#I'm incapable of writing narration at the moment

[amtrak12]

Long rambles about my current fic project because I’m too excited but I promise it will be horrifically boring for all who follow me unless you also happen to like reading Lucifer fic so I’m putting it behind a cut.

Okay so I'm that person who actually loved S6 and the finale but who also loves reading all the alternate 'Lucifer stays and gets to raise Rory' takes that fic writers put out because, while I don't want kids in real life, I am such a sucker for a good baby!fic. I'm also a HUGE sucker for time travel shenanigans so all the 'Rory time travels to a different season' fics are mmm *chef's kiss* delicious. Right up my alley.

Time travel shenanigans are also right up my writing alley. So, if I was going to use Rory to change any season of the show, it would 1000% be season 3. I abhor season 3. It was so uneven. It doesn't flow from season 2. The timeline was inconsistent from episode to episode making it hard to follow the main arc. Cain is arguably the MOST boring antagonist of the series and yet he was also supposed to be sympathetic at times???? I HATE HIM!

(also his curse doesn't make any sense. Is he really the only person in the history of humanity to not feel guilty for his actions? THE ONLY ONE? That doesn't make any sense! YOU DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!)

Anyway, I have tried multiple ideas to shift the events of S3 but my favorites just weren't working out so I let myself play with an idea someone else did in a fic: time travelling TODDLER Rory. The original fic writer dropped her in S4 right after Lucifer learned about Chloe's plot to permanently banish him to hell -- so you know, the absolute perfect time to drop their toddler daughter from the future on them. It was AMAZING. That fic took me for all I'm worth and then some. I'M IN LOVE.

So I thought, time travelling toddler fic, what a perfect treat to give my brain instead of beating my head against the wall. Except when I dropped a toddler Rory halfway into S3... it worked? Like the entire plot just ran through my head, one event after the other, and the emotions were delicious, but not as delicious as the ones that came after the goodbye to Rory. The fic is done, Rory's gone home, but the GRIEF my friends, THE GRIEF!!!!! Like can you imagine? 'Hey here's your daughter. No she hasn't been born yet but you don't mind, right? Great.' *two months later* 'Okay time for her to go back to her own timeline now. Say bye Mommy! Bye Daddy! See you in two seconds for her and SEVERAL YEARS for you' like ????? Heartbreaking. Just absolutely gutting stuff and I must write about Lucifer and Chloe navigating that. Especially because they're not even in a real romantic relationship yet when Rory goes home? They're full coparents and have recovered their S2 'dancing on the line of a relationship' but they haven't actually crossed that line yet. Then the adorable creature tying them together is just.. gone. She's just gone. Now what are they supposed to do?

(Also my god, the pressure knowing the future would put on you. Like, hey we know we're going to have a daughter before we even start a relationship. How awkward is that? So weird. So delicious to explore too.)

And then of course after the time travel and after the grief, you have to change the timeline right? Like sure, sure you showed Rory triumphantly returning home to her family in the epilogue of book 1. The reader knows they changed the timeline and Lucifer stays. But S3 Lucifer didn't believe the timeline would change when Rory left. S4 Lucifer didn't believe it would change either even as he and Chloe figured out how to have a relationship with each other. So OBVIOUSLY we need a third one to finish the story out. And OBVIOUSLY -- given that toddler Rory accidentally invented time travel because Trixie was sad about her daddy and Rory was determined to go to heaven and bring him back for the 'best big sister ever' -- we show Lucifer moving from 'I'm destined to abandon my daughter :(' to 'oh shit we actually can change the future! I can stay! :D'.... by allowing them to save Dan.

Now, I didn't know if they would save Dan or not. I know it's fic, but I still worried it would feel cheap if I let the *entire* future get rewritten. But if it's a plot device, it's not cheap. It's just smoirt. *taps side of head* Also it would still have to be a close call so that they know they've changed the future. They need to know they've changed the moment that Dan died in Rory's original timeline.

(Also also, since they don't know how Dan died in the original timeline, I get to write things like Maze stalking Dan 24/7 as a protection detail and Dan finally catching her and being like WTF are you doing? It's gr8. I'm totally normal about this trilogy. I promise.)

(Also also despite my main rants about Cain -- he lives in this trilogy? And goes to jail for the Sinnerman crimes/murdering Charlotte instead? But I've also changed his curse to being tied to Abel's guilt instead of his own. It was my spouse's idea to make it God's response to 'am I a brother-keeper?' like yes. Yes you are Cain. And now you don't get Heaven until your brother does. AND this means I get to have Eve interact with her son which would be both interesting and useful because Cain can tell Eve about Chloe being a gift and then Eve can tell Chloe because 1) it would drive a wedge between Lucifer and Chloe and 2) Eve can relate to being created for someone else and thinks it's kind of shit that Chloe doesn't even know she was created but mostly 3) it would drive a wedge between Lucifer and Chloe so Eve can get closer to Lucifer again. \0/)

(I love my girl. She's such a shit-stirrer when she's got that tunnel-vision on. <3)

Um, so yeah. That's what I'm working on. What are YOU working on? Are you also being completely normal about a story idea? :P

[please-just-let-me-have-a-name]

I officially have a rough draft for Splintered Glass in its base form 😭🎉

I say base form bc in my head it would actually be a webcomic

[galvanizedfriend]

hi, love <3 so, here's a random thought I'd like to share with you.

I always mention how much I would've loved to see The Wolf instead of The original as a TVD spin off, but, even though my though I still stand this statement, I think it would've not been the same.

Let me elaborate:

as I said many times before, your writing is the key of the whole story. Since you always narrates things such as inner thoughts, feelings and point of views, we also get an explanation about why a certain thing is happening ( i.e. the ending smut of chapter 30). However, no matter how talented the actor is, this thing never happens in TV shows, and it sadly leads to misinterpretation (either of the character or their action) and "randomness".

For example: Caroline is my babygirl, but I just know that if people would've *watched* instead of *reading* The Wolf, they would've hated her. Calling her a bad s/o, mother and friend because they would just judge her by her actions without knowing what's going on with the characters, misinterpreting her struggle for bitchness or something along those lines.

In conclusion, even though I would pay MILLIONS to just erase TO and bring TW to live action, I'm also happy to know that my favs are "covered" from the hate they have already received because the shows never portrait them and their issues in the right way.

that's it, just wanted to share this piece of mind that have been floating around my head for a while! lemme know what you think!

Under the cut because I got rambly. 😂

That makes sense. Obviously books/fics/any written content will always be much more dense than TV shows or movies because you get to be inside characters' heads, while on TV content you can only count on actors finding a way to translate these emotions, and some of them don't even have that capacity tbh.

Not to say that The Wolf would've been better than the actual show (I mean, I have my biased opinions, but that's just me 😂), but I think the writing on The Originals obviously contributed a lot to how bad the show was a lot of the time. It simply lacked substance, there were many times when things just straight out didn't make sense. At first glance it might seem like TW and TO are almost interchangeable, but they're really not, and this is a point I have been making over the years. It's not just about the obvious changes (Caroline instead of Hayley, which is a BIG change btw), but it's especially about the more subtle ones. The amount of thought I put into those scenes, characters, dialogues - it might not seem like it, but it's crazy. And so if you read the final product and you think 'wow! this makes sense! it should've been like this!' it's because there were loads of changes done to not only that part, but parts that came before, that suddenly, when put together, paint things under a completely different light.

The problem with TO for me is that it starts off from a place of complete nonsense, so everything that comes after that is building on top of a fragile foundation. I mean, they start off the show by retconning every single character to a certain degree. What can we expect after that? They were more interested in erasing everything that came before on The Vampire Diaries than in doing justice to the characters, so there's no way that could've ever been 100% solid. It had its moments, I can't say that it didn't, but it was mostly scattered scenes here and there, or ideas you could see that were good in theory (like the premise of S3), rather than entire story arcs within the show.

My point is that I don't think the lack of inner monologuing is the main problem with TO. There is a way to have compelling and profound writing even when you don't have narration to compose your scenes, and the fact some screenwriters are incapable of doing that is the reason why so many book to TV adaptations are so crappy. You have to be really inventive to make it work, and the crew on TO simply wasn't. But there were moments!

However, regarding Caroline and the things she does throughout the story, like going back to Mystic Falls in TW2 for instance, or when she leaves the compound in TW1. Honestly, even if that had been written by the best screenwriter in the world (obviously not me), and if Candice King had given an Oscar-worthy performance, people would still call her a bitch. 😂 There's a real edge of misogyny in how people judge female characters a lot more harshly than their male counterparts, especially when the things they do displease the male character, which was the case here. I got so many comments from people who were mad at Caroline because 'she should've just trusted Klaus, Klaus is a hybrid, he's the strongest, he knows better', completely disregarding the fact Klaus is basically a psychopath with trust and anger issues who was by no means a pillar of warmth and sanity a lot of the time. Caroline was, from start to finish, the most reasonable, stable person in that entire story, but there were many times when people were blaming her for things that were just not her fault. She was pregnant, alone, scared, trying to stay alive, to protect her child, and Klaus was at the peak of a downward spiral where he was listening to absolutely no one, but somehow Caroline was the one in the wrong for not trusting that he wouldn't act like a maniac. 😂

I'm not saying that is what you're saying, btw, I'm just saying Caroline would've been judged no matter what. But yes, she probably would've been very harshly criticized if this had been the show. Already she is! There's a lot of people who dislike her for how hard she was on Klaus, like he didn't deserve it. 😂

Having said all that 😂 I do give myself some credit for the fact people were feeling so much for Klaus in spite of everything lol He's very intense and dramatic in how he takes offense. If he thinks he's been wronged (and he thinks he's been wronged whenever someone doesn't take his side in a dispute, whatever that might be), he just goes all out, and he's merciless in how he judges the people around him, alwaus making himself out to be the victmized party. He might regret his actions later (usually because of that darned little thing called consequence), but never initially, and he's also terrible at apologies. So I wanted his POVs to be about how the whole world was against him, and how he knew what he was doing, and he couldn't trust anyone, etc etc, and people bought it. Personally, I was always on Caroline's side, but even though I know people were likely to side with Klaus anyway because that's the way it is, and people are biased towards him, I also think I might have manipulated them a little bit.

But I just reminded myself today that there is a very basic difference between canon and TW that means one could never replace the other which is that Caroline is a witch. 😂 That justifies her getting pregnant, but then it changes her entire backstory.

I hope my response didn't come out as though I'm being harsh or anything. Your pondering just got me thinking, and that's actually something I've thought about a lot throughout the years because I have certainly gotten many comments like what you said. Thanks very much for sharing! I really love reading that kind of thing. ❤️

[inaconstantstateofchange]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

thank you @hereforanepilogue for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 2!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? about 19k

3. What fandoms do you write for? baldur's gate 3

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

finirà bene [been posted longer]

hold me (like a knife) [literally posted today 😅]

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? i try to! i love talking about my thoughts and plans for the story and the background brainstorming that goes into it

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? i don't know if it's applicable because i'm incapable of writing actual angsty endings? angst, absolutely, but I can't end it that way. the closest would probably be the WIP oneshot i have exploring raphael and haarlep's dynamic? and that's less angsty ending and more just... The Way Devils Are™ y'know

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? currently it would be hold me (like a knife). the characters are still working for their happy ending in finirà bene.

8. Do you get hate on fics? not yet, but i don't get much interaction on them in general, so that mostly makes sense

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i do! the more unusual and inhuman the better, usually. i love exploring what the lived experience of someone not standard-human would be.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? not yet!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? certainly not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? no afaik

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? not unless mutual brainstorming over an unhinged wrestling!au counts

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? probably shen qingqiu/luo binghe from svsss, with a possible addendum of shen qingqiu/luo binghe/liu qingge

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? none so far! everything i want to finish right now i still very much have motivation to complete. finirà bene is going to take the longest just for its length, but so far i've been able to keep at it.

16. What are your writing strengths? from my own perspective and feedback i've received, i feel like i'm pretty strong in my descriptions and dialogue/characterization. those are two things that i used to consider my primary weaknesses so it's nice to be able to see them now as my strengths.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? i resist splitting sentences as long as i can. like are they technically correct? yes. should i please give the narrator a single moment to catch their breath? also yes.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? hmm... i don't foresee a lot of cause for it? so i'm not opposed theoretically but i can't really see it happening

19. First fandom you wrote for? that i posted anywhere, naruto. that i just wrote longhand for me and my one friend in middle school, twilight and/or harry potter.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? hold me (like a knife), by a slim margin. it is so self-indulgent and everything i wanted to read myself, and the fulfillment of a scene that's been in my mind for months, since playing through bg3 the first time. i also took it from an unedited 4.5k to a fully-edited 10.5k words in a fever-dream of a long weekend, which is an absolutely unprecedented accomplishment for me.

tagging @selkie-of-sule-skerry, @edda-grenade, and @childofyuggoth, as well as anyone else who wants to participate!

[mysoulremains]

'Anything in my power' for the ask because that is my favourite work of yours so far ^^ and 3, 14, 15 for the questions

3. What is your favourite line of narration?

Morpheus waited for the story to loop again.

Then he began writing.

i know it doesn't look much out of context, but i just really love the mental image it gives me

14. Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

;v; i just wanted them to know that my wip isn't abandoned lmao, anything else they got from it is up to them. i wrote something but the ground is soft, you can dig as deep as you want

or that just being you should be enough for someone to love you, but you can still do something for them :3 (if that makes sense???)

15. What did you learn from writing this fic?

that i can finish a 2k fic in one and a half hour if i have the outline ready from our dms

that i am incapable of writing pure fluffy oneshots without incorporating some tear jerking moments (i didn't mean to make anyone cry, i'm so sorry hdjdhdhf)

[snaptrappresscomics]

FCBD 2024 Haul Review

It's Free Comic Book Day yet again! I was actually pretty excited for this one, as for the first time in a good couple of years I was able to go out to a few stores with my partner and one of my best friends. I've been wanting to use this space as an actual blog a lot more, so I figured this might be fun to do. I'm gonna go through my stack of free stuff and give some thoughts on each of these! I'll also be giving totally arbitrary ratings, basically to indicate whether or not I would be interested in picking up more of these series.

UNICO AWAKENING (Scholastic) 7/10 Samuel Sattin and Gurihiru, based on the original manga by Osamu Tezuka

So, I've always wanted to get into Tezuka's work as a big Astro Boy fan, but I find it kind of hard to engage with a lot of the time in the same way that golden age American comics are. The dialogue feels kind of clunky when translated to english, and there are a lot of moments of... unsavory themes and ideas, to say the least. I'd never read or even heard of Unico, but you can tell just from the cover that it's a Tezuka creation. That all said, I thought this preview of the upcoming graphic novel was really charming! The story is really simple but engaging, and Gurihiru's art is just absolutely adorable. If I see it at a bookstore or my LCS, I just might pick this one up. If you've got a young kid who's into fantasy or things like My Little Pony, give this one a try.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (IDW Publishing) 9/10 Various, anthology

I'm a pretty big fan of the IDW TMNT series, but I kind of fell off of it a ways before #100, so I'm about 65 issues behind. I was interested to see what the series would do with its post-issue 150 relaunch, which is apparently set in the same continuity but begins a new story to get new readers interested and re-engage old readers. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was really excited when I saw Nightwatcher on the cover! I love the 2007 TMNT movie, and I think Raphael being a lone vigilante with a superhero name and armor is a cool concept in itself, so I was pumped to see the character return in a new piece of media. The first story in this one-shot, which is a short preview of the upcoming Nightwatcher solo book, was really really good. I really enjoyed the art, which felt painterly and solid in a way that not a lot of TMNT stuff is (to the point that the colors reminded me a lot of Mouse Guard) and the writing was really cool. I love the narration about the concept of the "other," and the tone and themes felt really compelling in the current political atmosphere. The second story, Splinter's Day Off, was not quite as engaging but still really enjoyable. The story was really cute, and I've been a fan of Andy Kuhn's art since he first worked on the IDW Turtles books. Overall, a pretty good pickup! Got me very interested in seeing what the next chapter of IDW Turtles will look like. ENERGON UNIVERSE 2024 SPECIAL (Image Comics/Skybound) 7/10 Daniel Warren Johnson, Ryan Ottley, Robert Kirkman, Lorenzo De Felici, Joshua Williamson, and Jason Howard

I've been keeping up with the Energon Universe Transformers comic since its launch, and as someone who could not care less about G1 Transformers, I absolutely adore it. Daniel Warren Johnson is a modern master of comics action, and each issue is more engaging than the last. That said, I haven't read any of the other stuff set in this new universe. Void Rivals doesn't look all that interesting (although I read two issues because I heard Jetfire appears in it), and I'm under the age of 45 so I'm completely incapable of caring about GI Joe in any capacity. Now that the intro is out of the way, I really liked the Transformers part of this. Ryan Ottley is one of my favorite artists in the industry, and his work is great here as always, but I can't help but feel he's trying to imitate Johnson's style and it's kind of holding him back. The way he draws the mouths of the Cybertronian characters is really weird, and sometimes the lines feel a bit too stiff and scratchy. The story was engaging, though, and beyond those critiques, this is truly fantastic Transformers art. The cover is also absolutely spectacular. The art in the other two stories is great too, but seeing as I don't know anything about the ongoing story of either series, this really didn't hook me in beyond an appearance by Hot Rod in the Void Rivals section. Remember, folks: If you have strongly-held opinions about G1 Transformers or GI Joe, it's about time you got your regular colonoscopy.

ABSOLUTE POWER SPECIAL EDITION (DC Comics) 3/10 Mark Waid and Mikel Janin

I gotta be honest, my eyes completely glazed over trying to read this. I just absolutely cannot give a shit about DC's big event comics anymore. This was basically white noise in printed form. The character of Failsafe is kinda neat, I like the Zur-En-Arrh Batman stuff, but all of this bullshit technobabble was just completely indecipherable to me. That said, the art was very, very good in both of the little preview stories here. I'm sure the comic itself will be written well, but I cannot bring myself to care about the fate of the DC universe. The advertisement for season 2 of My Adventures with Superman on the back cover was more exciting.

ASTERIX (Papercutz) 6/10 R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo

Asterix is just one of those things that, as an American, I have never been exposed to in any capacity, and to be honest, it never really interested me like other European comics like Valerian or Tintin did. It kind of just struck me as newspaper comics-style fun, and I can now confirm that I was right! The cartooning here is really great, the illustrations are super lively and engaging and the character designs themselves are instantly iconic. Like I said, I've never read Asterix before, but that design is so distinct that I already knew WHO Asterix is. The writing here is not really for me. It's probably just a matter of humor written originally in French not really crossing language and cultural borders seamlessly, and this also seems to be aimed at a younger crowd, which is totally fine! It's just not really for me. I did think the detail of the Greeks speaking in that Greek diner menu font was very cute. I'm always a sucker for a good lettering gag.

ARCHIE HORROR PRESENTS: THE CURSED LIBRARY PRELUDE (Archie Comics) 6/10 Various

I was a huge reader of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, to the point that I'd say they were more formative to my tastes as both a reader and creator of comics than almost anything else, but I've never really been interested enough in the world and characters of Archie proper to follow along with the comics consistently, though I've always had it in my periphery. I'd get the digests at the grocery store as a kid, I've got some old issues that my parents gave me, and I remember my sister being really into the Archie Marries Betty/Veronica comics when those were ongoing. After the reboot of all the Archie universe comics in the mid-2010s, I fell off completely. Riverdale didn't interest me at all, that Sabrina show on Netflix wasn't my bag, and the comics (besides Archie vs. Predator) were a complete blindspot to me for the years following that reboot. Archie's weird scramble for an identity as both a slice-of-life series and an unrelated horror series has been interesting to watch, though, especially knowing the history of the brand as the most squeaky-clean comics in America. Honestly though, the horror stuff just does absolutely nothing for me. Afterlife with Archie was kinda fun very briefly, but nothing else has really worked for me. This one-shot preview was interesting conceptually, but I feel like I'm missing too much setup to really get engaged by this, and it doesn't make me want to find out what I'm missing. The art is all very good though, and the writing is totally fine for what it is.

BARDA (DC Comics) 8/10 Ngozi Ukazu

Big Barda and Mister Miracle (Scott Free) are two of my absolute favorite DC characters, and Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga is among my favorite stories and concepts in comics ever. I love everything that Fourth World is, and almost everything that came out in the wake of it. I feel like if you want to make a new, good Fourth World story, you need to have either a really solid grasp on Kirby's ideas and aesthetics, or something totally new and unique to call your own while using the world and ideas as a springboard. This preview of the upcoming YA Barda Graphic Novel strikes me as the second of those two things more than the first. It's not trying to look exactly like Kirby's original designs, but it evokes the spirit of the thing well enough that I wasn't confused who anyone was. The art is adorably charming, and the story looks neat: A look at the meeting of Scott Free and Barda and the relationship that blooms out of that. I think this could turn out really fun and cute! I look forward to the graphic novel itself, which releases this summer.

BLOOD HUNT (Marvel Comics) 4/10 Jed McKay, Sara Pichelli, Federico Blee

Much like Absolute Power, this one left me feeling almost nothing. I think maybe I'm just too old for big superhero event comics, because they all kind of feel the same. They always end up being clones of older things like Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Clone Saga, Infinity Gauntlet, etc. This feels like your generic Secret Invasion type of deal, where an army of evil something or others (in this case, vampires) comes to earth to wipe out mankind and yadda yadda etc. etc. Admittedly, this one seems the slightest bit interesting as it pulls in both street-level heroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man and cosmic characters like the Fantastic Four to deal with the same threat on different scales. The appearance by literal, actual Dracula was kind of neat, and it's mostly just nice to see Marvel using Blade stuff for something again besides a video game or a reboot movie that's never coming out. The X-Men backup story was honestly so bland I forgot about it as soon as I set the issue down to write this. I liked the art, though, and Jubilee is one of my favorite X-Men so that was neat at least.

CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE (Titan Comics) 9/10 Jim Zub, Jonas Scharf

Now THIS is how you do a FCBD book! I've been on a huge Conan/sword and sorcery kick for like a year now, and this preview of an upcoming Conan story scratched that itch hardcore. I haven't been keeping up with Conan's comic exploits for quite a while; I read some of the later-era Dark Horse stuff, but once he went back to Marvel for a month and a half or whatever I lost interest. I may have to go back and pick up Titan's other Conan comics though, because this totally rocks. Jim Zub strikes the exact kind of action-fantasy tone a good Conan story requires, and Scharf's art is absolutely pitch-perfect. It's dark and gritty without getting muddy, high-contrast shadows and scratchy textures abound. The time-spanning nature of this story seems neat, and I look forward to the mystery unfolding in the series proper.

FLASH GORDON #0 (Mad Cave) 7/10 Jeremy Adams, Will Conrad

I liked this one! I have a passing knowledge of Flash Gordon thanks to my mom's love of the 80s movie and my love of Queen, but I've never been really familiar with the world and characters. This got me interested to see where Mad Cave is going to take the mythology, even if I was a little lost while reading it. I liked the art quite a bit, and I really love how they've gone about updating Flash Gordon's design to be a bit more modern, while retaining that pulpy look to everything that makes the series so charming.

GATCHAMAN #0 (Mad Cave) 6/10 Bunn, Orlando, Edwards, Batista, Hansen, Lobo

Gatchaman is another one of those things that just never really reached my sphere of comic book influence, but I've always really liked the costumes of the Science Ninja Team. I was pretty interested to see if this preview issue would get me hooked enough to want to follow up and read the ongoing series, but I'm not super sure that it did. I liked the science fiction stuff, the second short story in this anthology worked well, and the art was good in all three stories, but overall I just wasn't really hooked by it. I feel like if I had read this around age 15 I probably would have loved it, but it just wasn't for me right now. Also, Chris Samnee's art on the cover is absolutely fantastic and I'm slightly disappointed that he wasn't doing the interiors.

HELLBOY and STRANGER THINGS (Dark Horse Comics) 8/10 Mignola, Laszlo, Stewart/ Fridolfs and Case

Another two-series anthology here, and for once I actually really liked both parts! The first part, a Hellboy story involving a storyteller, is sort of just a visual retelling of Hellboy's story from start to finish, with each important chapter of the story in a beautiful panel drawn by Mark Laszlo. It's not really anything I haven't read before, but it was really charming and nice to look at. The second half, a Stranger Things story titled "Deliver Me From Evil," is a short centering on Jonathan and Argyle. Argyle was my least favorite part of the fourth season of ST, but he's grown on me over time and my love of this series made this a fun read. I kinda want to go back and read some of Dark Horse's other Stranger Things stories, because I just really love this world.

JOHNNY QUEST, THUNDERCATS AND SPACE GHOST (Dynamite Comics) 8/10 Casey, Piriz, Shalvey, Moss, Pepose, Lau

All of these series are based on cartoons from before my time, but I've always had a fondness for the old Hanna-Barbera superhero and action stuff, and I've always felt that Thundercats was far superior to He-Man in terms of aesthetics and lore. I really liked all three of these stories, and I feel like Johnny Quest in particular fills a "Challengers of the Unknown" shaped-void in the comics world, with a story about a group of normal people on a sci-fi adventure. Thundercats looks like a fun, semi-gritty reimagining of the original cartoon's origin stories, and the Space Ghost story seems like it'll be a good time, with the story following Jace before he becomes one of SG's sidekicks. I had no expectations for any of these, but they all look like a good bit of fun.

THE OVERSTREET GUIDE TO COLLECTING COMICS 6/10 Vaughn, Huesman and Gonzalez

If there's one thing I hate in this world, it's people who collect comics or toys or video games or whatever solely as an investment. It ruins the hobby for other people and turns what should be fun escapism into purely a matter of business. That said, I found this little publication from the famous Overstreet Price Guide company to be charming and a sweet look into the nature of collecting comics and supporting your LCS. I've never been someone who collects for the purpose of reselling, and I've never been insanely concerned with buying secondhand comics in mint condition, so a lot of this fell flat to me, but it was charming and it can give an outsider a fun look into the world of comics buying and collecting. The art is really good, and the writing is serviceable considering this is essentially intended to be an educational pamphlet.

MAD MAGAZINE 8/10 Various, reprints

I've been a MAD magazine fan for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, my grandma got me a subscription for my birthday 5 years in a row, and I truly enjoyed every issue, even in the modern age where a lot of the humor can be defined as "Isn't it WACKY what celebrities are willing to say on Twitter???" But this was a refreshing look back at MAD's parodies of DC superheroes specifically, and it was extremely charming. It's all reprints of old material, and it's funny to see the specific things getting parodied at any given time, and the costumes in use for each parody. Not all of it lands, but it gave me enough laughs to justify the reading experience.

SPIDER-MAN and ULTIMATE UNIVERSE (Marvel Comics) 5/10 Wells, Stegman, Camp and Frigeri

Lastly, we have another Marvel job. I was, sadly, also not really enthused by this one at all. Everyone involved has done better work elsewhere, and this just feels like something to fill time in everyone's work schedules. The Spider-Man story is basically "What if Spider-Man was in Five Nights at Freddy's," and the Ultimates story was a little more engaging, if only because there are fun concepts at play. I actually do really like what Marvel is doing with this new Ultimate Universe, and I'm pretty interested to see where it goes. Sadly though, this was another pretty forgettable issue.

And that's it! I picked up a few more things, but I don't have strong enough opinions about pretty much any of it to warrant writing much more. I always recommend going to your LCS even if it's after Free Comic Book Day, because they usually have leftovers for months following the event, and they still give it away for free.

[creativeenquirymadeline]

Incorporating Text.

For a while now I've wanted to incorporate text into my work and while I was watching the last coil pottery video I posted I realised this would be the perfect time to test it out.

The text would need to relate to my work in some way and when I was doing my initial research I had jotted down a few pieces of media that relate. The strongest being Dazai Osamu's 'No Longer Human.'

"In No Longer Human the protagonist portrays himself as a failure. The narrater leads a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo’s attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a ’clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness."

As much as this book is the perfect candidate with it's exploration of alienation in society I'd rather not use it. I don't think the text would work in the way that I would like it to. Overall there is very little poetic about it, as imagined it's the monologue of a depressed man.

The Setting Sun deals with the decline of Japan's aristocracy in the wake of World War II, and portrays characters adrift in a world that no longer feels familiar.

I am more inclined to use this text, I suppose because I have read it more recently that I am more inspired and the quotes are fresh on my brian . In particular, I really love this little passage.

Lastly, I have a bit of writing I did in the past that I never thought would reach the light of day so it's slightly embarrassing to share but if it's for the sake of using something I've written myself I'm prepared to. I've picked out sections that are decent enough to consider instead of sharing the full text online.

"Beyond saving, with filth clinging to every pore,

drenched in a filth so dense I'm unable to tear it from my skin."

"It weeps into my bones and pollutes my lungs."

"Destined to drown until all that I hold is left withered and unsalvageable."

"Smeared black, and riddled with a mould so thick it can no longer be cleansed."

"It swallows my passions,

It strips the lining from my interests and reduces them to rust,

It rips the flesh from my relationships and leaves me to rot."

"I want to feel clean,

so pure I can feel warm again.

Untouched, I can embrace again."

"no longer able to exist as an individual; I disintergrate with each wish to be whole again."

[scripttorture]

I'm trying to write a character who gets depression/anxiety after a few days of torture, but I'm worried that from an outside perspective the tiredness, lack of interest, and hyper vigilance are going to look like the character has been beaten down into meekness/compliance by the torture. Any advice on how to avoid the trope that this character was broken by their expeience when most days they're too tired to argue about anything and are slowly checking out of life due to the depression?

That’s a really good question. I think the best thing to do is combine several different approaches rather then relying on one particular thing.

 My first piece of advice holds true for writing any kind of minority experience. If you think you could be suggesting that an entire group has a particular feature/characteristic include another character from the same group who doesn’t. The more characters you have who are torture survivors the easier it is to show that they’re a diverse bunch with different symptoms and experiences.

 They don’t need to be major characters. They don’t need to be in the story for very long. But having them there makes a big difference.

 This is a lot easier if you’re talking about legally defined torture in a prison of some kind. But if that’s not the kind of story you’re telling consider bringing other survivors in during the character’s recovery. They could meet people while waiting to see the same doctor or mental health professional. They might be advised to join a group, either for group therapy or communal support. They might meet people while looking for financial support or jobs. If they’re religious they might be introduced to people through their priest or broader religious community.

 The next thing worth thinking about is: what can your character practically do?

 We have this tendency to conflate resistance with big, obvious, violent acts. Most of the time torture victims are not in a position to do that kind of thing. And in situations where people are held for a very long time (ie slavery, prisoner of war camps etc) what you tend to see are a lot of smaller or less obvious acts. Enslaved people did oppose slavery violently, with organised military action and with smaller acts of violence like poisoning slave owners.

 But they also did a host of other things. They sabotaged equipment or products they were supposed to produce. They broke valuable objects. They provided each other with material support and aid. They escaped and set up separate societies. They channelled resources into these societies. They aided others in escape attempts.

 It’s always worth thinking about what your character can actually practically do and what the risks or consequences of those actions might be.

 I talk about that in a post over here. Characters can take meaningful action even when they can’t take effective action. It’s worth taking the time to think about what would be meaningful to this character and figure out ways to show them prioritising it.

 It’s also worth considering what depression and anxiety can look like because yes, the features you describe are common in people with depression and anxiety. But they’re not necessarily constant and they’re not the only ways these conditions manifest.

 Depression can look like sleeping all the time. It can also look like not sleeping and a lack of sleep feeds into anxiety. Insomnia also causes paranoia after a while, makes it harder to interpret other people’s responses and can increase the risk of violent behaviour.

 Similarly depression can look like eating a lot, but it can also look like nausea, like being unable to eat full meals and struggling to keep food down. From the outside anxiety can be read as fear but it can also be read as aggression.

 It wouldn’t be unrealistic for this character to be more depressed at times and more anxious at others. It wouldn’t be unrealistic for them to be incredibly sleep deprived, paranoid and less able to see the risk in something like… spitting on a guard some days even if they’re generally incredibly tired, lethargic and apathetic.

 Basically even if this is the predominant way depression and anxiety manifest in this character there’s still leeway. There’s still moments when you can have them go against that. Even if it isn’t very often.

 The choice to use an outside perspective does make things harder. Especially if that perspective is a character who believes these kinds of tropes and has a poor understanding of mental health. One way to get around this is to have the point of view character’s perspective change with time and have them come to (and lead the audience to) the conclusion that they were wrong.

 But the character doesn’t need to reach that realisation if you work in enough signals to the reader that they’re unreliable. One way to do that is to contrast what the point of view character thinks with what the survivor character actually says and does.

 Let’s say the point of view character is having a conversation with another person who isn’t a survivor and they present the survivor as this sad case, broken by what they experienced because of a specific behaviour. Like sleeping a lot or being listless or not engaging with things in the way they used to.

 On it’s own that scene could easily back up these tropes (though it’s not an unrealistic scene because these tropes are commonly believed.) So let’s imagine the scene with the survivor’s response.

 They could respond that they sleep a lot because they have chronic pain or because their depression makes it hard to eat properly which leaves them exhausted. Physical symptoms like that are often easier for people to understand and it underlines the point that this is illness not some state where they’re permanently incapable. They can also respond with the steps they’re taking to try and make their life better. For chronic pain in torture survivors that can mean medication or physiotherapy. Perhaps they’re working on changing their diet or the schedule they eat at and sleep at, to work around these physical limits.

 You can apply the same kind of logic to the other points here, talk about why depression makes the character listless or stops them engaging and what they’re doing now. The aids that help them focus, how therapy is going, the new hobbies they’re exploring instead (perhaps because old ones contain triggers.)

 It’s harder to apply the same thing if the character is still imprisoned and still being tortured. But you can still do it. May be the dreams and plans the victim character had before seem meaningless now, but there will still be things they want to do and there will still be things they find meaning in.

 May be they don’t think they can be a Nobel prize winning doctor any more and may be to an outside perspective that looks like ‘broken’. But it’s harder for the audience to agree with that conclusion if the victim character is saying ‘My priorities are different now. I regret spending so much time working and I miss my family. If I get out I want to make them my focus instead of work.’

 A self aware character might be able to say ‘I don’t think I could achieve that dream anymore. But I think I could achieve this instead.’

 You can have other characters, doctors, psychologists or anyone who has worked with survivors for a long period, refute the idea these people are broken. Hurt, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of living or of living well.

 If the perspective is more of an omnipresent narrator you’ve got more scope to show little acts of resistance the character might be engaging in. You’ve also got more scope to just straight up tell the readers what’s going on in this character’s head.

 It’s worth stressing that characters like this do still have and make choices. They are choices in incredibly awful situations and they are not free choices. But that capacity to choose is still there. And there are understandable, though not always rational, thought processes behind those choices.

 Depression doesn’t always mean checking out of life. I’ve known a fair number of people with depression who kept going with things they considered important. They just also… got no enjoyment out of it. They were miserable and in pain. But they were still trying to do the best they could for their kids or finish their degree. These efforts weren’t always successful. Depression makes most things more difficult.

 But a character willing to give up on themselves isn’t necessarily willing to give up on other things.

 At the end of the day the symptoms you choose for your character and how those symptoms manifest isn’t the problem. There’s nothing wrong with picking the symptoms that are right for your character and there’s nothing wrong with writing them in this way.

 The problem comes when we start telling people that there’s no hope, that nothing gets better. It comes when we imply that natural, physiological reactions to trauma are somehow the fault of the victim or that those reactions mean they are forever controlled by their abuser.

 Torture is an awful, effecting and life changing experience. It leaves lasting wounds.

 But humans are incredibly resilient, stubborn creatures. Our capacity for survival, to find ways to live well, is astounding.

 There’s room for optimism here and it’s worth making space for that in your story.

 I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[sounds-of-some-day]

1-5 for JLTWWD <3

Thank you so much for the ask! I do love to talk about my fic.

What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I'm not sure exactly what it means by "this way", but uh... Well, it is my first and only fic with a sort of stream-of-consciousness style of narration, so I'll talk about that. I actually started writing it with a more typical narration, and then I was editing it, and I wrote this line:

So last night Tony had made the completely rational decision to swear off men completely for the rest of his whole life, or at least, that’s what he had scrawled across the top of his nonlinear dynamics homework before drunkenly passing out in a puddle of his own drool – drool, definitely not tears, because he certainly wasn’t going to cry himself to sleep over that asshole Ty. Swearing off men. Completely. Forever.

And I just....really loved it. But it sort of changed the tone of the whole thing. So I went back and rewrote the entire first chapter to be more like that, and honestly, it's making writing a hell of a lot of fun. I am having a blast with it. I wish I were better able to replicate this vibe in other fics.

2. What scene did you first put down?

You know, I am one of these people that is incapable of writing things out of order, which is part of why I write so slow, because if I hit a roadblock it kinda brings everything to a screeching halt. So, the first thing I wrote was Tony standing outside the Howling Commando.

But the first scene I planned was actually the scene in the truck from the end of chapter four. (Though it came out very different than initially planned - but Rhodey was always going to be a cockblock, lol.)

3. What’s your favorite line of narration?

Gah...so I went back and reread it to answer this ask, and there is so much in this fic that I just really love. I think chapter four is the best, but chapter three has so many parts that just make me grin like an idiot when I reread them. I like Steve's musings in chapter two about what if he met Tony somewhere else, and of course, I fucking love the whole Malibu fantasy thing from chapter three. But if I had to choose one line it would be this one from chapter three:

There was nothing that he wanted more, in this moment, than for Steve to ravage him: with his lips, with his hands, with his tongue; kiss him, touch him, mark him, claim him, assure him that no one would ever treat him like those men had, ever again.

It was one of those lines that I thought people would really latch onto and then they didn't, but I think it's still my favorite. Also because, as we find out in chapter four, Steve is having these EXACT SAME thoughts at this exact same moment.

4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Okay, so I take a lot of pride in my dialogue and making it sound natural like something people might actually say, and there are a lot of conversations that I really love the flow of, like the first convo at the bar between Steve and Tony in chapter four when they're both trying to dance around figuring out if the other is interested (you know, because they're both idiots). But I honestly don't know if there's a single piece of dialogue that has, like, a wow factor. Maybe I need to get better at writing punchy dialogue. But I'll go with this line from Natasha:

“You still seem tense, so it couldn’t have been that good.”

5. What part was hardest to write?

Hmmm. Probably a toss up between the first convo between Steve and Natasha in chapter four and the pool scene in chapter four.

Writing the conversation was a process of writing and deleting and writing and deleting and writing and deleting again. I did manage to get all the pieces I wanted to get into that conversation into it. There's one part where I feel like it doesn't quite flow as well as I'd like, but I wanted to get that part in because I'm going to call back to it in a future chapter. But overall I'm okay with how it came out.

The pool scene...well, thanks to you, the pool scene made it into the fic, because it almost got cut entirely. I am ridiculously pleased with how that scene came out, but it was extremely challenging to get all the technical aspects in and still have it be sexy, which was the whole point of the scene in the first place. Also I spent WAY too much time watching videos of pool shots on youtube, lol.

Again, thanks for the ask!

If you want to send an ask about my fic, please do! Help me get my mind off of how much everything sucks right now.

[bitsandbobsofwriting]

I sent in the one about the angry magic reveal and I meant 2+3+11 :)

(Referencing This List of Questions) (Angry Magic Reveal Series)

2) What scene did you first put down?

So, this may seem obvious to other people, but I'm not sure, so I'll explain quickly: When I write fics that rely heavily on dialogue, or are based around a specific conversation or exchange of words, I tend to write all the dialogue out first, then fill out the context/physical reactions/surrounding environment after. And it's vice versa for fics that are based around an action scene, the action gets written in detail first, with vague dialogue that's necessary for me to visualise, then the rest is filled out after.

This fic, at least the first part, was based on Merlin's anger towards Uther primarily, and his sadness that Arthur was close to following in his footsteps secondarily. Everything else (including parts 2, 3, 4, 5) was written around this bit:

“Why?? Why do I hate him? Maybe because he was blinded fear and selfish hatred.”

Merlin stops and looks away, but doesn’t sit down, still tense.

I imagine he’s waiting for Arthur to say something, but he doesn’t, opting to wait for Merlin to carry on himself, unwilling to remind Merlin exactly who he was talking to, and about what.

After a few moments of silence, Merlin continues, getting angrier with each word as he paces:

“Your father, the Great King Uther, murdered thousands of people. He committed genocide, because he insisted on blaming other people for his own mistakes. He didn’t pay attention to the fine print, and killed his own wife and in return, he executes THOUSANDS of MY people. Just for daring to exist. He was so full of hatred, but he, of course, was infallible so it MUST have been someone else’s fault. He was incapable of admitting his own mistakes and the injustice that went unpunished is indescribable, he was a tyrant, and a murderer, and I’ll never forgive him.”

^^I especially wanted to fit in the idea of Merlin letting slip that they were "his people" because he was so angry and emotionally invested that he didn't even notice until Arthur pointed it out.

3) What's your favourite line of narration?

Ok so skim through all 23k words to try and find my favourite bit, only to come back to the first part and pick this:

But when Arthur looks deeper. Really Looks at Merlin. He sees the fear, Arthur has no doubt in his mind that Merlin could escape, or even fight him off, now, if he needed to. But Merlin is scared.

If that wasn’t enough to break Arthur’s heart, the quick glance that Merlin throws to the space a few feet from Arthur’s side, is.

Arthur looks over slowly, eyebrows furrowed, to see what Merlin glanced at so fearfully. His heart shatters when he realises what it is. Arthurs sword, sat underneath his bag, just out of his reach. Merlin thinks Arthur is going to kill him. Merlin is scared. Of Arthur.

^^Visually, in my head, I've always LOVED the idea of Merlin fearfully looking at Arthur's sword, or glancing towards an escape route, and Arthur realising with a sudden, horrifying clarity, that Merlin genuinely believes that Arthur might try to kill him.

11) What do you like best about this fic?

Hmm. Two bits. The mental bond between Arthur and Merlin, and how they don't even tell anyone other than Gaius and Morgana because it's their special little thing. And also the Vision Scene, heavily inspired by a chapter in one of the Skulduggery Pleasant books (my favourite books when I was younger, love them so much I could genuinely go back and read them again now). I just liked the visuals of the steam and Morgana sat in the middle, no one really being able to see each other, the black and white scene, everything fading and them all just staring at where Merlin's body had been. Unjustifiably fond of that bit😅

~

Keep the questions coming guys!! I'm really enjoying this!! I've got a lot of #9 and #11, anyone wanna ask anything else (though ask what you want of course, I'll answer all of them :D)?

[cosplayingwitch]

Tumblr Writers Q&A Tag

Thanks for tagging me @make-me-imagine, I'm sorry it's taken this long for me to get around to things. 1. How many complete fics/oneshots do you have (that you have not published (yet))? None finished but not posted at the moment. 2. How many WIPS do you have right now? I have one permanently abandoned one-shot (but I haven't deleted it, who knows if I'll someday come back to it) and working on a major overhaul of my favorite story I've ever written- I think that counts as a WIP even though it's sort of written 3. Do you take writing requests or write original ideas, or both? I mostly do original ideas and writing challenges, but I am not opposed to taking requests in the future. (Once I actually have more time to write again.) 4. If you do take requests, how many do you currently have? As I said, no requests currently, but possibly in the future. 5. How many fandoms do you write for? One fandom comprises 90% of what I've written, then two smaller ones- so 3? But I'm considering others. 6. Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past, that you no longer write for? No, but then again, I only started writing fan fiction last August. Not a lot of time to have a "past" with. 7. Do you write for ships, reader inserts, or other? I write mostly for reader inserts, but I've been kind of experimenting with a reader/OC hybrid situation where it's entirely first person narrating. I did write a entirely OC one-shot, but didn't care for it. 8. Niche fandoms/characters you write for? Unless you count Criminal Minds, none. 9. Do you read fics as well as write them? The last couple months I've been reading more than I write, as I haven't had time to write 10. What is your favorite genre (angst/fluff/whump/etc) to write for? I've tried, but I am physically incapable of writing anything that does not contain some form of fluff. For example, the "darker" fic I tried to write somehow morphed into a soulmates AU with a fluffy ending. 11. What is your favorite trope (to read and/or write)? My ideal to read is friends to lovers/idiots in love. To write, I've done rather well with established relationships, but I did especially love my one soulmates AU. 12. What do you do to get motivated to write? A couple of things. If it's something I haven't watched in a while, I rewatch. But also, once I have an idea of what's happening, I make a playlist for it. Sometimes it's focused towards a specific scene, sometimes it's a longer playlist that matches the entire story. 13. Is there a trope/genre you like to read, but not write? I love a good fantasy-based AU. I'm not creative enough to do something where I'd have to do full universe building 14. Any characters/fandoms you want to write for that are never requested? I don't quite take requests yet. 15. How long have you been writing fanfiction? Since August 2021. 16. Did you read fanfiction before you started writing? I started writing about a month or two after I started reading fan fiction. 17. Do you only post on tumblr, or other sites as well? (feel free to promote). I post everything on both tumblr and AO3 (cosplaying_witch) 18. What do you personally consider the word counts of "drabbles", "oneshots" and "fics" (+other?)? This is very difficult. I don't really go by word count for these definitions. For me, a drabble is a very short something that sort of flings you into a situation with no context. A oneshot is still short enough to have no chapters, just the story, but it also lets the story develop instead of dropping you in the middle; it also has no connections to other things you write like series. A fic is the longest, usually having chapters, though a really long one-shot or one that ties into another work (series) can also count. 19. Which do you prefer to write more? Headcanons, Drabbles, Oneshots/Fics, Multi-Chapter Stories, or other? I love writing multi-chapters. It gives me time to develop relationships (yes, I love a good slow-burn), but also gives me a way to "cut" around things I don't write well/don't want to actually write. I know, it's cheating, but I do it anyway 20. Are

there any stories you have discontinued? If so, why? I have a Loki x reader oneshot that has been permanently abandoned without ever leaving my WIP folder. Otherwise, no. I have problems letting things go once I start them. (Plus, I tend to write the entire thing before starting to post it) 21. What is one of your main "pet-peeves" as a writer on tumblr? Those who don't interact at all. Even just a like means the world to me. (Don't get me wrong, I understand that there isn't always time to do much more than like something, but you don't even have to scroll to the bottom of a post to like something.) 22. Do you write at a particular time of day? I used to write exclusively in the late morning/early afternoon. Now that I have a stupid full-time job, I make time to write in the morning before I leave or at night before going to sleep. (I don't write well on weekends, my mom is around and is very judgmental of fan fiction writers. I accidentally mentioned that I write once and was told that I'd end up giving it up "once I got a real job and didn't have as much time.") 23. Do you listen to music, ambiance/noise, etc. to write, or do you need silence? Music. Always music. Once I know where I'm going with a story, it actually gets its own playlist. 24. Do you outline your fics at all before writing? For my multi chapters, to a certain degree. Anything else, just the idea itself. Also, by outline I mean the absolute basics. In my last one, one chapter was outlined as "they go and get the thing done but something dangerous happens" and another was "she has a vision" 25. Do you post your writing as soon as you finish it, or do you schedule it to come out at a specific time/day? I love the idea of posting things at regular intervals, but I'm usually too excited to hold onto it. (Also, almost nothing goes up the same day I write it. I have a 3 edits/2 days rule where it has to go through 3 different rereads over at least two days before it gets posted. But once it makes it though that process, it goes up. I suppose that could be solved if I asked someone else to read through it for me, but I'm too anxious about my writing to trust it to others.)