#I wish I had the motivation to write original fiction the way I have for fan fic

[cartoon-buffoon]

Today marks the 97th birthday of Oswald The Lucky Rabbit with his first short that was released being "trolly troubles" releasing on today all the way back during 1927. Because I'm too lazy to do some art (I do have something planned for today though) I'm gonna do what I do best: talk! Talk specifically about why I absolutely love this silly rabbit and what he personally means to me.

Now although fictional (sadly) and just a mere character, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit has grown a large following for a variety of different reasons with several different types of Oswald fans popping up over the years. There's the fans of Ozzie who love his modern counterpart in Epic Mickey who is a genuine character with complexities, there's the history/animation nerds like I who love his short cartoons produced by Disney and later made Walter Lantz. There's even people who love Ozzie and were introduced to him from that one webcomic made by an awful individual (I can't think for the life of me what the comic is called RN, you know what I'm talking about right? The one where they drew him as a skinny twink and absolutely butchered Osix as a crackship). Whoever or whatever version they like at the end of the day it still boils down to the love of one little rabbit who started it all and was the catalyst for the mouse coming into existence and that giant domino effect of events leading after. I think it's sweet an entire community has been built up over the years with tons of talented people creating art, games, stories, and whatever else utilizing Ozzie solely because they love him. Oswald as character has even had a profound impact on me with my fanfiction hobby all stemming from one day me going "hmmm... I wish to write story about funy buny", and because of that it's lead to me writing more which in turned earned me a good few mutuals who like my "talent" (I would not call what I do talent lmao). I even bonded with someone I met from my school purely because we both love Oswald and that individual is now my best friend who I talk to daily and is my current beta reader (love you Quartz!!!).

Oswald has absolutely changed my life for the better and what the rabbit has done for me is nothing I could express with words. I legit regularly get motivated by listening to his theme song in order to "be lucky too!". The second I dug into his origins I fell in love with him (in two different ways), and I only hope more people find out about this Lucky rabbit and become just as if not moreso invested than I. Happy 97th ya old toon.

[nerdyrevelries]

Jo March: The Pragmatist

One of the most common complaints I hear about Little Women is the way it ends. Many people think that Jo stifles her creativity and gives up on her writing in order to marry Professor Bhaer, which isn't true. Jo writes a very successful book in one of the sequels, Jo’s Boys, but let's set that to the side because what I really want to discuss is what Jo actually thinks of the writing she’s doing in the latter half of Little Women. 

In Part I of Little Women, we see the type of writing that Jo does prior to selling her work. In “A Merry Christmas,” the family puts on The Witch’s Curse, an Operatic Tragedy, which seems to be a Shakespearean melodrama. In “Jo Meets Apollyon,” the book Amy burns in anger is “half a dozen little fairy tales.” In “The P.C. and P.O.,” Jo writes a comedic poem and a lament for one of Beth’s cats. Finally, in “Secrets,” Jo submits a tragic romance to The Spread Eagle (one assumes that this name was less funny when Little Women was originally published in 1868.) The Spread Eagle doesn’t pay beginners, so we can assume that everything written up until this point is the type of writing Jo does for herself when there’s no pressure to make changes to please an editor in order to get a paycheck. 

Part II begins with the chapter “Gossip,” which catches us up on what’s been happening over the past three years. Jo is now a regular contributor to The Spread Eagle who receives a dollar for each story. She refers to them as “rubbish,” so she doesn’t seem particularly proud of the writing she’s doing, but she’s in the process of writing a novel she hopes will win her fame and prestige. 

In “Literary Lessons,” Jo observes a boy reading a newspaper story illustrated with a dramatic scene of “an Indian in full war costume, tumbling over a precipice with a wolf at his throat” and two men stabbing each other while a terrified woman flees the scene. When the boy offers to share, Jo agrees more because she likes the boy than because of an interest in the story. The story is sensation fiction, which Jo privately thinks is trash anyone could have written. However, when she learns the author is making a good living from her stories, Jo decides to try her hand at this new style of writing. She submits the story to a contest the newspaper is running and wins $100. Jo uses the money to send Beth and Marmee to the seashore. She’s proud of her ability to earn money to help her family, so she continues to write these kinds of stories since they are lucrative. 

She later finishes her novel and sends it to multiple publishers, only one of whom is interested, and only if there are major cuts and revisions. After conflicting advice from her family, she decides to make the requested changes, which earns her $300 and some very mixed reviews that lead Jo to respond, “Some make fun of it, some over-praise, and nearly all insist that I had a deep theory to expound, when I only wrote it for the pleasure and the money. I wish I’d printed it whole or not at all, for I do hate to be so misjudged.” 

In “Calls,” Jo reluctantly joins Amy to return calls to their neighbors with generally disastrous results. One incident involves Jo receiving a compliment on her writing. 

Any mention of her “works” always had a bad effect upon Jo, who either grew rigid and looked offended, or changed the subject with a brusque remark, as now. “Sorry you could find nothing better to read. I write that rubbish because it sells, and ordinary people like it.”

This passage makes it very clear that Jo isn’t proud or fond of what she is writing. The reception to her novel combined with the money she can make from sensation fiction has changed Jo’s primary motivation for writing. She is no longer doing it for the love of writing or because she’s pursuing her dreams. She’s trying to make money to help out her family.

I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. We all have periods in our life when we take a job that we aren’t extremely excited about because it will allow us to achieve something that is more important to us. However, it’s a different narrative than is usually spun about Jo who is frequently depicted as continually working towards her dream. There is a role in Castles in the Air that fits that narrative. It’s called the Striver, but I don’t think that’s the role that Jo has. Instead, Jo is the Pragmatist, which is a role about setting aside your dreams for the moment because you have other responsibilities. Both are interesting conflicts, but they lead to very different conclusions when it comes to Jo’s story! 

With that in mind, let’s take a look at “Friend,” which follows Jo in New York. She’s now writing for a newspaper called the Weekly Volcano, which has required Jo to make so many changes to her stories that she decides to have her work published anonymously. That certainly wouldn’t be a good career move if she was truly trying for fame! She’s also come to greatly respect a man staying at her boarding house named Professor Bhaer. One day, he makes a comment about a newspaper that publishes sensation stories like the ones Jo is writing. Her response is telling:

Jo glanced at the sheet, and saw a pleasing illustration composed of a lunatic, a corpse, a villain, and a viper. She did not like it; but the impulse that made her turn it over was not one of displeasure, but fear, because, for a minute, she fancied the paper was the “Volcano.” 

Professor Bhaer notices her look and guesses the truth, but instead of letting her know this, he decides to gently explain his reasoning. After this, Jo goes back to reread the stories she has been writing and decides to burn them. Far from stifling her creativity, Professor Bhaer is the one who sees that Jo is ashamed of her writing and reminds her that she is capable of more.

This is part of a series on the literary inspirations behind game elements for my upcoming tabletop RPG based on the novels of Louisa May Alcott and L.M. Montgomery, Castles in the Air. To see a complete list of the posts I’ve written thus far, check out the master post. If you would like more information, visit the game’s website!

[himluv]

DA Review Series - The Stolen Throne by David Gaider

Since I finished my original fiction novel at the end of February, I've started replaying the Dragon Age games and the long process of re-reading all the Media Tie-Ins. I thought, since I'm doing all of this, I might as well share my thoughts along the way.

I'm following this list that I made last year, if you'd like to follow along :). Now, onto the review!

Title: The Stolen Throne Author: David Gaider Publication Year: 2009 In-World Year: ~8:96 Blessed to ~9:00 Dragon (there are discrepancies) Verdict: Skip. There isn't any real lore value here, and it's mostly just teen angst wrapped in sexism.

The Stolen Throne is a prequel to Dragon Age: Origins, which introduces us to teenaged Maric Theirin just after his mother has been assassinated. The book follows Maric and his friends over the course of about four years as they lead a rebellion to free Ferelden from Orlesian occupation. We also meet young Loghain MacTir and Rowan Guerrin – both important figures to the Ferelden we experience in DA:O.

Unfortunately, I don't have much good to say about this book. I first read it in 2011, and remember really liking it then. I was 21, and while a voracious reader, I was not a reader of much Fantasy at the time. I've grown a lot since then, and this book does not age well.

I tried to re-read it in 2020 and couldn't finish it. I tried again in 2023 and, again, abandoned it. But this year, while playing DA:O I was able to slog through it and FINALLY finish it.

So, why was it such a slog?

The writing is, uh, bad. Just, on a basic prose level, this feels like a rough draft. Adjectives and adverbs run rampant over this book. Descriptions are winding and don't always make sense. The amount of times I rolled my eyes while reading this book, y'all. It was a lot.

But, if the story had been good enough, I could have overlooked the bumbling execution. The problem is, the story isn't all that compelling. Yes, I expected the overthrowing of Thedas's most influential political force to be an exciting read. Instead, this book isn't so much about the politics of Thedas and the tolls of war, but about... love triangles? Quadrangles?

Without getting lost in the details, basically Maric is betrothed to Rowan, but Loghain loves Rowan. And Maric is in love with Katriel (which is a whole 'nother problematic can of worms) and cheats on Rowan. And Rowan... is upset about this, but I don't really know why because she doesn't love Maric. And she sleeps with Loghain, but also.... I don't think she loves him either? IDK, man. None of it made sense.

And that is the crux of this book. So little of the characters' motivations made sense. And so much of the book hinged on those supposed motivations and feelings. But they didn't make sense – at least, not to me.

Sadly, there wasn't much lore to be gained from this book, either. we learn a little about Maric and his mother Moira. A little about Loghain, but even what I did learn didn't make me more sympathetic to him. He's still a dick. In fact, the only characters I did like were Rowan and Katriel, both of whom are dead by the end of the book. Neither of whom had any real power over their own lives. In fact! When Katriel attempted to flex what little power she did have, Maric KILLED her. And he supposedly loved her??? No. Uh-huh. And Loghain basically goaded him into it, so they both suck.

The one good thing from this is I think it does make the Orelsian hate in DA:O more believable. When the Warden comes on the scene, it's only been ~30 years since Maric and Loghain ousted Orlais. People are still living and working who fought in these battles, who lived under occupation. So, that's some good context. Don't think we needed over 400 pages of misogyny to get it, though.

David Gaider wrote two more Dragon Age novels, so wish me luck. I think I'm going to need it...

[jon-withnoh]

Hello! Hope this isn't a bother, but do you have any tips for thinking up plots? I mean for the whole story. Reading Nie Wirst made me want to try to write something longer, but I'm a bit lost since all I've ever written are short one-shots or drabbles. Again, hope this isn't bothering you, feel free to ignore it! Also, this goes without saying but I'm looking forward to the sequel if you do write it

Hi! I love this question, thank you for asking it 😊 I'm pretty sure you'd get a variation of answers depending on who you ask, so my way might not necessarily work for you. (I'm thinking of this as a fun Pick&Mix of things that work for me and might work for others.)

My strategies differ for different kinds of writing. When I'm working on a poetry collection, it sometimes takes years to accumulate enough individual poems that fit together for me to start working on the arc or through-line of that collection. This just for context, since you did ask me about prose.

Whether for fanfiction or original fiction, I've found that I can only keep up my motivation for a longer piece if I am absolutely obsessed with it. Was wird aus uns was born from the immediate aftermath of me seeing Rebecca in Vienna, reading the book and pretty much every single fic on Ao3 and just needing those two fools to be okay. That one really came out of pure obsession. Nie wirst Du was a lot more considered and since the plot is quite complex, I did plan things ahead of time.

I'm going to try and sum up some of the things that I need in order to sustain my focus for a longer piece of writing under the cut!

I need to be absolutely obsessed with the initial idea. No matter how interesting a concept or fic idea is in theory, if it doesn't have that spark of obsession I might toss it around in my head for fun, but I won't actually write it. If an idea doesn't grip me enough that I'm constantly looking forward to the next plot point I'm "working towards", then I'll get bored and abandon the piece. This is especially true for fic. For Was wird aus uns, the first plot point everything was moving towards was their first kiss. Then Christmas, and then, finally, Danny's collapse and the changes that it brought. With Nie Wirst Du, I was constantly hooked, tbh. It's a little bit like a soap opera in that it has many twists and turns, very complicated relationship dynamics and many big feelings. Some plot points I was working towards there were the tea party and the costume ball. Once I knew what the fallout from the ball was going to be, I had a much better idea of how things would continue to escalate develop.

I figured out how I need to approach plot. A friend of mine is a hardcore plotter with detailed outlines, diagrams and everything. I used to try and approach plot like that with the result that by the time I'd thought everything through, I was bored and didn't actually write the story anymore. The thing I do is apparently called pantsing. It means I know the inciting incident of the story, maybe a few major plot points and I have at least a vague idea of how I want it to end. There is an overarching structure, but it's loose enough that it keeps me interested. I can decide to add or take away smaller plot elements without having to do major rewrites.

There needs to be a drive to the story. I need a sense of movement when I'm writing. Even if a story is set entirely in one place, there needs to be some undercurrent of change or development. If the story feels static, I don't have any way of getting a character from point A to point B.

I write the things I want to see. If you find yourself looking through Ao3 thinking "I wish someone had written about xyz", then that might be a sign for you to write the fic you're looking for! For example, I needed a happy ending for Danny and Ich, so I wrote one. Then I became really interested in learning more about Rebecca as a character. Who is she outside of the stories being told about her? To find that out, I needed a story where she was alive and since I didn't want to write a prequel, the idea for Nie Wirst Du was born.

I hope this was somewhat help or at least interesting! It also really helps to have a person who's just as excited about your story idea as you are. They might ask you questions you hadn't considered and give you a whole new insight into what you're writing. Feel free to ask more questions about this if you want. This was really fun!

[lulu2992]

After listening to this song on repeat and/or having it regularly stuck in my head these past few weeks, I’ve finally seen Wish!

I had read many reviews that said the movie was bland because it lacked originality, and while I understand this point of view, in a way... I think it was intentional.

The film was released for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 100th Anniversary and is full of more or less obvious references to other Disney movies, whether it’s a well-known character name that’s mentioned, someone directly quoting another film, or even just a background, object, gesture, or scene composition that, for some reason, feels familiar. The fact that all those “Easter eggs”, which could have been very annoying but, in my opinion, manage to remain fun (not really in a self-mocking way as Enchanted did, though), exist, combined with the images that appear during the end credits and the scene that follows (yes, there is a post-credits scene), make me say the goal was to make the “Disneyest Disney movie”.

Wish is not lazy, it’s a celebration.

It’s still its own film with its own story, but it’s first and foremost a tribute to Walt Disney Animation Studios, all the movies they’ve released over the years, and the now iconic (some might say overused) concepts of “wishing upon a star” and hoping your “dreams come true”. At one point, there’s also a flip book (with a time chart!), and I see this as a nod to traditional animation, as well as an homage to the original “magic makers”: animators in general.

So yes, it’s unoriginal and maybe not the most memorable Disney film. As you would expect, it opens on a storybook, takes place in a fictional kingdom, features a heroine who has an animal sidekick and a dead parent, and she has to fight against a charismatic villain who uses green magic. I would describe Wish as a quintessential Disney movie, and while it may not be groundbreaking, it’s still cute, pretty, and entertaining. The characters are good and, even when they don’t have a lot of screen time, have distinct personalities. I’m thinking in particular of Asha’s friends who, as I’ve just realized writing this, must be a reference to the Seven Dwarves (even their initials match)... There also are many songs, of course, as they are yet another trademark of Disney movies. Special mention to “This Is The Thanks I Get?!” because I thought it was quite catchy and the most original!

Speaking of King Magnifico, he really is a great character and “classic” Disney villain, and it feels like we hadn’t seen that in a while. That said, [spoilers]…

...I was a bit disappointed they introduced his tragic backstory (without fully explaining what exactly happened, by the way) and then didn’t really do anything with it at the end. Sure, it humanizes him, gives him depth, and explains why he’s unhealthily obsessed with being in control, and I agree that not all villains need or deserve a full redemption arc, but… I don’t know, since they mention the fact his family died and that the fear of loss is what motivates him (at least at the beginning), I expected that to play a bigger role in the story, and especially in its conclusion. I’m not saying he should have been redeemed because I don’t know if it would have worked in that story anyway, but taking into account his past, the fact they mention it several times, and what they (Disney) have been doing with many of their villains lately, I simply thought it was likely to happen. Maybe King Magnifico didn’t necessarily “deserve better” as a person because he does become “evil”, to the point that even Queen Amaya, his wife, eventually turns her back on him despite their seemingly sincere connection, but as a character, I’m inclined to say he did…

Oh well, at least he has the coolest villain song!

Also, knowing my love for charismatic antagonists with a tragic backstory, maybe it’s best for me that they didn’t explore that further and just let him apparently irremediably lose himself. Had they decided to “save” him, even partially, or give the audience more reasons to feel sorry for him, I fear I could really have spiraled out of control :’)

[irondad-creator-awards]

Writer Spotlight - Spagbol99

This week we're talking to the 2023 Winner of the Best OG Writer Award and the Best Plot Twist author, @spagbol99 of A Peter Parker Problem.

Summary:

Peter Parker was back from the dead. At least that is what everybody told him. He'd been snapped out of existence until some sort of time travel and an active death wish by his mentor had saved him and the universe. Just your average sort of life for a 16 year old from Queens. Peter comes back to find May has a husband and a kid. A new family he has to fit into. But he has done it before, he can do it again. The only thing that feels solid is Tony: the Blip and fatherhood have mellowed him and Peter loves the bond they have now. He knows Tony would be there for him through anything. But Tony needs to focus on his own recovery - not small time Peter Parker problems. When things at home take a turn for the worse, Peter decides that he'll handle it himself. He is Spider-man. He's been to space and fought aliens. He can get through anything. After all, if May is happy, he is happy, right? Right?

How did you get into Irondad?

I stumbled into reading fan fiction for the first time at the start of the pandemic.  I was a mild MCU fan at the time, so I went in search of Spider-Man stories and ran straight into IronDad and the rest is history… !

What’s your favorite Irondad scene?   

Ooh, that is a mean question, how can I choose just one?!  I think it has to be the ferry scene for me.  I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone who has read my writing that I live for the angst!

When did you start writing and what made you sit down and write that first story? 

For the purposes of this question, I’ll assume you mean writing fan fic but I’ve written original fiction for a long time.  As soon as I found IronDad and MCU fanfic at the start of the pandemic, I devoured fic after fic.  I loved the recurring tropes and seeing how people tackled them in different ways.  As I read more and more, ideas started to fester within me and I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing my own fic.  I wrote 150K in four months so it’s fair to say that I was inspired and enthused.  I actually had no intention of posting.  After sitting on the finished product for a month, I decided ‘what the hell’ and went for it. I’m so glad that I did.

What do you like about writing most? 

Pure escapism.  There is something about creating and manipulating a world that only you control that is very powerful.

Which of your stories is your favorite and why? 

Asking me to choose between my children?  How rude!  Hmmm, I would say that A Peter Parker Problem is probably my favourite.  Something about it being my very first fan fic and being the exact kind of story that I like to read – which was my motivation to write it.

What’s your favorite trope to write?  

Found family is probably my favourite trope overall.  I also love writing characters overcoming trauma (or at least starting to), whomp and miscommunication. 

What inspired the story? In my original works, I have often written stories about teenagers in difficult family situations so when I started reading fic and came across the ‘Aunt May’s abusive boyfriend’ tag, it started ideas churning.  I kept thinking how unique a situation it would be to have the physical power that Peter has but still be subjected to abuse.  That even though we can be powerful, confident people, it doesn’t mean that we are immune to coercion and abuse in our lives.  In this story, Peter particularly is in such a vulnerable position post Endgame coming back to a family that has changed in his absence and I imagined how he’d do anything to keep May happy after the grief she had been through. 

Can you tell us a little about the experience of writing it — did anything stand out or was there a particular person that helped more than others? 

 It was such a fun experience writing it.  I hadn’t felt that passionate about anything in a long while and it gave me something to focus on during that early pandemic uncertainty.  It quite honestly helped my sanity being stuck indoors during lockdown with two young children.  At this point I didn’t know anybody in fandom – I had only read fic not interacted with anyone so other than a few later chapters, it was not beta read.  What struck me most about the experience was the warm welcome I had by the IronDad community once I started posting.  I was overwhelmed by the support for the story.  I hadn’t imagined that so many people would read it, I would’ve been happy with a handful of hits, so to say I was blown out of the water was an understatement.  Similarly, I reached out to a few authors to take a look at some later chapters I was unsure of and they helped without hesitation.  I have made long lasting, deep friendships, meeting up with three people in two different parts of the globe in the last 18 months – including a trip to Avengers Campus in California!  I can honestly say that finding fan fic has enriched my life immensely.

How did you feel to be a winner of the Awards last year? 

It was such a lovely surprise to be honored with a win last year.  The fandom has such a slew of talented, prolific writer that I was surprised to have won.  Thank you to everyone for reading my scribblings and taking the time to vote for me.

Thank you so much @spagbol99 for answering our questions and being part of the Awards.

Nominations for the 2024 Irondad Creator Awards are now open here.

[senasadventures]

Hey! (It's me, almathecolormaniac just in asks tumblr only lets the main blog to ask)

Do you mind if i ask here, about your comic?

Like how did this story come to your mind, or what is your motivation to make tangible. (i mean my ideas for stories never get further than my mind 😆) And what does the drawing process look like for you?

When did you found alta and what is that you like about it, do you like to read fan fictions too?

Or just ramble as much and about anything or nothing really, no pressure i dont mind at all.

If anything, thanks for your art and have a good day!

Hello there! Thanks a lot for your message!

I’m posting this as public because maybe it could help somebody else too. When I first started making this comic, I was really overwhelmed and wished there was someone to share their own experience to help.

This is going to be long!

When I first started with Sena's story, I was not intending to write a tangible story or make it into an actual comic. I was simply drawing a character as I was fantasizing about an Avatar story.

Just with this little drawing, there was immediately a concrete picture of what kind of character this was in my head, along with her age, her name, her possible path... Other characters followed in much of the same way, without even trying to create them. It was like they were just there. Sometimes the stars will align and such things will happen.

It's interesting how it all started with Nina (whom you do not know yet) and not with my main character Sena. But it's not strange as I always loved drawing waterbenders the most (and their hair loopies)! Nina gave me the headstart to imagine all the rest.

Wishing to give these characters the story they belong to, I began writing , in book format, without any plans on what to do with it later.

I talked about this in another post before, but one of my biggest motivations was that I wasn't content with what followed after the original show and really wanted to see what I'd do with the Avatar Universe. I wanted to prove that a story didn't need to have war, epic battles, villains or "edgy" superpowers to be interesting. And I wanted it to be about "kids", having the same naive and simple (yet deep) quality that I love about AtLA.

Much of the initial writing came naturally to me, and I was influenced by the themes that played out in my own life. Many of Sena's struggles are also my struggles and it means a lot to me to find out where they lead in Sena's case. I write the story as I go and although there are certain events I already know I want to lead into, much of it is still uncertain.

( One of the influences to this story was The Neverending Story, which I had read shortly before I started writing this story. Some of Sena's characteristics were inspired by Bastian, and Kai's were inspired by Atreyu. )

At some point I decided to make this into a comic, which I was hesitant since I knew it would be laborious, but it was the medium that this story would really flourish and catch other's attention as well. And I did want to share it.

There were a lot of tasks ahead of me before I could actually start drawing the first pages. I have different locations in this story, different cultures. I needed a visual language for them.

Shun Fei is a culture that borrows from both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, but it's not supposed to look like either of them. On top of that, it has some of what may be called Western influences to it, as it carries the kind of values that in our world, first came to be in the West. In order to incorporate that while preserving the Asian aesthetic of the Avatar Universe, I borrowed some subtle elements from both Roman and 19th century European aesthetics, or even a little bit of medieval Europe. The pillar architecture of the Shun Fei government building, or the white shirts with puffed sleeves and raised collars of Shun Fei citizens are examples to that. For the color scheme, I went with white, black and brown. It's weird how that hadn't immediately occur to me, but was the most sensible choice, given everything about Shun Fei.

At times, I kept some colors and elements from Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation fashion, but I think it was too much. I actually generally dislike this frame anyway :D

When you're making a comic, there are so many details that are invisible to the viewer, but you nevertheless have to work on. To be honest, it was driving me crazy, because I was unable to produce anything visible for a while. It's best to know this beforehand and be patient with the early stages of your work. It is going to save you so much time later on.

Once I started drawing the pages, there was once again, a lot more that was driving me mad.

I was trying to be authentic with my visual language of the comic, such as the design of the frames and the flow of the story, because I wanted this to have a "book-ish" feeling and a little bit of ancientness to it. I didn't want it to feel like a modern comic. This was taking a lot of effort, because there isn't anything exactly like it that I can imitate.

Secondly, drawing comics is A LOT OF work. It takes so much time that I was unable to move forward with the story! I went from fully colored to monochrome, and later from hand-drawn to all digital. I tried a lot of different approaches and if you look carefully, you can see how the style changes throughout the pages, which I think is not a good thing professionally, but fortunately this is a personal project from which I'm learning.

What I currently do is, I make a storyboard on paper with adequate details to use as a sketch under my digital lineart process later on. I have at least 3-4 other pages' storyboards ready before I start drawing a page digitally. I used to make the storyboards from the text I wrote when I began writing the story in book format, which was difficult to adapt. Nowadays I'm working on a segment which I hadn't written in text and I directly write on the storyboard.

I still don't know how some people can draw so many pages in so little time, it's a mystery to me. But I did get faster and more efficient in time, mostly because I understood how to do things and don't have to think every single thing through anymore.

Another thing with my process is how much I've found it difficult (and mostly still find) going consistently at it. There were many long breaks along the way and it took me longer than 2 years before I made 20 pages and started uploading this comic here.

All of these things can be very discouraging. I questioned my ability to be professional a lot, which I do want to be, since I don't want Sena's Adventures (and other stories I want to make) to just be my story and stuck with me. I want to share it with the world and do it in the best way possible. (It was my dream ever since childhood) To do that, you need many practical skills. But these do come in time and I feel a lot more confident now. I love this story, I've had a bond with it and I love doing something related to AtLA, my old time love. And I really wanted to see where this experience would take me, so I stuck with it.

A lot of people, like me, miss the Avatar of their childhood. I wanted to make a story that had the same kind of feeling. I tried to stick to the original spirit of the show, while incorporating elements that matter to me on a personal level and which I believe are on the same line with AtLA.

-----------

For your second question,

I used to see AtLA on TV as a kid and at some point I started to get interested in it, and later became a die-hard fan. It was 2008 and I was 12. This also marked my entry to digital art and the DeviantArt community, which became a huge thing for my life. I kept making Avatar fanarts until I was like 14-15, some of which were fairly popular back in the day! Good times.

As a kid and teen, I was someone who always lived with fantasies of my current favorite show in my head, the most long lasting one being AtLA. I wonder how many nights I must have fallen asleep thinking about the next romance story between Aang and Katara.

I occasionally had attempts to illustrate stories in my head throughout the years, but these were mainly childish attempts (although there's nothing wrong with that) and always left too early, so I never knew what a professional effort would look like until I began this project. It has been a great learning opportunity.

[jenny-from-the-bau]

okay sorry this is a lot but 1, 5, 12, 19, 24, 25, and 34 for the ask game pls!!

-🐙

1: What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I only write in Garamond, and I care very much. I write in Garamond pt12 with a 0.5 indentation on the left, single spacing, and 0 before/8 after paragraph spacing. Every time.

5: already answered

12: If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? BTW if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ispum, I don't make the rules

I never mix up tenses

I always know how to end a story

There is always someone around to give me notes

19: Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

Yeah! So, my mom really wanted to be a writer (or at least write for fun), so she took random online writing classes, and I always took them with her. I also wrote random short stories just for fun. In high school, I had an actual book that I was working on and I had SO much detail and planning, but it was all just so cringe lol I wrote a lot of (bad) poetry, too.

I started writing fanfic in high school. It started as Sweeney Todd fanfic where my ideas were WAY too big for my skills lol I completed my first multichap in 2013! it was a grey's anatomy mafia au. It was... fine haha

I was really easily discouraged, and I'd stop writing at like one mean comment. I didn't have a writing community or other writing friends, so I just wrote for me, and it wasn't great. I got some good feedback on a few swan queen oneshots, but my writing really took off when I watched Person of Interest. I was getting my Master's and working in theatre and I just wrote so so so much. I was literally posting once a day. It was a lot of fun to talk about writing with people and exploring fandom.

I ended up watching Criminal Minds on a whim and it really hit me. I had a great writing community, posted like 50 fics in a year, and just really hit my stride. Some life stuff happened and I got VERY mentally ill and it took away my motivation to write. I had stories that were tangled up in people I was no longer friends with, etc. I also lost my writing voice for a while. I was writing for other people, but like... I was writing what they wanted and exactly how they wanted and it just wasn't me. I eventually hit a point where I stopped writing for almost a year.

Now, I feel like I'm in a much better headspace and I have better friends who understand me and who I am and what my voice is. I feel like I'm finally getting into my stride as a writer and finally figuring out what kind of stories I want to be writing.

I'm considering going back to writing original fiction. I have a few ideas. It's just scary and hard and I'm not quite sure how to do it lol We'll get there!

24: How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

So much prep work! I outline almost all my fics, and even if I don't do a full outline, I do at least a couple paragraphs. I had all 26 chapters of Born Into Bad Choices planned before I started. I'm doing like a few chapters ahead for What It Takes, but still. I have so so much outlined. I really like planning because it gives me a sense of direction and that makes me feel less lost. Without a plan, I flounder.

25: What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Hmm... This one is hard lol Maybe pick a story and I'll tell you!

34: Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

Necessary, Mandatory, and Wonderful.

[blysse-and-blunder]

midweek commonplace book: the rough drafts

5pm, wednesday, june 28, 2023

it's been over a month since i drafted the following ilcb post, and here i am again, in the same coffee shop i was in back then, again avoiding working on a cover letter for a course instructorship position. in the intervening time, i a) got that job b) taught that whole class, c) took a weekend trip to see a friend get married, and d) am now applying for the next one! figured it was time to open the vault (my chaotic drafts folder) and let these musings see the light of day. maybe it's the key to my success.

edits and new text below in [brackets] to preserve the original draft's ~authenticity~. XD

in lieu of a commonplace book: may day

3pm sunday, april 30 -- 6pm sunday, may 7, 2023

it's rainy and there are so many flowers starting to emerge in the neighborhood, and i've been cozily reading escapist fantasy instead of writing my syllabus or facing the future head on.

reading since i last made one of these posts, i've finished reading the following: the golden enclaves by naomi novik (audio), the jasmine throne by tasha suri, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid (audio), dial a for aunties by jesse sutanto (audio), and the tyrant baru cormorant by seth dickinson. this not being exclusively a book review series, unfortunately, we're just going to talk about the [left out the title but did include the picture so we know it was at the feet of the sun by victoria goddard!].

[i think i failed to actually write out my thought about this one because a number of people who follow me (@spoonierbard, @hematiterings) were either reading it or were about to start reading it, and i didn't want to color their experiences. i was also not entirely sure how i felt about it? i think i went in with expectations this time, which is a recipe for disappointment-- and i also had actual literary 'critique' thoughts primed and ready, as opposed to the pure vibes and pleasure with which i approached hote. overall-- and i say this as someone who reads and loves fan fiction-- it felt like reading fan fiction, ambitious, self-indulgent, big focus on relationships and feelings, and with a definite Point to Make. a behemoth of a book, and full of things to love--but less transcendent, for me, than its precursor. happy to expand on these feelings in a pm!]

listening

[i didn't write anything here, but i did include the two videos below. both were new to me this spring-- i never had a fallout boy phase in high school, please don't laugh, so it was very exciting to fall in love with first so much for stardust and then, at the recommendation of my housemate g, this track from folie a deux. 'disloyal order of water buffaloes']

[i think both of these songs are saying something about the mood i was in this spring-- yearning? defiant? a little pissed off? "hundred days" was a sptify recommendation, and fuck if they didn't get me in one. i have since investigated the duo behind the album a little and realized i have... possible thoughts, about their oeuvre, about making art out of their relationship, but this particular song unfortunately goes extremely hard for folk so i am compelled to love it! there's just something about the main melodic hook, the plaintive/desperate tone of some of the lyrics (especially 'i want / a hundred days / of bright light' each! time!), and the way there's so much going on in the arrangement at 2:34 ish-- i wish the rest of the album was as good as this one track. i want a hundred good days! of bright light! I do regularly think about things i'm trying or striving for and think "I want ! a hundred days !" of whatever it is. At least 100 days. there's something almost reminiscent of tiffany aching to this, for me-- using your selfishness/unvarnished wants to motivate you.]

watching taking a break from prestige tv!... with more prestige tv. started severance while my fellow succession and ted lasso-viewing housemate is out of the country. i love the stylization, the aesthetic, the eeriness! this is what i was hoping don't worry darling (2022) would be, in terms of combining a mid-century aesthetic with our main characters working for some enigmatic brain-washing Company or Project. Lumon better not be a simulation-- as i discovered back in january, i like it when there's some *there* there, when the conspiracy is actually as trippy as it seems, i understand that sometimes people want to write misdirection but man i am sad anytime something was all an illusion after all. also watched a bit of the first season of the gilded age and the first truly wild episode of mrs. davis with another housemate; there is no witty comparison or fun snappy one-liner i can come up with about these two.

[the above remains true-- i just watched a bit more severance yesterday! there was a massive cliffhanger just where i stopped, but the tone of the show is so Much that i actually was glad for the break. don't get me wrong-- i love how stylized it all is, still, i love the aesthetic and all the visual and verbal details that build up to mad-men-esque 60s office culture-horror, it's fantastic. getting that little extra moment with dichen lachman's character and hearing her talk about her experience was...gutting... but my favorite character continues to be devon.]

[playing]

[triumphant return to both dnd campaigns in the past week or so! it hasn't been entirely my fault that neither group met for most of the past six weeks, but i didn't help. campaign B had our one-year anniversary on sunday! one of the players went really overboard and commissioned a bunch of beautiful cards and badges and coins for us and our characters' little secret organization!! we broke the dm's screen door briefly and saw how big her baby has gotten!! we cried over @dimir-charmer's wedding dress! we successfully escaped the wild west!]

[making]

[didn't even draft this section. i thing i had just fixed...something, but who remembers what. pro cooking tip, leftover tortilla soup can become poor grad student shakshuka so easily. two eggs + in a pan + simmer = profit]

[working on]

[aforementioned cover letter for a course instructorship for next fall is due tomorrow. technically there are two i could be going for, both of which have definite pros and cons, but i'm pouring all this time and angst into one and just kinda forgot about the other? also i'm grading for two different classes, figuring out how to have sooo many tabs open at the same time and how to juggle spreadsheets+answer key+word+ pdf reader all at the same time. oh for the days of paper submissions, you know? last but not least, i am desultorily staring at the manuscript + outline for my conference paper for next month (less than a month now! fuck!) for like an hour a day, and making very little practical progress on it. so.

[katieskarlette]

You might have seen it already but, there's an official Wrathion plush now!

I saw. He's adorable and I'm sorely tempted. I just wish they'd made him years ago when I was really obsessed with the character. Oh well, I had a very cuddly dragon plushie (the "Merlin" one by Douglas Toys) that was "my" Wrathion.

I should probably update this blog with the status of my interest in WoW, since it's been a long time.

I wish I could say I'm back in love with Warcraft, but I'm not. My subscription ran out several months ago.

TL;DR version of the part below: Not feeling the WoW love anymore. Wish I was. I'm not really on this site much these days, either. This blog will continue to exist, just with very few updates unless I suddenly feel the spark again. I've been doing original writing instead these days. Hope everything is well out there in Tumblr-land.

Due to changes and crap at my job I didn't have any PTO left to take like I normally do for Blizzcon, but I'm just kind of numb about the franchise these days so I honestly don't think I would have taken it off, even if I had the option. Which is depressing, because that was a tradition for me as long as Blizzcons have been livestreamed.

Shadowlands just plain killed my love for the franchise to such an extent that even a dragon-centric expansion couldn't revive it. I wanted it to so, so much, but if that didn't do it, nothing can. Maybe I shouldn't blame SL completely, though, because I'd been playing since vanilla and that's a long time to be deeply immersed in any fictional universe. Maybe it was just time. I don't know, but it still makes me sad that I can't get dopamine from WoW anymore, when it was a sure-fire supplier for so long.

I'm not 100% ruling out that I'll get back into the game at some point in the future, but I'm not feeling it these days.

This blog isn't going anywhere. I have literally thousands of posts, hundreds of screenshots, and many years invested here.

However, my motivation for Tumblr kind of fizzled at around the same time my WoW love did, so I haven't scrolled through my dash in ages. I sometimes will search for a topic or see a post I like as I pass by on my way to update the blog for my original universe, @kavrillia, so once in a while I reblog something to @skarletterambles, my off-topic/multi-fandom catchall blog, but even that's pretty dead these days.

I've spent most of my leisure time writing, editing, and drawing for my original universe these days--which I'm enjoying a lot, but nobody else is familiar with it so I'm basically doing it all for myself.

*insert self-deprecating joke about how not many people read my WoW fics so what difference does it really make*

Anyway, sorry if this post is a downer. Like I said, I wish I still got the enjoyment out of the Warcraft franchise that I did for so many years, but I can't force my brain to feel a certain way. I hope if anyone actually read this far that they're still having a lot of fun with WoW. Thanks for following my blog!

[lexiklecksi]

Writing questions (tag game)

Thanks @mjparkerwriting for tagging me to answer these writing questions!

1. What is your absolute all-time favourite idea you’ve ever had?

Probably the idea for my ya fantasy novel/ main wip "Drachenbrut". I wrote a flash fiction piece way back in the summer of 2018 about a vengeful dragon girl and I liked the character so much, I made her the protagonist of my book to tell her whole story.

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

Someone asked me if my characters are self-inserts and I think a lot about it. Since I'm writing my novel in multiple personal povs, I think in a way all my characters show a different aspect of who I am or of the person I don't want to be.

3. What is your favourite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

While writing, I love pouring my heart and soul onto paper, when the words just flow onto the page and a story that was caged in my mind comes to life. I don't like editing because I tend to overdo it and start questioning every word, which doesn't improve my original writing. Likewise, I rarely edit my poems and since I'm on the first draft of my novel, so far I've only edited basic grammar, spelling and plot holes or character names I've replaced.

4. What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

I could ramble so much about this, but it can be summed up in: The joy of telling a story, of getting lost in another world and find myself in the spaces between words.

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

“Everything is driven by characters wanting different things, and by those different things colliding. Every moment that one character wants something, and another character wants something mutually exclusive, and they collide—every time that happens, you have a story.” – Neil Gaiman

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

To stop overhinking all the details and just write out one story. A shitty first draft of a novel is better than many unwritten stories.

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

Apart from my wip, I've only written poems and flash fiction. Here are some of my favourites:

Fleeting hearts (flash fiction from the pov of my oc mage Saoirse)

The fork (poem with a weird metaphor for body positivity)

The wheel of time (sci-fi/ fantasy poem)

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

“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” — Allen Ginsberg

9. 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?

That is a tough question since all my characters are flawed and morally ambigious. I'm choosing Isobel, the evil faery. She grew up in the faery Queendom, which is basically a sex cult. She always takes what she wants and thinks she deserves more than others. Most beings only see her beauty and are enchanted by her looks, that’s why she gets away with treating others poorly. Plus, she loves to seduce other faeries and make them submit to her and her desires, so she never needs to raise more than a finger and actually work. I despise her selfish and lazy attitude and her lack of empathy and consent. Though I have to admit it's fun writing from her pov, because she is so convinced she deserves to be worshiped.

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

I think I first started writing stories in 3rd grade/ at the age of 8. Back then, I daydreamed about becoming an author and publishing a book. Well, I've self-published my first book last year (just a collection of my German poems) and I'm working on my second book now. So I think younger me would be proud of me for not giving up on my dream and continuing to write for all these years.

I'm tagging @wingedcatastrophe @lavender-laney @charlies-storybook @perasperaadastrawriting @betweenthetimeandsound @caprifoi @writinglyra @silent-creed @thespacelizard @innocentlymacabre @anagnorvices @space-writes @veneritia (template under the cut)

What is your absolute all-time favourite ideas you’ve ever had?

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

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

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

[drac-onion]

Finished P5R

Bunch of words under the cut, honestly I'm just ranting. Figured I'd spare your timelines of a massive wall of text.

Real talk, though. I cried for like 2 hours. From 2/2 all the way to the end. I would cry for a little while, and then stop for a bit. Then I would get to a cutscene or something and the waterworks would start back up again.

Man, I just...6 years ago, I played the original Persona 5. I finished it on May 27th, 2017, a little over a month after it released. I'm kind of impressed as to how I was able to marathon the whole thing in a month while balancing college and work (although I didn't have a whole lot of time dedicated to either at the time, so whatever).

It took me nearly three years to get around to finishing Royal. I got it on launch on PS4, played it for two weeks solid, and then...sort of fell off. I blame quarantine and going a little hard in the paint on playing it every day since I had nothing else better to do, but that doesn't really matter. I was also dealing with quite a bit on my plate at the time. From my car dying (and it being entirely my fault), to losing my job, to...well, I'm not going to make this about that. I could, but I'd be here for ages if I went over everything that's happened in my life.

I just want to say how special this game is to me. The characters, the story, the music, everything just sticks with me. Even after all this time. Even after I dropped the game for three years and picked it back up on PC after transferring my save (worth the money I spent on getting my saves decrypted, if I'm honest), I never stopped loving it. I just...had some other stuff going on. Between Royal coming out and now, since I've finished it, so much has happened. It's wild to think about how much life can change in three years. Hell, how much life can change in the 6 and a half years since I finished the original. So much has happened.

Perhaps it's a little "cringe" to think so fondly of a piece of media like this (enough to shed tears). A piece of fiction. Something, at its very core, not real. Fake. Made up. But there is something about it that's real, and I can't even put it into words. But, you're just going to have to take my word for it. If you know, then you know. If that makes me cringe, then so be it. I think any piece of media can have a message, and I've always found the messages in the games I enjoy motivating. "Time never waits, so find your own meaning to life's struggle, with your heart as your guide", "Be true to yourself, no matter how painful it may be", "Stick to your values, no matter how tough things are, and change the world for the better in your own way", "Once you're at rock bottom, the only way to go is up". I wish I could apply some of these messages in my own life. I suppose the only thing stopping me is me, right? That's how that works.

God, I can feel myself wanting to cry again, but I just don't have any more tears. I think this was the emotional release I've been looking for during the last couple months. Things aren't so good for me right now, and they're about to get a lot worse now that the holidays are coming up. I...don't like this time of year, to put it simply. This will likely come up in my writing in one form or another. (Write what you know, I guess?)

Persona, as a series, has always been so special to me. I hope that the series continues to grow in the best possible way. Can't wait to cry like a bitch when I eventually finish Persona 3 Reload!

Anyway, I had more stuff I wrote here, but I got waaaaaayyyy off track and into some personal places, so I'll stop myself here.

Aaaaahhh...yeah, that one is gonna be rough, even when I know it's coming. Yep.

Well...all that said...my journey with The Phantom Thieves of Hearts isn't over quite yet...I get to ride out yet another journey with these guys...not to mention P5T coming out in around a month. I'm glad to be able to spend more time with these characters. Now, then...

[cherrynojutsu]

Hello!! I’ve been reading your fic, Like Gold, for the past few days and I have fallen in love with it!! I really adore your writing — you make it so easy to get lost in your story; the way you write is just so captivating and beautiful. The transition from scene to scene, or shifts in time, are so smooth, and your prose, imagery and metaphors are nothing short of gorgeous. It’s clear that you love the characters so much: you explore Sasuke’s character in such a delicate yet deep way, Sakura feels so fleshed out and her conversations/interactions with Sasuke — however small — make me smile like an idiot. You nail every other character’s personality too. It’s so interesting to read a Sasusaku fic from Sasuke’s perspective and your exploration of his thoughts and feelings is done so well. I’m still in the early stages of reading, but your fic is so good that I had to stop by and tell you this. Your work is such a pleasure to read and you’ve also motivated me to write again. (I’m also learning new words thanks to you!)

In short, I love your writing so much and I hope that everything is going well for you. I wanted you to know how inspiring your work is and that I have been thinking non-stop about your fic for the past few days.

Thank you for sharing your work with us and take care! ❤️

Omg I'm so sorry, I'm not sure how long this msg has been in my inbox as I haven't gotten on Tumblr in a hot minute. Thank you so much!! I try to include a lot of narrative themes and imagery descriptors because they are what I love reading. Writing this story has been honestly therapeutic for me; I try to approach trauma in a way that feels realistic and messy. I've loved these characters since the tender age of 10-11 and have such nostalgia for them given I sort of grew up alongside them. (I'll date myself here: I used to get Shonen Jump delivered to my house in middle school bc not everything was available fully on my family's dial up internet.💀) I feel that Kishimoto did an incredible job setting up an immersive world with a diverse cast that also allows for a lot of varied character dynamics. It helps with characterization a lot when you have so much to work with already! Exploring those in the BP is the perfect setup as it's got room for extrapolation and filling in the blanks, so to speak.

Anyways I really appreciate the kind words. This story started as just a way for me to read the fic I wanted to read, to be honest. 😂 I've been very influenced by all of the great sasusaku fanfiction that already exists (Ghosts, Home is Where the Heart Is, Of Fate and the Unexpected, Unspoken, Samsara, etc.). There's so much already out there, but it's been quite a ride to throw my hat into the ring. I'm all invested in reader feedback and becoming a better writer in the process now, which is something I never expected. It's been so rewarding in that, as well as realizing someday I may want to write my own fiction with original characters and all that jazz. (I'll have to finish LG first, obviously, though I do have some original stories I add to now and then.)

And awww, I'm honored! The teacher in me loves exposing people to new words. 😂 All according to plan... lol jokes aside, thank you very much again for your kindness. I'm glad you're enjoying my silly little fanfic, and I wish you the best of circumstances in your own writing endeavors!

[lemon-inferno]

Encyclopedia of Useless Facts on Unbelievable Human Beings

Episode 2 – Loving Oneself ✔️

I think what I’ll stick to when talking about this show is discussing the cast, their thoughts and behavior. I would really like to get more into the topics they talk about too, but they are so broad and there’s so much said in a single episode that I can’t keep up unless I spend 4 hours just taking notes and writing what I want to add. This show is quickly going to become an obsession for me and I wish so badly that I could take part in their conversations.

Speaking of episodes, I suppose the official run time will really remain an hour and forty minutes. I’m okay with that. I really needed something like this to keep giving me brain food and things to think and obsess over.

I have a lot of other things to say, but they do all tie down to one individual on the show and I have mixed feelings about him. Before I get into those, I’ll just note down a couple of other things, to get them out of the way.

Namjoon seemed a lot more comfortable in this this episode and he spoke more too. I’m always impressed with his knowledge on art. Not the same as surprised. You can really tell he has passion for art and an obsessive mind when it comes to his passion. His contribution to this episode was significantly more than the first one and from now on I think we’ll only be seeing him being more and more involved. It makes me really happy that he’s truly enjoying this show and its format. I think it’s great for hungry minds like his and this is a great opportunity for him.

By the end of the episode my respect for astronomer Shim Chae Kyung skyrocketed. Not that I didn’t respect her before, but she really made me inspired with her words and I think she’s quickly conquered a place in my heart. Her words were reassuring, inspiring and motivating. Thinking about it, most of my role models resemble her. Her confidence in herself and her love for herself. I think she nailed the topic for this episode and I want to see her more. Although I’m not sure if the guests will be replacing one of the cast members we have now, or they’ll be just joining without any changed to our current cast. I really hope Shim Chae Kyung stays on the show.

Speaking of guests, next week’s guest is going to be screenwriter Jung Seo Gyeong. She wrote the Korean drama adaptation for “Little Women” and is one of the scriptwriters for the movie “The Handmaiden”. (I’ll admit those are the only two things I’ve seen that she’s worked on, but if you’re interested there’s a bunch more you can check out.

Okay now let’s move on to the part I dread the most, because I’m so conflicted about it. Or him. I made some unpleasant observations about novelist Kim Young Ha in the first episode, but I held back on commenting about him, because I didn’t want to judge him that quickly (as a person), based on just a couple of screen hours. However, in this episode I gradually got more and more irritated by some of the behavior he displayed. One is interrupting people. Now, granted as this is a conversation there will be some interruptions to be made. What I noticed is that when all other cast members interrupted, it was to either a) ask a question or b) make a genuine contribution to the conversation with a different point of view/opinion, something in relation to the topic. With author Kim Young Ha, when he interrupted it was to either a) keep telling the story instead of its original storyteller or b) to repeat something someone had just said, but in different words. It’s like this man doesn’t know how not to get the last word. I feel like at times he has this patronizing or condescending attitude towards the rest. A know-it-all, if you will. It keeps getting on my nerves. Luckily, the other cast members seem to handle him well. I personally don’t know I’d be able to.

On a more positive note, he did come up with the storyline of the show, which I enjoyed a lot. I think that redeems him a little in my eyes. I find the fictional concept of the show cool and I really liked the intro animations of this episode. I hope they keep it for the duration of the show. I think it’s a really nice touch that contributes to the viewers’ immersion in the show. Since the episodes are long, it could be a fun thought to keep in the back of your mind, that you’re stuck on a spaceship with these people for the next few years and they pass their time having endless conversations about various things.

And this pretty much wraps up my review of the second episode. Enjoying it greatly and I recommend it to those who are okay with long episodes and have wildly varying interests.

[doriansredroses]

36 for the ask game. I often daydream about you. My heart still aches, my Queen. You don’t have to respond. I’m sorry for everything.

The answer is that I daydream about a happier life where my family isn’t crumbling and the relationship with my father isn’t completely strained. We were close when I was a child and can only wish life was as wholesome now as it was in my childhood but my family is too far gone.

I also daydream about my fictional crushes, a lot. They keep me going during times of stress. I can’t help but come up with my own scenarios in my head for my fanfics and original stories. Now that I took a two or so month hiatus from writing, it’s all coming to me.

I doubt this is the answer you were hoping for. I do not daydream about you at all, Basil. You’ve embedded yourself into my darkest nightmares, the type that will wake me up and question my entire existence. Because of the incident, I question every friendship I have, waiting for things to go wrong. I do admit, I did make a few mistakes when we were close but you took things a bit too far. I’m not saying you were wrong and I was right, I’m saying we both screwed up in different ways.

What prompted the apology? I do appreciate it. Sorry isn’t going to reverse the damages. That’s the hard truth. If you’re asking for me to forgive you and allow you back into my life, it’s not going to happen. Things are too strained and it’s best if we stay apart for the rest of our lives. It’s healthier for us both.

I still think you might’ve written that story a few months ago, using my information and stuff. You were in Mean Girls at the time and had the motivations to do such a thing. If you still deny it, I understand. I’m not in a position where I’d get angry. Back then, I was not mentally well at all and I’m trying hard to crawl out of the hole and make the most of my school year. If you were to tell me you did it, I’d be thankful for the truth and closure.

I can’t forgive you, not yet at least. The wounds are still too fresh to mend. But if you promise to leave me alone and move on with your life, I’ll do the same. No more incident, no growing close again, we go our own ways. Maybe after some time, I can allow myself to forgive enough to move on completely. There’s no excusing what occurred, but we shouldn’t hold a grudge forever.

Because of this, I lost a ton of my online friends on Quotev. Only about three people stayed. It sent me into another depressive spiral. The drama followed me here and almost wrecked everything. It’s all died down now after someone came in and intervened. I didn’t have the energy to write at all for months. It crushed me. I am writing again after that break. Even if it had nothing to do with everything going on, I needed the break.

I apologize for anything I did to you. I did not realize it at the time but I could’ve handled things better myself. If you’re comfortable, reply to this or shoot me a message, and I’ll have a few friends ready to intervene if things heat up. Thank you for your apology and I hope things heal for both of us.

[tera-91]

Rant. Word Salad.

Hello

Its been quite a while since I wrote anything that is not related to my youtube channel videos. Honestly, I don’t know what to write. Im not sure if its writers block or what.

 Also I kind of have gotten out of the sanders side fandom. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the boys but I haven’t been into it like I use to. Until writing this I didn’t even know that there had been a sanders sides video released around the winter holidays. I haven’t been reading stories like I use to. Before I would spend hours upon hours between tumblr and various fiction sites reading a variety of ships.

Now I just watch videos or record and edit my own videos. I did make that account on AO3 I had talked about before, the user name is Tera-91 on there also, but I have never posted on it. Which will hopefully change this year. I just for some reason don’t want to do hardly anything.

I will come home from my job, take care of my plants and animals but then go straight to bed. If I didn’t live with anyone or any animals I feel like I would spend my days off just literally laying in bed and binge watch tv shows or youtube videos.

I feel as if I can only write in one specific spot in my house. If I try in another room I just don’t get hardly anything done which is really weird and I don’t get why.

I know we are already at/past Easter so this isn’t really like a “new years resolution” but I want to start doing more of what I want to do, writing being one of them.

Maybe Ill post more, maybe not. I haven’t decided if I wanted to post anything and everything. Or if I just want to limit it to stories. Short ones, long ones. Just anything that I write from any kind of series or original work. To filter or not filter, maybe just put warnings up if there is any profanity or I should just completely sensor the words like I have before. Which warning there will be profanity in this post shortly. I feel like I wrote just a ton of sanders sides and not much else so I don’t know if anyone who follows would be interested in stories that are not sanders sides.

Oh well. Sorry to kind of word salad my way through this post. Im hoping this will kick-start my brain into writing again. Being more active in the things that I use to like and enjoy, I still do enjoy them I just dont fell like I have the time to do them or if I have the time I just dont have the motivation. Its like I will only get the motivation when my hands are figuratively tied and I cant get to my computer or use my phone, or at least long enough to work on a draft. I am determined to do something productive with my time instead of just laying in my bed and watching youtube videos or streaming platforms.

I recently went to a Fall Out Boy concert with my sibling and Pete said something that hit me hard. I wish I recorded the whole thing so that I could play it on a loop. Im probably paraphrasing it at this point but the thing that Pete said, it rings in my ears now even weeks later, was it’s the shit you make that’s important.

I want to do that. Make important shit. Or at least what is important to me. Stuff that is creative, that helps people in some way or another. And I want that to start being a priority to me here and now.