more control over their voices and could say what they wanted (my general awareness of people and my surroundings definitely played into my struggles with communication, but I won’t elaborate on that here) I would sometimes sit in my bedroom and attempt to read aloud from a book, or write a sentence and read it aloud. To my confusion and upset, it would come out garbled with sounds mixed up, words missing, sometimes no sound coming out of my mouth at all. I couldn't make intelligible speech with my own words AT ALL.

I managed to teach myself to manually make some sounds, mostly vowel sounds, by moving my tongue around whilst making sounds with my vocal cords. But clearly this was not enough for using spontaneous speech as communication. Not to mention, any time I even considered trying to get my OWN words out (with speech, writing - even drawing pictures, signs), all words and scripts I knew just disappeared from my mind.

The only time I could even slightly get my emotions out was through movement - I used to throw myself backwards onto my bed repeatedly, bang my head with my hand, pull my hair, spin around in circles. I now know these would be called "stimming", but at the time I used it more for expressing myself. I also had other repetitive movements that I did almost constantly without even realising what I was doing, but I considered the expressive movement to be a different thing entirely at the time.

It took me years to get my own words out, and that was only once I managed to break down (spoken AND written, and both connected) language into individual words and learn the meanings, then learn to build it back up again. (And, this could only happen after I’d lost most of my out-of-control scripted speech. AAC with symbols helped me break down language in this way, because each word has a separate button and I was forced to learn to form sentences without an already-there structure to fall back on).

In order to do this, first I must take the long string of noises, and break it down into words. Then I must take those words and process the meaning of them individually. The biggest challenge, and the thing that takes the most time, is building the sentence back up.

Words often change meaning when they're strung together, and this is the part where that meaning tends to disintegrate into nothing, for me.

I have to build an abstract "picture" of what the words mean in my head. With very complex language, or a lot of language at once, this can take me hours, days, or even weeks.

Written language is a lot easier to process - firstly, the "string of noises" part is completely eliminated from the equation. Secondly, I see written words as entire shapes. Shapes, symbols or signs connect much more strongly to their meaning, in my head.

I learned to write by hand before I could type, because writing by hand is just copying the shape of a word. I hadn't yet learned to break down a word into it's individual characters and sequence them in the right order, not to mention finding the letters on the keyboard. My spelling has always been fantastic because of my tactile memory for words - and I say tactile instead of visual, because I don't "see" anything in my head, but the shapes of words are something solid that I feel I can touch, hold, grab on to.

But typing was a completely different thing, because even though I could recognise and read words in a typed print, it took longer for me to understand how to put letters together in the correct order to create words using a keyboard. The motor plan for typing was much more difficult for me to learn, but now I have that skill it's invaluable to me in terms of communication.

It took me a little while longer to realise that a keyboard gave me the opportunity to use my own words from my own mind, rather than whatever my mouth (or brain, when writing - I had different written scripts than verbal scripts, though, usually from books) happened to blurt out without my control.

I learned to read very early, but my understanding of language was actually quite poor - separately I could recognise the definition of one word, but when many words are put together I didn't understand the meaning of that sentence or paragraph.

The feeling of being able to put my own thoughts into written words like this, and read them back, is such a rush of power. I can have a concrete, physical impact on the world now that I can use a keyboard and get all the things in my head out there. It becomes real as soon as it's outside of me.

I remember that "comprehension" (answering questions on a written passage - we learned to answer the questions in a certain way, with a “blueprint”) in school really helped me with the breaking down of sentences and rephrasing them. Even though at the time, it just felt like it added to my out-of-control scripted speech, it gave me a skill that has been incredibly useful to me in the long term.

Getting to this point, where I can express myself fluently and eloquently through written language, took so much time and work, and still takes all my energy to write something as long as this. I am so grateful for the genuine communication I have now. It took many sessions, over months, to write this in its entirety. I wrote it in separate chunks, all trying to express similar things, then fitted them together and altered some sentences to make it flow better. (Of course with lots of editing to fix my grammar and my tendency to repeat the same sentence structure over and over - I still use my “blueprints” while writing, it’s the only way I can form complex long sentences like this one).

In order to communicate a memory or past experience in words, I had to have been actively translating (or attempting to translate) my abstract thoughts into language at the time.

If I wasn't or couldn't do this at the time it was happening, those experiences, thoughts, emotions, etc. are almost impossible to describe in language now.

And translating my brain takes so much energy and effort, and relies on me being able to understand what is happening and what I'm thinking and feeling. I more often than not don't comprehend my own mind - if this is the case, then of course I can't explain it to someone else.

It still takes so much time, effort and energy to get my thoughts out like this, and I’m very proud of the progress I’ve made. Even just learning to use Tumblr and posting on here as regularly as I can manage (plus reading other people’s words about similar experiences, or even very different experiences), has increased my ability to express myself and the vocabulary I’m able to access.

[crystalyssa35]

A General Guide to Writing Well, Now, & Consistently

In all my years writing, I have struggled with keeping writing as a fun and healthy habit. It took me five years (and many instances of writer's block and giving up) to actually have a basic set of guidelines to keep my writing going...

And I would like to share these "rules" with you all today!

Now, a bit of a disclaimer: developing the quality of your writing skills comes with time, research, and thinking. It may sound frustrating to hear, and you may hear it often, but the only way to get better at writing is to write and read often. Many times, just by jotting a silly thought down or reading fanfiction, you can spawn ideas without realizing it.

Now, to the list of tips that (I hope) will help you on your writing endeavors!

If you are not having fun writing your story, your readers will not have fun reading it. It sounds silly, but it's true! If you're enjoying your writing, you're more likely to write more and input more ideas into it!

Even if you have people to check your works, reread them on your own anyway. This may be a little frustrating tip for some, but let me tell you: I used to HATE checking my own stuff. The worst way I learned that personally checking it is a necessity was when my aunt checked it and pointed out tens of mistakes within my grammar, storyline, and characters. Check yo work, it will save you a LOT of embarrassment in the future.

Write anything. Read everything. As ambiguous and obscure as it will sound, it makes sense with context. As I mentioned before, the only way to get better at writing is to write and read often. Write anything your mind desires, that's simple enough. But read EVERYTHING; not only books, blogs, and articles, but also games, texts with friends, billboards, pictures with text, and (sorry, students) even homework as well. You'll be surprised how much your vocabulary expands when you actually pay attention to anything that is written (for me, it was video games. Seven-year old me knew vocabulary that I was taught in seventh grade because of it). And on that note...

Research what you don't know. Please, this one is genuinely important (I'm biased because it's one of my pet peeves). This includes words you don't know the definition of, spelling, and even generic, real-life information you want to add into your stories (e.g. I actually spent four hours researching how gemstones are categorized for my sci-fi story: Eco-Adstrum). Unfortunately, sometimes researching and fact-checking your ideas before writing them down can prove to be unmotivating, especially when you're wrong. But, it's always good to stay optimistic and be creative enough to twist the actual fact to mold it to your stories. Unless you're writing non-fiction, then maybe don't do that last bit.

If you have no ideas, keep wiggling your pencil. To those that recognize that phrase, yes, it is not my own. This is a piece of writing from former Tumblr user "officialtheonite" (I was only able to find the post because it has been reblogged multiple times) and their fifth grade writing teacher. Essentially, even if you have no ideas, keep writing. Write ANYTHING, even if it doesn't make sense. You will always be able to double-check it later and you will save yourself a lot of wasted time sitting around trying to stir the soup in your brain.

Balance the usage of your names and pronouns. To this day, I still struggle with this. I tend to use an abundance of pronouns when I'm referring to a character, so much so that sometimes, it becomes unclear on if we are still talking about aforementioned character or if we're talking about a different character entirely. Use names when the focus or action of a character is on stage; use pronouns if we are still talking about said character (even if we are talking about the same character, make sure you at least reiterate their name when there's a new paragraph).

I'll be editing and reworking this list as time goes on. I hope these tips can be of use so some of you all. Feel free to ask me any questions if needed. Enjoy writing and keep at it! I believe in you all!

[jasminedragonart]

Thoughts about the impact jK Rowling has had on the female character:

I think it's fair to say that we have a long way to go in media and literature to achieve a steady basis of good female characters. That's not to say there's none, but the bad does outweigh the good. The thing is, it is getting better. These days when we look at media we can find a lot of well written female characters. Tina, Louise and Linda Belcher. Star Butterfly and Mabel Pines. Nadja of Antipaxos. These are just a few characters I thoroughly enjoy watching on screen and the reason for this is because they're relatable to me. I sometimes sing to myself like Linda, I've found myself writing fan fiction like Tina. I've had that moment like Louise where I stood there as a child and wondered why others around me don't like the things I do. I'm flawed like Mabel and I like cute things like Star.

All of these women above are women. They're feminine. They allow themselves to embrace everything that makes them who they are and yes there are struggles but they're not standing there telling me they're modernising what it means to be a woman. They're women and I like them.

Characters like these have been hard won. We've legitimately struggled to get them here and every year it's getting harder and harder to keep women like these on screen. The reason behind this, I kind of blame a lot on the impact Harry Potter had not just on media but what it means to be a woman.

Has anyone else heard the phrase 'Be a hermione in a world full of princesses?' Does anyone see how toxic this is? Does anyone else not see the problem JK has created by her series getting popular? A problem she hasn't and doesn't want to address because she doesn't realise the problems in her own books.

Hermione was a breakthrough character in children's media. By that, I mean that people finally saw the bookish girl as holding value in a narrative beyond what she had been before (maybe annoying. Maybe just a side character. Never a main character or love interest.- except no, that's wrong. we had lisa Simpson way before Hermione...

Lisa is more nuanced though. I enjoy Lisa because she's very self aware and does try and improve herself even if she's doomed to love in a sitcom she can't escape her role from.

Back to Hermione. Hermione was new to children at least. She showed kids there was value in reading and learning. But, in all honesty, how much is Hermione's popularity down to Emma Watson's portrayal of her and how much is it down to the character of Hermione.

Movie Hermione is very watered down. In fact she's given a lot of Ron's lines which makes her more impactful and Ron further into the shadow of the comedic best friend. Emma Watson is very pretty too. Even as a child she looked a lot like how a lot of prettier girls in my class looked. Her hair was the only thing that made her an outcast. But even then, this was the early 2,000s. Do you know how many kids my age came to school with Hermione's hair? They brushed those curls out until they were dead. No one knew about the curly girl method in primary. The point is, Hermione is different on screen than in the books. she's pretty, she's emotional, shes more nuanced than she is in the books and I applaud the movies for doing this to Hermione because it did make her more likeable.

That's the thing though. More likeable. In the books Hermione is not a likeable character to a lot of people. She would have been the know it all in class that reminded the teacher they had homework. Yes, she did some good things, she spoke up about the house elves, she saved Harry's life a few times but her character, in my opinion, got worse as the books went on. She remained very consistent. there wasn't a lot of change to her character. She didn't seem to grow because she didn't have to.

Worse. she was elevated.

I don't know if anyone else caught the horrific misogyny in these books but I did and it infuriates me.

JK makes a point of elevating Hermione. Hermione is always right. Hermione will always win. Hermione is the standard we should hold other females to, and I know for a fact it's because her popularity increased as the movies were brought out.

If we look at the other female characters in comparison to Hermione I honestly hate it. Mainly because Hermione is elevated to a point where she isnt feminine. If you show any femininity in those books you're villainised.

Don't believe me?

What colour does Umbridge wear? Pink. What is her favourite animal? A cat. She likes sweet things and lace. Shes everything we've come to know about women but she's twisted inside so we can't like these things. we turn against these things because Hermione doesn't wear pink. she wears blue like at the yule ball. she's almost masculine in her appearance so we don't associate her with natural beauty.

Lavender. Girly girl. Just wants a boyfriend because all girls at that age are boy crazy. She's a very supportive girl. Its turned to clinginess. Something hermione is not. In fact she keeps ron at such a distance I didn't even know they would end up together until the last book. the movies made it more obvious, they did their best with it. But the books didn't.

Cho Chang. Cries a lot. Emotional. Doesn't matter that she's grieving and was forced to give up the location due to a potion. No, she's villainised so Ginny can have a sudden romance with harry that again came out of nowhere.

Luna escapes this thankfully. Only because she's too weird for us to consider her having romantic notions. she doesn't have to be put down or twisted to make way for someone else.

Jk made a whole generation of girls hate anything girly. They turned away from pink. They would rather pick up a book than do their make up. Their interest in Hermione and rejecting femininity is the reason we have so many bad female heroines these days.

My question to jk is why? Why couldn't a girl like make up and reading? Why is it one or the other? Why must we reject the pleasures of being dainty and liking cute and fun things in order to be a good woman? Why couldn't we have a character like Louise? Louise is very much a tom boy. But you know what? Louise wears a dress and bunny ears, pink bunny ears, every day of her life because the writers of that show understood a female character. Louise loves smashing mirrors. She also loves Boo Boo. She doesn't like pixies but she still likes wearing a dress.

For years the girly girls of this world had to put up with characters like Hermione being paraded in front of them and told that they themselves were being bad women because they liked pink. Because they liked cats and boys. It wasn't right. And we really need to ask the question on why JK thought to put women down like this in her books when she herself is- apparently- such a protector on what it means to be a woman.

I spy some internal misogyny. I spy a lot of things and theres probably more i could say but it's late, I'm tired and my phone keeps smashing my words together so I need to stop typing.

This is just my opinion. You don't have to agree. This is just the experience I've had growing up in a world where these books shaped a lot of my childhood. I probably would have explored dresses and brighter colours faster if I wasn't told by a fictional character and the grip she had on me and my femininity that pink is bad. That being a girl is bad.

[mirra-kan]

Hi Mirra!

Have you written any headcanon, metas, discussions, or fics about your concept of the "Faithful Haradrim"? If so, could you please tell me where to find them? If you haven't yet, would you mind sharing some info of your headcanons (anything at all) about their history and culture?

I'm a big fan of your Harad artwork and concepts (including the Blue Wizards), and it's all clearly founded on a rich, complex world you've created for them in your head. I would definitely love to learn more! :) I do also plan on including more about the Haradrim culture and history in my upcoming fanfics, so I would love to hear an expert's ideas on them.

Thank you for sharing your work with us!

@sotwk Was very happy to discover your message in my ask box!

Thank you for your interest and willingness to include more Haradrim content into your writing, but I'm afraid you might find my views rather... boring 😆

I also must apologise in advance if any of my phrases may not seem polite enough or turn out to be grammatically incorrect - English is not my first language.

Disclaimer! What is written below represents my personal view! It is in no way intended to hurt or discredit anyone’s head canons, views and ideas!

My Chinese calligraphy teacher once told me: "Do you want to assume or to learn? Decide on the approach before you make theories about anything."

And I follow the strategy of "to learn" before I "assume". So, first and foremost, I'm still in search of bits of information about the peoples who inhabited Harad and Rhun (South and East) of Middle-earth.

My goal is not so much to create head cannons as to draw the audience's attention to the canon and the Professor's own vision. Accordingly, in working through his letters, essays, and volumes of the History of Middle-earth, I am trying to draw parallels that someone as educated as Professor Tolkien might have drawn.

I also categorically disagree with the images created in the movies, where the conventional evil is more caricatured than frightening, and the motives and history of the conflict are not shown at all (Faramir’s saying about Haradrim’s fate is at least included, which is great, even if it wasn’t his in books). When my best friend dragged me into the Silmarillion story couple of years ago, I was amazed at how distorted the perception of these regions was in adaptations.

So, thinking about the existence and struggles of Faithful Haradrim, I rely on the history of the region and possible historical patterns. Such a vast region simply cannot have a common culture. It is the idea that can unite them. But, as in our reality, cultural features, symbolism and colours may differ. For example, we know that those who came with Sauron's army, performed under red flags with snakes. Does that mean that the entire vast region walked exclusively in the same colours? It seems unlikely to me.

As for the Blue Wizards, blue in general is a colour very 'inherent' to many cultures in the Global South. I suppose that's why the Professor dressed Alatar and Pallando in those colours. And accordingly, in my opinion, Faithful Haradrim could use these colours in their robes and on their banners, but not necessarily. It is not the colour that reflects the inner essence of a person.

Of course, when thinking about this or that image, I think about where exactly these people live, what the level of metallurgy development is present in different Ages, whether there is a sea or mountains nearby - all this affects how their armour\architecture\symbolism could have developed. In general, I draw parallels with real anthropology and the history of the development of civilisations. Books about the regional patterns, military and weapon history etc are of big help here too.

Sometimes, of course, I make things up. For example, when I first read the lines about the Blue Wizards not returning to Valinor, I didn't take it in a negative light. After all, they could have stayed in Middle-earth willingly, having become attached and imbued with the problems of the region, of the people. After all, Alatar and Curumo were the only ones who were not afraid to volunteer to fight Sauron.

I also like the later version, in which the Blue Wizards arrive in the Second Age. It makes more "sense" given the nightmare that the Númenorians had wrought in the region. But even among them, I'm sure there were some people who sympathised and helped the local population. I don't believe in black and white in principle. But I do believe in post-truth.

So, in essence, I'm a boring canonist who treats the author's writings and views with great respect. And the myth of the Haradrim and Easterlings being bad guys by all accounts is almost as well-established as the supposed lack of religion, holy Dunedain and cute glowing elves. Which is, in my opinion, in no way consistent with Tolkien's own philosophy and stance.

Perhaps what I came up with from scratch was a sign, a Faithful Haradrim symbol, that those could use to identify each other. People need symbols, faith and ideas. Especially in such trying times. That's the way we are.

Oh, I'm afraid if I go on, it'll be a whole essay. So I think I'll stop here. Thanks again for your question and your interest! I'm sorry if I disappointed you, haha.  Good luck with your writing - I'm so happy there're people out there, who're genuinely interested in the region! ❤

P.S. If everything goes well, I plan to release a zine about Harad at the end of the year. With quotes and the obligatory notes of personal theories not to confuse the reader.

[solarishashernoseinabook]

Solaris reviews To Shape a Dragon's Breath, by Moniquill Blackgoose (2023)

*happy stimming*

Summary: Anequs of Masquapaug finds a dragon egg one day, the first her people have found for generations. When the egg hatches, the dragon chooses Anequs to be her companion. Anequs and the dragon, named Kasaqua, are then forced to attend a coloniser-run dragon school, facing prejudice and setbacks as they try to navigate a society that views Anequs as inherently lesser and dragons as merely a tool. Despite these problems, Anequs must do well - for the sake of her people, and the life of her dragon

Content: It was really good! Strong characters, strong worldbuilding, good lore - there's a lot to recommend in this book. Anequs is an active, determined protagonist, calling out racism, condescension, and revisionist history at every turn, and Kasaqua - a baby dragon throughout the course of the book - was a delight to read

Who I think would like it: Anyone interested in dragons, or looking for a good coming of age story

Things it does well: -copy/pastes the entire text of this 500 page book into a tumblr post- Okay, but seriously, this book handles prejudice and conflict with nuance and care, showing plainly how blatant I-hate-you-because-of-your-skin prejudice is merely one part of a larger problem. It has a canonically autistic character, portrayed with more care, accuracy, and attention to detail than I've ever seen in published fiction. The chapter titles were delightful - each was a short phrase describing the content of the chapter that, if you happened to read them all together, would give you a short summary of the novel. The book has a map, periodic table, and pronunciation guide right at the beginning, all of which were easy to follow

Things that could be improved: I had a bit of trouble following the chemistry in the book - the elements are given fantasy names, which fits the worldbuilding, but meant I had a bit of trouble following what was what. I've only got a high school understanding of chemistry, though, so I'm putting this down as a me problem instead of a problem with Blackgoose's writing

My review: This book was a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the last dragon book I reviewed. This was a book with emotional highs and lows, hard-earned happy endings, and a world that seems to leap off the page with how real it is. Definitely give it a try if dragon stories are your thing. Written by Seaconke Wampanoag author Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon's Breath is a masterfully-written dragonrider fantasy

Does this book have…: ✅= yes ❓= not sure ⭕= possibly/mixed ❌= no Romance? ✅ Anequs develops crushes, and her classmate Marta spends a lot of time discussing the importance of marriage to Anglish society and the need to make a good match Sex? ⭕ References are made to sex - mainly from a particular, rather bigoted character - but they're confined to a handful of scenes Racism? ✅ As mentioned above, Anequs must deal with a lot of racism from the colonisers, and it runs the gamut from outright, vile racism (openly calling her people savage or barely human) to ignorant condescension (charitably saying that Anequs's people are not terrible, they can be civilised if only they work at it!) Sexism? ✅ Anglish society is also highly sexist, another thing Anequs struggles to deal with. None of it is worse than you'd get in any other historical fantasy, though LGBTQIA-phobia? ✅ Anglish society is also homophobic, though it's more referenced rather than any characters actually facing violence for it Ableism? ✅ Sander, our autistic character, faces some ableism from his mother (forcing him to speak instead of letting him write, demanding he stop stimming, etc.), though this is countered by Anequs and Sander's sister fully supporting him Swearing? ❓ ⭕ I don't remember any, so if there was it was pretty minor Drug/Alcohol references? ✅ Characters drink and get mildly intoxicated a few times - mainly when celebrating holidays References to or actual violence or suicide? ✅ Yep. There's many references to war, genocide, brawling, executions, and so on. References to or actual animal death or cruelty? ✅ As per Anglish law, dragons who bind themselves to people considered "unsuitable" are put down. The fear of this happening to Kasaqua is one reason Anequs is so motivated to prove herself to the Anglish and succeed at school

Recommended: Yes

[samwisethewitch]

REVIEW: Old Style Conjure by Starr Casas

There's some controversy around this book, mostly because Starr Casas is a white woman writing about hoodoo. (Or at least white passing -- Casas does not disclose her ancestry in this book, and I never want to assume based on appearances. Some of the memoir content in this book makes me think she may be from a mixed family.) I avoided this book for a long time because of that controversy, so I want to address it before I move into pros and cons.

When people accuse Casas of cultural appropriation, if they're not talking about her appearance they'll typically bring up this line from a FAQ section in this book: "Q. Can white folks do conjure work? Yes, they can, as long as they honor the ancestors of this work. Those ancestors are the folks who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. They brought this work here and deserve to be honored. And who better to honor them than the white folks who at one time enslaved them?"

I think this line is phrased poorly in a way that makes it easy to take it out of context as giving blanket permission for cultural appropriation. But after reading the entire book, I feel confident that wasn't what Casas was trying to communicate here. Casas is very aware of the legacy of slavery in the South, and she seems to believe very firmly that white folks need to reckon with the atrocity of the slave trade. It's our responsibility to do what we can to make amends for the evils of our ancestors. It's basically the same message other authors, like Aaron Oberon, have phrased better and been praised for.

It is also important to note that Casas isn't claiming to speak for all hoodoo practitioners -- this book is about her family's folk magic tradition, which is influenced by African American practices. She's very clear that other practitioners may do things a different way. She's also very clear about the importance of acknowledging and honoring the African roots of many Southern folk practices, something I personally agree with. The reality is, you'd be hard pressed to find a folk magic tradition in the South with NO African influences, and I appreciate what Casas is trying to do here by explicitly honoring those influences.

(On personal note, struggling to navigate the legacy of white supremacy while honoring Black and indigenous ancestors is something I personally relate to as a white person from a mixed-race family. There are no easy answers here.)

This book, its tone, and the language it uses reminds me a lot of my grandparents. They mean well, and they're remarkably antiracist for older folks in the rural south, but they aren't familiar with all the language and terminology activists use today. They're imperfect in their allyship, but they ARE trying to be allies. It's up to you whether that's a deal breaker for you.

Anyways, with that out of the way, here are my thoughts on the actual book and its content:

Pros:

This is definitely "old style conjure." Everything here feels very authentic and traditional.

I liked the emphasis on using what you have and working with what is available to you. This is not a book that will have you running out to buy that one specific crystal you just have to have for a spell.

I also liked the emphasis on doing things yourself, including making your own oils and powders instead of buying from someone else. This DIY spirit is a big part of southern folk magic as I was taught.

Casas gives very clear, easily followed instructions and does her best to explain the "why" behind what's included in a work.

Great section on throwing bones!

The most comprehensive breakdown of the uses of dirt of any book I've found so far.

This book genuinely contains information I had learned from oral traditions but had not seen written down anywhere.

This book reminded me so much of the women who have taught me what I know of a Southern folk magic. It took me back to sitting at the kitchen table, watching my mentor do an egg cleanse for someone with holy water she had blessed herself.

Cons:

Like I said, reading this book is a lot like a conversation with a Southern grandparent. That wasn't off-putting for me, but I can see how it might bother some readers.

I think Casas is from a slightly warmer climate than where I currently live. Some of the ingredients she uses in works, like olive leaves, are much harder to find in Southern Appalachia. Again, not a huge issue, but just know you'll have to make substitutions if you're not from a very warm climate.

Casas's practice is very heavily focused on working with ancestors and saints, which is not true for every Southern folk magic practitioner. I think she does sometimes give the impression that everyone has to work as closely with ancestors and saints as she does. You don't.

There's definitely a generational difference here with regards to how things like race, class, gender, etc. are discussed. I'm a younger millenial/elder Gen Z, and some of the language used in this book made me cringe a bit. Nothing as bad as slurs or open racism, but more like using outdated language that is considered poor manners but not quite offensive by younger generations.

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

Would I recommend it?

Despite everything, yes I would. I think there really is some excellent information here, including things that are in danger of being lost. Casas says she wrote this book as a response to the rise of Internet witchcraft and that her goal is to preserve old style folk practices, and she absolutely accomplishes that goal.

This is definitely one I'd recommend checking out from the library before you decide whether to spend money on it, and it isn't without its flaws, but books about pure Southern folk magic with no New Age or neopagan influences are hard to find, so I wanted to spotlight this one. I got this from the library and am glad I did.

(And of course, if you're interested in African American folk magic, you should read books by African American authors. Luisah Teish and Stephanie Rose Bird are two of my personal favs.)

[thistle-and-thorn]

Your fanfics live rent free in my head. Your manner of prose has made me so much more picky now though. Any recommendations for fic authors or book authors with similar styles?

Oh this is a very generous ask! And I'm going to be completely indulgent and give you lots and lots of very long answers.

A couple disclaimers: I'm not sure that these are really similar to my style, but these are writers/works that I find very inspirational/educational. Also, I will read pretty much any ship so some of these may not be to your taste. Apologies in advance! And I will fully admit that I do not read much fanfiction, especially Sansa/Tyrion fanfiction anymore, because reading similar content makes it a lot harder for me to write stories myself. If there's any oversights, fully on me.

Fanfic--There are so many good fics and incredible writers and if you ever have specific requests for ships or fandoms, I will happily continue to scream about stories I love but I am going to use the opportunity to tell you about my mutuals. Because I think the appreciation and love you have for the people you meet because you connect with their writing is a very special thing.

@attonitos-gloria--nonny, I am guessing that you know Her. The Undisputed Queen of Sanrion. However, it is frankly a moral obligation that I have to shout her out. Getting to beta for her is one of the joys of my life and has just given me the deepest appreciation for her craft. She has the best and quickest mind for plot and world-building I've truly ever encountered and a natural instinct for pacing and dialogue. She knows how to turn a phrase and she understands the cycle of how a character feeds into plot to construct a theme and how to leverage it for maximum effect (TBT to the TKC-fueled Spiritual Crisis of 2020). But really, really, really what makes her one of my favorite writers and one of my most re-read writers, fanfic or traditionally published, is how much she loves the characters. Every work is an act of love and compassion, and you can tell.

@coffeeandorange--The thing that I am always left with when I am done reading a Coffee StoryTM is a sense of clarity. Like, this is work that cuts through a lot of the fandom B.S to get to the heart and muscle of the thing (whatever it may be). Here is where you're going to find the perfect intersection of ingenuity, originality, and just really good writing. I am really struggling with how to adequately describe the writing without feeling reductive, but the word that keeps coming to mind is clean. But what I think I really mean is that I always have the sense that the language, that the use of language, is precise because it knows what it's saying. It is simply the form that best embodies that clarity. I have such an appreciation for the contrasts that coffee allows you to sit with: the joyful tragedy in The Way Home, the gruff intimacy in The Cat-king; the beggar boy, and the sharp tenderness in Shame Will Not Hold Down Your Eyes. They are stories that never shy away from the knots and complications in canon and I really, really, really admire that. I love when someone trusts their reader to sit in life's penumbras and coffee does just that.

@charmtion--being mutuals with charmtion is like being mutuals with a celebrity. I genuinely feel like I rediscover words, like literal words (fluted! why don't i use the word fluted!), when I read her stories. When I first started sharing my writing, I would study her sentence construction and try to figure out how I could be Like That. Reading charm feels like stepping into a fantasia, whether it's American high school or Irish mob house or Westeros. But beyond just sheer style, there is such a deep, dark, tender core to charm's writing. Her ability to mine small moments to show you what grief and desire looks like is something that I really admire.

Books: These are books, old favorites or new, that have inspired things that I've written, or thought about while writing, or just made have that Oh My God To Share Stories is the Greatest Gift:

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis: Possibly how Attonitos and I became friends? That's the lore I'm going with. This is heavy on the Christian theology, but can be enjoyed just as a damn good novel. Lewis has had a huge influence on my spiritual and moral life, and he is at his best here. A perfect psychological portrait of Psyche and the single best myth retelling/revisioning I've ever read.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: I just read this and it is a total favorite of mine now. A writer who explores the complications of kindness, rather than the banality of evil. CK doesn't tell you a thing but uses the small details of everyday life to force your examination of your own morality.

The Queen's Thief series by Meghan Whalen Turner: I'm a parody of myself. But like. They're really good, okay???????????

Literally Any book by Hilary Mantel--Probably my favorite traditionally published writer. Her books are tough--my favorite are the Cromwell books--and the language is tough to get into. But when you finally are immersed, it's magic. She changed how I thought about how to write permanently.

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter: This book is probably the one that has had the biggest, biggest influence on how I write. I can read her stories over and over and over again. Her use of language and image. Her eroticism. *chef's kiss*

Deathless by Cathrynne M. Valente-- This was rec'd to me by tumblr's arbiter of good taste and curator of beauty @palominojacoby. I wrote an unhinged essay about this book on my secret sideblog that explains my feelings more but in short: this book is how you use fairytales and sex, my friends. The political is the personal. Very personal.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe--I read a lot of non-fiction. I have a massive ethical issue with the way he deals with the end of the book but the questions he raises about the moral wound is seriously influencing crows + locusts. Particularly the as-yet unpublished fourth installment.

[bellaxgiornata]

This may seem a little but out of left field on my part, but I don't have many writer friends who I can ask, and there's no obligation to reply or indulge me 💜

I've recently got back into writing (not marvel, unfortunately, but I really admire the way you write) and was wondering if you maybe had any tips? I struggle a bit with, well, dialog and lack confidence - and your works are always so stunningly spot-on and evocative that I kinda just had to ask. Again, no worries if you dont want/have time to answer!

(Also I hope you are well!)

That is so wonderful! I absolutely love hearing that someone has decided to return to writing or is trying it out! I've been passionate about writing since I was 5, so I will always encourage other writers! And I feel so honored that you would even ask and that you feel that way about my writing! ❤ Thank you!! 😭

I will start out by saying I am not going to claim that I am by any means a writing expert, but I will say I did study it (I have an M.A. in Literature, Rhetoric, & Composition) and I've been writing fanfic for a long time, which comes into play with my writing (obviously). But believe me, I am always learning new things and growing myself. Writing truly is a skill and you can absolutely improve it with practice--I've noticed a change in mine over the past year even. Also, what works for me isn't necessarily what might work for you or others, but I can share some things I do myself, or that I enjoy seeing in fanfics/books, or what I think tends to be beneficial. I will say I know my writing style tends to be sparse and dialogue driven/heavy, which isn't necessarily how you or anyone else reading this might write.

And since this will probably be long and not something everyone cares to read, I'll put it below the cut. But as a note, I'm also writing these tips not knowing what you already know or do, so please do not take offense if they're obvious to you and nothing new!

I think the first and most important thing is to know your characters well, especially when it comes to dialogue. So if you're writing fanfic, I'd say study the source material a bit, see how someone speaks, pick up on any mannerisms or particular phrases they might typically use and when they use it if you don't already feel like you have them down. As for any original characters, Readers, or side characters, I'd say make sure you know them, too. Obviously an anxious character for example isn't going to speak boldly--unless there's a reason for it. So you always want to make sure it seems realistic (at least to you and how you perceive your characters) that they would say whatever they're saying in the situation that they're saying it.

I also find it helps to read dialogue aloud once you've written it. Does it sound like something someone would say in real life? Generally people in conversation don't always respond in full or proper sentences, for example. And I personally do this when it comes to writing Michael Kinsella or Frank Castle sometimes (I feel like I've written for Matt long enough that I literally can hear him in my head just fine 😅). They all have a sort of rhythm to the way they speak and I tend to go back and edit dialogue if it sounds too wordy or unlike the cadence of their speech (but that's also me being super particular 😅). But sometimes reading it aloud might help you realize if it sounds awkward or long winded or too clipped. Or maybe even too heavy of a reaction to what was said before someone's response.

Don't forget to change up your dialogue tags!! You can easily search up a list of dialogue tags (sometimes I do because my brain can't remember the correct one I want), but just make sure you're not trying to use them to add 'flair' to your writing, they have to make sense. Good ol' 'said' is truly just fine sometimes, but sometimes a particular dialogue tag makes a HUGE difference.

Sort of going along with that, it really makes a difference if writers have interrupters in their dialogue when it feels right. Don't overdo it, but definitely don't forget about it if you're comfortable using it. So if your characters are having a conversation, sometimes they won't just be standing there speaking, right? They might be doing something--like making coffee or folding laundry--and adding that in as they're speaking really helps set a scene. It's also incredibly great to add in minute details about facial expressions, tone change, body language shifts in the middle of sentences or between them. Because maybe the character speaking is getting angry, or the one doing the listening is having some sort of reaction to what is being said.

Dialogue should also generally always serve a purpose, which should help give you an idea of what to write and when. Is someone confiding something in someone? Having an awkward first meet? Calling to set up a date? Someone says something and it sparks a fight? Two characters are just being silly? There should always be a reason characters are conversing (which is sometimes just helping readers understand a personality trait about someone or learning a key detail about something), even if you have to throw in pleasantries or other things first that make sense before you can get the conversation to that point. And sometimes that's actually a fun challenge to figure out how to get there 😆

Off the top of my head, that's what I can think of for tips on dialogue at the moment. Hopefully at least some were helpful and not just old news to you. Obviously I also recommend editing a fic and giving it a reread at least once before posting, too. I'm insanely particular so I might edit something like 5 times before it goes up (and then still miss things). I just think that's a good way to catch errors or repeat words or ideas that might throw a reader out of the story.

As for the confidence to share your writing (or so it seems you meant, correct me if I'm wrong), honestly you just have to put it out there if that's what you want to do. I mean, don't feel obligated because you can certainly just write for yourself, but I'm not really sure what other advice to give on that unfortunately. I think any writer just takes the plunge. Sometimes a story flops, sometimes it gets a good reaction. Just try your best to not let it get to you if it doesn't go the way you hope (though whoever says it doesn't is lying because it is still rough to put so much effort into something and feel like it fell flat). But know you're not alone on that because there isn't a fic writer I know who doesn't get that feeling. Famous published authors even feel that way. We can't please everyone, but just try to have fun with it and don't take it too seriously at the end of the day. Do your best to ignore the negative feedback because for every one rude reader there will be multiple others who enjoy what you're doing. Try to focus on that!

But obviously, just have fun. Tell the story you want to read ❤

[to-yngewai]

Finnish

I’ve decided to turn this into a “learning Finnish” journal. Just like my practicing chess, I guess. Hopefully this doesn’t burn out.

I read that if you study 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, it should take one year to learn Finnish.

I’ve been at it for a month already, though not at that speed. I’ve gotten through very simple phrases, some vocab, some verbs, and then a tiny introduction to noun cases, which English doesn’t have.

At first when I heard about noun cases I was like “huh, nouns change for the sentence? Well that’s interesting. I’ll try to adapt to including that.”

Now after a month, I had an epiphany.

You *need* those noun cases.

If you don’t have them, the language makes no sense. You can’t tell what is going on. You can’t make yourself understood.

Finnish has “noun verb noun” structure, but unless you’re using simple sentences and just saying “this is that,” it’s not going to get you far at all. You can’t tell what the sentence is actually saying without how the noun is written. Like you write “I want to go to France.” Okay, and do what? Go to France to visit? Go to France to live there? Go to France and stay there overnight in transport to somewhere else? Go to France and...what?”

You can’t tell from just the verb. The verbs are too vague. You can’t tell from word order. The word orders just seem to be what sounds “natural” with rules I’m still struggling to grasp. You can’t use articles, because there are no articles!!

Everything is figuring out from the context.

Everything relies on the casing of the nouns.

The plural doesn’t just change the noun, it also changes the adjective! Like if you say “that bunny is cute.” If you change it to plural, you don’t change the adjective. “Those bunnies are cute.” If it’s Finnish, you’d say “Those bunnies are cutes.” “Pupu on söpö.” “Puput on söpöt.”

No wonder this is a difficult language for an english speaker. I’m going into this with a (somewhat) good knowledge of Japanese, which is full of vague articles and having to know things based on context, but this is next level.

Oh, and there’s 15 of them.

Anyway, primarily using duolingo for this. At least at first. The local library has very little resources for learning finnish. An incomprehensible audio book which doesn’t even have subtitles, and a few phrase books which are for travelers which only teach specific phrases phonetically. But I’ll make do. I really want to learn it.

I love Finland.

Right now each post is going to be “Did I meet my 5 hour goal today?” And what did I learn. Since it’s duolingo, it’ll probably just be vocab and some sentence structure. The actual ‘rules’ seem to come from generous people who made comments on each sentence before duolingo locked them all. But that’s fine.

I can do this. It’s going to be hard. And I may actually never get to travel to Finland in my life... but I want to.

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia. Do you have any tip or resources for writing traumatised characters?

I love how you write complex characters and the way you portray trauma in a way that feels so natural

Hi anon!

For resources, not particularly, beyond a bunch of books that I've taken photos of in this post here. But a lot of these books are expensive, and they're not written for laypeople, but they're also very good books on PTSD. They are not books on how to write trauma.

I'm an 'own voice' when it comes to writing trauma. I've had severe PTSD and C-PTSD since my 1997 diagnosis, and it's treatment-resistant (yay, my least favourite phrase). I've been researching my own trauma for literally decades in order to work out how to fix myself (hot tip: cannot 'read books' your way into fixing it). As a result, I just know how to write trauma. I've lived it, I've researched it for selfish purposes, and I write different versions of it for personal reasons that are very important to me. I like writing different types of healing as a way of living through different types of healing, but also finding it fascinating how all of us as people heal differently depending on our natures and the nature of our trauma.

This makes me actually not great for recommending specific resources like websites, podcasts, or links, because this is not where I learned about PTSD and trauma or writing it, and my research was also very hyperfixated and excessive, because I was learning about my own condition. I wouldn't expect someone else to devote hundreds or thousands of hours into reading something on trauma like I have, just to write a story, for example. So your path is not going to look like mine, anon.

It probably feels so natural, because I really struggle to imagine writing anyone without trauma, because that's completely alien to me. Catch me asking people 'how are you writing characters without trauma, can't be true, right?' So I just...don't really do that, or I make sure I give that character trauma, *waves to Eran.*

I'm very sorry, I thought about like, finding some links for you via a Google search but firstly I wouldn't have the time to vet them all and secondly, you can probably find better resources that specifically suit what you want to write this way. If anyone else has recs because they needed to learn about this vs. actually just living the experience 24/7 and doing very deep academic research on it, please add your recs!

That being said, I am a resource! Lol. You might also want to check out this post I've written on writing trauma and knowing how much detail to go into re: writing trauma depending on the stage in the story, and the character's position re: healing. How deep you go and what you show depends on genre, character's growth points, and what you're trying to achieve as well!

If you ever have more specific questions, I will do my best. But 'how to write traumatised characters' is a mixed bag depending on your genre, how deep you want to go, what sort of trauma it is, whether they developed PTSD or C-PTSD from that trauma (not everyone does), what kind of character they are, etc. and I cannot write you a novel! Lol, but I will try :D

[arre-yaar]

Recommend me some of ur good shows or books that u have recently watched or read

sorry i don't have more! i've been super busy lately and haven't had too much time to read.

we have always lived in the castle - shirley jackson ok this wasn't a recent read but a recent reread it's one of my all time favourites. i think its use of language is PERFECT and love the psychological subtleties. descriptions are off-kilter and unsettling in the most amazing way, and kind of blurs the lines between reality and the protagonist's view. it also deals with the mc's agoraphobia, paranoia, and psychopathy with a nuanced touch, and has her use sympathetic magic which i think is very fitting to represent her mental state. i also love its motifs, especially the one about food and female power.

the name of the rose - umberto eco is literally everything i could have wished for and more,,, history, murder, codes, labyrinths, semiotics, random latin phrases i translated badly! it seamlessly blends medieval history, theological debates, and a complex murder myster(ies) plot. one thing i will say, however, is that it is SUPER dense and that makes it a difficult read, but once you struggle through it, you can't put it down. but yes, it takes a lot a lot of time and patience to reach that unfortunately. i've been trying to read it since 2022 haha

the shadow lines - amitav ghosh this book is beautiful and it's told in non-linear format, it explores memory, identity, and the impact of historical events. it moves between kolkata and dhaka, and i love the portrayal of family dynamics, cultural nuances, and the ways in which individuals grapple with the legacies of history. the integration of personal and the political makes it both intimate and expansive.

autobiography of red - anne carson this book is a blend of poetry and narrative and is about the life of geryon, a monster, (written by an ancient greek poet, but through geryon's pov) and explores love, loss, and coming of age. it's actually also very funny and creative as well as being earth-shatteringly beautiful

i haven't watched many tv shows lately, but im going to reccommend one that you've most likely heard of before but i will literally never shut up about it or stop recommending it: succession! i could write an essay about how much i lvoe it it's like modern shakespeare and the family dynamics and power structures and the tragedy of the entire show make me feral and want to throw up but in a good way.

[wizardsandcrystals]

hi! I'm in the process of making my own divination deck and I'm asking around for others experiences with such decks to help me get a better understanding of how they work and common practices for their care and use so I can make mine the best it can be. your blog is largely tarot focused so I'd like to ask how you care for your deck and prep for readings if you wouldn't terribly mind? if you also have some advice for making the most of your tarot deck I'd be thrilled! one of the reasons I decided to make a deck of my own was because of my dissatisfaction with the specificity of my tarot readings. mostly I can't really tell the difference between important, highly relevant cards and ones that mostly provided context. like if I drew something that indicates that there was or would likely be a problem I can't tell the severity of it and that stresses me out a bit.

sorry if I got off topic or my phrasing was weird, I'm not very good at communicating through text. I hope you have a good day :)

Hi!

The idea of making your own deck sounds so much fun actually! And I'm glad you're asking multiple people cause everyone does things differently and there is no one way to practice divination! Apologies this is going to be a long post--

When I wasn't hiding my practice, I had all my decks on my altar, and had a dedicated crystal/idol as their protectors on top of them. Nowadays the few that I have left are hidden in my bedside drawer.

When I prep for a reading if I was at home, I usually light some inscense and offer it to Caim, praying to him to guide me during my readings. If I'm out, usually I give a little offering of whatever is around and pray. I then choose which deck I feel most fits the question, running my fingers over the cards trying to touch each one with said question. I shuffle until I feel its time to stop, and again run my fingers over them and feel which card I feel a pull towards (unless a card jumps out and in that case I read that one).

I then try and study the card's images alongside the actual title. A lot of times the images are full of symbolism and can lead to a more in-depth understanding. I'm not one for shaming people who read the books for the meanings, and frequently look to them myself. However, I usually try and not take the pre-written word for word and interpret it in a way that makes sense to the situation or my intuition points me towards.

For example, one of my readings mentioned the demon Foras who is portrayed as a strongman, and the card talks about exercise. However, I was guided towards a more metaphorical meaning that was within the same spirit of the original card that seemed to fit the asked question. This is important especially if the reading is for someone you don't know from asks, because that person could be handicapped or disabled and wouldn't make much sense.

When I'm done I like to thank the deck and Caim, knocking it three times to clear the energy of that question/person so it doesn't interfere with future readings.

As someone who is autistic, I too struggle with the lack of specificity of tarot and knowing what is or isn't important. My best piece of advice is to take it all in and meditate on it. Its not supposed to be specific but rather to try and apply to all kinds of situations and people. A lot of the time you just have to wait and find out, don't go looking. Reflect later on and see if it applies. On new years I do a reading of each upcoming month and at the end of each month I reflect on what was predicted. A lot of the times it makes more sense than it did in the beginning after its over.

But also, it just takes practice. Try new things and methods and see what works for you! I personally find working with oracle cards in the beginning made it much easier to me to then work with tarot because they tend to be much more focused in scale and have more direct advice.

Good luck on your deck, I'm sure it'll turn out great! Ave Satanas!

[narastories]

So I know we're slipping into Saturday in this timezone, but I nevertheless have a question!

What's your relationship to dialog? Because I have had a variety of opinions from writers: some love it, some hate it. Do you like writing it? Is it easier to write than the rest or harder? Do you have opinions on dialog tags? On written accents and language quirks?

Sorry if this is all vague, the gist of it is: tell me about your approach to dialog. I'm asking because I really liked the dialog in your latest FPA fic.

Good luck with your current project and thank you!

Thanks for asking, I'm still happy to answer this on a Saturday lol

Also, I'm really flattered that you liked the dialog in my fic <3

This is such an interesting topic and I think I have lots of opinions! I would say there was definitely a time when I would have said dialog was my least favorite, but I think it has changed. I'm still struggling with it sometimes, especially if I need a character to give a certain piece of information to another character for plot reasons and I don't want them to sound dry. That still feels pretty hard.

But sometimes it's actually the dialog that comes to me first from a scene and then I make sure to write it down immediately. I think it also makes it a bit easier to see if it flows naturally if you only have the dialog next to each other and nothing else. Also maybe my brain hacked itself into daydreaming up some dialog because I found it hard lool

I also really like banter-heavy scenes in media (you know, the FPA has plenty of good lines for example), and that both motivates and inspires me to try to get the dialog right. It can also be fun once you learn how a particular character talks. (Although I do tend to second-guess myself every once in a while.)

Writing in first POV also indirectly helped I think because when you write the narration you are already closer in tone to how that character speaks, if that makes sense?

Writing different English accents specifically is very hard for me I think, because I never got a lot of exposure to them irl. And because of previous fandoms I know how it looks when someone does it really well (looking at you @geekinthefuschiahair sorry to tag you in a random discussion but this question made me think of how you writing Jamie's Scottish accent always filled me with awe and humility lol)

With the punctuation of dialog and the different language quirks around that I'm not picky. I don't know if you agree as a fellow European but I feel like since we get exposed to a lot of languages in our lives minor things like how someone signals the start of dialog just don't seem like a big deal? What I mean for example is that I ordered three books of the Dresden Files series and it took me actual DAYS to notice that one was the UK edition and had single quotes instead of double quotes around dialog lool I just opened both and went "yeah, looks about right" lmao

It's funny because I know that people can be extremely picky about that.

But if you read books in different languages growing up I think it's not that difficult to adjust to punctuation.

Actually, I think when I translated my first fic to English and put it on AO3 I used the Hungarian way of doing the dialog with EM dashes (I can sense some people shuddering right now) because I didn't know any better. I edited it since ofc lol Then because I got into Outlander and because I lived in the UK for a while I tried using single quotes, but then I had a lot of American fandom friends and decided to spare their eyes lol

So that is to say, I'm not picky about that. As long as you tell me who is speaking, I'm fine. Which is more of a pet peeve of mine. As a writer, you obviously know who is talking. And then sometimes you think oh I don't want to overuse a character's name or "he said/she said'. But I think that's a myth and you can't overuse that stuff. It's repetitive but I think when you read your eyes just glide over those phrases and it doesn't take you out of the scene. But if you have to stop and try to figure out who's saying what that is a lot more tedious in my opinion.

Alright, well I clearly had a lot to say about that so thank you for those excellent questions! xx